May 19, 2022 at 2:20 PM
Join Date: Aug 12, 2013
Location:
Posts: 383
Taking a quick glance, I joined these parts shortly after I started getting into the net and onto forums, leading to a train-wreck of a personal history thanks to the mindset of a child. Seems I was active up until maybe early 2016 where I would *maybe* pop up once a year (usually not). I thought I'd remember quite a bit of things from here, but when I try to not cheat and look back at my posts (I really don't want to) I can't recall much. I do remember right as I joined, or maybe before, I saw Hayden's prank video for his hidden ending and actually played through Cave Story again to waste my time in Sand Zone to no avail (I may have told him this already). I butted heads with Noxid and probably others, got tempbanned once(?) and apparently I had a few people who didn't like me. Fun times. But then there were also some nicer instances later down the line where I'd hang out with some of the crew - for example, the Searching for Spring thread I ran (that shit survived 16 pages???) was pretty fun. There were other pals that I'd talk to via Steam and there was that whole other crew with a separate forum that I don't know if I should be talking about. I don't really want to mention a list of people to directly call out because while I don't expect too many people to remember me I don't wanna accidentally miss out on someone else. It reminds me of the one time someone decided to draw every single active member in a mural and they missed out on me 
As for why I haven't been active, it's probably because I lost the connection. Back when I was still in middle school at the very beginning I was working on a really weird reskin for a Facebook page, which was in retrospect kind of cool but I gave it up since I was more or less always experimenting with things and never had a clear vision. Since time passed, I didn't have much material to talk within the CSTSF with, and the divide with me and the ever-changing site probably added to that. I was constantly switching interests and Cave Story didn't quite itch... Until, what, maybe 2015? I can't recall the exact date. I WAS working on another Cave Story mod, intended as a surprise gift for someone I considered my friend. At first I was thinking of making it a Super Mario World hack but I had no experience in that. It to be short since I finally knew restraint, but even with my ideas (not sure if I have the files to this day) I sort of gave up because I was running out of time and homework was kicking my ass. Instead I tried making a Twitter ebooks bot for them because they were really interested in having one but then they heel-faced and thought it was horrifying. To say the least I barely try and make the overblown effort to make cool birthday gifts anymore
Regardless, while it wasn't really thanks to CSTSF, I had several character arcs and matured just a little bit, though I pretty much have never talked to anyone from around here in years. I'd stay in the Discord servers including BLink's, sometimes say the occasional drop-in but it was never anything that lead to a discussion or the like. I've reverted to being in the backdrop for a long time so eventually I sort of just forgot about Cave Story in general until it'd get brought up again. At this time, I really have nothing relevant to reflect on. The forums were still cool, lots of awesome mods were available like Noxid's mods, WTF Story, and a lot of other tidbits like Ralren's scrapped collection, on top of a WIP I was randomly chosen to work on (based off Zelda). I can't say I recall anything like a favourite memory. I do remember lots of when I'd be in the basement during a hot summer working with Cave Editor on my mod, where Booster's Lab was still in development. Was it worth it? I dunno. I got my first plunge into ASM and related tidbits, used Paint.NET for pretty much everything while I used Windows, and maybe learned a thing or two in general about making things. But that was a long time ago.
But that's years ago now. Can't believe it started a decade ago - I went through all of school and then some before coming back like this. The world kind of sucks this decade, but whatever, I'm curious on the state of the forums and the like.
In the middle of last year, while I was moving, I had an itch and decided to finally look into the Cave Story Randomizer and it was loads of fun, pretty cool too. I got to meet up with dunc at least, though there was something about the randomizer shifting over to something else and more work on it and blah blah I didn't follow the news because I was finally moving. But I'll get to that in a bit.
This is going to pose as just a casual convo thread from now on since I'm curious about several things, but that said, if some things are best left unsaid, then you may as well leave them unsaid. I'm curious but I'd hate to drudge up bad things in the case that people want some things to be left forgotten, hell if I know.
ayo where the homies at?
