Help, please! Casefiles #128

[Bigfootman]

I found HardyBoys.com on the way back machene, the site may have info about casefile 128, but I need help! There's tons of pages of info, and I need your help searching it. If you find anyhting post the link.
http://web.archive.org/web/*sr_91nr_10/http://hardyboys.com/*

[SDLagent]

Will do.

[Bigfootman]

Thanks, and this may take a while, there's a lot of junk. But we may find somehting very major!

[SDLagent]

Found it:

http://web.archive.org/web/20060318042439/www.hardy-boys.com/bg/9/bg_9_4.html

[tomswift2002]

It is interesting to note how the author of that webpage found it curious that young kids in 1997/98 would not have known about the internet, and that Frank would've had to introduce the internet to the kid he was babysitting. 

I remember that I wasn't introduced to the internet till I was in Grade 8, which would've been during the 1997-98 school year, so I can understand how, looking at it from today's perspective it might seem strange not to know, but back then in 1997-98 the internet was only starting to gain a lot of attention and be used quite a bit.  Otherwise, the only computer experience that I had had had been learning how to type on computers (which was more advanced than typing on typewriters), and playing Robot R&D on a couple of old ICON's.

[003Robin457]

I have a uncle who was pretty big on the teck. and had the intetnet pretty quickley. Mom said you had to type in the full URL and it took forever to pull up a picture but when it came up you where so amazed that there was a picture on your computer.

BTW what did the article say? My dumb-filter is blocking it for, get this, "News Pornography Search_Engin."

[Bigfootman]

Here!

Explosive Force (aka Casefile 128) was written by Jerry Novick. The story was quite finished; it was so far into production that Mega-Books, who handled the Hardy Boys for Simon and Schuster at that time, was discussing editing with Jerry. Some topics included the problem of out-dated terms (according to the editor, 'sleuthing escapades' is old-fashioned)  and the possibility of splitting chapter one into two seperate chapters.

The novel was so complete, it could have actually been published. I ask, as perhaps do you, why this story wasn't converted into a Digest. It would have proved a lot less work - a "ready-made Digest," if you will. But perhaps the completeness of Explosive Force was its doom: many fans noticed a definite upswing in Casefiles-like aspects in Digest 150. All the signs are there, including more blood. Heck, even Iola doesn't make an appearance. Was Explosive Force too much of a Casefile to be published under the Digest name? Most likely.

Rumors abound that John Youssi, illustrator of volumes 122-127, painted a cover for this story. I have exchanged several email messages with John and there doesn't appear to be evidence supporting this theory.

And now, I will present what is hopefully a fairly comprehensive review...

Casefile 128 begins quite unlike any other ?file.

The book?s theme is set on the first line with Joe muttering, ?Frank Hardy, I cannot believe that you would do this to your own brother!? ? he was, of course, talking about Frank copping out on a concert date. Since Vanessa (only reference to her in the whole book is ?your girlfriend is sick? on page 2) is conveniently and evidently very sick (or at least so much so as to not be able to come), Frank was supposed to tag along with Joe to a concert put on by Rock and Roll Express (what kind of name is that? Oh well.).

But due to Laura Hardy, the boys? mother, Fenton?s wife, Gertrude?s foe, not to mention general housekeeper, Frank never makes it to the gig.

Laura asks the elder Hardy to babysit nine-year-old Tony Dreher, instead. Heather, Tony?s mother, and Laura know each other from some organization; and, seeing how Heather and Michael Dreher are going out for the evening, they needed a babysitter.

But I?m getting ahead of myself. Since Vanessa (or I suppose it?s Vanessa) is, as previously stated, sick, and Frank is busy, the latter suggests his fair-haired brother take Callie to the concert. A quick quip [and say that three times fast] from Joe (?She?s fun, and she has?better taste in music than she does in boyfriends!?) and a near fatal car crash (the other car was in the middle of the road, for crying out loud!), and Frank is ready to [rock and] roll at the Drehers' residence.

Joe speeds off to pick up Callie as Frank walks to the door in the warm, clear night. Before he rings the bell, the sleuth hears an argument brewing inside between Heather and Michael. He listens for a while and figures out that Michael has to go to his office (he?s the CEO of ?BioChem, one of the country?s fastest growing pharmaceutical companies?) because something?s amiss.

