I started playing AC in 1999. Chilled out around Shoushi and slowly learned how to play. Took me many months to reach a decent level of proficiency and I played for many years. Every MMO I've played since has been a pale shadow of the masterpiece.
MMOs are special in that their greatness is not just the game and its design but also its players and state. As such, their greatness is fleeting and painfully, infuriatingly hard to communicate to those who weren’t there. All the virtual worlds of that era were special in a way that’s impossible to replicate, not because of updates to their content but because it was a special TIME. When your grandparents show you their special soda parlor on Main Street- which is now just another Target- it’s impossible to fathom the atmosphere of that place at its cultural zenith. The music, the clothes, the lack of internet capable phones, but most importantly: the people who made it what it was. The eager, wide-eyed kids for whom there was nothing realer than the manufactured delight of a soda with friends. These worlds were real, but just for a moment. Now in those that remain there is very little chill and learn, it’s mostly speed and power.
AC on Darktide (PvP server) was my first and last MMORPG. I spoiled myself with such a phenomenal game every other mmo felt like it was missing something
I just started playing AC again on Levistras Emulator a couple weeks ago. Feels good to play again, I started in 1999 when My friends dad brought home a copy from Best Buy, the good ol MSN Gaming Zone days. The hardest part of playing the emulators for me is going into towns like Mayoi or Shoushi or any town really and seeing them mostly empty, its just kind of heartbreaking thinking back to the glory days when towns were thriving with people. I think what would be really cool is a type of classic emulator where it would be fairly close to release, where people could still play spear/mace/staff/UA all the old school weird ass builds , that would be cool as shit.
I played 2 accounts on Levistras a few years back, tried to get back into it again but without knowing anyone else who plays on there anymore it was pretty lonely. I have learned that one of the biggest issues with the AC emulating community is that there are way too many subdivisions, and way too many different states/setups that people think the game should be played with. It's cool to have variety, but there's no denying that all of the subdivision hurts the playercount of every single server respectively. It would be nice if there were just a handful of main accepted emulator servers, that way people newer to the game could experience more of what it was like with rich communities and the relationships and friendships that flourished out of the allegiance system. The emulator representation of the allegiance system makes it feel like a forgotten afterthought, which bums me out personally.
@@SevenClad The Monarchy I am in is fairly active and helpful, they took me in and under 3 weeks im 190 and having a blast, about to do Rynthid weapon right now, you are welcome to join our alleg. Not a huge one, but all good helpful peeps. I notices there is a divide in some of the community on Levistras, but there is always going to be some server politics and what not, for the most part Id say the community feels good, come back and give it a try, couldnt hurt.
Heck yeah! I played the AC1 beta. Those were the best of times. When it closed they even had a storyline to end it with meteors coming down and everything. I wish they would make another one with the same passion.
Thistledown. Phat Ho, Qube Rewt, Darken Rynsun, Dogrobber. One of those names is on the shard memorial. The greatest MMO I've played yet. We hadn't learned to be toxic yet.
Played Darktide from 2000-2007 almost every day and I was in middle school and high school at that time and straight up this was the most amazing time in my gaming life, the wars, the politics, the betrayal, the take overs, the unfiltered shit talking that kids today wouldn’t even handle just every fucking thing about that era was insane, there will never ever be another game like this especially in that era. I dabbled with a bunch of other games including WoW. Nothing and I mean nothing comes remotely close to asherons calls greatness. I recently just downloaded the emulator and started playing again.
You said it brother, amen. I don't believe anything will ever compare to the original days of AC. My older brother started playing when he was in high school and he quickly got me hooked by letting me make my own character on his account. Soon enough, I had my own account and we were playing together with his friends. We played Morningthaw mainly and some Darktide as well! I still get those nostalgic feels whenever I think about the old Arwic and Abandoned Mine, the "Subway". I remember just walking into Subway and characters were all around the room with the chat speeding by with all the trades. Back when the game was "new" and healthy, it's hard to compare to current times. My main motivation for making these videos about the game was to drum up interest for the emulators because I feel they are underpopulated for how many people enjoy the game. It's really refreshing and great to see all these messages and people coming back to the emulators, cheers!
@@SevenClad I totally agree man it’s so refreshing to see everyone’s comments about their time in AC. It really was a unique experience that I definitely took for granted when I was playing in its hay day. I also played on morningthaw that’s the first server I started on. Such great memories and I’m glad I can have my nostalgic moments on the emulator with the most simplest things like just the sound of buffing myself, casting war spells sliding left to right, practicing fast casting which I seem to have forgot how to do, running through Yaraq which was definitely my stomping grounds, Renaming my characters the same name as I had 23 years ago. It’s just a special game and I’m glad I’m playing again. Keep making these videos I enjoyed this one!
A friend of mine played the beta and convinced me and my cousin to buy AC so we played from day 1! I remember my cousin figured out how to start a melee character with 10 speed and get to lvl 50 in no time. Changing the whole powerdynamic on the server. To me AC is the OG of MMORPGs and no others I've tried later could scratch that itch. I'm not really a gamer. But AC was not a game. It was an experience
I played I think from the beta version. Do you remember when pyreals had weight? I never could be bothered with mage because of all the components. Later when it went to the easier system I loved being a void mage. It's the sheer variety of ways to play that make you come back. I took a break from the game during its middle period, then came back for the last, sad year or so. Now I'm back on the emulator - just an incredible piece of reverse engineering to make this happen. Now, after a five year gap I'm finding things I've forgotten about. I'm torn between the difficult route on a no-bots server, and the easier way with buf bots. I never played the absolute top-end off the game, it was always about the mid levels for me.
I do remember when Pyreals had weight! I also remember when you had to have every spell component and learn the spells individually by spellwords. My older brother got me into the game and then I played more than he did haha. I have played on Reefcull while macroing 8 accounts to lvl 200-250 and I have played manually 2 accounts on Levistras and I'm 175 and 145ish right now. Honestly do whatever makes you happy. When I was into macroing I got a lot of joy out of my Reefcull characters. Then eventually I decided I wanted to actually be forced to do the combat because macroing felt like it made the game stale to me. Having to control your characters and multibox can be very challenging, which is something that I enjoy about it. I would say just play both and go with whatever sticks. Whenever you get "bored" of that one, then go check out the other. That's what I did at least and it worked for me :) Thanks for stopping by, hope you're having a good one, take care!
