Nope, direct cable connection. Oldschool, serial port to serial port. Internet access was more expensive than hardware back then, so everything had to be done "in house".

Good times.

Edit: just checked, the null modem cable is still in my bag of spare cables and adapters. Haven't used one since we played Outlaws in '97.>> ^ant:

>> ^radx:
We clocked endless hours on Diablo via DCC. Nothing was as hilarious as a chain-lightning-frenzy down in hell. Blowing through an entire inventory of full mana potions in a minute -- awesome.
DCC from IRC?

>> ^radx:

We clocked endless hours on Diablo via DCC. Nothing was as hilarious as a chain-lightning-frenzy down in hell. Blowing through an entire inventory of full mana potions in a minute -- awesome.


DCC from IRC?

We clocked endless hours on Diablo via DCC. Nothing was as hilarious as a chain-lightning-frenzy down in hell. Blowing through an entire inventory of full mana potions in a minute -- awesome.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

But why is it that always seems to be way down on the list. Taken from This site:

III. The Global Deployment of US Military Personnel

There are 6000 military bases and/ or military warehouses located in the U.S. (See Wikipedia, February 2007).

Total Military Personnel is of the order of 1,4 million of which 1,168,195 are in the U.S and US overseas territories.

Taking figures from the same source, there are 325,000 US military personnel in foreign countries:

800 in Africa,
97,000 in Asia (excluding the Middle East and Central Asia),
40,258 in South Korea,
40,045 in Japan,
491 at the Diego Garcia Base in the Indian Ocean,
100 in the Philippines, 196 in Singapore,
113 in Thailand,
200 in Australia,
and 16,601 Afloat.

In Europe, there are 116,000 US military personnel including 75,603 who are stationed in Germany.

In Central Asia about 1,000 are stationed at the Ganci (Manas) Air Base in Kyrgyzstan and 38 are located at Kritsanisi, in Georgia, with a mission to train Georgian soldiers.

In the Middle East (excludng the Iraq war theater) there are 6,000 US military personnel, 3,432 of whom are in Qatar and 1,496 in Bahrain.

In the Western Hemisphere, excluding the U.S. and US territories, there are 700 military personnel in Guantanamo, 413 in Honduras and 147 in Canada.

Well, that was a completely pointless derail there, thanks guys...

Back OT, mebbe they should deny the parents food and water for a week and see if mana falls from heaven..?

>> ^oohlalasassoon:

A proper sorcerer would have cast fireball on those guys.


Obviously he forgot to bring mana potions.

Sure, I had pretty much the same experience with 8..cool story that fell apart later. I also thought it was super annoying having to drain all of your spells from enemies. 9 was a good throwback to the glory days..again though it never seemed to hit its stride..just sort of sailed off into mediocrity. 10 was alright..I did like the story and characters. I thought the battles were ridiculously easy..I think I only died a few times the whole game. I didn't find out until later that there was a whole universe of side quests and fierce boss battles after you've completed the game. I think my brother put like 100 hours into that alone.

12 I didn't like the battle system..13 was way too umm..something..japanese? I don't know. I couldn't finish it either. I kind of wish they would make a new 2d final fantasy game..though the graphics are awesome I cant help feeling something vital is absent..

>> ^Shepppard:
>> ^shinyblurry:
Probably some who will disagree but I think after FF7 the quality of Square games really plunged. I used to be the hardcore fan, even worked for them for a time, but I never had as much fun as I had with their lineup on the Snes..like Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana..or my all time favorite game, Final Fantasy 2

I agree a bit. Final Fantasy VIII had one of the coolest storylines up until mid third disc, I mean, a bunch of teenagers running around as combat pro's and getting paid for it? When you're 14, that's cool.
FFIX I never really got into, it took a turn for the weird with its art style, but the characters were memorable at least. The auction was kinda cool though.
FFX however, With the exception of most of yunas lines, and the ending sequence where tidus becomes a whiney bitch, that was a fantastic game. The Aeon system was cool, blitzball was freaking amazing, despite it being the first "Non-open world." Truly, I think FFX is one of my favourite Final Fantasy games, right up there with 7. I won't keep going into detail, but I did play FFXI for years, XII was interesting, but I couldn't actually finish XIII.

Yeah, that's something that square can just never seem to do right is port their games properly. Though there are mods out there to update the graphics and make them more servicable.


