After nearly 10 years of existence The Control Center has evolved from a Microsoft 1.0 Works created site- horible format!- to a modern blog style site.  Along the way I’ve used tools such as Microsoft Frontpage (every version ever released), Adobe Pagemaker, hand-coded html, NVU and countless other programs to manage the content.

The first pages of The Control Center were hosted on my ISP provided web space and had an unmemorable address.  A few years into it when the site became popular I went through the tricky process of acquiring a domain.  It was both costly and a real learning experience in those early days.  Hosting was taken care of by a little startup called 1 and 1 who is now a major force in the industry.  I’ve moved on to a different host that gives me more flexibility and control and have made The Control Center the base of a dozen or so business ventures I operate on the web.

The pages of The Control Center expanded heavily during the 90’s when controller manufactures were more than happy to provide their gear to The Control Center for review.  At one point I had piles of boxes waiting a fair shake and writeup on this site.  Companies like Microsoft, Logitec, AVB, Saitek, CH Products, Thrustmaster, etc. had their sales and marketing teams working closely with me to keep The Control Center community aware of what was hot and not.

Fast forward to the end of the 90’s and transformation into the new millennium- I was getting ready to get married, was overwhelmed with the success of The Control Center, and my “real” career in drug quality assurance was taking off.  I had to make some choices- The Control Center was placed on the back burner.

Today I have a beautiful wife, amazing 4 year old son, the house I had always dreamed of and a career I love.  I am the Director of a drug and medical device company that specializes in orphan diseases (diseases large drug firms typically don’t bother with because they rarely generate large profits).  In summary- life is good.  So, I’m back to The Control Center.

I welcome gear contributions and information from manufacturers.  As always, my reviews and comments will be honest and to the point.  I have all of the major console systems and a few gaming PCs I love to play.  Both my son and wife are also avid gamers and I hope to integrate their perspective into some of the reviews from time to time.  I’ll also be working on establishing a community of avid gamers of all types and relying on their contributions to make The Control Center the resource it once was.