Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Setekh on January 07, 2014, 04:38:02 am
-
Thirteen years ago today, two guys - one from the UK and one from Australia - decided to launch a new community site for the game they loved. It was an interesting experiment if nothing else - we were creating a space at a time when there were plenty of other fan sites around, not to mention the official BB for the developers who made the game we enjoyed so much. But we thought it was worth a shot anyway, because at the time there wasn't anything specifically devoted to one particular subset of that community... the "modders".
The guy from the UK was Alex "Thunder" Avery and the guy from Australia was me. And there is no chance that either of us knew that, thirteen years later, that community would still exist. Not merely surviving, either - thriving. Poking around some of the threads here is a strange mix of familiarity and foreignness. I love that you're still using (most of) the graphics I made way back in the day... I see that no one has improved on the weird fire symbol thing I made on an otherwise idle summer afternoon!
There was something specific I came here for. What was it again? Oh, yeah! Happy birthday, HLP! You're a teenager now. That's... kinda weird. :D
So... what's been happening? :)
-
'Lo Steak. How're things on your side of the island? :D
And yeah, it is weird that HLP (and the community generally) is that old. But I think we can be pretty proud of what we've done with the old beast. There are likely to be very few games of FS2s vintage that can claim our level of improvement or, just as critically, our kind of community. So well done to you and Thunder thirteen years ago (Kalfireth, off) and to the rest of us ever since I say! :D
-
I don't know who you are but I love you man :(
And have fun at high school Hard Light Productions. Yr 8 is a bit nerve wracking at the start, but don't worry, it gets worse. Although now that makes me curious... Do we have any members younger then HLP? Younger than freespace 2 even?
-
yo dude whatup, you should hangout more ;)
-
Haha, the Eastern seaboard is doing just fine BW. ;) Umm, let me try to give you a quick rundown of what's been happening... I've got three kids now, oldest one's starting school this year. Speaking of school, this is my seventh year teaching high school maths and technology subjects - in fact you can even have a look at what I do, I video my lessons and put them on Youtube. This'll give you a 41-second taste:
Wootube: Real teaching, real learning. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE37rt7lkZU)
Oh, I hang about on Twitter sometimes too. @misterwootube (https://twitter.com/misterwootube) if anyone's interested.
Killer Whale, the feeling's mutual! I am so glad there are people who have continued to discover the awesomeness of this game and this community - keep carrying the baton, man. :)
Bob!! What's been happening with you, buddy?
-
lets see, got a job, got my degree, quit my job, got another job, moved a thousand miles (New york, I'm eastern seaboard too :p), started work on a masters degree, bought a house. I think that about sums up my major points for the last 5 years.
I was actually just thinking about you the other day, nice to see you are doing well.
-
Congrats to the community and long may it live.
And nice one to you Setekh for your efforts in setting this place up and its good so see things are doing ok for you.
-
Setekh! Buddy! :D
Wow... I just... I'm blown away. So good to see you - and on our birthday of all things! It sounds like you've been keeping well... three kids? Yikes - I bet that's a hand full! Really glad it's all going well for you.
(For anyone who is confused, I'm Thunder. I have been through a couple of 'name changes' since then ;) )
Like Setekh here I'm guilty of not being around as much as I ought to be - real life had other ideas when it came to living on the internet all day long - but it's still great to see how the community is going and all the fantastic work being done with the SCP and so on. I hate to say it but I don't feel like HLP is mine any more - it belongs to all of you much more than me.
Great going guys :) And happy birthday Hard Light Productions!
-
Happy Birthday HLP! I can't believe that I registered here in April 2006 and this is still one of my most visited sites! I highly respect some of the great minds here and feel guilty that I haven't contributed any more than I have, merely posting and consuming the products you guys offer! This is a fantastic and clever community who produce top notch mods and total conversions! And I love you all! ;) Mwah!
-
Hey, just came in to say hi.
I'm glad this place has stayed here and kept the legacy of FS2 going. I can't believe I'm still playing the game (Diaspora mod at the moment), and that many of us from the old VBB still exist.
Steak, you have 3 kids now? Damn everyone's growing up so fast.
-
Not me. I'm exactly the same.
-
I remember you. Of course. I've been here since February 2003. I feel old.
-
Damn, they're all crawling out of the woodwork today! :p
Good to see you all. Happy Birthday HLP.
-
Does anyone still have a copy of the HLP image from either the Hard Light Array or Sound of Thunder that shows various forum members as if they were sideshow freaks at a circus?
