Author Notes

Chapter 3

And yes, “Underground Model” is indeed available for your reading pleasure here on SOL.

Chapter 4

And although it is not quite accurate, much of the story of the keyboard is based on Brent Myland. Who joined the Grateful Dead in 1980, and was well known for his love of the DX7. In fact, just a few years ago it and two of his custom cartridges were sold to a private collector.

Chapter 7

In case many do not know, Windows was not the first, or even the biggest Graphical User Interface for the PC. Digital Research released GEM (Graphics Environment Manager) over a year before Windows. And it was a powerhouse from the mid 1980’s to early 1990’s in the Desktop Publishing market when combined with Ventura Publisher. Really the first WYSIWYG word processor and desktop publishing program.

But it was not cheap. Bundled with GEM, the package would set somebody back $900 in 1987. Over $2,100 in 2020 when adjusted for inflation.

Chapter 8

Seal Beach Naval Weapon Station opened in 1944, and the Marine Barracks security detachment provided security for the base from then until late 1987 when it was finally shut down. At that point the Navy took over security and the Marines were mostly sent to various Fleet Infantry units at Camp Pendleton.

Typically an 18 month posting, I reported in there in January 1984, and remained there until April of 1987. They were already preparing for the closure even then, and I was one of the first group to leave, going to Camp Lejeune. I knew many who were the final Marines there, and it finally did close at the end of 1987.

No longer a high security base, there is actually a National Wildlife Refuge there, and the public is welcome to visit the nature center there. But I am describing it accurately to how it was in 1987. Today it has changed a lot, with the ammunition mission largely done with the closure of the Long Beach Shipyard. The Marine Headquarters building and Torii Gate have been destroyed, and Bunker 33 converted to the exchange complex. The chowhall is closed, and now is offices. And the large field behind the barracks that had a baseball field is now a huge campground for military and retired military.

Chapter 9

And yes, the Roland G-707 guitar and GR-700 Synth Controller is a real thing. Both Jimmy Paige and Andy Summers used them, and they were unique for the era. Letting somebody do almost anything they could with a synthesizer keyboard with a guitar. But god, the guitar was a really funny looking thing.

Chapter 10

And yes, that is an obvious Beatles reference. John Lennon in an early cheeky interview was asked how the band got their name. And he said “It came in a vision – a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, ‘from this day on you are Beatles with an A.’ “ I always loved that line, and decided to co-opt it. Especially appropriate as Pete is completely lost without his friends.

And yes, I indeed purposefully had Dee turn off a song, and go immediately into “Never Gonna Give You Up”. Probably the first case in a story that the author Rickrolled the readers.

Chapter 11

The Canon NP-9030 was both a revolutionary photocopier for it’s time, and also missed the mark. It had superior print quality, and could do a lot of things. It had a high quality scanner, but no document feeder to the user had to load the images one sheet at a time. And it had a kind of proprietary network ability that let an owner hook multiple units up together through what they called a “Multiple Control Unit” that let you do things like scan or save documents on one, then make copies on multiple other units at the same time. But it only worked with other Canon copiers of the same era.

And Optical Recording Corporation did indeed make a kit called the “Laser Print Shop”, that let somebody hook one up to a computer, and it would take the place and do even more than an MCU would. And the card and software sold for $4,400. It was developed by one of their engineers for use in-house, but word got out so they decided to make it available for sale. There was a great write up about it in the 4 July 1988 issue of InfoWorld. This literally could have been the first “Multi-Function Scanner-Photocopier-Laser Printer” with the capability to connect to a network, if Canon had taken it just a step farther.

And as mentioned before, Bobby McGees was an actual restaurant chain at one time. All of the staff dressed up as different characters. But sadly the chain closed up about 20 years ago and is long gone.

And for its time, DESQView was a landmark program. It really did allow you to multitask a computer, and run multiple DOS programs at once. And if you had a Hercules Monochrome monitor and a CGA or higher monitor, it would automatically put the background operation on the second screen as you used another program in the main one. Most of us who ran a BBS system used it heavily, as it let you run your BBS as you still used your computer for something else, or run multiple nodes of a BBS from one machine. But the rise of Windows 95 pretty much killed it.