@@SevenClad Yes it's important to play the way you want to. I've been suddenly remembering the old things I did - Moarsmen tunnels, and townsfolk. Inner Gear Knight area, and Stonehold care package. I remember back in the day, there used to be a Saturday excursion to Bonecrunch. I think that was a weekly quest anyhow. Later on when I'd reached max level, it was amusing to try this solo, still pretty tough though.
Wait, wait, wait!! You're telling me I can play this game again?? Where??? This game is the only game I've ever spent my time on! I had an entire family from all around the world here! Where can I play this??
There are multiple emulators, namely ACE and GDLE. ACE is at the forefront if you ask most players. emulator.ac/how-to-play/ Just follow the directions. Once you have thwarglauncher you can pick a server. I play Levistras with 2 accounts where macroing combat is not allowed. On Reefcull you can full macro and I've run 8 accounts concurrently. There's also PvP servers like Doctide. If you still have any questions feel free to ask! Good luck and best wishes :)
Holy shit I was drunk and looked this up , I was an advocate volunteer lol and the last time I played was the last day of the official shutdown. So long ago now. Jesus to this day I insist people don’t know how scary a silver rat can be! This and like quake 1 CTF&TF was all played pretty much
Haha that's hilarious, thanks for that and the bit about the rats made me laugh.. oh boy those rats, I remember thinking once "why are they so STRONG?! It's just a RAT???" hahahaha. That's cool that you were there on the last day of the server shutdowns, a bittersweet memory for sure I could understand that. I've always been advocating for people to look up the actual history of what happened. The fact that a direct competitor in WB/SoE/DayBreak bought it and closed the servers basically immemdiately. It's technically an "illegal" monopoly that's never been policed. Kind of ridiculous to be honest, we could all be playing on retail servers if it wasn't for this corporate corruption. Maybe one day everyone will come to their senses and we can just boot up the retail servers for everyone to come back and play. Revitalize the game, maybe make updates, new engine etc... like why not? The emulator community is so rich and deep, but it's way too subdivided. Everyone has different ideas about what the game should be and what they want to get out of it, which is nice but leaves most servers relatively empty. If there were 'retail' servers like Morningthaw and Darktide for example, then those would be the "standard" for what to emulate if you are trying to recreate the 'retail' experience. I think about this stuff all the time. I was going to make a video talking about all of this stuff but the audience is so limited so I just went ahead and uploaded something like this instead for the time being haha. Thanks again for stopping by, take care!
My first MMO and I can't believe it was the best. At least imo. This game has what modern mmo's are missing. rather than just go kill 10 of this or whatever. the world is filled with interesting stuff in the world that you can just stumble upon and it makes it's own story. What a gem of a game. One day i will hear the call and get the emulator working again. i played a few years back when only smaller parts of the world were available. But it well flushed out now.
It is the best mmo by far for me. Not only full of great memories but the best game design. There are lots of emulator servers with different setups so there's something for everyone. Thanks for sharing a little about your love of the game.
Oh I had a badass Hoary Mattekar Robed Battlemage that could lay waste to ANYTHING in the game. ... man I miss this masterpiece of a game. Im 43 and i'd dedicated 10 more years of my life to this gameplay if they remade this game in the contemporary. And like you said it literally was the best game ever made! I remember getting chased for 1 actual clock hour by a Umbra Shadow or whatever it was called. It wouldn't relent. It just chased me and chased me and chased me and chased me and chased me across the obsidian plain. Damn its been a long time.
@tangoseal1 Those are some good memories, thanks for sharing them here. If there was a contemporary version or remake of the game I truly believe that it would pop off. It could bring in a whole new generation of players to experience the greatest game ever made. The emulator servers are fun and nostalgic but lack that massive online playerbase that helped make the original game so great. Long live Asheron's Call, heed the call!
Man i use to watch my dad play this all the time the game was so interesting i would literally sit there for hours n watch him play. By the time i got old enough to play the games population died down and world of Warcraft was the game to play so thats what i did was play WoW. I think I tried playing AC2 in highschool but the population was still dead sucks this game never took off how it should
That's awesome that you used to watch your dad play! I used to watch my older brother (8 years older) play and then when he wasn't home I asked if I could make a character on his account. He was in high school at the time, and I was just a kid. Whenever he would go hang out with his friends or some girl, I would get on and play my newb character. I had so many fond memories about playing a live service MMORPG though as a kid, getting to interact with so many cool people in dungeons and so on. AC2 was a completely different game, which is cool, but also split the AC playerbase up which wasn't super huge to begin with. Some people only wanted to play AC, some only wanted to play AC2 now, some played both, some played only one or the other. Honestly the 2nd game fractured the playerbase in a way that I'm not sure the game fully recovered from. Especially with other games coming out and so on and so forth. Even with emulators there are people to play AC2 and don't play AC1. Some people might emulate both, but I can speak from personal experience that the AC1 emulator servers are definitely very subdivided and essentially "everyone" misses out on getting that more genuine 'MMO' experience because the servers don't combine. If there were was 1 main PVE and 1 main PK server the populations would look a lot better. If you could get everyone to agree on what the game should be. That's why I think reviving the 'retail' servers makes more sense. That way you don't have to convince anyone of anything, we all just get our characters and everything back and start playing again (if we choose to).
I remember playing End of Beta back in 1999. I got the beta of the game from a plastic CD inside one of the gaming magazines. Near the close of End of Beta there was a global announcement for everyone to return to their home town and defend it against attack. I returned to Rithwic along with many others and had an incredible time. I remember counting over one hundred corpses on the Rithwic bridge. A shadow had gotten into the Armory and the dead were piled up three high inside. There was a pyramid of corpses by the Lifestone, where two Tumeroks killed everyone who respawned. It was glorious. The seven day wait between when the End of Beta ended and the retail version began was horrible. I made friends that I still play games with today.
