Returning Old Guards....the Dreamcasters and Cubers! <3 How? Why? ....

[phantasystarved]

I could have sworn I had posted in this thread before, but I guess not!

Ok, so... We have a ton of people from Michigan here for whatever reason - maybe someone here ran into me before. Phantasy Star Online came out for the Dreamcast during my tenure as Head Manager at the Wizards of the Coast retail store at Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi, which was open for four years until they decided to shutter all their stores. This is relevant because not only did we sell video games, but we had a LAN area with eight PCs and two stations for video games for rental, including a couple of Dreamcasts. We played many off-hour sessions of Halflife: Opposing Force, Diablo II, Day of Defeat, Unreal Tournament and Everquest on that LAN, let me tell you. I have so many great memories from working there.

Confession time, my friends. I so totally failed. Ed, one of my part-time employees and ace Pokemon tournament organizers, walked in with Phantasy Star Online shortly after the US release. Showed it to me on our Dreamcast. Admitted he was going on three hours of sleep a night because it was so good. It certainly looked like a fun game to me, and I was tempted to purchase it even though I hadn't really used my Dreamcast much up until that point. Did I really want to get into another involved game? I was already part of a raiding guild in Everquest, I worked fifty hours a week at WotC, I had a regular D&D group, and my wife had just given birth to our youngest daughter just two weeks earlier. I decided my plate was too full already for another online game, and passed on getting it. For shame, am I right!?

So I missed the whole Dreamcast era, which would have been great to experience. However, I would get another chance.

Enter my friend Mike. Hey, do you know about PSO he said, I just picked it up the new version out on XBOX, let's get the gang together and play it since it has four player co-op! Sure, sounds like fun, let's order pizza and make a night of it! Well, one night became a campaign that lasted more than a week, until we all beat Dark Falz together. That's right, everybody, my first experience playing the game was actually four player splitscreen on the XBOX, how many people can say that. I immediately knew that I had to have this game for myself, but XBOX controllers made my hands cramp up, so I got the Gamecube version instead.

It's so funny to think back to my first games, now that I've logged literally thousands of hours into PSO across all the platforms. My first character was a Pinkal Ramar, which is arguably the worst combination of class and ID that one can choose. Over time, I've obtained soundtracks, art books, wall scrolls, framed my PSO Nintendo Power posters, and even went back and played the Dreamcast version that I had missed. There's a lot of good games out there, but man, no other game comes close to PSO. It's not the perfect game, but it's the perfect game for me.

 

[Harborer of Hope]

I could have sworn I had posted in this thread before, but I guess not!

Ok, so... We have a ton of people from Michigan here for whatever reason - maybe someone here ran into me before. Phantasy Star Online came out for the Dreamcast during my tenure as Head Manager at the Wizards of the Coast retail store at Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi, which was open for four years until they decided to shutter all their stores. This is relevant because not only did we sell video games, but we had a LAN area with eight PCs and two stations for video games for rental, including a couple of Dreamcasts. We played many off-hour sessions of Halflife: Opposing Force, Diablo II, Day of Defeat, Unreal Tournament and Everquest on that LAN, let me tell you. I have so many great memories from working there.

Confession time, my friends. I so totally failed. Ed, one of my part-time employees and ace Pokemon tournament organizers, walked in with Phantasy Star Online shortly after the US release. Showed it to me on our Dreamcast. Admitted he was going on three hours of sleep a night because it was so good. It certainly looked like a fun game to me, and I was tempted to purchase it even though I hadn't really used my Dreamcast much up until that point. Did I really want to get into another involved game? I was already part of a raiding guild in Everquest, I worked fifty hours a week at WotC, I had a regular D&D group, and my wife had just given birth to our youngest daughter just two weeks earlier. I decided my plate was too full already for another online game, and passed on getting it. For shame, am I right!?

So I missed the whole Dreamcast era, which would have been great to experience. However, I would get another chance.

Enter my friend Mike. Hey, do you know about PSO he said, I just picked it up the new version out on XBOX, let's get the gang together and play it since it has four player co-op! Sure, sounds like fun, let's order pizza and make a night of it! Well, one night became a campaign that lasted more than a week, until we all beat Dark Falz together. That's right, everybody, my first experience playing the game was actually four player splitscreen on the XBOX, how many people can say that. I immediately knew that I had to have this game for myself, but XBOX controllers made my hands cramp up, so I got the Gamecube version instead.