-
uhh happy birthday HLP
and what the ****
setekh is australian
IS THE VAST MAJORITY OF HLP AUSTRALIAN
lksajlakfjsafasdlfkjfksdlfj
where did all these fellow australians come from
-
Thirteen years ago today, two guys - one from the UK and one from Australia - decided to launch a new community site for the game they loved. It was an interesting experiment if nothing else - we were creating a space at a time when there were plenty of other fan sites around, not to mention the official BB for the developers who made the game we enjoyed so much. But we thought it was worth a shot anyway, because at the time there wasn't anything specifically devoted to one particular subset of that community... the "modders".
The guy from the UK was Alex "Thunder" Avery and the guy from Australia was me. And there is no chance that either of us knew that, thirteen years later, that community would still exist. Not merely surviving, either - thriving. Poking around some of the threads here is a strange mix of familiarity and foreignness. I love that you're still using (most of) the graphics I made way back in the day... I see that no one has improved on the weird fire symbol thing I made on an otherwise idle summer afternoon!
There was something specific I came here for. What was it again? Oh, yeah! Happy birthday, HLP! You're a teenager now. That's... kinda weird. :D
So... what's been happening? :)
Christ! It's been a while, nice to see you still pay attention to the old girl. Where is Thunder these days?
Ah well, nice to see things are still going, even if it's not quite as familiar as it once was.
-
Christ! It's been a while, nice to see you still pay attention to the old girl. Where is Thunder these days?
(For anyone who is confused, I'm Thunder. I have been through a couple of 'name changes' since then ;) )
Reading the thread helps :P
-
Huh, does Setekh have psychic powers to make even Carl appear?
Hi Steak and hbd HLP!
-
I've no pedigree to throw my hat into the ring, but I do want to offer a great big THANK YOU to all of the old timers that helped make this community possible for me to leech off of. :p
I wish I could offer something in recompense, but you all do have my gratitude. This has been a great haven in the midst of otherwise chaotic lives. Happy Birthday HLP!
-
Happy birthday everyone!
-
Happy Birthday HLP.
Without you folks, I'd be stuck using a Win98 VM playing FS2. :D
-
Hi! I rember you guys, it's nice to see you bsck here.
Happy birthday to HLP... Announcements and the almighty Hammer of HLP Ownage. :lol:
-
Christ! It's been a while, nice to see you still pay attention to the old girl. Where is Thunder these days?
(For anyone who is confused, I'm Thunder. I have been through a couple of 'name changes' since then ;) )
Reading the thread helps :P
Compared to most of the people posting on HLP now, I'm old - so I can use that as an excuse.
Now get off my lawn.
-
Compared to most of the people posting on HLP now, I'm old - so I can use that as an excuse.
Now get off my lawn.
Given that according to your profile, I am older than you, I laugh at the suggestion :P
-
I've been to other online communities, but HLP is still the most mature one I've ever been in, and for that alone I am grateful. Something tells me I've actually learnt a good deal when I was active here, but I honestly cannot remember what exactly I learned apart from using the free space on my hard drive as RAM. :nervous:
It's good to see that headdie's been doing a good job updating the community's Facebook Wall. I remember deciding to post a link to every new highlight and major release on it back in 2011 or 2012 for fun, but it seems to have compelled a number of Facebook users to also observe and contribute to it on occasion. For once, doing something out of boredom seems to have yielded some good results.
Real-life has caught on pretty quick after I got an incredibly stable job in November, but even before that, my activity on HLP dropped off considerably. It's funny, because unlike Descent, which seems to have left some sort of impression that makes me go back to playing it once in a while, I've not had the same impression with FreeSpace. I no longer have the excuse of running FreeSpace on an Intelgrated because I'm typing this on a PC that has a proper GPU with 1GB of dedicated memory, an i5, 4 GB RAM and Windows 8.1, but I've not felt the urge to reinstall FreeSpace for a very long time. :blah:
-
I've been to other online communities, but HLP is still the most mature one I've ever been in
Well there's a sorry tale :(
I guess this marks fifteen years of posting about FreeSpace for me. Thanks for enabling this peculiar life choice.
-
Ah! Happy birthday HLP and I applaud the HLP team for making such a great game still a great game. :)
-
What is even with all the old guard coming back lately??
-
Makes me feel old :)
I joined this forum before the SCP team had even announced the -glow tag for textures, which was the first visual update to the game iirc. This was before the SCP was anything more than a few people downloading the source code and 'twiddling' with it.
