Feeling a bit curious, I opened my copy of DROD 1.5 about an hour ago just to take a quick look back at what DROD used to be, and watch the ending once more. Then, inspired to go back further in time, I dug out my copy of Webfoot DROD, just to play for a short while.
The result during that single half-hour session was a dose of nostalgia so large that it really caught me by surprise. I have so much of it that I even feel compelled to share it with you, the Forum, so explaining why I am posting this message.
One of the effects of playing the old Webfoot DROD was to make me think of all the coincidences that led me, through time, from the first time I played DROD, to me now sitting here, posting my thoughts in this message. Of course, my first thought was to imagine what might have happened if Erik had not made that decision to try and re-write DROD from scratch once more, a decision that, with retrospect, I'm sure has affected thousands of people in some way and will allow Erik's creation to become famous, like he once intended. If Erik had decided not to, even just once and meant it seriously, none of this would be here today.
I then thought about what mysteriously lucky events had led me to DROD and becoming so involved with it. I guess the starting point of all of it, as I said once long before,
was getting the Smash 100 Games CD (which I think I still have, actually) and discovering the demo of DROD on it. At the time, I didn't actually understand what it was, so after a play or two, I just gave up and forgot about it.
However, the second important thing that happened
was getting the inspiration one day about two years later to find that CD and play DROD just once more (out of curiosity). If I'd not done so, or even ignored it, I would have not discovered the full potential of DROD at all. This is because after that, I completed the demo for the first time (with much elation after beating L3 1S 2W) and then tried to see if I could purchase a copy of DROD for myself, being very impressed by it. Of course, this wasn't possible, as Webfoot had stopped selling DROD by then, so I couldn't buy it anywhere. Luckily, I managed to find it, after a bit of searching, on the Underdogs website, which allowed me to start making further progress into the dungeon.
After reaching L22, some time later, I finally gave up again because manipulating so many mimics was just too difficult for me. I probably would have just stopped entirely for a while,
had I not noticed a little announcement on the DROD.net page calling for testers for the 1.5 alpha release. Although I'd been involved slightly with thinking up a bunch of new challenges for DROD, I was actually afraid of getting too involved, just in case the developers weren't very nice, and the testing process too technical for me, so I didn't apply at first. However, one day shortly after,
I made that important decision to pluck up the courage to ask to join. Had I been refused, I'd probably have not touched DROD for a very long time, but fortunately, this was not so. That particular event was also even more lucky for me, in a way, since shortly after that, the notice went down for more testers, so I just got in as the last tester to join. If I'd discovered DROD even just one or two weeks later, or not dared to ask, I'd have missed that opportunity completely, and never managed to join in on the early stages of the DROD revival, or subsequent events in helping the community grow.
From then on, it was an escalation towards more DRODding. Feeling so involved made me want to contribute as much as I could to the project, so that, I guess, is what definitely made me into the DROD fan posting here right now.
So, I don't know if you can feel my nostalgia, or if you think that perhaps I attach too much emotion to this game to be good for me, but I hope you gain something out of it nonetheless. I don't know if anyone out there feels anything similar, or even wants to reply to this, but I'd like to ask anyway if there were any important coincidences and decisions you made that led you here to DROD. Can you imagine what would have happened if you'd missed them or decided differently?
What did you do to let DROD into your life?
[Edited by agaricus5 at
Local Time:01-05-2005 at 11:22 PM]
Edit: I clarified the
really important bits by putting them in bold.
[Edited by agaricus5 at
Local Time:01-06-2005 at 12:28 AM]
____________________________
Resident Medic/Mycologist
) I finished the 3rd level and battled on to the end with help of kind users. I could not have beat it without them.
) She explained that it was a game called DROD (AE) and she also explained me the meaning of the game. I started playing it and it was really fun!! However, after a few months, I stopped because it was too difficult for me (I'm not very patient) and sometimes I played it but it wasn't actally fun anymore. I almost forgot about it, until one day, my mother downloaded the JtRH demo. It was FANTASTIC!! it had characters, voices and pretty good graphics and many new things. I played it, and I conquered the demo very quick, so I begged my mother for the full JtRH version and she bought it for me. I discovered the forum, and I actually joined it. After a few months, I was done with JtRH and I wanted to see more things of DROD, and I got a Caravelnet Membership. Since then, I couldn't stop anymore, I learned the rules of the forum, I learned how to make scripts, I even participated,in contest. Nowadays, I'm here, writing about how I discovered DROD. I don't know where I would've been if my mother didn't downloaded DROD:AE. DROD sure changed my life.
)
