From DOS to Narnia

I started learning about computers with DOS. Back then, only a few training centers in Tehran had PCs, and I could use one for just a few hours a week. Owning one was a luxury, far from the household necessity it is today.

My mother encouraged me to keep learning. I picked up DOS quickly, and soon my father bought a secondhand computer from a friend. Suddenly, I had more time to explore and try things on my own.

There weren’t many resources to turn to back then. If something went wrong with your computer, whether it was hardware or software, figuring out why could be a challenge. Major American technology companies had no local offices in Iran to provide support, and the internet had yet to become the place where you could find an answer to almost anything. I learned by trying things, making mistakes, and fixing them. I broke my computer and brought it back to life so many times that I gradually became familiar with almost every part of it. Years later, when other families began buying computers for their children, I was often the person they came to when something went wrong.

Prince of Persia was perhaps the first game I really got into on DOS. Later, I installed Windows 95 and discovered games like Need for Speed. With each new experience, my interest in games and the industry behind them grew.

But there is one day I have never forgotten. I was visiting the annual Tehran International Book Fair with my mother and little brother. At the last stall we stopped at, a place called Milad, we were surprised to find computer games for sale. That was where I first saw the original Resident Evil. I was so excited that I asked my mother to buy it for me. From the moment I held the CD in my hands until we reached home, I kept staring at the cover: Chris, with a gun in his hands. All I wanted was to get home and play. As soon as we arrived, I rushed to the computer and started installing it. I still remember my heart racing as I tried to launch the game, hoping it would work without an error. It didn’t. DirectX 3.0a was missing! I spent weeks trying to figure out what that message meant and how to get the game running. Somewhere along the way, I learned that I also needed a graphics card with 4 MB of memory. Getting one meant another long wait. Eventually, the card arrived, and I finally got the game to run. I will never forget the excitement of seeing that opening cinematic on my own computer after so much waiting.

Computer games didn’t have the best reputation among parents back then. But for me, they were like that old wardrobe in Narnia: a doorway into another world!