That's awesome, those are some great memories. The early game times were special indeed. The people we met while playing the game were often some great friends that lasted as well. Thanks for sharing your experiences and memories. The history of the game isn't as well documented without these types of great personal accounts.
I remember when Baal attacked the starter towns upon first being unleashed. I landed a debuff after a bajillion tries amid mass combat..... dude literally turned around, handed me a cookie, then threw me into orbit. I stared at the screen startled for 30 seconds falling to my death. You cannot get player experiences like this anymore. Long live Thistledown.
You said it man, no doubt. Those are some of my favorite memories of the game when it was first around. Whenever someone like the GMs would get on the Baal and Asheron characters and walk around towns in the world, those were great times. The battles and the interactions were awesome and second to none. I haven't had any kind of similar experiences in any other games since then.
As an example of forgetting things. I needed to specialise a skill after getting to a higher level. Remembered about the temple of enlightenment, even remembered to bring herbs along (so many times forgot that!) Then remembered afterwards that you don't need to do that at all, just go to Asheron's Castle and click the statues.
I remember the 1st time I went to Asheron's Castle and was able to reset things easily I almost cried it was so beautiful, especially after dealing with bringing all the herbs and stuff, hahaha.
I played AC soon after its launch on the Morningthaw server. I switched to WOW and then back AC. I play the private servers a couple years ago but without the friends i played with back then it just isn't the same.
That's awesome! I was also on the Morningthaw server with my older brother. I understand what you mean, we need more people on the emulator servers in order to give the feeling and experiences that retail had. I tried to bring some attention to the game and emulators by making some videos but it only does so much, and there's lots of subdivision with so many severs.
Yessir, my older brother and I spent a lot of time hunting crystals and shadows to each get our own set of greater shadow armor. Those were the good old days to me, lots of great memories.
@@SevenCladYeah, pre-monkey island was peak AC. After that everything changed. Then it just turned into Super Grind. I remember the only level 126 people were like guild leaders. Then all of a sudden within a month combat bots took over and everyone on Morningthaw had a 126. 😢 Then they had to CREATE the Valley of Death so everyone had something to do.
Still liked ultimate online more but this game was great, got into after it way late and hardly anyone played but I still had fun only experiencing 20% of what it had to offer
My friend played Ultima Online religiously and got me to have an appreciation for it but I never spent a whole lot of time playing it. Asheron's Call has such a vast game work and large amount of content that you could never do everything, I think that is part of the appeal of the game. There are so many things you can do and places you can go in AC that when it was at the height of the playerbase I still feel that it was unmatched. Thanks for stopping by the channel and checking the video out!
I have a lot of nostalgia for AC, as it was my first MMORPG. I started late 1999, and played on and off till it shut down in 2017. I was there on the Yanshi rock when the servers shut down, cried for like 20 minutes afterward. But looking back I do not miss the xp grind, trying to hit level 15 so you could go to the Lugian Citadel, and then at level 30 I think it was the Olthoi Hive Nest, and later that Tusker dungeon I forgot the name of, and when you were done with that, Coral Golem grind on the Lady island. No, what I miss is the people I met in that game, the evenings we spent doing nothing but sit next to the lifestone at the Mayoi beach, just chatting, or helping a guild mate get his focusing stone quest done.
It was the best MMORPG I have ever played and I've tried a lot of them. I share your love and nostalgia for the game. Thanks for sharing your sentiment and experiences. It was a sad day when the retail servers showed down. Especially the questionable manner in which the game was bought out. Thankfully we at least have a variety of emulator servers that keep the game alive for the community. I would love to see the emulators more unified with higher population but at least there's something for everyone. You're right that the people we met were the best of any game I've ever played. The allegiance members and patrons were some of my favorite people I've ever met online and it was great to just hang out at the allegiance hangouts and eventually mansions.
we were talking about this game back in 98' before release. I remember daydreaming as a young teen about such a game being possible. Cant believe i never played it.
Randomly typed ac into youtube and found this. Funny enough I fizzled portal recall the other day on Drunkenfell... I don't remember that from retail, it may be an emlator thing. BUT I have seen tinks fail at 100% before.. cause well. AC math idk. Also with the temple of enlight. you can just keep spamming him for a new word, I think you were just too close (happens at The Deep too on DI when handing in fin you have to stand back cause its a npc with big hit box). I always bring 1 hyssop and spam for "Malar". It did take like 48 or 58 tries once for me to get Malar though lol... anyway just subbed, will check out some of your other vids soon. Cheers -
Thanks for stopping in, I'm glad that your search led you to the video. Thanks for checking it out. That's good to know that the fizzling happened to you as well. I'm glad I'm not alone on that one, thought it had some deeper meaning in life like "how do you fizzle with 100% chance of success" in my IRL setting, couldn't quite figure that one out haha. Yeah, I believe you are right about the head you can just keep re-rolling the word that it asks for. If I had ever planned on going inside, I always just brought 1 of each from the mage before heading there. I am shifting my focus away from this channel slightly and working on my personal channel again, it's been a few years and I'm ready to return to it. Thanks again, take care!
LOL this dude is so correct when i was playing AC they offered me a beta to wow i logged in and was like this is the biggest garbage dump of a game ive ever seen. WHY IS EVERYTHING BIND OF PICK UP!! lol
That's awesome, those are something to cherish. There a lot of great memories that can't be recreated, to have a record of those times is especially neat. Make sure you have them backed up somewhere as well! :)
There is something to say about your first MMO always ends up being your one true love. AC was my first MMO and even though I love WOW for 14 years (quit during BfA, it was trash) I still miss this more....and believe it or not, I truly miss AC2. ("Quest Completed!") The Lugian Tactician was the best class ever in a game.
