Obscure In-jokes made easier for the Uninitiated! ASCII-Nation is intended to work on two levels. The first being the broad thrust of the story, and how it relates to parodying the Star Wars movie series, in a nice humourous sort of way. The second level relates to the fact that there are a number of small visual jokes and references to people and antique computer equipment, that are only comprehensible to a few people that might have owned or played with either Sinclair Research/Timex Corporation computers in the early to mid 1980's, and the slightly later Atari ST 16-bit computers, (and associated models of the same hardware architecture, which first appeared in the later 1980's.) Add to that, the fact that certain characters in the story are based on people that I actually know, and, oh, that's a third level, isn't it? GLOSSARY OF A FEW OF THE OBSCURE AND STRANGE THINGS THAT CROP UP IN THIS STORY. Clive Sinclairomorph - Started off as Clive Sinclair, a nice British inventor of various 8 and 16 bit home computers, back in the golden age of home computing. He started off with the 8-bit Zilog Z80-based 'ZX80', moving rapidly on to the matt-black cased tiny 'ZX81', moving up to the first really popular home machine with colour, the 'ZX Spectrum' (which almost singlehandedly kickstarted the British Entertainment software industry into life!) Upon this success, he built failure, with the innovative, radical (for 1985), but flawed, MC68k based 'Quantum Leap' computer. At the same time, Clive's attention wandered off computers, into making a ghastly electric tricycle, in some misguided stab at the eco-friendly mass-transport market, called the C-5. Disaster soon followed, and Clive was forced to sell out. He is still quietly on the scene, making a more viable electric bicycle. There have been rumours of a return to the computer market for some years, as he is apparently dismayed at the rather conservative and boring direction that Bill Gates has gone in. However, you'd expect him to be more than a little bit embittered by these setbacks, and mutate into the permanently irritated super-villain of this story! ZX81 - (Or the Black Slab!) Take the first home computer to sell in the UK for under 100 UK pounds. Scale it up by a factor of ten million or so. Install the ultimate shooty-death killer beam weapon that is capable of tearing entire planets apart, from the crust down, in it. You are left with a Death-Star like genocide machine which is (almost) unstoppable! C-5 - A concept to recycle all those unsold electric tricycle components into a workaday henchdroid, which bears more than a little resemblance to the Daleks of 'Dr Who' fame! Quantum Leap (QL) - Where all the remaining MC68008 chips went when they stopped production of the computer of that name, into a free- floating OppressorBot concept. Millenium Faclon '030 - The heroes principal mode of interstellar transportation, based on a cross between the Star Wars original, and a misstyping of the 1993 era Atari computer 'Falcon '030' (Which was based on a Motorola 68030 CPU and a few other nice pieces of silicon!) Some might still argue the Faclon (whoops!) is still a viable machine, even today!? The ImPOnance - Yes, it is shaped rather like a you-know-what! The strange name comes from a strange Swedish Atari party, where computers, saunas, drinking, poker playing, and pizza's all predominate. Grobelaar (The planet) - Described in the story as the most double- dealing and corrupt place in the galaxy. Aptly named after a famous bribe-taking goalkeeper (UK association football, NOT "soccer!") Salenger (The planet) - Named after a lesser known actress whom a friend of mine has got a 'thing' about, Meredith Salenger. I felt it was only right that she had a planet named after her! Boogaloo (The planet, and the little stick people!) - Check out the 'Boogaloo' story strips a bit further down, they should tell you all you need to know! Dirk's diet - Harry Ramsden's fish and chips, and Hollands meat pies, both Northern English delicacies, all guaranteed "heart attack on a plate" levels of cholesterol! Dirk himself is based on a Northern UK based occasional Atari activist called Simon in real life, who changes his hardware more frequently than most people change their socks! 'Wevl' and the Sveedish Meetballs - Based on the current Swedish Atari programming community, who are in real life some of the nicest guys you can expect to meet! 'Greyy' - One of the principal characters in the current Polish Atari scene, who is one of the coolest people around! 'Havuck' - Alter to the proper pseudonym of 'Havoc', and we get to meet a very tall Dutch guy, whom we stayed with last Easter, and who is able to paint pretty pictures with pixels and electronic paints! Jonnyboy - Another friend of mine, in reality, he is not metallic, but organic, like you and I. He lives on the South Coast of the UK, but is rather handy with a soldering Iron! Greebo - My way of getting back at that shite miscreation of Jar-Jar Binks. I personally think that this character had a lot of secret character traits not seen in the Phantom Menace, and the more 'adult' portrayal in this story is probably more true-to-life than the movie version! Ham YumYum and Princess Oranjeboom - Thinly disguised versions of Han Solo and Princess Leia. Easygoing charisma (Ham) and feistyness, and initial suspicion later giving way to deep feelings of love (Princess) levels about the same as the film versions. No affinity to any people in real life. Ratthos - Not based on anyone, just a neat drawing that came out right. He really deserved more than the unrewarding job of sidekick to the ranting Clive Sinclairomorph. Maybe he'll get his chance in a future story?? Okay, that's your lot! CiH - July '01