October 2003: Bobosama interviews NeoPickaze

Bobosama: What was the first website you ever worked with in the Abandonware scene? Who were some of your earlier contacts in the business?

NeoPickaze: In my lifelong search to reclaim one particular game, my search lead me to a site named 21st Century Oldies with a guy named NetDanzR, I'd been playing around with shockwave and must have impressed my way into a review job, being only 13 years old the reviews I produced were of *cough* sub-standard quality and I'm lucky I got a position there.

The main people I got on with at the start were...

...NetDanzr, Mr. Creosote (who learned me a lot) and someone known as Wasp27 a really cool italian guy - who introduced me to Vinny and bang, we just clicked (not in a gay kind of way - but we just thought alike and had similar ideas).

Bobosama: Who came up with the name Echo?

NeoPickaze: Me and vinny had been throwing names at each other, I decided it would be the best way to throw cool words back and forth, we were hitting names like AcidRing, ViewRing, GravityRing and other real wierd names like that, we decided on one called NightVision Ring for a long time, I made a design (which really did suck) but we never released it (mainly due to lack of decent server space).

NeoPickaze: We were going through a barrage of nouns and Echo simply stuck. …or is Echo a verb?

Bobosama: its both: an echo, to echo 

Bobosama: Which is your favorite version? Why?

NeoPickaze: Hmm, I don't have any particular favorite, from the work I spent on them all the best period was the creation, I was working hard and Vinny was giving me real positive feedback - it all felt awesome - the apprehension before launches. If I had to choose though I was really proud of EchoRing 3 and I'm certain a Christmas day launch date reflected that (or maybe I'm just sad). It's just a shame....

NeoPickaze: ...in my oppinion that we were avoided, I believe we were under-appreciated, all the webmasters had to do was submit their site - simple.

Bobosama: So what did happen in the later months of Echo 3.0?

NeoPickaze: Hmm, My memory is really bad - but as I remember we started missing updates and me and Vinny were losing communications, on top of that nothing was changing, no new sites etc and I'm a dynamic person, I don't like staying in the same place too long I like fresh challenges but after a while we lost our motivation.

It would be very very accurate to say the best part of running a ring is getting...

...feedback from a wonderfully positive co-webmaster who knows how to motivate you, once the ring opened we seemed to lose that again and eventually we both decided it should close - for good.

Bobosama: What are your feelings towards what Bobosama is trying to accomplish?

NeoPickaze: If I'm honest at first I was a little unsure about EchoRing being involved, I couldn't understand why someone would want to re-open a dead ring than open a new one - especially one with such a bad reputation as ours did (or was me and Vinny had) But I'm quite pleased with the direction he's taken the ring, it's not too different, but it's just different enough and it takes it a step closer to...our most popular v1 / v2 styles - but i'll warn him it's tough to feel appreciated in a scene   without a figurehead anymore, or a huge resource site to handle everything and make sure people doing good get praise and people doing bad get scolded... I'm sure if LuN had still been around EchoRing 3 would have continued as long as he dished out the Kudos

Bobosama: Aside from the ring, have you run any Abandonware sites and what are your plans for your future in the scene?

NeoPickaze: !AirWare, Relay, RelaySound, Relay3000 and 3000*Linkpage were my other abandonware sites, I left the scene a while back though, and I do occasionally look back - I might return in the future with something else, but I'll probably not come back using this nick - it's a bad representation for me now, I've changed a lot - keep your eyes out.

Bobosama: Are you still close with Vinny The Saint? Any chance you may work with him on something in the future?

NeoPickaze: We don't talk as much as we used to, I'm sure we're good friends but we've grown into different people and our interests are beggining to spread. I'm always a little busy when I'm on my computer now, especially with the weight of my education hanging over me. There is every chance I may work with him, but I may work with someone else - or I might never do anything again...

NeoPickaze: ... Realistically though, I'd love to work with him again, but not in abandonware, we've enjoyed our Punch & Judy days and perhaps it would be interesting to try to tackle somewhere else

Bobosama: Do you have any tips for the new generation of EchoRing webmasters?

NeoPickaze: Know what you are doing is helping people, we never had anything to gain from EchoRing when we were doing it - but we really did go over the top looking for praise, all we wanted to see was EchoRing is awsome everywhere -but we didn't and it disheartened us, stick with it even if the praise doesn't come straight away, I'm sure if someone can stick it out through the rough times they'll get their...rewards at the end.

Bobosama: Thank you for the words of wisdom.

Bobosama: May your name live in infamy and may you join the Abandonware GODS.

Bobosama: Echo won't be the same without you, but I will do my best.

October 2003: Bobosama interviews Muad'dib

BoboSama: How did you first discover Abandonware?