Just look at what it's become since then.
-
Makes me feel old :)
I joined this forum before the SCP team had even announced the -glow tag for textures, which was the first visual update to the game iirc. This was before the SCP was anything more than a few people downloading the source code and 'twiddling' with it.
Just look at what it's become since then.
the best bit is that its still going strong
-
Makes me feel old :)
I joined this forum before the SCP team had even announced the -glow tag for textures, which was the first visual update to the game iirc. This was before the SCP was anything more than a few people downloading the source code and 'twiddling' with it.
Just look at what it's become since then.
Before the SCP it was some amazing FRED work, there were a few full on campaigns that have since disappeared.
Honestly though getting the source was the best thing to every happen. It's been 13 years here, and 15 years since I first heard the command to "dive!" and the game is still played and still going strong.
I'm sure many of the old Volition guys like Dave Baranec are just as happy to see this site continue.
-
All hail the Great Old Ones!
And depending on your local jurisdiction, only a few more years until HLP is legal. ;7
-
(http://www.allmystery.de/i/t67388a_pedo-bear-too-old.jpg)
-
It's already legal in Angola provided you can find a way to have sex with a website.
-
Well, thank goodness I've only been wasting my time here for half that...
...wait a minute...
Happy b-day HLP :)
-
Happy
(http://matttoomb.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/rome_lg_07.gif)
THIRTEEEN!!
HLP.
-
'The old guard'.... I never thought it would come to that! I wonder who still remembers the old Volition Bulletin Board?! (VBB)...
-
I posted there, ZylonBane scared the **** out of me.
-
This really makes me think. I came in contact with HLP for the first time in about 2007, when looking if there was any way to enhance the graphics for FS2. Back then I either didn't bother to register or forgot my account credentials years later. Anyway, the 6 years I have been lurking around here (without much presence, granted), means that I have been around one year less than HALF of the time this community has already existed. This is ... ridiculously insane and an extremely awesome feat for all the people here at the very same time.
Part of me believes and hopes that we will still be around here for another decade. No Star Citizen and whatnot can ever change the belief of mine that Freespace should not be allowed to die. Ever.
-
It's really odd if I think back that when I joined in 2001, I was only 29 years old, and now, here I still am at 41...
-
Posting in epic thread. Happy birthday HLP!
Does anyone still have a copy of the HLP image from either the Hard Light Array or Sound of Thunder that shows various forum members as if they were sideshow freaks at a circus?
It's still on the Hard Light Array...
(http://staff.hard-light.net/setekh/scipaper.jpg)
-
(http://i41.tinypic.com/346pci0.jpg)
Mmmm... :)
-
Happy Birthday To Me!!!!! :D :p :cool: :nod: ;7 :drevil: :lol:
-
Happy Birthday To Me!!!!! :D :p :cool: :nod: ;7 :drevil: :lol:
Calm down, you. :hammer:
(http://staff.hard-light.net/setekh/hlp-property.jpg)
-
This is rapidly getting out of hand. :p
Happy birthday HLP.
-
May you continue to live long and prosper!
-
Here's number of names I have only seen in "Classic" threads before.
It's a little surreal, I must admit.
Well, if HLP has gone this long, no reason it cannot continue! Along the Path of Now and Forever!
Wait, that was the wrong game series, crap...
-
We haz no cake!
-
We haz no cake!
The cake is a lie.
And somewhere, somehow, I start imagining that this thread will soon become a vast ocean of pop culture references that were noteworthy during the last 13 years.
-
Knew those jaws would come in useful one day...
[attachment deleted by an evil time traveler]
-
We haz no cake!
The cake is a lie.
And somewhere, somehow, I start imagining that this thread will soon become a vast ocean of pop culture references that were noteworthy during the last 13 years.
if you say so.
GOOBER. FINISH IT WE NEED IT.
-
Happy birthday, HLP! Long may the community provide content and a home for excellent mods and modders. Glad to be part of it, in my own minor ways.
-
Knew those jaws would come in useful one day...
:lol:
Serious note, is this the kind of thread that could end up in the classics section?
-
Serious note, is this the kind of thread that could end up in the classics section?
God dammit Lorric, now you just killed any chance of it happening! Do you not know how it works? :p
-
Serious note, is this the kind of thread that could end up in the classics section?