Absolutely man, well said. I liked AC2 even though it split up the playerbase. There are lots of people who love and missed AC1 as well as 2 thankfully. Thanks to these people who make the emulators possible we can still play the game. Without them it would just be a memory so kudos and thanks greatly to them for continued emulator support.
@UnavoidableFate lol, that's part of the jankyness that comes with the love for the game. The emulator servers do work, but are free, so you get what you pay for. Naw jk, in all honesty they're not that bad. That timing does make for a good comedic moment, and I can appreciate that. Thanks for stopping by the channel and checking the video out!
Turbine killed the game with housing, unfortunately. While what seemed like a cool addition caused everyone to move out of sub/cities and into their houses. Started back in April ‘99 on Leafcull when I was ten
Not really, that's when it all moved to base with your allegiance. I led quests for others for half the time I was on. We even had a group of guys in our allegiance OPCS (Obsidian Plains Courtesy Service) that anyone could call on in general chat and we'd clear a lane to your corpse. Banderling Scout obliterates Rhubarb!
The housing addition may not have been for everyone but the game at it's height was some of the best experiences I've ever had in gaming. I still hold AC in the highest regard for providing the most fun environment and community that I can ever remember being a part of. To me it was more than just a 'game', it was a way of life and people treated it as such. I was young when I started playing as well, my older brother had an account and was playing while I watched over his shoulder. Eventually my brother let me make a character on his account and I fell in love, getting my own account shortly after that. Those are some of the best memories of when the game first started and was still on the old MSN Gaming Zone. Thanks for stopping by the channel and checking the video out!
Tried it for like maybe an hour last year. All the servers were basically immediately pumping to max level. Wasn't like the original game experience at all. So deleted it lol
I'm not sure what servers you were joining but there are plenty of servers whose sole purpose is to "Emulate End-of-Retail" game. You obviously didn't look very hard in only one hour. There's Reefcull which you can macro on and run multiple accounts, or Levistras which doesn't allow combat macroing but you can multibox 2 accounts. Plus there's servers like Coldeve and plenty of other favorites among emulators. If you're an actual fan of the game I would give some other servers a chance. From the looks of it though it doesn't seem like you care very much at all to be quite honest. Low effort, low results, use your head.
There are different emulators and lots of different emulator servers. Technically they are all "player" ran in the context you phrased, I believe. There are no 'official' retail servers that survived the 2017 shutdown. Unfortunate sad story of how it all went down, but at least there are servers that are still available offering "end-of-game retail" experience, if that's what you're after. There are a lot of different servers which creates subdivision of players, but does offer something for everyone. I made a brief video on the basic emulator installations if you are interested: czcams.com/video/z3J3zadrVAc/video.htmlsi=-oAhNHusSZTXJGCf
I've been saying this, absolutely. Just put this on a new engine to get a whole new generation of people to give it a fair chance. The only problem is who owns the IP now and how to get it out of dormancy. I think it would take someone passionate purchasing the IP, but would they be able to get it from greedy rival game's corporate grips.
We can still play this game? I was there when they shut down the servers..really sad. I miss darktide regardless of all the toxic scumbags..i still hate you "i Hammer u" lol. How can i play again?
I've had a bad taste in my mouth ever since WoW pulled my whole guild away from Dark Age of Camelot. We had a solid group of people that played together almost every single day. All WoW did was homogenize the MMO game experience and watered everything down until it was flavorless and soulless. Really despise that game to this day to be quite honest. The real true 1st gen MMOs all offered great experiences and I feel WoW never offered any of that, it's just a shameless husk of an MMO.
You gotta turn down your hate for players of other MMO's bro. I played AC since Beta. It was amazing for its time but was overshadowed by others eventually. It's still in my top 10 greatest games of all time because of the uniqueness of it and the people though.
Although it was an emotionally fueled video I personally hold AC in the highest regard still, I'm definitely biased. It had the greatest MMO experiences I've ever had and still love the game to this day. I love a lot of other MMORPG games, but they all fall just short of my love for AC. I had great memories playing games like Dark Age of Camelot, Anarchy Online, EverQuest, Star Wars Galaxies and others. I definitely have an appreciation for the genre and other games, but I will die on the "hill" of feeling that AC is still my favorite and the greatest times I've ever had playing them. Thanks for stopping by the channel and checking the video out!
I started playing AC in 1999. Chilled out around Shoushi and slowly learned how to play. Took me many months to reach a decent level of proficiency and I played for many years. Every MMO I've played since has been a pale shadow of the masterpiece.
Played beta but chose Nanto at retail launch. Nothing like that first run to Mayoi at low level.
Baishi was my jam. 😂
Me too man. Best game ever made.
Same
MMOs are special in that their greatness is not just the game and its design but also its players and state. As such, their greatness is fleeting and painfully, infuriatingly hard to communicate to those who weren’t there.
All the virtual worlds of that era were special in a way that’s impossible to replicate, not because of updates to their content but because it was a special TIME.
When your grandparents show you their special soda parlor on Main Street- which is now just another Target- it’s impossible to fathom the atmosphere of that place at its cultural zenith. The music, the clothes, the lack of internet capable phones, but most importantly: the people who made it what it was. The eager, wide-eyed kids for whom there was nothing realer than the manufactured delight of a soda with friends.
These worlds were real, but just for a moment. Now in those that remain there is very little chill and learn, it’s mostly speed and power.
AC on Darktide (PvP server) was my first and last MMORPG. I spoiled myself with such a phenomenal game every other mmo felt like it was missing something
Agreed.
I just started playing AC again on Levistras Emulator a couple weeks ago. Feels good to play again, I started in 1999 when My friends dad brought home a copy from Best Buy, the good ol MSN Gaming Zone days. The hardest part of playing the emulators for me is going into towns like Mayoi or Shoushi or any town really and seeing them mostly empty, its just kind of heartbreaking thinking back to the glory days when towns were thriving with people. I think what would be really cool is a type of classic emulator where it would be fairly close to release, where people could still play spear/mace/staff/UA all the old school weird ass builds , that would be cool as shit.
