Nostalgic Sadness
darien...@gmail.com
I was reading Contrapuntal's page and saw the year 1997 referenced.
Suddenly I remembered a web site was was working on back in '97 for
Ultima 7 TBG. I remembered how I accidentally got into Ultima in the
first place and it all came back hitting me like a Boeing 777 making
an emergency landing.
Back in the early/mid nineties my dad upgraded the family PC and got a
CD-ROM installed (wow what an event that was) and it came with a free
EA disc of games. On that disc was The Black Gate, without the
expansion. There was a large manual with each game covered in it...
but it didn't have the copy protection answers. So a few years passed
and I didn't give it a second thought. During that time the only game
I really played from the minds of Origin was Savage Empire and even
that I had no idea they were at all related. I remember a few friends
of mine loved the game and one in particular would sit at the
Commodore with me while I made bamboo rifles and blew away who knows
what.
I remember moving in 1996 and later that year seeking another copy of
Ultima 7 in order to get the answers to the questions in Trinsic so I
could actually progress in the game without climbing the walls of the
smithy to escape by less-than-virtuous means. This all came after I
ran through The Sygian Abyss (also on the packaged CD) during that
summer as moving at the beginning of the season made it hard for a
student to find things to do prior to making new friends.
I picked up the EA Gold collections version of U7 with both games and
both expansions around the winter season if I recall correctly. I
don't remember a time I had more fun than over the next year or so as
I played through both games at an alarmingly slow pace so as to
experience basically everything. I was also morbidly confused half the
time as at this point I was used to shooters so the stories and
puzzles confused me for a time. It was, in my opinion, more complex
than UW.
Moving ahead a few years I remember joining the UDIC, and playing
through Pagan and fiddling with most of the other games. I remember
getting psyched waiting for U9 to come out and going so far as to buy
a copy of CGW (I never bought magazines before then) as soon as it hit
shelves just to get the demo of Ascension. I remember playing through
U9 what, almost ten years ago now? It killed a CD-ROM in the process.
I can recall how dissappointing parts of the game were but how amazing
it was to stand in the mountains north of the castle and watch a
thunder storm in progress. It did have its ambient moments.
The next step was getting a few UO disc with the February 2000 updated
install disc they shipped out to registered members with all the
patches. That UO disc got me playing on a free world when they were
still not exactly sanctioned by EA. I did a patch of time there
waiting for Ultima Legacy to confirm my membership. Moving on to UL I
have a slew of good memories there (including meeting the woman I am
today married to and have to wonderfully annoying kids with :)).
So it's not like I don't have anything to show for all that "time well
wasted" buried in games. But I sincerely miss the days of games of the
quality that actually made me feel something towards the story. I'll
admit I was choked up with Dupre jumped into the furnace. I haven't
had an experience like Ultima in years now and every time I think
about it I feel a little sad. I think it's part of the reason I've
been working on my Ultima 5 era UO shard. It's a project that most
people probably won't care about because, let's face it, UO is old and
roleplayers are few and far between these days. But nonetheless it's
my last strong connection to Ultima... even if it's not exactly Ultima
as I was introduced to it.
I guess what I'm putting out there is the feelings I have had of
missing the past and feeling both cozy and sad when twelve year old
(and older) memories jump into my head. I also wonder if I'm the only
one or if there are others (especially those that go back to the first
days of Ultima, before my time) that feel that familiar sense of mixed
emotions thinking about the simple joys of saving Britannia from
villians over the years gone by.
Thanks for letting me clear that out. I really needed to release he
contents of my brain (or heart?) here.
nobletea
wrote:
Oh you know you are not the only one. I went out with my two best
friends Saturday night and it's all but impossible for the three of us
to get together without at least an Ultima reference being made. This
time is was Shamino as "Capt. Obvious", being lost in a parking garage
like Dreamland, and being so hungry you can eat garlic to survive.
The three of us played through U4-7 in various combinations from about
92-98 as we finished HS and college. As we joked I was reminded yet
again of the first moment I was blown away by Ultima, in U5 when at
night I was standing east of the Brittanys and a huge swath of light
cut through the dark and arced across the screen. I was so into the
game that I jumped and moved my character 3 spaces out of the way
before I realized it must have been from the lighthouse.
Long gone are the days of the all-nighter, one real sunrise after a
hundred Brittanian sunrises, and being late to everything because we
couldn't stop playing the game. All of us have leveled up since then,
me married, one with a newborn, and the other now planning a move to
Tennesee and likely to be married soon.