It's so funny to think back to my first games, now that I've logged literally thousands of hours into PSO across all the platforms. My first character was a Pinkal Ramar, which is arguably the worst combination of class and ID that one can choose. Over time, I've obtained soundtracks, art books, wall scrolls, framed my PSO Nintendo Power posters, and even went back and played the Dreamcast version that I had missed. There's a lot of good games out there, but man, no other game comes close to PSO. It's not the perfect game, but it's the perfect game for me.

You weren't Wrong in the least for putting off PSO for spending every waking moment with your new Baby girl dear! Mew's pretty sure MOMMY needed just as much attention too! <3 Mew had heard that epic name of "Wizards of the Coast" tossed around quite a bit 15+ years ago! Not sure if it was from players online or IRL friends mentioning it. It's a shame stores like that are so few and in between. But now a days you can find everything u want thru online stores where ppl dont have to worry about leasing a store in a shopping mall or plaza JUST to sell tiny figurines or naked nekogirl model kits >=3.
Mew can relate to your years long affinity for this wonderful game. Though mew was never a teen when she first picked this up or 10 years old....But, mew had played with teens and young folk back then, and she plays PSO with Their kids! ='). Wouldn't be suprised if mew had actually played with u before at one point. =3

 

[phantasystarved]

You weren't Wrong in the least for putting off PSO for spending every waking moment with your new Baby girl dear! Mew's pretty sure MOMMY needed just as much attention too! <3 Mew had heard that epic name of "Wizards of the Coast" tossed around quite a bit 15+ years ago! Not sure if it was from players online or IRL friends mentioning it. It's a shame stores like that are so few and in between. But now a days you can find everything u want thru online stores where ppl dont have to worry about leasing a store in a shopping mall or plaza JUST to sell tiny figurines or naked nekogirl model kits >=3.
Mew can relate to your years long affinity for this wonderful game. Though mew was never a teen when she first picked this up or 10 years old....But, mew had played with teens and young folk back then, and she plays PSO with Their kids! ='). Wouldn't be suprised if mew had actually played with u before at one point. =3

You're absolutely correct about the emergence of online stores driving brick and mortar stores out of business - that's what happened to Kay-Bee, Babbages, and Electronics Boutiques I used to work at - but the demise of WotC stores, sadly, could have been avoided. They were a great company to work with in a lot of ways and were very generous with their employees (I have so many great stories from going to Manager meetings in their Renton, WA headquarters) but they were a game design company at heart, and didn't have anyone with a sense for the retail industry.

Instead of hiring some outside help in order to break into this new venue, they forwent any consultation and built these huge, elaborate stores that looked great, sure, but they were way too expensive to maintain. Mall rent is notoriously pricey, and they didn't negotiate with mall owners at all, they just naively asked what the cost was and paid for it. It was the apex of the Pokemon card craze, and WotC was flush with cash, so for a year or so all that Pokemon money covered up a lot of bad business decisions, not the least of which was their decision to expand to ninety stores nationwide over the first year without having a firm grasp on the effect of all that money they were spending. Once the Pokemon money slowed down, you had managers like me stuck with stores that cost over a million dollars a year in rent and utilities, and absolutely no way to sell that much merchandise. I had initiated negotiations between WotC staff and mall staff in order to try to downscale my location to a spot where I knew I could turn a profit, but then Hasbro bought the entire company who took one look at the retail division and said, nope. My store was closed in January 2003.

On a happier note, you probably ran into me AND both my daughters if you ever played PSO on the GameCube using SCHT's server about four to eight years ago. They actually played online more than I did. I think the names they usually went by were Shelbiez and Vanilla, but like me they had so many characters that I can't say for sure. My eldest has always favored Fonewearls, and my youngest, Hucaseals. I'll try to get them online in Ephinea one of these days, maybe we can all have a go at Dark Falz together soon!

Edit: Oh, and now my youngest, my PSO baby who was born within days of the US release, is now entering High School as part of the Class of 2020. How time flies!

 

[Harborer of Hope]

You're absolutely correct about the emergence of online stores driving brick and mortar stores out of business - that's what happened to Kay-Bee, Babbages, and Electronics Boutiques I used to work at - but the demise of WotC stores, sadly, could have been avoided. They were a great company to work with in a lot of ways and were very generous with their employees (I have so many great stories from going to Manager meetings in their Renton, WA headquarters) but they were a game design company at heart, and didn't have anyone with a sense for the retail industry.