Chapter 12

One thing that most people may not know, is that the meeting of the famous actor who picked up the Silver Star in the “Gilbert Islands” is actually talking about a real person, and a real incident.

Actor Eddie Albert in 1942 joined the Coast Guard, then got a commission in the Navy. He was assigned as commander of a landing craft at the Battle of Tarawa, considered the bloodiest battle of the war up to that point. Many of the Marines were dropped off far from shore due to unusual tidal conditions and underwater reefs. While there, Albert saw over 150 Marines under brutal enemy fire, stranded on a reef in waist deep high water.

He directed his craft to pull between the machine gun and the Marines, and rescued 47 of them. He then directed another landing craft to come up and rescue another thirty. Almost 80 Marines in the battle owe their lives to him, and he was awarded the Bronze Star with the “V” device for valor for that action.

I made the choice to upgrade it to a Silver Star, as the miniatures we wear in civilian clothes do not show the Valor signifier. Which means a Bronze Star could have been for valor, or just being a good administrator. By making it the Silver Star, it is immediately obvious it was for valor, as that is a requirement for all who achieved that award.

Chapter 14

True fact, in 1988 Sony had partnered with Nintendo to add a CD drive to their Famicom-NES system, and was also offering similar systems to Atari. And three years later literally the day after announcing the product at CES, Nintendo canceled their partnership. This move so infuriated Sony that the President ordered his team to develop their own game system. Which we now know of as the PlayStation.

And yes, there were once NIKE sites situated all over the country. The one in San Francisco is known as SF-88, and is now open to the public for tours. And indeed, the California Air National Guard barracks right next to the Japanese Garden was one also. Known as LA-96, it was many years later that I used to live just a few miles away from nuclear missiles.

And Mare Island, my last duty station in the Marine Corps. The original Recruit Training Depot on the West Coast, and home of the West Coast Security Forces Battalion until the base was closed in 1996. I lived near there again in the early 2010’s, and the condition of the base is deplorable. Most of the buildings have been destroyed, and it is infested with homeless squatting inside what is left.

Many of the historic buildings are in a growing state of decay, and no efforts are being made to protect them. A sad note, that of the many bases I was stationed on or trained at in the 1980’s, most are gone. Mare Island, El Toro, Tustin, Fort Sherman, all gone. In fact, Treasure Island (the base Frannie is at) along with every other Army and Navy base in the San Francisco Bay area was closed in the early 1990’s.

Even Seal Beach is only still there only because it is a “White Elephant” that the Navy can not get rid of. The original mission ended when the base at Long Beach closed. But because it is also a National Wildlife Refuge, the land can not be used for anything else. Even the historic buildings used to build part of the Apollo rockets have been destroyed. A mostly abandoned base with a few Reserve Centers on it, and not much of a purpose otherwise. It was sad staying there for a week at the campground in 2013, and realizing the chow hall, theater, club, and even the beach house were long closed up. Maybe a hundred or so still stationed there.

And yes, I ran that rifle range from 1990-1993. One of the few left in the Corps then that had not transitioned to meters, and the 600 yard line was right in front of our range hut. I laughed later when I joined the Army and they told us the maximum range of the M16A2 was “350 meters”. Yet we used to hit targets regularly at 500 meters with the M16A1 (a much less accurate weapon than the A2). And when we had extra rounds at the end of firing, we often let the Marines use them up by firing at the 600 yard line (550 meters) just for fun.

And sadly, Weird Stuff Warehouse closed in 2018 after over three decades in business. I was a regular there for decades, and they had almost anything from the 1970’s to current items. If you needed it, they had it. But as the land in the area increased in value, their location finally got bought up by Google. And unwilling to try to move to a new location at the age of 72, the owner decided to just shut the doors.

