Check out the old Aquaria site and images

[GMMan]

Went on Aquaria's site for the heck of it, and managed to trace back bits of the site to Derek's server. Since I like to prod, I checked out the images directory of the site (it won't list on Bit-Blot's site, unfortunately). There are more images than you see at the front page. For example, there's a couple pictures of Aquarian script, and bonus screenshots 13-16. There's also Jenna's face, and an outline of Mithala.

Edit: Never mind, Jenna's face and Mithala is nothing new. But have you found "him"?

[GMMan]

Who the heck is Sauguin?

Update: Another message tells me he's a poet. Any mention of him her^? in-game?

[False.Genesis]

Adding to that: i have seen lots of references to "Ompo" in home waters, vedhacave, and the energy temple, question remains, who/what is that, or was supposed to be?
Seems to have been stripped out of the game at quite a late point, as a full script is there, nodes, animations, and stuff, but no graphics (didn't try to run the script, however).
The old energy god apparently eats Ompo before the battle starts, or something. At least thats in a script that is also unused.
Mia and Ompo have some relation, was supposed to follow her around, and it does look like Mia was present a lot in openwaters before the game was "streamlined", as Alec said in another topic.

Found nothing via forum search. Any theories?


EDIT: About Sauguin, if i remember correctly she did play a role in the Sacrifice mod. Has been a while since i played it, and my memory could be better these days.
EDIT2: He? She? Afaik Sauguin was a priestess, but i may be totally off here anyways.

[Alec]

Oh gosh, Ompo! I remember Ompo.

I haven't thought about that in ages. He's from a very old version of the game.

I can explain who he is if anyone is interested.

[False.Genesis]

Wha?! Do it already!
Would not have asked if i wasn't interested

(Random thought: do you still have the gfx? would be funny to include him into a 1.1.4-community version, in case that ever happens, and its ok for you)

EDIT: and while you are giving out details about ompo, why not include some other things from the early days, like sauguin, and whatever you like. I'm sure this wont do the memories bad.

At this point i can backlink to something Alphasoldier posted earlier (found this myself too):

Not a while ago I found a rather interesting piece of dialog that was not used in the story, I'll post it here.

Code: [Select]

"Creature: Who goes there?"
"Naija: It... it is I, Naija."
"Creature: Naija... what a beautiful name."
"Naija: Beautiful?"
"Creature: Come closer, little Naija."
"Naija: ..."
"Naija: In the name of the Old Father! What kind of foul creature are you?"
"Nerhaji: Ha! Foul? I am Nerhaji! Once I was as mighty a God as any. Now reduced to this form... it is more than foul, it is sacrilege."
"Naija: What? Put me down!"
"Nerhaji: You are a defiant one, indeed. One I would have called a sinner, so long ago. One who would have been fed to me, as nothing more than a tasty morsel."
"Naija: *pain* Let... me... go!"
"Nerhaji: This pain you feel Naija, does it make you feel alive?"
"Naija: *pain* What...?"
"Nerhaji: Your bones could be crushed in an instant. Your spirit extinguished from this realm forever."
"Naija: *pain* ..."
"Nerhaji: You may very well be asking yourself, 'Why am I still alive?'"
"Nerhaji: The answer is simple."
"Nerhaji: It is by my grace that you are allowed to continue squirming in my mighty grasp."
"Nerhaji: For you see, Naija; I need something from you."
"Nerhaji: I require a gift, and it is a gift that even a frail mortal as yourself, can provide."
"Naija: *pain* What... do you want..."
"Nerhaji: Quite simply, Naija, I am old. I am tired."
"Nerhaji: I have spent an eternity in this place, longing to be free."
"Naija: *pain* What... makes you think... that I would free you..."
"Nerhaji: Ha! As if I would desire to rule in this dying age. No, Naija... I wish to be free from existence."
"Naija: You want to... die?"
"Nerhaji: What was truly me has long since died. All that remains is to free my spirit."
"Nerhaji: I will teach you the Song that will bind me to the void, once and for all."

