Tariq Alzalam
My name is Tariq Alzalam. I am 23 years old, and I am currently taking a Level 5 course in computer programming. I am creating this website as part of the course. As for my interests, there are many. I love learning about all sorts of technology, watching sports, playing video games, reading manga and novels, as well as listening to music.
I am interested in all types of technology, be they hardware or software, but I prefer software to hardware.
Beside the mainstream software (web browsers, YouTube, Spotify, etc.), the software that I use most is Oracle VM VirtualBox
(virtual machine software) and RetroArch (an emulation frontend).
VirtualBox allows me to create a virtual desktop environment (a virtual machine) to run any operating system. I use Windows 10 for my virtual machines.
RetroArch is a frontend for emulators. It allows me to use a plethora of emulators for different gaming consoles to play many retro games. I use RetroArch
to play Nintendo Games up to the GBA, PS1 games, Sega console games up to the Saturn and Neo Geo games.
If you are interested, I have download links as well as links to great setup guides on my Links page.
I also have an interest in all types of sports, but my favourite would have to be football, or more specifically English football,
with my favourite team being Manchester United. I have been to a few of their games and, sadly, didn't take any photos, so the
picture you are seeing to the left is one I took of a match I watched at home.
My second favourite sport would have to be rugby. Though I consider it to be my second favourite, I only like to watch international games and never
watch club games. This is opposed to football, where I only like to watch club games and never watch international ones unless it is the World Cup.
I am looking forward to the new Premier League season, which will start next month (August) on the 16th.
Video games are a huge part of my life. They have taught me many things and have touched me on an emotional level with stories that are,
in my opinion (and the opinion of many, many other people), just as good as movies, manga, and novels, and even better in a lot of cases.
Some of my favourite series include Shin Megami Tensei (SMT), Final Fantasy (FF), and God of War (GoW). SMT and FF come from Japanese developers
who were the first to make video games with compelling and emotional stories.
The fact that video games are interactive media only makes the story telling even better because developers can add lore via books, notes, and
audio recordings that players can find in the game, so they don't have to explain it in a cutscene. The picture you see to the right is from
Dark Souls 1, which I'm currently playing through with a friend from my course.
In the last ten years, I have spent more time reading manga and novels than I have playing video games, so it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say
they have taught me more things than video games have. The manga industry is tough; you either sink, swim, or, in the rare case, fly. This means
that a story has to be good; otherwise, it will be cancelled.
This tough industry standard leads to manga with good to great stories that resonate with people and can affect them emotionally. It is the same when
it comes to the novel industry: cutthroat but with great stories. My favourite manga series is either One Piece or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure; my
favourite novel is The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier; and my favourite novel series is Harry Potter.