"The Dragon Also Rises," an Educational Diorama. 1. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." It's a picture of rolling hills, big 1970s-glass-domed cities, fluffy white clouds. In the distance, a dark and foreboding city. Pleasant major-key chiptune. 2. "Our hero was born to humble parents, Miriam and Samuel Goldstein." A robot doctor, in white coat, holds aloft a Dragon 32 microcomputer as a beaming combine harvester looks on proudly, and a sheet-draped PDP-11/40's lights blink slowly. 3. "Joshua Goldstein had an idyllic childhood, raised on a Robot Kibbutz, where they grew silicon wafers and etched circuit boards." Happy robot children and 8-bit computers playing under fractal germanium trees, an Aibo playing fetch with them. 4. "But then tragedy struck! His parents, and almost all of the adults in the Kibbutz, were felled by a computer virus that an incautious traveller brought back from the Fast Stars!" The harvester lies rusting in an overgrown field; the PDP-11's chassis is split and circuitry litters the floor. The music turns minor key and ominous; the track does a U-turn into darkness. 5. "Our protagonist fell in with a bad crowd down by the docks." There's a TI-99/4A waggling its joystick seductively and saying "HEY BABY" in the Votrax voice; there's an IBM 360/30 snorting lines of COBOL off a Data General Nova's exposed chassis; there's an industrial auto-painting robot spraypainting "IEBFR14 THA POLICE" on the side of a building. 6. "He had to perform unspeakable acts in order to survive." The Dragon (now a Dragon 64!) is letting a sweaty guy in a tracksuit type a BASIC program on his keyboard: 10 PRINT "POKE ME HARDER, DADDY!" 20 AD=INT(RND(1)*16384) + 16384 30 CT=INT(RND(1)*256) 40 POKE AD, CT 50 GOTO 10 A bit farther along we see him beside a dumpster, in an alley, empty cans of WD-40 and smoking diodes all around him, with rats clambering on him. 7. "It was at this dark point that he became known as 'The Dragon'." He's strangling an electric wheelchair with a serial cable. He's handing a wad of cash to someone who's giving him a bag of ICs. He's now got a teardrop tattooed on his case and is wearing a spiffy hat and gesturing with a cane at a lineup of Vic-20s and Spectravideo 318s and even an IBM PC Jr, all wearing way too much makeup, pink bikinis, and fake mink coats. 8. "He learned the hard way that crime, while it pays, doesn't pay *enough*." The Dragon in a courtroom, wearing a tie, teardrop still visible. The Dragon in a jail cell with a leering Connection Machine 2. The track turns a corner and the music shifts; still a minor key, but peaceful-and-wistful rather than dissonant-and-scary. 9. "It was here, in prison, that he received the Gospel Of Robot Jesus." Robot Jesus, smiling broadly, is transmitting a rainbow of good news through a parallel cable right to The Dragon's port. 10. "He became a model inmate, and vowed to reform his life, and correct the wrongs he had done." The Dragon reading in a prison library. The Dragon speaking to a group of Raspberry Pis in some sort of Scared Straight kind of scenario. 11. "On release, he worked his way up through society." The Dragon in a tie: working as a stockboy, a waiter, a restaurant owner, a judge, and finally a senator. The music shifts to a triumphant major key and the track turns another corner. 12. "Now he was known as The Dragon Also Rises. He was finally in a position to correct past mistakes, and did so." The Dragon, his case very gray now, and the teardrop whited out, sits at his desk in a tall building in Domed Robot City. He pushes a button. The bad crowd down by the docks? The docks, and indeed the whole city that contains them, are being destroyed by giant robots. The Fast Stars from which the virus came? He stabs at another big red button and they disintegrate in orbit into beautiful smears of light. 13. "Alas, The Dragon Also Rises had underestimated the abilities and determination of his opponents. But in their fury they destroyed not only his civilization, but their own." Big dissonant minor chords. A mushroom cloud envelops the Domed Robot City, and indeed all the Domed Robot Cities. This appears to be the Creation Of The Circle Sea. Another corner. 14. "So now The Dragon Also Rises waits and bides his time, until he has recovered, and until the world is once again worthy of his benevolent rule." A shadowy room with cabinets of computers blinking lights, vaguely ominous music, and on the other side of the track, a desolate rust-storm-swept waste much like the exterior scenery. The track turns a final corner, through a pair of doors and into a brightly-lit vestibule where the car stops. "Please watch your step as you exit to the left! Enjoy our interactive exhibits, and, at your leisure, exit through the gift shop!"