>> ^ghark:
>> ^shinyblurry:
Probably some who will disagree but I think after FF7 the quality of Square games really plunged. I used to be the hardcore fan, even worked for them for a time, but I never had as much fun as I had with their lineup on the Snes..like Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana..or my all time favorite game, Final Fantasy 2

Agreed, although it was a pretty high standard I think. The one exception was that I really enjoyed FFXI quite a bit, although it had some stupid ideas such as no NA servers and no jumping and how they just ported the PS graphics to the PC version.

>> ^shinyblurry:

Probably some who will disagree but I think after FF7 the quality of Square games really plunged. I used to be the hardcore fan, even worked for them for a time, but I never had as much fun as I had with their lineup on the Snes..like Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana..or my all time favorite game, Final Fantasy 2



I agree a bit. Final Fantasy VIII had one of the coolest storylines up until mid third disc, I mean, a bunch of teenagers running around as combat pro's and getting paid for it? When you're 14, that's cool.

FFIX I never really got into, it took a turn for the weird with its art style, but the characters were memorable at least. The auction was kinda cool though.

FFX however, With the exception of most of yunas lines, and the ending sequence where tidus becomes a whiney bitch, that was a fantastic game. The Aeon system was cool, blitzball was freaking amazing, despite it being the first "Non-open world." Truly, I think FFX is one of my favourite Final Fantasy games, right up there with 7. I won't keep going into detail, but I did play FFXI for years, XII was interesting, but I couldn't actually finish XIII.

>> ^shinyblurry:

Probably some who will disagree but I think after FF7 the quality of Square games really plunged. I used to be the hardcore fan, even worked for them for a time, but I never had as much fun as I had with their lineup on the Snes..like Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana..or my all time favorite game, Final Fantasy 2


Agreed, although it was a pretty high standard I think. The one exception was that I really enjoyed FFXI quite a bit, although it had some stupid ideas such as no NA servers and no jumping and how they just ported the PS graphics to the PC version.

Probably some who will disagree but I think after FF7 the quality of Square games really plunged. I used to be the hardcore fan, even worked for them for a time, but I never had as much fun as I had with their lineup on the Snes..like Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana..or my all time favorite game, Final Fantasy 2

HAHAHA!!! "Mobius toupee" completely made me snort milk.

/I'm now prefer to calling Donal Tru...Mobius Toupee!!!
//"Race Card" (1 Black Mana) cast: FATALITY! YOU WIN, FLAWLESS!
///I had to say it!

I've seen little in WoW that has surprised me. There are a few things here and there, but it really is a game copied from another game that, that game copied from yet another and then they polished it. And..as The Mythbusters proved you can polish a turd; so taking this old-outdated-prehistoric-you-get-the-point concept of go fetch times 5 per level and go gather times 5 per level plus the times 5 per level go kill stuff -- this is WoW's main feature o'fun and is the core to leveling.

The items are okay, some quests are awesome: there's a Plants vs. Zombies type quest that is well done and VERY refreshing, some of the NEW new newbie areas (goblins and furry humans) have great opening quests and have "phases" which are essentially instances "on the run" -- you don't notice it load and others don't know your in it unless they're grouped -- essentially a personal instance, there are a few "red pill" vs. "blue pill" such as making you realize you need to jump off a cliff to complete it, some of the class specific are great due to their obvious care and attention to detail in teaching you how to play your class effectively (the rogue has some of these that are a joy to play), etcetera -- oh wait, there isn't really much beyond that except instances, raids, and "PvP".

Instances can be great with your buddies and when the group size is a nice manageable size, but the fact they don't have randomized group size and level based dungeons is ridiculous, with this much time having passed. The fact that some of the boss fights start of at super hard and never bother to ramp up is stupid (as wiping should minimized to affect only idiots; trust me it doesn't matter if everyone has l33t gear, everyone should have the chance to have a character they feel is special and a force to be reckoned with). Where the hell are unique, non-soulbinding items; i.e., there are these "named" (I know they've made a few, laughable, *requires a raid* to get the guild leader the super item, which means you've got a better chance to win the lottery if you're an average player ) items that could be made into the thousands available (non-soulbinding so that they can be sold on the auction house -- which would fight gold-farmers and allow ANY player to get: THE GOODS) that drop once per server and have a 100% chance of being found for everyone...?

