Times Sure Have Changed

I was just looking at some old screen captures and I was thinking holy crap look how different this looks from today
Back Then:

Now:

I don't recall the Atlas Park globe ever looking that way. I remember the wireframe/steel girder version, but not that Death Star version. Wow. Also, they need to cut the grass in Atlas.

When did you take that?

I would assume the first picture took place in CoH beta (before I got in that's for sure) because I, too, have never seen Atlas like that before.

Agreed. That's the Tribal pattern, and that's been here since day -3.

Yeah and another give-away was that the Atlas statue is surrounding by sky-scrappers and not the City Hall/water pools/etc...and there's graffiti on the wall as well.

Yes, that's from early in the beta. I can't dig all of this up because I'm at work right now, but the Atlas statue used to be a lot smaller, and the zone was laid out WAY differently. That's the "Death Star" ball, one of three that I've seen. (The other two being the hollow globe and the existing globe.)

If you go looking through Internet Archive sites, you can actually find some of those really old pictures back in CoH previews posted on gaming sites.

Those pictures kinda make the game look better back then, IMO.

Y'know, I've always thought it would be fun for the game to revert back to the launch state for just one day, so people could really appreciate how much the game has changed.

Of course, beyond the technical limitations, we'd lose a lot of the player toons in one swell foop (no EATs, VEATs, Villians, Praetorians, etc) and all the surviving players would lose their IOs, capes, Vet powers, and such, so it might be a bit of a debacle, but still...

I wish there were a way to load the old code via demofile, so I could render modern scenes in the older format.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Here are some more screenshots from pre-beta days. I dug them up in the Internet Archive and saved them to a Photobucket album so you can browse them. Some of them seem to be lost to antiquity (or are probably buried in Matt Miller's or Jack Emmert's basement somewhere), as the Archive doesn't literally keep everything, but there are still plenty enough to amuse and astound--or at least, passively interest--you.









Browse the whole album for more.

...I personally prefer the old hollow globe, even though I never saw it in game. I mean, sure the tech in Paragon is better and its nicely symbolic, but a bigass globe made of solid stone? Even the strongest statue would need some mega support structure for that. Where as hollow? Looks kinda cool and makes more sense.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Here's a blast from the REALLY old times also rescued from antiquity. This is a presentation from the E3 trade show in May 2002. "Rick" is presumably Rick Dakan, one of the founders of Cryptic Studios and original head developer. The presenter is Jack Emmert.



LOTS of interesting changes to the game; it was very different at launch. That combat system was--how shall I put it?--interesting.

Enjoy!

Another early video for your enjoyment. This one is from a year later, at the 2003 E3 trade show. It's a pre-rendered CGI trailer for the game. There's no gameplay for comparison, but you do get a really nice, pre-rendered version of the hollow globe, plus some backstory and a few glimpses of old-timey Statesman, Miss Liberty, Back Alley Brawler, etc.

Oh, and Sister Psyche kicking some Rikti tushkus, too.

Heh, I have a copy of that video from way long ago. I had forgotten about it, though.

I remembered the scene of Statesman flying through the Rikti ship. The vid makes it look like the heroes kicked a lot more butt in the Rikti war than the canon does. (Not a complaint, just an observation.)

Okay, one more video for the day, because no one asked me to stop.

This video has been posted a few times before, and it is--I think--the earliest demo video of City of Heroes. It was made and posted to the City of Heroes web site way back in October 2001. At 0:41, you can see the old character creator. At 0:52, you can see the old, old GUI. At 0:56, you see a list of the original enemy factions--some of which made it to release unchanged, some of which were renamed or (?) disappeared altogether. At 1:19, there's a split-second glimpse of the Atlas Statue--with the "Death Star" globe--in the background



The thing I find really interesting is how the game was apparently designed with some elements of Ultra Mode--note the rendered shadows.

I'm always amazed that this site is still around.