Rewind a little more than a year and a half... the game was closing down. My son, about 3.5 years old, and my daughter, then a little more than 6, sat down with me to enjoy the last few weeks of the game. We made about a dozen characters (for some reason, all Huge body type) and ran the starting missions in Praetoria. They got to know about offensive and defensive powers, learning attacks from Dark Melee and shields from Fiery Aura. After the game shut down, we actually ran a few missions "live", with me playing the part of both the contact and the big bad boss.
Eventually, we ran out of steam on that, and City of Heroes (or "Fireman" as the kids called it, as their favorite characters all used Fire in some way) started to fade from our memories. Or so I thought.
Yesterday, I was playing something else on my desktop computer, and my son, now 5, remembered "Fireman". "We could play that game instead," he told me, an excited gleam in his eye.
"Actually," I said sadly, "we can't. They stopped making the game, so it won't run anymore."
"Even if it doesn't play, we could look at the guys," my son pleaded.
"I don't think that will work," I said, and proved it by trying to launch the game. Sure enough it complained of unreachable servers and crashed immediately afterwards. "They'd have to start running more computers somewhere else," I explained. "At this point, they'd probably have to build it again from scratch."
"But you run computers! At work!" My son's face lit up at this thought.
"Yes, but we don't make this game at my job. And even if we did, it would take, I dunno, five years for us to rebuild it."
"You just have to get a different job! Then you can go to work and build Fireman again!"
"Uh..."
"And in five years I will be ten years old!" (My son the mathematician.) "When I am ten years old I can play Fireman again!"
I went by the old offices of Paragon Studios today, thinking about all this. It's still empty; more than eighteen months later they haven't found replacement tenants. Part of me thinks, Hell, yeah, get the band back together. The front meeting room is still labeled Justice. But realistically, I'm not in a position to ditch my job to chase this particular dream. At least, not right now.
I tell you what, though: When my son is ten years old, I'll teach him how to write code. If he's still interested, we may try our hand at doing something that captures some of the magic of CoH.
Peace.
- Mind Forever Burning
Quote from: kgiesing on June 24, 2014, 03:44:07 AM
"Even if it doesn't play, we could look at the guys," my son pleaded.
"I don't think that will work," I said, and proved it by trying to launch the game.
Ta-dah! Codewalker's awesome Icon (http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,7288.0.html). It doesn't unlock anything that was ran by the servers, but it does allow you to make a character and explore the maps.
Quote"At this point, they'd probably have to build it again from scratch."
Along with non-stop efforts to convince NCSoft to sell the game, there is a project to create an emulator (although it's not being publicized for obvious reasons).
Quote from: Tacitala on June 24, 2014, 05:10:54 AM
Ta-dah! Codewalker's awesome Icon (http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,7288.0.html). It doesn't unlock anything that was ran by the servers, but it does allow you to make a character and explore the maps.
Along with non-stop efforts to convince NCSoft to sell the game, there is a project to create an emulator (although it's not being publicized for obvious reasons).
I think it's 3 emulator projects now -- I guess SEGS is still going, there's another one in public called "woofers", and that other one that we haven't heard anything out of for a while (I don't know if they're still going or not).
http://www.reddit.com/r/Cityofheroes/comments/27fzjb/are_you_a_programmer_we_need_you/
Emulator is a terrible word for this. Stop using it. (-:
The live servers had such horrific issues that emulating those would be a disservice to humanity. What we're looking at is a server compatible with the client.
Oh wait, let me rephrase. "What we'd need is a server" is what I meant to say.
Quote from: GuyPerfect on June 24, 2014, 02:59:27 PM
Emulator is a terrible word for this. Stop using it. (-:
The live servers had such horrific issues that emulating those would be a disservice to humanity. What we're looking at is a server compatible with the client.
Oh wait, let me rephrase. "What we'd need is a server" is what I meant to say.
Yes. Please do this now! I give you my gracious permission to fulfill my perfectly reasonable desire to have this immediately. I will allow you to take time to eat and sleep, but only if you must.
Quote from: Ohioknight on June 24, 2014, 12:00:33 PMI think it's 3 emulator projects now -- I guess SEGS is still going, there's another one in public called "woofers", and that other one that we haven't heard anything out of for a while (I don't know if they're still going or not).
You mean SCORE? It won't release anything until it's finished. That much was made clear.
Quote from: The Fifth Horseman on June 24, 2014, 08:10:54 PM
You mean SCORE? It won't release anything until it's finished. That much was made clear.
No no, I never said that. I said that it won't release anything until it has enough working that pressing buttons actually does something.
