Exploring Dead Games 3

[@Flac_the_Wave]

I went on ActiveWorlds a while back, and accidentally entered this sci-fi world. I explored for a bit, and then wanted to see the edge of the map. I ended up traveling for over two hours in a single direction and didn't find the edge...and it wasn't nothingness...and it didn't repeat, or loop. Nothing was copy pasted. There were so many amazing things people built that nobody would ever see if they didn't just dedicate hours of their life to exploring. I found a Blockbuster, space terminals, parking lots with eerie children noises, an art deco city with enterable shops on a massive concrete mountaintop, named streets and bus stops, opera houses, police stations, crime scenes, overpasses, monorail systems, restaurants, art installations and so much more...all sci fi themed and all far, far outside of what a normal person's drive for exploration would be satisfied with. And it was so beautiful...and I was the only person on that entire map the entire time, alone in an infinite expanse of a user-handcrafted experience. And because of that I can't recommend it enough.

[@Succer]

That is insane

[@pessimisticdiabetic717]

what's the world?

[@NickChangArt]

Please do a video documenting the exploration of it.

[@NodokaHanamura]

From what you've described, that sounds kind of like COFMeta (Metatropolis). It was one of my favorite worlds when I was younger.

[@Vehlman]

Hey if you're still around, documentation of such trip would be extrrrrrremely appreciated! especially as they've sort of locked registration to AW now

[@Clockwork-Rat]

Some say blockland 1892 will only stop when the sun burns out, I say they will outlive it

[@treverfanjoy2871]

He has arrived in the comment section. the man, the myth, the legend

[@werbeplakat4318]

Did you ever play prison break when the servers were still up? It was my Favorite mode back in the days I played the game. Download it again a few Months ago and it was sad to See most stuff gone or completly empty

[@stevestevenson1678]

@@werbeplakat4318 I remember playing the shit outta that game mode, it was like Tezuni's or something right?

[@werbeplakat4318]

@@stevestevenson1678 YEEES Tezunis prision break got me alone 80-100 hours. So many secrets and weapons to find and a lot of fun. Meet some really funny people there

[@genkaido9471]

​​​@@stevestevenson1678yeah it was called tezuni's jailrp or tezuni's jail break it was one of my favorites as well!

[@philyburkhill1]

12:30 a lot of webcams in the 90s were not webcam streams like we have today - it was basically a webcam taking a picture every 10/20/30 seconds and uploading it.

[@AlidarJarok1]

OH wow I forgot about how they used to work in the 90s. Core memory unlocked lol.

[@scrung]

hehe to be fair, that is what a stream is (an ever updating source of data). i remember my webcam in 2002 or something that had like 0.4 frames per second refresh rate 😅

[@soniablanche5672]

well it's literally the same as current year webcams, the only difference is that they take 30 pictures per second rather than 1 picture every 30 seconds lol

[@ioverexcitedninja4281]

lol imagine a gaming youtuber with a 1 frame per 10 seconds webcam 😂😂

[@hpwilliams0]

I remember being really into ghosts and aliens, and there being a stream for a library that was “famous” for having ghosts caught on the various webcams they had inside the complex. Was always spooky seeing the slight changes that would happen between pictures of a dark hallway at 3am at night 😂

[@mishell128]

41:45 Oh holy cow I'm viridian. I was NOT expecting to show up in a video like this lol That said that's basically the intended reaction to 777, yeah. I built the house on the bed, Dino did .. everything else. Also yeah we were most likely both AFK, we leave the server up just for the hell of it. (No idea why it says Dino killed you, it was probably one of the bots that did it)

[@dillpickleplays196]

The section on Blockland is quite something. Those servers you checked out are definitely odd balls, Quenenard is someone who has hosted New Years parties for Blockland since 2010, and Floran is like the only person still persistently hosting a server that's mainly death run and minigames. The game itself won't die on it's own, there's a few dedicated players who refuse to leave, grow out of it, or switch to Brickadia, the newer game that took major inspiration from Blockland, and was created by Blockland players. That game would be a major reason why people have left the game, but there's still those who refuse and stay with the classic. Sadly, the game won't ever be updated anymore. Before it was updated to "Shaders" in V21, it had MAPS. Lots of maps, lots of players, all sorts of servers. That is where the prime of this game was. Now, it's just desolate, and I personally blame the creator Badspot for it.

[@raelthyk]

Hi dillpickle!

[@zbunk]

the 1892 in blockland1892 is when he started racing

[@bazzy5489]

I imagine blockland1892 had the time of his life, finally facing a worthy opponent. And the thought of this brings a smile to my face.

[@noodle67]

:)

[@Mr.Nossody]

39:30 Lol, I really glad you liked my basement with all the books I had given custom titles to. It took like a week to get them all working. Sorry for the explosive one..

[@Ty-17]

wow when did you make that?

[@Mr.Nossody]

@@Ty-17 Decently early on. Had to have been 5 years ago by now. It was one of those projects you keep adding to, you know? I put everything I had into that, and what was in the vid was like 1% of what was done. I hope the Pirate Adventure build gets some love someday. A great team put so much love into it. Maybe someday, you know?

[@Ty-17]

@Mr.Nossody Love seeing people passionate about what they do, good stuff man.

