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I started working for a construction co. in 1984 and my boss (Len) one
day had these 3 computers delivered to the office. IBM's with 8088
processors 4 megs ram and 10 meg hard drives and CGA monitors. The big
boss got a EGA crt. I ask Len what was this shit taking up most of my
desk and I have all the pencils and legal pads I need and he can just
take this over sized turd back to where he bought it. I felt no better
when the kid who was setting up the 2400 baud modem said that he would
give his right arm for a state of the art machine like this one. I told
him to give me $20 bucks and he could have mine! He laughed and
explained that my boss just spent $15000. for these 3 machines. I
thought; "No wonder we have cash flow problems", then went about my day
taking notes on my legal pad and ignoring my new intruder. I say
intruder because knowing how much Len paid for the damn thing, there
would be no getting around him just letting the thing collect dust in
the middle of my desk until he put it in the closet. He would be coming
at me from every angle to get me to start using this thing. And he did!
I bitched and yelled and took better notes and kept my projects up to
date with paper and pencil better than I ever had but to no avail.
Finally he sat me down and told me I had to learn to use the thing or he
would get someone who would. He told me the whole business would now be
on computers and I had to get up to speed. We had been friends a long
time and though I was not sure he would have kept his promise I liked my
job and didn't want to risk it so...I dug my heels in and began to learn
Word Perfect 3.1 (I think that was the version). Oh what fun, a
thousand keyboard short cuts to type a stupid letter I could type on my
type writer in less than 3 minutes (I had been typing since the 4th
grade so I typed almost 80 wpm). God I was miserable. He tried to
cheer me up with Lotus 123. Now we were having fun. Millions of boxes
and they were all empty! I just wanted to DIE! I didn't even realize
how miserable I was until I actually created a file in WP and discovered
I had to learn DOS and it's nomenclature system to save and retrieve it.
Then I truly did want to die. One weekend I was complaining to someone
about my "computer dilemma" and they asked me if I had a modem. I said;
"The box with all the lights that sits next to the computer and does
nothing?" They got a twinkle in their eye and told me how little I knew
about that box. They told me it could open up new worlds for me. It
could take me to other people and their computers by way of a wonder
called a BBS and yes I could do way more than Word Perfect and Lotus
123. They spoke of War Games Dialers and Text Adventures and maze type
games like Rogue. They told me I could talk to people all over the
country by just typing back and forth. It was obvious they were excited
and it was getting me excited. By the time we were done chatting I
couldn't wait until Monday to get my hands on my computer. Monday came
and at lunch my boss though it curious that I was eating with one hand
and messing with the computer I hated so much with the other but of
course said nothing. At 5 when everyone went home I stayed around to
really give this thing a spin. With the maze game Rogue stuck in my
head I dialed the first BBS number the guy I spoke with over the weekend
had given me. I soon figured out how to make contact and join. After a
long d/l I opened the game and found colorful little ASSCI characters
running around the screen trying to kill me. I was enchanted and in
heaven. After playing a few hours and getting the feel for the game
(and progressing a number of levels) my character was gaining experience
and getting stronger, as was the monsters trying to kill me. I quaffed
potions, tried different weapons, used different strategies and
continued to work my way to higher and higher dungeons. I was also
hooked. I played until 6 in the morning and woke up on the floor at 8am
when everyone got in Tues. morning. My boss looked at me funny but said
nothing. He figured anything that would make me use the computer was
fine with him. He as a smart man. So I learned WP and Lotus by day
but, every night I was a "cyber cowboy" (long before the name was
coined). I went on line to dozens of BBS's and talked to people, d/l
files and played games. I found pirate boards and was enchanted by the
"groups" who could "crack" the various software protection and either
let me throw away my "key" disk to the games I bought or d/l and play
games I leached for free. What an adventure!!! I had my favorite
cracking "clubs" and to this day somewhere I have an archive of the
different "loaders" and "intros" that they would program in the opening
sceans of the games that they cracked. Remember; "0 days wares!"
Meaning they would buy the title the day it hit the stores, take it
home, crack it and post it on their affiliate BBS's before midnight the
same day! And now, 24 years later I still touch a key board every day
and my life have been infinetly richer because of this turd that an old
friend plopped on my desk back in 1984. Thank you Len!

Frank Yantosca
Baltimore ;-( 2008