Oh Man! AW!!!!!
I read an article in MACWORLD about this new Genie service in 86 or 87, just out of Grad school... And I couldnt believe what I was reading.
For ever I had been dreaming with airplanes. When I was a kid I has this battery thing that turned around in circles on a string... Then Cox models... Then board flight sims... This looked like Nirvana.
Anyway, signed up to Genie with my 1200 baud modem, and life changed. This was on my Mac Plus with a B&W screen hardly bigger than a stamp, the planes were wire models, you could download non working control panels, man I had fun fun fun!
I especially remember a cool character called capn Trips. He and I would fly and talk for hours. Interaction with the designers was constant. In fact, they gave us flight models to test in the main arena!
Somebody mentioned that in fact when a plane turned it lost energy, and that this wasnt simulated. So KESMAI cranked out a version that did lose energy, and allowed anybody to try it out. Trips and I downloaded it, and had our own little test. We yelled
ont get near us, we are testing! and NOBODY EVER THOUGHT OF INTERRUPTING. EVERYBODY CIRCLED AND WATCHED.
Popeye says it all pretty much, I would only add that It was originally a MAC game, and calling it AWDOS is not quite accurate.
You see, the game WAS the community then (or the community was the game).
Not being nostalgic, I understand time and numbers have changed, I was 26 and now I am 40, but ahhhhh the memories...
You see, all this was new... the way the superb WB realism and graphics were new a few years ago... And the way AH is new now.
Cheers and thanks for making me remember,
figaro (Parsifal on AW)
[This message has been edited by figaro (edited 10-19-2000).]