Sometimes when I'm cleaning up around the house and I go through the
office I pull out the boxes and just to have the feel of the cloth
maps on my hands is all the memory I need.
Except for the friends of RGCUD, of which the most dear to me has
passed on, and the many others who have passed on to other worlds,
much like I have myself--- those are memories I can't recapture, but
still cherish. If I wanted, I could unarchive old email folders and
read forum messages, but I think it's best to let is pass evenly, and
smoothly, into the corners of my mind for now.
Thanks for sharing your memory, because it moved me enough to have my
own, and to make the effort to login and post my own. Peace my
friends.
Yours in near total lurkment,
Kaleb Dragon
Darien Dragon
"nobletea" <nobl...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:c02f11cb-612c-4aa7...@d4g2000vbm.googlegroups.com...
<snip>
>Thanks for sharing your memory, because it moved me enough to have my
>own, and to make the effort to login and post my own. Peace my
>friends.
>
>Yours in near total lurkment,
>
>Kaleb Dragon
Thank you for sharing yours. Good to see you out and about.
Darien Dragon
--==(UDIC)==--
Polychromic
wrote:
Thanks for the memories guys. :)
--
The Polychromic Dragon of the -=={UDIC}==-
Webpage http://home.roadrunner.com/~macecil/
RGCUD Dragon Gallery http://home.roadrunner.com/~rgcud/
Melanie Camurati
It's my turn.
My first Ultima game was Ultima 6, given to me in the 6th grade by a
kid named Emil. We shared games the old fashioned way, by passing the
CDs around for everyone to install in turn and copying the copy
protection answers in the back of our math notebooks. UW2 soon
followed. I picked up the Ultima collection about a year later. It was
hard to pry me from my seat with those games. Though I had many
obsessions in the years to follow, Ultima was the bedrock of them all.
From 1997 to 2008 I wore an ankh nearly all the time. Even still I am
beginning to find it necessary to get a custom piece or something... I
don't want to lose the ankh trinket I got with U9 and my old one is
showing its age.
I joined the Weyrmount... I don't even remember when. It was the best
of times, it was the worst of times. I was in Junior High, High
School... still trying to figure out who I was. That group of Dragons,
for better or worse, WAS my family. I talk to Wtcher Dragon from time
to time... I saw Rubyflame Dragon recently and we had a fencing lesson
together... I post a nostalgia piece or a personal aspiration or just
a bit of news about my day and Infinitron and Amaterasu and Nuitari
respond.
Even if we haven't talked in years, even if we haven't talked at all,
this community has been my family. Not just these wonderful games, but
this community has seen me through some rough times.
Things are looking up.
Thanks, guys.
Paladia Dragon
Claus Dragon
*snip*
> From 1997 to 2008 I wore an ankh nearly all the time. Even still I am
> beginning to find it necessary to get a custom piece or something... I
> don't want to lose the ankh trinket I got with U9 and my old one is
> showing its age.
Out of curiosity, why did you stop wearing it in 2008?
I broke my original Ultima IV Ankh :(
Polychromic
<claus...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>On 2 Nov., 06:04, Melanie Camurati <pala...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
Heh, it sounded funny hearing someone refer to CDs as being old fashioned.
:)
>*snip*
>
>> From 1997 to 2008 I wore an ankh nearly all the time. Even still I am
>> beginning to find it necessary to get a custom piece or something... I
>> don't want to lose the ankh trinket I got with U9 and my old one is
>> showing its age.
>
>Out of curiosity, why did you stop wearing it in 2008?
>
>I broke my original Ultima IV Ankh :(
I used to have a good replica from James Avery jewelers but I don't see
one in their current catalog. There must be other sources though.
Melanie Camurati
> Out of curiosity, why did you stop wearing it in 2008?
I took it off for an event (I was wearing another necklace) and I
simply never put it back on. It was really showing its age, too, and
not necessarily in a good way.
erimess
wrote:
>On Mon, 2 Nov 2009 00:41:14 -0800 (PST), Claus Dragon
><claus...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>>On 2 Nov., 06:04, Melanie Camurati <pala...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>
>Heh, it sounded funny hearing someone refer to CDs as being old fashioned.
>:)
Did I miss something? How did CDs get to be old fashioned?
--
Erimess Dragon
-==(UDIC)==-
d++e+NT++Om UK!1!2!3!A!L!
