Who is Jarr?

The Basics
Name: Anthony (or Tony)
Age: 40 (12/21/1971) Sagitarius baby!
Sex: Yes, please.
Location: Willow Grove, PA (East coast native for life)
Known Aliases: Jarr, T-Bone, TonyBone, Skippy (I have no idea why)
Known Accomplices:  Chris, Shane, Nick, and my boys -- Peyton & Alex
Religion: Catholic and eternal skeptic
Passions: My kids, my wife, and my games.
Idols: Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Hawk, and my father.
Music: Ecclectic. I’m a metal head but I also love the late 60s music (thank you Dad!).  Check out the Song of the Day for a lil' sample.

Gamer for Life
I’ve been a gamer for life. I can still remember the early days. My first experience with my pixilated passion came from none other than Telstar, followed by the much beloved Atari 2600. I practically grew up on that thing. I swung and yelled with Pitfall Harry. My arms went numb doing the 1500m run in Decathlon. I ducked and weaved to avoid the swirling blade o’ death in Yars Revenge, and I raised the Ark with Indy many a time.

As I matured, so did my passions. I had the privilege of growing up in the hay day of the now lost parlors of paradise – the arcade. A mystical place of poor lighting and loud noise that offered up doses of happiness for a single, silver quarter. There were the staples of course: Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Gauntlet. Peter Gun still makes me think of oil slicks and smoke screens.

About this time I got into my first foray in to computers – my much beloved Commodore 128. Raid Over Moscow, Beachhead, Skate or Die, California Games (heck all of the XYZ Games for that matter!) all in their splendid 5 1/4 inch glory. I blew through many a joystick on those memories.

Then consoles came home. First the NES, then the SNES. Mario, Zelda, and Metroid – oh my! Lasting arch types that now become memories reborn and revisited on the Wii.

College days brought it full circle with PC gaming. X-wing, TIE-Fighter, and Falcon 3.0 with all of its add-ons were the flavors of the day. And of course – Doom launched me into first person shooters and online play. Now I am spoiled with the new incarnation on the PC, the Playstation 3, and even the venerable PS2.

Gaming is a passion of mine. And I’m fortunate enough to be able to pass to passions along to my children. Few things are as fun as playing along side the kids and seeing the youthful spark of wonder in their eyes that harkens back to when controllers were simply one stick with a big orange button.

Wonder and awe always, my fellow gamers!  Wonder and awe.

Where did the name Jarr come from?
My first real World of Warcraft character was a Night Elf Rogue which I named Jarraxel – a misspelled derivative of Jarlaxle, the houseless mercenary leader from R. A. Salvatore’s Dark Elf series and its subsequent follow-up novels. I loved those books and thought it a fitting tribute.

My guild mates had taken to simply calling me Jarr. From that I made subsequent characters Jarr-heads (Jarranne, Jarrande, Jarralynn) so that I’d be easily identified in game. Despite many of my online friends knowing my shared real name, Jarr is still by far the most used and loved.  And now it has transcended into other games.