Chapter 15

In case she is not recognized, the lawyer that Becky manages to get for her case is based on Gloria Allred. Only 5’2”, she is well known for her spectacular press conferences, often using ambush style tactics, and taking high profile discrimination cases. My own opinion of her is mixed, but I can not deny she is an effective lawyer.

And a little personal here, and how I often incorporate my real life in quiet ways in my stories. In some ways, Rebecca is based very lightly on my late fiancee. Her first and middle named were “Rebecca Dawn”. Hence, the origin of the name “New Dawn Sound”.

Chapter 17

Ventura Boulevard was really the center of the music scene in the San Fernando Valley in that era for equipment. Frank Zappa had both his music studio and production company there, as did many other artists and companies. CBS, NBC, ABC, Universal Studios, and scores of others could be found within five miles, so it was a perfect location.

And going to the stores along Ventura that catered to professional musicians, you might indeed see Slash, Fred Schneider, or David Byrne also looking at some of the newest equipment hitting the market.

And this is right at the time that in addition to MIDI, a similar standard for operating lighting equipment called DMX hit the market. And it was a marvel, instead of just turning lights on and off and dimming them, this gave a stage manager a lot more control over the stage presentation. Especially as computers were being put into the lights, allowing them to do things not even dreamed of a decade before.

Until 2005, the part of a Marine Division that specialized in all of the technical aspects to keep them operating was FSSG, or Force Service Support Group. Those were the engineers, armorers, major shops for repairing vehicles beyond what the unit itself could do, and everything else needed to keep the Infantry fighting. Today, it is known as the MLG, or Marine Logistics Group. First FSSG would have been attached to the First Marine Division, out of Camp Pendleton.

And yes, the very start of when people started wiring their home with “Smart Cable”. Normally two CAT 3 (later CAT 5) phone cables, bundled with two coax cables (RG-58 for computer networks and later satellite TV, RG-59 for standard cable TV). Run one to each room, then from a standard control box you could change them to however you wanted. The company he is discussing is Arrow Cable and Wire, and still in business in Santa Fe Springs. Visited their facility many times, they were leaders in this until the 2000’s when wireless started to largely eliminate the need for wires to do all of that. This did indeed exist in 1988, but anybody getting it would be over a decade before most would ever really need it.

Chapter 18

Weird Stuff was mostly known in Silicon Valley for buying almost anything from the manufacturers and designers in the area. And they often ended up with failed prototypes. In 1992 I actually did buy a dozen “mystery keyboards”, that are almost exactly as described. Fully working XT to 386 computers, with a BOOTROM (this allows booting from the network so no disk drive is needed). We sold them all to a local video store chain and they loved them. Perfect for a POS setup.

And when shopping at Weird Stuff or the other various surplus electronics stores in the area, getting almost amazing deals was not unusual. They literally bought truckloads of used equipment, many times from companies that had gone bankrupt or left behind after they vacated a location (bought from a landlord many times they skipped off owing rent to). And sometimes not a lot of care was made in ensuring what was inside of boxes or units was as thought.

I had bought a case of what was written on the box as “DOS 3”, and turns out it was really “DOS 5”. And I had also bought stacks of computers intended to strip that were listed as “DEAD”, but all they needed were new power supplies. But operations like this were like Pete and his store. Not trying to sit on things and milk them for the most money possible. Just get it in, get it priced, and get it out. And as they likely paid pennies on the dollar for buying in massive volumes, a careful shopper could find amazing deals.

Computer Shopper, how I miss that magazine. It was huge, about two feet by a foot, and about two inches thick. An incredibly huge magazine. Not much on articles, but thousands and thousands of ads from wholesale and retail companies selling almost anything under the sun. That was the main way a lot of us found sources for computer equipment we sold until the Internet came out.

Chapter 19

The previously mentioned Zenith computers the military bought came with something else other than just the software. An Alps P2000 dot matrix printer. These were wide carriage printers, and were absolutely amazing, many consider them the best dot matrix printers ever made. They had only 9 pin print heads, but had many settings for print quality, and could pass over a line four times, and were almost as good as a laser printer. And in an era before “real computer fonts”, there were cartridges for more fonts.

