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View Full Version : To: The old Imps crew at TM


Little von
08-14-2004, 03:52 PM
A little background to start things...

The very first gaming forum I ever went on was the old Lords of the Realm II forum. I had bought a copy of that game for my son's B-day and when he opened it, there was no manual in the box. I went back to Best Buy here in Laredo, TX, where I had purchased it and found out after they did a regional, state and finally a national scan of their outlets that I had apparently bought the very last copy of Lords II in their inventory. No other copies available to swap and so no manual for me.

Well, I liked what I had seen of the game upon starting it and decided to keep it and check out the site they had included on the game CD for more game info. What a find! Not only was I able to learn enough about the game on the forums to play it, I had found a new home with people of like interests..., gaming.

When the Lords III forum opened in anticipation of the pending release of that game, I was among the first to join that community. Man, that was a busy place back then as some of you TM devs probably remember. The "blue guys" were frequent participants on those early L3 forums.

It was a big surprise for all of us when VU bought Sierra. It was even a bigger surprise and a very big disappointment when y'all walked off the job at Imps and went out on your own shortly thereafter. I stayed on that forum, but never really heard the reasons for your leaving. Since that time and especially with the L3 game they released and the recent closing of both Imps and Sierra, I can very well imagine why you left the joint. *imagine and insert appropriate foul comments about VU and their gaming dev "style" here*

Okay, I'm finally getting to the point of this thread. The L3 game that was being talked about and written about on that original L3 forum seemed a lot different (more complex, more in depth, more immersing..., more... "better") than the game they released as Lords of the Realm III. Is it so? Was their intent to strip the heart out of the game and does that have anything to do with all of you leaving?

I am sure the reason you left Imps are many, varied and complex, but being as I am (was) a loyal fan of the old, original Imps Studios, I was hoping you could perhaps shed some light on what all of that was about.

Why did you abandon us and leave us and your beautiful embryonic Lords of the Realm III in the hands of the VU suits?

P.S. Hey, and with all due respects, if you can't talk about it yet, don't. I just had to get that off of my chest. It was almost 3 years of my life spent on the L3 forum waiting for that game to finally be released, that's all. I'm glad I finally found this place and I am looking forward to the release of CotN. ;)

Keith
08-14-2004, 05:58 PM
L3 has had three different dev teams and I'm sure the overall design changed each time.

Bugsy
08-14-2004, 06:10 PM
Well, I liked what I had seen of the game upon starting it and decided to keep it and check out the site they had included on the game CD for more game info. What a find! Not only was I able to learn enough about the game on the forums to play it, I had found a new home with people of like interests..., gaming.

It was a big surprise for all of us when VU bought Sierra. It was even a bigger surprise and a very big disappointment when y'all walked off the job at Imps and went out on your own shortly thereafter.

Okay, I'm finally getting to the point of this thread. The L3 game that was being talked about and written about on that original L3 forum seemed a lot different (more complex, more in depth, more immersing..., more... "better") than the game they released as Lords of the Realm III. Is it so? Was their intent to strip the heart out of the game and does that have anything to do with all of you leaving?

P.S. Hey, and with all due respects, if you can't talk about it yet, don't. I just had to get that off of my chest. It was almost 3 years of my life spent on the L3 forum waiting for that game to finally be released, that's all. I'm glad I finally found this place and I am looking forward to the release of CotN. ;)
I could have written the above. I wasn't a Lord of the Realms player (yet), but do have their other titles. I adore things from the time periods in Egypt, Greece, and Rome that are played in the games. I buy many games for just having an Egyptian theme.

It was a huge shock to me when I went to the impressions site, and was redirected to the VU site. I actually typed the address in manually three times to make sure it wasn't right, and did a virus scan to be sure I didn't have a browser hijacking. (I truly did LOL) It took me a bit to realize, they had bought out Impressions, and that the kewl games would be no more. I was very sad about it too, I've been gaming with them for years now. It's like seeing your best friend leave town forever.

I was thrilled when I stumbled upon this site while looking for a copy of Poseidon. (I got it on ebay finally.) I eagerly await the release of this game.:D

halberd388
08-17-2004, 11:04 PM
LotR III had huge potential, great ambitions, and I'm sure would have been just like the previous two games (Semi-Dark Comedy). After the buy out, and the team left, the game went down hill so much it became a budget title. I tried it... I abolutely hated it

I have all other Impressions City Builder titles, and I mean ALL of them. Love them, and I just cannot wait to play Titled Mill's debute title.

Anguille
08-18-2004, 01:56 AM
It was a shock to me too...There's only one Impression game that i don't have...it's Caesar 1.


LOR3 is probably not what i was supposed to be, but still i enjoy it and it's among my top 10 games right now. I guess if the guys now at TM had stayed untill the end of that game it would be number 1, but then CotN would still be 3 years away :eek: I think that team that brought the game out have made a great job, dealing with short staff, pressures and a lot of staff rotation. I am glad to have the game and will launch it on a regular basis (i did finish all the campaigns and some are pretty difficult)

Another patch for that game would have been great. Maybe an unofficial one? :rolleyes:

tobing
08-18-2004, 02:46 AM
Caesar I is free, you can download it at http://www.bhlegend.com/ or at http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/. Both sites collect the really old games, which are for free download, or you can buy old games there if you can't get them anywhere else. There was also a download from the official Caesar III site, but as the site is gone so is the download...

PCDania
08-18-2004, 11:50 AM
Another great place for getting Caesar is here: http://www.the-underdogs.org/index.php They also have the manual.

I can not recommend http://www.bhlegend.com/ as they try to make you install spyware (adware) on your computer when you go to their site. GAIN is the 'good' old Gator also known under the new name Claria. Spyware of different types are one of the main reasons to games running slow or crashing, can hinder installation of games, make your PC crash and other unpleasent PC experiences.

tobing
08-18-2004, 12:07 PM
Oops, I didn't know nor realize that bhlegend uses spyware - gool old blockers on all of my PCs! I never notice... :D

PCDania
08-18-2004, 01:00 PM
I notice the spyware but it can not install as I've hacked the registry on my computer ;) :p

tobing
08-18-2004, 01:12 PM
How did you hack your registry?

I'm using Kerio Firewall, Slimbrowser, AdAware and Spybot S&D...

PCDania
08-18-2004, 02:39 PM
I use Win98SE but the key should be the same on other Windows PCs using Internet Explorer 5 and newer (maybe also IE4, can't remember).
In "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\0"
Change Data in String Name 1004 from 0 to 3

If you have multiple accounts on the computer you will have to change the setting for each account. I don't know if the bug is corrected in WinXP SP2.

The newest version of Spybot Search&Destroy tries to change the data in the string from 0 to 3 but it doesn't work (I've tested it). I don't know if it's because I use Win98SE or not.

I found the info about this bug on an Israeli security page about a year and a half ago but unfortunately I've forgotten the link. I haven't had problems with unwanted secretive installations (either you don't know it's installed or you Click 'No' and it installs anyway, result is the same) while surfing sinse I changed that setting. The spyware and other malware will try installing but will not succeed. I've reinstalled latest back in July (new motherboard) and none of the patches from Windows Update corrected the bug.

tobing
08-18-2004, 02:45 PM
That's interesting. Well, in my System the key is already 3 - what do all these keys mean? Maybe Spybot was successful changing that key in XP. Thank you anyway!

PCDania
08-18-2004, 03:10 PM
They are levels of security, cache sizes and so. It's not recommended to fiddle with those settings manually as you can easily end up ruining the settings so you will have to reinstall or live without access to the internet