Heather doesn?t seem to agree with this. Joe and she seem to be in same boat as Mrs. Dreher exclaims, ?I cannot believe you would pull out on me at the last second!?

Frank decides to sit on the steps, ?slightly guilty for eavesdropping,? and wait until the argument is over before ringing the doorbell.

Tony is outside playing in the dark (and I thought the world was too dangerous for that nowadays!), and, after a few minutes, the boy and Frank meet for the first time.

Frank and Tony (this might be a good time to mention that the Editors were going to change Tony?s name ? since the Hardys already had a chum named Tony, after all!) eventually gain entrance into the house and both Drehers go their separate ways into the Saturday night.

The two boys (well, a boy, and an adult, I guess) had been playing on the computer for two hours when it crashed and burned (not literally). Sending Tony out to ?get ready for bed,? Frank restores the system from some back up discs.

I?d like to back up a second, there, first, though. The manuscript quotes ??and [Frank] introduced him [Tony] to the wondrous universe known as the World Wide Web.? Perhaps fueled by my own age, I have a ?pet peeve? of people taking young kids for a bit stupid ? and this is clearly (or to me) one of those examples. What self-respecting nine-year-old boy isn?t going to know about the Internet?! Come on, Frank.

Sadly, unless someone can figure out how to get to the other half, we may naever know what happens next, as the other half is in issue 11, and issue 11 in not in the way back arcives! 

[SDLagent]

It is interesting to note how the author of that webpage found it curious that young kids in 1997/98 would not have known about the internet, and that Frank would've had to introduce the internet to the kid he was babysitting. 

I remember that I wasn't introduced to the internet till I was in Grade 8, which would've been during the 1997-98 school year, so I can understand how, looking at it from today's perspective it might seem strange not to know, but back then in 1997-98 the internet was only starting to gain a lot of attention and be used quite a bit.  Otherwise, the only computer experience that I had had had been learning how to type on computers (which was more advanced than typing on typewriters), and playing Robot R&D on a couple of old ICON's.

Well, the writer of that was in their teens, when they wrote it.

BTW what did the article say? My dumb-filter is blocking it for, get this, "News Pornography Search_Engin."

Casefile 128 - Mystery Solved
By Austin Johnson
.
? 2002 Austin Johnson
,
The loss of the Casefiles series (referred to as "Hardy Boys Racks" by Mega-Books) in January 1998 was a shocking fact to many; after all, the stories had survived murder, international sabotage, spying, and the dreadful Gray Man, not to mention eleven years and 127 stories.

Oh, make that 128.

After the Casefiles series was canceled, leaving the remaining unbought-published books a destiny of bargain bins, several stories (in various stages of completion) were revised and made into Digests. Specifically, would-be Casefile #130 was issued as Digest #150, The Crisscross Crime.

But one story survived transition.

Explosive Force (aka Casefile 128) was written by Jerry Novick. The story was quite finished; it was so far into production that Mega-Books, who handled the Hardy Boys for Simon and Schuster at that time, was discussing editing with Jerry. Some topics included the problem of out-dated terms (according to the editor, 'sleuthing escapades' is old-fashioned)  and the possibility of splitting chapter one into two seperate chapters.

The novel was so complete, it could have actually been published. I ask, as perhaps do you, why this story wasn't converted into a Digest. It would have proved a lot less work - a "ready-made Digest," if you will. But perhaps the completeness of Explosive Force was its doom: many fans noticed a definite upswing in Casefiles-like aspects in Digest 150. All the signs are there, including more blood. Heck, even Iola doesn't make an appearance. Was Explosive Force too much of a Casefile to be published under the Digest name? Most likely.

Rumors abound that John Youssi, illustrator of volumes 122-127, painted a cover for this story. I have exchanged several email messages with John and there doesn't appear to be evidence supporting this theory.

And now, I will present what is hopefully a fairly comprehensive review...

Casefile 128 begins quite unlike any other ?file.

The book?s theme is set on the first line with Joe muttering, ?Frank Hardy, I cannot believe that you would do this to your own brother!? ? he was, of course, talking about Frank copping out on a concert date. Since Vanessa (only reference to her in the whole book is ?your girlfriend is sick? on page 2) is conveniently and evidently very sick (or at least so much so as to not be able to come), Frank was supposed to tag along with Joe to a concert put on by Rock and Roll Express (what kind of name is that? Oh well.).