The military absolutely loved those things, and even into the 2000’s I would sometimes see them still being used in military offices. Mostly when the office still relied upon multi page carbonless forms that mandated an impact printer.

Even today, those that still need dot matrix printers will pay over $200 for one in working condition.

And the decision to release the newest “Monster Manual” for Second Edition D&D was indeed a misstep. It did make things easier as future expansions could be sold for less as they had no binding, and be put in where needed. But then the problem of pages getting ripped out, being put in the wrong order, and the wear and tear became an issue and they never repeated it again. A good idea, but after that one test neither TSR or any other game company tried it again.

Chapter 20

Yes, I did indeed name the crooked Russian computer techs that Peter will run across multiple times during the rest of this story after the Bobrov Brothers in Fallout 4.

Chapter 21

And technically, barter agreements like this by law should be taxed. Where those who accept such goods in trade list the estimated value of the goods and pay the appropriate tax on it as if it was a cash transaction.

But the IRS normally does not care about such small values.

Chapter 24

Ah, FIDONet. I spent countless hours on there, exchanging messages with people all around the globe. And yes, a major topic in the Star Trek threads in that era was the actual rank of Chief O’Brien. And what is being referenced is the “AIDS Trojan”, now recognized as the first case of “Ransomware”. Floppy disks were mailed out to members of a World Health Organization HIV mailing list. And after 90 boots, the program would encrypt the user files and directories, and demand $189 to restore use. This is the very first case of a computer virus or malignant program actually demanding money from those infected.

And at this time, there were almost no antivirus programs really out yet. And those that were might update once a week or once a month. So we would exchange “HASH Files” to allow the program to detect a new threat until an update was released. It is nothing like what is used today.

And yes, in that time somebody actually wrote an adult story based on the TV show ALF. It was rather disgusting, and typical of erotica in that era before the Internet was available. If anybody is curious, I have actually posted it here. But be warned, it is not really in good taste.

Chapter 27

Any who were into the BBS scene in LA in this era up into the mid-1990’s might get the reference to the “Revolving Beds Motel”. That was actually a common nickname of “Stepping Stone Hotel”, a major 32 line DLX chat BBS in that era.

And I find it fascinating that most people do not even realize that Microsoft once was the largest seller of a Unix clone, essentially what Linux is today. It was a very powerful operating system, based on Unix. Full networking capabilities, and with some work you could run DOS on it. That was actually their main networking product until NT came along several years later. And all of their in-house networking and early Internet services ran on it until the late 1990’s.

So whenever I hear that “Microsoft fears Linux”, I shake my head as I remember when they once pretty much ruled that also. And it was not just a “rip-off” of Unix. It was actually licensed from AT&T, incorporated a lot of BSD in it’s code, and when they decided to move to NT as their networking system they sold it to the Santa Cruz Organization. Where it became known as SCO Unix.

Chapter 30

This is actually a thread that is explained more in depth in later chapters. But while studying Anthropology and Religions, I was amazed at how many religions around the world share amazingly similar beliefs. And that that of the Norse and Indians are amazingly similar. Thor and Loki, Wolf and Coyote, Issa and Itsappa to the Shoshone. Brothers, who often worked together. But the Trickster often worked against him also. Not to be evil, but as a joke. Coyote tricking Wolf to do something in an attempt to make him look silly was no different than Loki convincing Thor to dress up as a woman and visiting the Giants.

In fact, almost all religions have a “Trickster God”, that did things like teach humans how to make fire, how to plant crops, how to smelt gold and make weapons. “Secrets” stolen from the other Gods, that the Trickster gave to humans for reasons of their own.

And throughout almost all of North America, almost every tribe has the exact same beliefs. They use different names for Wolf and Coyote, as well as for Earth, Thunder, and the rest. But when you read the stories and the behavior of the gods, it is like reading the Greek and Roman myths. And seeing that Zeus and Jupiter are really the same God. Just two different names.