[@visual_Memories]

The tribute to DMC2U and all the others who helped to build and foster the Active Worlds community into what it was-- that's gotta be one of the most tasteful beats I've ever seen in a KZbin video.

[@CrobatmanIamthenight]

Hopefully no one vandalizes it if they even can

[@LexusLFA554]

If they would still live today, how old would they be? Sorry if I invade your personal space.

[@methvirus5685]

nice to see u here place

[@DogDooWinner]

@CrobatmanIamthenight I vaguely remember it from years ago. I think it was admin controlled. It was so long ago that I don't even remember where I originally heard it from. It might have been from a friend's father who was obsessed with games like this. I can't ask because the friend got super addicted to pills, and I nuked the friendship to get him off of them. Sometimes, helping someone requires extreme actions.

[@TheBcoolGuy]

Man, it's wild to think that he's been dead for nearly 12 years.

[@sourskittles4187]

man there are a lot of these kinds of "exploring dead game" videos but yours are always way more comfier and it's like you try to tell a story in them, they're great

[@jowsif]

I spent years in ActiveWorlds, as the owner of a few "Pokéworld" servers, where a dice roll bot was customized into a sort of battle between our posters of chosen 'mons. We all built gyms, but the world hosting costs back in '02 were more than my allowance. I wandered the ice caves of X-Files 2 so many times, and I think it just goes around in circles.

[@liambrissette8867]

Dude the memorial for Active World members isn't even sad, that is the most beautiful shit I have ever seen. RIP DMC2U.

[@amoryblaine3292]

For real, it's amazing seeing this sort of thing. This small forgotten community and yet all that love and fraternity between these people bonded over that place and hobby.

[@LawOfOne_Elris]

rest in paradise DMC2U🗿

[@bluemooninthedaylight8073]

Yeah, it's a good reminder that there's also really nice people online, too.

[@jacknagel9387]

@@amoryblaine3292 It feels like we're some sort of archeologists looking into the lives of people who never even knew we existed yet through whats left over in their worlds we could tell who they were.

[@Tacdelio]

​​@@jacknagel9387in 50-200 years when theres an archive of the entire internet, we will be the same thing, our words etched into the internet for eternity for people to scroll through. there will be people that read and follow our words as if we knew any better than them.

[@BCSsoccer]

44:10 Blockland Soccer ⚽ We've held soccer tournaments every summer since 2014, along with other smaller events throughout the year. All of our matches have been recorded live with commentary, and are available to watch, no soup or tea necessary!

[@kemrit9967]

We have impromptu scrims as well. Times vary, but they're usually around 9:30pm est

[@denverbeek]

I believe I attended one in like 2018 and was blown away by the detail of the map you guys had.

[@Agret]

Why does it need to download 11k files for such a basic map? You guys need to clean that up.

[@HalfLifer81]

that's actually kind of impressing

[@mattt9022]

​@@Agret There's a CDN add-on that you can download and drop into the folder, it makes you load typically in under a minute. Sadly things like that aren't added to the game by default so there are a lot of obstacles for newer players :p The add-on is located in the welcome message to the server or on the discord for future reference

[@JVLY]

In a sense, would this be considered a form of Digital Archeology? Just because the cities aren't made of brick and stone, it doesn't mean there weren't hundreds, if not more, that at some point called these spaces home.

[@420quickscoper5]

archaeology is the study of past human culture, so i don't see why this couldn't be classed as digital archaeology

[@mattpace1026]

Considering that's exactly the term used (on the internet, anyway) for this type of thing, I'm curious as to whether or not you got that term from some forum or something, or if you came to that idea on your own?

[@Cr3zant]

@@mattpace1026 The "term" is literally just normal archaeology with the simple append of digital in the front to denote the medium. It is not some special term that requires great creativity or learning it from someone else to come up with.

[@jack.jpg247]

Hi friend. I have a degree in Historic Preservation. I can confirm that "digital preservation" as its called is absolutely a thing! However, while it concerns itself with archiving and preserving media created digitally, it is a relatively new field in historic preservation and digital archivists are practically writing the rulebooks for it as they go. While it is mostly concerned with tackling issues like how we preserve and archive things like emails, digital photographs, SSD's, and etc., there is a recent and noticeable recognition of things like early internet websites and video games as being culturally significant and worth preservation. But, there is by far no consensus on best practices for this or agreement on the sorts of "qualifiers" which mark something as being worth the time to preserve in an accessible way, and innumerable barriers to trying to figure out a way to preserve these sorts of things in an accessible way that doesn't violate the original creators or users or hosted content's privacy or copy write protections, which is the biggest barrier to accessibility for both digital and non-digital media. In short, this digital archaeology is indeed a thing that is happening in the professional space, but it is very difficult and hampered by all sorts of challenges that have yet to have a concrete process for resolving, as this is an extremely new phenomenon and we as a culture have no frame of reference for handling this new form of records.

