We’ve been getting into EverQuest a little here, and some perfect storm of the new version of the best PS2 emulator out there, PCSX2, EverQuest nostalgia (BF and I spent some time making new EQ characters on various servers and checking up on our older characters) got me wondering how the EverQuest Online Adventures fans were doing with their reboot, Project: Return Home.
I’d never played EQOA when it was live for the PlayStation 2 — I was already playing actual EverQuest, and there was no way I would have the money or the time to play two of them. But when I saw the PS2 disk for sale in the local used game store, what the heck, I bought it.
I never even tried it — I knew it wouldn’t work, after all. After I downloaded the new PCSX2 and confirmed I could still play my Champions of Norrath campaign with it, I put in the disk and… it came up. Couldn’t connect to anything.
Turns out there was an expansion I did not have — EverQuest Online Adventures: Frontier. I have never seen this in any store, though eBay has several copies for sale for cheap (though I imagine people get it in less licit ways). Anyway, given you have that disk, you can download their specially set up version of PCSX2 and you will be able to run around and level up in EQOA. Thinking about it.
We were talking about how much we disliked what the EverQuest Prophecy of Ro expansion did to the much loved Freeport and Commonlands zones. When we restart on the Aradune server in a few weeks, we did confirm that the original zones would be still just a memory. Project1999 still has the original zones, though.
I have an old copy of the original EverQuest zipped up in case I ever want to play P99 again, so I thought I’d just unzip it, download a fresh copy of EQ Zone Viewer, and just soak in that old school ambiance. It was great.
We watched some videos on what Freeport looked like in EQOA, and it’s an interesting take. It’s not our Freeport by any means, but it isn’t the smeared mess the one on the live servers is.
I’m pretty excited to restart EQ. BF made his troll shaman; I made a dark elf shadow knight. Not on the new server, but just to get a feel for things. I was working on a spreadsheet for all the newbie SK armor quests when it occurred to me that a start-from-scratch server wouldn’t have those quests. It will be killing rats for tattered armor for us.
I’m happy to report that I fulfilled the promise of my superhero life in DC Universe Online today when I successfully rescued the 90th cat from a tree. Superman, move over. I got this covered.
Also, I used the Wayback Machine to look at my old blog when it still existed and realized I had apparently redesigned it at some point in the past, so I copied the design… and made a few changes. Hope you like it 🙂
The blog looks great! That white on black you were using was hard on the eyes – glad it was just a temporary thing.
Hmm. That’s very interesting info about the EQOA emu progress and the pcsx2 emulator. I wasn’t thinking of buying the actual disc, assuming it would be a download image if the thing ever happens. I can get an original disk for a very reasonable sum right now but that will go up fast if the project opens to the public. Are you actually reading the PS2 disk directly via the PC’s hardware or are you linking it somehow from an actual PS2? If the former, I had no idea a PC’s CD/DVD drive could interpret disks from other systems.
Even then, there’s the issue of whether the emu will work with the Uk or the US version of the PS2 disk… maybe I’ll just wait until they get to open beta or something. If I live that long…
I did a post on the horrific Freeport revamp once. The only good thing you can say for that disaster was that it put paid to any more revamps. To get the pictures for that I registered for and logged into not P99 but P2002, which gets a lot less publicity. It was locked at PoP although I think it might have moved a bit further. I just tried it and it seems to be still active although the server was down. Don’t think I have the patience for old school EQ any more but it’s nice to run around the old graphics now and again.
I do have the original disk, and it reads fine on my PC. So do PS1 and Saturn disks. I haven’t tried Dreamcast disks yet, but I imagine they’ll work, too. The CDROM format isn’t related to the DOS file format, so it’s pretty transportable. If I get involved the Project: Return Home, I’ll buy the actual EQOA: Frontiers disk. Of course the ISO is available from other places 🙂
I know that the PCSX2 emulator can work with both PAL and NTSC versions of games. I don’t know if the fan project needs a specific one, though. The way I see it, if you have the actual disk in hand, then using an ISO for a different version is still acceptable.
My BF and I are just looking into EQ as something we can do together occasionally. We’ll always be able to find a group (ourselves) and if we get bored with it, we’ll just go do something else. I don’t have the patience for starting from scratch as a solo, joining a guild, and rushing to 50. I did that on Stromm when it opened. It was fun, but draining.
Also, you don’t like dark mode? Everything is always about the dark mode these days!
🙂
I go through EQ nostalgia cycles myself where I’ll open up EQ and EQ2, give Daybreak (or whatever the name of their new arm overseeing EQ franchise is) some money for a sub, and run around for a while. It’s always fun but never lasts too long. I haven’t added the extra steps of firing up the old console titles with an emulator. Looks like I’ll be doing that when I’m out of my current WoW kick. 🙂
I think their EQ branch is called Darkpaw? Yeah, it may not last, but it’s fun to indulge a little occasionally. I forgot, when I was playing EQ seriously, that it was meant to be a game. You can put games down. When it’s an obligation, it’s not a game — it’s work.
Lots of old PS1/PS2/SNES/etc games are golden. They are as fun now as they were back in the day, and it’s criminal that more of them haven’t been updated.