Exploring Dead Games

[@Redlyne_]

Thanks for the crazy support guys, if you've got any other dead games similar (or not) to these, let me know, I might follow this video up in the future. Also as an important note, please don’t harass anyone in the video, be it players featured within maps, server owners, etc. Most of these maps are years old so don’t go bothering anyone who doesn’t want to be bothered, thanks. Also the music list is in the description if you missed it.

[@FreddyCracker_]

ay nice

[@yodeh_yodeh2071]

If you find anymore dead games you should make another video

[@puterchip2326]

No thank you for the great vid, whole lotta nostalgia for the source titles. many good memories bought back (-':

[@k.w.6626]

Double Action: Boogaloo (amazing game, but sadly pretty close to death :( like only 20 players a month)

[@Astohn]

Susss

[@SquishyBauBau]

I went into Gmod and found a dark rp server with a single admin on, I joined and we talked for I'd say 5-6 hours while I was a thief using money printers to gain money. I bought a workshop and set uup defenses for no one, and had a whole base... with no one around me apart from the admin. The admin even turned off his god mode and got weapons and tried to raid me to entertain me, it was really fun and honestly it was a fun experience. Thanks Kevin. (March 10th, 2015)

[@ChimPlays]

Wholesome!!! I’m in a really active server called Werewolf gaming clone wars (star wars rp). Overal great community and i’ve been having loads of fun

[@360foxgamerz2]

Aw that's actually really fun, I lost my Steam account sometime last year, so I still need to get GMOD back on this one, I'm fine with getting achievements back for games, but I'm mainly bummed out about losing the years of service of 9+ years on Steam.

[@brunobruno-c1d]

@@360foxgamerz2 if by lost you mean you cant login, you should be able to recover it - valve actually is very helpful in that regard! if it was hacked, you wont get items back, but your games and account are safe! if you lost the email to it, that can be recovered too - losing steam accounts for real is very hard for a reason

[@360foxgamerz2]

@@brunobruno-c1d It was hacked and there was zero way I could get back into it

[@kevinjamesmeckel]

You're welcome 😊

[@BababooeyGooey]

walking through empty/dead servers is like the cyber equivalent of exploring abandoned homes. A little creepy, but heavy with melancholy, trying to imagine what it was like when it was lived in, and sad to see that that warmth has disappeared, never to return.

[@hedgehogshill3522]

I am quiet young as a gamer and one really nice game shut down. It was such a sad moment and i regret not playing more in it. Can't imagine how it might feel in ten (or better say 20) years, when I will look at many games with melancholy

[@blondeepartygirl]

%100

[@strangastrigo]

@@hedgehogshill3522 Sometimes they come back, though! One of my favorite cozy games shut down in 2012 but is being rebuilt and is playable enough to enjoy. Odd Giants is quiet but great already (though usually only a handful of people online)

[@Dusky-Bunn1e]

Mhm

[@tylerhilpisch7850]

Its like going through someones house and looking at their scrapbooks and just watching their past life

[@Jase_Gaming]

the weirdest thing about active worlds is that, servers cost money, so someone knows about all these servers, and is actively paying for them to stay up, despite that no one alive is playing them. Especially since some of them are decades old

[@newtybot]

What if the servers were sealed off by a brick-and-mortar wall, the builder forgetting to turn them off. He then sold the building and now someone else bought the building, never questioning where the extra few hundred dollars were coming from in the power bill

[@HomuraAkemiHQ]

Many of the worlds (servers) that are still up are owned by Active Worlds and are ran on their servers.

[@s0vnds]

@salvadorayala608 you just gave me an excellent idea. I wanna explore old forgotten servers or realms

[@CD-BVL]

@@newtybot servers need constant maintanance

[@Bagel7723]

@@newtybot I vaguely remember someone telling me a story about something like that happening at a university or something like that. I think it was something like one day an IT guy had to replace a hard disk in a server, but wasn't able to find the physical server. He traced the cable for it and found that a single server had been running for like 10 years and accidentally got sealed in in a crawlspace somewhere during renovations. I think that's vaguely how it went, but I haven't heard the story in years.

[@xQMA]

oh my god. i used to be a part of the clan that owned the achievement idle trade server at 32:02. i used to hang out in that server so much when i was in middle and high school in the mid 2010's. i recognize so many names on those screenshots, and i still have a few of the people from that server on my steam friends list. i even have some unlisted videos on my channel that are just clips and funny moments from that server. i never expected a video with 4+ million views to take me on a trip down memory lane. holy shit. updating to say I relisted a few of the videos!

[@DocMcFluffin]

This comment 👍

[@Rodrigo-kq3js]

relist em ye cowardly dawg!

[@xQMA]

​@@Rodrigo-kq3jsI think my replies keep getting deleted cause I tried to link it but I relisted a few of them!

[@ELiT3Griefer]

Damn I actually reconognized the server too, that's insane

[@thegmodguy3411]

id love to see those unlisted videos.

[@OxyMoto]

17:25 This is rp_downtown_v4c_sgn, it was made for my community Sideways Gaming Network in early 2015. The server you joined is ran by an old community member who took over the gamemode and map for his own community. The gravestone was in fact made for a real person, my friend Joe had passed away during the development of the map and I requested the gravestone be added.

[@Redlyne_]

Sorry for that man, thanks for the clarification. Glad he got immortalized.

[@OxyMoto]

@@Redlyne_ Thanks for including it in the video, it was nice to see after all these years.

[@BeauAlexander_I]

There’s another comment on here that talks about darkrp and says they think the gravestone was for “Joseph” so wow lol crazy y’all both mention it

[@Soldierofdoom444]

Joe who?

[@bedoka02]

@@Soldierofdoom444 oh you're really funny huh

[@nathengrim5041]

Found my old Xbox360 and logged into my old Minecraft worlds. It was bitter sweet. It felt good revisiting all the old creations my friends and I would spend hours on, the "fancy houses" we tried so hard on, the military bases for fighting mobs. All the laughs and late night adventures we had in that game. Also hurt to walk around my old online friends houses and creations. Thinking about when I was gathering supplies and building, there were over here. Doing the same, enjoying themselves. And I realize I'll never talk to those people ever again. Never laugh like we did

[@randomcommenter8274]

I still have my old 360, logged on and the first thing I got was a message from one of my friends that I made either in orange box TF2, Destiny, or some Minecraft mini game (back when they still had those). One thing that was sad was that, until 2019, I didn't have another console, and my friends had clearly forgotten me over time, even the ones my age. It was a nice memory, especially given that I got it when I was around four, and there was a lot of memories tied to me and my friends hopping on to a Minecraft world after we got back from elementary and yelling at each other through the crappy Kinect microphone. It's a nice that the thing still runs and works, though I still think about those one or two people who are still playing legacy edition or orange box, waiting for a server to fill up. But fot the few friends I knew and talked to, I hope they aren't still stuck on those old consoles.

[@ragedunicycle1157]

@@randomcommenter8274 what was your gt?

[@randomcommenter8274]

@@ragedunicycle1157 Zillionbadge with a 0 at the end (I think), used to have a default dog profile picture.

[@jamesgutierrez4695]

Did that recently too very sad indeed. I also checked out old halo forge worlds that too was also painful

[@coolworms7297]

yeah i feel ya lol. i still speak to very few of my old childhood friends, one of them was my cousin! but it sucks not being able to just play and have fun with these people like we used to

[@Kmn483]

Finding that gravestone in DarkRp just hit me so hard. I've been dedicated to quite a few DarkRp servers long ago and the regulars on there become like family. Some people will spend 6+ hours a day every day on the server and you can always count on them being someone to talk to. Before Discord popped up these social game communities were the best thing around for someone who wanted a place to belong to. Still is in some ways. I bet that server is only still up in memory of Joseph. I know I wouldn't be able to let it go offline.

[@ZombieBite1991]

This is one hell of a mood.

[@lafireteamplx3400]

Absolute virgin 😂

[@BeauAlexander_I]

There’s another comment from someone claiming they originally made that server and that they had the gravestone added for their friend “joe” so I’m think you right

[@wannabebrit6071]

Used to play dark rp 12+ hours a day.

[@nunya8614]

@@wannabebrit6071 I hope you made a change in your life and aren’t fat anymore.

[@ocelot_the_dragon]

Walking through dead games/abandoned group homes in games is.. eerie. Or sad. So many lost, or missed out memories

[@goddhoward7453]

It's called Animoia, or anemoia, or something like that. It's a horrible, wonderful feeling. It's nice to think of the memories some had made, the friendships, so on, however, it is disheartening to think, that time is over now. Sorry, it's 3 A.M. and I like to try and sound clever when I'm tired. Also, it is my favorite word, as I remembered it's definition for 2-3 years, but forgot the word, and one day found it under another youtube video.

[@brandonsharp1495]

I played runescape for 10 years, stopped for 8 Just hopped on bout a year ago, went to the G.E, and just damn, so many damn memories

[@Chocolatepain]

What do you mean missed out? They were definitely experienced. And you don't know if they're lost.

[@matto284]

There's minecraft sever I play on that has been running for over 10 years. Sometimes I wander around looking at player made outposts long since abandoned. I wonder who was here, who built these and where are they now.