I played 2 accounts on Levistras a few years back, tried to get back into it again but without knowing anyone else who plays on there anymore it was pretty lonely. I have learned that one of the biggest issues with the AC emulating community is that there are way too many subdivisions, and way too many different states/setups that people think the game should be played with. It's cool to have variety, but there's no denying that all of the subdivision hurts the playercount of every single server respectively. It would be nice if there were just a handful of main accepted emulator servers, that way people newer to the game could experience more of what it was like with rich communities and the relationships and friendships that flourished out of the allegiance system. The emulator representation of the allegiance system makes it feel like a forgotten afterthought, which bums me out personally.
@@SevenClad The Monarchy I am in is fairly active and helpful, they took me in and under 3 weeks im 190 and having a blast, about to do Rynthid weapon right now, you are welcome to join our alleg. Not a huge one, but all good helpful peeps. I notices there is a divide in some of the community on Levistras, but there is always going to be some server politics and what not, for the most part Id say the community feels good, come back and give it a try, couldnt hurt.
"Don't play on patch day" MSN Zone rule
Just got back into this game. It's still the best game I've ever played!
Amen brother.
you playing on coldeve?
Heck yeah! I played the AC1 beta. Those were the best of times. When it closed they even had a storyline to end it with meteors coming down and everything. I wish they would make another one with the same passion.
life wars at subway in GSA and focus stone was peak Ashrons call i played Frostfell and then moved to DT in 2001
I was in Hebian-To when the meteors came down!
Agree. Best game ever
Thistledown. Phat Ho, Qube Rewt, Darken Rynsun, Dogrobber. One of those names is on the shard memorial. The greatest MMO I've played yet. We hadn't learned to be toxic yet.
Mythrandia, Hawk, Drakoor, Dart, Zylos and many more from Thistledown
You're right, the community of people was far less toxic than you see on games nowadays. Still the greatest MMO.
Played Darktide from 2000-2007 almost every day and I was in middle school and high school at that time and straight up this was the most amazing time in my gaming life, the wars, the politics, the betrayal, the take overs, the unfiltered shit talking that kids today wouldn’t even handle just every fucking thing about that era was insane, there will never ever be another game like this especially in that era. I dabbled with a bunch of other games including WoW. Nothing and I mean nothing comes remotely close to asherons calls greatness. I recently just downloaded the emulator and started playing again.
You said it brother, amen. I don't believe anything will ever compare to the original days of AC. My older brother started playing when he was in high school and he quickly got me hooked by letting me make my own character on his account. Soon enough, I had my own account and we were playing together with his friends. We played Morningthaw mainly and some Darktide as well! I still get those nostalgic feels whenever I think about the old Arwic and Abandoned Mine, the "Subway". I remember just walking into Subway and characters were all around the room with the chat speeding by with all the trades. Back when the game was "new" and healthy, it's hard to compare to current times. My main motivation for making these videos about the game was to drum up interest for the emulators because I feel they are underpopulated for how many people enjoy the game. It's really refreshing and great to see all these messages and people coming back to the emulators, cheers!
@@SevenClad I totally agree man it’s so refreshing to see everyone’s comments about their time in AC. It really was a unique experience that I definitely took for granted when I was playing in its hay day. I also played on morningthaw that’s the first server I started on. Such great memories and I’m glad I can have my nostalgic moments on the emulator with the most simplest things like just the sound of buffing myself, casting war spells sliding left to right, practicing fast casting which I seem to have forgot how to do, running through Yaraq which was definitely my stomping grounds, Renaming my characters the same name as I had 23 years ago. It’s just a special game and I’m glad I’m playing again. Keep making these videos I enjoyed this one!
Exactly the same. :)
A friend of mine played the beta and convinced me and my cousin to buy AC so we played from day 1! I remember my cousin figured out how to start a melee character with 10 speed and get to lvl 50 in no time. Changing the whole powerdynamic on the server. To me AC is the OG of MMORPGs and no others I've tried later could scratch that itch. I'm not really a gamer. But AC was not a game. It was an experience
Amen brother, one love ❤️
Collision detection in 99' only 6 months after EQ1 came out. Ahead of its time and my favorite of all time.
I played I think from the beta version. Do you remember when pyreals had weight? I never could be bothered with mage because of all the components. Later when it went to the easier system I loved being a void mage. It's the sheer variety of ways to play that make you come back. I took a break from the game during its middle period, then came back for the last, sad year or so. Now I'm back on the emulator - just an incredible piece of reverse engineering to make this happen. Now, after a five year gap I'm finding things I've forgotten about. I'm torn between the difficult route on a no-bots server, and the easier way with buf bots. I never played the absolute top-end off the game, it was always about the mid levels for me.
I do remember when Pyreals had weight! I also remember when you had to have every spell component and learn the spells individually by spellwords. My older brother got me into the game and then I played more than he did haha. I have played on Reefcull while macroing 8 accounts to lvl 200-250 and I have played manually 2 accounts on Levistras and I'm 175 and 145ish right now. Honestly do whatever makes you happy. When I was into macroing I got a lot of joy out of my Reefcull characters. Then eventually I decided I wanted to actually be forced to do the combat because macroing felt like it made the game stale to me. Having to control your characters and multibox can be very challenging, which is something that I enjoy about it. I would say just play both and go with whatever sticks. Whenever you get "bored" of that one, then go check out the other. That's what I did at least and it worked for me :) Thanks for stopping by, hope you're having a good one, take care!
@@SevenClad Yes it's important to play the way you want to. I've been suddenly remembering the old things I did - Moarsmen tunnels, and townsfolk. Inner Gear Knight area, and Stonehold care package. I remember back in the day, there used to be a Saturday excursion to Bonecrunch. I think that was a weekly quest anyhow. Later on when I'd reached max level, it was amusing to try this solo, still pretty tough though.
Way back when you sold too much and shit a bunch of money on the ground.
Wait, wait, wait!! You're telling me I can play this game again?? Where??? This game is the only game I've ever spent my time on! I had an entire family from all around the world here! Where can I play this??