Source: \scripts\maps\node_energygod.luaFor some reason I'm glad this wasn't in here. I may be very prejudging, but I don't think this would've come over right.
I'm just saying... the story is good, and looking at this text, you know the team here has put a lot of blood, sweat, tears, time and trouble into this.

 I guess i don't even want to know what other never seen stuff may be on your harddisk. *shudder*


EDIT2: Oh yes! More old stuff digging!

Just found this: http://web.archive.org/web/20050206065129/http://www.zaphiresoft.com/downloads/dsademosetup.exe
The title music sounds somewhat familiar, hmm?  
And its a pity that the last game's link at http://web.archive.org/web/20041202172841/http://zaphire.ca/ does not work...  (1998? huh? seriously?)

Now, anyone who can find something older?

EDIT3:
Alec, i think now i begin to understand what it really meant for you to make Aquaria. The whole ups and downs of the development process. And all that followed later. Holy Sh*t.

[GMMan]

Wow. The map editor almost looks the same as now. Was Derek in the project back then?

Good old '98 graphics. Can we call Aquaria a classic?

[GMMan]

Searched for "Alexander Holowka", and the Zaphire (zaphire.ca) site is there, but limited. No downloads, and the old version is more or less broken.

@Alec: any plans on updating your old site?

[False.Genesis]

1998. Wow.



w00t. Good old '98 gfx  


The small and blurry image in large. That is for sure not '98

The fact that the site now forbids directory listings although it did allow them earlier, and that links have been edited out, tells me it got hacked somewhere between 2006 and now, maybe. Look, there's even spam-like links in the games section. Have a close look at the description texts. Weird.

Anyways, better lets wait for some answers first before things get buried

EDIT: Wait. Alec was ... its 2011, he is 27 now, that was '98... 14 back then ?!
Whoa. Is that possible? I remember i was coding QBasic when i was 14 ... *hides*

Ok, i better really stop. This is getting way too offtopic.

[Kondrikthus]

Ompo? Do tell! Another interested party here!

[False.Genesis]

*gently pokes Alec with a large hammer*

Ompo even made an appearance in the training cave in the very beginning, right after the first bend. huh. There's an unused "spawnompo" node there.
Actually, playing it the 3rd time and now with a debug build rulez big time, so many things to find...

[Alec]

Sooo in a very old version of the game...

The game opened on Naija in her cave, kind of like it does in the released version only she's a child.

The first part of the game would have you playing as Naija as a child. At a later point we would transition to when she was grown up.

Ompo shows up in the first cave, he's a small seahorse type pet that Naija forms a bond with as part of her training to use the Verse. In fact, one version even had a HUD that was a big version of Ompo, and his tongue represented your health.

Naija had a "grandmother" type character who lived in a cave... this cave eventually became Naija's Home Cave. (the map file is still called vedhacave I believe) There were also other children living there to do magic training.

There were things like missing where Naija and the other children would swim along a path and attack things. Mithalas was a town full of NPCs and shops and things.

It was a pretty different game back then.

In one version Naija was supposed to bond with Ompo, as in they merge together to form one being.

In another version, Ompo is just a thing that follow you around. Once you get to the end of the Energy Temple, he gets grabbed by the Energy god and eaten. Sort of like a "childhood is over, IN YOUR FACE" moment.

[Alec]

Here's a review of "Deep Sea Adventures" http://www.gametunnel.com/deep-sea-adventures-game-review.php

I think I was 19 when I made it. It came out in 2004.

[Xiagan]

Cool, thank you!

So the most potent recipes are named after her no longer existing grandma? Awesome.

[Alec]

So the most potent recipes are named after her no longer existing grandma? Awesome.

Yes, that's true!

[False.Genesis]

Ohhh, awesome, thanks for telling
This explains some of the concept art shown in the ending, such as Naija with a hood and a fireball thing in her hand.
Feelin' inspired now

Now i'm wondering about the drastic change of Mithalas from a lively city into a ruined place - was that supposed to happen at some point in the story, or was that just a "side-effect" when ripping out the RPG-elements?
(Because imho TheBear did a really good job capturing this sort of happening in Sacrifice.)

If you have more to tell, don't hesitate