Jamaica 11 ch15 Story Time
From C64 Diskmag Wiki
story time iopop
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ever wondering if they use screen-
blankers on enterprise, how it would be
to connect into the cyberspace??
soon your questions will be answered.
just read the following 400 lines!
the text called INTO THE NET should
have been in the hacking chapter but the
text area became too small. (lame!)
THE SCREENBLANKERS, THE FINAL FRONTIER
----------------------------------------
screenblankers have been developed to an
own art. today are they not doing there
real function, to save the monitor. from
fireworks and flying toasters have the
genre taken a step out in the galaxy
with help of captain kirk and uss
enterprise.
-mr. spock, said captain kirk, we have
a problem.
the scienceofficer pointed the ears
(even more) and put the fingers against
eachother.
-let's hear, captian.
-as you know we have a big monitor on
this brigde, but scotty say that we're
going to burn it out. i thought when no-
body used it, it could be blank. i need
information about screenblankers.
-sir, i think there's something in the
data bank. wait and see if i can take it
out.
the vulcans limb fingers fluttered over
the keyboard.
-it seems like the first screenblankers
were developed on the earth during the
middle of what was called the 1980's,
he read loudly. when you run it became
the screen on the primitive computers
black after some minutes of inactivity.
the thought was to spare the tv tubes
phosphorus by blank the electronic beam
when you left the computer for a while.
kirk listened intressting and noded.
-after a while someone said that if the
computer was totally black no body would
notice if it was on, continued spock.
you could forget it on over a night,
which would take energy and could be a
security risc if you were lying inloged
on something where you needed a password
to enter.
-if you instead let a little figure, or
some easy pattern warp over the screen,
then you would know if it was active.
there were some different screenblanker-
alternatives : intermisson, screenery,
after dark, screen peace, and so on.
-the ironical thing was that screen-
blankers made a little use on color-
screens. there phosphorus didn't take
any damage by long illumination and the
risk for picture burnt-in on the screen
where slightly little. the monochrome
hercules-screens were different.
-when windows came the developing took
a big jump...
-windows, what's that, interrupted
kirk.
-well, that's a sort of programshell
which made the computers slow. i don't
know why they used it, as the computers
of that age where slow enough. it was
developed by microsoft...
-ah, you mean microsoft galactic
corporation, which made the scanner-
progam mr.zulu use to discover klingons!
-in windows you didn't have any 640 k-
limits for the pc, said spock and hawked
and you didn't need to care whether you
ran out of memory as windows also has
a virtual memory, swapping against the
harddrive, to use. the screenblankers
got more and more complicated patterns
and forms. one pattern that got very
classic, and that first came to
macintosh, is the flying toaster. you
could set how many flying toasters you
wanted to have on the screen and also
how much toasted the bread should be.
sir, the flying toasters is reminding
a little bit about the degrenerated
klingon ship. the screenblankers where
developed from a utility to a real
entertainment.
-good, mr.spock, that's enough. what i
now need to know is what we shall have
to the screen on the bridge.
captain kirk wanked of and on and wring
his hands.
-sir, if you allow me, said spock, if
i can suggest anything then...
-out with it, spock!
-well, there's existing a screenblanker
with a wellknown motiv... with klingon-
ships, tribles, your bridge, captain,
dr. mc coys hospital, and even if i am
allowed to say it in a modest logic -
with my own little person.
-excellent, spock, excellent (no scotty
you shall not shine up anyone now!
kirk later hissed in an intercom.)
-i think we even got the software in
our data bank. shall take out it and
install it on the screen?
-do it, said kirk. and tell us what you
are doing.
spock frown and started typing. he took
out the emulation of windows on the
bridgescreen. an installationsquare
emerged on the screen.
-captain, this is how you do. you click
on the icon for the program and then you
get a controlsquare. then you choose
which effects you want to have, and
which parameters that shall be available
on the effects.
-what kind of effects are there, asked
kirk.
-about 20 different. do you remember
the hairy small tribles which we had
such problems with - they exist. we can
choose to see the space on diffrent ways
with spaceships, ionstorms, planets and
alot more.
-mr.spock, how do we know that it is
the screenblankers space and not the
real space we see?
-there's no possibility to separate
them, sir. the graphic is very
realistic! in the screenblanker there're
also details from the instruments on the
bridge and from the hospital. we can get
a picture of you, captain, when you're
sitting on the bridge. we can also renew
the tunneladventures, maps over planets
and blueprints of enterprise...
-thanks that's enough!
-...and you can also go through the
star academy's admission test in this
screenblanker.
-thanks that's enough, spock, is there
any disadvantages with the program? make
an analysis.
-my logic brain have just found one
bug. if you have too little memory the
program will go slow. you need atleast
4 mb, 6mb is prefferrsd but enterprise's
centralcomputer have 64 fantasillion
squarillion terabytes, so there should
not be any problem.
-start the program now, so scotty will
be satisfied. put it in warpspeed 10,
mr.zulu. let's see what the old beauty
can give us....
- -- --- -- -
this text was found in the paper mag
ATTACK. and it was originally written by
ahrvid engholm. but it was translated to
english and published w/o any permission
by me. i'm very sorry to all you star
trek fans out there because some of the
lines that mr.spock and kirk say are
maybe not in the correct form.