Several places and forums I used to also be a part of alongside CSTSF shut down, so I'm hoping that it won't happen on here for a while as well. While it's rich with history and more lucky to have documentation and old downloads for mods and all sorts of thing, that edge over other places I've been in doesn't really make up for the fact that zoomers love their Discord and how Doukutsu Club seems to be a pretty cool site. I see andwhyisit and DoubleThink around on top with some of you like Hayden, Mint, x, and Serri (again if I miss you, stay mad), and a few... "newbies", but otherwise it's obviously not what it used to be, a talking point that's already a dead horse from what I've seen. I won't be asking spooky questions about the future, but what I am wondering is where people have gone and what I've missed.
For example, Noxid, anyone ever keep in touch with him? This blogpost of his gives me good insight on why he left, and I commend him if he's just taking a break from most things. I plan to try and do that for myself but it's definitely a hard process. I know dunc is still around given the Randomizer Discord, so what's up with the old crew? I can see that some people still log on recently like Enlightened, Polaris, TPCool, Aar, Hate9, Cibryll (again if I miss you, plus there seems to be people I don't really recall but are still oldies) etc... With CHEEZER having popped in not too long ago. So who's keeping this place alive, and who are those who've went MIA? That's probably something I should go look at myself, but I know there's plenty of folks like King (2.0) that I used to talk to. There's something about some "Vresun Conspiracy" which I can't tell if I was vaguely a part of because I know I hung out in another circle King and Cibryll were in a long time ago.
I could probably keep going about the general happenings of people but I'll leave it to whoever wants to say hi back; I've particulably been always curious about Ralren, who now goes by jables. I remember years ago snagging his mods and genuinely falling in love because of how some of them were incredibly polished and cool. I could tell that he was a longtime member but was wondering why he dropped modding even though he listed his reasons. For some reason, all this time over the years I thought it had to do with some weird drama but I could have been hallucinating and he plainly got bored. That said these were really cool and any lurkers stopping by here should check them out (unless they're already infamous).
mod galore
I've been partially curious about how far along Cave Story modding has gotten - when I took my absence I know that NXEngine was either in the works or was nearly done but I never looked into it. I know that Booster's Lab reigned supreme given that the alternatives were old and abandoned for a longer time, but I was indeed surprised to see some really cool things like the Randomizer and Randamu (which I really wanna play soon). But it seems like I narrowly missed out on CSE2 (which apparently had DMCA issues on top of drama that doesn't seem worth exploring), and now doukutsu-rs seems to be the only modern reimplementation. Which is really interesting to me, because I've only been watching things about Rust from the sidelines and didn't look into it any further, so this is my first instance of really seeing any Rust-related projects.
I've also seen that people are assembling a better collection to archive old mods, which is cool, so I'm curious if any weird Japanese mods I used to play are floating around there. Doukutsuclub also heavily reminds me of the older layout of BulletForge so this is a site I didn't know I needed.
But seeing as there's still a ton more resources available for the old-school method of modding CS (there's a modloader and dlls?! [no linux sadge]), it looks like there's way more variety to do more things in more ways. From the way I see it:
(Wow tables are wide unless I'm doing it wrong)
Unless CSE2 is still being actively used, it looks like I could either be checking out all that Booster's Lab has coupled up with, or dip my toes into Rust. I was going to ask if using anything build-reliant would even qualify as a "mod", but the community seems to think so. What do you guys all do? Do you still directly edit the original or are some of you branching off into an implementation? Also, give me some suggestions for some sick mods even if they're yours, I don't think I've played a single mod since like 2014 and am curious enough to see your favourites since then.
me?
