The Story When The Cmdr Bought pinback's Computer

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 11:57 pm

Okay, Ben has told me this story before. I would like everyone to hear it. I am not sure if the DJ is taking requests, but I would like to request the story of the time Tdarcos bought Benjamin "Pinback" Parrish's computer!!!

I would also like both pinback and Cmdr Tdarcos's take on the experience. If I get both, I will reveal the REAL NAME of the person who asked about the story (when I asked that person if they had ever heard it).

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 7:26 am

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Okay, Ben has told me this story before. I would like everyone to hear it. I am not sure if the DJ is taking requests, but I would like to request the story of the time Tdarcos bought Benjamin "Pinback" Parrish's computer!!!

I would also like both pinback and Cmdr Tdarcos's take on the experience. If I get both, I will reveal the REAL NAME of the person who asked about the story (when I asked that person if they had ever heard it).

I'd forgotten about this. It brings back so many memories.

I had an 8086 for many years. At one point I opened the box and discovered it wasn't an 8086, it was a NEC V20, which is basically an 8086 with an 8080 in it too, it can run both instruction sets.

Wolfenstein 3D comes out, which requires at least a 286, so I bought one. I couldn't afford a color monitor at the time so I had to play it in black-and-white. I got a color monitor a while later. So I had that computer for a few years.

As a result of his upgrade path, Ben mentions how he had upgraded his computer so he now had an extra 80386 and wanted to sell it. I think it had 4 meg of memory, or it might have been 8. I forget how much disk space, it might have been around 200 megabytes. He was willing to sell it at the (then bargain) price of $800.

At the time I had only a 286 and DOOM had come out, which I really wanted to play and required at least a 386, which had it not been for Pinback's computer, there was no way I could afford one. At that time a new 386 with the same configuration was something like $1600.

I offered to buy it on one of two conditions: 90 days same as cash, i.e. that I'd have 3 months to come up with the money, or divide the purchase into 4 monthly payments of $200. He accepted the latter offer.

He brings his computer by my house, I'm excitedly carrying it up the stairs, and I dropped it! Dent the goddamn thing, and I haven't even used it yet! Well, anyway, it's my fault, I still have to pay for it. I think I was worried because it wouldn't start. In deep sorrow, I give Ben the first $200.

I open up the box and discover the memory is loose (so the machine thinks it has no memory at all), and the dent is on the "empty" side; the hard drive and serious components are on the other side. So I reseat the memory, plug it in, and it boots fine. It works okay.

Over the next three months I am very careful to scrape together the $200 and get it to Ben when it was due. I took it as a sense of pride that this bill would be paid on time. Once I had to use Fedex to be sure it was, but I can proudly say that all three payments were received by him on or before the due date.

After the last payment, I called Ben to check, and I thanked him for the opportunity to do business with him.

I kept that computer for quite a while, a few years until I think Duke Nukem 3 came out, which required a 486 minimum. I went a little ahead of the curve, I bought a white box Pentium from a local computer store.

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js · Post by js » Wed Feb 23, 2011 9:12 pm

Hmm. That was disappointingly lame.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 9:53 pm

BONUS TRIVIA QUESTION (which only Tdarcos will know).

What game was Tdarcos playing on his computer when I went over to his house? (HINT: He loved that game!)

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 9:57 pm

js wrote:Hmm. That was disappointingly lame.

YOU are disappointingly lame, you fucking maggot.

This place is done, and I'm going to ruin it for good now.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 11:06 pm

I'd like Pinback's version of this story, please.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Feb 24, 2011 12:04 am

I'll ask one more time nicely.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Feb 24, 2011 12:20 am

"Please post the story of Paul buying the computer, but from Ben's perspective."

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Feb 24, 2011 12:26 am

Many of you are familiar with the theory of parallel universes, but there isn't one where you took the 90 days same as cash offer, is there?

jsthedissapointinglylame · Thu Feb 24, 2011 9:16 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:I'd like Pinback's version of this story, please.

That's what I'm waiting for too.
It's the only way to make Paul's rendition less lame.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Thu Feb 24, 2011 9:47 pm

pinback wrote:BONUS TRIVIA QUESTION (which only Tdarcos will know).

What game was Tdarcos playing on his computer when I went over to his house? (HINT: He loved that game!)

Jesus, Ben, you've got better memory than I have, because even I don't remember. When was that, anyway, '91, '92?

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pinback · Post by **pinback** » Thu Feb 24, 2011 10:19 pm

The correct answer was: "A-Train"!

I remember it because...

Well, the entire experience is burned into my brain, regardless of the tonnage of medication and alcohol I can stuff into my person.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Fri Feb 25, 2011 12:02 am

pinback wrote:The correct answer was: "A-Train"!

I remember it because...

Well, the entire experience is burned into my brain, regardless of the tonnage of medication and alcohol I can stuff into my person.

You're right. I remember that game. I've always loved being able to build things.

I went on to one called "Transport Tycoon" which I got for $4.95 from the dump bin at Best Buy. You build, not just a railroad line or two, but an entire country's transport against competitors. Rail, roads, ships, planes and eventually up to monorails. Takes 40 hours to play the game all the way to the end.

Each game has a randomized map with city and road location. I can't even guess how many thousands of hours I spent on the game. I probably played it an average of 5-6 hours a week for 15 years or longer. I wonder if I got my $4.95 out of it. :)

There's an open source version of Transport Tycoon II that runs under Windows; I've played it a few times. It is interesting. Now that I have lots of memory and disk space I should install it on this computer.

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Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 8:30 pm

pinback wrote:
js wrote:Hmm. That was disappointingly lame.
YOU are disappointingly lame, you fucking maggot.

Ben, you missed a great chance to do a really bad pun. I'm the one here who is (literally) disappointingly lame!

You could have said that it was lamer than me!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 6:40 pm

or, you could tell the fucking story and save us all.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 11:04 am

Anonymous wrote:or, you could tell the fucking story and save us all.

Yeah, I agree. I'd like to hear how you tell the story of how I bought your computer. Let's hear your thoughts.

The Story When The Cmdr Bought pinback's Computer

The Story When The Cmdr Bought pinback's Computer

Re: The Story When The Cmdr Bought pinback's Computer