The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Twenty Two
This series is dedicated to my friend ‘The Pieman’ who hosted ‘THE P.I.T.S’ BBS in New York City and sadly passed away in 2016. I know his son ‘Blake’ will be reading this sequence of stories with anticipation.
We will never forget you man, you were one of a kind.
Also I would like to say a big thank you to Fabulous Furlough, ex-leader of ‘The Humble Guys’ who helps me fill in the gaps of what happened almost 30 years ago, The Slavelord who has given me a plethora of memories from the early days and to Suicidal Tendencies (@trolleydave) who remembers more about the UK scene than me.
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) is a continuation of my previous series, The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops.
I was once known as 'Bryn Rogers', a member of THG (The Humble Guys).
Other articles in this series:
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part One
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Two
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Three
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Four
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Five
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Six
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Seven
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Eight
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Nine
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Ten
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Eleven
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Twelve
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Thirteen
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Fourteen
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Fifteen
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Sixteen
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Seventeen
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Eighteen
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Nineteen
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Twenty
The Software Piracy Chronicles of Slobberchops (The THG Years) – Part Twenty One
During this time we had many conferences, that is Hi.T.Moonweed would call me and there would be several people on the line, some whom I didn’t know.
Sometimes these could get deadly boring and I would intentionally kick up my SNES and start playing something with the volume too loud. The conference leader would get all pissed off and then kick the perpetrator which occasionally was me.
Conferences were nothing new; The Slavelord revealed to me their group once called Buckingham Palace.
We used to run alliance's (teleconference calls with up to ~20 people) daily, I remember we once called Buckingham Palace and asked to speak to ‘the old lady with the crown’ just for grins and giggles. It was all stupid sophomoric stuff – The Slavelord.
I was parley to at least one of The Slavelord’s conferences, though it may have been a little earlier than 1993.
Maximum Overdrive & Crash Impact
Then this kid turns up on our local conferences named 'Crash Impact'. He was a 16-year-old Canadian and ran a BBS named 'Maximum Overdrive' in Toronto.
For a while it was Hi.T.Moonweed, Hydro, Me and ‘Crash’ all chatting about the usual shit that was going down in the pirating scene. He was a decent enough kid but really green behind the ears and desperate for some attention and scene respect.
His life’s ambition was to join THG, but we had other ideas.
‘Lamers of Power are looking for a Canadian HQ’, I casually mentioned one day trying to stifle the laughter.
I could visibly see Hi.T.Moonweed and Hydro doing the same down those phone lines.
'I don't know man, I wanna join THG', a doubtful sounding Crash Impact came back.
'but Lamers of Power are elite d00dz, surely you have read the NFO files?', I continued not wanting to give up.
On impulse, I called Maximum Overdrive using the Demon's Forge' second line and applied for an account as 'The Power Lamer'.
'Bryn, you will not believe this but The Power Lamer just logged on', Crash exclaimed excitedly.
'Well, how about that, this is a sign he subliminally knows you are interested in joining Lamers of Power', I retorted with some enthusiasm.
'He's an ambitious dude and his English is getting better', I added as an afterthought, 'are you chatting with him?'
'Yeah man, he wants me to join Lamers of Power', groaned Crash.
'I told him I would think about it', he replied to ME as I casually typed, 'WES ARE EXPANDNGS IN CANDA YOUS BE ELIT D00DZ TODAYS!!!'
'Go for it', chimed in Hi.T.Moonweed knowing exactly was what going on. He knew my wind up tricks only too well by this point.
'Yeah you have to start somewhere, this could be your big break and will earn your loads of respect. Think of the kudos The Power Lamer can give you', I added in my best serious voice.
'You know he wrote the guide to k00lness and we all gained lots of insight on how to avoid becoming Lamers by reading that'
‘He's a German Elite d00d, I read it over 15 times and each time I learn more new shit', I added trying to sound as enthusiastic as I possibly could.
By this time strange noises were coming down the phone line. I could tell that both Hydro and Hi.T were struggling to keep it together.
'I dunno man' he kept repeating.., 'I dunno'…
I felt we were breaking down his resolve piece by piece and it was now a matter of time.
We figured he may eventually be persuaded and Crash Impact never actually found out that I was The Power Lamer.
However, Maximum Overdrive was to become the Lamers of Power Canadian Headquarters the very next day due to an error on his behalf.
Hi.T.Moonweed had been delegated the reasonability of co-sysop on Crash’s BBS and that would prove to be a poor decision.
While he would never exactly wreck Maximum Overdrive or format C:, other things were always possible.
Hi.T waited until Crash ‘crashed’ then duly spent several hours converting Maximum Overdrive into the Lamers of Power Canadian Headquarters, complete with banners, logos, and intro screens.
I had no idea he was about to do this until the next day. I don’t think Crash Impact ever spoke to any of us again.
To be continued...
All images have been cited and are under the category 'Labelled for Reuse' or are in the public domain.
Small Pirate Icon Source
.NFO files courtesy of the .NFO libraries at https://defacto2.net
Poor teenage Canadian, just wanting to impress and being humped up the muck by the big boys!!
LOL, it was one of my most memorable times.., and let's face it.. The Power Lamer.. was an eLiTe d00d?!
Hahaha, ah the bygone patter still elicits a lol!!
I can't find any trace of the Crash version of Maximum Overdrive on defacto2.net.. the premier repo of old piracy stuff.
He must have died and faded away after this. The potential..., to become a US HQ... sheesh... he threw it all away!
See the things which are almost lost to history because they were at that time just before the internet proper. It's horrifying!
I do need to contact the owner of defacto and tell him about this series.
He loves anything related to that period and I have sent him stuff in the past. I know Fabulous Furlough has donated old material in the past.
Poor teenage Canadian, just wanting to impress and being humped up the muck by the big boys!!
According to the Bible, Charity Means Love (4 of 5)
(Sorry for sending this comment. We are not looking for our self profit, our intentions is to preach the words of God in any means possible.)
Comment what you understand of our Youtube Video to receive our full votes. We have 30,000 #SteemPower. It's our little way to Thank you, our beloved friend.
Check our Discord Chat
Join our Official Community: https://beta.steemit.com/trending/hive-182074
You guys were pretty ruthless it sounds like. At least you weren't out running the streets like a bunch of hooligans! Sounds like it was some good times back then!
We were rampaging the phone system instead, good times and memories!
We were rampaging
The phone system instead, good
Times and memories!
- slobberchops
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
LoP WAS leet. My favourite hacking group.
That was cruel on Crash though. A guy with ambition like that could have been useful to you.
They are all over the internet, never to be forgotten, LAMERS OF POWER!
Hi, @slobberchops!
You just got a 10.48% upvote from SteemPlus!
To get higher upvotes, earn more SteemPlus Points (SPP). On your Steemit wallet, check your SPP balance and click on "How to earn SPP?" to find out all the ways to earn.
If you're not using SteemPlus yet, please check our last posts in here to see the many ways in which SteemPlus can improve your Steem experience on Steemit and Busy.