Jump to content


Photo

The Old Days


  • Please log in to reply
3 replies to this topic

#1 Wasabi®

Posted 05 October 2018 - 10:50 PM

Feeling nostalgic on a Friday night here in New York City where fall has finally come. 

 

The first time I played BF1942 was at a friend's house back in 2003 or so when I still lived in Japan. This was back when the Pentium 4 had just come out (I couldn't have been the only nerd being overly excited after seeing 'GHz' next to a CPU's clock speed!) and needless to say I was super amazed at how good the graphics were. I had just started high school and I'd been lucky enough to have a decent PC - if I remember correctly I had worked some summer jobs that year and had bought myself a low-end gaming computer. So I went ahead and purchased a copy of BF1942. 

 

Initially, I was not too excited about multiplayer, because I was in Japan and most servers were in the US or Europe, meaning I'd have a ping of 150-200 (a huge disadvantage, anyone who has played with this ping knows why).

 

Moongamers was at that time one of the, if not the top, BF1942 servers in the world. Which is a pretty big deal if you think about how popular the game was back then. I remember filtering the server list by population, and constantly seeing this 210-ping server completely filled with people and this was not even peak hours. During peak hours it was so crowded that it was almost impossible to join - 30 minute waits were not uncommon.

 

I had been on the single player up to that point and was used to the Conquest game mode, so TDM was something new - and oh boy was I hooked after the first time I played Omaha Beach on Moon. 

 

Omaha Beach is a peculiar map even by BF1942 standards - it is designed to resemble the actual Omaha Beach (which incidentally I visited in 2011 - http://www.moongamer...showtopic=56324- Flickr link is dead unfortunately but if anyone wants to see my pictures, feel free to ask!), with its steep cliffs, but more exaggerated than the real thing. Basically there is a beachhead and a sandy area on the low ground, flanked by two steep ramps above which is a German fortified position, and behind that there are defensive guns that can hit almost any position on the beach and ocean. This high ground and fortified position gives the German side an extreme defensive advantage at the beginning of the match, just like it did in the real Omaha Beach.

 

When I first played Omaha, I mainly played on Axis. It was easier for noobs and you can do some cheap tricks like throw grenades down the ramp or try to camp with the tanks. There are also fun things like trying to swim to the destroyer and sink it with grenades, or camp the top base and just chill. Only later on when I became a much better infantry player did I have the courage to try Allied, and it is just pure joy when you're Allied and manage to capture the middle flag after storming the bunkers and killing 5-10 enemies, or sneak past everyone and make it all the way to the back of the map. Needless to say it is very fun to snipe from the beach too.

 

I have very vivid memories of those early days. Lin was around, of course. Comet played regularly. Others I remember include John The Killer, Vass, Akooma, Destructo, Boondock Saint, Enforcer, USHA, [FF]Tim, Cosa Nostra, TT, Nathan Rule, DarkFall, Squirrel, M.A.M.E Gamer...(surely forgot some)...It was great fun and some of the best days of my gaming life. Initially I split my time between Moon and another server which played the Battle of Britain map exclusively (I'm a plane geek - to this day!) but found myself on Moon more and more.

 

I think it was mid-2005 when I was asked to admin and I was one of the first overnight admins, since I played from around 3AM EST to 9AM EST. I remember it being pretty hectic - and around that time I overcame my Teamspeak aversion and finally started talking to everyone with my real voice :)

 

In 2005 BF2 came out, I gave it a try and actually had quite a few hours on it and was an admin for that game too (and BF2:SF was awesome) but eventually came back to BF1942. Also tried my hand at CS:Source (was insta-killed most of the time lol)

 

Some time in 2005-6 we took in a lot of people from the Wagoogees Omaha server (RIP), remember that very well. bondmaster, Alvin Tostig, Donovan for TD, etc.

 

We also had a Mod server (and either a dedicated Desert Combat server or maybe that was just the default for the Mod server), those DC battles with jets and Abrams tanks were awesome...

 

In 2007 I moved to the US for college and my ping improved dramatically. I began scoring consistently in the top 3 with a very respectable K/D ratio, especially as a sniper and realized that I wasn't that bad after all lol. 

Don't remember exactly when, but we started to decrease Omaha due to player population and tastes changing. While I missed Omaha, the other maps are also great. BF1942 had some of the best level design period.

 

I loved the big plane maps especially Bocage. Epic battleship and carrier battles in Midway and Coral Sea. Blasting through infantry in a Tiger tank on Bulge and Tobruk, Kursk, and Kharkov. Trying to hold the church on Market Garden. Block-by-block infantry battles in Caen, Berlin, and Stalingrad. Precision ME109 bombing tanks in Battleaxe. Trying to win the rush to the tanks on Aberdeen.

 

Mod Nights with the parachuting from B-17s were awesome as well. We also had infantry-only Berlin and Stalingrad, two maps which drew a unique crowd of infantry players on the weekends. I loved these maps too due to my ping. 

 

From 2007-2011 I was in college and active as an admin; things were busy with school but I always found time (sometimes procrastinating a lot) for BF. I became a Senior Admin and I'm proud to say I still consider myself one, though I am not an active player at the moment.

 

One of the main reasons I applied to colleges in the US is because of my interaction with American players on Moongamers, and my participation in this forum, which piqued my interest in the US and opened up my worldview. I remember having many conversations with players from all over the US (and Europe) where I learned about the culture, politics, different states in the US, etc. College is a daunting thing and studying abroad, alone, 7,000 miles away from family is even more daunting - having joined a US based community like Moon helped a lot in terms of actually planning my move to the US and deciding to come study here.

 

If I had not played on Moongamers, I would not have had the same exposure to American culture or people, and I would probably have gone to college in Japan.

 

The rest is history - after high school I ended up at a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania (awesome ping!) followed by a job in NYC, grad school, and I became a US permanent resident last year so I am here for good!

 

I can say with 100% confidence that I wouldn't be where I am now, either in my education or my career, without BF1942, and without Moongamers. It was a huge part of my life and really did shape me during that period (a critical one - age 15-22) and I can't thank you all enough for what this place has done for me. 

 

Now that I work full time, I can't really play FPS very much anymore because it takes a lot of time commitment to become good. I check the forums almost every day though, and post occasionally. I'm still a heavy gamer-but mainly play RPGs because it's easier to divide into time chunks and less reliant on raw skill. I hope some day I can finish all of my RPGs and return to FPS gaming :)

 

I joined this forum in 2004(!) when I was just 15. Now it is 2018 and I am almost 30. Time flies, but the memories this place, and this game, has given me will stay with me forever. I am sure many others have similar stories, so please feel free to share!


  • Lin, Tarawa/Troutzilla, Captain John H. Miller and 2 others like this

#2 Tarawa/Troutzilla

Posted 05 October 2018 - 11:52 PM

これらは、いくつかの素晴らしいゲームの日、ビーチで夜遅く、フレッチャーで無料のビールでした。 "グランド"の時間は、すべてで持っていた

 

Peace my friend

 

TT

 

 

 

p.s. I hope I didn't misspell anything



#3 Wasabi®

Posted 06 October 2018 - 12:03 AM

:rofl: I miss that Lido Deck on the Fletcher...



#4 Lin

Posted 06 October 2018 - 02:59 AM

pure awesomeness. :)

 

Congratulations on becoming a US permanent resident! That is freaking amazing!! :applaud:


  • Highway Man likes this


0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users

Skin Designed By Evanescence at IBSkin.com