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