[@HotdogSosage]

​@@Cr3zantBro this response cracked me up

[@Swholli]

Ah, I'm so glad you played Speedkart Remastered in blockland, I did the announcer voice! I love hearing my own voice blare across someone else's speakers when they win/lose lol

[@JK-gm6kk]

I HATE hearing the sound of my own voice

[@sleprvrru6y-lin-92]

blockland 1892

[@BlueMasterCheap]

The TFC segment sent me for a wild nostalgia trip. I used to religiously play it when I was younger on an old PC that was shared with my siblings and eventually when that died I played on my brother’s laptop. Three of the servers you visited are some of the servers I believe I used to frequent as they were semi active back then, and I would play climb maps if no one was on and would always try to do the escape maps but didn’t usually succeed as myself and the other handful of people couldn’t figure them out or weren’t skilled enough. My favorite memories are probably from the “conc” jumping maps as I befriended a guy from Switzerland named “Quaid” and he taught me to his best ability to “conc” jump, and I was constantly trying to get on the same time as him, and eventually he stopped playing as I think he was set to do military duty or something like that😭 I miss ya buddy, you were a great teacher and gave me tons of memories when I didn’t have the resources to buy newer games. I love your videos so much and wanted to thank you for providing such amazing content, sorry for the wall of text just remembered some great moments of my childhood.

[@Squideey]

"Blockland survivor" here. Seeing it described as a dead game is heartbreaking to be honest. A small community and servers still persist, but I still really miss the old days.

[@TheReuleaux]

I remember seeing you alot on the forums. The old days probably won't come back, but we can relive them in small pockets still.

[@TheBlackParrot]

probably wouldn't be doing any of the things i'm doing today if it wasn't for that game

[@KittyBladeProdutions]

I remember all the secret passages in the bedroom and the kitchen, the snow mountain that you could ski down, and the death match in the desert towers map. Everyday, I miss the Blockland I knew before shaders.

[@Bluezexmas]

I was just casually listening to the video then friggin, BLOCKLAND was mention and I got misty eyed remember the hours I spent logged onto freebuilds and Tezuni's Jail escape. I'm glad it was mentioned and hopefully down the line it could have a resurgence

[@Fantasticanations]

Were you around back in RTB or only in modern blockland?

[@WolfmanDude]

That "Heat" game was exactly what I imagine it would be like to be the last human on earth. You spend your whole day doing dumb eccentric stuff to forget the loneliness. That scene of you going into the empty white house, sitting down in the presidents chair and declaring yourself as the president was too perfect!

[@mattpace1026]

I bet that was actually the last game he recorded for this, just as he snapped from the isolation.

[@Providence83]

The longer the segment went on, the more this comment rang true. I was laughing through several bits thinking about it.

[@HeftyYeti8764]

The TV show The Last Man On Earth has an ongoing bit about that so right on point lol

[@maggs734]

I can recommend the 1985 NZ movie "The Quiet Earth", which has a similar premise.

[@astvrion]

reminded me of zombieland double tap

[@collinmclaren6608]

Master Sword felt weirdly existential by the end. You just innocently jump into some dead game, only to accidentally destroy the only working server. All those NPCs that had sat in limbo for years, finally serving their purpose by engaging with you, and then their entire world just flashes out of existence.

[@Providence83]

Some old beige tower someone's been using as a heater in their room had its fans suddenly slow down for the first time in ages when the server crashed. That's the weirdest part of any of these videos to me. There is a machine, a *physical computer,* _somewhere_ in the real world that is running this stuff and linking to the modern day internet. That machine has been connected to power, looping automatic startups on restarts or power cuts, forwarding, hosting, going through an ISP, and all that FOR DECADES! It's even crazier to think some of these servers could be ran on modern machine just by happenstance because it was something that was in an old server rack and when the equipment was upgraded, they could have just moved everything from the old machines to the new ones without bothering to check what all processes they were doing. That's speculation on my part but I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility.

[@StudioAREshorts]

That makes me wonder, you know? Like what the fuck how are these things still running. Who is paying for this machine, the internet that runs this machine, the power hasn't gone out once???

[@zombieslayer02gjustzombies85]

@@StudioAREshortsobviously not for some servers, that server just died after having been used up too much since 2005 that he was able to be the final person to play it

[@WillockFlame]

All of these reminds me of this game . kzbin.info/www/bejne/qIe5cmh_Ys55l5osi=itZC2byPjRDZ4qj8

[@derpderpson2188]

@@Providence83A lot of those urban exploration videos will happen upon computers that have been running for ages, sitting in abandoned buildings just chugging away because nobody's bothered to turn the power off. I'd like to think that this was one of those.

[@Minuteman_Medic]

That VR company working with the Army makes sense. Their Tac-Eye thing looks very similar to the Land Warrior stuff that army was playing with during the early 2000s. It's basically a heads up display thing that clips onto your glasses and connects to other soldiers.

[@arendelle6531]

Okay but if you know about it, there's a possibility the makers in the VR company could have found out about it and just lied about working with the army to help sell it.