[@niknik-u9f]

i wish i could play old games like tf2 cs go left 4 dead fnaf and all games that had meme animations that were popular ,i was young did not have devices and did not have accessibility so yeah,atleast i got to play tf2 for a short time it was 3 years ago so when i was 13 with my trash acer laptop,even if i had accessibility i did not know english that well no one in my country that i knew played tf2 and by the age of 13-12 i knew english but still,i would love to play those games but i doubt anyone plays it and i remember playing cs source from the wallpaper,my friend had it but i barely visited it and played it,anyways it is what it is,i could still play some of the games,i am planning on becoming a streamer so who knows i could offer some or my ppl from my future community,and besides people my age 4-5 years ago made memories so why cant i? (i am talking bout ppl who are 21-22 now and were 16 5-6 years ago) it rly breaks my heart but whats the point,i did not have friends,did not have good devices and only knew english but by then i had some devices sorry if i confused yall

[@FelipeJaquez]

This is basically internet archeology, digging up and exploring ruins of long dead games that were once populated with thousands of players. It reminds me of the time I once logged onto Second Life in 2020 only to see rows of abandoned digital property. In the early 2000s people would unironically sell houses and apartments for money, it was like an early version of Meta and NFTs.

[@Kitteh.B]

A lot of my time in HS was spent on SL, and I still have some friends who play it and occasionally ask me to get on. But honestly it feels like a time capsule full of melancholy. Felt like things were better back then and so many people are gone that I'll never see or talk to anymore. I'll log in for them and we'll joke about how outdated all my stuff is, chill for a bit, but that's usually it. I can't even bring myself to update my profile or anything

[@WhitfieldProductionsTV]

SL is not dead, it's just a niche product and always has been.

[@Kitteh.B]

@@WhitfieldProductionsTV Personally I'd say SL is dying, and has been for at least a decade. Especially with things like VRChat coming into the fold, I think SL is on life support. If they'd gotten VR integration solidified back when they were really pushing it (2014 I think?) they might've been able to pioneer. That said, the improvements in the last 10 years are far and away a huge boon to keeping it alive. Mesh blows my mind with how it's implemented now compared to back in 2010ish with sculpties and 2012ish with early mesh integration.

[@WhitfieldProductionsTV]

@@Kitteh.B the problem with SL and VR is the ability to maintain 90fps. which is just not possible because of user created content and they are not willing to break any user made content after 20 years. so yeah, they kinda put themselves into this position.

[@Kitteh.B]

@@WhitfieldProductionsTV oh yeah, totally. When I do log on, I consider myself happy if I'm getting 24fps. And I get 30fps in Cyberpunk with maxed settings lol

[@jamesonvazquez8510]

ngl I love seeing people's memorials that they'll make for friends or stuff they loved. It's almost like they made it for somebody to see, and you seeing it is in a way keeping their memory alive. Ominous, but I feel like it's something special about the gaming community that is often times overlooked. It's great seeing these memorials for players who changed somebody's life.

[@Schnort]

I remember being a little kid with minecraft making a world dedicated to Stampy, a minecraft youtuber, thinking that he would somehow be able to play. As I was like 6 or 7, it was just a bed with cake around it.

[@Schnort]

@Safwaan MCPE was my first real experience with minecraft, too. Before that, we had free knock offs like exploration lite and some medieval themed one. I loved them as a kid. Most of my PE worlds were just ones where I would try to find a village, and when I did, I would close the world and repeat the process. I remember not having a food bar, haha. I also didn't understand that gold tools didn't mine diamonds. I was really dumb, haha. I really like looking at these memories because they are so whimsical. Right now I have an unnecessary amount of anxiety due to one single college class. It's kicking my butt, haha.

[@jondevere4918]

Kinda makes me think of the Doom 2 ‘My House’ map.

[@Maxdamageplus]

This is such a good video. The Active Worlds section felt like a video of a person entering into abandoned family homes, and walking through peoples memories. Only the spaces are perfectly preserved. Genuinely creepy. The TF2 maps plastered with memes is like a spacial representation of some long gone group of friends online. It’s so weird.

[@Adoniis101]

Visiting abandoned homes in MMOs is kinda sad too. I remember hoping on EverQuest 2 not too long ago and never seen a single person in the 4 hours I goofed around and I visited a ton of homes. You could almost tell when each player stopped based on their decorations.

[@saintcadence3751]

Crazy thing about that is Everquest 2 is almost 20 years old. Most of those players who made those houses are probably moved on with spouses, families and careers. Some may not even be with us at all. Yet their footprint on the game is there after all these years and being seen by someone. Just an interesting thought!

[@sterlingcampbell2116]

They're all playing EQ1 p99, or Quarm...far better games. EQll was just garbage

[@Schmoople15738]

I think what is more terrifying coming from GMOD, is the loneliness you can feel when you're alone on those maps.

[@Cryotyde]

Indeed. Source maps just have that odd feeling of isolation and being forgotten.

[@jeremyg591]

The RP maps are basically designed after cities and you’re left with an empty city which is eerie

[@PRICEX]

I believe GMOD is one of the main inspirations for the back rooms, which makes sense it would feel lonely and terrifying

[@AjeetSingh-xq4yb]

The Librarian did a great video on it. Look up "source games are creepy"

[@Akeeleasebentleman]

I personally don't feel jack shit when playing alone on maps

[@Xesh]

Back when Vinesauce did his Active Worlds stream, a bunch of us in chat got together to continue the art of 'Digital Archeology'. We searched to find as many dead games as we could, go in, find weird stuff, and share it with the rest of us. This lasted about half a year before we eventually stopped, but we kept a google document and images from our experiences. Not only was it depressing, but occasionally you would find people clinging onto old games alone in there. Lots of stories from forgotten parts of the world. EDIT: wow this post really blew up, youtube didn't let me post the link SO I CREATED A COMMUNITY POST ON MY CHANNEL WITH A PICTURE OF THE LINK. In the link is another link to the reports, but see my community post for details. Thank you for waiting.

[@NinoJoel]

Do you have any links?

[@HS-mn6jc]

You mind sending a link? Would love to check out said-document. Been watching Vinny for over a decade and was there in chat during the Active Worlds stream

[@sam.7983]

would love to read about that, it seems so cool

[@skinnybuggo]

Comment for possible link update

[@Journey_to_who_knows]

The real version of wild space from starwars

[@SXENedger]

5:56 That's an actual to-scale render of the Museum of Science in Boston! The interior is frighteningly accurate, right down to the musical staircase in the Red Wing lobby! The Museum had a special exhibit on CGI effects and virtual reality in the late 90s. Wonder if this was built as a promotion.

[@freya-the-wolf]

Was gonna say that too. I recognized the staircase heading downstairs at 6:31. Last time I was there, there was a timber rattlesnake enclosure there!

[@anons_anonymous]

the developer of Active Worlds is in Newburyport, MA... may be a coincidence, but I think there was definitely a 'local science' aspect to the collaboration.

[@truthsmiles]

Yeah I immediately recognized the building layout, if not the exhibit :) Someone put some real love into that

[@nekowolf583]

Mediaone was my ISP the 90s.

[@ryanwood7136]

So accurate I find it nuts he didn’t research it, when I was a kid we used to do school sleepovers in the museum lmao. The musical staircase is next to the planetarium my favorite part of the museum

[@NosebleeddeGroselha]

My mom dated a dude who LOVED coke. I can’t stress how much this man loved coke. After they broke up, I can say for sure he loved coke more than he loved my mother lol Dude had all the possible coke collectibles. Mini bottles, piggy banks, t shirts, dozens of polar bears, a bunch of keychains for the same key ring, a few hats, a stolen return bottle he never returned or refilled, a bunch of cans with his name, all special edition cans, and dozens upon dozens of unopened cans taking up like 3/10 of our pantry he froze and consumed over the weeks. So yeah. I have no doubts that world was made by a fan. Coca-cola has better things to do rather than that. Heck, maybe it was that guy who made it, I wouldn’t be surprised.

[@johnnwith2ns464]

my mom dated a dude who also loved coke but its the white stuff

[@soulnha]

@@johnnwith2ns464fuck someone thought of this before me

[@wotschgadeis]

Hey thats me​@@johnnwith2ns464

[@bigbakaboon]

A friend and I will do this from time to time when we're bored. And honestly what i find terrifying is the random ONE person you'll find still floating around in these games, and what's even more scary, as they'll never type in chat, but will follow you around like some ghost. Because it might as well be a ghost. Digital archeology can be super scary at time.

[@AndrewVaughanOfficial]

I love that term. Digital archaeology.

[@whiteboy4045]

I love reading the comments and people's stories about long lost experiences with old games. I actually haven't had any experiences like these though, I find this old stuff fascinating. And a little sad when I see a memorial. I try to imagine why the map was created, who was on it and for how long.

[@exonymat1471]

Yeah I'd love to be able,e to find old, abandoned games but I just don't know how

[@j-skullz]

@Henry bruh imagine going in an abandoned building and there was a person in there and they didn't say anything, just silently followed you around... effff that

[@vismattress5760]

@@exonymat1471 steam database site, check games player count

[@Xamsims]

Kinda gives me the feels that so many people put their hearts and souls into making these maps and growing a community only to be forgotten and abandoned.

[@FranLorian]

They fulfilled their purpose at the time, a lot of those servers had very tight small communities and a lot of friendships were made on them, but people simple move on with time.

[@clawsoon]

Makes me think of the super-detailed model train setups people would make in their basements.