Muad'dib: Somewhere in 1999, I found an article about Abandonware in a gaming magazine. There were some links in it to sites such as Home of the Underdogs and The Official Abandonware Ring. I didn't have internet back then, but my girlfriend had : ). I still remember that I used to take dosens of floppy disks when I went to her, so I could download all kinds of cool classic games.

BoboSama: When did you first become active in the "scene"? (Started posting on the forums, talking to other people, participating in sites?)

Muad'dib: I think it started somewhere in May, I can't really remember. When I first started with AbandonStuff (in March), I didn't realise how big the scene actually was, and I was really shy, since my site really sucked. But the first contact must have been the Diskworld forum. After a while I had Shenmoo in my list, then 3k (I played aoe with them) and then I met more and more people

BoboSama: Ah, I remember playing AOE with you

BoboSama: that brought many of us together back in the day

Muad'dib: yeah

BoboSama: that was actually a sort of reincarnation, because we used to play in 2001 all the time and then stopped totally and then resumed 2 years later

Muad'dib: oh, didn't know that

BoboSama: On to the next question, What motivated you to start your own site and how did you come about it?

Muad'dib: I loved abandonware sites. I just loved the old games, the reviews, the box-covers...everything. I really wanted my own abandonware site, I was already making simple sites before I had internet, hoping I could put them online some day. Abandonware just reminded me to the great times when I played Dune 2, Quest for Glory 3, King's Quest 5, and I wanted to give other people the same feeling with my own site

BoboSama: Now many versions of AbandonStuff have there been? Has anyone helped you thus far?

Muad'dib: I'm now working on the 6th version, and Grades is helping me with the php and mysql stuff. The previous versions have all been made by myself, using and changing some cool scripts I found at hotscripts.com. But the designs were all by me

BoboSama: How did you come about to become an updater at EchoRing?

Muad'dib: I thought rings were really cool, I was even thinking to make my own ring in the beginning but luckily I was smart enough not to do that. But still, updating a ring was something I really wanted to do, and I was always hoping that someday I would have the chance to do that, and you gave me that chance.

Muad'dib: And I'm still gratefull for that : )

BoboSama: So what are your plans for the future?

Muad'dib: AbadonStuff 6 of course! After much hard work it's almost ready, and I'm hoping to be in the scene with AbandonStuff for much more years.

Muad'dib: I'm even hoping that some day I'll have the money to buy my own server

Muad'dib: Learning PHP and MySQL also is something I want to do in the future, I already know a little of it, but not enough.

BoboSama: Sounds like a plan then. Thank you for your time, I look forward to seeing AbandonStuff 6.0.

August 2003: Bobosama interviews Lodiak

BoboSama: First of, everyone wants to know, where have you been for the past 6 months?

Lodiak: I have been playing with my band, been with my mates and spent time with my girlfriend and so on...nothing special actually.

BoboSama: How did you manage to stay offline for such a long period of time? Many have attempted this great feat and failed after a few days?

Lodiak: The answer is simple, if you don't have a working computer, you can't connect Internet neither

BoboSama: Theres always those damned cyber cafes though .

Lodiak: Yup, I had to use one to check my e-mail and such.

BoboSama: What was the first Abandonware site that you participated in?

Lodiak: It was my very first site, Adventurer's Guild.

BoboSama: How did that work out?

Lodiak: It was a sucky little site which I had to close because of personal reasons after two months or so.

BoboSama: How did LoG come about?

Lodiak: Umm...After some months when  I closed Adventurer's Guild, I opened L.O.G. It was quite a poor site first but it grew up after some time and in the end it was pretty good quality site which I had to close because lack of time.

BoboSama: How did you first find out about Abandonware? Who are some of your closer contacts?

Lodiak: The usual reason, I was looking for old games. I think the first site was The Abandon Keep. I don't think I have any closer contacts at all.

BoboSama: How did you get involved at EchoRing?

Lodiak: NeoPickaze was looking for help in updating Echo Ring and I agreed to join the crew.

BoboSama: Can you describe your stay there?

Lodiak: Well, first it was an update now and then...two times a week or something. Then I soon found myself updating the whole site alone because the other crewies didn't have time or they didn't have a working net connection or something...then I left the crew just before Echoring version 3, because lack of time.

BoboSama: Are you aware that there is an EchoRing 4?

Lodiak: Yup, I know the current version is 4.

BoboSama: So what do you think of Bobosama's efforts and how the crew is holding up?

Lodiak: I haven't taken a deep look into the site and the actions of crew. I can't really say anything at this point.

BoboSama: Ok, just a few more questions. How did you first meet Bobosama? What are your impressions?

Lodiak: Umm...I think it was then when Bobosama was running the site called Wizard Ware for the first time. I don't exactly remember how we met but anyway...the impressions are something about a tech-expert who has plenty of time and skill to do abandonware stuff (still).

BoboSama: Thank you for agreeing to this interview.