[@BierBart12]

The data gloves they sell look like what a futuristic military would use to pilot mechs or space ships, even though it's just a cool motion tracker They also have full-on VR simulator machines, but they seem to be more for a big fancy arcade(Oh, they call it a "VR theme park" in the PDF) than any serious training. Man, if they weren't over 10000 bucks. They look better than similar things I can find available

[@inthegrass11]

iirc I heard, I think in an LGR video, that the SpaceBall is still used in CAD workspaces because it gives an alternative method of control in 3D space, I think LGR also mentioned something about NASA using the hardware as well? but I could be wrong. if you look up LGR SpaceBall you should find the video, I would look myself but I'm on my phone and would lose this comment chain

[@JohnBurner41]

Oh, hey, old man here. I grew up with TFC and remember mooncheese. It was a pretty interesting map that had a unique spin to the normal gameplay. If I recall correctly, it was 3-4 teams of countries all racing to prime a rocket and get in it to get to the moon. I think you won if you got there first and got to, well, the moon cheese. That's why you were downloading anthems. Shame it didn't work. Also, entmod felt like a weird proto gmod, it let you spawn and move entities around. I remember begging on a server to get access to it so I could mess around. Have to imagine none of those maps work because that mod is probably mega-broken these days.

[@guilhermecarvalhotrindade2625]

It's possible that the Master Sword server ran out of storage. Throughout all those years, the server may have been quietly writing log files until it ran out of space. Then when you delivered the quest, it tried to write *one more piece of data* and... well, it couldn't. Well done. Thanks for the vid.

[@KittyKatty999]

Wow, that feels like something out of an existential story

[@BlastTheExplosion]

@@KittyKatty999 in a sense, it is.

[@spyczech]

"I'm tired, boss" damn thats actually kind of sad

[@asj3419]

I'm honestly sceptical that it was the logging that was the problem given that him joining the server is likely to be logged. It would be interesting to know what happened, but I'm pretty sure none of us will ever figure that out. (did a file corrupt?)

[@PeteSmells]

That entire HEAT section was like a fever dream

[@Kleptogames]

Fr chaotic asf😂

[@DaProductionsDrawings]

Real

[@jtjoemamma]

the guy who said "be serious" too like how do you be serious in a game like that 😂

[@Anyting9OnTopGrrr]

​@@jtjoemammagame is the most unserious thing ever 😂

[@ThePhantom4516]

that game looks shitty but also fun in the jankiest way

[@vesumbra]

hey I'm Zeustal from that Blockland map, I DID NOT expect to see my bot show up at all!!! that map was a repurposed version of a significantly better map called Skill4life's pirate adventure, the Blockland community is still somewhat alive so I'd implore you to revisit us sometime.

[@patyos2]

Yes that was from the Blockland New Years 2024 although he only went in the server 5 days after the festivities were over.

[@Mr.Nossody]

Yes, the Pirate Adventure crew worked very hard on this. Over 5 years of work went into the build shown, and it was only the Spawn Island. It was nice to see some of the interactable stuff we put in was still present. It still had some of it's charm left even after all this time. What was seen was an edited version for the New Years celebration that Im surprised was still up. The New Years is kind of the only time old players show up to play.

[@Succer]

Wait which map and what bot?

[@vesumbra]

@@Succer Skill4life's pirate adventure, Zeustal

[@Succer]

@@vesumbra Nice

[@krysowo]

So happy to be hearing coverage of Master Sword! It may seem dead but there's a new version called Rebirth that is actively fixing bugs and has a pretty active community. Been enjoying the game and excited to see what's in store. Thank you for your hard work in this video, awesome seeing these old games being covered and given another chance of being known :)

[@MikiEsco]

I spent HOURS upon HOURS in ActiveWorlds as a kid. I was absolutely obsessed just exploring words - but when I bring it up to people no one ever knows what I'm talking about! I remember there was one world in particular that seemed to go on forever. I would spent days running from one build through seemingly endless empty landscape until I would randomly come across another build (usually half-finished). Then I would repeat the process.

[@blockland1892]

40:04 AIN'T NO WAY

[@terradoom8503]

Omg it's blockland1892

[@FireNinja7365]

The man, the myth, the legend himself, blockland1892

[@Boingoloide]

The man who DRIVES!

[@TamelaVilla]

He found his way here, bless

[@Levioli_]

no shot

[@Raveheart]

12:20 I operated some webcams in the late 90s/early 2000s and the way they worked back then is that they uploaded a still .jpg file via FTP to a webserver very often. In the early days it was usually every 60 or 30 seconds, later people tried to crank it up to every 10- 5 seconds. On the viewer side you just needed a webpage with code to embed the image and auto-reload itself every x seconds which was very compatible with most browsers and worked without installing extra stuff. Since active worlds seems to have a way to embed webpages, it's totally possible to have webcam images on there back then. It most likely wasn't a live video feed as the tech just barely wasn't there yet, more like a fast updating still image.

[@SJGster]

I don't know about the "webcams" in this world, but there were a number of Activeworlds "TV stations" that did exactly what you described, but with edited screenshots etc. instead of real world photos. Web pages couldn't be embedded back then, but there was a picture command that took a URL and had an optional parameter indicating how often to refresh.