God dammit Lorric, now you just killed any chance of it happening! Do you not know how it works? :p
I saw you looking at the classics section with me just now. :)
I wonder how something does get put in there though. in recent years it's been one thread about every two years.
-
Most of the classics section is humorless, forgettable crap with little to no relevance to HLP's culture, so I guess standards have just risen over the years.
-
Really shouldn't have opened Photoshop...
Got bored, did some nostalgia :D
[attachment deleted by an evil time traveler]
-
Oh, cool! Happy birthday/reunion-thingy, everyone!
I guess it says something that I've never *really* managed to stop lurking around here since I joined. Tis a silly place, but a good one.
-
I'll throw my hat into the lot here, Happy Birthday HLP, may you continue to provide us with ample reason to continue playing FS2 (Not like we needed much in the first place)
-
Happy birthday my lovely HLP, I'll stand by your side for many many more years.
-
Serious note, is this the kind of thread that could end up in the classics section?
God dammit Lorric, now you just killed any chance of it happening! Do you not know how it works? :p
I saw you looking at the classics section with me just now. :)
I wonder how something does get put in there though. in recent years it's been one thread about every two years.
banana splits here and there, and we can forget it happened? :cool:
-
And here's to squeaking in 13 years later.
*drinks soda*
-
I went to sleep since I was tired and screwed up my cycle.
I missed the party. :(
Oh well, at least I got... nevermind, all the roads are iced beyond reason and the wind is chilling to the marrow.
You win this one HLP! :mad2:
-
Loser most make badges or something. :P
-
What is even with all the old guard coming back lately??
For me, it's literally because of the birthday. I genuinely can't look at the date "7 January" without thinking of HLP. I suppose that reflects what a big part of my life this place was for me back then. HLP doesn't take up so many hours in the day, but it's still retained that special spot in my heart. What can I say, I'm sentimental. ;)
Nice to see a lot of the other old timers still poking around, even just seeing your usernames takes me on a big trip down memory lane. Hope you're all doing well :)
-
I joined in December 2007. Six years isn't too bad a history considering I managed to chalk up 5000 posts outside GenDisc.
If Snail posted here, I'd probably feel a little better though. :blah:
-
Boy, It's weird seeing so many old names that I remember reading when I lurked way back when. Took me a while to register but I'm glad I did, HLP and Freespace has been a large part of my life for a long time now and it's weird to think that it's been around for so long.
Happy Birthday HLP!
-
A belated happy birthday!
If Snail posted here, I'd probably feel a little better though. :blah:
Yeah, I wonder when he'll come back?
-
He takes a while to go anywhere.
-
Most of the classics section is humorless, forgettable crap with little to no relevance to HLP's culture, so I guess standards have just risen over the years.
Yeah pretty much
-
Happy birthday, HLP!
-
Aw man, I missed HLP's 13th birthday while I was working out of town. Happy belated birthday.
I registered this account in November of 2006, but I know I'd been lurking for a couple years before that... I can't quite remember what the first version of FSO I installed was, but I'm sure it was something with a hilariously low number. :P
Congratulations on 13 years of being awesome, Hard-Light.
-
Yo oldies, there's somethings I most ask because I've not been here long enough.
How far back does snuffleupagus go?
And what does David Copperfield mean to HLP and FreespaceTM?
-
Happy Birthday HLP! Congratulations on 13 years of pimping FS - I hope things will go on for many more years :)
HLP was the second internet community I got involved with (in 2005) but it might as well be the first one since I started visiting this place a few years earlier. Freespace was my favourite game back then and it still retains that place for me cause of all the great community work.
-
Yo oldies, there's somethings I most ask because I've not been here long enough.
How far back does snuffleupagus go?
I started editing it into polls that didn't have an "I don't care" or "none of the above" option. Then people picked it up and ran with it. I don't remember when the first such poll was edited, though.
And what does David Copperfield mean to HLP and FreespaceTM?
Stryke 9 once broke the forums by posting the complete text of David Copperfield. He even had to type the last few chapters by hand for some reason (IIRC because the clipboard buffer wasn't large enough to paste the entire book, but that would just raise the question of why he didn't paste the rest of it separately). That remains my second favorite instance of trolling in HLP's history.
-
Well go on then, what's your favorite
-
That fake an0n hack that broke most of the folders for several weeks? :D
-
:nod: Except for the "broken for several weeks" part -- it was supposed to be back to normal the next day like nothing ever happened. That was Gamespy trolling us. :D
(Okay, it was my fault for real-deleting the boards instead of fake-deleting them. But it shouldn't have taken Gamespy a month to fix the backup restoration utility.)
