💾 Archived View for ja2.one captured on 2023-01-29 at 02:11:38. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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.J88" " What do we have here...
In the mid to late 1980s, I was just a boy. A boy with a Commodore 64 in his parents' bedroom (later, the totally unfinished and by all measures scary as fuck basement). A c64 with a modem, and by extension, access to dozens of local bulletin boards.
Not yet a teen, I was at least among if not the youngest person on any of these systems. Having determined by watching the cool kids that the best thing to do was to pick a handle, and with little experience from which to draw, I tried on dozens of pseudonyms to see what might fit me best. Most of them quite silly. Not that this one isn't.
Ninja Gaiden was released in the US for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989. I couldn't tell you what I was calling myself at the time, but I do remember that it was around then that I began dialing into The Ministry of Knowledge (RIP). With a new BBS and wanting something edgy, I thought of the sorceror 'Jaquio' and that was that... and I used to sign all my messages, too.
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I don't remember the first time I encountered "my" username being taken in the wild, but I remember that it was the last time. I started stylizing it this way that day and have done so ever since.