The Dink Network

Hey, everyone!

(Ok, so first of all I wanna say this post isn't about attention-seeking, or anything like that. My goal here is to try to explain things, and sort of apologize for my not-so-excellent history on this site. I just wanted to get that out of the way, since somebody might think this is about attention. I thought about lots of ways to do this, but I figured an open-letter would be the best option)

So recently I've been thinking about finally letting out all the dirt about my history here in The Dink Network. Mainly about my duplicate accounts and D-Mods. Why now, after all these years? Well first of all, I'm tired of my less than stellar Dinking past being always brought up to me and having to explain my multiple accounts. The second reason is Tim's wonderful current articles about D-Mods. There are many D-Mods here that people aren't sure if they should associate them to me (hell, I think there have been a few D-Mods that have been associated to me even though I had nothing to do with them ), so I feel like I owe it to good ol' Tim to elaborate on my D-Mod history a bit, so he'll have an easier job figuring it all out. But the more I started thinking about it, the more I feel like I need to explain my whole Dinking history, for things to make any sense at all and to explain everything at once. So I decided to make this post sort of my Dinking autobiography. This post will probably end up being quite long, but for those who are genuinely interested in my Dink Smallwood -journey, it'll probably teach at least a few interesting things about me. So to start off, we need to go back to the very beginning:

BEFORE I JOINED TDN:

Back in the late nineties, my father used to be all about computers. I mean back then he knew pretty much everything there was to know about them. Well, at least as far as most common people back then did. He even coded some simple games from scratch (maybe this is where my interest in making games comes from?). Being the computer buff that he was, he was always trying to find new games for me (and himself, quite often ) to play. I mean, I remember all sorts of crazy games. An F1 racing game, Puzzle Station, a game named Terra Incognita, Mega Game, a Moomins game, war games and a crazy Finnish game called "Tapsa Pelastaa Maailman" [Tapsa Saves The World] (that impressively still has its website up: http://www.oocities.org/tapsasaves/shots.html). Among these games was Dink Smallwood. Funnily enough, due to me not knowing English back then we always called the games with some crazy names. Dink was known as "Pig Game", cause you fed pigs at the start.

This must've been either late 1998 or very early 1999. Now here is an interesting part: I don't know if he actually owned the original Dink Smallwood game at any point. My dad was always either getting or ordering these games, so he could very well have owned it. I wanna say he did, cause when seeing the Dink Smallwood box after years it looked familiar. Though, I have no recollection of the intro cinematic, so this could all be in my head. All I know is at one point we lost the CD Dink was on, and couldn't play it, until later in 1999 (which felt like after years thinking back. It's hard to remember how much time passed inbetween all these things. Time just seems to run so much faster these days), when he got Dink back on a CD that came with Mikrobitti, a gaming magazine. This CD included Mystery Island, that you could install along with the FrontEnd. That was basically like the DFArc of the time, only much more primitive. It also included a heap of text about add-ons. This is how we found out about D-Mods, and that you could make your own adventures. This sparked both of our curiosity, but unfortunately we didn't have this wonderful thing known as Internet yet. So we spent around the next half a year playing the original Dink, getting our ass whooped by the first Bonca, spending weeks trying to get the gold for the bow and then trying to kill all the Goblins. Yeah, we sucked. We actually never got past Windemere. I only beat the game a couple of years later, on my own.

Then in 2000, my father finally got Internet, when getting a new computer, and he gave his old computer to me (I still have it, btw. Has Windows '98 as its OS, haha!). This allowed us to explore deeper into the Dink community. I don't really remember much about these times, except that Stone of Balance had just come out. We downloaded some D-Mods, including PotA, Crosslink SoB and Dorinthias (basically all the good D-Mods). Unfortunately due to some circumstances, I got to play D-Mods and visit the site only once in a week, sometimes a month. But during the next year, I learned a little bit of English and did get the chance to explore The Dink Network forums a little bit. Though not terribly much, as both my time and understanding of language were limited. I don't remember much about these times. All I remember about the site itself is a lot of yellow (sand?) and then I have a recollection of when you entered a site, a pencil wrote "Welcome to [add site name here]", but I'm not sure if this was some other Dink-related website. Another thing I remember vaguely from these times is the release of FIAT. After that, I start remembering stuff a bit better, with Pilgrim's Quest being new and the blue background of the site. I kept these rare visits up for the next few years. Why didn't I ever join during these times? Because, quite frankly, I didn't know how to. I was never an Internet nerd, and still am not, so...

