"Era Of A Legacy" Part 1 "Legacy Begins" I remember that night, it was cold, Real cold. like -18 out. I was working the 2nd shift. It was about 11pm. After jumping out of the shower, I ran down to my room, and booted up my trusted Commodore 128. Booting BOB'S TERM PRO 128 up, my dialer came alive and within seconds I had connected to one of the local boards. 877-CELLBLOCK. Superfoot had left me some mail about the sysop alliance. I was the VP, and a new BBS had gone up, he was filling me in on it. Seems a BBS called Hackers Heaven had came to live over the weekend and the Sysop, was reviewed by us. Oh wait, some of you don't know what the Sysop alliance was about. Back in 1985, 1986 a group started with 2 local boards. Mine. The Power-Tap, And 877 CELLBLOCK. Sense I had taking over as VP the Power-tap BBS went down. And I haven't put it up sense. Even though I have thought about it from time to time, but its to much of a pain. Well the Sysop alliance grew to house 10 members, each with a certain title and duties. The basis of our little group was to insure that BBS's that were around the area, weren't lame. If you weren't voted in by the SYSOP alliance, your board got no calls. If people called the BBS that were up regularly, they were blacklisted from the elite boards. So came the term, Jamf. Jive Ass Mother Fucker. Anyone with this title was on for some hell from phranking to Outrageous phone bills. We even would call FBI,(there was no SPA back then) and reported them as pirates. I remember one user. His handle was Q-bert. He wasn't a day over 13, and the used a vic-20 with a data cassette has it Storage device. Few nights ago I dug up his first and last post. It went something like this... Q-bert On @15:00pm CNET 9.22 Title : Hello! Message #127 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hello fellow pirates. This is Q-bert (Dig my handle) I'd like to say I'm into all that illegal stuff, and would like to get access to the keen-neato stuff. also do you guys do data transfers? I need to know. Cause I have tons of stuff on my tape cassette. If you looking for cool games. Let me know I have a lot! thanks for chatting. Q-bert ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SYSOP ALLIANCE On @02:00 CNET 9.22 Title : Are you Stupid? RE : SA -02 Sender Message #134 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Umm first of all isn't a pirate a person who lives on a ship and attackers other ships? What illegal stuff you into? Does your mom know your doing it? Keen-neato Stuff? What exactly would that be? Data transfers? Sure.. learn more about it then ask. Cassette tape? BHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ummm no brownie pts awarded Cool games? You can buy games in the store that are cool! why do we need you? We don't chat.. we Leave mail... SA-02 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well to make a long story short, his best game was a Basic game called Wily the worm. He uploaded that, and took Superfoot about 2 seconds to delete it and him. Bingo Black listed. Now back to Hacker Heaven. Well we liked the named and the sysop had did a really good job. Well it wasn't him really. See back then there was a group, which I was also part of, called THE CHOP SHOP. We took C-net based BBS programs and modified them. Added our own features and shit. For a price of course. RTF roger the freman, was one of the best damn Commie basic programmers I had ever seen. I myself coded Assembly. So, we put this board to the other Sysop's around, and it was voted in. About 2 weeks had gone by, and BAMO something nasty happened. It's about 2am and I'm playing a game called PARADROID. The phone rings, its Superfoot. "Hey Oppression man, were in deep shit here...!" "Calm down, what do you mean were in deep shit?" "Well I just found out, Hackers Heaven is a fucking FED board?" That's all he had to say, I knew right then what he meant. Being the SYSOP ALLIANCE was the biggest pirate group back then in our area, if you were accepted by the Alliance, you got all the warez, and all the Anarchy files. Also you had unlimited access to any part of all the boards. Superfoot panicked and took the board down, the Alliance went into hiding, Superfoot ended up getting busted, I slimmed by, probably cause he didn't squeal, and all my CORRECT info was INCORRECT, my address # and shit wasn't real. So maybe they just couldn't find out who I was. Superfoot being underage, got his shit taken, and a black box put on his phone. Eventually his parents moved him adieu town. Which I haven't seen him sense or heard from him . All was calm. The heat died down, oh yea, for about 2 weeks I did without a computer, cause I packed it all up, and stored it at a friends house. So yes I was going through withdrawals. Finally I decided it was cool to come