[@CC-qx7hk]

My new favorite type of humor is people finding unfortunate references to the Twin Towers pre 9/11. Active Worlds give me such nostalgia for early Second Life. I played that game for almost 20 years, over half of my life lol

[@THEBUGSAREBACCCCKKKKKKKKKK]

It's a shame 9/11 American won't get to see this

[@coolmcdudely4814]

It reminds me of that tragedy

[@Hally-oc8ry]

@@coolmcdudely4814yeah I remember walking down the streets looking for my brother

[@r00tan16]

tbf, some of those builds may have been made as memorials

[@BierBart12]

I remember seeing them show up in a game that came out either days or a month before the disaster. Stuff like this is wild

[@BritishWrongStyle]

Your Comprehensive History of Internet Horror was the video I saw of yours and you immediately became one of my favourite KZbinrs. Your delivery and editing is really really good and this series is so much fun. Thanks for all your hard work!

[@cantflyforshit]

Bump because I 100% echo this sentiment. Absolutely stellar videos

[@LovePotion_]

All these Killer7 sounds and music, man. This is the third time you brought tears to my eyes. So much nostalgia from these items, some of the terms, the decoration and the brushwork... Thank you for your work man. From the bottom of my heart.

[@csrph]

Man, I played Blockland for literally a decade back in the 2000's. It feels so weird knowing it's a dead game these days. I miss the community and all the fun times we had. Thanks for showcasing it, it brought back a lot of memories.

[@OrgusDin]

I miss Blockland too.

[@patyos2]

still active players playing Blockland weekly and even daily, I wouldn’t really call it dead but it’s only active on peak timezones like around 5-10pm est and not at 4am est in the morning like the video lol

[@incoplaysgames3530]

patyos meow

[@patyos2]

@@incoplaysgames3530 meow

[@legatelaurie]

@@patyos2 There's despair fever (a danganronpa-esque gamemode) games being hosted regularly still, it's really fun

[@HoneyMilkTea555]

this man’s voice is so comforting

[@renechristmann2607]

yes totaly

[@lcb45]

So true. This is one of my favorite youtube channels right now, probably top 3. Always get so excited to see a new video

[@Gobeux]

ive used past videos to help fall asleep, so comforting and relaxing

[@avoncoguy4745]

He sounds exacly like spoonkid

[@SurmenianSoldier]

@@caviar_dreamz how the hell do you accidentally type lust instead of just and not notice it

[@Dementei]

Oi nice.. checking in for EntCity RP at 56:15 -- so this was actually made for The Specialists mod for Roleplay servers in combination with EntMod, where players can build their own house piece by piece, and could save, load, and place it again anew anywhere they wanted. If you go back and revisit these EntMod maps, enable noclip and go underground, you will find hundreds of objects that can be copied and manipulated with, but you'll need EntMod setup to use them. I still have my server setup so if you want we could go take a deeper dive on all the many curious Ent maps.

[@krazzy6440]

This comment right here could help make a video about the graveyards of ent maps to be explored. I'd take him up on this offer! Dementei is an old school entmod/RP head that knows all the ins and outs. So much content there.

[@Rev_Erser]

tour guide

[@asdfjkli]

Oh man The Specialists mod. Best HL mod ever. It should've been way more popular

[@Scrimblyz]

I like how he can just find random players still online, and just vibes with them. It’s so chill and I love it

[@zyluxer]

The post-zinger dancing in HEAT had me crying every single time 😂.

[@Kultactivities]

Wow, that memorial for DMC2U was genuinely beautiful, Active Worlds really had a dedicated community that cared about it’s people. That’s something you don’t see at all anymore, RIP DMC2U and all the active world players that made a impact in that community.

[@JumboDS64]

You do see it, but only in niche communities. It just happens that the entire internet used to be niche.

[@happyweekend2343]

I really liked AW you can tell the devs wanted the community to be creative, compared to other games it doesn't have paid imvu like items and crap.

[@jermafan111]

While this is partially true, maybe not as predatory as websites like imvu, AW does have a paid model and you could even buy clothes and hair etc for your avatar from malls with credits

[@nomitna6272]

I've been posting Master Sword ambience type videos on my channel recently! This is actually the old version, Master Sword: Continued. There is a new project, Master Sword: Rebirth and an associated discord bringing out new content and bugfixes still in the works! It's in a weird transition period from the original dev team over to open source, this is why there was only the one buggy server for the old version. Rebirth is still moderately active.

[@Hemeriodius3345]

Seeing MSC described as a "dead world" hurt my soul a little. Can't wait for MSR to eventually go public and hopefully see new players find the game.

[@reptarien]

@@Hemeriodius3345 It seems like a game I would enjoy honestly. There were Roblox RPG servers that were kinda like it that I loved as a kid.

[@yellinginmyear]

Thanks for covering TFC, that gave me some nice nostalgia particularly the conc jumps, I actually totally forgot that used to be a thing and felt sooooo old. I like these videos a lot thanks for making them

[@tinyloophole]

I wanted to write and say this is one of the most beautiful and informative videos i’ve watched in a while. I laughed but was also so moved by the memorial in Active World. I just so deeply miss when the internet was a place you’d truly GO- not just an all encompassing thing. There was something truly magical about sitting in front of a real portal to another world- the computer.

[@atomicrooster7567]

The dichotomy of going from the memorial to "I'm the president now let's ride a bear across the country" is golden.

