I first heard about Hugo's mp3mobile project in the summer of 1998 whilst chatting in the #mpeg3 channel on EFnet, which I had been frequenting since discovering Winplay3 in late 1996. Some dude posted the link in the channel and we were all oohing and ahhing at the one-line text display of the titles and stuff (not to mention Hugo's chrome shift knob!) It was nothing like the Empeg, in that I think the computer was mounted in the trunk/boot and I think it was a Pentium rather than an ARM chip, but the ideas were there.

My first thought was "I should build something like that" but as the months progressed, I learned that he was going to release a commercial version of the product, so I figured I'd wait on that. Well, we all know how things have progressed since then.

I joined this BBS in mid-1999 when the Mk1 was just about to be released. I lacked the necessary funds to buy it, but I followed things closely as a lurker until the Mk2 came about. I always try to stay away from first-generation products in any category so the kinks can get worked out, and the Mk2 fulfilled all of my wishes, and then some.

Two years later, it's still cutting-edge.

Ah, memories.