Nastalgia

The_Real_Jeff

The_Real_Jeff

Member
So, I was bored as hell looking through all the old code I've written over the years when I came across a few gems that I thought some of your (probably not many, but hopefully a few) would remember...

ConnectUO Desktop
This was version 1.5 of ConnectUO, worked like the old Google Desktop, was 100% web based, running a local web server on loopback port 1980 (easter egg, my birth year).
ai.imgur.com_Y0nXEAC.png
ai.imgur.com_K5YOLPP.png

RunUO: GDK (Gump Development Kit)
A project I started after getting really sick of how slow GumpStudio was once you added roughly 100 gump items. Mine benchmarked at really well, only slowed down after roughly 1500+ gump items. This program taught me a lot about performance with GDI+. Never finished it, but it was really close to being complete. Might even be worth picking up again (or releasing the source code for someone else to finish it).
ai.imgur.com_Nka2WUe.png
ai.imgur.com_c9NbUls.png

PatchUO
A project I started after ConnectUO to try and make patching things easier. I had learned so much about patching from ConnectUO that I thought I could take on the task of writing a utility that would create the patches. Ultimately, lost interest after some time, probably something IRL happened, I dunno, I actually completely forgot about this. Crazy thing is its basically was a readonly version of UOFiddler in it's current state. (yes, that animation actually runs, it's pretty cool)
ai.imgur.com_pnXPgry.png

ConnectUO 2.0
Fun times, probably my most complete, and most proud of piece of hobbiest software (by my current standards, complete crap ;) ). Long live ConnectUO!!! hehe
ai.imgur.com_Xyli5K7.png
ai.imgur.com_xosL6zt.png

ConnectUO 2.1
Then I switched gears and was going to release a WPF version (i wanted to learn WPF for a job). Hard to tell from this screen shot (and the lack of servers because there isnt a ConnectUO server to retrieve them from) but this is all animated and has a very fluid ui. Wish I could show it off, but oh well.
ai.imgur.com_ydjvK9E.png

RunUO Remote Administrator
I was intending to make and extend the remote administration pipeline built into RunUO. But, like most hobby projects of mine, life got in the way. It did console piping to the tool, and you could lookup account information, but thats about as far as I got. This was also WPF, and mostly made to learn MVVM pattern development.
ai.imgur.com_XKmIu93.png
ai.imgur.com_OKg0p7I.png ai.imgur.com_jd0kGYm.png

I must say the most interesting thing about finding all of this stuff is that it still runs on Windows 8.1. All of these screenshots are from me just double clicking the exe and taking them, pretty freaking cool. If i get time, and feel like putting packages together I might share the source to some of these, particularly the ones that I see people benefitting from (RunUO GDK, Remote admin).

Thanks for listening, and if you guys have any questions about any of this (beside the obvious, wheres the source code?) I'd love to try to answer ;)

On a side note, I literally write million dollar software for a living, so if you guys do have questions about that kind of stuff, I also don't mind trying to answer questions about that as well. Share the knowledge is my outlook when it comes to this stuff, and I will definately try to do that where I can.
 

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After writing this I noticed a thread that mentioned gump studio may not be working now a days... Is this true? Perhaps a good reason to release what I have so someone can pick it up and make something to replace it.
 
The_Real_Jeff said:
RunUO: GDK (Gump Development Kit)
A project I started after getting really sick of how slow GumpStudio was once you added roughly 100 gump items. Mine benchmarked at really well, only slowed down after roughly 1500+ gump items. This program taught me a lot about performance with GDI+. Never finished it, but it was really close to being complete. Might even be worth picking up again (or releasing the source code for someone else to finish it).
Click to expand...

Sounds like an excellent tool. Look forward to hearing (and seeing) more about this.
 
I remember using both versions of ConnectUO, and IIRC you started working on a new version of it, though I think you had called it something else. I'd also followed progress of the remote admin tool you were making and was looking forward to that being released. I vaguely remember the PatchUO and GDK tools though...I may not have had much interest in them at the time or something idk. Would be nice to see these released as source and see what could become of them.
 
Yes I sure do remember ConnectUO when this was released the uo community did a happy dance :) plus with this being able to download patches helped the custom servers so much.
UOFiddler was updated with a plugin- this way you didn't have to change the UOP files to MUL in order to view all the new patch items.(have not seen an updated one yet)
Gump Studio has not been updated this way, so you need to use a lower client with it around 7.0.24.0 or have a client which you have change the files out.
 