[@TFCMA]

Didn't expect to see TFC in one of these, but it's cool that you covered it. The game's 25th anniversary is coming up in a few weeks. 57:48: Entmaps were used in EntMod, which was sort of a proto-Garry's Mod. Players (usually admins) would be able to move and manipulate entity objects (walls, floors, crates, etc.) around a map in real time. So, you'd use an entmap as a sandbox for creating a map rather than do so using a traditional map editor. 1:01:03 LeeW is Lee Wakefield, who created this map. He created many other TFC maps as well, including several "social"-type maps featuring houses or rooms for people in the community. His maps were often played on Axl's TFC server, which was one of the most popular servers for custom maps.

[@YTKeepsDeletingAllMyComments]

I didn't play too much TFC (know more about CS) but those social type maps sound a lot like TF2 trade servers (well without the trading and idlers). I wish I would have been around on TFCs prime but where I live got DSL quite late since it was a rural area. I used to jump on as a sniper cause I didn't lag around when I moved and I think the lag helped me get headshots.

[@jaimdiojtar]

what was the name of the map? where i can download it?

[@krazzy6440]

Use to play with Ent Mod all the time! Especially in Sven Coop servers. Bless Drunken F00l's meta mod plugins. His Ent Mod was one of the most innovative plugins to come out during the Gold Source Engine era.

[@itz_beazer]

ur a real one 4 ths

[@GammaJK]

The TFC entmap servers are sort of like the precursor to vanilla gmod servers. There should've been spawn menus for you to spawn "entities" to build with - walls, doors, ramps, etc. You could build a base or a house or whatever. You could even make things move, I remember building a base with a sliding wall as an entrance. I spent some time in those back when TFC could still get a couple people in those servers, probably around 2011 or 2012. I remember playing mooncheese too. It had a very janky shuttle that would take you from earth to the moon. GoldSource wasn't really great at handling moving objects, especially not ones with people in them. It was just a box sliding on a predetermined path with a model slapped onto it, and the entity and model would desync all the time so you'd be flying to the moon way ahead or way behind of the shuttle model you can actually see. One of the game modes you sort of touched on with the Smurf map is the escape/adventure maps - there was a LOT of these, many of them way way better than the Smurf map. Lots of them had real stories, needed teamwork to progress through, there was a lot of pretty great ones. There's still videos on youtube of people playing through these, I remember watching a playthrough of a Titanic escape map not too long ago. It's sad to see TFC included in this video as a dead game, as it was the first "real" game I could play due to growing up poor and having a computer that couldn't even run HL2 without bluescreening. I played it when it was already well past its prime, around 2010, but it still had a healthy playercount then. There were several full servers on multiple maps and gamemodes around that time.

[@Darkjustifier]

Holy, that first game's community is something else. That passion and energy to create such things together to try to regenerate the life blood of a game they refused to let pass. I cannot fathom the honor of working with such creatives.

[@bluwafer4255]

Is it just me, or is he an amazing comfort youtuber? Both his voice and editing style are so soothing.

[@macawed]

No it’s not just you.. this content really just relaxes me.. i really cant stand them dramatic yelling over the top KZbinrs

[@sirmcfrank]

Exactly. I feel very comfortable watching his content. The flow is smooth and I feel distracted from general stress

[@erisvile9443]

I fully agree. This is why I started watching John Wolfe and LetsGameItOut, and I’ve happily found another gaming KZbinr to watch. I love this video. So enthralling and comforting.

[@beaconlight20]

Any other comfort youtuber recommendations? I like to put these kind of videos to sleep

[@bluwafer4255]

@beaconlight20 while it's pretty subjective on who's a comfort youtuber or not, for sleep/pleasant background noise I'd recommend The Librarian. Most of their videos are exploring gmod maps/short horror games, and their commentary is anything but annoying. youtube.com/@TheLibrarianYT

[@TrainCon1958]

The Heat segment was genuinely one of the funniest things I've watched in a long time. You've got a talent for comedic editing, Red!

[@wep_vs]

58:43 the assets for this map is from the hl mod called Afraid Of Monsters. Massive recommend, awesome horror mod with insanely cool atmosphere and great mapping

[@bigcooltony437]

I knew it looked familiar! He should totally check it out

[@DarthMan2008]

Usually EntMod maps have rooms underground with plenty of entities. You need EntMod access, then you can use the entgun to clone them, move, change properties, delete etc.

[@Leafyyyy]

Your videos have such a calm charm to them, my absolute fav to just watch and listen while chilling in bed sometimes falling asleep, please never stop these videos my absolute comfort channel and i appreciate the content you make! Great job sir

[@Unordinal]

Wow, Blockland brings me back. Haven't played it in probably a decade but I put so much of my time into that game when I was younger. Pretty nostalgic hearing all of those sounds and seeing the unique visuals.

[@Dethamaranth]

something about this video being chock full of yakuza references JUST as i get into the series is just perfect. i lost it when you started making Nishiki in the club cooee game. perfect, no notes

[@lucyinchat]

Nishiki!!!!!