There are multiple emulators, namely ACE and GDLE. ACE is at the forefront if you ask most players.
emulator.ac/how-to-play/
Just follow the directions. Once you have thwarglauncher you can pick a server. I play Levistras with 2 accounts where macroing combat is not allowed. On Reefcull you can full macro and I've run 8 accounts concurrently. There's also PvP servers like Doctide.
If you still have any questions feel free to ask! Good luck and best wishes :)
Same
Holy shit I was drunk and looked this up , I was an advocate volunteer lol and the last time I played was the last day of the official shutdown. So long ago now. Jesus to this day I insist people don’t know how scary a silver rat can be! This and like quake 1 CTF&TF was all played pretty much
Haha that's hilarious, thanks for that and the bit about the rats made me laugh.. oh boy those rats, I remember thinking once "why are they so STRONG?! It's just a RAT???" hahahaha. That's cool that you were there on the last day of the server shutdowns, a bittersweet memory for sure I could understand that. I've always been advocating for people to look up the actual history of what happened. The fact that a direct competitor in WB/SoE/DayBreak bought it and closed the servers basically immemdiately. It's technically an "illegal" monopoly that's never been policed. Kind of ridiculous to be honest, we could all be playing on retail servers if it wasn't for this corporate corruption. Maybe one day everyone will come to their senses and we can just boot up the retail servers for everyone to come back and play. Revitalize the game, maybe make updates, new engine etc... like why not? The emulator community is so rich and deep, but it's way too subdivided. Everyone has different ideas about what the game should be and what they want to get out of it, which is nice but leaves most servers relatively empty. If there were 'retail' servers like Morningthaw and Darktide for example, then those would be the "standard" for what to emulate if you are trying to recreate the 'retail' experience. I think about this stuff all the time. I was going to make a video talking about all of this stuff but the audience is so limited so I just went ahead and uploaded something like this instead for the time being haha. Thanks again for stopping by, take care!
I would like to play this game again some time @@SevenClad
This and Everquest were just timeless games man
My first MMO and I can't believe it was the best. At least imo. This game has what modern mmo's are missing. rather than just go kill 10 of this or whatever. the world is filled with interesting stuff in the world that you can just stumble upon and it makes it's own story. What a gem of a game. One day i will hear the call and get the emulator working again. i played a few years back when only smaller parts of the world were available. But it well flushed out now.
It is the best mmo by far for me. Not only full of great memories but the best game design. There are lots of emulator servers with different setups so there's something for everyone. Thanks for sharing a little about your love of the game.
Oh I had a badass Hoary Mattekar Robed Battlemage that could lay waste to ANYTHING in the game. ... man I miss this masterpiece of a game. Im 43 and i'd dedicated 10 more years of my life to this gameplay if they remade this game in the contemporary. And like you said it literally was the best game ever made! I remember getting chased for 1 actual clock hour by a Umbra Shadow or whatever it was called. It wouldn't relent. It just chased me and chased me and chased me and chased me and chased me across the obsidian plain. Damn its been a long time.
@tangoseal1 Those are some good memories, thanks for sharing them here. If there was a contemporary version or remake of the game I truly believe that it would pop off. It could bring in a whole new generation of players to experience the greatest game ever made. The emulator servers are fun and nostalgic but lack that massive online playerbase that helped make the original game so great. Long live Asheron's Call, heed the call!
Man i use to watch my dad play this all the time the game was so interesting i would literally sit there for hours n watch him play. By the time i got old enough to play the games population died down and world of Warcraft was the game to play so thats what i did was play WoW. I think I tried playing AC2 in highschool but the population was still dead sucks this game never took off how it should
That's awesome that you used to watch your dad play! I used to watch my older brother (8 years older) play and then when he wasn't home I asked if I could make a character on his account. He was in high school at the time, and I was just a kid. Whenever he would go hang out with his friends or some girl, I would get on and play my newb character. I had so many fond memories about playing a live service MMORPG though as a kid, getting to interact with so many cool people in dungeons and so on. AC2 was a completely different game, which is cool, but also split the AC playerbase up which wasn't super huge to begin with. Some people only wanted to play AC, some only wanted to play AC2 now, some played both, some played only one or the other. Honestly the 2nd game fractured the playerbase in a way that I'm not sure the game fully recovered from. Especially with other games coming out and so on and so forth. Even with emulators there are people to play AC2 and don't play AC1. Some people might emulate both, but I can speak from personal experience that the AC1 emulator servers are definitely very subdivided and essentially "everyone" misses out on getting that more genuine 'MMO' experience because the servers don't combine. If there were was 1 main PVE and 1 main PK server the populations would look a lot better. If you could get everyone to agree on what the game should be. That's why I think reviving the 'retail' servers makes more sense. That way you don't have to convince anyone of anything, we all just get our characters and everything back and start playing again (if we choose to).
I have recently started playing classic wow hardcore on retail server and now it has me scratching my head and thinking about EQ and AC @@SevenClad
I remember playing End of Beta back in 1999. I got the beta of the game from a plastic CD inside one of the gaming magazines. Near the close of End of Beta there was a global announcement for everyone to return to their home town and defend it against attack. I returned to Rithwic along with many others and had an incredible time. I remember counting over one hundred corpses on the Rithwic bridge. A shadow had gotten into the Armory and the dead were piled up three high inside. There was a pyramid of corpses by the Lifestone, where two Tumeroks killed everyone who respawned. It was glorious. The seven day wait between when the End of Beta ended and the retail version began was horrible. I made friends that I still play games with today.
That's awesome, those are some great memories. The early game times were special indeed. The people we met while playing the game were often some great friends that lasted as well. Thanks for sharing your experiences and memories. The history of the game isn't as well documented without these types of great personal accounts.
I remember when Baal attacked the starter towns upon first being unleashed. I landed a debuff after a bajillion tries amid mass combat..... dude literally turned around, handed me a cookie, then threw me into orbit. I stared at the screen startled for 30 seconds falling to my death. You cannot get player experiences like this anymore.