-
Your favorite act of trolling was the time you ****ed up and deleted the boards?
Well, I
-
Your favorite act of trolling was the time you ****ed up and deleted the boards?
Well, I
Let me finish your sentence: "...somehow failed to notice the 'except' qualifier and the rest of the post", eh?
-
No, I really don't think I did. :p 'My favorite vacation was the time I pushed us all off the Burj Khalifa! Except the part when we fell~'
-
That's a bad analogy. A better one would be "I took us out walking on the Grand Canyon Skywalk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon_Skywalk), except maintenance had taken out the glass floor and didn't tell anyone".
But even that doesn't quite work, because Gamespy eventually fixed their backup and everything was restored. So there was no permanent damage, just a month of inconvenience.
-
SCENE. INT. Conference Room, third level, fourth wing of General Discussion. Night.
A lone figure casually leans against a long table. A mixture of digital displays and glass windows caress his occipital lobe with information as a starscape careens in the space beyond his windows, and the displays hum a muted tally of symbols; words to a speech, perhaps? A flick of sound and a small flame bursts into being. The individual's face is indistinct, but his voice is soothing, low, and knowledgeable as it pipes through our heads in voice-over.
Stranger: Thirteen years...
We follow the stranger's gaze outside, 'till the stars fill our world. Passing through a windoow, we step into the icy cold of the night beyond, drifting lazily down towards the base of a small pyramid, built into the station's hull.
Stranger: Wasn't too long ago half this place was ash...now you can see it burn from a thousand light years away.
Drifting past the glittering landscape of stars, we settle into one of the valleys below. We are moving forward now, a lone yellow light at the end of the trench, blotted out against the blackness around it. Sheet-white bulkheads, decorated with bolded numbers and kanji lay flat against the sunlight, and windows filled with people drift past us. The yellow light grows closer and turns to a window, then, a room - and then beyond that, Setekh, addressing a crowd of people. He begins.
Setekh: Thirteen years ago today, two guys - one from the UK and one from Australia - decided to launch a new community site for the game they loved...
Setekh pauses to smile and look across the room. We cut to a view just behind his head. Arrayed in front of him are a mixture of faces - old and new. Family, friends, lovers, adventurers and explorers. In the back are the mercs, pausing in their strides to pay their respects, and then beyond that, the hustle and bustle of Hard Light Station. As we pass above the crowd, we drift to a black. Across the screen, words in a faint and subtle steel-grey font wish us a Happy Birthday, before fading to darkness.
-
wow
-
*awesomeness*
Where did you pull that out from? :)
Also, why Hard Light for the name of this place? Does anyone know? Are you still around, Setekh?
-
Has something to do with the "hard light" effect (as opposed to "soft light") in renders. I admit I don't really know the technical difference between them, but back when HLP was first starting, tons of the people here did renders.
It's funny to think... they looked much better than game screenshots at the time, but I'd probably be blown away by how much better the current engine and assets look. Digging some of them up and recreating them in-engine would probably be a great tribute to FSU.
-
Thanks for that Shivan Hunter.
-
SCENE. INT. Conference Room, third level, fourth wing of General Discussion. Night.
Wowsers, UT. Way to tug on the heartstrings. Now all it needs is a rousing orchestral soundtrack and I'll be in tears!
Has something to do with the "hard light" effect (as opposed to "soft light") in renders.
That meaning may have been retconned in the past couple of years, but as I recall it was actually a reference to the British TV series Red Dwarf (remember, Thunder/Kal/Fineus is from the UK). Hard light projectors were holograms that could be physically touched (hence they were literally "hard" light). They symbolised the idea of taking something imaginary and making it real. And that's what modding is all about: starting from a concept and then working until you create something that you could experience in the game. Every mod and campaign made by a fan is, in a sense, a "hard light production".
Well, that's what I remember anyhow. It's been a while. ;)
-
That meaning may have been retconned in the past couple of years, but as I recall it was actually a reference to the British TV series Red Dwarf (remember, Thunder/Kal/Fineus is from the UK). Hard light projectors were holograms that could be physically touched (hence they were literally "hard" light). They symbolised the idea of taking something imaginary and making it real. And that's what modding is all about: starting from a concept and then working until you create something that you could experience in the game. Every mod and campaign made by a fan is, in a sense, a "hard light production".
