Mycal
Staff member
I noticed recently that Mirage Source has finally died. I'm a little sad about this. I remember when Shannara (2nd owner) was selling the source code and I put a few bids out there but was entirely outbid by some know-nothing kid. I even remember when the source went public and I was apart of the community for awhile before giving up on it and starting from scratch (the first or second time I think, wow how many rewrites have we had now?). I can't find a way to contact the current owner to express interest in buying the domain/rights so that's a lost cause, but I think that little community had immense promise. Playerworlds and MirageSource had merged for awhile there I think, so they are now both dead.
I've known about Odyssey's death for awhile, but does anyone know the story on this one? Nearly all of the people on my buddy list from the Odyssey days have been offline for years now, so I can't ask any of them. And it also seems Steverino hasn't signed on in about 5 years. Battlebob's version still seems to be going strong at odysseyclassic.com.
So with all three of these engines dead (Mirage, Playerworlds, Odyssey), I can't help but wander where the communities for each have gone. And while it may sound like a fairly big task, I've been thinking, I have one of the last versions of Steverino's source (he personally sent it to me, and before you ask, he did ask that I not give it out) minus the server registry. If I were to make a new server registry (necessary since he didn't give me the source for that), would anyone still use it? I would love to bring that community back to life. I can't guarantee constant updates after the new registry goes online simply because the source is in VB6, but I can update it every now and then with small bug fixes and features.
Plus it would get our name out there and establish a user base before we officially release BSGame (as it's codenamed for now). Unless anyone can give me a reason not to, I think I'm going to go ahead and create the server registry in full VB.Net and leave the server and client in VB6 for now. Maybe somewhere down the line I'll convert it, but it's doubtful. That code is horribly messy.
I wish I could get Steverino's approval or refusal before attempting this, but I have absolutely no way of contacting him anymore. I don't believe Battlebob ever got official approval from anyone to create his, so I don't think we have any worries about interference or legal issues from him (especially since he is a known hacker with Odyssey).
I've known about Odyssey's death for awhile, but does anyone know the story on this one? Nearly all of the people on my buddy list from the Odyssey days have been offline for years now, so I can't ask any of them. And it also seems Steverino hasn't signed on in about 5 years. Battlebob's version still seems to be going strong at odysseyclassic.com.
So with all three of these engines dead (Mirage, Playerworlds, Odyssey), I can't help but wander where the communities for each have gone. And while it may sound like a fairly big task, I've been thinking, I have one of the last versions of Steverino's source (he personally sent it to me, and before you ask, he did ask that I not give it out) minus the server registry. If I were to make a new server registry (necessary since he didn't give me the source for that), would anyone still use it? I would love to bring that community back to life. I can't guarantee constant updates after the new registry goes online simply because the source is in VB6, but I can update it every now and then with small bug fixes and features.
Plus it would get our name out there and establish a user base before we officially release BSGame (as it's codenamed for now). Unless anyone can give me a reason not to, I think I'm going to go ahead and create the server registry in full VB.Net and leave the server and client in VB6 for now. Maybe somewhere down the line I'll convert it, but it's doubtful. That code is horribly messy.
I wish I could get Steverino's approval or refusal before attempting this, but I have absolutely no way of contacting him anymore. I don't believe Battlebob ever got official approval from anyone to create his, so I don't think we have any worries about interference or legal issues from him (especially since he is a known hacker with Odyssey).