[@diggles7015]

That's how everything in life is, and realizing it is one of the worst parts of getting older. Every rusted out car in the junkyard once rolled off the assembly line brand new. Every abandoned building was somebody's home/work place. Every DVD in the bargain bin was once a new release that people made memories seeing in the theater. Artists that were once all over the radio are now playing at casinos and Walmart parking lots. It will happen to you, and the things that you love now. Enjoy every day to the fullest, and cherish the things that you love, while you still have them.

[@hemlocks777]

I played Worlds Chat as a kid, back when there were actually people playing it, and I specifically remember the Blowfish Burger room! Seeing this again is incredibly strange. There was one space station style world that someone had clipped out of and was floating around in space, and when I asked how to do it, they told me the trick was to press alt+F4. so I did that

[@soupcangaming662]

did it work?

[@Caidensmommy11]

@@soupcangaming662 Of course it did its the way to no cilp in any game

[@SAZERU]

@@soupcangaming662 you can also use it to fly in some other games. if you want free money make sure to delete system 32!

[@totallyreyalfactsfsfs]

@@SAZERU careful, that guy might actually be so gullible that they would believe this BS

[@SAZERU]

@@totallyreyalfactsfsfs pro tip! if you manage to get into youtube servers and go to the command prompt and type shutdown -i and select all the servers, youll get a magical number above your head along with an enormous target!

[@thefunbuns1]

I played so much Gmod in middle school with my brother and friends, and this just brought back so many fond memories of servers we frequented and the communities that meant so much to me. Thanks for that

[@NoxiousPluK]

I can also explain the Siemens map: This was an invite-only map for training medical personel with new products. After the project was over it got made public as a demo map to show companies what could be done in AW.

[@NoxiousPluK]

@@Safwaan821 I was an active user of AWE (Active Worlds Europe) and had regular contact with the AWE staff. They had the same 'world' (map) active on their servers. I've had multiple 'worlds' of my own on there in the past.

[@NoxiousPluK]

Ugh I had a huge reply typed out but KZbin's GUI for responding is so bad.. Here I try again. This was about 20-25 years ago. I think AW-Europe only had the Siemens training world public for a few short weeks, probably due to them giving some demo of sorts on a public event / convention. I've visited it a few times and it was fun to see the virtual GUIs of the Siemens devices which still worked back then. AW-Europe had about 50-80 players online usually (peaking at 150-200 during events, like the yearly easter egg hunts or other seasonal activities), but after Second Life released with a much newer engine, it quickly dropped to about 20. AWE was also quite behind the official AW servers, which were already running version 4.1, where AWE was still on 3.6 and its competitor 3Dee was even still on 3.4 I think. AWE and 3Dee (defunct since 2015) were competitors, but basically just resellers of AW's products. The company had a big reselling tree behind it, with people getting kickbacks from reselling worlds (maps), galaxies (private servers with one world) or universes (private servers with unlimited worlds). I suspect AWE, 3Dee, VP (Virtual Paradise) and some others were just AW Universe servers, and they would have to pay to upgrade to newer versions as well. Worlds and servers were limited by the amount of 'land' they would have. Basically the size of the building area. I don't know who exactly made the Siemens world, but suposedly it was a team of AW (USA) developers in colaboration with Siemens developers for their product demos. I think AW fell behind so badly because they were stuck to the RenderWare 2.0 engine. I suppose they never got the finances to upgrade to a newer version or invest in redeveloping the application around another engine.

[@NoxiousPluK]

@@Safwaan821 All I can imagine is that some big companies that had worlds made back in the day are still paying for them. You have to imagine that likely noone knows anymore what exactly that bill is for, but its for some internet service and for the relatively low price it's too risky to just stop paying it or to spend time investigating what it exactly is for.

[@NoxiousPluK]

@@Safwaan821 Ha yes absolutely. The developers behind Garry's Mod (and Rust, and some more games - FacePunch Studios in the UK) are working on a new sandbox game called S&Box. I hope it might be the start of a new generation of things like this. But the true virtual worlds will all move to VR I think. Environments like VRChat and ChilloutVR.

[@firstreality3867]

I remember the days when the cinema maps still worked. People would suggest videos to play and everyone would vote if it should play or not. Really comfy times.

[@tiepae]

My buddies and I would plan Gmod cinema watch parties and sit there for hours sharing videos.

[@visualsno]

Wait when did they stop?? I remember playing not too long ago

[@theonereborn1337]

I remember blowing big vape clouds in the cinema to block the screens lol. I would also throw popcorn.

[@FiddleGibbons]

@@tiepae My buddies and I used to do that all the time too! We'd play on a bunch of Gmod theater maps, but the one we spent far and away the most time on was good ol' cinema_theatron.

[@tiepae]

@@FiddleGibbons Thats awesome! I remember cinema_theatron fondly.

[@HydraulicBeanbag]

There’s something about cozy, maximalist but empty servers that make my bowels get really warm

[@zeuszo_o1593]

This comment makes my bowels get really warm

[@waititsmyfirstyear6433]

I know exactly what you mean. I get the same feeling when I have a drink

[@snipuhh__enthusiast2736]

Holy shit it's the nerve endings prank comic animation guy

[@Uber.spooky]

Eye... Eater

[@WOKEchair]

@@zeuszo_o1593 This reply makes my bowels get extremely warm

[@cupriferouscatalyst3708]

The Pokemon map during the TF2 part is Rustboro City, for the one person wondering. Definitiely one of the coziest video game towns in my personal opinion! I also know that Orange map very well, it's where I first discovered how fun sniping is in FPS games.

[@cmdrblackhawk2884]

Absolutely surreal seeing you talk about our AIT server and map at the 32:00 mark. Never thought I'd ever see anything like this TBH. I used to be heavily involved in the AIT server back when it was still around, playing with my friends, memeing, goofing around for hours and hours just enjoying each others company and making each other laugh. Eventually our owner, JKB, had to stop paying for the server because the cost was getting too high and eventually shut down. Thats when my friend, Greg, made the memorial map you showed in the video, a labor of love to the playground we lost. Every year around the holidays, Greg brings back the server to re-live some of those old memories. The server is currently offline, but will be brought back in a couple weeks! And for all the comments about AIT, ive read a good number of them and I just wanna say, your kind words mean a lot. And I'm humbled to see so many people take interest in our little corner of TF2. and yes, we still talk to each other quite often! Fantastic job on the video dude, and thank you so much for covering AIT, even if brief!

[@Ailuromage]

Not sure if you're still reading comments on this but that coke city at 2:15 is a dedication to Mycokestudios which was Coke's attempt at creating a social media universe for their brand around 2002. There was a chat room game called mycoke studios where you could make an avatar, make a studio, make "music" using pre-recorded midi tracks, play your tracks in public chat rooms, and drink TOOONS of coca cola. Everywhere there was coke, the furniture, the rooms, the buildings. Coke cinema, Coke clubs etc. This is like a 3d recreation of it. It was just product placement everywhere and we loved it.

[@dkemp1337]

Like the ps world lol

[@jordan8199]

Also called CokeMusic for a while, fun game basically a better version of habbo hotel

[@ganno24]

Oh damn, I remember Coke Studios. That was over 20 years ago 😂. I played around with it for like a week and then went back to Neopets

[@twilightsparkle8305]

Awful lol

[@crazydrummer181]

@@jordan8199 Iplayed coke music and habbo. Ahh such good memories

[@ishboi-vk4zk]

DUDE! WORLDS CHAT! Oh my god, you just uncovered my long-lost first video game experience. My father showed me this game when I was barely able to make memories, some 22-23 years ago, (27 now). I was SO HOOKED. I loved exploring all the rooms and worlds and seeing all the different colorful characters. It even had mic support if Im not mistaken. Im basically in tears over this because my father recently passed, and I was attempting to discribe to my older brothers what I was thinking of... It was WORLDS CHAT!! Thanks for looking over some fossil game titles. Subscribed... Cheers!

[@BEANOSYT]

🥲

[@alternatives9254]

Take care men Thanks for this beautiful story 🌹 Have a good day or night

[@bobbyhill7948]

I'm 27 now too and I just lost my father except I only knew him for like 6 years Life can really be a bitch

[@thealmightyjack]

Active Worlds was ahead of its time and heavily used for a brief moment. You can still see its influences today with things like VR chat. I don't think we'll ever get an internet that acts like that since 99% of internet activity is monopolized by the most brain-dead social media usage. The 90s/early 2000s internet was a wild time to traverse. Had to know how to find things back then compared to everything going through 3 sites like it does now.

[@drugsforhugs7106]

Npc ass comment

[@jgood005]

It was Second Life before Second Life existed. Only now are companies like VR Chat and Meta (lol) returning to the metaverse concept.

[@layonyatsu7203]

I'd imagine someday in the future there would be a video called "Exploring dead VR chat servers", I never played VRchat (nor do I want to) but it would have the same feeling to explore these empty rooms once bustling with people now dead dominated by whatever the new trend is to that time

[@noway9880]

Really was. You summed up ActiveWorlds perfectly. It was incredible in the 90s.

[@DemonBlanka]

@@layonyatsu7203 A nice thought but I get the feeling that a platform like vrchat will just collapse at some point, I think a big reason why stuff like Active Worlds sticks around is because it came about during an unparalleled time of technological development and as such became increasingly trivial to keep running quite quickly after it died off. I also imagine the people still running it are those internet oldheads who care a lot about preservation and have a lot of sentimentality about the project. That's not things I personally really see in VRChat, but it would be absolutely lovely to be proven wrong in the future

[@ifistedabear]

Much respect for mentioning Kitty0706. Dude was a legend back then, and still is to this day. He left this world way too soon.