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clark71822 said:
I remember using both versions of ConnectUO, and IIRC you started working on a new version of it, though I think you had called it something else. I'd also followed progress of the remote admin tool you were making and was looking forward to that being released. I vaguely remember the PatchUO and GDK tools though...I may not have had much interest in them at the time or something idk. Would be nice to see these released as source and see what could become of them.
Click to expand...
I did start a new version of ConnectUO, but had a falling out with Ryan McAdams, so I stopped working on it and just open sourced it. http://connectuo.codeplex.com/
 
Jeff do you think if you and the rest of the dev stayed around runuo would still be running? just wanting to know

I know all ryan was just a admin because all the hardcore code came from you and mark and zippy and others,
 
Unleashed said:
Jeff do you think if you and the rest of the dev stayed around runuo would still be running? just wanting to know

I know all ryan was just a admin because all the hardcore code came from you and mark and zippy and others,
Click to expand...
The problem was always Ryan, I think everyone except Zippy took off because of him in someway or another. Ryan forked over the money to keep the operation going, so without him, more work would have been done to support the upkeep of the websites/servers/repos/etc. So i really dont know how the answer to that question.

Aside from those issues, if you look at the popularity of UO world wide you can see a few trends...

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=RunUO, Ultima Online, Emulation, MMO&cmpt=q&tz=
These statistics shows how it's popularity has been on a downward slide since roughly 2005-2006. The entire MMO world has been on a downward slide, with the exception of key releases of games, its definately far below its peak. The other thing you can note from this is that the popularity of each of those words region-wise are no longer in the US. Turkey and Paraguay are the biggest for the words RunUO and Ultima Online. Maintaining a product as an english speaker for a foreign speaking crowd is extremely hard to do, and even if you could, most of those foreign crows turn to their own communities for support and whatnot.
 
true i think more and more app based games and cell phone app games have really taken over.

If you look even console game sells have dropped due to the fact cell phone games and tablets app games just much easier to play because you can do them any where. I noticed this year a lot of really old pop games have moved to cell phone app games... like Roller-coaster tycoon Sim city. I even heard rumors of blizzard working on a wow style app based game.. Minecraft is already one of the top app games out there.

Uo has leaned more towards the other countries that is non English speaking. I do like the Idea of them coming out with a new expansion but i think they should start working towards uo being a app playable game. i think that would bring it back. i know they had uoforver app game but that's not this UO.
 
Unleashed said:
true i think more and more app based games and cell phone app games have really taken over.

If you look even console game sells have dropped due to the fact cell phone games and tablets app games just much easier to play because you can do them any where. I noticed this year a lot of really old pop games have moved to cell phone app games... like Roller-coaster tycoon Sim city. I even heard rumors of blizzard working on a wow style app based game.. Minecraft is already one of the top app games out there.

Uo has leaned more towards the other countries that is non English speaking. I do like the Idea of them coming out with a new expansion but i think they should start working towards uo being a app playable game. i think that would bring it back. i know they had uoforver app game but that's not this UO.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately expansions don't do a lot for a game that's over 15 years old. Especially with dated graphics and run by a company that no longer holds to what "Ultima" was and use to be. Nearly everything about the "Ultima" genre is gone from the current edition of Ultima Online. The way items work (Diablo, WoW style magical properties), samurais, elves, whatever else they've added to try to uphold their dying server population. None of this follows any of the Ultima lore and legend. So, anything after UO:R to me cease to conform to the original series of Ultima style gameplay, lore and mechanics. This is what pushed me to RunUO, the ability to emulate the era I believed to be true to what Ultima was could be created for me and others to play. However, this soon becomes like the title of this thread, nostalgia (which i just realized I misspelled lol). After playing for so long you soon learn everything there is to learn about the game and nothing is new, you get bored, and soon realize it's just not fun to play like it use to be. This happens with everyone.

The key difference with those who have stayed longer then I have is they usually turn to some other form of motivation to keep them entertained with in the community. I chose to pursue creating my own server, creating my own tools like ConnectUO and others I've mentioned in this thread. Others have chosen to maintain a huge array of scripts and features they have created, others start their own servers, create their own communities, and continue to do so to this day. However, like myself, most people just tire of it, it again becomes less fun, feels like work, or just lose complete interest in doing those tasks. It's kinda of inevitable.

I'm sure this game will continue to have a cult following, and will probably be around for a very long time, but the numbers of people who make it this will will dwindle. This is probably the most depressing thing I've ever typed up about UO, but I kind of view it as a legacy to how awesome this game was to those that played it, and in reality it is one of the few games that is over 15+ years old still has a relatively large following.

I think ultimately what will keep RunUO/ServUO/PlayUO/<reserve_space_for_other_RunUO_forks> alive, are the people that run servers that fall into these 2 categories; Those that make a server for the popularity (which I feel like a lot of people do), Or, those that create a server that falls in line with what they loved about UO or you wish UO had become, and hope that others that share the same sentiment and join them.
 
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