Chapter 31

And yes, the thing that kept most people from using cellular phones in that era was the cost. Most phones were still over $3,000. And the usage fees is what really killed you. At $50 a month for the plan, and another $0.45 per minute.

And that would be in 1989 money. Adjust for inflation, that is over $6,500 for the phone in 2021. And $110 for the plan, and over a dollar a minute for usage.

Chapter 32

If anybody wants a general idea where much of the locations in this story have been, I will admit I know this area very well, and can still almost drive from one location to another in my sleep.

Where Pete and Holly live is roughly North and East of the corner of Victory Boulevard and Hazeltine Avenue. Go west down Victory just past Tyrone Avenue, and you will find “Car Planet”. But fans of “The Terminator” will know it under its actual name when it was filmed. A gun store called “The Alamo”. Yes, it was not a set but an actual working gun store back when the movie was filmed.

And going another block west is now the “Short Stop”. It had a different name back then, but that was the liquor store I used to get bootleg videotapes from. And on Van Nuys Boulevard just north of Victory, the same porn shop is still there, just with a different name.

Linda would have lived near Woodman Avenue and Magnolia Boulevard to the SE. Becky when they first dated near Hazeltine and Oxnard Street. On Hazeltine south of Oxnard was the Van Nuys Rec Center. Where at one time there really was a play area made up of about 8 small buildings for kids to play in and around called “The Oz”. Based on a Munchkin Village, and a bridge with the main characters from the movie dancing towards the Emerald City.

When Pete started dating Becky after he got back was near Vanowen Street and Laurel Canyon Boulevard. And if anybody wants the best burritos in LA, a mile or so east on Vanowen you will find “Rigo’s Tacos”. The real inspiration for “Rico’s Tacos”, and among the best I had ever eaten in my life.

Skate! Would have been on Tujunga Avenue south of Sherman Way, where the giant Costco is today. The original “Computer Outlet” and Speedy-Tech and Or’Bit Computer Concepts would be at around W. Burbank Boulevard and Victory Boulevard. At a rather interesting area of town, as before there Victory ran east-west. But at that intersection it turns 90 degrees and suddenly runs north-south.

The location of the Or’Bit Data Center would be on Woodley Avenue, just south of Saticoy Street. But of all the areas of The Valley, this has really changed over the decades. At that time, another mile or so north Woodley actually came to a dead end, at where the railroad tracks are. And most of the area to the west was actually owned by Litton Industries. My dad worked right there at Raymer Street and Woodley, in a warehouse long gone. Over half the buildings from there to Saticoy, west to the airport were owned or leased by Litton.

Drive south on Woodley and across Victory Boulevard, and you will find the Japanese Garden. Looking very different than it does today. And just north, the old Nike site, which I had actually watched through the fence as a child as they worked on the missiles.

To give an idea why I know this area so well, I grew up near White Oak Avenue and Burbank Boulevard, until 1975 when I moved to Idaho. Then in 1982 when I moved back to LA, it was to right near where Pete’s house is.

The Competitor’s Castle was a real game store, on Reseda Boulevard just south of Sherman Way. If you go to Sherman Way and Canby Avenue, the NE corner where is now a Spanish Church was the real location of “The Country Club”. The real club featured in the movie “Boogie Nights”. And if any have seen that movie, that really is how it looked in that era. The doughnut shop just to the east where the shootout was at the end. The large dirt area almost across the street on Sherman Way near Lindley was a large open air shopping mall, and was the location of the stereo shop in the movie.

Almost every location described in LA in these stories is or was a real place. And when writing about them, I simply closed my eyes, and remembered them how they were in that era.

Chapter 33

And yes, at this time several porn companies started to get BBS systems. No “video files” yet, but they would put in photos and other promotional things to advertise what they had available. I even went to a few “BBS Parties” some had, where the girls would mingle with us. And at the end of the night give everybody a ticket, and we would select something out of a box to take home. Mostly sex toys (brand new), and videotapes.

And they also recruited out of them also. Mostly girls, but sometimes crew as well.