[@dylanesslinger2730]

Fr though

[@itsmewolfy9632]

Gone, but never forgotten. I still see people playing on that Mario Kart map on TF2.

[@Orpheusftw]

I didn't even know he was sick.

[@lowruna]

Damn just checked his bio, this guy was hyperactive / super productive

[@StarmenRock]

@Orpheusftw he mentioned it a couple times when he went into hiatuses but never really elaborated on it...

[@logsupermulti3921]

The interesting thing with Active Worlds is that a bunch of people and companies thought it and other things like it would replace the internet as it was in the 90s. The idea was that you'd have these virtual space and museums and if you wanted information you would walk through these spaces and find a painting for example, click on it, and it would act as a hyperlink to a page about the piece or the artist who created it. Why anyone thought this was an efficient way to search for information is beyond me.

[@bunnystrasse]

It’s like the metaverse.

[@gamrknight8060]

@@bunnystrasse "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

[@DovahFett]

@@gamrknight8060 History never repeats, but it does rhyme.

[@winstonsmith3703]

Basically the metaverse lol

[@calamorta]

Sure, back in the early internet days I can understand why they thought that. "Man, people like going to expos but don't enjoy paying for it, parking lot, hotel, lines etc. Wouldn't it be awesome if we took expos to this brand new universe which allows people to focus exclusively on what's being shown?" But Zuckerberg thinking the exact same 20-25 years later is hilarious. I was afraid their Metaverse was going to work if somehow they managed to import their Facebook algorithm to that thing (and considering how many smart people they have on the payroll), but thankfully it failed. I hope corporate doesn't ruin everything when (/if) VR becomes capable of emulating real life....

[@Avantgardist]

Isn't this creepy? Someone really put in so much work at some time in the past and now it's just been deserted for years. At some point, someone stopped building those maps and didn't know, this was the last time anybody would touch it.

[@brandonm9875]

Ha, maybe that’s our reality we are living in, just a old project left abandoned. We’re just the product of it running rapid.

[@diggles7015]

There is nothing quite like the haunting, melancholy nostalgia of playing a video game level that was once relevant, but has now been forgotten. I can log into World of Warcraft right now if I wanted to and visit hundreds of locations that hold countless precious memories to me that were so formative during my late teen/early adult years, but time has left these places behind, and the people who were there are long gone from my life. It definitely messes me up sometimes when I'm solo farming a raid or dungeon that hasn't been relevant in over a decade, because those memories of camaraderie, long nights of progression, and first boss kills are cemented in my mind, and seem like they're so close that I can touch them, yet they are deceptively out of reach and can never be experienced again. Items that were once best-in-slot and highly coveted prizes of these 25 man raids have been reduced to junk that gets sold off to a vendor, or aren't even looted because you don't have enough bag space and it's not worth anything. Bosses that once took 10/25/40 people working together over several nights, thousands of gold worth of potions/flasks/buffs, and dozens of attempts for that first kill are now defeated with a single ability. But those memories are all still there, just out of reach. I don't know where I'm going with this, but I really appreciated this video, and it's nice to see other people discussing the same existential feelings that I often feel these days. It's just unfortunate that younger people don't have the wisdom or life experience yet to realize that every day should be enjoyed to the max, because nothing lasts forever. No matter how big you think your game/artist/movie/show/whatever is, time defeats everything, and one day it will hit you like a ton of bricks when you have a younger coworker or acquaintance who doesn't get a reference or doesn't know a song that you think "everybody knows that!".

[@GokhhanKoc]

@@diggles7015 im 22 years old and reading your comment made me think about some stuff i went through in my teen years and recently. i feel like i used to be full with life enjoying every small detail but now just a ghost living because im alive not in a depressed way just things lost meaning quick in my toughts.

[@fitmotheyap]

This section made me feel melancholy, I wish I could go to the past for once and merely say goodbye.

[@ATMAnubis]

Exploring the maps of Active Worlds, you can almost feel the ghosts of a once-thriving, virtual world where people would meet and hang out, make new friends, and create memories, but the life that these maps once had has faded, its players now long gone, and its place, is an unsettling emptiness. Former players that might return to explore these forgotten maps that were once an active hangout, will feel a sense of loneliness, but also a feeling of nostalgia for what once was will never be again.

[@Azelai777]

Write game lore. 😊

[@enigmalfidelity]

Omg... I still have it. We're you ever on OuterWorlds? Or GalaxyWorlds? I still have the install for outerworlds, but the domain is 100% gone due to the new outerworlds game. I was aj030. Such good memories there. I remember the map "war" and the 13th floor. I even had a Harry Potter RPG in the main AW world, like sooo far out. I remember having the coordinates written on my desk. Such good times. I was 11-14 when I was on there. Funny enough, people in OuterWorlds thought I was an adult acting like a kid until the day I posted a photo of me holding a piece of paper with my screen name on it. Hahahaha Soo ancient....

[@enigmalfidelity]

Imagica on AW is the last remaining piece of OuterWorlds. Sadly, I didn't make it in to the memorial of AW, but Coey, Texabeth, snoopy, Retmash, Scott, GentlemenJ, and many more I can think of right now.... All remembered. Sigh... 5:23am and I'm gonna start tearing up... 😢 Such good memories.

[@MyHairIsAbnormal]

AW was the best. There used to be loads more people and it was loads of fun. It feels weird seeing/hearing people call it creepy because that was never how I saw it, but it makes sense now being so empty and all (more sad than creepy/unsettling for me). It was ahead of its time in a lot of ways and had some really special communities.

[@MyHairIsAbnormal]

@@enigmalfidelity It's so sad that so many worlds are gone now. It doesn't help that there are significantly less people ever online than there are worlds either. Every once in a blue moon, I will revisit for old time's sake to see if anyone I know is around, but that is sadly almost never the case. It was thanks to AW that I found my favourite genre of music ever through Tonio. Absolute legend. I was sad to see that a bunch of my builds were deleted, but there are still a few out there.

[@greg4221]

What a pleasant surprise this video was! I'm the owner of the memorial server you showcased at 32:00. Since I see quite a few people curious on the story of that server, I'll try to briefly sum it up here. :) Some years ago, there was a server called Achievement Idle Trade 24/7. I'll refer to it as AIT through the rest of this text. AIT was one of these small achievement idle servers that were very popular back in the day due to the whole item drop thing in TF2. Most of us were in high school at the time, and we would spend hours upon hours after school just chilling and goofing around in that server (I myself have about 2300 hours in TF2, of which about 75% were spent solely messing around in AIT). So, in short, most of us made lifelong friends while playing on that server and in the end, that was what made it so important to all of us. But in 2016, the previous owner decided to close the server due to the increasing expenses. After the server closed, most of us felt homeless in TF2. Our cozy home away from home was gone, and we dreaded that we'd never be able to gather everyone together again like we used to do. From 2016 to 2018, there were a few times where the server was brought back online for a few weeks, but most of the people who played there had already moved on, and so the server remained empty for most of the time. Then, in 2019, I decided to take a step further in making our memories last just a bit longer. I was learning how to make TF2 maps at the time, and thought that making a memorial map for AIT, containing a few snippets from our good times, was a good starting project. Also in 2019, we started the tradition of having the server be online during the end of year holidays. It's always heartwarming to see quite a few of the old faces coming back, and having good times just like we did back in the day. This "memorial server" usually stayed online from December to January, but the plan for 2023 is to keep it online 24/7 again, starting in March. Wonderful job in making this video, and thank you very much for mentioning AIT, it made our day! ❤

[@thisismoose]

Nice

[@randodox8375]

Thanks for the stories.

[@rah1752]

wow

[@skyper8934]

Aw, the same thing happened to a server I used to basically live on. I'm happy you managed to reopen it

[@breepowell8632]

this made my day, in return. i love seeing online archeology like this. its so sweet, and so melancholy at the same time. Love it

[@BirdKingJay]

I think the most psychotic part of "Sfx" at 5:47 is that the map is a shockingly accurate 1:1 replica of the Boston Museum of Science (or as accurate as the primitive graphics could replicate), even those staircases that make piano sounds like the real ones do

[@PMARC14]

It's a real amazing find, should be preserved and sent to them as an apt demonstration of history of computers

[@mac6626]

Really awesome stuff. Cool server for one of my favorite places to visit!

[@elbowjuiced]

insane to see a place ive been to numerous times having a weirdly accurate replica in a dead multiplayer game

[@gorgorjim]

I LOVE that the "bugs" server had absolutely no voice over. Laughed so hard.

[@infantiltinferno]

That server was some kind of genius for sure.

[@marcn5639]

That’s when I knew this video was a keeper.

[@CrookedEyeSniper]

Active worlds actually made headlines back in 2016 when Vinny from Vine sauce was playing it and exploring while streaming when he came across an NPC who started showing signs of life. It became a real creepy incident incident but it turned out that it was somebody who was screwing around with him. A viewer decided to hop on and start messing with him while he was streaming and pretended to be an npc. She admitted to it later but it was accepted as real during the stream.

[@kritsadventures]

The memorial map made me sad. Whether that person died or just left the game, I have experienced something like this and I still think about that person and wish I could find them to thank them for everything they did for me.