I was writing this thread for quite a while but I've always forgotten how it feels like you'd write a lot but it doesn't end up looking like much. I just kind of wanted an excuse to make a catch-up thread since there's no way in hell I'll be able to backlog years' worth of posts with a single attention span. I don't think I have much to say about myself - currently playing CS3D, I actually think the reimagining of areas is really cool but the game kind of plays janky. And the animations suck. Otherwise, the year's hitting me as hard as anyone else, but if you're stopping by and you have your own burning question about me or something else then feel free to ask me it no matter how stupid it is. I'm running out of my thoughts and need a break but I'll be sure to bring up something from the past or ask a question if it comes across my mind. I'm sure I forgot a thing or two.
As for why I haven't been active, it's probably because I lost the connection. Back when I was still in middle school at the very beginning I was working on a really weird reskin for a Facebook page, which was in retrospect kind of cool but I gave it up since I was more or less always experimenting with things and never had a clear vision. Since time passed, I didn't have much material to talk within the CSTSF with, and the divide with me and the ever-changing site probably added to that. I was constantly switching interests and Cave Story didn't quite itch... Until, what, maybe 2015? I can't recall the exact date. I WAS working on another Cave Story mod, intended as a surprise gift for someone I considered my friend. At first I was thinking of making it a Super Mario World hack but I had no experience in that. It to be short since I finally knew restraint, but even with my ideas (not sure if I have the files to this day) I sort of gave up because I was running out of time and homework was kicking my ass. Instead I tried making a Twitter ebooks bot for them because they were really interested in having one but then they heel-faced and thought it was horrifying. To say the least I barely try and make the overblown effort to make cool birthday gifts anymore
Regardless, while it wasn't really thanks to CSTSF, I had several character arcs and matured just a little bit, though I pretty much have never talked to anyone from around here in years. I'd stay in the Discord servers including BLink's, sometimes say the occasional drop-in but it was never anything that lead to a discussion or the like. I've reverted to being in the backdrop for a long time so eventually I sort of just forgot about Cave Story in general until it'd get brought up again. At this time, I really have nothing relevant to reflect on. The forums were still cool, lots of awesome mods were available like Noxid's mods, WTF Story, and a lot of other tidbits like Ralren's scrapped collection, on top of a WIP I was randomly chosen to work on (based off Zelda). I can't say I recall anything like a favourite memory. I do remember lots of when I'd be in the basement during a hot summer working with Cave Editor on my mod, where Booster's Lab was still in development. Was it worth it? I dunno. I got my first plunge into ASM and related tidbits, used Paint.NET for pretty much everything while I used Windows, and maybe learned a thing or two in general about making things. But that was a long time ago.
But that's years ago now. Can't believe it started a decade ago - I went through all of school and then some before coming back like this. The world kind of sucks this decade, but whatever, I'm curious on the state of the forums and the like.
In the middle of last year, while I was moving, I had an itch and decided to finally look into the Cave Story Randomizer and it was loads of fun, pretty cool too. I got to meet up with dunc at least, though there was something about the randomizer shifting over to something else and more work on it and blah blah I didn't follow the news because I was finally moving. But I'll get to that in a bit.
This is going to pose as just a casual convo thread from now on since I'm curious about several things, but that said, if some things are best left unsaid, then you may as well leave them unsaid. I'm curious but I'd hate to drudge up bad things in the case that people want some things to be left forgotten, hell if I know.
ayo where the homies at?
Several places and forums I used to also be a part of alongside CSTSF shut down, so I'm hoping that it won't happen on here for a while as well. While it's rich with history and more lucky to have documentation and old downloads for mods and all sorts of thing, that edge over other places I've been in doesn't really make up for the fact that zoomers love their Discord and how Doukutsu Club seems to be a pretty cool site. I see andwhyisit and DoubleThink around on top with some of you like Hayden, Mint, x, and Serri (again if I miss you, stay mad), and a few... "newbies", but otherwise it's obviously not what it used to be, a talking point that's already a dead horse from what I've seen. I won't be asking spooky questions about the future, but what I am wondering is where people have gone and what I've missed.
