Cyberquest origin stories

[DemonFighter]

I was in 4th grade when I put together my first computer, an "IBM Compatible" computer (Intel 8088) with a Turbo button and an EGA monitor, compliments of my neighbor Bob Mahoney--founder of ExecPC. 

It wasn't until 6th grade that I actually had something good enough to play Doom.  I would dial-up and play directly against Mithrandir (and some of my older brother's friends).  Then I discovered a dial-up service called DWANGO where I could play against other people online!

The problem was the nearest DWANGO was somewhere in Chicago and I quickly racked up some serious long distance phone bills (not knowing the whole long distance telephone calls cost money).  My parents were furious!

I'm not sure how I heard about Cyberquest BBS, maybe through the ExecPC BBS forums...but it was all over after that!  I was addicted to playing Doom first thing after school until bedtime, barely spending any time on homework.  I couldn't wait to go up against Locust on MAP01 and my biggest accomplishment was actually beating him...once.  I looked up to him so much for being the best, so you can imagine how excited I was

Since I wasn't old enough to drive, I only remember attending a single LAN party in the back room of some bar on the south side.  I was probably 14 or 15 years old.  I think we played the video game Quake and it was the first time I heard AC/DC's "big gun" song that someone was playing on a stereo while we were gaming.  It was a blast!

When I was 16 years old, I got a job at the local Ace Hardware where I worked with Mithrandir (Brian) and ended up meeting The Reaper (Craig?) at Ace Hardware who was friends with Scott LJ.  Both Reaper and Scott LJ were 2 years older than me (Seniors when I was a Sophomore).  They graduated high school (Brookfield Central), went off to college somewhere, and I never saw them again.

That was almost 30 years ago.  Crazy! 

I still live in the Milwaukee area and am presently a firmware engineer working at Milwaukee Tool (started in 2020) and have written code that goes in our chargers and power tools.

How does everyone else know each other?  Was it just from the BBS or were you friends in real life?  How did you find out about Cyberquest, how old were you?  Does anyone even remember me??

Would also love to know how the name Cyberquest was selected if someone knows that story.

I know this isn't the most active forum, but maybe this gets stuff started up again!  Looking forward to your responses!

Mike a.k.a. Demon Fighter

[Locust]

Its funny to hear how people react to how good I was in DOOM.. those days are long over, but man, I remember being unstoppable

Like you, I got my start in the very early days on my dad's 4.77Mhz 8086 back in the early 80's. He showed me how to start a game and I had been showing him everything else since then.

We moved around a lot in California, then to Arizona. I was obsessed with PCs. Even though my brother's NES and Genesis had vastly superior hardware (for gaming), I just couldn't be bothered. When DOOM came out, I had my own 386 SX running a whopping 25 MHz and my parents had their own 33 MHz PC. I quickly discovered that you could connect a null modem cable between the two PCs and play DOOM over serial connection. My brother and I downloaded the Aliens Total Conversion mod for DOOM and played that shit cooperatively all night long.

Around 1995 or so my family packed up and moved from Phoenix to Waukesha. I didn't really give a shit, as long as I had my computer. And man was that great... my own room in a finished basement with my own dedicated phone line! SOMEHOw I learned that you could play DOOM via serial via dial-up modem over this thing called a MajorBBS.

So I looked around the "internet" and stumbled across CyberQuest BBS in some place called "South Milwaukee" ... I signed up and a legend was born. The admins at CyberQuest decided to host a paintball get-together and I went with, only to discover that all these "nerds" were some of the coolest mutherfuckers I'd ever have the privilege of meeting. Spent countless hundreds of hours hanging out in South Milwaukee after that, listening to stories about how B-Boy saved his house from burning down by pouring Faygo all over his Chevell that had caught fire in the garage

Those were some good times. Bryan (B-Boy), Jake (I forgot his username on CQ) and me all went to UWM in 1998 together, moved in together in a shithole of a house in Milwaukee, then left with Seagal's brother Eric to go back to Phoenix.

I lived there with them for a few years, they really found their roots and success. After 9/11 I joined the Army and got stationed in Germany, spent 15 months in Iraq, came back to Germany and stayed here when I got out of the Army. Met a girl, learned German, got married, started a career, had kids, got divorced, still have the kids and the career, got some cats, found another girl, bought a house and now I'm still here over 20 years later. At this point, I've spent more than half my life outside of the continental United States.

What started as a degree in Computer Science at UWM (and failed because I thought I hated computers at that point lol) turned into a job working in telecommunications, then IT, then networking and now I straddle a line between networking and software development.

I've hung up my hat and I don't play competitive shooters online anymore and haven't done much PC gaming over the past few years, but my PS5 and Switch get tons of love, plus I restored and flashed my classic 2001 Xbox and gotten my girlfriends classic 2004 GameCube up and running

Also Mike a.k.a. Locust