Captain Aries

The preferred method for obtaining software back in the middle of 1990 was the BBS or Bulletin Board System and I was a member of a local Oshawa BBS run by a chap called Captain Aries.

As the year evolved, my library of Amiga games grew to unreasonable proportions, yet the game seemed to be like collecting baseball cards, the more you had, the better it was.

Even if you did not play them.

So, my arrangement with the BBS was one of a "paid" member, I was downloading a lot of stuff, but uploading very little, sure I was a member of a couple of other Bulletin Boards in the Oshawa and Pickering area (the limits of the local phone calling zone) so I could contribute somewhat, but my "ratio" was not sufficient for a free membership.

So, I was paying a few bucks here and there.

The "Captain" was also not impressed with my 2400 baud modem, so he insisted that I buy (from him) a much faster dual standard US Robotics HST modem.

This paired up with his Courier HST modems for blazingly fast file transfers at 9600 or 14400 baud. 

There was a method in his madness, the less time a leecher like me was online, the more time "proper" users could upload good quality warez.

It was also a good thing for me because I could fill disks up faster with all the useless crap.

(A historical note here, in 1990 if you were paying a dollar a piece for 1.4mb floppy disks you were getting a bargain - I think I amassed about three hundred of them)