Oldest ever mod project?

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Oldest ever mod project?

Legion
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Post by Legion » Sat Nov 28, 2015 12:20 am

I'm starting to wonder if XWAU could actually be the oldest video game mod project in continuous development. I mean the only other one I can think of that could even come close would be the Deus Ex High Definition Texture Package, and they've only been going since late 2004 I think.

What do you think? I seriously think there might actually even be a Guinness World Record in this...

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Trevor
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Post by Trevor » Sat Nov 28, 2015 11:12 am

Given that you joined "Fri Jul 26, 2002 11:01 pm" that would seriously suggest that XWAUP is older than DeusEx.

There are mods for other 90's games like GoldenEye X, Goldfinger64, Doom N64, but if longevity is the key here then you still have to decide whether development of tools is included, in which case I know that GoldenEye has been hacked since 97, the first editor tool was released 2005 and we are still working on it today.

If you wish to include only project times, then Goldfinger started 2011, XWAUP wins.

Trev

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Forceflow
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Post by Forceflow » Sat Nov 28, 2015 3:49 pm

I think there are plenty of rather old games still being modded today. I am fairly sure that XWAU is among the older ones, but I highly doubt we are the oldest still active mod. And to be honest the term 'active' must be used fairly loosely here as well. (We released two ships this year if I recall correctly)
Thing that bothers me most is that I don't even know when the project officially started. It must have been some time before April 2000 which is the earliest date that i have proof the XWAU existed. But I know it was active before that because the project started before I got involved. Can't have been much earlier I think, but it might have originated in 1999 already.
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The Saxman
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Post by The Saxman » Sat Nov 28, 2015 5:42 pm

IIRC I put out the "Call to Arms" sometime in 1999. I THINK it was over on the old X-Wing Legacy boards.

The Rebel Fighters pack was released in August 2000, which is the earliest the Wayback Machine site has a record. Unfortunately the forums themselves aren't available in the archive to try and locate the original post.

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Forceflow
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Post by Forceflow » Sat Nov 28, 2015 9:42 pm

The Saxman wrote:IIRC I put out the "Call to Arms" sometime in 1999. I THINK it was over on the old X-Wing Legacy boards.

The Rebel Fighters pack was released in August 2000, which is the earliest the Wayback Machine site has a record. Unfortunately the forums themselves aren't available in the archive to try and locate the original post.
Earliest I know the project existed was February 24th, still have an eMail about it that I just found. This Forum is older (started in 1999) but then it was still Decoys and my project. Earliest XWAU forum posts are from August because unfortunately there was a forum issue which wiped the XWAU forum from before that time. Earliest news post was on May 11th, but since the project did start before it was moved to my webspace that doesn't help much.
Most of my communication about the project before the website was with ICQ, but all that has been long lost. Sadly much of the forum from the really old days has been lost as well.
Any idea who else might still remember the original start date?
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The Saxman
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Post by The Saxman » Sat Nov 28, 2015 9:56 pm

I was looking at the old XW:L boards on Wayback, not the XWAU. I don't remember a great deal clearly from back then, but I do know that's where the first few posts about the concept were made. I also remember that the X-wing was the first model done for the project; I did the original mesh, which was then tweaked/updated and textured by Darksaber.

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Trevor
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Post by Trevor » Sun Nov 29, 2015 2:51 pm

So wait, You guys started updating the models to the game the same year it was released? Wow, but how did you figure out the formats etc in that short time?

Trev

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Forceflow
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Post by Forceflow » Sun Nov 29, 2015 4:19 pm

Trevor wrote:So wait, You guys started updating the models to the game the same year it was released? Wow, but how did you figure out the formats etc in that short time?

Trev
The engine wasn't really new if I remember correctly. It was pretty much the X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter engine which came out in 1997 and there were already tools available for that one.
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The Saxman
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Post by The Saxman » Sun Nov 29, 2015 6:45 pm

Yeah, AceDXF (the first tool that would allow scratch-built models, rather than just modifying existing ones) was already in development when XWA was released, which used the same file formats with a few minor differences. It was "just" a matter of adding in the functionality to support the differences in the XWA models. Shame my first E-wing OPT isn't still around on the net somewhere (though you can have a look at what it looked like here). The textures and mesh sucked balls before Darksaber did the final version, but it was still of great historical significance.

Now I'm having flashbacks to manually placing and stitching textures in Ace... Thank GOD other utilities gave us UV mapping support.

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Vince T
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Post by Vince T » Mon Nov 30, 2015 8:48 am

I think the project is older than most ppl realize - if you check the forum posts, the oldest ones are from 1970! It's older than Star Wars itself :D
Fun bugs! Tho I think the correct dates should be August 2000.

I still remember joining the website as a mere and my first attempts on making ships were of questionable quality.
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Forceflow
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Post by Forceflow » Mon Nov 30, 2015 4:17 pm

General_Trageton wrote:I think the project is older than most ppl realize - if you check the forum posts, the oldest ones are from 1970! It's older than Star Wars itself :D
Fun bugs! Tho I think the correct dates should be August 2000.

I still remember joining the website as a mere and my first attempts on making ships were of questionable quality.
Nah it was definitively before August. I got an eMail from Sax on February 24th with a pic from the X-Wing so the project was already worked on then. But anything older than that has been lost on my end.
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The Saxman
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Post by The Saxman » Mon Nov 30, 2015 5:33 pm

Well, I do remember that it got going not too long after XWA came out, mostly spurred by the fact that the models were already dated even on release.

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Atx
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Post by Atx » Wed Dec 09, 2015 9:00 pm

I remember modding X-wing stuff in the late 90's man...it was brutal moving existing models points around bit by bit. So yeah 1999 for sure..
The Navbuoy is closed...long live the XWAU!!!

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Vince T
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Post by Vince T » Thu Dec 10, 2015 7:03 am

I started offline with XvT mission editing, must've been around 98 or so :D
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Post by FOARP » Mon Dec 28, 2015 5:46 pm

Games have been modded going a long way back (.WAD files for Doom, maps for Civ II and Heroes II still come out regularly) - but this specific mod may well be the one that's been worked on and maintained continuously for longest.

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