[@ImSquiggs]

Okay so you just reminded me of someone I lost touch with... I went into an old e-mail inbox and found an e-mail from them!! But it was from 2012!!! I just reached out to see if we can reconnect and I'm dying to know if they got it, but I haven't heard back yet. Just wanted to say THANK YOU FRIEND for triggering an old memory I might've forgotten and possibly reconnecting me with someone that was very important to me growing up!

[@kritsadventures]

@@ImSquiggs Good luck. My friend had an email she gave me, but it was one she made for her sister so I don't think she's ever checked it since. I knew she did water quality and environmental testing for a living and cleaned airplanes for a side job, but I have no idea what airline and this was back in 2009-2013. I know she was in her 50s or 60s, and with COVID, there's good odds she's long since retired. I was in my teens to early 20's and we met in SecondLife. She helped me with seed money to start a furniture business in SecondLife (a metaverse kind of like Active Worlds) that helped me earn money so my family could make it through the recession during college and kept us from losing our house. She made stuff herself for the business and would help pay the rent for the land, but wouldn't accept a cut of the profits. We hung out all the time. Hours and hours a day. She was kind of one of my best friends for several years. I would love to repay and thank her for all that and reconnect. See how she's doing. I hope wherever she is she's happy and healthy.

[@ImSquiggs]

@@kritsadventures That's a really nice story, and she sounds like a lovely person. Here's to her!

[@kane357lynch]

​@@Safwaan821Mr scrubs might knos

[@Outlawstar0198]

@Kritikal ❤ that map really hits me on the feels. Made me realize how much I miss my friends I use to play tf2 with. I've been battling depression and watching and reflecting made me realize I'm missing a sense of community I use to have. I miss it.

[@torimaritime6955]

The hole at 40:30 is actually a medival castle's defense system. If any besieging armies tried destroying the door, they could pour scolding hot water or oil or something else nasty down to discourage any fiddling.

[@connivingkhajiit]

As well as launch arrows and bolts through the hole

[@KeWDu]

It’s actually kinda funny that that is the real purpose when RedLyne was mentioning using the holes for Grenades. Kind of a similar concept. Raining hell from above.

[@kaiserwigglesiii2369]

Machicolations, thank you shad

[@felixma9192]

they're murder holes

[@razorednight]

@@felixma9192 aka meurtrières.

[@synarthrose]

I adore this video. As someone who majored in game art and was trained to go into the AAA game industry for 2 years by professionals, the amount of love and effort expressed in these maps warms my heart. I thoroughly enjoy dead games, I check them out all the time; some of them, I just open to sit there and think for a while. It’s very humbling, in a way. Sort of like when you drive by someone’s house with a window open and you catch a glimpse of their home. Dead games kind of expand on that feeling for me. Like I’m getting to explore a stranger’s house, seeing all the little things that must have memories attached to them. It’s both haunting and beautiful, ghosts of the internet, thinking at some point, this place meant something to someone. Maybe I’m the last person who will ever set foot in it, or maybe 10 years from now someone else will happen upon it like I did. Thank you for making this and reminding me of one of my favorite things.

[@synarthrose]

also, I love undertime slopper

[@luisprado7107]

What no pussy does to a mf:

[@mikeyswift2010]

Bro i used to live in this house where i rented a room. One day, a kid named Emanuel just left, and most of his things were left behind. He never came back, and i used to go into his room and smoke bong loads, drop acid, and just look at all the little things he had. Things he genuinely cared about thinking to myself: “Damn, i will probably never see this kid again for the rest of my life.” Shit like that. Eventually everyone was forced to leave this home, and until the last day the place was inhabited by all us room-share people, Emanuel never did come back. Very strange and kind of haunting/beautiful just like u said. I took all of his things and held onto them for a while, cuz the homeowner was gonna toss them, but eventually i lost all of his stuff on my own as the years went on, lol.

[@hellsingmongrel]

Ok, I honestly LOVE "digital archaeology" like this, so the video was really fun to watch! But I also kept getting jumpscared by the old Trigun ad-break guitar riff between each game. It made me laugh every time, but God damn was that a blast from the past I didn't expect to just hear out in the wild like that. XD

[@PassingNotesMusic]

For those of you curious about the ragdoll controversy in cs: source, basically Valve had to use images of real life burned corpses to create that ragdoll and while they only used pictures for reference, there was still at least one dev at valve with a certain "folder".

[@SeanTheShinigami]

huh. weird.

[@0002pA]

Damn. I'd refuse working on something like that if they made me use corpse pictures tbh..

[@BattousaiHBr]

​@@0002pAnowadays i doubt something like this would fly. i guess those were different times back then.

[@myopickid4180]

@@0002pA then you would apply for resign if you was Dead Space 2 dev, they literally studied photos of car accident victimes to make their corpses more realistic

[@0002pA]

@@myopickid4180 If the only other option would have been to quite, yeah I would have.

[@thedevilgoose2482]

Damn, that tf2 memorial map is actually really sad. It makes me remember all the old friends I used to have on various online games or servers, and the fun times, and also how we drifted apart. I wonder what happened to those people. Never really see them or anything.

[@TheSuperappelflap]

i was in some clans in various fps games back in the day and made some good friends that i still talk to online regularly. its quite useful to know a bunch of people in various countries. if i go on vacation i have my own personal tour guide and dont need to pay for hotels hehehe. you should get back in touch with these people if you still have them on steam or whatever.

[@thewitheredstriker]

Agree. Send them a message, who knows what happens? ; )

[@shivur5073]

Sad part is all the programs we used back in the day like crossfire aren't used anymore. Old vent servers are all gone so the people i used to talk to I can't find anymore. I have a few of them on steam from back in 08 but we don't talk anymore

[@goldensoapycat4500]

@@shivur5073 awh, maybe one day you’ll come across em randomly

[@TheSuperappelflap]

@@shivur5073 a few good men is better than none. and yeah, i lost touch with some people as well and won't find them back. when youre young you dont realize how valuable those connections are. when you meet someone irl or online and youre just instantly friends without even needing to talk to each other.

[@floffycatto6475]

When I was in middle school, my hometown opened up a PC Cafe. I think it was like $10 an hour to do whatever you needed to do. A few people sat in the quiet area and worked on homework, but the vast majority of kids went there to play the OG CS on LAN. It was rife full of yells, curses, and playing Linkin Park in the CD tray on full blast. And it was some of the best days of my life. The cafe eventually closed because the media said gangs were hanging out there.

[@TakingThisWay]

internet cafes are still fairly popular in many places, and yes, there are still people playing cs1.6 without headphones yelling and cursing when they get killed

[@brettpid6416]

@@TakingThisWay as it should be

[@phutureproof]

I love turning up a cd player to full blast

[@protonjones54]

$10 an HOUR back then? Jesus Christ

[@Y.g7730]

Sheesh here back in the day it was $1 per hr and i use to go with a bunch of friends nd play cod as well lol

[@Luka2000_]

This video really needs a part 2! It feels like im going through someones memories especially that tf2 trade server. Great video

[@SpringDavid]

"I looked up in horror, watching my fellow lunar landers floating around, lifeless, it reminded me of the game Among-" Is such a hard line from the horror series Alien

[@vwoomy]

I play on a certain surf server on TF2 that is very much dead (I started playing after it died). Strangely, people often stop by for nostalgia and tell me stories about how alive it used to be. Someone joined one night while I was casually surfing alone and told me about the owners and moderators. He told me about someone who had the top all-time score on the server. The top scorer had stopped playing after someone close to him died to cancer, and this surf reminded him of that friend because they played together often. I've seen that top scorer once, but we never talked. Then there was some crazy drama, and the server ultimately stopped being updated and is now a ghost town. This was a while ago, so my recollection of the story might be off. I still surf on there a lot, I do not care for battling or anything. But it's crazy that there are deep stories to some of these TF2 community servers. It's more than a game.

[@boji_03]

Finding this channel feels like I've invested early in Google. Your videos are great and I have no doubt you'll grow rapidly. Keep it up

[@Zack-ll8uy]

35:27 omg what a throwback. I spent ATLEAST a couple hundred hours on the trade minecraft map(s). The first one was always full, so I usually played on the second one. I even remember saving my allowance money so I could donate to the server. The creator lived in Toronto, pretty close to me, so it was the best trade server I had ping for. The map was amazing. It had so many secrets and it was absolute chaos at all times. The boxing ring you found almost always head Heavy boxing matches going on. I remember placing bets on them! Good times..

[@dodobird66]

definitely felt on the "first one was always full, so played on the second one" this server was so alive and it was fun

[@sydneyroth1853]

Please make another one of these, this is so important to archive

[@georgejungle138]

You’re cute

[@urmumsballs69]

@@georgejungle138thanks buddy

[@ssikkiiland]

​@@georgejungle138 george

[@OrgaNik_Music]

@@ssikkiiland jungle

[@atomiccrawler]

@@OrgaNik_Music138

[@YamaDWD]

Imagine seeing just 1 person playing the game. Instant creepy and best friends vibes..

[@robertanderson1690]

People play all of these games, he literally said at the start he was avoiding servers with people in them lol. He has G-Mod in here and 20,000 people are playing it as I speak.

[@justarandombrotherhoodofst8643]

@@robertanderson1690 he was talking about on the exact same server at the same time:/ you must be fun at parties

[@justarandombrotherhoodofst8643]

@@robertanderson1690 also you don’t speak you are typing

[@annsanimationaddiction8024]

He should have done Rust legacy!