- -- --- -- -
INTO THE NET
--------------
so enough talk. let's take a little
trip, okay?
you begin your run in your one-room flat
in the night city "combat zone". you're
packing five programs: a jackhammer,
a wizard's book, a copycracker and two
demons. one demon is a succubus ii with
killer and worm subrounines. the other
is an imp with invisibility and hell-
bolt.
you hit the switch and plunge headfirst
into the net. instantly, you are
engulfed in a wall of swirling static
electricy. you look down at your ICON -
you're a chromed, humanoid shape wearing
futuristic battle armor. your face re-
flects in your mirrored body -your eyes
glow an eerie green. below you is a
bright neon landscapse representing the
night city grid. in the distance is a
blazing blue diamond shape, emblazoned
with the logo of the internet telephone
corporation.
you fly down the pathway towards the
blue daimond. your objective is the los
angeles office of MICROTECH computers,
so you streak towards the glowing arrow
of the long distance link. you don't
expectmuch trouble getting in; the phone
company doesn't use any serious counter-
intrusion software, and night city only
rates a security level of 2 anyway. you
activatethe menu with your mind and run
your LDL LINK. faked 'em again, you
think, blasting on through.
you enter the ldl. the gowling violet
arrow sinks through the floor -it's
like moving downstairs on a fast ele-
vator. lights blur around you as you
fall thowards the distant trunk line.
you drop until you see a brilliant red,
neon shape rising to meet you -a
streaming riber of red light, like a
superhighway. it angels away into the
starstrewn darkness towards the horizon.
at intervals, you can see complex grids
and shapes of multicolored neon struc-
tures representing cities. you reach the
red highway and hurtle above at light-
speed, passing through spidery light
sculptures representing cities along the
trunk line. a huge network of neon rises
in the distance -los angeles. you bank
over another huge violet arrow -a long
distance link -and land. the arrow
swiftly rises into the neon maze,
linking you to the los angeles city
grid. all in seconds.
as you exit the ldl, a figure flickers
by. it's a slender woman wrapped in
gauzy, iridescent mist. her eyes and
fingernails are pinpoints of light. she
smiles in recognition -you know her by
her handle or RAZOR ANNIE. you smile
back, and she passes you one her way to
the ldl.
you step out into the vast, cool-blue
space of the la city grid. far above
your head, you can see hundreds of neon
logos, each representing a diffrent
megacorp. you spot the familiar red-
barred circle of microtech, and rise
towards effortlessly.
the MICROTECH logo stands before you
like a bright door. a white pinpoint
marks the entrace to it's code gate.
beyond it, looms of dark, feral shape
a watchdog program, hunched over,
waiting for intruders. you activate your
IMP -a spinning, bright ball of orange
light appears -and kick in its insvisi-
bility subroutine. the imp flattens to
a thin, glittering sheet of energy,
draping itself over you.
the invisibility is successful -you walk
past the WATCHDOG and up to the code
gate.
although you've spent day researching
microtech, nothing you've found has
given you a clue to the access code.
it's going to take brute force. you un-
limber the codecracker; no good. how
about the wizard's book? no go there.
you should have known, trying to crack
an computer company's foretress. you
just can't crack that code gate.
time to call up the JACKHAMMER. the imp
swirls around your head as you work,
making a few rude beeping noises. the
jackhammer slams down the wall. before
you move on, you decide to play it safe.
jackjhammer's noisy; you activate the
imp's speedtrap subroutine. it shape-
shifts into a flat viewscreen. no metal-
lic monster looms in the screen, so the
area must be clear. you step through the
hole you've made.
whammo! the speedtrap was wrong!
a killer leaps up and attacks your imp.
you curse, realizing you shoud have
packed something to counter! you know
the imp won't survive this, so you
activate your succubus instead, pulling
up its own killer subroutine. instantly,
a chromed goddess appears, her eyes
flashing. she shifts form into a power-
full built, metallic samurai, who
attacks the opposing metal warrior.
their savers clash -and the system's
falls. you've saved your imp -this time.
"good going, stud" the succubus says to
you, as you move on.
hulking around the next corner is the
massive form of a MANTICORE! you try
invisibility again, but it fails. the
manticore's powerful talons attack your
imp -the imp fails its rolls and is
vaporized! in the next turn, you
activate the succubus' killer routine.
the metal-clad warrior springs forward
and attacks the monster, slaying it in a
flare of light. close call.
you've lost your invisibility and speed-
trap programs, so you move cautiously.
you carefully move through one of the
central processors, looking for trouble.
you figure you could use the cpu to hit
the workstations and see who's logging
on. but that's not going to give you a
lot of good data. what you want are the
plans for MICROTECH's new military
computer. that'll be in one of the
memories. you press on.
entering the first memory area, you
encounter another watchdog. wait! -its
a BLOODHOUND! it lunges out to backtrack
your trail. you activate the killer
routine and armored warrior rezzes into
reality -in moments, the techno-samurai
kills the hound before it can trace your
path. the killer metls back into the
form of the beautifulchromed succubus.
she winks.
there's nothing in here but accounting
records; useful, but nothing you can't
go back for later. cautiously, you move
ahead to the next memory. empty. what
gives? obviously someone wanted to spend
their money elsewhere in the fortress.
but where? you move like a shadow to the
next memory.
hellhound! the huge black cloud leaps
at you, but you throw the killer routine
in its way. your metal warrior staggers
and misses! the system rezzes another
killer, which attacks your own program.
flash! your succubus vaporizes with a
despairing cry. your're alone without a
program to cover you. the killer waits.
the hellhound's eyes glitter gleefully
as it reaches out to stop your heart.
you pounch out.
you're sitting in a chair in front of
your desk. the seedy flat is silent
except for the faint humj of your cyber-
modem as it powers down. your hands
shake as you think about your narrow
escape. NEXT TIME, you think, i've gotta
bring along some bigger guns. that was
too close.
the entire run has lasted less than two
minutes.
- -- --- -- -
another text that was taken from a book.
this was taken from the cyber punk role
playing game. and it was originally
written in english. no need for any
transfering!
- -- --- -- -
she stands in the sunshine
she's closing her eyes
she's playing with love
