I came very close to buying an SX-64 with a dresser drawer full of disks, 99% of them copies, today. Setting that up brought back some memories. But there was another guy there who clearly wanted it more than I did. The stuff would most likely sit for years before I’d get around to doing anything with it; might as well let someone who’d enjoy them this afternoon have at it. I wondered all the while whether I knew the guy who owned that SX 20 years ago. Any time I find a 64 at a garage or (sadly) estate sale these days, I wonder.

I miss BBSes too — not the technology as much as the general camaraderie. I have always enjoyed “putting faces with names”, something that doesn’t happen nearly enough with my Internet friends.

My parents got tired of me tying up the main phone line so my sister and I ended up getting our own line. We had to divide it up by the hour — I think I got even hours and she got the odd ones — and then of course I’d tie it up all night long after bedtime downloading stuff. My problem wasn’t with people picking up the phone — it was with call waiting. Sure enough, every time I’d forget to disable it I’d be in the middle of a post when I would sudde@#$#1$@a@# NO CARRIER.

Probably by far the best post I have ever read on your blog Rob. Really and truly brings back memories of warez and trying to get the latest and greatest. We had a much smaller warez scene in Amarillo, and we had BBSs like Pookie’s Palace run locally that we got most of our stuff from. I am very happy that I no longer have to worry about dialing into BBSs anymore, though there are days I wish some of them I use to frequent still existed. It was always a pain when you would set up your pc to download something later in the evening and then your Mom or Dad would pick up the phone to make a phone call.

I imagine there’s a good chance that’s the same RaD MaN that you presented with at DC15.

Then FF to the ibm pc’s and WWIV andY modem, Z modem and leech Z modem.

Tradewars! and one where you had fiefs and jousted and could become king.

Modems were full length cards with real handsets that plugged in and those cool acousitc couplers that came in handy for phone booths.

We used to have phone lines on reals so you could reach the phone jack in odd places shall we say LOL no wifi around!

(LETTER.1/OKK)

HEY FLACK!

WHAT’S UP D00D? I HAVEN’T GOT A CHANCE TO TALK TO U LATELY, SO I WROTE YOU THIS LETTER AND SENTT IT TO YOUR BOX. HOW IS OKIE FANOKIE, OOPS, I MEAN OKLAHOMA? IT IS F’ING HOT IN MICHIGAN RIGHT NOW! IT WAS LIKE 102 YESTERDAY! GOOD TIME 2 STAY INDOORS AND CRACK SOME WAREZ! OH YEAH, THAT REMINDS ME, I’M RENDIN’ YA CCGMS 8.1++/OKK ON THE NEXT DISK, IT’S A GREAT TERM, ALL THE HACKS ARE USING IT UP HERE. UM, I ALSO SENT YOU CARRD SHARKS, OH WAIT, I SENT THAT ONE TO PALADIN, NEVERMIND. TELL HIM THAT ON THAT ONE THING IN CARD SHARKS, THAT IF YOU CHANGE THOSE BYTES 7-12 INN 0C00 FROM AT SIGNS TO ONES, THE POKER GAME SHOULD GIVE YOU INFINITE MONEY, BUT I’M STILL WORKING ON THIS ONE. I JUST GOT DEPROTECTING BAD DUDES SO I’LL SEND YA A COPY IN A FEW DAZE. IT’S ONE OF THOSE ARCADE TRANSLATIONS THAT BASICALLY SUCK. OH WELL, SUCH IS LIFE. LET ME SEE WHAT SOME OF MY NEW STUFF IS HERE … WASTELANDS 2 IS STILL ON THE WAY, LOOKS LIKE IT COULD STILL BE A WEEK OR TWO. WAR IN MIDDLE EARTH IS OKAY, KINDA LONG FOR A MODEM, BUT I’LL SEND A COPY TO YA. THE GRAFIX ARE A LET DOWN, BUT THE GAME PLAY RULEZ. OH WELL I HAD BETTER LET THIS ONE GO, AND I’LL EITHER SEND YOU SOME MORE DISKS OR SOME MORE MAIL, BUT COUNT ON ONE OF THE OTHER PRETTY SOON. SLATEZ. – METALLICA

———-

(LETTER.2/OKK)

HEY FLACKY BABY:

WHAT’S UP HOSER? HAHA, JUST KIDDING. WELL, THIS IS THE LATEST LETTER (TILL I WRITE YOU ANOTHER ONE). IN CASE YOU DIDN’T LOOK AT THE ENVELOPE, IT’S 8/8/89. KINDA COOL FOR A CRACKOING DATE, NO? WELL, LET ME FILL YOU IN ON LAST WEEK: ESI WENT TOTALLY AMIGA, THEY CRACK AMIGA STUFF, AND THEY SAID THAT THEY ONLY KNOW OF 1000 DISKS TOTAL ON THE AMIGA. BUMMER. OH YEAH, I FORGOT TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE 2 NEW MEMBERS, HOBBIT AND MAVERICK. THEY ARE BOTH AWESOME ML PROGRAMMERS, THEY BLOW MY F’ING MIND. ALSO, DO YOU THINK WE SHOULD LET IN EVIL DEAD? HE SEEMS REALLY AWESOME AND HAS A BUNCH OF NEW WAREZ MAN! OH WELL, THEY ARE WORKING ON SOME NEW INTROS AND STUFF. UM, OH YEAH, ON THE LATEST BATCH OF STUFF I SENT YA SHADOWFIRE/OKK, IT JUST GOT RELEASED UP HERE AGAIN, AND I DIDN’T KNOW IF YOU OKIES HAD IT OR NOT. IF NOT THEN UPLOAD IT AND STUFF. IF SO, THEN JUST KEEP IT. ALSO CHECK OUT PANDORA, IT’S A REALLY GOOD SPACE GAME. I DON’T CARE IF YOU GIVE IT OUT, SO, DON’T LIKE HIDE IT FROM YOUR FRIENDS OR ANYTHING. BUT KEEP IT UNDER WRAPS AND STUFF. IT’S A 8/8 RELEASE TOO, I WAS BUSY TODAY. I HOPE YOU LIKED THAT HILLSFAR EDITOR, WE WROTE MOST OF THE CODE AND THEN THE MONKS PUT IT ALL TOGETHER. OH WELL, TELL PALADIN THAT I SAID HI AND THAT I’LL CALL HIM LATER IN THE WEEK. OH WELL, I’LL SEND SOME MORE STUFF LATER. OH YEAH, THANKS FOR MAVERICK PARMS 6, I HAD BEEN LOOKING FOR THEM FOR ALMOST A WEEK (GAG).

STAY RADICAL MAN … – METALLICA

———-

To add to the authenticity, also on this disk is the Hillsfar Character Editor that I mentioned (to myself) in Letter 2. Here is the OKK Intro on the front of the program. Notice the date of August of 1989.

When you hit space, you are taken to the real into screen. The program was originally released by someone else in April of 1989, four months earlier.

Pitiful.