In this era, “Plug and Play” was just a fantasy. To add cards to a computer required knowing available IRQ ports, DMA channels, and memory addresses. And having free ones in your computer, in addition to being able to set the card to one. This greatly limited how many items like cards we could use at a time.

Most computers could only handle 2 communications (COM) ports, so at most you could use only 2 modems at a time. However, enough work and the right equipment this could be expanded to 4 modems per computer. Hence, why the early systems that Pete builds all had no more than 4 modems in each computer.

However, this changed in 1989 when the DigiBoard came out. They came in two models, the Digi 8 with 8 ports, and the Digi 16, with 16 ports. These let you run many more modems per computer. The card went in the back, and you then used external modems that connected to a breakout box full of RS-232 connectors.

And they were expensive! The Digi 8 was around $2,000, the Digi 16 was $5,000. And you needed a fast computer to run them, because of the amount of data you were pushing at a time. 486-25 at least. Only the boards that had made the jump to professional boards that charged could afford these. And in LA in this era, that was mostly the massive 32 line chat boards that used DLX. And most ran 32 lines, with two Digi 16 boards.

This technology largely went obsolete when plug and play came out, then the Internet replaced computer to computer connections via phone lines.

Chapter 34

And yes, although I do admit I love that corny Randy Newman song, I do not love LA. I hate LA. That is why I left there almost 20 years ago and will never live there again.

And one thing about the old National Lampoon of the 1970’s, they laid fairly into both sides politically. One song or skit might be laying into the Democrats, then the very next one they would give the same roasting to the Republicans. Never to be mean, but simply as their name said, to lampoon things that both sides did. Equally and fairly, mostly in humor and never insulting.

And “Well-Intentioned Blues” is from the 1975 album “Gold Turkey” is one of them. Made from their 1973-1974 radio show, it was written and sung by Christopher Guest. Lord Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden Guest. Also known as Nigel Tufnel from “Spinal Tap”. As well as Count Rugen, “The Six Fingered Man” from The Princess Bride.

Chapter 37

“Give us 22 minutes, we’ll give you the world!” has been the slogan for LA News Radio station KNX for over 40 years. And anybody who has ever lived there would probably recognize it instantly.

Chapter 38

A common thing we Marines say if another has passed is that we will meet them guarding the streets of heaven. This comes from the very end of the third and last stanza of “The Marines’ Hymn”.

If the Army and the Navy Ever look on Heaven’s scenes; They will find the streets are guarded By United States Marines.

It has even become something of a joke in popular Marine Corps comic “Terminal Lance”. With the creator occasionally posting a cartoon with Marines who had died, wondering why they are stuck still pulling duty in Heaven, and nobody from any of the other branches has to do things like that.

Chapter 39

One of the first “online” systems was called Quantum Link, which started in 1985 as a system to connect Commodore 64 users. Most of us first discovered it because if you bought the GEOS graphic operating system, it came with a free month of Quantum. Like most services of the era, it did not have much, mostly chat, messages, and some files. But it did have Club Caribe, a game created by LucasArts Games.

Really the first avatar chat experience. Not much on actual game, more like Second Life where users generally hung out and chatted with each other. And if the name of Quantum is not familiar to most people, that is because in 1989 they changed their name to something else.

America Online.

And now we come to the issue with DigiBoard in 1990. The most advanced computers we could get had a 32 bit data bus, and ran at 25 MHz, they just could not push anywhere near data as much as some users needed. It was very possible to add 2 Digi 16 cards and run 32 lines from a single computer. And for a chat only BBS that had no files or other features like door games, that was fine. But if it was running games, offering files, and things like that then the system would start to bog down. It was simply too much data trying to be moved around the computer itself.

This was resolved a bit when the 486-50 came out. A chip that will be discussed later, but that was not the later DX2. The chip and bus both ran at 50 MHz, and could actually handle 32 BBS lines on a single computer. But they were incredibly expensive, finicky as hell, and had some stability issues.

And network standardization, which will be discussed shortly. Most network people today who were not around 30 years ago would likely barely recognize the equipment we had to use back then.