For example, Noxid, anyone ever keep in touch with him? This blogpost of his gives me good insight on why he left, and I commend him if he's just taking a break from most things. I plan to try and do that for myself but it's definitely a hard process. I know dunc is still around given the Randomizer Discord, so what's up with the old crew? I can see that some people still log on recently like Enlightened, Polaris, TPCool, Aar, Hate9, Cibryll (again if I miss you, plus there seems to be people I don't really recall but are still oldies) etc... With CHEEZER having popped in not too long ago. So who's keeping this place alive, and who are those who've went MIA? That's probably something I should go look at myself, but I know there's plenty of folks like King (2.0) that I used to talk to. There's something about some "Vresun Conspiracy" which I can't tell if I was vaguely a part of because I know I hung out in another circle King and Cibryll were in a long time ago.
I could probably keep going about the general happenings of people but I'll leave it to whoever wants to say hi back; I've particulably been always curious about Ralren, who now goes by jables. I remember years ago snagging his mods and genuinely falling in love because of how some of them were incredibly polished and cool. I could tell that he was a longtime member but was wondering why he dropped modding even though he listed his reasons. For some reason, all this time over the years I thought it had to do with some weird drama but I could have been hallucinating and he plainly got bored. That said these were really cool and any lurkers stopping by here should check them out (unless they're already infamous).
mod galore
I've been partially curious about how far along Cave Story modding has gotten - when I took my absence I know that NXEngine was either in the works or was nearly done but I never looked into it. I know that Booster's Lab reigned supreme given that the alternatives were old and abandoned for a longer time, but I was indeed surprised to see some really cool things like the Randomizer and Randamu (which I really wanna play soon). But it seems like I narrowly missed out on CSE2 (which apparently had DMCA issues on top of drama that doesn't seem worth exploring), and now doukutsu-rs seems to be the only modern reimplementation. Which is really interesting to me, because I've only been watching things about Rust from the sidelines and didn't look into it any further, so this is my first instance of really seeing any Rust-related projects.
I've also seen that people are assembling a better collection to archive old mods, which is cool, so I'm curious if any weird Japanese mods I used to play are floating around there. Doukutsuclub also heavily reminds me of the older layout of BulletForge so this is a site I didn't know I needed.
But seeing as there's still a ton more resources available for the old-school method of modding CS (there's a modloader and dlls?! [no linux sadge]), it looks like there's way more variety to do more things in more ways. From the way I see it:
Booster's Lab / Old Modding | ASM injects, use a single program, the whole shebang |
NXEngine | 4-8 years old, C++/SDL, clone |
CSE2 | Also old, C++, decomp |
doukutsu-rs | Active, Rust, clone |
(Wow tables are wide unless I'm doing it wrong)
Unless CSE2 is still being actively used, it looks like I could either be checking out all that Booster's Lab has coupled up with, or dip my toes into Rust. I was going to ask if using anything build-reliant would even qualify as a "mod", but the community seems to think so. What do you guys all do? Do you still directly edit the original or are some of you branching off into an implementation? Also, give me some suggestions for some sick mods even if they're yours, I don't think I've played a single mod since like 2014 and am curious enough to see your favourites since then.
me?
I was writing this thread for quite a while but I've always forgotten how it feels like you'd write a lot but it doesn't end up looking like much. I just kind of wanted an excuse to make a catch-up thread since there's no way in hell I'll be able to backlog years' worth of posts with a single attention span. I don't think I have much to say about myself - currently playing CS3D, I actually think the reimagining of areas is really cool but the game kind of plays janky. And the animations suck. Otherwise, the year's hitting me as hard as anyone else, but if you're stopping by and you have your own burning question about me or something else then feel free to ask me it no matter how stupid it is. I'm running out of my thoughts and need a break but I'll be sure to bring up something from the past or ask a question if it comes across my mind. I'm sure I forgot a thing or two.
Gets me thinking about all the people not around... Even though I've always mostly lurked (besides when I used to post Cave Story theories lol), do miss the constant activity around here.