But due to Laura Hardy, the boys? mother, Fenton?s wife, Gertrude?s foe, not to mention general housekeeper, Frank never makes it to the gig.

Laura asks the elder Hardy to babysit nine-year-old Tony Dreher, instead. Heather, Tony?s mother, and Laura know each other from some organization; and, seeing how Heather and Michael Dreher are going out for the evening, they needed a babysitter.

But I?m getting ahead of myself. Since Vanessa (or I suppose it?s Vanessa) is, as previously stated, sick, and Frank is busy, the latter suggests his fair-haired brother take Callie to the concert. A quick quip [and say that three times fast] from Joe (?She?s fun, and she has?better taste in music than she does in boyfriends!?) and a near fatal car crash (the other car was in the middle of the road, for crying out loud!), and Frank is ready to [rock and] roll at the Drehers' residence.

Joe speeds off to pick up Callie as Frank walks to the door in the warm, clear night. Before he rings the bell, the sleuth hears an argument brewing inside between Heather and Michael. He listens for a while and figures out that Michael has to go to his office (he?s the CEO of ?BioChem, one of the country?s fastest growing pharmaceutical companies?) because something?s amiss.

Heather doesn?t seem to agree with this. Joe and she seem to be in same boat as Mrs. Dreher exclaims, ?I cannot believe you would pull out on me at the last second!?

Frank decides to sit on the steps, ?slightly guilty for eavesdropping,? and wait until the argument is over before ringing the doorbell.

Tony is outside playing in the dark (and I thought the world was too dangerous for that nowadays!), and, after a few minutes, the boy and Frank meet for the first time.

Frank and Tony (this might be a good time to mention that the Editors were going to change Tony?s name ? since the Hardys already had a chum named Tony, after all!) eventually gain entrance into the house and both Drehers go their separate ways into the Saturday night.

The two boys (well, a boy, and an adult, I guess) had been playing on the computer for two hours when it crashed and burned (not literally). Sending Tony out to ?get ready for bed,? Frank restores the system from some back up discs.

I?d like to back up a second, there, first, though. The manuscript quotes ??and [Frank] introduced him [Tony] to the wondrous universe known as the World Wide Web.? Perhaps fueled by my own age, I have a ?pet peeve? of people taking young kids for a bit stupid ? and this is clearly (or to me) one of those examples. What self-respecting nine-year-old boy isn?t going to know about the Internet?! Come on, Frank.

Nancy provided a good explination, however. This Casefile would have been released in early 1997...not too many a-kid would have had access to the Internet. (At least not like today!) So, that may be the reason for that.

Anyway. Done digressin'.

As Frank dutifully brings Mr. Dreher?s computer back to life, he finds a few things of large interest?

But of course, I shan't tell you what, mind! You'll have to tune in next issue for that...

Same bat time, same bat channel.

Signing off.

[tomswift2002]

I remember that back in in the mid-90's a lot of sites offered both a text only version of the site and a site with pictures. 

About two years ago startrek.com posted back up the first official movie website ever created: for Star Trek Generations.  http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/features/specials/article/7647.html

If you click on the "View original 1994..." it will take you to the Star Trek Generations site as it originally loaded back in 1994.  Plus, along the sides the authors of startrek.com have included a helpful commentary to tell people what it was like in 1994 to actually access a website about a movie, and even the options to stream movie over dial-up connections (according to startrek.com, dial-up modems at that time could go as fast as 2400 baud, or 24 times slower than a 56k modem, so think about that the next time that you read The Hardy Boys #102 Terminal Shock and the charcters mention that a 386 is "screamin'" fast.).

So, with Explosive Force, think of this as being the type of site that Frank Hardy would've seen in the story.

[SDLagent]

I wish they gave you that option, now. Movies sites have so much junk on them, and take twice as long to browse as they need to, because of all the intros and stuff.

[003Robin457]

Thanks for the info guys! Man sounds like one of the better books! How does one get the manuscript? Call Fat Louey?

[Bigfootman]

Does anyone know how to get part two of the review?

[SDLagent]

I asked Austin for it...waiting for a reply.

[ken10]

Found it:

http://web.archive.org/web/20060318042439/www.hardy-boys.com/bg/9/bg_9_4.html

Oh, Lord! Every kid knows about the internet now-a-days!
Don't you agree?

[4567TME]

I guess no one does.