U+uCuFuG+++uLB+uA+ nC+nH+nP+nS++nT-xa6
Never compare yourself to the best others can do,
but rather to the best you can do.
Darien Dragon
But in Paladia's post she said they shared games the old fashioned way,
by passing the CD around. She didn't say CDs are old fashioned.
They sort of are though aren't they? We use DVDs and Blu-Ray discs
nowadays. USB drives are somewhat common for portable storage and music
is getting downloaded more and more often too. CDs aren't gone the way
of the vinyl LP but I'd go with old-fashioned. :)
--
Darien Dragon
--==(UDIC)==--
d++++e++N++++T-OmU6AW7'!LS'!8!9!uuC++uF-uG++++uLBuA++nC+nH+nP+nI++nPTnS++nTy++
Claus Dragon
*snip*
> They sort of are though aren't they? We use DVDs and Blu-Ray discs
> nowadays. USB drives are somewhat common for portable storage and music
> is getting downloaded more and more often too. CDs aren't gone the way
> of the vinyl LP but I'd go with old-fashioned. :)
I dont use optical media myself any longer. Flash is the way to go.
But I got a new record player last year.
Claus Dragon
Well, green rust can be removed. So can blood droplets.
Darien Dragon
I would love to have a nice record player, especially around Christmas
time. I miss the sound of records.
Claus Dragon
> > I dont use optical media myself any longer. Flash is the way to go.
> > But I got a new record player last year.
>
> I would love to have a nice record player, especially around Christmas
> time. I miss the sound of records.
Do you still have records for scratching away while the snow is
falling?
Darien Dragon
Sort of? They're all with my parents who still have a stereo the size of
a freezer unit. It plays records and eight tracks.
Claus Dragon
> Claus Dragon wrote:
> > On 4 Nov., 22:17, Darien Dragon <darien.dra...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>> I dont use optical media myself any longer. Flash is the way to go.
> >>> But I got a new record player last year.
> >> I would love to have a nice record player, especially around Christmas
> >> time. I miss the sound of records.
>
> > Do you still have records for scratching away while the snow is
> > falling?
>
> Sort of? They're all with my parents who still have a stereo the size of
> a freezer unit. It plays records and eight tracks.
>
Aaah, the good olden times ...
Darien Dragon
Indeed. I love the clarity of music on a CD or MP3 but sometimes the
little crackles and pops make it more real somehow.
Melanie Camurati
>
> But in Paladia's post she said they shared games the old fashioned way,
> by passing the CD around. She didn't say CDs are old fashioned.
What the kids do nowadays is just copy the dvds... or torrent them...
don't mean to open the piracy can of worms, but it was a more innocent
age back then, just passing CDs around round robin style.
Polychromic
We used to pass copies of Ahoy or Run magazine around so others could
tediously type in the hex code of the games they published for the C64.
In the snow.
Both ways.
Darien Dragon
Don't forget the hill.
Polychromic
<darien...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Polychromic wrote:
>> On Sun, 8 Nov 2009 13:13:51 -0800 (PST), Melanie Camurati
>> <pal...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>> But in Paladia's post she said they shared games the old fashioned way,
>>>> by passing the CD around. She didn't say CDs are old fashioned.
>>> What the kids do nowadays is just copy the dvds... or torrent them...
>>> don't mean to open the piracy can of worms, but it was a more innocent
>>> age back then, just passing CDs around round robin style.
>>
>> We used to pass copies of Ahoy or Run magazine around so others could
>> tediously type in the hex code of the games they published for the C64.
>>
>> In the snow.
>>
>> Both ways.
>
>Don't forget the hill.
Not invented yet.
thehawk
Yea, we hadn't dug up the rocks to make into piles for hills yet.
--
-thehawk
Claus Dragon
You hadnt grasped the concept of digging yet?
Polychromic
Sure we had, but we had to evolve some limbs first!
Darien Dragon
Yeah well I used to have to make a phone call from within 10 feet of the
base of the phone!
erimess
I still don't think of them like that. I've only bought maybe one or
two games that were on DVD. Nearly all my games are still on CD. I
have no Blu-Ray (in terms of movies the biggest section in the stores
is still DVDs). I only recently got a flash drive, but probably
mostly cause I don't have much need for portable. On rare occasions
at work I have time to work on something from home and I used to email
files to myself, and finally picked up a flash drive on sale but
haven't even used it. CDs are just not terrible portable so they're
not very useful from that point of view. As for music, I rarely buy
it at all anymore, and I do wonder how much of the downloaded stuff is
illegal.
