It was a short time after seeing my first computer in the elementary school environment that things began to change. At first, our school only had a few Apples/Circles to go around, usually transported on behemoth brown carts and students had a limited time to use them, mostly for approved projects.
However, around the same time, our library located in the very center of the school, was experiencing a period of rearrangement. Book shelves were being cleared off, the fate of some of those volumes remains unknown, but a select few never returned to be read again. Long, low white tables began to appear and slowly, computers took up residence on them. Chairs of various sizes, colours and vintages were added to the layout. School Board maintenance people could be seen and heard, working on rerouting power to that central location.
When it was all said and done, ten computers comprised my school's original Computer Lab. Although the brown carts still made the rounds, those located in this permanent setting were used more often.And thus, came my chance to finally use one.
I don't remember much of what my teacher told us at the time, probably some bland instructions on how to sit at the computer, turn it on, what can and can not go in the disk drive and other stuff. I do remember I was nodding a lot, some of it was even timed to appear I was listening. My attention was elsewhere, in fact, it was right ahead of where I was sitting at the time.
With the lecture over, I looked to my classmates and watched what they were doing, since I has completely ignored the important information that was delivered. Careful observation paid off when I turned on the system, without embarrass myself, asking for help. A slight crackle in the air gave way to a black and green glow from the screen.
Looking again to mimic the actions of close by classmates, I took the big, black floppy disk from it's envelope and put it into the hard drive. Oddly the door won't close. I pulled the disk out and flipped it over, with the label up and tried again. I was rewarded with a click. It turned out to be some easily forgettable typing tutor program, that measured speed and accuracy of my tapping of the keys. Thankfully, the lunch bell saved me for that misery.
After wolfing down my made at home and packaged for transport meal, I was outside, enjoying the fresh air and company of others. One of my classmates, this boy I kinda knew who sat at the back of my class, walks up to me. He asked if I would be interested in buying a copy of a game from him. My eyes widened. Curious, I asked him what it was and how much it was going to cost me. Five dollars was the answer.
It was rather ironic the asking price matched the amount of money I had at the time. I remember it being a Thursday, since Friday was known as Hot Dog Day and teachers had to collect the money from students for their orders, the day before. My dilemma, buy the game and starve for a day, or say no and enjoy a freshly boiled meal. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the bill my mother had given me that morning.
After half of the exchange had taken place on the playground, the other half of the transaction was completed in the classroom. I received my purchase when my classmate had reached into a large brown envelope, filled with more disks and produce one of the copies for me. I read the title; Karateca.
Holding my new treasure in my hands, I walked to the library, ready to see what would happen next. Students could use the computers during recess and lunch hours, for personal use. That part of my teacher's speech was one of the few things I could recall, clearly. I picked an unoccupied station and sat down. Slowly, gingerly, I extracted the disk from it's paper sleeve and inserted into the slot to be read.
After a few grinding sounds from the disk drive, words appeared on the screen; Karateca. Following that was the cinematic introduction, mostly credits of the publisher and other people that worked on this project. Then, the backstory floated up from the bottom of the screen. Darkness, soon replaced with a foreboding Asian temple of sorts, with a full moon behind it.
The next scene was my character, climbing into view, from somewhere down below, changes into a martial arts stance, then slowly walks from the left to right along the ground. Soon, he was met by his opponent, some guy wearing a horned helmet of his own and clothes that matched my hero. I mashed the keys and scored a kick, a punch and some simulated groans from the speaker. My opponent returned similar actions of their own.
I was quick to learned that losing the triangle icons at the bottom of the screen, below my character, was not a good thing. My opponent was taking mine faster than I was taking theirs. Kick, punch, jab and my character just laid down on the ground.
The bell rang, signaling the end of our lunch hour, but the beginning of a genre I would continue to visit for many, many years to come.
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