20 March 2008

Anyone Remember the Total Entertainment Network?

I guess I'm just a huge Internet/gaming nerd, because I get nostalgic about my escapades on the early internet. Back when the only people on it were most likely computer geeks and it was one giant sandbox. So of course I was a member of TEN (Total Entertainment Network). I discovered it as a part of my Duke Nukem 3D package, I believe a TEN beta install was on the CD. Who could forget the cute alien face that told you how slow your connection was?

So I was recently messing around on the WayBack Machine and found myself pointed to the old TEN.net website. In fact, here are all the archived versions. There were two games that I mainly played on TEN: AD&D DARK SUN: Crimson Sands and Duke Nukem 3D. My old AD&D handle was "Kepher" - I didn't know any negative connotations about it at the time, I just made it up. If anyone remembers me out there, hello! The old screenshots on this page should bring back memories. Alas, I don't have any screenshots of my own from TEN days. I would like to know who holds the IP to Crimson Sands today anyway? Probably EA on some old dusty hard drive. If anyone knows please let me know.

I loved the tight knit community that Duke 3D had on TEN. I was one degree away from fame there since my friend in real life was the author of the popular Stealth map series. I think he went as Phazer on TEN. Some names I can remember off the top of my head are Tecnicolor and Pinkymouz (also the author of popular maps called Assault if I recall correctly). I'm embarrased to say that I played with the keyboard exclusively back then. Could you even play it with a mouse?

Check out TEN's cool quotes page, circa 1996. It's too bad Scott Miller's vision didn't pan out: "TEN will finally provide an online home for gamers. TEN's style matches our games perfectly, and we are looking forward to a long, successful partnership." -Scott Miller, President of 3D Realms. Where the heck is Duke Nukem Forever!?

I just thought I would take a step back into those good old days and share it with you.

2 comments:

BH said...

Yo J, It's B.

You can imagine my surprise when I googled a few phrases and this old post popped up. I'm assuming it's you and hope all has been well with you and this post reaches you. I have the same email addy, hit me up sometime - it's been a decade =) Your post was a fun read and a trip down memory lane. I forgot about the Ad&d game, crazy.

Cheers,

B

Unknown said...

Hey wow I googled some stuff too and this post came up that I forgot about. I tried an email address (b*********06) that I had for you but you haven't responded. Hit me back with an email address.