Well, that's what I remember anyhow. It's been a while. ;)
That's the explanation I remember, Red Dwarf's Rimmer, but Red Dwarf took the idea form Star Trek Next Gen's Hologram's and Holodecks I believe!
-
ahhhh so it was the red dwarf explanation then
-
*awesomeness*
Where did you pull that out from? :)
Unknown Target wrote the HLP Movie as well as its sequel.
-
in be4 thread goes to Classics :nervous:
-
Firstly... happy birthday HLP, we've had some great times, I might be a little late but eh ;D
Secondly!
I've no pedigree to throw my hat into the ring, but I do want to offer a great big THANK YOU to all of the old timers that helped make this community possible for me to leech off of. :p
I wish I could offer something in recompense, but you all do have my gratitude. This has been a great haven in the midst of otherwise chaotic lives. Happy Birthday HLP!
You've posted quite a lot here, you have therefore contributed, even if it doesn't feel like a 'lot' - you're here, being part of the community. That's a part of what Setekh is talkin' about :P
-
in be4 thread goes to Classics :nervous:
Implying this thread has class. :p
-
Your favorite act of trolling was the time you ****ed up and deleted the boards?
Well, I
You know that Goober hates us all, right? :p
-
Oh wow. This place is that old? I'M THAT OLD?!
Awesome.
-
I've been here for 12/13 years on and off, as JK47, LOA--JK47, Colonol Dekker, and now Dekker.
Hard-Light has been going since I was in secondary school'ish...
-
Firstly... happy birthday HLP, we've had some great times, I might be a little late but eh ;D
Secondly!
I've no pedigree to throw my hat into the ring, but I do want to offer a great big THANK YOU to all of the old timers that helped make this community possible for me to leech off of. :p
I wish I could offer something in recompense, but you all do have my gratitude. This has been a great haven in the midst of otherwise chaotic lives. Happy Birthday HLP!
You've posted quite a lot here, you have therefore contributed, even if it doesn't feel like a 'lot' - you're here, being part of the community. That's a part of what Setekh is talkin' about :P
[blushes] I appreciate the kind words. Yet another example of what makes this place unique.
-
HLP is awesome. That's all I really got to say.
-
Toasting some epic bread.
Been here for about 6 years officially, active for almost 5 of them. Serious hit of the feels right now. Pity I missed the time of the old greats. :( One day I'll reinstall Freespace and play through the whole campaign...
-
I'm a little late for the reunion here, but it's good to see all the other old timers. We've all grown up together. :D
This has been a great community to be a part of, and has become more prolific over time. I recall that for the first several years of HLP's existence, only a few campaigns and other projects were completed, but since about 2006 we have had a steady stream of releases every year. In hindsight, the source code release in 2002 was crucial to making this happen and allowing the game to remain up to date. I still keep coming back to FS and following the progress around here, even though I don't post much anymore.
-
Pity I missed the time of the old greats. :(
We have records of the golden age........] (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?board=136.0)
-
He takes a while to go anywhere.
I see what you did there...
-
People still play Freespace?!?!?!?!
what the
-
People still play Freespace?!?!?!?!
what the
We have better campaigns now
-
But DIVEDIVEDIVE defined my youth.
-
Ah missed the great day again. Damn. It's no use to say even happy belated birthday anymore... :P
Well anyhow it was great to see you ol' timers post something here again. Hi guys.
13 years ago and about three months forwards, I joined here (had to check it from the profile to be absolute sure)... bloody hell the time flies.
-
I remember VBB.
Forget my name there.
I also remember finding HLP and bring mightily intrigued, as I had just discovered FRED2 and it fascinated me.
It's been very nice to regularly return to HLP and see it get steadily better, more stable, organized, knowledgeable and forward thinking.
And I LOVE that the front page looks the same, dinky repeated background and all!
Funnily enough I have never, not once, played multiplayer FS2.
Bh
-
The same??
Not to my knowledge, no downloads section. :(
-
Dekker come do some more voice acting!
-
I've not played Tenebra, no spoils!!
-
It's all for acts 1+2, no fear. I would kill to have you in the flirtatious Tev pilot role.
-
Then I can try... For the sake of prosperity. AND THE GTA!
canhaslink?
-
Hit it son (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=86533.0)
-
/me reserves the right to bump this thread since he's been sick for weeks and weeks...
(http://i41.tinypic.com/346pci0.jpg)
Mmmm... :)
You rang? :D
Anyway, some highlights of the past 13 years for me...
