ABOUT

Hey there. I’m TheMarauder, AKA Random Dave, also known as Dave Kratky. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

I was born in the mid 1970s and grew up on a farm just north of a little town in southern Ontario, Canada called Grand Valley.  Thanks to forward looking parents I grew up with computers and was about the biggest nerd you could imagine through high school.

I ran a Bulletin Board System (BBS) called AOU (The Ash Ock Underground) for quite a few years in Toronto then Grand Valley and from that co-founded a computer store in 1996 called VAM Computers that’s still running today. I used to game.. well, constantly and held a few large LAN events in Orangeville under the FRAGtopia banner. Most of my writing was done on the old FRAGtopia reviews and news site, which I ran from 1999-2014.  It’s been taken down, but you can find the Way Back Machine site here.

Back in the day I did quite a lot of computer artwork starting with Deluxe Paint on the Amiga in 1989 and moving onto PC around 1993. I switched to Bryce and Photoshop in the early 2000s. Most of my older works can be found on the old website which you can access by clicking here.

These days I’m living in Wasaga Beach Ontario. While I still own the computer store, I’m doing IT full time for an engineering firm. I don’t have nearly the time to play paintball, game, write or do artwork that I used to so that stuff has fallen by the wayside for the most part. That’s what happens when you grow up and have responsibilities and it’s all good.

Enjoy your visit to the site! Feel free to take anything that you like but if you use it somewhere please give me credit and drop me a line to let me know.