Day 5 - We Involve Non Computer Students

By the time I became a Junior, there were other, newer, students to invite into our little group of nerds. The college was all men thru my Sophomore year; during my Junior year, they started admitting Women, and during my Senior year, actually seeing a Woman Student became normal. Of course, as a nerd, seeing one was about all we got to enjoy.

But when we worked in the new Computer Center, occasionally one would wander thru the hallways, usually escorted by a Boyfriend of course. :(

Anyway, during my Junior year, seeing a woman in the computer center was a rare event. It would happen occasionally, just often enough to make our imaginations run normal. We weren't monks after all, just nerds.

One evening, Art (we will call him that, as I don't remember his name) walked into the computer center, carrying a thick printout. Art had just moved from another college, where they had a similar network, but one which used BASIC, instead of NUTran. Art had been working on translating this one program from BASIC into NUTran, using a teletype outside the computer center.

Not knowing NUTran, and just barely undertanding BASIC, he was having no luck. Well, Art was a nerd, too, so we worked on this together. Bob (a junior nerd who had joined us recently), Tom and I knew NUTran, and Art sort of knew BASIC. And the 4 of us together translated Arts program into NUTRan.

Why were we so interested on working on one little program (OK, it wasn't that little either)? Well, let me clue you in on the title:

High School Sex

Are you clued in now?

As simulation programs go, it wasn't much, certainly by today's standards. It's successors would be Adventure, Dungeons and Dragons, and, more relevantly, Leisure Suit Larry. But at the time, it was just what we needed (NOT).

You could be a male High School student, with any of a dozen or so interests, and make any of a dozen or so propositions to any one of a dozen or so young girls (imaginary of course), all of differing virtue. Depending upon the relative nerdiness of your character (determined by your interests), the manner in which you conducted your date, the relative virtue of the girl, and a random number generator, you would achieve (or not) your goal, and score a varying amount of points in doing so. Need I say more about the game? I don't think so.

Anyway, besides having the problem of not knowing how to code his program (BASIC into NUTran), Art had a second major difficulty. He had no way of storing his code, all he had access to was the teletype, and not always that, as other students used it for more legitimate pursuits.

Do you see where this is leading? I thought so.

>>More