[@shaxxiv8234]

My brain immediately went “10 years in the joint made you a pu**y” 😂

[@sabotabo7476]

blockland, my beloved... for a time it seemed to be possible competition for roblox, but in its heyday, the creator released one fatal update: v21, which saw the removal of rooms. in v20 and earlier, there were maps one could select for their server which would be the rooms of a house, in addition to custom-made maps and the flat plain seen in the video, atop which one would build with legos. the twist: you're lego-sized. the rooms were MASSIVE, and filled with hidden passageways and secrets, such as the bedroom window being breakable, allowing you to go outside, or the secret entrance into the cabinets in the kitchen. god knows why badspot chose to remove these, but they turned out to be so integral to the game's spirit and image that, combined with a total halt of subsequent updates, it set in motion a long decay of popularity until the sad death that has taken so many multiplayer games. what a tragedy.

[@roberthughes2360]

im glad to read that others share the same love for the blockland of old :,)

[@SirStonjake]

Try a game called Deliantra. It's an MMO-styled game where the servers have been up - largely uninterrupted - for decades. It's hosted by some German guy, and despite the player count hovering between zero and one, he still answers game-related questions in the IRC channel. I played it a lot when I was in middle school, then rediscovered it in high school, then again in college, then again as a working adult. It's pretty much been unchanged since 2010.

[@cyber_lex2511]

Love these videos so much man, thank you. Always good to see stuff like Active Worlds being covered. I just love going on there and wandering around, just seeing what I can find. The memorials always hit harder than I expect. You're not going to get that experience in many games! ...and the Killer 7 clip 😩chef's kiss. Happily subscribing, thanks again.

[@LawOfOne_Elris]

MR PRESIDENT GET DOWN mr president: "THE BOOGIE DOESNT STOP TILL I SAY IT STOPS GOTDANGIT"

[@LawOfOne_Elris]

thanks for introducing me to worm grunting lol

[@yukikaze133]

X-Files ice cave is a reference to the first (and only?) X-Files movie where the alien ship was in the ice.

[@ryanyoder7573]

There are two movies

[@cornn-flaek]

Last episode of season 4 called Gethsemane features an alien found frozen in an ice cave in the Yukon. I assumed the cave in the video is a reference to this. There's a lot of frozen extraterrestrial/supernatural beings/matter in the show but from what I remember Gethsemane is the only one with an ice cave

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

X files: I want to believe

[@PrincessFelicie]

The moment I saw Animyst I was like "hey, it's that game Josh Strife Hayes played once!" and right at the end of the segment he gets mentioned by someone else in game lol

[@eugenepoez]

yeah lol

[@beast667]

Haha, yeah I had the same experience

[@GreenPsycho]

haha yeah, i also love to go back to josh's video just because of how amazed and truly intrigued he was by the game

[@Codename_Thumblesteen]

In the source engine "Ent" is probably short for "Entity" which is modder talk for an object with scripted functionality. Such as the health dispensers in HL2 for instance. Chances are that the missing pieces originally had some kind of code attached that gave them enhanced functionality, and that the scripts failed to load for some reason. So the entmap castle was probably at one point a map with a cool castle that had moving parts or sound effects or something.

[@fishexterminator7169]

Anyone showing up for the 2026 performance??

[@nuclearnonsense2274]

legit going to try so hard to remember

[@patyos2]

Nice you got to see a little bit of Blockland new years 2024 server after the festivities were over. Fun new years 2024 server stats. Highest player peak was 120 players. Total 381 unique players

[@CyPhaSaRin]

fk man i remember playing blockland back in like.. 04-05

[@patyos2]

@@CyPhaSaRin still active players playing the game weekly and even daily

[@JohnSmith-ox3gy]

​@@patyos2Looking for challenging Blockland 1892.

[@OrgusDin]

Based blockheads keeping the game alive, minecucks swerve. @@patyos2

[@patyos2]

@@JohnSmith-ox3gy Blockland 1892 shows up on speedkart servers normally also he’s in these comment section

[@PetraRal]

hands down one of the most fun series on youtube for me

[@SuperBrutalCabbage]

babe wake up PEAK KZbin content has just dropped

[@milkman4640]

I used to play Anymist a while ago. The quest to finding the lore is often put aside and, the mystique and world is usually the main goal. There's some very neat stuff and I am quite sure that most players never found the Lore.

[@luckfoser]

was liking the video very much already- heard pseudoregalia ost in the background and literally turned on my computer so i could go subscribe. really enjoyed your active worlds coverage and glad that what remains can also live here to some degree

[@LocalGoldFlsh]

I've been playing active worlds for a few months now, but I remember discovering it like 15 years ago while my grandfather's computer. Your last video where you showed off active worlds was what sparked my memory. I have been playing it every single day since and it's legitimately the best exploration game.

[@Lucas-Omega]

BlockLand1892 Patriarch of the BlockLand Family

[@ItsThatBoyCrazy]

58:29 I think this map is meant to be a reference to the 'Afraid of Monsters' mod for Half-Life, made by the same group that did Cry of Fear. I can't say for certain though.

[@fladoss]

man I truly love these videos, like no joke I love them. keep up the good work

[@danielflanard8274]

Genuinely one of the best channels that I have found in all my years on KZbin. Your voice soothes the soul and the media you cover is melancholy yet calming.

[@Nashigogogo]

that HEAT presidential arc was amazing

[@blockland1892]

NO WAY

[@swiff]

Is that him?

