"Travis S. Taylor - The Quantum Connection" - читать интересную книгу автора (Taylor Travis S)

wanted to go for a walk. So we did.
The next night, after basically the same ritual as the previous night, the previous three years worth of
nights, I set the disk up on my Framework/Sequencing computer system at home and played around with
it. One of my game copiers was able to read it. Then I burned it on a new disk and tried it. The game got
stuck after a few layers. This time I used my copy routine to store the machine code as a text file. Of
course, the machine code was encrypted so as to keep hackers from pirating the games, which was
exactly what I was doing. But I considered this more of an archaeological project, rather than an illegal
copyright infringement. It wasn't hard to break the code; after all, it was nearly thirty years old. One of
my simpler decryption Sequences worked fine and gave me the actual code as an output file.
Once I had the decrypted machine code, I translated it over into my operating system. Then I could
play with it all I wanted to. I didn't know how the game was supposed to flow, but there were obvious
routines and subroutines and alternate pathways. I just took out the code that looked like gibberish and
replaced it with a GOTO- or a LOOP-type routine or I just transplanted duplicate code from elsewhere
in the game. My guess was that after so long, nobody would be able to tell the difference. I played the
game on my system a few minutes and it worked great.
Now I had to reverse the decryption process and resave the game code in the original encryption.
Backtracking is a lot easier than exploring, so this didn't take long. I burned a new disk, scanned the
game picture off the old disk, printed out a new label, and presto, good as new. Now, I know what you
are thinking: this sure was above and beyond the call on this repair job. Yes, it was; normally I would
have fixed the system and not worried about the game disks. But, it was a fun project for me and I just
wanted to know if I could do it. Most importantly though, the coding kept my mind off my shitty lifeless
life for a while and I was nearly happy. The Zoloft didn't seem to help as much as it used to.
Good ol' Lazarus sat at my feet the entire time chewing his squeaky toy. He was patient and never
bothered me, since he had swallowed the squeaker when he was about nine months old.
That bit of code breaking and writing on the game console I had completed was good stuff and I
would get paid about twice minimum for it. There are some folks out there getting big bucks for that kind
of work and the best job I found was working for a blue-haired eighteen-year-old punk with a spike
through his bottom lip. I laughed at that thought for a few seconds and then the thought just depressed
me. Then I started crying. Once I realized I was crying, I laughed at myself for being so damned nuts.
I tugged on Lazarus's ear. "Laughing one minute, crying one minute, and then laughing the nextтАФI
think the Zoloft ain't working anymore, buddy." Lazarus rolled over on his back wanting me to rub his
belly.
I didn't realize it but I had been working on this code for hours at a time nearly every night for two
weeks solid. This particular night about three in the morning Lazarus nuzzled up to me and gave me that,
"I gotta go!" look. So I shut down, took him outside for a short walk, then we both crawled in the bed
and I cried myself to sleep.




CHAPTER 3
"No, you see, you have to press the circle on the right controller then the left controller. Like this." I
picked up the megamace and cracked halcor over the head with it. "Then if you press right right1 and left
right1 at the same time you can kill him. See." I continued to bludgeon halcor over the head with the
megamace as his skull cracked open and blood and brains scattered and splattered everywhere. The
huge dragon collapsed onto the castle floor knocking over the giant stone pillar, which had been
concealing the Ancient Ruby that was the key to the doorway of Planet Xios.
"Cool!" the barely eighteen-year-old Sequencer wannabe, Miles, exclaimed as if he had discovered
the secrets to the universe. Well, it was kind of a secret to his universe. When they're fresh to The Realm,
it's like crack, and you get hooked for many months on end. The Realm is a heck of a game platform. I