I could go on, but I think my point is made. There is little thought going into game creation and mechanics. Everyone stole from the MUDS, Ultima Online, and what little originality Everquest had; and no-one ever looked back. I know it will take some hard work to make a NEW TYPE of MMO that isn't guaranteed to be a slight upgrade in graphics, item crafting, or *pick your one "special" thing* the next MMO does...

So many of the current crop of MMO's have their own original and great ideas. If it would be sifted through and made into a "best of all worlds" (which is what WoW did, but they left in aggro which is a HUGE disservice to ALL players) we might get something unique and great; it would only need expansions as the core would not need much change ever (unless the engine becomes the "hindrance" to development).

Right now the aggro system n e e d s t o g o . It's archaic and mystifyingly still used though it was made for games that couldn't handle AI running (Ultima Online, Everquest,etc...) full-blast. But, with the power servers have available plus the bandwidth and the users' computer this should be a very easily solved or solvable issue. Second, comes two things that walk hand in hand: dungeons and loot. I addressed both above and what I propose should solve a lot; but imagine semi-random dungeons created that lead to great cities (very doable just from what I've seen in Warhammer and WoW's "phasing"), think: D&D's Forgotten Realms - Undermountain™, anything approaching something that massive would be equal to creating a dungeon the size of the world map, but every-time you enter you procedurally move forward to a new creation (so if you join a party your "dungeons" join to make a "seed" that is unique to those to characters. I'll stop there as it would into full-on programming techniques that aren't used either because of the complexity, non-skill, or doubt that they can make a "performance" acceptable version. Items have just as much ability to be enhanced (their own level-ups with skills, AI weapons, vehicular type, etc...).

Quests are the last concern. Fetch should only be around if you're character is going there anyway. Collection type quests should ONLY be used if you are keeping some of said items and are useful in some way. Hero quests do need to teach you to be a better "x = your class + type of class + modifiers", using instances or "phasing" (which I like more as I hate load screens). Quests need to have an main-arch that branches, but it needs to available to even the solo player; not the 60 man raid (which is a joke in the first place). Quests need to be rich in diversity: send, fetch, lead, fight, find, steal, games, test, challenge, dungeon, redemption, vengeance/wrath, ability, skill, un-lockable/lockable, class, species/race, race/time, item, creation, destruction, defend, follow, help, should I keep listing....?

I hope the programmers, I don't really care who hits the trump card first (although a low monthly cost team would be nice), figure this out. As it is getting boring even though there is "more" to do, how it's presented in WoW makes me less inclined to get involved, because it requires dedication and at that point, as he pointed out is almost as fun as shooting yourself.

As @MilkmanDan points out there is a lot of content that I don't use and at the lower levels I believe this to be fine as you'll make a mage, a shaman, a warrior, etc... Doing the same quest over and over is terrible. However, much of the high level content you CAN see, but you'll never get the riches (lottery again) and doing THE SAME EXACT DUNDEON 30 times to find that one head piece is ridiculous -- that is their idea of fun "high-end" content. F*%K YOU! This is all due to the notion (and I believe you see this in action at the auction houses, if you can compare the past to present) of inflation; the numbers go higher for the sake of going higher -- if it's higher it's better, right?!?. I'm better due to a number increase and I'll add to that number continually, mainly, because as is said above I'm now level 10 and no longer 5. I want the numbers to be in a "set" range so that you know, whenever you find or get something new, immediately how this new addition (or subtraction) will affect you. (Ultima Online got that partially correct and it made fighting on their a unique experience, STILL, although Warhammer Online uses a set number of action points instead of mana so it has a fun PvP experience, but ultimately fails due to the level problem. Oh and PvP is a joke as level and gear are the deciding issues in battle (which is funny as the winners get the better gear, thus making them win more and you can see where that goes...) and as long as you aren't stupid your talent specs (you really can't screw this up anymore as Blizzard decided that you can only go down one tree at a time rather than all three, until you've got talent point 32).

I'll stop there as I'm getting nauseated talking about this much (which is a lot). But, this is my view point on almost any RPG. Why is it so hard to make a fun system -- it seems obvious how to go after these issues. I think they're (the programmers and publishers) are lost in the woods with 100 foot tall pines and I'm on a outcrop that can see over the forest -- I see them occasionally, but even if I yelled (and I've made some of these points before) they'd still never gather a clue of what I mean. Or as it's usually said at this point:

"I'm afraid you can't see the forest for the trees."...