Instead of hiring some outside help in order to break into this new venue, they forwent any consultation and built these huge, elaborate stores that looked great, sure, but they were way too expensive to maintain. Mall rent is notoriously pricey, and they didn't negotiate with mall owners at all, they just naively asked what the cost was and paid for it. It was the apex of the Pokemon card craze, and WotC was flush with cash, so for a year or so all that Pokemon money covered up a lot of bad business decisions, not the least of which was their decision to expand to ninety stores nationwide over the first year without having a firm grasp on the effect of all that money they were spending. Once the Pokemon money slowed down, you had managers like me stuck with stores that cost over a million dollars a year in rent and utilities, and absolutely no way to sell that much merchandise. I had initiated negotiations between WotC staff and mall staff in order to try to downscale my location to a spot where I knew I could turn a profit, but then Hasbro bought the entire company who took one look at the retail division and said, nope. My store was closed in January 2003.

On a happier note, you probably ran into me AND both my daughters if you ever played PSO on the GameCube using SCHT's server about four to eight years ago. They actually played online more than I did. I think the names they usually went by were Shelbiez and Vanilla, but like me they had so many characters that I can't say for sure. My eldest has always favored Fonewearls, and my youngest, Hucaseals. I'll try to get them online in Ephinea one of these days, maybe we can all have a go at Dark Falz together soon!

Edit: Oh, and now my youngest, my PSO baby who was born within days of the US release, is now entering High School as part of the Class of 2020. How time flies!

*wipes her wet eyes* Mew'd be Happy and proud to pounce and play wiff you and your clan dear (Unless she's already done/doing so =P)! Mew herself had played often on GC Scht for a while, alongside the legendary Cranberry FOney ='). Hope to see you soon! <3

 

[mfusion66]

It was by chance that I even got this game in the first place. A friend sold me his DC, then we went to the shop to see what game I would buy for it. PSO was there for a good price and I took a chance.

Never played online...I just sat and zoned out for hours offline. Loved the music, the exploration and wondering what would drop. Even when I made it to ultimate and pretty much knew what to expect, I'd still look forward to playing. There's something special about this game.

I've long since sold the DC but I picked up 1+2 when I got a GC. I bought C.A.R.D. also but could never get into it. Now I finally gave this server a try and it's wonderful Thanks for being here.

 

[horsewish]

I started playing on the Gamecube, and I think I was turned on to it through the Nintendo Power magazines. It was my friend, my sister and I who all played together offline. We may have been too young to appreciate some of the finer points of the game at the time (Mag stats comes to mind), but I'll always look fondly on the memories of our time spent together from Forest to Seabed and how excited we got whenever a mysterious SPECIAL WEAPON would appear. We had since stopped playing the game in our teens.

A month or so ago now (and in my mid twenties) my friend who I had played with back then randomly tells me that there are private servers where people are playing PSO. It intrigues me so I do some reading and the nostalgia started kicking in instantly. I downloaded the Ephinea client and here we are . My friend and I have now put 60+ hours in, and we are having a ton of fun playing and learning far more than we ever knew about this amazing game. It is no longer just nostalgia, but the rare mags, the music, grinding for the rare items we want (need!) and so much more. We are very happy to be able to play again .

 

[phantasystarved]

A friend sold me his DC, then we went to the shop to see what game I would buy for it. PSO was there for a good price and I took a chance. Even when I made it to ultimate and pretty much knew what to expect, I'd still look forward to playing.

Oh man, Ultimate difficulty on the Dreamcast was brutal.

 

[Microwave]

I've come back because I've heard about dolphin 5.0 and wanted to try it out, figured maybe with a major update I could finally get it to work properly with PSO GC and get it online to play. Good news it did work and worked very well. Bad news is PSO GC is basically dead unless you want to form meet ups which is hard to do because everyone has different schedules. I got to about 80-90 mainly offline with some online play when given the chance. I asked an old friend which I knew had PSO GC if he wanted to play but his characters were lost due to corruption and he suggested playing over here instead. I kinda grumbled because of all the progress that I made on GC would be moot. Needless to say my progress was moot because it was a dead platform so I made the switch anyways.

Why play PSO over modern games? Because WoW has been sub-par since 2010 especially in the PVP department, Overwatch is shallow, final fantasy is not my cup of tea, No man's skies is too shallow to even be considered shallow and destiny is a console game. More importantly I'm getting older, and playing this old game makes me feel younger and brings me back to a time where I didn't have to worry about things as much.

 

[shadowflare60]

Dreamcast player here (2.0). I own the original disc and dc still too, still fire up my level 200 RaMar once in a while.

Nostalgia had me return in all honesty. I was playing phantasy star portable 2 infinity, and a mission that sent you back to ragol to defeat olga flow along side red ring rico made me remember the struggle. So I decided to google private servers, and found here.

 

[Harborer of Hope]

Dreamcast player here (2.0). I own the original disc and dc still too, still fire up my level 200 RaMar once in a while.