[@Redlyne_]

LEGEND

[@FireNinja7365]

🗿

[@vinny3410]

Actual legend

[@von...]

race me. if you beat me, ill declare you president of blockland

[@eleven99]

Fun fact about Blockland: the reason why it was so popular back then wasn't because of the game itself, but because of the Blockland forums since it was more a forum about Internet gossip than about the game.

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

I remember the brief but intense Roblox vs Blockland Wars

[@3p1Kf41L]

Blockland Forums only has 11,000 users who have ever posted while Blockland the game had 20x more purchases

[@eleven99]

@@3p1Kf41L because Badspot would frequently ban people from the forum, and the only way to rejoin the forum was to repurchase the game.

[@eleven99]

@@3p1Kf41L Badspot would frequently ban anyone causing mischief on the forums, and the only way to be unbanned was buying another copy of the game.

[@xchronox0]

There was also a relatively large modding community. Modding was the only reason that game ever had any amount of life.

[@projectmax69]

Blockland1892 will race until the end of the time. Maybe he will race even longer than that

[@elishmeeli017]

The entire Animyst segment was so funny to me

[@coolmcdudely4814]

I love these exploring online game videos man. The length you go to on covering each one makes it feel like a compilation of really succinct videos and i find myself forgetting there are other games coming up next im so lost in it.

[@Badspot]

Nothing like chilling out to an algorithm recommended video and finding your own game in it.

[@horrorfan1978]

it didn’t have to be on this list had you still worked on it you know :(

[@3p1Kf41L]

YOU COULD HAVE PREVENTED THIS

[@scrung]

Sometimes you burn out and feel like working on a different project, it’s aight man :)

[@snakebot4986]

Where did the time go...

[@3p1Kf41L]

@@scrung do you know what his different project is?

[@brueashear]

Yo! Thanks for playing Blockland. I have so many memories of that game from my youth. I literally had to mail cash to the developer to buy it because I didn't have any way to purchase it digitally lmao. Blockland is definitely dead thanks to neglect and shitty updates from the developers. It's an actual shell of what it used to be

[@TheBloopers30]

Should've had a workshop when they launched it on Steam. So dumb how the devs ruined the modding community.

[@setlerking]

found this series of videos a few days ago, fantastic stuff. Really hope you make more of them. Very entertaining, fascinating subject matter and equal parts bizarre

[@glacier_official]

absolutely love this series and am glad you're continuing it

[@trolltollz1317]

The up to date war room was the best part lol

[@transgirlgeology2464]

The HEAT section might be your best work yet

[@mackokade]

the map at 58:29 comes from a half-life mod called afraid of monsters, it's made by the same person who created cry of fear

[@fenix9463]

Blockland player from 2011 here. It freaks me out knowing Cat123's Grapple Knife server is STILL going since I was 8 years old, I'm 21 now lmao

[@societl]

when you said 1995 was nearly 30 years ago i almost fell to my knees, im only 19 but that hits crazy

[@RisingRevengeance]

I was two back then. Crazy impressive for the time and two year old me definitely missed out.

[@summerlaverdure]

i love that you are preserving history so these dead games can live on even if they are shut down, thank you for making these videos! also it's really cool how you handled the AW memorial part, I was never there but still RIP to all those who helped make a community a better place

[@FrankW3st]

1:36 I'm so glad the mall music in Dead Rising has become the go to for background audio when showing malls lol

[@II_Omori_ll]

I noticed that instantly too haha

[@madcatmk213]

the memorials in active worlds are so SOOO lovely :( rip

[@kappapride6332]

I desperately need more of this shit and I've already watched every part of this series

[@zer5128]

That TFC map with black walls is probably inspired by the Afraid of Monsters mod for HL. Its a pretty nice horror mod that i think more ppl should check out!

[@DREADD.mp3]

"Mr President get down" segment KILLED me

[@Harurema]

I was about to clean out the garage, but I sure as hell ain't gonna ignore a new video.

[@Fearlesskirii]

i completed animyst about a year ago and did some of the secret bosses with the discord server. They are making animyst 2 currently and i will for sure be there for the wild ride! and i was there when that huge structure was built, i actually built my own mini version next to that one close to the spiral staircases :)

[@ickyari]

I love these video's too man never stop making them yheyre so entertaining genuinely the only hour long videos on youtube i can watch fully through

[@mlm2511]

Please make more of these videos! They are very nostalgic and calming to Watch! ❤

[@nickyb1967]

I adore these videos, from the music choices for each scene to the obscure references peppered throughout. Thank you for holding my attention for far longer than any other media these days

[@letmeshowumypkmn]

And so the crownless king returns to give us another hour long banger. Thanks for always giving us quality stuff. Even if you don’t upload as fast as some people, it’s worth the wait every time

[@Psistarstormer]

Loving the sheer amount of Yakuza / RGG music in this one, always nice being able to recognize the background tunes.

[@hanacinnabun]

Noo I’m actually crying RIP DMC2U and all other memorial members 💕

[@twixxyxd]

i love the way these videos are made, super impressive stuff as always. Your voice is really calming, feels like i’m watching AsumSaus

[@Peaches-i2i]

That TFC bots vs humans map looked like a typical full house back in the day. I could never enter the water because my crappy video card wouldn't render it and crash the game. Really rekindled the memories, thanks for that.