Long live Thistledown.
You said it man, no doubt. Those are some of my favorite memories of the game when it was first around. Whenever someone like the GMs would get on the Baal and Asheron characters and walk around towns in the world, those were great times. The battles and the interactions were awesome and second to none. I haven't had any kind of similar experiences in any other games since then.
As an example of forgetting things. I needed to specialise a skill after getting to a higher level. Remembered about the temple of enlightenment, even remembered to bring herbs along (so many times forgot that!) Then remembered afterwards that you don't need to do that at all, just go to Asheron's Castle and click the statues.
I remember the 1st time I went to Asheron's Castle and was able to reset things easily I almost cried it was so beautiful, especially after dealing with bringing all the herbs and stuff, hahaha.
@@SevenClad I still did both temples for old times sake, and to say hi to the golems.
I played AC soon after its launch on the Morningthaw server. I switched to WOW and then back AC. I play the private servers a couple years ago but without the friends i played with back then it just isn't the same.
That's awesome! I was also on the Morningthaw server with my older brother. I understand what you mean, we need more people on the emulator servers in order to give the feeling and experiences that retail had. I tried to bring some attention to the game and emulators by making some videos but it only does so much, and there's lots of subdivision with so many severs.
Anyone else remember grinding for that Shadow Armor so you didnt lose all your crap when you died? 😅
Yessir, my older brother and I spent a lot of time hunting crystals and shadows to each get our own set of greater shadow armor. Those were the good old days to me, lots of great memories.
@@SevenCladYeah, pre-monkey island was peak AC. After that everything changed. Then it just turned into Super Grind. I remember the only level 126 people were like guild leaders. Then all of a sudden within a month combat bots took over and everyone on Morningthaw had a 126. 😢 Then they had to CREATE the Valley of Death so everyone had something to do.
fuck yeah the moles :)
This was my favorite game! Wow talk about a throwback
Still liked ultimate online more but this game was great, got into after it way late and hardly anyone played but I still had fun only experiencing 20% of what it had to offer
My friend played Ultima Online religiously and got me to have an appreciation for it but I never spent a whole lot of time playing it. Asheron's Call has such a vast game work and large amount of content that you could never do everything, I think that is part of the appeal of the game. There are so many things you can do and places you can go in AC that when it was at the height of the playerbase I still feel that it was unmatched. Thanks for stopping by the channel and checking the video out!
yo this game seemed cool gonna have to check it out BTW you sound like rick from rick and morty in his teen years if that makes sense
I have a lot of nostalgia for AC, as it was my first MMORPG. I started late 1999, and played on and off till it shut down in 2017. I was there on the Yanshi rock when the servers shut down, cried for like 20 minutes afterward.
But looking back I do not miss the xp grind, trying to hit level 15 so you could go to the Lugian Citadel, and then at level 30 I think it was the Olthoi Hive Nest, and later that Tusker dungeon I forgot the name of, and when you were done with that, Coral Golem grind on the Lady island.
No, what I miss is the people I met in that game, the evenings we spent doing nothing but sit next to the lifestone at the Mayoi beach, just chatting, or helping a guild mate get his focusing stone quest done.
It was the best MMORPG I have ever played and I've tried a lot of them. I share your love and nostalgia for the game. Thanks for sharing your sentiment and experiences. It was a sad day when the retail servers showed down. Especially the questionable manner in which the game was bought out.
Thankfully we at least have a variety of emulator servers that keep the game alive for the community. I would love to see the emulators more unified with higher population but at least there's something for everyone.
You're right that the people we met were the best of any game I've ever played. The allegiance members and patrons were some of my favorite people I've ever met online and it was great to just hang out at the allegiance hangouts and eventually mansions.
we were talking about this game back in 98' before release. I remember daydreaming as a young teen about such a game being possible. Cant believe i never played it.
That makes me sad. You have no idea how much you missed.
Fuck yeah. Darktide from 1999(beta)-2006.
Randomly typed ac into youtube and found this. Funny enough I fizzled portal recall the other day on Drunkenfell... I don't remember that from retail, it may be an emlator thing. BUT I have seen tinks fail at 100% before.. cause well. AC math idk. Also with the temple of enlight. you can just keep spamming him for a new word, I think you were just too close (happens at The Deep too on DI when handing in fin you have to stand back cause its a npc with big hit box). I always bring 1 hyssop and spam for "Malar". It did take like 48 or 58 tries once for me to get Malar though lol... anyway just subbed, will check out some of your other vids soon. Cheers -
Thanks for stopping in, I'm glad that your search led you to the video. Thanks for checking it out. That's good to know that the fizzling happened to you as well. I'm glad I'm not alone on that one, thought it had some deeper meaning in life like "how do you fizzle with 100% chance of success" in my IRL setting, couldn't quite figure that one out haha. Yeah, I believe you are right about the head you can just keep re-rolling the word that it asks for. If I had ever planned on going inside, I always just brought 1 of each from the mage before heading there. I am shifting my focus away from this channel slightly and working on my personal channel again, it's been a few years and I'm ready to return to it. Thanks again, take care!
LOL this dude is so correct when i was playing AC they offered me a beta to wow i logged in and was like this is the biggest garbage dump of a game ive ever seen. WHY IS EVERYTHING BIND OF PICK UP!! lol
I still have SS's from the Bronze statue and crystal invasions
That's awesome, those are something to cherish. There a lot of great memories that can't be recreated, to have a record of those times is especially neat. Make sure you have them backed up somewhere as well! :)
There is something to say about your first MMO always ends up being your one true love. AC was my first MMO and even though I love WOW for 14 years (quit during BfA, it was trash) I still miss this more....and believe it or not, I truly miss AC2. ("Quest Completed!") The Lugian Tactician was the best class ever in a game.
Absolutely man, well said. I liked AC2 even though it split up the playerbase. There are lots of people who love and missed AC1 as well as 2 thankfully. Thanks to these people who make the emulators possible we can still play the game. Without them it would just be a memory so kudos and thanks greatly to them for continued emulator support.