Nostalgia had me return in all honesty. I was playing phantasy star portable 2 infinity, and a mission that sent you back to ragol to defeat olga flow along side red ring rico made me remember the struggle. So I decided to google private servers, and found here.

Squeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! =3

 

[shadowflare60]

Squeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! =3

o.o I have a feeling I'm getting glomped if you see me in game XD

 

[ScoobyDew]

Yo. 2000 was the year for me. RAmar named scout. Yellowboze. Used to play online. My brother somehow got a heavens punisher and gave it to me. Stopped playing shortly after that until xbox version. Used to hack weapons so i could one shot anything. The downside to hacking was finding rare items became impossible.

 

[bitbucket]

I have not been a fellow traveler as long as many of you, having only cut my teeth on the official PSOBB servers. I did my fair time raging against the random number gods in vain, and beat my way to apotheosis with nothing more than Charge Vulcans and a 0% BKB thrown in my general direction by a ragequitter.

Then I pretty much just played cmode until SEGA pulled the plug in 2008.

Couple years later, the urge to play again came back as a wave of renewed interest. I put in some fair time on SCHT, had two accounts of level 140-170 characters and more stuff than I'd ever found on the official SEGA servers. Life called me away, and in my absence that all died the final death.

No way I'd go back to a server that burned me like that, even if it was purely by negligence. So, here I am, starting all over from scratch yet again. We'll see how long the third wave holds my interest.

 

[Harborer of Hope]

o.o I have a feeling I'm getting glomped if you see me in game XD

>=3

 

[Harborer of Hope]

*Necro-Bumps thread since we has so many returning Vets lately!* <3

 

[Exodia]

Oh, this is a nice topic. Let me share my story... it will be a long one.

The first time I came into contact with PSO was back on GC. I don't remember exactly which year it was, perhaps 2002-2004? Anyway, my brother bought the game to play local co-op with me, my sister and a friend. Together we had many adventures on Ragol, fought Dark Falz and Olga Flow countless times and shared our finds, giving it to the one who could use it best.
A couple years later my brother's interest in the game faded and our group just splitted more or less. I didn't play as much anymore, my sister stopped playing entirely and my friend managed to find a Psycho Wand from a Mil Lily and get a Level 200 offline only (crazy as I never was able to get a Level 200 online!). That's when I discovered the Schthack server. I was never able to play online on the official Sega servers, but Schthack opened up the opportunity to play the game in it's full glory online. Eventually, my sister came back and the three of us played together on Schthack, we all bought a damn GC just to play this game. I'll never forget the old MSB where you started in the Temple area, it was amazing. Not everything was good though. I had a non-Nintendo Memory Card which got corrupted two times, requiring me to start all over again. Switching to a Nintendo one was the best decision I made back then...
Unfortunately, this fun wasn't meant to be forever. My GC died first, throwing disc reading errors at me in the most inconvenient of times and ridding me of some of my valuable items, which killed the fun for me. The rest of us continued to play online on GC for quite some time while I was busy playing other stuff... as their GCs broke aswell, we all stopped playing PSO, but we had many wonderful memories playing this game for years.

... then, quite a while later, I had the sudden urge to play PSO again. I remembered the fun I had while playing PSO and no other game I played gave me the same feeling as PSO did. Fortunately I discovered the Blue Burst version and immediately started again on Schthack. Soon even my sister and my old friend joined and we were together again, ridding Ragol of dozens of monsters. Episode 4 brought some freshness into the game and that's where I got my highest char to date, a HUcast named Bane. In the end, both of the others lost interest and I was the only one still playing periodically. I managed to get my HUcast to Level 192 when Schthack made poof and was gone... and with it everything I had in PSO.

I remember I was really pissed about the whole thing, but I won't bother talking about it.
I looked for other servers and started on Ultima, but it just wasn't the same. Me as a mostly Solo-only player back then had quite some trouble dealing with the buffed up monsters on the server and I didn't like the various custom stuff they introduced, so I quit.

And then, after some searching and reading, I found this server. The server I was looking for all the time. It is the same feeling like back in the days, but better. I started here a year ago, but took a break because of private issues. A week ago I returned, I overcame some of my shyness and started playing with others. In the short amount of time I'm back now I managed to find several very nice people to play with and I am happy to be part of this community. This is PSO how it was meant to be played.

 

[Harborer of Hope]

Oh, this is a nice topic. Let me share my story... it will be a long one.

