I was doing some Usenet Google Groups research and got sidetracked looking up my online contributions over the years. While it’s difficult to uncover all my fingerprints on long-gone, closed systems or when using aliases like Quasar and Narcolepsy (it was amusing at the time), I dug up a few nostalgia-inducing posts under my state-sanctioned handle. Thanks for humoring me as I stroll down memory lane.
Here’s me selling my Macintosh LC Performa 575 in 1995. Which was actually my first CD-playing device. Boy, did I use it to play music. And Myst. Though the Performa was my first Mac, it wasn’t my first Apple… I spent decent amount of time over the years getting into trouble with my Apple IIc and 2400 baud modem. The statute of limitations has probably passed, but I’m not tempting fate other than to say VMS buffer overflows into root accounts were trivial over dialup… (But I don’t miss the days of line noise.) Prior to the IIc, I spent quality time at school playing Hard Hat Mack, Load Runner, etc on other Apple II variants. Although my computer gaming really began with Lunar Lander on the Radio Shack TRS-80, which may or may not have coincided with my Atari 2600 ownership.
Here’s me selling my roommate’s Japanese Nintendo 64 import in 1996. I seem to recall we were unloading it because the in-game text was… in Japanese! Which kinda put a damper on understanding the Super Mario 64 storyline. Though I have to say, Matt was a great roommate. He provided a large Mitsubishi tube TV and made sure we had every gaming console - that Nintendo 64 (Japanese, then American), 3DO, Playstation, and Sega Saturn.
Speaking of Sega, here I am trying to get the soft modem working under BSD Linux on the Dreamcast in 2001. Sadly, it was a no-go and I was unwilling to invest in the broadband adapter. This system was definitely ahead of it’s time - Heck, they offered a web browser and collaborative, online play (via that modem or broadband adapter) before anyone understood the significance or fun factor. Not only did I have a Dreamcast at home, our office gameroom (pre-Internet-bubble implosion) housed one. And beanbags, too.
