Drunkard's Walk Forums

(11-02-2019, 03:29 PM)jonathanlennox Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-02-2019, 01:26 PM)Bob Schroeck Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-01-2019, 10:34 PM)classicdrogn Wrote: [ -> ]Although, Doug does (superhero science) electronics and enchantment so he might well rig up something better that just mimics contemporary hardware for the network, I suppose.

Better than that, Doug has a collection of cell phones from various other worlds (especially early 21st century Earths) -- the reason for getting a 1992 cell phone is to get the SIM card to put in something newer for her.  I didn't want to stretch believability by having him make a SIM from scratch and then hack it into the system.

DoCoMo didn't launch its 2G service until 1993, so you're going to be limited in which phones can talk to the networks.

The phones they were selling were carrier-locked, too, but that might be more easily hacked around. They probably won't have removable SIM cards, though - that's a GSM thing, and GSM was Europe-only at this point.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_pho...an#History

And now I've gone down a rabbit hole on the history of DoCoMo.

The images on this page aren't great, but it should give you some idea of what phones are available in 1992: https://www.designboom.com/technology/do...-20-years/ .  Some of them look a lot more reasonable than that Motorola brick, and the design language doesn't change that much through the 90s.

I haven't been able to figure out when their phones would have stopped supporting 1G (analog) service.  It'd have to be some time after they finished their 2G rollout, but it's not clear to me when that would be.

I've found conflicting information on when NTT spun off DoCoMo, and when it began trading under that name.  Annoyingly, it's right around the time of the story (I've found sites that say both April and July 1992, but also 1991).  Probably you can get away without worrying about this piece.  It definitely seems to be the case that NTT DoCoMo was the monopoly carrier until 1994, though.

But one other communications technology you shouldn't forget about for the early 90s: pagers!  Pagers were huge in the early 90s among Japanese teenagers.  https://features.japantimes.co.jp/heisei...unication/ .

That makes a good deal of sense... and pagers can be an ideal intermediate step... Hm.

It doesn't have to quite the same as historical Japan in some ways, of course. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Dark Agency decided that being a phone company would be a good way to gather energy. Of course, they wouldn't last long in that industry -- Queen Beryl just isn't evil enough to run a telecom company.

Have just entered the first days of episode 8... Sailor Mercury is clearly on the horizon.

No surprise there, Mercury is usually found close to the horizon.

And I see you are now over 200kB.

Cliffhanger or not, Sounds like its time to hand it off to the pre readers, and then Us...

Oh no, no cliffhanger here. It comes after Mercury joins up.

And I've just finished the climactic battle of episode 8, in which Sailor Mercury is revealed, and everything that Usagi's picked up over this and the previous chapter all come together.

Whoo hooo.... from american gluttony to literary gluttony SOON

Oh, no, not done yet... I'm still writing the aftermath of 8, then we touch briefly on episode 9 (and how differently that goes), and then comes the real climax of the chapter...

Heh. Well, my statement still stands even if its a month or so.

And it might be a month or so. Peggy got sick two weeks ago and is only now coming out of it. As a side effect I've been running around like crazy, our holiday shopping is vastly behind, and even though I know exactly what I want to do with the next scene in the queue, I haven't had a chance to actually write it.

Family comes first, Bob. I think we all know that.

Indeed. Well wishes for Peggy to go with the usual season's greetings. May your parking be convenient, your purchases on sale, and may all toddlers within your hearing be cheerful and calm.