Quote from: GuyPerfect on June 24, 2014, 02:59:27 PM
Emulator is a terrible word for this. Stop using it. (-:
For what it's worth, you can still call it an emulator around me. I know what you mean, and as long as City of Heroes is running again, I'm guessing people will call it a smorglebossum if that's what it takes to download and run it.
TonyV, no matter what happens I hope that SCORE will continue, even if you choose to do nothing with it if the game comes back, so that we will never again lose our city.
Quote from: TonyV on June 25, 2014, 03:06:47 AM
... people will call it a smorglebossum if that's what it takes ...
...mmm, smorglebossum...
Quote from: Tacitala on June 24, 2014, 05:10:54 AM
Ta-dah! Codewalker's awesome Icon (http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,7288.0.html). It doesn't unlock anything that was ran by the servers, but it does allow you to make a character and explore the maps.
Wow, I didn't realize. Thanks! I will check it out.
Codewalker, you rock.
When it re-launches, I say we have a server named smorglebossum.
And there are the three successor efforts as well.
Quote from: TonyV on June 25, 2014, 03:06:47 AM
smorglebossum
Now
that's a challenge for the costume contest thread.
Quote from: kgiesing on June 24, 2014, 03:44:07 AM
"Even if it doesn't play, we could look at the guys," my son pleaded.
"But you run computers! At work!" My son's face lit up at this thought.
"And in five years I will be ten years old!" (My son the mathematician.) "When I am ten years old I can play Fireman again!"
Peace.
- Mind Forever Burning
Sad, how do you tell a child somethings not do-able? It's heartbreaking. :-[
Sorry to hear this story, I'm sure there are many similar tales as I met many kids who played
CoH.
Quote from: TonyV on June 25, 2014, 03:06:47 AMI'm guessing people will call it a smorglebossum if that's what it takes to download and run it.
Just remember Tony! This was all your fault!
Quote from: TonyV on June 25, 2014, 03:06:47 AMNo no, I never said that. I said that it won't release anything until it has enough working that pressing buttons actually does something.
I'm fairly sure I remember someone saying that.
Ah, whatever. Might just be early onset dementia. :p
Quote from: kgiesing on June 24, 2014, 03:44:07 AM
I went by the old offices of Paragon Studios today, thinking about all this. It's still empty; more than eighteen months later they haven't found replacement tenants. Part of me thinks, Hell, yeah, get the band back together. The front meeting room is still labeled Justice. But realistically, I'm not in a position to ditch my job to chase this particular dream. At least, not right now.
I think you need to post some pics of this!
Quote from: Mageman on June 29, 2014, 11:12:29 PM
I think you need to post some pics of this!
There's not much to see, but here you go:
http://dropbox.dauba-dauba.net/Paragon-outside.jpg (http://dropbox.dauba-dauba.net/Paragon-outside.jpg)
http://dropbox.dauba-dauba.net/Paragon-inside.jpg (http://dropbox.dauba-dauba.net/Paragon-inside.jpg)
If you zoom in on the second picture you can just make out the conference room's name.
PS. I hope no one got the impression that I've ever worked for Paragon Studios. I just happen to live nearby.
Quote from: kgiesing on June 30, 2014, 02:27:06 AM
There's not much to see, but here you go:
http://dropbox.dauba-dauba.net/Paragon-outside.jpg (http://dropbox.dauba-dauba.net/Paragon-outside.jpg)
http://dropbox.dauba-dauba.net/Paragon-inside.jpg (http://dropbox.dauba-dauba.net/Paragon-inside.jpg)
If you zoom in on the second picture you can just make out the conference room's name.
PS. I hope no one got the impression that I've ever worked for Paragon Studios. I just happen to live nearby.
How did you figure out how to use /noclip (http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,9990.0.html) in real life? ???
Quote from: Blondeshell on June 30, 2014, 02:44:49 AM
How did you figure out how to use /noclip (http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,9990.0.html) in real life? ???
As it turns out, in real life, windows are transparent ;)
Quote from: kgiesing on June 30, 2014, 04:06:35 AM
As it turns out, in real life, windows are transparent ;)
Heh, well, yeah. I was referencing the fact that your pics were upside-down, similar to how the City Hall reflections were created in the linked thread.
Quote from: kgiesing on June 30, 2014, 02:27:06 AM
If you zoom in on the second picture you can just make out the conference room's name.
I hope the new tenants think that a super group used to work in those offices, and start searching for evidence of gadgets and other things in their new digs...
Quote from: Blondeshell on July 05, 2014, 05:00:38 PM
Heh, well, yeah. I was referencing the fact that your pics were upside-down, similar to how the City Hall reflections were created in the linked thread.
...? The pics aren't upside down... o.o