out of hiding. Using a New handle and playing real dumb, I started checking the what damage was done, and found out, 4 others were busted as well. None of them could tell the feds who I really was. And when I logged onto Hacker Heaven, I was shocked to find out. There was a wee bit of a reward for information leading to my arrest. Being 16, I kinda got an ego. But man was I scared shitless. I told them that all I knew was that Oppression (My first handle) was a kid that lived in freeport. They asked me how I had heard about him. And wanted to come visit me. I figured hell if I can simply play dumb and go with it, maybe I can talk my way out of it. So I agreed to meet with them They called my parents (Real dumb move, cause they didn't know jack). It was about 4pm, and was getting ready for work when mom goes, "call in sick, your not going today, those FBI people are coming over at 7." I was like Oh FUCK. I called work, hit my room with blazing speed. took every disk I had slapped them in a box. sealed it shut, Marked it Photo's and placed it under about 6 or 7 other boxes. I was hoping they wouldn't snoop. I told mom I had to go to the mall, and buy something. So I took off to Toys R' Us and bought Bob's term pro 128. So the version I had was real. I opened the box in the car took the disk out, and the manual, got the manual dirty, threw the box away and the receipt. And cruised home. Stuck the disk in the drive, And looked around to see what else was there that I needed to hide. Then there they were. 6 Folders of Anarchy, pirate shit. SYSOP alliance names. I was like Son of a bitch. I grabbed a 6 folders and threw them in a box. Marked the box. Tupperware. and placed it with the others. My dad had made it home and I heard him talking to my mom, guess he wasn't pleased that the FBI was going to be coming over. I think I heard him grumble "they find anything I'll let them take him." Great now my dad was on their side. I just hope he don't recognize that some of them boxes are knew. Well he did. What could I say but "Well ya know." He laughed and said, if they don't catch it, I'm not going to point it out. Inside I cheered, on the outside I smiled and said "thanks dad!" I don't think he cared, he wanted to see me slide through it, wanted to see how smart I was. Well about 10 to 7 the doorbell rang, 3 guys stood there, 2 of them with briefcases the third was holding a bright red folder. On the folder it said in big letters my name. My dad opened the door, asked them in. He then called to me and my mom, who seemed to enter from different rooms at the same time. Like clock work. The small guy with glasses peered at me, the whole time they were introducing themselves. I was beginning to think this wasn't such a good idea after all, to late I'm committed. Rogers was his name, tall bald guy who smiled a lot. Took my parents into the kitchen, while the middle aged man came up to me. "Ok, (my name) I want to see your bedroom and computer, do you mind?" I smiled and said no problem. The guy with glasses grumbled out "had time to clean it?" I stopped and turned to face him, they say acting isn't easy, I think I could have won an award for the confusion I manage to show. We went down stairs, and into my room, my computer was off, my ROOM was spotless. Shit I forgot to put something in the place where the folders were huge empty spot on the book shelf. The guy with glasses walked over and just started shifting stuff around. "Umm can I help you find something?" I said sarcasticly. "No, I don't need any help thank you." he snapped back. I was like shit this man is a dick. The middle aged man sat down and turned my computer on. I reached over and turned it off. "Hey listen, I said I would talk with you, not be searched by you." "Relax, were not here to bust you, we just want to see if your worth our time." I backed of then. he turned the computer on, the screen came on. He reached over popped the bought disk of my term out. looked at it. "You got a manual?" he said. I'm like sure, I dug into a shelf and pulled it out. The four eyes guy moved beside me and started looking into that shelf moving stuff. He looked at it. Looked at me? "So son how long you been messing around with computers?" "About 2 years." I replied. "Hmm any good at it?" he asked. "Well I'm an assistant teacher at my school in the computer class. You can call my Teacher (his name) he can tell ya!" I said "We have already talked to him, Seems you've become a good programmer." He said back without looking at me. I smiled, sorta cocky. Damn these guys don't overlook anything. "Well Mind if we look around so more?" I'm like "Sure. Go right ahead. can I ask what your looking for?" The four eyes "Pirate software, Anarchy files. Anything illegal." Once again my acting paid off, I pulled this pissed attitude