Gaming in the Fitch household started with an Atari Pong circa 1978. We had a box under the TV that produced tennis with blippy noises. Hours of fun in a box that matched our wooden looking TV.

Then we had a tabletop Entex Electronics PacMan 2 game dating from around the 1980 mark .. It was really cool, with it's funny chomping sound effects .. and it created many arguments about "who's turn it was next" !

For Christmas 1981 I asked santa for a Merlin Electronic Wizard, and again it was just class, for a while :)

For our 1st Fitch household computer we had a ZX81 Sinclair Spectrum in 1983 .. with it's squishy keyboard and noisy tape loading games it was just amazing. Hours, and I mean hours, of gaming pleasure. Jet Pac, Manic Miner .. I remember learning to play the Hall of the Mountain King, which was the soundtrack for Manic Miner, on the piano :) and those flangy type sponges got me every time!

I had a break from gaming not long after all this because I discovered the cello .. and was determined to master it :)

But, not one to be left behind, I bought myself a Nintendo Game Boy in 1990. I was at music college, busy practicing cello and discovering Mario and Tetris all at the same time. These games were played so much that I could still sing you the theme tunes today.

Then the lure of colour hit me in the shape of a Sega Game Gear that introduced me to Sonic the Hedgehog and his many bouncing rings in 1991.

Well, once I'd been hooked again it wasn't long before I bought a Mega Drive. Sonic and Psycho Pinball were my all time favourites.

After this I had another small break from gaming again .. to make sure I worked hard enough to get a job playing my cello! ... but once I got the job I was back playing games again ..

This time in the shape of a Sony PS1 around at a friends house in 1996 onwards. Micro Machines were fantastic fun .. and watching Quake was really cool, that "3D" arm was just mind blowing. I couldn't quite muster up the courage to play it for long though.. it seemed way too violent....my, how things change!

My next purchase was an Xbox in 2003. I played Ghost Recon and Halo for a few years after that, multiplayer with 2 televisions, 2 consoles, 2 sofas, 4 people and curtains closed was supreme.. and I remember spending an entire Christmas playing Burnout. Flinging those cars around was too much fun! Fable, with it's Danny Elfman intro and gorgeous score, Aah, but I do love that Halo score by Marty O'Donnell too. When Video Games Live came to town in 2009 I got the call to play in the orchestra with Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, the emotion of playing that cello theme from Halo was nearly too much.

Not to miss out on mentioning the computer type gaming, I played Myst and Dungeon Seige on a Mac laptop for a few years back around 2002/2003.

Quite late to the party I bought a PS2 in 2004.. Sniper Elite with it's slow-motion "head shots", God of War with it's incredible score. Guitar Hero is still being played on it every now and again today.

My adoration of handhelds was still there.. So in 2005 I bought a PSP. .. Midnight Dub was a big favourite. To link up multiplayer via wireless was amazing. But for some reason I part exchanged it for a DS lite in 2006

.. err.. which I've not played as much to be honest .. I should sell it :) ... Although I did like Electroplankton and those mad Rabid Rabbits.

The Wii has been a great hit, I really love it. Being beaten by a 7 year old playing Mario Cart last Christmas was hilarious :) Sports is just excellent, the whole interactivity of it all is just incredible, and I think it's interesting I'm still enjoying Tennis and Pinball games after all these years!

Right now in 2010, my favourite gaming machine is my iTouch .. it's incredible, I love the touch screen bliss! Penguins, Dream Chronicles and Wild West Pinball are what is installed.

I've been writing music and creating sound effects for games since 2004. Clients have ranged from Intel, AMD, Adobe, Blender and Riverdeep to Forfas, Galway City and Northern Ireland Science Park. The games have ranged from loud, action shooters to quiet, cute educational games. Whatever the style or genre, producing audio for games is the passion, started way back in childhood, with skills honed since music school days!

Copyright Claire Fitch 2010. www.fitchsounds.com