Easily the best game ever. People that never played will never know.
20 years later I'm still chasing anything that resembles it. Yes I played the emulators. But not the same as the original DT.
You saying it's the perfect game while you're hardcore glitching made me LOL so fucking hard
@UnavoidableFate lol, that's part of the jankyness that comes with the love for the game. The emulator servers do work, but are free, so you get what you pay for. Naw jk, in all honesty they're not that bad. That timing does make for a good comedic moment, and I can appreciate that. Thanks for stopping by the channel and checking the video out!
@@SevenClad I still play on Levistras so I know all about the emulators. In all seriousness, AC is a truly great game and was ahead of it's time.
Best game ever. Bandit yaoji did work.
Turbine killed the game with housing, unfortunately. While what seemed like a cool addition caused everyone to move out of sub/cities and into their houses. Started back in April ‘99 on Leafcull when I was ten
Not really, that's when it all moved to base with your allegiance. I led quests for others for half the time I was on. We even had a group of guys in our allegiance OPCS (Obsidian Plains Courtesy Service) that anyone could call on in general chat and we'd clear a lane to your corpse. Banderling Scout obliterates Rhubarb!
@@scottrackley4457loved getting my house near my guild mates! *atoyot and *YMCA all day bitches!
The housing addition may not have been for everyone but the game at it's height was some of the best experiences I've ever had in gaming. I still hold AC in the highest regard for providing the most fun environment and community that I can ever remember being a part of. To me it was more than just a 'game', it was a way of life and people treated it as such. I was young when I started playing as well, my older brother had an account and was playing while I watched over his shoulder. Eventually my brother let me make a character on his account and I fell in love, getting my own account shortly after that. Those are some of the best memories of when the game first started and was still on the old MSN Gaming Zone. Thanks for stopping by the channel and checking the video out!
Ill come play it, where is it
(Again)
I played Darktide for many years from 99'
czcams.com/video/z3J3zadrVAc/video.htmlsi=g2TxfVl3R7RSbfza for a short walkthrough or just go to emulator.ac/how-to-play/
LOL ANYONE GOT A $1200 MATTIE COAT FOR SALE?
Tried it for like maybe an hour last year. All the servers were basically immediately pumping to max level. Wasn't like the original game experience at all. So deleted it lol
I'm not sure what servers you were joining but there are plenty of servers whose sole purpose is to "Emulate End-of-Retail" game. You obviously didn't look very hard in only one hour. There's Reefcull which you can macro on and run multiple accounts, or Levistras which doesn't allow combat macroing but you can multibox 2 accounts. Plus there's servers like Coldeve and plenty of other favorites among emulators. If you're an actual fan of the game I would give some other servers a chance. From the looks of it though it doesn't seem like you care very much at all to be quite honest. Low effort, low results, use your head.
@@SevenCladwhat a rude ass reply lol
loved this game is it free to play or is it a player ran server?
There are different emulators and lots of different emulator servers. Technically they are all "player" ran in the context you phrased, I believe. There are no 'official' retail servers that survived the 2017 shutdown. Unfortunate sad story of how it all went down, but at least there are servers that are still available offering "end-of-game retail" experience, if that's what you're after. There are a lot of different servers which creates subdivision of players, but does offer something for everyone.
I made a brief video on the basic emulator installations if you are interested: czcams.com/video/z3J3zadrVAc/video.htmlsi=-oAhNHusSZTXJGCf
You bet it is!
Best game ever. Easily...
Bout time for a remake
I've been saying this, absolutely. Just put this on a new engine to get a whole new generation of people to give it a fair chance. The only problem is who owns the IP now and how to get it out of dormancy. I think it would take someone passionate purchasing the IP, but would they be able to get it from greedy rival game's corporate grips.
@SEVENCLAD fallen earth is supposedly getting a reboot so anything is possible
*atoyot just about sums it up for me
fails because of the spellcraft of the caster you are using
Ah, that would make sense. Thanks for the heads up!
We can still play this game? I was there when they shut down the servers..really sad. I miss darktide regardless of all the toxic scumbags..i still hate you "i Hammer u" lol. How can i play again?
czcams.com/video/z3J3zadrVAc/video.htmlsi=iIXc1MmNVl4VTffP
Wow is number one brain killer in the world
I've had a bad taste in my mouth ever since WoW pulled my whole guild away from Dark Age of Camelot. We had a solid group of people that played together almost every single day. All WoW did was homogenize the MMO game experience and watered everything down until it was flavorless and soulless. Really despise that game to this day to be quite honest. The real true 1st gen MMOs all offered great experiences and I feel WoW never offered any of that, it's just a shameless husk of an MMO.
Nothing will ever come close to AC Darktide in its prime!!!! #AC4EVER
I'm busy in Everquest, one of the Hardest MMO's ever made.
That sounds like fun, I did enjoy some EQ myself. I was considering revisiting with Project 1999 but haven't gotten around to it yet.
@@SevenClad Look out for Project Lantern/LanternEQ, its a full remake of Classic Everquest in the unity engine thats currently in development.
You gotta turn down your hate for players of other MMO's bro. I played AC since Beta. It was amazing for its time but was overshadowed by others eventually. It's still in my top 10 greatest games of all time because of the uniqueness of it and the people though.
Although it was an emotionally fueled video I personally hold AC in the highest regard still, I'm definitely biased. It had the greatest MMO experiences I've ever had and still love the game to this day. I love a lot of other MMORPG games, but they all fall just short of my love for AC. I had great memories playing games like Dark Age of Camelot, Anarchy Online, EverQuest, Star Wars Galaxies and others. I definitely have an appreciation for the genre and other games, but I will die on the "hill" of feeling that AC is still my favorite and the greatest times I've ever had playing them. Thanks for stopping by the channel and checking the video out!
Biggest game world ever created lol nothing but bare empty land, you can run across forever...
It is definitely a very large game world, takes a long long time to traverse on foot. There are lots of mobs too! :)
Best mmo ever