[@magnusm4]

Had that happen when playing CoD 1. Just the original CoD. 1 server, 1 player. Pure 1v1 me moment and I won. That's probably one of the last genuine multiplayer moments that game will ever have again.

[@shawyo5]

Was anyone else curious about the graves marked with real people’s names and if it was to symbolize someone’s actual death? If so that’s crazy because even though they have passed away they are forever memorialized inside what is possibly their favorite game. Tbh it was very interesting, but also very sad to think about if it’s true. It’s moments like this that made me wish I hadn’t spent so much time on halo 2 during that time period. I always knew games like these existed, but was so stuck on halo I never got to experience these things. Great video though! Definitely answered questions I had about games like this from like 20 years ago. Mad props for real. Such a great video idea. I truly hope you keep making content like this for someone who always knew, but never got to experience it for myself and probably never will be able to. ❤

[@Ali-qm9ds]

Engineers in 2fort basement ( mainly unofficial servers ) are still a mystery to me, remembering they were there for hours and at first I thought they mostly were afk but they actually were active, just chilling in there without doing anything in particular ( sometimes using chat )

[@BlackjackN7]

Back in the hayday of playing TF2 i used to be one of such engineers. As it was simply fun to hang out with people(including friends who played TF2 back then), chat and just waste time together, meanwhile watching youtube or something. It wasn't as much about the gameplay as it being a "social space" like VRChat is nowadays I think.

[@BabzaiWWP]

I used to do this a lot due to getting free kills from oblivious scouts and spies

[@WOKEchair]

They probably were chilling and were alt tabbed in a way where they could still see the game.

[@somemeleevods]

they are defending the intelligence.

[@comtruceno8929]

@@somemeleevods Up this

[@nikbert]

Active Worlds is like playing a video game about being trapped in GeoCities

[@tqrules01]

Active world's was very popular from 1995 to 2010 so that makes perfect sense

[@tankguy5312]

Yep, sadly there are still some unfinished areas of each of the servers of this game, especially in Morgane where you going down through that ladder and explore the deeper parts of the pyramid but was never finished, shame.

[@tqrules01]

@Safwaan A mixture of many things. Some people started their own Galax server / Uniservers based on specific versions of the software / license they bought. Some illegal versions like AW Russia still exist to this day for example.

[@jarvisequine6643]

​@Safwaan Better newer games came out so owners started making servers on those more popular games

[@oceanzrbluexd8216]

in the promo video a guy said that it's like geocities on steroids lol

[@-TPLT]

The server memorial really tugs at my heart strings. I didn't know that server particularly, but the amount of servers that I used to frequent where people knew each other and built lasting memories and friendships in something like TF2 is too high and too long gone to count.

[@Striker9]

Same here, secondlife and asherons call, everquest, even Ultima online. ... good God I'm dating myself lol

[@Brother_Piner]

@@Striker9 Just be happy you got to experience those memories. Games like those always fascinate me, cause I knew about them, and was alive when they were active, but I was too young to really be able to play or enjoy them. They’ll always be those things that my friend’s older brothers or my older cousins played that I looked at from afar. They have this weird mystique to me, it’s a weird kinda nostalgia for stuff I wanted to experience as a kid, but they shut down or weren’t popular enough for me to be able to when I was finally able to.

[@Gatorade69]

Right ? I had my main server and a back up server. Everyone knew everybody, tons of voice chat... We had some really good people but it was always fun and challenging, even if you were getting your ass kicked. I miss those times...

[@wastelandr259]

Reminded me instantly of a server i used to frequent. It was a group that owned a few servers, mostly 24\7 one map. I was on that badwater grind. I donated, was there every day, was known as a regular and the others regulars knew me. I stopped playing tf2 one day, but a while ago looked up the group. All I found was a website, consisting of just one short memorial page. I actually felt the page turn as that chapter of my life finally closed for good. I actually just checked, and the site is gone too...

[@Gatorade69]

@@wastelandr259 Similar. Went to go back to the forums of the server and they were down. Luckily they do have a discord and a lot of people are in it, It's just hard getting everybody together for a game now a days.

[@temperspace]

I like your change tone when leaving the memorial and gravestone parts

[@nonotanymore]

17:27 that is so rough, immediately pulls me back to every time a gaming buddy has died. its so weird. they never get to go on, they're stuck at that kid like age post highschool just chilling not going anywhere playing gmod instead of having a job or something enjoying time before they have to really go on and be an adult. kind of a really deep pain thinking about it, I miss those days so bad dude, 27 now and I can't really experience anything like a warm summer night playing gmod with my friends. shit is so rough man.

[@joshuadavids7683]

Those weird holes in 40:30 are called machicolations, it is a castle defense mechanism. It adds realism to the environment, but might confuse some player

[@ShawnFerrell]

I was on activeworlds as a young teen in the 90s, and I must say, any world that WAS finished still looked unfinished. But it is sort of sad to see how empty it all is now, when I was on it back in the day it was so full of people you'd have trouble logging in.

[@CountThotula]

That's so cool I've always been fascinated with older media, it must be so strange to see it bare now. :0

[@hasanwithanh6757]

I felt a sense of nostalgia of your comment even when I wasn't even born that times.

[@CountThotula]

@@hasanwithanh6757 glad you feel the same. Its weird feeling nostalgia for a time you weren't even around to witness right?

[@ShawnFerrell]

@@hasanwithanh6757 Yeah the cool thing though is that everything made on there stays there forever. I can log in and go find stuff my best friend and I made back in the day, it's like a museum of nostalgia lol

[@adamholmes91]

I used to play a copy of that game called 3DEE back in about 2001-2003. It was awesome! As i was only about 10 and couldn't afford to pay for an account, i just kept getting new "trial" accounts every month. Moleman was my name, followed by moleman2, moleman3, and you get it. I think it ended up getting to moleman24 before i discovered girls and started going outside lol.

[@ladyrazzy1779]

Siemens is a very real company, and as a tech myself who uses some of their current day instruments I have to say. I never expected to see their stuff advertised in a video game of all places lol

[@kurtirving8349]

I work for Siemens (not Siemens medical) and surprised but not shocked. My guess is that someone in marketing pitched the idea that we could digitally showcase our med products to customers similar to that convention world earlier. It might've also been used for some promo material since it showcased our company in the (at the time) cutting edge virtual world.

[@xnosmokenoknivesx]

@@kurtirving8349- lol u work for semens lol teehee

[@7rollface]

Active Worlds is a trip. There's a harp world, which serves as an information hub for people who play or enjoy the harp. Completely empty, but it still has screens giving up-to-date information on concert schedules. There's also a rocketship. Weirdest for me, though, is the places that were clearly once cool hang-outs or which feel abandoned almost in a real-life way. There's a farm in one server which has horses in a field just wandering back and forth waiting for their owner to come back. There are a million discos with NPCs dancing away forever alone. There's a teen server where what looks like hundreds of teens have claimed their own patch of land and created a little home for themselves. There's an LGBTQ village. There's a goblin town that was part of an in-game MMORPG. So much love poured into the place, and you can completely see how at the time it would have seemed like the coolest thing ever. All completely forgotten about by everybody except for one or two dozen people who still go back to meet up, seemingly out of habit. Those weren't pictures of someone's mum or parents, that would almost certainly have been the person whose world it was. It's quite sad in its own weird way.

[@Dragoneer]

I think it’s both really creepy but nostalgic to revisit empty Battlefield 3 and 4 maps online knowing they used to be full with players and you used to be part of the chaotic battles that took place there many years ago. Just something about that atmosphere and walking around in silence is really eerie…

[@1234jokerboy]

Battlefield 4 is still active. But man those 2011 times with bf3 were soo good.

[@Macc-]

Bf4 is very active in ps3 tf u talking about

[@RainmakerXBooty]

@@Macc- we're talking about real gaming here, so no console peasantry

[@Macc-]

@@RainmakerXBooty I can beat you on pc also "real gamer"

[@OlviMasta77]

BF3 is still active on pc

[@Raubvogel]

Glad this video was recommended to me. Despite the macabre undertones some of those maps presented, I couldn't help but reminisce about loved ones and friends in my own life that are no longer here and all the fun we had on games (some of which that are no longer up and running). It's sad, but I'm totally happy to have lived and made those memories with them. I mean, recently, there was a sad incident... I didn't know him personally, but the recent passing of Thick44 from Neebs Gaming really put a damper on my spirit... I couldn't imagine being a part of the team and seeing his logged-out character in Ark or the funny builds in 7 Days to Die... brutal... I feel like these "technological tombs" are far sadder than say a heavy piece of granite or marble. It's past midnight now, but I'll be sure to hug my children first thing in the morning and make sure I help make even more happy memories, especially in games, with them as I've always done.

[@miss_mush5533]

The death of Thick44 hit unexpectedly hard for me too. First time I've cried at the death of someone I don't know. I really just assumed he was going to be fine. He's not gone, he's just off looting.

[@miss_mush5533]

@Safwaan That's a good question. I've never really thought into it. Maybe it is part of denial.

[@umjermalammy]

i just want to really thank you for using music from endless ocean blue world, one of my favorite games of all time. the moment the video started, i was lulled into its sereness. love your channel, dude.

[@radzio8969]

I grew up with gmod, met amazing people there. Felt like a place where i belonged during a hard time in my life, the memories I made will always be important to me.

