Story Time With Uncle Noggins: Swashbuckler!

this wasn't us but it very well could have been. 

In 3rd grade my class had just one computer that we all had to share.  It was like an AppleII or something and was coveted as fuck.  Gen-Xer's know this was pretty much the style of the time.  One computer per class or per several classes and one VHS and TV wheeled into the class on a cart to watch movies.  You know. 

The class was divided into groups of 3 or 4 kids for designated "computer time". Which sounds way cooler than it was.  Basically were supposed to play a math program on it.  Somehow they figured kids forgot it was math because it was on a computer screen.  Also, 4 less kids to deal with while you teach your class.  Win-win right?  

It must have been nearing the end of the school year because one day the teacher let us start unsupervised since we'd done it so many times by that point she trusted us enough to not babysit us,  even tho the computer was like I said, coveted as fuck.  Honestly I'm surprised she took her eyes off us at all.  It was like having a brand new Lamborghini parked in the classroom and she just let four 3rd graders just fuck around pushing buttons and flipping switches in it for 20 mins.   Anyway, I think it was Jake who put the floppy disk in upside down by accident and it instead of the boring math program it booted up something else. 

There was a picture of a pirate with and eyepatch and a sword fighting another guy with the title "Swashbuckler".  We were all in awe.  We knew it wasn't the program we were supposed to be playing but it was awesome! Cautiously we started hitting buttons and got it to start. It brought up another screen with a pirate holding a sword and then some skeleton enemies came at you.  We knew this was some kind of video game and spent that entire computer math session trying to learn the controls.  

But alas, time was up and we went back to our seats. Eagerly awaiting the next "computer time "session.  I think it was a couple days later and it was our group's turn again. The math program was already booted up awaiting our lesson. 

Honestly I this is more how I remember it. 
Not sure we had a color monitor.

Before we started we all kind of looked at each other in silent agreement.  We take a quick look to make sure no one is watching and Jake ejects the disk, flips it over and puts it back in.  A couple disk drive clicking and grinding sounds and boom, we're back on the pirate ship.  Surprisingly we didn't get caught, figured out more of the controls and the next computer time we played it again and did for like 3 more times. We all started to get good at it until one day Mrs. Rios caught us and we just played dumb like "we thought this was what we were supposed to do, it was on the disk you gave us to put in"  We didn't get in trouble but she made sure we booted up the right thing and kept an eye on us after that.  No more fighting reanimated skeletons on the high seas.  Our swashbucklin' days were over.

Swashbuckler is a fighting game created by Paul Stephenson for the Apple II and published by Datamost in 1982.^[1] The player controls a sword-wielding swashbuckler who must fight and dispatch various attackers. Combat occurs in a wooden-beamed ship's hold littered with skeletons and cobwebs, which the player views from the side. - Wikipedia

Every time I hear the word swashbuckler now I think of this brief moment when 4 dumb 8yr olds got a taste of the hacker life.