Memories of Emily: Rise of the Anarchist Part 2

Mr. Stoucasi

Mechanized and monotone, the computer emitted, “Bird turd advancing. Danger. Bird turd advancing.” A blocky, buzzard-looking bird streamed along the top of the television screen, dropping turds at the square meant to be a tank at the bottom. The player needed to shift the tank right or left and shoot the turds while attempting to destroy the bird. This masterpiece of gaming presented many challenges for my first friend, Jarid Stoucasi, and me to fix.  

We met at the computer club in December of 1983, when the squawking from the voice synthesizer of his Texas Instrument’s computer or TI-994A caught my attention. Conversing about the voice synthesizer led to programming the loosely based on "Space Invaders" video game, "Bird Turd," and an unsuccessful struggle to fix programming problems that cost many weeknights and weekends.