I first got interested when I saw the PC version of FFVII in 1998, but my computer wasn't quite up to snuff for running the game. About a year later, after I'd completed basic training for the US Navy in Great Lakes, IL and transferred to Service School Command (just up the road) for a year-long electronics training course. A week after transferring, I bought a Compaq notebook for $800 that could just barely run the game in 640x480 resolution, and bought the game, with the help of my roommate. After a few months, we both beat the game, and I was hooked ever since. As a matter of fact, my roommate became one of my best friends in the Navy, and we'd managed to somehow get stationed on the same bases for most of our Navy carrers, during which time he introduced me to the wonderful worlds of Chronotrigger, Star Ocean, Vagrant Story, 8-bit Theater, and pen and paper RPGs.... Ah, good times.