Levy_S-Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution

almost one hundred thousand dollars in royalties, a significant percentage of whichwas tithed to the Kingdom Hall in Ahwahnee.But as Warren drew closer to the community of the Kingdom, he began to questiondeeply the kinds of things he had been doing for On-Line. He wondered if his veryjoy in programming wasn't some kind of sin. The act of programming the game hadbeen carnal Warren had worked through the night with his stereo blaring LedZeppelin (Satan's rock band). Worse, the shooting nature of the game left no doubtthat it glorified war. Warren's study of scripture convinced him one should notlearn war any more. He felt ashamed that a war game he had programmed would beplayed by kids.So he was not surprised to see an Awake! article about vide-ogames whichcompared them to drugs, and said that the warlike games "promote aggressionwithout mercy." Warren decided to stop programming violent games, and hevowed that if Watchtower were to come out strongly against all games, he wouldhave to stop programming and find something else to do with his life.He began work on a nonviolent game with a circus theme. The work went slowlybecause he tried not to lose himself in programming to the point that he would be azombie who had lost contact with God. He got rid of all his hard rock albums andplayed music like Cat Stevens, Toto, and the Beatles. He even began to like musiche once would have considered sappy, like Olivia Newton-John (though when heplayed her record he always had to remember to lift the needle when the sinful song"Physical" played).Still, when Warren talked about his new game, how he was using dual-pageanimation with twelve different patterns to control the rolling barrels that thecharacter must leap over, or how it would have zero-flicker and be "100 percentplayable," it was clear that despite his asetic efforts he took a sensual pride in thehack. Programming meant a lot to him. It had changed his life, giving him power,made him someone.As much as John Harris loved living away from San Diego in the Sierra foothills,as much as he appreciated the footloose Summer Camp atmosphere, and as happyas he was that his programs were recognized as colorful, creative efforts, onecrucial part of his life was totally unsatisfactory. It was a common disease of ThirdGeneration hackers, to whom hacking was important, but not everything, as it wasto the MIT hackers. John Harris hungered for a girlfriend.