The first time I came into contact with PSO was back on GC. I don't remember exactly which year it was, perhaps 2002-2004? Anyway, my brother bought the game to play local co-op with me, my sister and a friend. Together we had many adventures on Ragol, fought Dark Falz and Olga Flow countless times and shared our finds, giving it to the one who could use it best.
A couple years later my brother's interest in the game faded and our group just splitted more or less. I didn't play as much anymore, my sister stopped playing entirely and my friend managed to find a Psycho Wand from a Mil Lily and get a Level 200 offline only (crazy as I never was able to get a Level 200 online!). That's when I discovered the Schthack server. I was never able to play online on the official Sega servers, but Schthack opened up the opportunity to play the game in it's full glory online. Eventually, my sister came back and the three of us played together on Schthack, we all bought a damn GC just to play this game. I'll never forget the old MSB where you started in the Temple area, it was amazing. Not everything was good though. I had a non-Nintendo Memory Card which got corrupted two times, requiring me to start all over again. Switching to a Nintendo one was the best decision I made back then...
Unfortunately, this fun wasn't meant to be forever. My GC died first, throwing disc reading errors at me in the most inconvenient of times and ridding me of some of my valuable items, which killed the fun for me. The rest of us continued to play online on GC for quite some time while I was busy playing other stuff... as their GCs broke aswell, we all stopped playing PSO, but we had many wonderful memories playing this game for years.

... then, quite a while later, I had the sudden urge to play PSO again. I remembered the fun I had while playing PSO and no other game I played gave me the same feeling as PSO did. Fortunately I discovered the Blue Burst version and immediately started again on Schthack. Soon even my sister and my old friend joined and we were together again, ridding Ragol of dozens of monsters. Episode 4 brought some freshness into the game and that's where I got my highest char to date, a HUcast named Bane. In the end, both of the others lost interest and I was the only one still playing periodically. I managed to get my HUcast to Level 192 when Schthack made poof and was gone... and with it everything I had in PSO.

I remember I was really pissed about the whole thing, but I won't bother talking about it.
I looked for other servers and started on Ultima, but it just wasn't the same. Me as a mostly Solo-only player back then had quite some trouble dealing with the buffed up monsters on the server and I didn't like the various custom stuff they introduced, so I quit.

And then, after some searching and reading, I found this server. The server I was looking for all the time. It is the same feeling like back in the days, but better. I started here a year ago, but took a break because of private issues. A week ago I returned, I overcame some of my shyness and started playing with others. In the short amount of time I'm back now I managed to find several very nice people to play with and I am happy to be part of this community. This is PSO how it was meant to be played.

Nice Read Omega-kun! Yeah, it's tough trying to pick up pieces of a lost love and try marching forward with the same enthusiasm and passion you had Years before...Happy to hear we not only halped re-kindle your love..but we are meeting your expectations of what a PSO Community SHOULD have been! <3! Now, if only you can grab your other siblings and drag them kicking and screaming Back to PSO! XD! Keep up the Fight! <3! =3!

 

[Exodia]

Nice Read Omega-kun! Yeah, it's tough trying to pick up pieces of a lost love and try marching forward with the same enthusiasm and passion you had Years before...Happy to hear we not only halped re-kindle your love..but we are meeting your expectations of what a PSO Community SHOULD have been! <3! Now, if only you can grab your other siblings and drag them kicking and screaming Back to PSO! XD! Keep up the Fight! <3! =3!

Naww, yes it's wonderful here. I catch myself playing this game a lot right now which I haven't done since years, all because of the people I've met.
I'm trying to get my sister start playing again, but it seems she has lost interest entirely as she is busy playing another MMO. As for the friend, well we aren't having any contact anymore. But I will keep playing and I want to reach my first 200 here!

 

[Harborer of Hope]

Naww, yes it's wonderful here. I catch myself playing this game a lot right now which I haven't done since years, all because of the people I've met.
I'm trying to get my sister start playing again, but it seems she has lost interest entirely as she is busy playing another MMO. As for the friend, well we aren't having any contact anymore. But I will keep playing and I want to reach my first 200 here!

You'll reach 200 here dear! Mew can almost guarantee it! We not only has that weird rotating %150 exp boost, but every so often our server gods feel we earned a 200% exp boost for events or acts of gratitude for being family =3. Either that or they're just happy we've never had an instance or urge to pick up torches and pitchforks here....yet <3.

 

[Blues22475]

I randomly was invited to play on a private server by a friend (who no longer plays this sadly). I am one of the Schthack people who migrated here. That and just wanted to play old-school goodness all over again.

I don't have any crazy stories to share (yeah I know boring booo) though I met alot of great people, and I wanted to continue the trend here. This was my first quisi-mmo game I played so it has a very special place in my heart.

This game has so much charm and I am rare hunter myself along with just joining random party to lend my sword to anyone who needs it.