I do have lots of LPs but they're old of course. I still have a
turntable to play them on too, but I have to say I *don't* miss the
scratchy sound of them. I just don't care to go replacing them all.
Polychromic
I still prefer a good old corded phone although I have switched to the
push-tone kind instead of the rotary dial.
Darien Dragon
Rotary was so much fun. (I posted this using Ubuntu o_O)
--
Darien Dragon
--==(UDIC)==--
Paulon
and addresses the awaiting newsgroup...
>>Yeah well I used to have to make a phone call from within 10 feet of
>>the base of the phone!
>
> I still prefer a good old corded phone although I have switched to the
> push-tone kind instead of the rotary dial.
There are advantages to being able to move while on the phone, but the
old style ones have one huge advantage that should ensure every household
keeps one handy, at least in NZ.
I don't know how the system works in other countries, but the local phone
lines provide enough power to run the old phones. Plug one into the
phonehole, and it just works without batteries or anything else but the
connection.
OTOH, those fancy mobile bases with transmitters and built-in answerphone
recorders need a lot more juice. You also need to plug them into the
mains supply to get them to go. For any function at all.
So when there's a major power outage... the new phones all drop dead
along with the electricity. No emergency calls for example. Don't count
on cellphones either. The cellular base stations run on electricity too,
so if you don't have line of sight to somewhere with power, all you've
got is a fancy toy with no connectivity.
We had a major power cut here a couple of weeks back, after some clever
guy drove a loaded forklift through the one cable supplying all of NZ
north of Auckland. The second cable was offline for servicing at the
time.
It made me glad we had the old phone where we could get at it, I can tell
you.
--
Paulon Dragon d++ e++ N T++ Om+ UEK!1!2!3!4!5!6!7!'!S!'!8!9!A!L!M!W!
-==(UDIC)==- u++ uC++ uF uG+ uLB- uA+ nC+ nR nH+ nP+ nI nPT nS++ nT+ y
The Other Codex http://www.ultimainfo.net/Codex/
Danger Will Robinson! One of your nodes is about to fall off!
Ultima VII endgame.exe file
Polychromic
Yeah, it's the same here. It's one of the reasons I haven't switched to
using a VOIP phone really. Although it's not hard to use regular
batteries or something similar with a cell phone. Still you don't know if
the cell towers will be working. Not all one's eggs in one basket and all
that, I guess.
Darien Dragon
We keep a corded phone in the closet in case the power goes out for
that. Fido has a mobile option now that is kind of neat. If you are in
your house (or a certain range of it) it uses your home phone number.
Once you leave that radius your cellular line becomes active on the same
handset. No, they aren't tracking you via live satellite, there's a
wireless router device in your house.
Of course it doesn't help if said towers are down. :) Which goes back to
"we keep a corded phone in the closet."
--
Darien Dragon
--==(UDIC)==--
Darien Dragon
The only use I have for CDs these days is to burn downloaded software
like Linux builds, and that's only because I find it cheaper than buying
a number of USB drives and dedicating them to one program or another. To
be honest I barely use DVDs any more too. I don't use blu-ray either.
I use a lot of network storage and my MP3 player is basically a
carry-all if my USB drive gets too full. Then there's online storage...
so for me, portable media is barely useful any longer. I think that's
the only reason I say CDs are old fashioned. But by that logic I suppose
I should consider any optical media (blu-ray included) to be "old
fashioned". They are just shiny LPs. ;)
>
> I do have lots of LPs but they're old of course. I still have a
> turntable to play them on too, but I have to say I *don't* miss the
> scratchy sound of them. I just don't care to go replacing them all.
It's a seasonal thing for me. I grew up listening to Atlantic Christmas
et al during the holiday season and hearing the snap crackle and pop
today just sends me right back to being a tiny tyke in Halifax. :)
> --
>
> Erimess Dragon
> -==(UDIC)==-
>
> d++e+NT++Om UK!1!2!3!A!L!
> U+uCuFuG+++uLB+uA+ nC+nH+nP+nS++nT-xa6
>
> Never compare yourself to the best others can do,
> but rather to the best you can do.
thehawk
Yea, well, there is nothing in the world that beats a phoneless cord.
--
-thehawk
Darien Dragon
Except maybe tin cans and string?
>
> --
> -thehawk
erimess
wrote:
Hey stranger. I was just thinking about you the other day - I was
trying to think what you said when you critiqued my Krondor critique.
Now how many ages ago was that?