[DarkHoodness]

Hi, you lot!
I've decided to re-join OWF for a time. . . Dunno how long it'll be before I find something else to do and end up leaving again, but maybe that won't happen this time.
Anyway I posted this a little while back, my Oddworld History, but I'm in college now on break, so you'll have to put up with this for now. . . I've revised and updated this a little, so I'm gonna be REALLY annoying and post it again. :P Ah, just scroll past it if you don't wanna read it, I'll post some of my memories later.

Something I've always wanted to know is, what Oddworldian history have we all had? When did we first discover the Oddworld games? And what Oddworld-related activities have we done or taken part in? It'll be interesting to find out from you guys if you have time to remember it and write it all down, like I've just done.

Anyway, here's my Oddworldian history for you all to view and go "Wow! How boring!" at. Enjoy.

Dark Hood's Oddworld History (tried to get events in order but some of it may not be):

First saw Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee PSX demo in Spring 1998. Was interested in it, though never had time to understand it properly.

Was given a PC version of the game, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee in summer 1999 by a friend who lent it to him, although they lost touch, and he still has it.

Discovered a Re-Play Edition of Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus (PC) in a gaming store while out christmas shopping in Winter 2000 (Bought PC version of Worms: Armageddon at the same time).

Joined Oddworld Forums (OWF) in December 31st 2000: A move that would affect his life (to see why, see the 'Misc Dark Hood Oddities' section below. And to be honest, who hasn't joined OWF and not had thier life changed even slightly by it? ).

Joined the offcial Oddworld Inhabitants (OWI) Fanclub when it was first set up sometime in 2001 (although I'm unsure about that. Anyone remember when the fanclub was set up?).

Left OWF on the 19th of August 2002 after an adminstration conflict, went with the OWF members who went away from OWF and started a new independant forum, remainded friends with them even after that seperate forum got closed down.

Returned to OWF on 27th of November 2003.

Left OWF in Janurary 2003 when college blasted him with a stupid programming assignment which took ages to do.

Came back again on 18th March 2003 after completing programming assignment.

Miscellaneous Dark Hood Oddities:

Known of Oddworld since Spring 1998.

Found Sinjin's Abe's Exoddus walkthrough through the (now dead) Excite search engine.
Found OWI's website through Sinjin's Abe's Exoddus walkthrough.
Found the link to OWF through OWI's website.

Thinks Oddworld Inhabitants Rule, loves thier games to peices, and is always very greatful when they send him mail.

Has been a member of OWF since December 31st 2000, back when the old EzBoard OWF was running. Claims to be one of the original OWF (EzBoard OWF, not Infogames OWF) members who still roam OWF today (even if I did go away for over a year then came back again recently).

Was one of the first 10 fans (I think) to join the OWI fanclub. (At least OWI themselves said so. . . They sent me some Munch stickers as a result. )

Oddworld changed the direction of his life through OWF. OWF is the place where he met many of his best online friends, who have taught him a few of life's lessons. Going online and socailising with these friends has since become a part of his life.

Still hasn't got his hands on an X-Box, let alone played Munch's Oddysee yet. Hopes that OWI will release a PC version someday, but knows that it may never be true, and therefore won't ever get his hopes up too high.

During the Oddworld production crew visit to OddChat, asked the question about possesion in MO, where you could have a choice to 'pop' possessed characters, or unpossess them without killing them. Also may of asked a question about doors in AO and AE (how you appear from one door to another in the background instantly, for instance, even if they aren't directly connected to each other), but isn't sure wether the question got through or not, or what the reply was, or even if he asked them in the first place. Hmmm.

Has returned to both Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus many, many times, completing them more then 6 times each. Has recently (Decemember 2003) completed both games twice in a row.

Is ashamed to say that he completed both AO and AE for the first times using Sinjin's Oddworld walkthroughs for both games, but since then has memorised how to complete AO and AE, saving all 99 and all 300 mudokons (or rather I forget, then get my memory jogged while playing the games, and sometimes I have to re-figure out how to do some of the puzzles if I've forgotten how to do them).

Recently captured all of the FMVs from Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus (except for some of the transition movies) using a program called Cam Studio. Compiled the captured movies into one long 47 minute long movie using Windows Movie Maker, although there is a glitch in the middle somewhere where the movie re-plays part of an FMV, and he accidently missed an FMV out (the one in AE, in necrum mines where Abe, Alf and the 4 mud's who were with them discover a Soulstorm Brew vending machine). The movie took his 1.59GHz, 512MB SDRAM computer 8 hours to compile and save to WMV format (and this is why I refuse to correct my mistakes and compile that movie again - I ain't waiting around for 8 hours for my computer to do something again, not even for Oddworld.).

Out of these FMV movies, has easily been able to create a few animated GIFs of Oddworld: AO and AE scenes, such as that shown on his sig.

Created his own race of mudokons (with a little bit of persuasion from a few friends) for the Oddworld RPG. These mudokons are called the Biros Mudokons, and are an amphibious species of mudokon, complete with webbed fingers. This rare 'mudokon' species is based on mammals instead of birds, since they have hair, have a mammilion reproductive system (male, female, give birth to live young, produce milk), and are more human-like in appearance with posture and muscle structure. This of course doesn't make them mudokons, but they were made for an RPG after all (if I end up re-using them, I may revise them and also change thier name and design). He featured one of those 'mudokons' in particular: A slightly overweight female mudokon named Blue, who remains one of his favourite characters out of all that he ever created.

Has created various characters representing Blue the Mudokon in various games, such as WWE Smackdown 2, 3, 4 and 5, Worms Armegeddon, Worms 3D, Soldat, and Hogs of War. The most Blue-like version of her so far has appeared in WWE Smackdown 5: Here Comes The Pain.

On the subject of the old Oddworld RPG, was the one who came up with the main village's name of Pyke. He stole this name of one of the planets in the game: Gazillionaire Deluxe.

Once painstakingly traced over an image of Oddworld using MS Paint (from the June 2002 Fanclub Oddworld map), creating a simplyfied and more cartoonish image of Oddworld (see below - copy and paste link):

http://www.angelfire.com/wa3/darkhood/images/Compdraw/RoamerOddworld.bmp

- DH