• Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Back in the day we would prank each other by flipping the 120\240 switch on each other’s computers so that they wouldn’t turn on. That kept going until someone did it one too many times and freed the foul smelling machine spirit.

        • boonhet@lemm.ee
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          4 days ago

          Some kids did that here too, but the effect was more fun and immediate because we’re on 240 volts.

        • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          So anyone feel free to disbelieve, but me and a friend ran our elementary school’s IBM network when we were 12. I don’t know the proper name for it, but it was a bunch of dumb terminals (CRT displays) with keyboard hooked up to an actual computer I never knew the physical location of. We were able to fix any problems just by fucking around with it, it was a simple system, and the school didn’t have to pay a tech to come out. So we had admin password. We used to play hacker games starting at the same time trying to knock each other off the network and change passwords fast enough. We could see who was logged in and a few shitty kids had their terminals just lock up somehow so they had to start over. Womp womp.

          There were a few games on there that weren’t educational. They weren’t accessible without at least supervisor password so you could get terminal access.

          I’ll pay a bounty to anyone who can get a proper executable of IBM CHOPPER that will work on Windows. I’ve searched before and I can’t get it. That game was so fucking fun. It’s a sidescroller helicopter combat game with 8 bit colors, played with a keyboard. $100 bucks to anyone who can get me a working copy or good emulation.

          Edit- jaybone figured it out and won the bounty! It was Chopper Commando.

        • metaStatic@kbin.earth
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          5 days ago

          yeah that button was a game changer, honestly wouldn’t even bother if the school had those.

          We had to rub them face down on the carpet to get them somewhere close to normal.