We are often ask why we created Ogre Island, and why is it still running after all these years.
The answer is simple, fun :)
...
We might be the smallest MMORPG, however its a little know fact that we are also the oldest MMORPG still online! Launched in 1999 we were the very first to put a web based MMORPG that only required a browser and no download.
The team members that brought Ogre Island to life are Vagabond, Binxalot and twist540. To see some of the work needed check out this video on Binxalot drawing a critter that I think never made it into the game. At present only Vagabond is maintaining the game.
Apart from the oficial dev-team Ogre Island has had great contributions from players througout it's history. Sensi, DarkGoddess, Sabine, McNugget helped with designing towns. Hairball did web-design [confirm if other in-game graphics]. McNugget made a helper program, the Ogre Island Companion.
And then there were the moderators. I only remember Enki [check forum for more names]
Before Beta came out a select group of players was asked personally by Vagabond to start and do testing. DarkGoddess and Wolfhound were two. [confirm other testers]
For some years the Ogre Island Tribal Council existed. A more organized way of dev-team and active players to tackle all issues needed for moving the game forward. Players involved were Julie2142, KingDavidV, Lewis01706, Hector_Grail, Sensi, Binxalot, Vagabond, Brindlestone, Jayce Atkins, Fu jinn, PinkFloyd34, _Dae_, Fistandantilus, Olric, Tenshiki, Beastor, Mysti, x_ONYX_x, Azgodeth, Brandon the Swordsman, timetogonow, tiger army, Hairball, Fenrir_Lore, Dumaine, understudy, CanadianWarrior, Draven, Sars Reaper, Dagoth Sangria, pirAte jAck, Technique, Lord Eragon, chrisebif, Quazit, _Dagoot_, Lord Vezek, Blizzy, Wolfhound, Sabine, Item Creator, See Me, and probably quite a few more.
In the new version of Ogre Island just about every player was testing and providing feedback. Most of this information can still be found on the forum. It were times of many changes, resets and restarts and getting used to new ways to play the game.
Disclaimer: the dates and facts below are all approximated or from my own play experience or from those who helped out creating all content. Please contact me in the game if you want to modify anything. I sincerely hope it adds a new dimension to Ogre Island and it's community.History specials:
Playerlist
Dragons
Special Items
Events and Quests
Ogre Island Trivia
Ogre Maps
Forum revisited
Kick Starter
Links
Alpha
Alpha is such a long time ago it is hard to find any information on these first years of the game. The start area was named after one of the developers, Binxonia. And just north was a second town called Plymouth Warf [to be confirmed] and Underleaf was not yet accessible.
The typical green/yellow colour scheme was not yet present. Alpha was very blue. As you can see the trunk was very limited in items, only 15 fixed spot items!!! There was only one active tradeskill group mining and smithing. Mining was done by wielding a pick and clicking away at the walls in the mine situated at the north edge of Binxonia. It was a busy place.
The start page of the game was also very different from what it is now. Those were still the early days of the internet and with that in mind it was already quite complete, though very information oriented.
On this page you can also read the clear reference to the Alpha stage of the game. In a later stage I will try to create access to more information about the first interface. For now I leave it at an image of one of the creators explaining mining.
December 2002 a new version of the web pages was launched. It was still called alpha and still had the blue theme.
The play area was still very small and located in the north-western part of the Island. Under Leaf was accesible now.
Titanium mine guarded by the one and only dragon that dropped dragon scales.
Lyme ogre
Black armour
Medallions (?)
4 baby dragons in Church
Christmas on Ogre Island
Easter on OgreIsland
Raids
Database lost during summer 2003. It was restored some time afterwards, with a loss of some 20 levels [to be confirmed] for most players if not more.
Beta
The release of Beta took a long time. In september 2003 the first announcements were made and it was finally opened for all players after summer 2005 [to be confirmed]The earliest screenshot of my main was shortly after.
The new release came with an updated website as well. Once again with a complete makeover of the design.
This design for the first time uses the Ogre Island Logo that is still used nowadays.
Beta expanded
Around [date unknown] the playing area was vastly increased with many new towns and a plat-restricted area called the WasteLands with access through gates or bridges paying 1 plat each time you entered.
Raffles
House Decorating Contest
Pack Horse
Tent
Guilds
Warp Huts
Beta is discontinued [date unknown january 2010?]
New release
Some time after pulling the plug on the beta server, around may 2010, Vagabond has finished implementing all the changes he wanted to make to the game and released a new version. For Beta players quite some adaptation was needed to the the new battle-system. All players started back at level 1, only their names from beta are reserved names, so they can create characters in maintaining their game identity. The play area in the beginning was restricted to the new spawn town Windy Waters at the South-Eastern corner of the island and grew from there up north and to the west. Tradeskills were not active yet and the best ways to improve your character's performance was battling the SwampLord for max +14 weapons and Giant Hornet for +3 rings.
New character mini-game (?)
Molds Blueprints
Pets
Ogre Island Starter
White Dragon, random messages in game and ice-storm blowing past
Ogre Island Team Christmas 2016
V5
In 2017 it is announced that Flash support in browsers will be stopped. Today in 2020 the flash version of the game is still playable, but recently Adobe also announced to stop Flash support. In reaction to this, since Ogre Island was a Flash based game, Vagabond decided to prepare the game for the future and make it playable in HTML5 and also continue the structural changes started in Alpha.Summer 2018.
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