Steakie-poo invited me to join HLP back when, well... just look at my member ID. :p I'd been a hesitant forumite on the VBB at the time... in fact, I still have a printout somewhere of a thread from the VBB about FRED2 tips which featured ZylonBane quite heavily... I run across it occasionally and get all nostalgic... ;)
Then there's the day Shrike surprised the heck out of me by "inviting" me to become an admin here... he actually just changed my membergroup and bothered to inform me of such, but anyway... I felt quite humbled, as well as proud that my intentional maturity on the forums came across enough to have a real benefit. :)
Then (in no particular order) there's the days of the an0n/Stryke9 shenanigans... DaveB's occasional visits... Derek S freaking the community out for a good few months... Kazan and his short temper... the source code being released... leaving GameSpy behind... VolitionWatch shutting its doors... switching forum software multiple times till we arrived at SMF... the list goes on. :)
And what does David Copperfield mean to HLP and FreespaceTM?
Stryke 9 once broke the forums by posting the complete text of David Copperfield. He even had to type the last few chapters by hand for some reason (IIRC because the clipboard buffer wasn't large enough to paste the entire book, but that would just raise the question of why he didn't paste the rest of it separately). That remains my second favorite instance of trolling in HLP's history.
...How did I never know that?
Has something to do with the "hard light" effect (as opposed to "soft light") in renders.
That meaning may have been retconned in the past couple of years, but as I recall it was actually a reference to the British TV series Red Dwarf (remember, Thunder/Kal/Fineus is from the UK). Hard light projectors were holograms that could be physically touched (hence they were literally "hard" light). They symbolised the idea of taking something imaginary and making it real. And that's what modding is all about: starting from a concept and then working until you create something that you could experience in the game. Every mod and campaign made by a fan is, in a sense, a "hard light production".
Well, that's what I remember anyhow. It's been a while. ;)
...double how did I never know that??!?
-
/me reserves the right to bump this thread since he's been sick for weeks and weeks...
(http://i41.tinypic.com/346pci0.jpg)
Mmmm... :)
You rang? :D
Ah good timing. I'm actually just recovering from a stomach bug and cold combination myself. Until last night I'd spent about 50 hours without food. So yes, you look very tasty right now. Food tastes nice indeed when you've been deprived of it for awhile, and I enjoy my food. I've lost quite a bit of weight, and need to get it back, and you'll do nicely! :)
-
I'll always remember the coming off the Danimal!
-
...How did I never know that?
Oh, you mean it was some other Sandwich who posted in that thread (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=15406.0)? :p
Stryke 9 started it by posting the largest known prime, equal to 2859433-1. That was followed up here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=15406.msg293993#msg293993) and here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=15406.msg293995#msg293995) by not just posting, but double-posting the complete text of David Copperfield.
For the record, that prime contained 258716 digits, and David Copperfield is 1972763 characters long. The current post length limit, since we moved to SMF, is 65535 bytes. Apparently VBulletin was able to accommodate all three of those posts, but the forums acted very strangely until Styxx sorted it all out. This thread (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=15408.0) contains some of the reactions to it.
-
...How did I never know that?
Oh, you mean it was some other Sandwich who posted in that thread (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=15406.0)? :p
Oh, that thread? I remember the prime number thing, but not David Copperfield... perhaps the DC post was removed before I got the chance to see it.
-
I remember that :nono:
-
HLP!? That place is still around? You must jest!
No.....wait......wait a minute.......omg it's still here!!!
Also, according to my profile, I've been registered here longer than I've even been alive. *spooky*
Happy BDAY everybody!
special shoutout to the old VWBB cru
-
That is a very belated birthday. :p
But, better late than never! :nod:
-
And it's still pulling in new members too. I joined less than a year ago... in fact I didn't even own FreeSpace till last spring.
Wow.
-
And it's still pulling in new members too. I joined less than a year ago... in fact I didn't even own FreeSpace till last spring.
Wow.
Yeah, pretty much the same for me. I mean, I was given the Sim of the Year edition, and then I started to play it. I thought, wow. Then I found HLP. Thanks for the mods, the laughs, and the hilarious threads. Even when the first mod I try is Blue Planet: AoA, I love this place. Note; don't try BP for a first mod, it's a bit of a pain to get to work when you're new.
-
We have an installer now, it's a lot simpler.
-
Oh, cool. Has it been redone to be compatible for the new 2014 Media VPs? Or are y'all waiting for the Erebus?
