So, you guys/girls still around?

I got here from Wikipedia.org. Yes, we've made it in to national discourse!

I'm here, along with Fossil, Midwestboyinla, Pnkfloyd12, & Neeltje. Ktysmi was here for awhile, & I'm not certain who else was on the team. Its good to see you!

WOW! thats awesome, I read wikipedia all the time! That must mean that someone we know/sortof know is entering the data into wikipedia. hmmmm, wonder who it could be.....

As Spunky mentioned, I'm still around.

I remember only a couple others (Squid2, Katatude), but I don't know if they're still around. If they are, it would be at the official Atari forums.

Squid2 still posts on the Atari forums, mainly in the Amusement Park Industry area.

I wish I would have been on the UCES team. Does that count?! LOL

I joined the community a little late but it's definitely a project I would have joined in a heartbeat.

Oh, yeah, I'm here. A few other folks have been around from time to time, but most have moved on. No surprise, really.

In a heartbeat we oldtimers will climb into our rocking chairs and bore everybody to tears about the old days... so be careful, LOL.

Please bore me, Id love to hear about the old days! Why is it that at the ripe old of 27 age of im already appreciative of the "old days"?

Of course, some of us oldtimers have trouble remembering things that happened yesterday, let alone back in the old days.

I think I'm late for my afternoon nap.

I was originally part of the UCES team until I just stopped visiting the forums. Yeah, I wish I would have stayed with it.

Fossil leans back in his rocker, puffs on one of Spunky's corncob pipes and tells a tale of the old days:

One of the divisive issues during the development of UCES was the terms of submission. We requested that submissions grant the project an exclusive right to use the work until release. The submitter retained copyrights. After the exclusive period elapsed, the creator was free distribute the submission independently.

We also requested that submissions not be publicly displayed until the project was released.

People objected, (even though we "suggested" rather than strictly enforced this), but here's what this policy did:

When we were nearing the release stage, and created publicity shots, it became immediately apparent that there were a HUGE number of brand new, never-before-seen things in UCES. The amount of excitement it generated was unreal.

UCES also developed a bit of a "secret society" cachet among its members. You can't enjoy the exclusivity of a private club if it's not private.

UCES has been downloaded many thousands of times. Compare this to even the most elegant contest winning parks. Most have a few hundred downloads, at best. I attribute this in part to the policy of keeping everything "under wraps" until it was almost ready to go along with the sheer size and scope of the project. We definitely had the "buzz" thing going. Buzz doesn't last long, you know.

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An interesting and wonderful thing happened during the course of the project. Mentoring of the younger members by some of the old hands racheted up skill levels across the board. Collectively, members of the group pushed each other to improve their efforts. We would emit collective gasps when viewing new submissions, and we knew we were rocking.

We could feel the momentum building. During the peak, there were new submissions almost daily. Almost every one of them just blew us away. It was hard to keep a lid on the excitement. Like a pressure cooker, it kept building. But when the release came, well... there are few things as satisfying as a good explosion.

I agree, it was very satisfying, even though my part in the project was about as small as you could get and still be considered part of the project. Looking back, I wish I would've done more. I think one of my biggest contributions was actually just a suggestion on some of the objects that Brad made.

I agree. I really wish I had started on my LegoLand scenario (using nothing but Lego's and glass pieces) WAY earlier in the project, I had just happened to stuble upon it at the very end of the project and threw together a quick playing filed completely flat with alternating 5X5 patches of color (red green, blue, yellow) built a train around the edges, custom built 4 stations complete with amenities, placed paths connecting all four in the center and built a huge castle in the center over the connecting point with the info desk right in the middle. WOW I can't believe I remembered all of that. I must have been very impressed with my work.

At any rate, I still think my Gigapretzel was my best contribution to the UCES.

edit--

Just for fun's sake, when the UCES team was together working on our plans for global determination, I was also a freshman in college. Today I have just 1 term left until I graduate. That makes it seem like the project was SOOOOOOOOOOO long ago.

I don't agree; during the time I was testing the scenario's I never stopped to look around in the 'tracks corner', probably because I couldn't imagine what was in there. So when I downloaded the whole thing the day of the release, the number and quality of the tracks was a big surprise for me and I really went: "WOOOW". And your coasters Pnkfloyd, were IMO the cream of the whole set.

Fossil has summed it all up appropriately. It was a time of comraderie, a time of challenge & encouragement. While my contribution was minor compared to most of the others involved, the feeling of pride from being part of the team is indiscribable. It is probably my greatest RCT achievement & it was an honor to be chosen as part of the team.

As always, my deepest appreciation to Fossil for holding it all together throughout. You Rock!

wow. i had tottaly forgetten that i spent over a year of my life working on this. how that happened i dunno. haha but wow.