[ELPIRATA]

I started in beta5/6, I joined OEC with Kryton when OEC was just a week old, and I was the 7th original member (Alpha-05). I'll never forget. Since then, it has been straight playing with around 6 to 8 months out due to CC problems (2 so far since last CC screwup by the bank... which Im still waiting).

ELP

[Sephiroth]

Nov. 2001

[ekoostik]

Beta5. I think Elp shot at me.

[Injustice]

Around November of '99 was when I initially started playing, along with the rest of the SRM crew (yes, SRM_Bear was one of us), played through beta until the wipe, then left. Came back, reset to Sol, and hooked up with Wolf (also from SRM), who introduced me to Synergy. Cancelled my Sol account and created Injustice (an Oct). Reset to Quant later when most of us trouble-makers joined JITW. Ended up a casualty of the GM_Trogdor fiasco. Came back and popped my head in from time to time when it was announced that all the IP bans from said fiasco had been lifted.

[Viper2c]

I was heavy into the Xwing vs Tie Fighter/XWing Alliance editing community since 1997. In 2000, JC_Sabre, one of our editing members, repeatedly came unto our site forum at Datamaster's Website, and told us "YOu've got to try this game out! It rocks!!", along with a few screens of him mining.

We ignored him.

After a few months, he returned alerting us to the release of 1000 slots for the Jumpgate beta, and almost demanded us to join in. Being one of the main members, I reluctantly decided to follow the others as they 'attempted' to download the install file. I was on dialup. One of my friends named 'Nobb', got the install file quickly and sent it to me via ICQ, since my downloads kept failing. As the hours went on, the guys were chatting in IRC chat about their experiences with the game. They were excited, and I was watching the download under a cloud of boredom. This was in August of 2000 I believe.

Finally, I got into the game, launched, flew to a roid where one of my buddies named Defiant was mining, and started to mine with him. (It had been decided that we would all be Quantar) Once full, I hit the throttle and crashed into the roid.

It was the first of several crashes and letdowns as I attempted to learn the flight model. Finally, when my insurance was pretty low...I decided to reset and start anew. This time I had enough experience and patience and started to gain exp.

I was hooked, and never really looked back to the XWing community. I do still drop by and say hi, and most people remember me. They consider me one of the legends over there, and I still to this day retain my Administrative powers on one of the main sites, which I suppose is to honor my work on the original OPT Project and my knowledge figuring out the mission structures for our 3rd party editor.

Will I go back? Probably not. Will I stay with Jumpgate? Probably, shard or no shard, carebear or not, I just want to finally be back in my own ship and kill flux again.

But not in Jumpgate Classic. It's time for graphics and more people.


Viper2c

Sorry for the long and boring post.

[Diver012]

I was walking through Best Buy and saw the game sitting on the shelf. I was an avid space sim players that missed the ol Wing Commander series and was looking for a replacement.

Jumpgate was it. Nothing else I have ever played has even come close.

I will say that a game called Freelancer by MS did catch me eye, and it was fun, but it was never truely designed to be a Multiplayer game. Once i finished the single player missions, and played around multiplayer stuff for about a month, I got very bored a quit.

[SpiritOne]

Im thinking sometime near the end of 2001, probably September or October.
I have the retail box and the disc with all of the 3DO logo's on it. I know I was playing when 3DO pulled out and it was a scramble to figure out how it was going to be maintained. I think I was already in AQM by then too, but then, Maestro picked up the lvl 6 noob trying to dock in his shuttle rather early, so I can't tell you what lvl I was when 3DO did the pull.

I can tell you I did not get good until June-July 2002 when I got laid off, and did nothing but pvp. Thats when I climbed the charts into the top 10 in kills.

[Ratneck]

Originally Posted by SpiritOne

I have the retail box and the disc with all of the 3DO logo's on it. I know I was playing when 3DO pulled out and it was a scramble to figure out how it was going to be maintained. I think I was already in AQM by then too, but then, Maestro picked up the lvl 6 noob trying to dock in his shuttle rather early, so I can't tell you what lvl I was when 3DO did the pull.

I have the box too, I was just looking for it today when I was at my folks house....but the mold in the basement overtook me and I had to stop. I know it's down there....somewhere.

[-Heros-]

Feb 2002 on EU with another Acc

[Wild_Bill]

Meant to add, I was searching on Amazon in summer of 2001 for "Elite" games and found advertisement for pre-release JumpGate. I ordered it right then and there. Got it in Oct 21st '2001 and went live that evening.

[ELPIRATA]

@SpiritOne: Yeah you were in AQM, I remember because you were one of the first kills I had and back then OEC and AQM were hitting each other regularly. What I dont remember right now is if it was you the first or if it was Merraton.

I remember I was flying behind the OEC fleet because I was sort of tired of the kill steals, so I had this unique position in which an AQM ship jumped into Tripoint sector where I was heading to the gate and he may have not noticed me as I came from his back and finished him off with no other red dots in the area.

ELP

[Smegit]

Cant really remember. Sometime 2001? It was just after retail I know that. Back then domestic broadband was pretty new and more than a little dodgy. So I hung around on a site called ADSLGuide quite a lot. Someone came into the forums with a "hey you have to try this game if you were a fan of Elite!" post.

So that was it, my first time flying around a guy called Starbug said he knew the perfect squad for me. Once I was actually flying with a squad there was no letting go. And just the one account (and squad) ever since.

Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like now if that one person hadn't posted?

Smeg