-
I think they're preparing for the release of act 4 now, but that could still take a good while to be finished.
-
Hard to believe it's been 13 years since we started this place. I wonder how many of the old VBB peeps are still around.
-
A few of us
-
Xenon too? Everybody's crawling out of the woodwork lately.
I don't suppose you have any of the missions left over from Xanadu's Mission Archives, do you? :D
-
Oh gosh, I don't even know. If I did, it would be on one of my old, old backups stored away somewhere. I thought most of them made their way onto the Volitionwatch archives site though.
-
Surely it hasn't been that long.
-
Who are you, Xenon? Such an old registration date, so few posts, and an admin. Intriguing.
-
Who are you, Xenon? Such an old registration date, so few posts, and an admin. Intriguing.
I've actually wanted to ask that for well over a decade myself, but he disappeared before I had the chance. I've always had my suspicions, but... Xenon, were you registered for the VBB (or was it VWBB?) as ZylonBane?
-
Could someone possibly remember their password after that long an absence?
-
Errr... the forums do have a "Reset Password" thing, you know...
-
ZylonBane had his own account. Xenon's got a few posts in the administration forum from before you even registered. I remember him (vaguely) from the VBB but it's only really cause I have a habit of reading the oldest 2-3 posts in any forum I get access to later on that I know who he is.
-
VBB REP-RE-SENT y'all! :v-old:
Good to see so many old faces stopping in, some I recognize and some I don't. While I'm primarily a lurker, it doesn't make me any less thankful for all HLP and its members have done for one of my favorite games of all time. :)
-
I was around on the VBB for years and don't think I have ever seen you either. :p Looking at your handful of old posts here, this cracked me up:
Our priority is to avoid the kind of rubbish that pervades the VBB. We'll be accommodating, but if Hemaroid Frog Butt shows up, I will personally ban him on sight.
Anyone else remember that guy? :D
-
ZylonBane had his own account.
Here, on HLP? Huh... learn something new every day.
Anyone else remember that guy? :D
Oh yes. He lived up to his name quite well. I always suspected he became Stryke9 or an0n...
-
Actually, my password was ridiculously simple, and therefore quite easy to remember. I've since changed it to something more secure. Web security wasn't as much of a priority back in 2001. :)
Let's see, how do you summarize 13 years in a few sentences? HLP was founded right before I started the second half of my junior year at college, so any time I would have spent here got sucked up in coursework. :sigh: Got a job, got married, spawned the three most wonderful kids in the local stellar neighborhood. I started dabbling in BitCoin awhile back, and actually made a tidy profit -- good for a nice vacation, but nowhere near enough to retire on. Then IceFire told me that HLP was starting HLPCoin and suggested I drop by to offer a few pointers. That's how I got here.
I must say that I'm a bit staggered by the sheer amount of content everybody has produced. In 2001 you could count the number of released campaigns on two hands and a foot, but from the wiki it looks there are ten times that many now.
-
Here, on HLP? Huh... learn something new every day.
Don't you remember this (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=13280.0)?
-
Here, on HLP? Huh... learn something new every day.
he was very active here for quite some time
seeing that old thread I had forgot how close HLP and Warpstorm were at one point.
-
I wonder how many of the old VBB peeps are still around.
Some of us are indeed still here.
Anyone else remember that guy? :D
Only vaguely... and that's propably a good thing I suppose.
-
This is another one
http://web.archive.org/web/20021208222827/http://home.att.net/~clay.h/fs2/violition.htm
(Thanks goes to CP and this post http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=45110.0)
-
I just recalled all the long TaS threads... oh lawd...
-
I just recalled all the long TaS threads... oh lawd...
And the hanging light fell onto your head?
-
People keep dropping nostalgia bombs on my feet and blowing my legs off.
Volition watch
TECHNOMAGES.ORG
DW -Susanna
Roghnecks
LOA <3
Warpstorm
3dap.com/help (whatever it was back then)
-
warpstorm is still there, they just launched a completely origonal forum software and are keenly interested in new members.
-
Orly? I may have to investigate.
-
Here, on HLP? Huh... learn something new every day.
Don't you remember this (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=13280.0)?
Hah! Yes, I remember the song n' dance, but didn't remember it was ZB who made it. Yikes... :p
-
I just recalled all the long TaS threads... oh lawd...
And the hanging light fell onto your head?
Yes, yes that's esactly what happened just afterwards