Damn, that was long, phew (hopefully a programmer reads it -- or I'll just cut & paste ) !

1. Chrono Trigger (0:00)
2. Super Mario Allstars (0:07)
3. Legend Of the Mystical Ninja (0:13)
4. Hagane (0:19)
5. Axelay (0:25)
6. Romance of the Three Kingdoms 3 (0:31)
7. Pilotwings (0:37)
8. Super Punchout! (0:43)
9. Wild Guns (0:49)
10. Secret of Mana (0:55)
11. Super Double Dragon (1:01)
12. Earthbound (1:07)
13. Addams Family (1:13)
14. Actraiser (1:19)
15. Biker Mice from Mars (1:25)
16. Aliens vs Predator (1:31)
17. Breath of Fire (1:37)
18. F-Zero (1:43)
19. Gradius 3 (1:49)
20. Megaman 7 (1:55)
21. Super Star Wars (2:01)
22. Rock'n Roll Racing (2:07)
23. Pocky & Rocky (2:13)
24. Legend of Zelda - Link to the Past (2:19)
25. Prince of Persia (2:25)
26. Bust A Move (2:31)
27. Out of this World (2:37)
28. Super Metroid (2:43)
29. Blackthorne (2:49)
30. Animaniacs (2:55)
31. Street Fighter 2 (3:01)
32. Secret of Evermore (3:07)
33. Super Mario World (3:13)
34. Sparkster (3:19)
35. Demons Crest (3:25)
36. Aladdin (3:31)
37. Final Fantasy 3 (3:37)
38. Castlevania X (3:43)
39. Final Fight (3:49)
40. Donkey Kong Country (3:55)
41. EVO (4:01)
42. Starfox (4:07)
43. Super Adventure Island (4:13)
44. Flashback (4:19)
45. Sunset Rider (4:25)
46. Shadowrun (4:31)
47. Final Fantasy 2 (4:37)
48. Indiana Jones Greatest Adventures (4:43)
49. Lufia 1 (4:49)
50. Kirbys Dream Land 3 (4:55)
51. Joe & Mac (5:01)
52. Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse (5:07)
53. Killer Instinct (5:13)
54. Super Bonk (5:19)
55. Ninja Warrior (5:25)
56. The Lost Vikings (5:31)
57. Harvest Moon (5:37)
58. Spiderman VS Venom (5:43)
59. Lion King (5:49)
60. Super Castlevania (5:55)
61. Super Mario RPG (6:01)
62. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV - Turtles in Time (6:07)
63. Kirbys Avalanche (6:13)
64. Contra 3 (6:19)
65. Mortal Kombat 2 (6:25)
66. Super Turrican 2 (6:31)
67. Tiny Toon Adventures (6:37)
68. X-Men (6:43)
69. Megaman X 1 (6:49)
70. Super Mario World 2 (6:55)
71. Battle Toads & Double Dragon (7:01)
72. Tales of Phantasia (7:07)
73. NBA Jam Tournament Edition (7:13)
74. Tetris Attack (7:19)
75. Stunt Racer FX (7:25)
76. Super R-Type (7:31)
77. Ninja Gaiden Trilogy (7:37)
78. Earthworm Jim (7:43)
79. Dragon View (7:49)
80. Yoshis Safari (7:55)
81. Sim City (8:01)
82. King of Dragons (8:07)
83. Super Offroad (8:13)
84. Madden 95 (8:19)
85. Super Bomberman (8:25)
86. Tetris & Dr. Mario (8:31)
87. Mario Paint (8:37)
88. Arkanoid 2 (8:43)
89. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (8:49)
90. Cybernator (8:55)
91. Cool Spot (9:01)
92. Super Mario Kart (9:07)
93. Death and Return of Superman (9:13)
94. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Tournament Fighters (9:19)
95. Soul Blazer (9:25)
96. Super Ghouls & Goblins (9:31)
97. Zombies Ate My Neighbors (9:37)
98. Darius Twin (9:43)
99. Captain Commando (9:49)
100. Lemmings (9:55)

I need me some of that miracle spring water/annointing oil/prayer cloth/holy spurut/mana cracker/magic soap.

HOW MUCH DOES IT FUCKING COST!?!?!