[@Mr_Dravus]

Theres a place fir everyone in GMod from Sandbox, GM’s, and Servers. Honestly if nothing appeals to you in GMod you’re a minority of people.

[@chucksneed1264]

i miss gmod tower

[@bearomatic6576]

Me too I have been playing gmod for 7 years and I felt the same way

[@dillonstiles5406]

Don’t know why he did gmod because it’s not entirely dead

[@keemoo_7]

@@dillonstiles5406 audience compared to its glory days is minuscule. i remember i used to watch it on youtube for hours between 2012-2014

[@TheArbiter10]

This is what the future of archaeology will look like-- visiting ancient passion projects-turned time capsules semi-immortalised via the power of the internet. Instead of deciphering hieroglyphs, we'll be tracing broken links and deciphering dead memes, and occasionally uncovering the e-tomb of some random person who lived and died online. Poignant, in a way.

[@phantomwarrior8686]

What hell is Poignant by the way? Never heard of that word

[@PomegranateJuiceSmoothie]

sadly alot of the links have suffered irreversible link rot

[@worm69420]

youre assuming humanity will last long enough for the early internet to ever be considered ancient

[@ThjyuGaming]

@@phantomwarrior8686 poign·ant /ˈpoin(y)ənt/ adjective evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret. The fact that a person lived their life, alone, online and invested in their own passion projects, completely obsessed with them. Attempting to fulfill some sense of happiness. To be rediscovered in the future through a random link someone stumbles across. May it be a tumbler account that they posted their every day thoughts on that just come to an end one day after thousands of entries. May it be a forum for a video game they dedicated their entire being into, filled with passion and love and/or despise towards certain events/patches the devs made. Then one day their posts are just stopped. An empty world in Gmod, TF2, Active Worlds, literally any server that they were a part of, empty, souless, devoid of anything except the ghost of whoever created it haunting every little easter egg or feature they put into it. Meaningless. Peoples entire existences perpetually online are discovered years later only to be looked at and thought of as pointless. Poignant.

[@phantomwarrior8686]

@@ThjyuGaming amazing, gonna use it for sure. Thanks for the message too

[@VRLunatic]

Please do a part 2 of this. This was so easy to watch and listen, taking in the bittersweet nostalgia. The deep, longing vibes are palatable (with thrown in comic relief and genuinely interesting content/commentary throughout)

[@black_foresst]

I second this… he should go into games like Mordhau and revisit GMod. There’s a lot of creepy dead servers in GMod

[@TFGh0st_VC]

nah man he doesnt know what a dead game is what he did throughout the video was talk about Dead servers not the actual Dead games which confuses me some other dead games but active games instead

[@Kwassikk]

the idea of a coca cola world of advertisements perpetually repeating themselves to nobody for over a decade feel eerie to me

[@christofferredfielfd1758]

The "weird little holes" on the top of the castle are called "murder holes" and pretty much every castle ever built that was meant for defensive purposes. They were intended to allow projectiles like rocks and masonry to be thrown at or dropped on invaders. They were usually buttressed by crenellations to aid in their defensive capabilities.

[@dancingheroes]

i'm absolutely buttressed by crenellations my guy

[@AlphaGarg]

MACHICOLATIOOOONS

[@queuedjar4578]

@@AlphaGarg Shadiversity gang in the chat.

[@rmac3217]

Boiling oil was the go to

[@theTOASTYsupreme]

It's so wild seeing games from 15-20+ years ago They have such a charm about them that can never be replicated Something about the good ol potato graphics and simple yet entertaining gameplay just strikes a feeling that brings back so many childhood memories But the most fascinating thing is you can jump into these old games, and they're *exactly* how you left them the very last time you ever played

[@princeharris2660]

i feel it too. The feeling is absolutely amazing and makes me want to go back to those times. ;(

[@t-yoonit]

RuneScape still lives on strong. OSRS is alive and well with a mobile client. I play multiple times a week.

[@theTOASTYsupreme]

@@t-yoonit Oh yeah, I still kick around on OSRS, tons of fun

[@davids6840]

Are we talking about 2010-ish?

[@ledumpsterfire6474]

I feel it too, but I think it's just nostalgia and romanticization, tbh. It can't be replicated because of the specific experiences we had with those games, where we were at in our lives at that time, the people we played them with, etc. We might not feel that for newer games, but I almost guarantee the younger generations will. They'll reach mid-adulthood and look back fondly on their time playing Overwatch 3 after school with their brother, and feel that the new games just don't match up anymore.

[@Pikasatupu75]

Videos like this make me think of all the maps and stuff lost to the time and completely forgetten. Imagine all the things we will never know or find again.

[@raindio7169]

"Things were getting a little too existential in the donor room, so I went back to slap some rocks with my big mackerel" God tier script writing

[@tspmcfarlane]

Your journey through Active Worlds is the single best approximation of what it’s actually like to dream: the closest to the experience I’ve ever seen - better than any TV, film, game representation ever.

[@NightTimeDay]

You need to read more books!

[@lonelyboi7547]

@@NightTimeDayDo you have any to recommend?

[@laguna_tuna1579]

The Little Big Planet games would be great if you ever did a part 2. So much user created content just stagnating, waiting for a video game archeologist to come and uncover them.

[@Sam-yu7rc]

Great idea

[@betteranimations8365]

The littlebigplanet servers shut down

[@theshyreaderArt]

​@@betteranimations8365 although the servers are shut down, the servers for the 3rd game are still available, and with them they still have access to player created games from the previous games. I also heard that there are some unofficial servers for the other games up i think? but I don't know how they work

[@NIKEONXX]

I love little big planet. It sparked so much creativity in me as a kid. Just listening to volver a commenzar makes me cry.

[@alec1430]

Truth! Lbp great memories!

[@Kriegerinheart]

Its like leaving a bunker and finding the nuclear destroyed remains of a city and exploring it

[@PureSolace]

It's like sneaking into that abandoned mall that's been fenced up for years. Great work! As an old man, I remember a lot of those places you visited. It's amazing how we keep remaking the same things over and over, only to abandon them to remake them again.

[@mylo9753]

its crazy how eerie games feel when there's no one in them, its like there really should be other players but since there's not something feels really off, theres always this feeling of uneasiness for me honestly, like something is watching me

[@brandonfurr7080]

After watching this vid I went back to some roblox games I used to play a lot years ago, since I never played anything like tf2 or any of the older server based games. Goddamn those roblox games are erie. When I used to be playing with hundreds of people at a time but there was no one there, that was weird. Definitely existential crisis causing.

[@metalklown]

Write a creepypasta about it, Stephen king.

[@mylo9753]

@@metalklown chill tf out buddy no one was talking to you

[@benjaminostrom9124]

@@brandonfurr7080 i did the same a few years ago, remembering how i used to run around the area making friends and playing w my brother n now its all empty

[@psychopompous3207]

Plenty of liminal spaces videos about that. They make for interesting watches.

[@JG11099]

The Active Worlds Museum of Science Boston map was actually a pretty accurate and to scale map of the real life museum. Of course there's not all that weird shit on the walls, but it's funny to see that they put in the effort to make it pretty legit. Back in the early 00's those creepy stairs that you ran up actually used to be musical stairs that would play notes when you stepped on a step. The actual stairs themselves were pretty cool, so it's funny that they made them sound absolutely horrible in a game about sound design.

[@gokublack-ix4jy]

That’s cool to see that this world is actually accurate I haven’t been to the museum of science since I was in 6th grade so I forgot what it looks like

[@nathanieldebarros3849]

Seeing this video go through the same Boston science museum I remembered gave me so many memories of those mail tubes and that room with the solar system and explanations of light. Going to that museum with my grandparents and my dad first sparked my love of science, and now I’m studying physics. That was a crazy trip.

[@ataridc]

I don't know why I'm commenting on a video with almost 10k comments, but the explanation of AW is it was early internet and there were many frontiersman type innovation attempts. AW was proposed as a different way to surf the internet that was setup more like a mall you walked around and explored, however, unsurprisingly it caught on more as a chatroom/sandbox playground. I remember there was a map advertising the 98 Godzilla movie. You could hear Godzilla stomping around but sadly I never saw him appear.

[@JetSetDman]

As somebody who would go to the Boston Museum of Science all the time as a kid, that "SFX" map was honestly an incredible recreation of it layout-wise, at least as far as I could tell from the video.

[@llamasincorporated.7850]

Yea! It looked really good, only wish he showed more of it.

[@bonersexpenis6200]

yeah i noticed that too! i remember towards the back of the lobby area is this crazy contraption that moved rubber balls up and down, and that hallway leading to the theater where the giftshop is.

[@KevinFinch_]

I literally gasped when I saw the circle art on the wall by the music stairs. The attention to detail is absurd!

[@CreepyBEEF]

I would love to see this become a series.

[@WOKEchair]

Me too.

[@Ds_plantations]

Aye same here

[@charlesmcclure8000]

Same this was fun

[@FangTheManokit]

200th like

[@ReklessTW]

Aye

[@wizzerd9250]

The undertime slopper reference is absolutely incredible and a very accurate representation of a modern active world RP.

[@jareddeal9999]

I love undertone slopper

[@Kenjakufromjujutsukaisen]

I love underlime slopper

[@tobi_lotus]

i love undertime slopper

[@fantasticcatfishgainer33]

i love undertime slopper

[@biggyc755]

I love undertime slopper

[@impkid204]

Active Worlds doing a better metaverse better than Meta. Probably had more peak players too.

