[Ohrrpgce] More sleuthing into the first OHR release

[James Paige]

I remember I made that whole site in a text editor and tested it only with
Lynx. Netscape wouldn't run on my computer back then

On Monday, May 15, 2017, Michael Kidder <mkidder at gmail.com> wrote:

> Yeah, the first time I ever downloaded it was off the cyberverse website.
> I still vaguely remember what the site looked like back then even without
> checking wayback.
>
> On Fri, May 12, 2017 at 12:41 AM, Ralph Versteegen <teeemcee at gmail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','teeemcee at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On 12 May 2017 at 17:39, Ralph Versteegen <teeemcee at gmail.com
>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','teeemcee at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 12 May 2017 at 16:22, James Paige <Bob at hamsterrepublic.com
>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Bob at hamsterrepublic.com');>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I think the first release would have been a custom.zip uploaded to some
>>>> location under http://www.cyberverse.com/~spam/ which was my site
>>>> before the hamsterrepublic.com domain was ever registered. It probably
>>>> happened in late 1996, or early 1997 and it would have been announced in an
>>>> off-topic thread on the forums for the Verge RPG maker.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Oh, interesting. I had a look on archive.org (in the beta version they
>>> have a keyword search you can use to find all websites on a topic, but it
>>> still missin
>>>
>> Err, it's still missing nearly all individual sites for OHR games. And I
>> couldn't find any old verge forums (which would have been very unlikely to
>> have been archived anyway)
>>
>>> But you mean late 1997/early 1998. The 20th anniversary of the first
>>> release is still some time away. The 20th anniversary of the start of the
>>> OHR was most of a year ago.
>>>
>>>
>>>> I don't think sample.rpg and npc_tag.rpg existed in the first release,
>>>> just wander.rpg
>>>>
>>>
>>> In that case I'm inclined to guesstimate a release date of early Jan
>>> 1998 or Dec 1997.
>>>
>>>
>>>> I know the BAM format pre-dates the ohrrpgce, and was first used for
>>>> Bob the Hamster VGA... that was probably 1994 or 1995? I Think notate was
>>>> from then too, so timestamps on notate-related files probably aren't
>>>> helpful.
>>>>
>>>
>>> But those files were touched within a month or two of the release, and I
>>> thought there might have been a link, althogh you've almost certainly
>>> forgotten that now.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> I know development definitely started in 1996, in the summer after I
>>>> graduated from high school. I know I didn't upload it for a while, and I
>>>> think I uploaded wh_demo.zip a few months before uploading custom, but I
>>>> really don't remember for sure.
>>>>
>>>> If I had to pick an arbitrary birth-day for the ohrrpgce, I would
>>>> estimate that the 20th anniversary already happened at least a few months
>>>> ago.
>>>>
>>>
>>>> However, but brain is well known to be fuzzy, and I think that a better
>>>> and more satisfying birthday would probably be whatever first release we
>>>> actually still have hard evidence of, even if it isn't the actual first.
>>>>
>>>
>>> In that case, might as well use Nov 6 1997, the Wandering Hamster demo,
>>> which can still be downloaded and played. It wasn't the first release of
>>> WH, though.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, May 11, 2017 at 8:35 PM, Ralph Versteegen <teeemcee at gmail.com
>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','teeemcee at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I haven't any new information, but am still trying to figure out when
>>>>> the first release was. The 20th anniversary is coming up and maybe we
>>>>> should pick a nominal point (period?) at which to celebrate. :)  There was
>>>>> a WH demo on Nov 6 1997, so it was after that.
>>>>>
>>>>> I noticed that in the earliest source backup the zz_486.bat file,
>>>>> which packages wh_demo.zip and custom.zip, has a timestamp of Jan 26  1998.
>>>>> I'm guessing that this timestamp corresponds to a release, unless it's
>>>>> after the first release and James was adding some new files. It includes
>>>>> sample.rpg and npc_tag.rpg; would the first release have included those?
>>>>> When was the HOWTO written? Also, cleanup.bat, to move files into import/
>>>>> if the unzip didn't preserve folders, has a Jan 14 timestamp. The oldest
>>>>> surviving .rpg file is April 30th.
>>>>>
>>>>> Other timestamps which might be relevant:
>>>>>      1246  11-26-1997 17:06   IMPORT/DECOLD.BAM
>>>>>     73980  11-27-1997 07:00   IMPORT/NOTATE.EXE
>>>>>     30588  12-18-1997 20:19   IMPORT/PLAYBAM.EXE
>>>>>     33414  01-15-1998 14:53   IMPORT/TEMPLATE.NOT
>>>>>
>>>>> Also, in an old custom.zip:
>>>>>      1543  07-07-1996 12:47   ohrrpgce.mas
>>>>> The Timeline article says OHRRPGCE development started in 1996.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> (Relatedly, I haven't spliced those two additional old backups of the
>>>>> OHR source into the git log yet but will. This time I might use git-replace
>>>>> instead of rewriting history.)
>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>
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