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Longest running MMORPG ever being rebooted.
Spector88
Member UncommonPosts: 112
Sierra/AOL's MMORPG 'The Realm Online'
The Realm was launched in December 1996 reached it's 20 year anniversary this year, and is still up and running today. The servers however are on their last leg as the language it was written in and the servers themselves are increasingly hard to maintain.
The games original lead programmer Stephen Nichols (Shadowbane, Dungeon Runners) is rebooting a sequel to the game.
The sequel much like the original will be turn based 2D dungeon crawler, beyond that a kick starter campaign and new artwork is on the way. Personally I picture it being a turn based Diablo 2 meets Maple Story type of deal but I'm not sure. He plans on using Spine to bring it up to 2016 graphical standards.
If you ever played Realm, or as a MMORPG enthusiast want to pay respect to one of the first and longest running MMORPG in history of mankind, consider backing this project... While the Realm was never as popular as Ultima I think it is a important piece of the MMORPG history and lineage and really look forward to seeing what Stephen does with this.
Stephen is currently working on artwork and concept drawings etc for the kickstarter coming.
https://www.gofundme.com/the-realm
(Pre kickstarter / perk donations)
Site & forums http://therealm.io/
Kickstarter: ETA February/March 2016
I am not affiliated or associated with the development of the game. I am just a fellow MMORPG player who respects the history and future of The Realm.
Best wishes,
The Realm was launched in December 1996 reached it's 20 year anniversary this year, and is still up and running today. The servers however are on their last leg as the language it was written in and the servers themselves are increasingly hard to maintain.
The games original lead programmer Stephen Nichols (Shadowbane, Dungeon Runners) is rebooting a sequel to the game.
The sequel much like the original will be turn based 2D dungeon crawler, beyond that a kick starter campaign and new artwork is on the way. Personally I picture it being a turn based Diablo 2 meets Maple Story type of deal but I'm not sure. He plans on using Spine to bring it up to 2016 graphical standards.
If you ever played Realm, or as a MMORPG enthusiast want to pay respect to one of the first and longest running MMORPG in history of mankind, consider backing this project... While the Realm was never as popular as Ultima I think it is a important piece of the MMORPG history and lineage and really look forward to seeing what Stephen does with this.
Stephen is currently working on artwork and concept drawings etc for the kickstarter coming.
https://www.gofundme.com/the-realm
(Pre kickstarter / perk donations)
Site & forums http://therealm.io/
Kickstarter: ETA February/March 2016
I am not affiliated or associated with the development of the game. I am just a fellow MMORPG player who respects the history and future of The Realm.
Best wishes,
Comments
I think I paid by the hour... those were the days
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
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Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Yeah. We used to type out our commands...
I never played this but I feel respect for a game that has been running this long and even more so for the people who keep it running.
I've played almost every MMO ever - many off this list (I got the 10 year MMORPG.COM badge sweet!) honestly though, this game has stood up well against time, and has been up and running for 20 years. I think the sequel to this game will be very fun, 2D with splashy flashy attacks (think Final Fantasy) but also a full on MMO with dungeons, pvp, housing (decorate, build etc). If it wasn't a prestigious and well known and original dev Stephen Nichols I wouldn't back it nearly as hard, but I'm very excited. If you love MMORPG's please share the cause and follow the project! The only other game remake that could make me nerd out this hard would be Asherons Call. This is an American gaming history gem.
The forums are very active by long time players in last 72 hours, Stephen has also been very active and responsive and updating all of us how he is contacting art guys and working on the kickstarter information and taking a lot of feedback in.
If this type of thing isn't the purest form of what MMORPG.com should be a bout I don't know what is. I hope MMORPG.com staff considers as this develops highlighting and advertising the project.
Best wishes & happy gaming!
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
You had to mention Dungeon Runners!
Best MMO spoof ever made. The writing was just laugh out loud funny.
I miss it...
They don't require typing any more, though.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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Keep in mind - I get the hesitation completely but Stephen is like THE GUY from this game. He pretty much was the face of the game its first 5 years of existence and was well known and liked by the players. He has a huge track record and is personally handling all this. If it was anyone but him I would be very skeptical, but he waited 15 years to decide to do this and worked on a lot of projects he's serious.
Definitely feel free to follow or get the news from the forums when the kickstarter starts if you want. This is all very early at this point its basically a small 200-300 people from the old game working with Stephen the expansion and marketing will come when the kickstarter comes in a month or so.
I am very picky about MMO's but The Realm to this day in 2016 is just as fun as say - a MapleStory or something like that. Leveling is fun - you can enchant gear - you could house rob people, pvp, pick pocket - lot of ultima online type stuff. I go back about every year or two for a few months and always have a lot of fun and that's saying something when AAA titles are so dumbed down and boring after 2 hours.
Thanks all for taking the time to look.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
The term MMORPG was coined around the time Realm, Ultima and some games were out - there wasn't any game as massive as todays games back then. The Realm had about 10,000 players at one time, and was stable at about 2,000 players one on server for quite some time and hovered around 400-600 online until the mid 2000's.
To be fair, by your explanation MMORPG's didn't exist until LONG after MMORPG term was used. For its time when dial up and really no online games existed. Anything over 100 online people was MASSIVE, you have to consider how cutting edge it was for its time period.
Stephen plans on this sequel to be cross platform for phones and also on Steam
https://www.gofundme.com/the-realm
He sees the potential in this game just like we do. The game could explode on phones/tablets/pc and I am pumped to see what one of THE ORIGINAL producers of the game is going to do. Anyone who loved this game as their first MMORPG like I did will be super pumped to see this.
To give feedback on moderation, contact mikeb@mmorpg.com
'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.
When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.
No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.
How to become a millionaire:
Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.
Also, Dungeon Runners... God dammit NCSoft. Yet another fun and interesting game by a western dev that they killed off with their apathy and piss poor marketing. I miss my bling gnome. Oh, and the banker who sounded like Schwarzenegger.
"This bank is impre-... impregn... HARD TO GET INTO!"
Also, Captain Pollution, with powers like burning tires and yellow snow. Which are still better than heart.
AN' DERE AIN'T NO SUCH FING AS ENUFF DAKKA, YA GROT! Enuff'z more than ya got an' less than too much an' there ain't no such fing as too much dakka. Say dere is, and me Squiggoff'z eatin' tonight!
We are born of the blood. Made men by the blood. Undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open. FEAR THE OLD BLOOD.
#IStandWithVic
much respect to the original game however,having 25k accounts would be something.1995/6 that is right around the time gaming was just starting to take off but an online mmorpg was not popularized at all yet.
That is the same time all the big online entertainment ideas were taking off ,like Battle.net and my fave Heat.net and of course TEN "total entertainment network".So it seems that year of 95/96 was the starting point of mainstream gaming and Realm was one of the leaders and yet sadly i did not know of it but i was more a fps gamer to start and any notion of continuous payments would be a definite no.
I am curious to know if it began with users on 28.8 or 33.6?I ask because i don't think 56k was all that popular yet.LOL imagine playing an online rpg with 28.8 modems and having to configure your entire setup from a floppy disk,freeing up memory,sound card etc etc.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.