[@oliviahns]

I'm a game developer and a few years ago I made a small game called e-scape that's inspired by the concept of exploring a dead online game. During the height of the pandemic I was mourning the seemingly simpler, more intimate times of the internet; it really became obvious to me how different online spaces feel now. Maybe it's just nostalgia, or maybe just the result of not having the time to make memories in online games anymore. Anyway, it's really nice seeing dead games archived in a video like this and reading everyone's stories of old servers in the comments

[@scottloftus5539]

Is there a way to download it?

[@georgehands_]

@@scottloftus5539 So I have no idea if my fourth attempt at trying to link the game was deleted again but I can't see it anymore so I'm going to assume it was. You can just search: "e-scape by Olivia Haines itchiio" and you'll find it

[@BillyBob-wq9fl]

Democrats took over. They hate America and everything good. Their signature is on everything you see.. Thats why target is selling tuck-friendly bathing suits for infants.. made by the guy whose clothing line says: “Satan respects pronouns” That democrat energy is what you feel as the change.. Are conservatives perfect? No.. but at least they dont worship the devil..

[@Kiritomens]

active words really reminds me of second life. Recently i was on a job to fix a PC setup, and had to set it up in this guy's home. dude was literally 70, around 80. He was actually a avid second life player, and hosted a pretty big community in the game. I think he said he was teaching language in his server. I was so surprised on multiple factors. I loved when i saw a guy as old as my grandpa playing second life with a RGB gaming headset. True peak right there.

[@HkSniper]

An interesting thing about Active Worlds, is you can join the servers and then actually explore the area. The servers are huge. You can find builds from long ago. The game is great for a bit of online archeology. So it's worth going off the beaten path and just flying around looking for builds that may not have been visited in decades. If you select the objects, you can usually see the date they were placed.

[@vorpalrend5496]

Vid is over a year old and I saw CS:S on here with Rats - Rats was the very first map I ever played, on a server with 300 ping to the UK from Australia, as I logged in the server played Click Click Boom - Saliva My dude, thank you for unlocking the core memory.

[@davidburnett5049]

The memorials you find are sad but sweet. RIP to the fallen, whatever took them. Someone loved them and left a mark with their name.

[@AutTheWizard]

That SFX map is even weirder because that's not just some random map. It looks like an actual recreation of the Boston Museum of Science (awesome place btw). I don't know if that makes it more or less weird, but there ya go.

[@cwell2112]

Yup, we used to go to the Museum of Science when I was a kid and the map is eerily similar to how I remember it.

[@user-zu1ix3yq2w]

I think it's awesome

[@nemmiril]

I went there just a year ago and that’s literally the museum’s first floor. It doesn’t look like the stairs down to the basement exhibits are there and it doesn’t have the entry turnstiles, but the gift shop and dining area is pretty much spot on.

[@jmurdadasteppa]

I was impressed by the Boston Museum of Science level in Active Worlds. It actually looks like the real museum inside.

[@aceman131]

I thought the same thing the Charles river bridge across the street looks identical to irl.

[@Fi-ohFool-SpecialtyComputer]

20:36, if you were curious what this model is, this is the old GLaDOS portal 1 model! I believe its the OG portal 1 model but it may be one of the beta's for portal 2. Either way, I love portal so i immediately recognized it!

[@McKillaboy]

Man, I can't imagine the hours and hours of work people have put in those maps. To see them empty kinda feels sad.

[@georget4141]

the fate of all of our computer creations

[@burgruk]

Some folks spend hours and hours cooking an elaborate meal, just for it to be consumed in mere minutes. A lot of effort went into creating these amazing maps. It's wonderful they've lasted as long as they have, and been immortalized or otherwise extended in their existence by awesome videos like this. Yeah, it's kind of sad...but a lot of sad things can still be celebrated, highlighting the good things that came along with them. Lots of good times were had on those maps. Lots of good memories. Folks in the future might not ever be able to experience those moments themselves, but that's what makes those moments special. And there will always be more moments in the future.

[@Shmooper_Dooper]

Sounds like me in Don't Starve Together. People on playstation join all the time but on PC very few people join individuals lobbies. Thousands of hours of base building for no one.

[@TheGrimRaper.]

Its just the way things are, Eventually all things you once enjoyed will be forgotten, The best we can do is enjoy every moment of it.

[@SCANNI]

Damn this reminds me of when I was a kid, I'd join obscure Roblox maps with zero players and just look around at what other people had made one day in there room left to rot, great video mate slowly becoming my favorite KZbinr 👍

[@kubikim]

Roblox I think might be the most versatile open source currently... and with millions upon millions playing today, there's a huge number of these obscure dead games. Exploring and digging up games in roblox is no mere blast. It's an experience for sure. Unfortunately it's quite the hassle to find these games because roblox searching system sucks ass.

[@SCANNI]

@@kubikim your definitely right, it just feels weird virtually treading on what is essentially lost media that once upon a time hosted hundreds of players . I remember a game on there I used to play called something along the lines of Pac-Man hunt and it was essentially dead even back then but when the odd couple players joined it was a blast. The semi realistic but also cartoonish style Roblox has also is one of the many reasons it feels lost to time as it just reeks of mid to late 2000s. Sorry that this is long I just felt that my first comment didn't do it justice.

[@mememan3424]

The AIT memorial map makes me so emotional. I hope those guys still all talk to eachother.

[@cmdrblackhawk2884]

We do!

[@greg4221]

We're all still around! Even though we aren't able to hang out nearly as frequently, our friendships remain!

[@bng1022]

memento mori

[@mememan3424]

@@greg4221 oh, that’s a emotional relief, lol. If you don’t mind me asking tho.. how come it was shut down?

[@thisguyerik_]

to anyone wondering, the little jingle at 6:40 is from Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind!

[@gamerkons]

@thisguyerik_ thank you man i searching for this Long Time and now i know the Origin of this Sound i Heard it on Browser Version of Alien hominid

[@sgas]

I love this kind of documentation, these digital worlds deserve to be archived like this

[@PivotDirector]

Holy shit the Cokeopolis one, there's a hell of a backstory to that MAP Im willing to provide. There was a game in the early 2000's called Cokestudios, it was basically a habbo hotel type replica game, but you could make music and redeem coca-cola codes for in-game furniture. It had a good life and a nice community, before eventually merging with the game called There around 2007ish, ending the life of Cokestudios, and creating a world in There made to replicate the same feeling as cokestudios. It absolutely did not work, and marked the end of the game and community. This map you're seeing on the Cokeopolis world is the Cokestudios map from There. Its actually so fucked up to see a chunk of my childhood just slapped in front of me I had completely forgotten about.

[@freerice9595]

Coke studios was such An amazing game. Like 5 years ago I was digging around and found that someone had been working on a coke studios private server but abandoned the project. I wish someone would revive it.

[@PivotDirector]

@@freerice9595 sadly that ship has long since sailed. No chance at this point Im afraid.

[@zants_]

Ctrl+F 'coke' oh thank god there was actually an explanation, and a cool/informative one

[@lordzon]

Uh wut?

[@justlol2305]

@@PivotDirector where's the timestamp for this

[@annamagni1926]

wow so surreal. as a big fanfiction reader, i remember spending hours on livejournal or older dead websites and reading posts from the early 2000. these people seemed so real and alive in these posts, but they hadn't updated their pages in years and some of these people were even dead. left me with a strange feeling

[@cheeseofglass]

Last time I tried to look at old LJ's, most posts were butchered because the image-hosting sites they used were discontinued. Lots of missing JPGs and GIFs.

[@brianlawl]

Only a matter of time till all our childhoods are just gone online. Servers will die and new stuff pops up.

[@BloodInTheStrawberries]

It's so weird looking at older art or fanfics, and realising going further down the rabbithole- That person you admired, was long dead.

[@MagicMan3007]

Best word I've found to describe it is melancholy

[@PinkeySuavo]

I was literally talking about this topic today to my friends and this video and comment popped out. I think there will be some kind of "hobby" in the future, where people will dig into old topics and stuff and they will be reading posts from 50-100 years ago when most of the authors are dead. Even now I sometimes get into some forums with posts from 2000-2010 and it already feels so long time ago. For most of us the internet is quite new and we've been growing up with it, so we are used to the fact that everything is 'fresh'. Videos from few years ago, posts from few years ago, and so on. But years pass and we get to the point where we see "uploaded 16 years ago" and it seems so freaking abstract. In the future, people will be able to 'live' with us, exploring what our lives were like. Nowadays we can only read books, watch some movies. And it's only from the richest, most famous and most succesful people. In the future, they will be able to read stories from random people who just vanished from the Earth. Of course, probably most forums, posts, hostings will be gone and replaced with new ones, but I guess some archives will be kept, or some sites just will survive.

[@canariawing]

2:12 oh my god, i've never played active worlds before but i vividly remember this place. it was in a different game that i played constantly as a kid, called There. it was a sandbox virtual world similar to active worlds and second life in pretty much every way, including building. i remember getting teleported into this place with some friends i made in the game. we only stayed in the spawn area so i don't know if the little town was there too, but i do remember the archway leading out of spawn

[@kylebooth2528]

The holes in the top of that castle wall are called machicolations. They allow bowmen to shoot down at the base of the wall. It looks like they worked properly in game which is neat.