This is one of them “back in my day” posts, reader be warned.
Just like many others, I used to be very active in the old forum between 2012 and 2016, and I just wonder if anybody is still around and well.
In case anyone from back then is here and remembers, I am the guy that had printed two custom t-shirts with drawings someone had created digitally and uploaded on the forum, one of Duvessa putting Dowan in a headlock and one of Gastrodon. I wish I could find the person that drew those and thank them again. I believe I still have the one with the Elf twins, though it’s very worn out.
Last week I had a kidney surgery and I am going to be off work for a while now. So I have been asking chatgpt about dcss a lot today and it even referenced minmay, which made me laugh. That guy was truly iconic. Then I started looking for our old forum.
As you can see in the image, fragments of our old threads can be found on archive.org, but the posts I have tried to load snapshots of are inaccessible, sadly. I’d love to see our old content!
And I miss our custom titles!!! Mine was “Eringya’s Employee”. Thank you, Grimm, for bestowing that title to me. It’s been ten years, hope our dear Mountain Dwarf is still kicking.
Gosh I feel like every game I end up playing I missed the golden age of. I only got into DCSS in 2021 or so. And didn’t get on a forum until last year.
Yeah, I believe I remember your username. Were you using a mangrove sprite?
some usernames I vividly remember were:
@tasonir the Naga of Chei transmutations specialist (very fond of statue form)
myothehedgefox the super wholesome friendly Russian dude who told me about obscure games like Space Rangers and Eador, and brought chiptune music to my attention
Cerebovssquire - very passionate about game mechanics
Grimm - MDFi enthusiast, later became a mod, great dude in general
Well, that was a different user then, but it’s good to hear from other players. Man, my first games of dcss were on 0.6 and all I remember is… tons of bees.
And still, those voices are calling from far away
Wake you up in the middle of the night just to hear them say
Welcome to the Hotel California
I was active in the old tavern too, using the Quenya form of Turgon, Turukano. (Players familiar with the mythology of J.R.R. Tolkien will know that there are two Elven languages, Quenya and Sindarin.)
Many interesting topics from the old tavern seem to be lost. So I restarted a few topics here in CYC: Famous last words / Which bad advice would you give a player you don’t like? / Three steps to win the game / Limericks.
I wonder if other players remember some more topics from the old tavern.
Turukano definitely rings a bell, you probably were around the forum even before I got into it. Can’t say I am intimately familiar with Tolkien’s Elven languages, however my best friend in highschool did enjoy studying Quenya and even used a name based on it for his PC in high fantasy RPGs, digital and tabletop.
I have strayed from Crawl for a long time but now getting back into it, I played a ton of it this past week, when I got the time to.
One thing I think everyone will agree on, is how crazy it is that many of us have so many games we have bought, yet, most of our gaming time is absorbed by this totally free game. The “one more run” effect is definitely strong with this one.
A few days ago I had a look at the computer I used until 2009. I copied some files - including a folder called “crawl”.
Obviously I started playing crawl in 2008. This was version 0.3, it was console and offline. I found two games I won (I think I won three):
NaCj of Vehumet:
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.3.3 (crawl-ref) character file.
1164524 Turgon the Annihilator (level 27, 146/146 HPs)
Began as a Naga Conjurer on July 21, 2008.
Was the Champion of Vehumet.
Escaped with the Orb
… and 4 runes (of 4 types) on Aug 3, 2008!
Turgon's game lasted 23:25:12 (186372 turns).
SEEE of Sif Muna:
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.3.3 (crawl-ref) character file.
1380600 Turgon the Petrodigitator (level 27, 113/113 (115) HPs)
Began as a Sludge Elf Earth Elementalist on Aug 15, 2008.
Was the Champion of Sif Muna.
Escaped with the Orb
… and 3 runes (of 3 types) on Aug 18, 2008!
Turgon's game lasted 21:22:08 (208483 turns).
I remember that poison arrow was extremely strong. According to wiki 60% of its damage was irresistable in these days. Just run around and shoot everything you can see.
I remember one of my chars went into pan but was slain shortly afterwards by a 1 whatever this was supposed to be. Another char entered the hells but left it quickly (I had no idea about hell effects or torment).
Somehow I came to webtiles in November 2011. This was online, this was graphics and there was a new branch which looked like a beach… Yes, Shoals were added in 0.6. And there was an extra level I never saw before called “Sewer”.
Voices from the past. And there were spells like identify, haste, dig, magic mapping and whatnot in these years…
Player characters had much less HP than they do now, huh? Or is it just an absence of fighting skill since they are spellcasters? At level 27 the naga should have more hp at least. Interesting, see I have joined after 0.6 and I am not sure if hp was lower in the previous versions…? And I mostly played during 0.10-0.12, tbh.
