Some long time readers of my site(s) may remember a post I made last year about the Star Wars Galaxies Emulator.  It’s almost a year later, and I am going to write again about this project.  First off, if you’re not familiar with it, Star Wars Galaxies is a game created by Sony Online Entertainment.  I could go on to tell you all the messy details, but I’ll cut it short and say they screwed up the whole game with an ‘upgrade’.  Then ‘fixed’ it with another when they lost a large chunk of their players.  But you can find all the detail with a quick search.

SWG subscribers drop, twice.

Shortly after the release of Everquest II(also from SOE), the SWG developers began to feel that their game wasn’t good enough.  Or it wasn’t another clone of the other MMO’s on the market.  Therefor they set forth to improve the combat, on the 27Th of April 2005(first red circle in graph).  Seeing the drop in subscribers, they quickly try to improve upon the game even more, on the 15Th of November 2005(second red circle).  From there the numbers continued to drop to around 100k right around 2008.

SWG isn't even in the running for shares.

These days the MMO realm is conquered by one game, World of Warcraft.  Every MMO that comes out today is soly trying to beat the beast that is WOW, but none even come close.  What I find funny about this pie chart, is that SWG doesn’t even have a large enough of a player base, or active subscriptions, to be listed in it.  I personally believe that the system that was found in SWG prior to it’s ‘upgrades’, was the best system around.  And had they not tried to tinker with it, it would have been a strong runner in the battle of MMO tyrants.

But the main point at hand here, is the Star Wars Galaxies Emulator Project, or SWGEmu for short.  There mission statement as taken from their website states:

The mission of SWGEmu is three fold:

A) To develop and maintain a community code base of a vanilla** release of a Star Wars Galaxies Server, circa Publish 14.1 for use of anyone who wishes to use it.

B) To deploy a server (Sun Crusher) that embraces vanilla, yet builds upon it, and strives to show the community a server which has the potential that we all believed SWG had, but never got the chance to show during it’s short life span.

C) Most important of all, is to bring back to life the game which people grew to love with such a passion.

** Vanilla refers to an exact replica of SWG live servers at a given moment in time.

They have plans for a beta server to be up and running for final tests, and many believe this will be in just a few short months.  Their progress has greatly increased in the last few months, that it’s not far fetched to believe that they could be completed with the project before 2010.  Last week they moved their main database to a better server, to better prepare for for the release of SunCrusher, what will become their official SWGEmu server.

These past couple of weeks, I have gone back to look around at their progress, and once again was astounded at the amount of work they have done.  Remembering that these people are fans of a once loved and lost game, and take their own time without any financial gain, to rebuild their lost game.  Not just for themselves, but for all of us.  And even though they are facing some new issues with their recent server transfer, the humbled fans do not complain, but wait quietly, knowing that when this project is complete, it will have been worth the wait, and then some.

*Charts courtesy of mmogchart.com

So I figured that I make a little post just to let you know where all the stuff went.  First off, if you found this post than you should know about the recent posts(or past notations) list at the bottom of the page.  Next to that is a short list of external links, a few sites that I watch regularly, then the archives.  Above the archives are two sets of links.  The right set is various things involving me, email address, Steam ID page, and YouTube page.  The left set are the old webcomics I’ve worked on.  Above these is another set of links, those are the various site pages.  CABAL is my computer, and just a listing of what is currently in it.  Screens is a collection of screenshots I’ve taken, currently it’s all TF2, but soon it should be more spread over all my games.  What hey?, is kind of your general FAQ kinda thing.  The list going across the top of the page are the the various categories for these post.  For a quick jump to my most recent post about that topic.  And lastly at the top right of the page are more external links, these are a part of our own little ‘ring’.

I get a day off from work tomorrow and I think I’m gonna go try a few things out in some various areas.  I’ve pick my next game for the Bargin Bin.  I plan to play around a bit in Garry’s Mod tomorrow, which might feed my ideas of a new webcomic.  Only time will tell if any of this will happen around all the ‘real life’ stuff.

Well now that I spent well over five hours redesigning this site, I feel compelled to post something.  Even though I haven’t a clue as to what.  I’m still trying to figure out what it is I want to do.  I’m not planning my next ‘Bargain Bin’ yet, although I do have a few ideas.  I keep coming back to the possibility of a new webcomic, the same idea keeps coming up.  I really want to try some new editing ideas, but I need to learn a lot more, mostly machinima stuff.  Above it all, I have this nagging desireto play KotOR.  I did have a lot of fun building this, I almost feel like changing it again just so I can rewrite all the code and just have fun making it work.

Okay, I’m liking this a bit more, and who knows I might just keep it…

The main purpose of these reviews will be to see if games can stand up to the test of time.  With technology vastly expanding and improving every other month, I ask the question ‘Is it still good?’ 

Quake 2 was created by id Software, and released on November 11th, 1997.  It’s a first-person shooter, and was a pioneer of the genre at its release.  Many games today still use some of the multiplayer functions that were found in Quake 2.

Now, for me Quake 2 was the first first-person shooter that I played.  It was the first online multiplayer game that I played.  It was the first time I used the handle “KoreRat”.  The first time I downloaded extra content for a game.  Quake 2 was a lot of first for me.  So I’d be lying if I said I’m not a bit partial to it.

To start, it’s good to know there are mods for Q2 that bump up the graphics to look more in the area of Quake 3 Arena, along with many other additions.  While I have used these in the past, and they work very well, in my most recent play through I opted against them.  A little more of an old school feel, playing it in software mode with a resolution of 1024×768(windowed).

The game starts; you are part of a massive invasion force attacking the Strogg home planet, Stroggos.  After getting hit by one of your comrades, you find yourself heading in a different direction.  But luck is with you, when an unknown gun opens up on your unit and you are the only solider left in the force.  Crash landing in a base outpost, you are quickly given orders to rendezvous with other squads. 

Now the only place where the game really lacks is in its story.  The story is there, but the only videos you get in between missions are short clips showing where you are and where you’re headed.  The rest of the story is told in audio clips from your radio and by filling the gaps with your mission instructions.

Playing through Q2 again for the first time in a few years was a very reminiscent experience for me.  I found that I still remember where all the secrets were, and all the spots where the Strogg’s jump out at as you pass.  Along with remembering all the times I had played online deathmatch and capture the flag.  A lot of good memories with this game, and perhaps that is why I score Q2 so high.  It’s not just a great game on its own, but, for me at least, it brings about a lot of memories of late night gaming.

After you finish, and defeat the Strogg leader, The Makron.  You find an escape pod, and crash land on the planets moon.  You see a very classic and final clip of your hand rising up from the wreckage of the escape pod, and making a fist.

Two mission packs were made for Quake 2, The Reckoning and Ground Zero.  I played these next.  They both add some new weapons and enemies.  They both have a similar story to the main game, wherein you get separated from your squad on entry, they die, and it’s up to you.  Between the two I prefer Ground Zero more.  The Reckoning feels too rushed and almost tries to hard to be as good.  It also reuses The Makron for the final fight.  Ground Zero on the other hand switches it up on you a bit, with a new final boss, The Black Widow, and having you go in disguise for a short while.

After finishing all three games I did two things; first I successfully convinced my friend to play some co-op with me(first time he had ever played Quake 2), second I searched out and found still active deathmatch servers.

Over all, I would say that even after ten plus years Quake 2 still holds it’s own with many games out today.  If your looking for a great frag fest or a taste of where modern games started, you defently want to check out Quake 2.  You can pick it up on Steam for only $10, and both expansions for $5 each.  If your not sure grab the demo and try it out.

Quake 2 recieves a score of 3.