and said "Hey now ,I ain't done anything. I just program my computer, goto school and work 2nd shift. Is that a crime?" The Middle aged guy looks straight at me and says "Nope, no crime, we just got to do it by the book." Right then I felt like saying FUCK your book. I got a copy of it, and I know you can't search through my shit without a warrant. But I didn't. Well the poked around for about 10 mins. Never even looked towards the boxes in the corner. Mom and Dad showed in the doorway, along with Rogers. Dad had a smile and mom looked at me like I was stupid. Rogers nodded to the two me and they walked over and stepped pass him. Rogers came to me, pulled out a sheet of paper, and said "So, tell me what you know about Oppression." I tilted my head like I was confused. "You know the User with the handle Oppression." He said. "Ahh OK him. Well about 3 months ago I got into a argument with him. He called me names and said Good luck trying to get on any boards. I wasn't sure what he meant. Well I found out. every time I tried to log on somewhere I got deleted, the only board that would let me on was Hackers Heaven. So That's the board I called. Then you guys started asking me questions. I told you all I knew, that he lived in freeport, and was mean, and like to cuss a lot. Can you tell me why you guys are looking for him? Did he kill someone?" Rogers laughed and put his hand on my shoulder "No son, he didn't kill anyone. He's just a person we consider a menace to society. And he has done some illegal Computer crimes." When his hand hit my shoulder I knew I was in the clear. I was like YES inside. "So do you think I'm doing that to? " I looked at him with the most innocent look I could fake. He looked at both the men, they both just shrugged he turned smiled "No son, we don't we just have to check out everything." I smiled and replied "Oh good, cause my teacher says that stuff is bad and it makes the prices of software go up. Could you tell the software people that some of us are cool, and we can't afford some of those prices they have?" ACK big mistake. I was acting like I couldn't afford the stuff, and usually besides being rebellious, That's why pirates copy stuff . Well guess he took it as a joke cause he just laughed and said "I'll put in a good word for ya when I talk to them next." I smiled and he closed the folder. "Well gentleman, We have all the information we need." He said goodbye and mom showed them out. My dad stood there, just looking at me. I stood the expressionless. Mom showed back up. "You did good." she said. Dad shook his head. "Now if I were to go open those boxes, would I find anything that would prove you a liar." His smile seemed to widen. I looked at the ground, then back at him and said. "Dad, if you opened them boxes you would probably have a heart attack." Mom left the room, if dad was smiling, she knew it was over. "Well then, how about we open them together, and just see." I shook my head, "Well if you really want to I sapos we can." He paused. Looked at me then sighed. "Ok we don't have to, but next time you won't be so lucky. Ya know there was a reward for that info, and you can't collect it on yourself." Then he turned and walked out, closing the door behind him. I think my jaw bounced off the floor a few times. Holy shit, Dad knew. Damn guess he could see right through me. That was like 10 years ago. I'm an IBM user now, with probably 10 X the amount of stuff, and my dad passed away about 6 years ago. Mom don't really care about my computer stuff anymore. She just says "Your a keeper now. " I think dad told her the truth not sure. They never mentioned it again after that day. My brother to this day can't understand how I pulled it off, That's when I got the handle Speed. He said it was the first time he had seen someone get the heat off himself so fast. So Speed kinda formed that day. Been 10 years Closing, I'd like to add that about 4 years later I myself got a small black box on my phone line. They said it was for line testing. But FUCK I know them boxes. I even had a few of them ripped apart in my room. Ok, for all you buffs out there. I'm still around.. I call mostly elite boards and some of the Major Multi-NODE lines. I'm also in the nets that are around. And you know, practice makes perfect. And dammit that night was about as perfect a CON job I had ever pulled.. Hopefully someday I'll get my Emmy. Then again I hear the pentagon's online now. Anyone got the #? I feel like leaving Rogers some email from oppression saying. "Hey you FUCK. Missed me In Illinois, and right now I'M UNDER your damn nose... Pull some strings get me an EMMY, and by the way, you ever talk with those software people for me?" bhahahahaah, bet the man jaws would bounce harder than mine did... Speed 1994! SAUCE00ERA Text Speed iDENTiTY 19941010å:P