Syd Bolton

Background

Bolton started with computers when he was 10 years old in 1981 when the IBM PC was first introduced and by the time he was 12, he owned 3 computers. Bolton was one of the first developers to create Bulletin Board System (BBS) software that was available on multiple platforms (in this case, the Commodore 64 and the Apple II). At the age of 17, along with his brother and with assistance from his father started a video and software rental store called The Video Garage. When he turned 18, Bolton formed Legendary Design Technologies, a Amiga software development and distribution company that at one point was the official Canadian distributor of NewTek products including the Video Toaster. In 2005, Bolton opened the Personal Computer Museum. From 1997 to 2009, Bolton was employed at Datasym (a point of sale company) developing products and writing software primarily involving hi-speed credit card transactions. He is currently the IT Manager at ACIC / Methapharm in Brantford.

Personal Computer Museum

Bolton opened the Personal Computer Museum to the public on September 17, 2005. The museum is Bolton’s largest project to date. The Personal Computer Museum is a registered Canadian charity. In February 2010, the museum received international attention when Bolton created a Twitter client for the Commodore VIC-20, the oldest known computer to communicate on Twitter. The event was featured on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as well as many other media outlets. In October 2011, Bolton received the "Tourism Innovator" award from the Shining Stars Tourism Awards for his work at the museum, and the museum itself received the award for "Digital Media: Promotion and Marketing Campaign Awards" for the "Guitar Hero Rocks the Square" event held in the fall of 2010.

Video games

Bolton writes reviews and opinion pieces for both The Armchair Empire and TorontoThumbs.com. In 2009, Bolton was selected to be a judge for the video game awards program called The ELANS, which is based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Both Bolton and the Personal Computer Museum received a fair amount of attention in the summer of 2009 when Bolton's custom-made Pac-Man table was featured on Destructoid and news of his PS2 collection reaching 1,200 unique games was featured on Kotaku. In October 2009, it was announced that Bolton would be the President of the S-3D Gaming Alliance which focuses on supporting stereoscopic 3D gaming. Syd Bolton has since been replaced as President by Alan Price, former CTO of Electronic Arts Canada.

In September 2010 Bolton was declared as having the largest video game collection in Canada, and appeared as a gaming celebrity at the 2011 Fan Expo Canada.

In June 2011, Bolton completed his Xbox game collection being the first in Canada, and possibly North America to do so.

In November 2011, Bolton's PlayStation Network ID, "DirkTheDaring" was featured as part of a marketing campaign in a Kevin Butler video called "Teamwork".

Newspaper

Bolton has been writing the weekly ‘LOGGED ON’ column for the Brantford Expositor since March 5, 2005. The piece currently runs in the Weekend section of the Saturday paper and it focuses on technology and its various aspects. Bolton has been interviewed and has appeared in various newspapers across Canada, mostly in relation to the Personal Computer Museum and video games.

Radio

Bolton hosted a weekly radio show on Power 93 FM <http://www.power93.ca> called 'Around Town' from 2008 to early 2010. During that time period, he also appeared monthly on CKPC (AM) radio for a segment called ‘Tech Talk’ with 'Mayor of the Morning', Ed McMahon.

Currently, he does interviews on local radio when requested and appears on both CKTB and CHML on average about once a month.

Television

Bolton announced his return to Rogers Television in September 2009 with the first appearance on September 16, 2009. He is featured live in studio on the show Inside Brant every Wednesday. As of September 2012, Bolton is the longest running recurring guest having been on the show almost every week since it started. Bolton has appeared on Rogers Television somewhat irregularly over the years, more recently yearly since 2005 as a co-host covering the JCI Brantford Santa Claus parade that happens during the last Saturday of November. Since January 2011, Bolton has hosted and co-produced a monthly show called "Brantford Live! With Mayor Chris Friel".

Bolton has been seen on national Canadian Television several times. He appeared on CTS (Crossroads Television System) on a show called Always Good News and on two separate episodes of The Circuit with Natasha Eloi. In August, 2010 Bolton and his game collection appeared on The Electric Playground and then as a Cameo Guest on Reviews on the Run on April 5, 2010. Bolton also appeared in a story about the rise in Canadian video game development on the CTV Television Network in September, 2010.

Bolton has also appeared on CTV News Channel (Canada), the CBC News and various other channels.

In September 2012, Bolton and the Personal Computer Museum were featured in two separate segments on the Space (TV channel) on InnerSPACE.

Bolton appeared in Season 1, Episode 5 of "Extreme Collectors" which aired initially on September 16, 2013 on Slice. His video game collection was valued at the time at $650,000.

Live Video Podcasts

Bolton, along with Jamie Stephens created Brantford’s first live community video podcast called BrantNOW! TV <http://www.ustream.tv/channel/brantnow-tv-brantford-and-brant-county-live-talk> which ran from March 2008 until December 2008. The show is currently on hiatus. A new show that focuses on older computers is currently under development with co-host Jason Gambacort.

Community

Bolton is very involved in his local community. As President of The Kelly Foundation, Bolton helps contribute thousands of dollars locally to charitable groups within Brantford and Brant County. His involvement with Junior Chamber International Brantford is extensive. After joining in 1998, Bolton got involved in the local Santa Claus Parade and acted as chair in 2002, 2003 and 2010. His use of technology in the logistics planning of the parade has earned him a nomination for the Bell Technology Award presented by the Brantford Brant Chamber of Commerce in January 2011. He is recognized as JCI Senator #67353, which is the highest honor an individual can receive in the organization. He also graduated from the PRIME program in 2002 and has reached a status of CLT (Certified Local Trainer) as of 2007. Bolton also was a co-founder of the Brant FreeNet, which provided low-cost Internet access to residents of Brantford and Brant County for over thirteen years. The Brant FreeNet was one of the longest running Free-nets in Canada.