In 2004 I took a small break from Dink. As, during these times, I had no means to get on the Internet at all. I finally got full-time Internet possibilities later that year. I remember CC2 and Initiation were brand new at this point. I also downloaded a lot of older D-Mods back such as SoB, PotA as well as some other ones I hadn't played before. Funny fact: The first thing I ever posted on the forum was at this point. I posted as a ghost, without the Skull username. Whoever can find this post for me I'll give a cookie. IIRC, it was a Files Discussion thread on CC2.

From late 2004 to early 2005 (I swear the release of D-Mods is the only thing that helps me remember these years) something odd happened. Something I can't explain to this day. Whenever I tried to enter The Dink Network, I got directed to RPGplanet.com. I have no idea what was going on back then, but I remember thinking TDN must've closed down and that my Dinking days were over. There was a link to TDN on RPGplanet.com, but it led to nowhere, as far as I can remember. Then after a couple of months, I managed to find that TDN was still alive and well. I managed to get in through a link from the Official Dink Smallwood Website, that sadly no-longer exists. Well, that happened. Another chapter of my Dinking history closed. I still have no idea what caused the whole RPGplanet.com thing, to this day.

From this point on (I remember Helpin' the Ol' Duck Farmer and Terrania were just released. If you wanna see the exact date go look it up), I started taking Dinking really seriously. I downloaded and played D-Mods like a maniac, and visited the board almost every day, often multiple times a day. Then at the end of the year, I joined.

AFTER I JOINED; MY D-MODS AND MY DUPLICATE ACCOUNTS:

So, let's get to the more annoying part of this biography thing. The reason I'm writing this to begin with. To explain all the mess-ups I've had during my time here.

So in late 2005 I decided to finally join the site, under the username Skull. I swear to God, to this day I'm still shocked the username wasn't taken. To be completely fair, I wouldn't remember when I joined at all, but I'm basing my calculations off my "contributions" -page, which states my earliest registered review is from May 07 2006, but I know for a fact my earliest reviews were written a few months before, but I edited them later, so based on my calculations, my earliest reviews would've been from late 2005, and I wrote them just after I joined. Btw, as you can see, some of my first reviews were rejected. Wanna see my review for Cloud Castle? It's absolutely horrendous. xD Here it is:

"This d-mod is not good. I THING. When this game started I thing this is a great game. But I do in game two little things and then I cannot do enithing. The story is good but I don not like this game!"

Yes. That's the review. Horrible writing, and despite saying I didn't like it, I still gave it almost 8,0 score. Haha! But my best review is without a doubt the one for Zach the Marine. Here's that one:

" "

Yes, nothing. I can't believe I was such an idiot. *laughs*

But in all seriousness, at this point I still wasn't really ready to enter the forums. I basically knew the forums very well already, but I also knew what a noob I was. I was terrified I'd get ridiculed. I think that's something I still feel a little bit (being a noob and getting ridiculed). I don't know, this may be explained by some psychological thing, but we'll not go into details about that. Point is, I was a noob, I still act like one sometimes. I can also be a total ass, but I really mean no harm. That's something I rarely admit. Hope this helps understand some of the things I've said and done on the forums here.

Anyway, to get back to the point, I wasn't really ready to enter the forums, but in about under a year, I did. And that's when the hurricane began. I was way too noobish for my own good and my poor English got in the way all the time. It still does, in fact. Some of my first posts were immediately removed, I'm pretty sure. I quickly learned I had made a pretty big mistake in joining the forum action, but on the other hand I felt I really belonged for being involved with Dink for so long. I never realized that people didn't know my history, but obviously assumed I was just some noob that had found out about the site and Dink yesterday. Looking back, I really want to facepalm at myself for not realizing that.

At this point, I released my first D-Mod: Adventures with Jani. And well, we all know how that turned out. I'd go as far as to rate it the worst D-Mod ever. You're basically a stick-figure called Jani, and the whole D-Mod is just built over A Knight's Tale by SabreTrout. It really is an awful mess. I basically stole his D-Mod. Now, to be fair, this isn't ENTIRELY my own fault. When I asked around on the forums, I was told "Just copy another D-Mod and change the map and scripts. That's how everybody does it". I don't know whether this was trolling or joking, but I being a dumb ass took it seriously and actually did it. I had no idea about Skeletons at this point. Surprisingly, it got approved and even though it was awful, I did learn a ton about basic scripting, mapping and people's harshness in the process. Though for these lessons to come into fruition would take a long time. Thankfully, Sabre was really forgiving and offered to give his help on my future D-Mods. I think that's the reason I always got along with Sabre quite well. At that point he was the only one who really didn't judge me, though he had every right to. I knew I had potential, but it was really important to know someone else thought so too.

At this point, I was really excited about making D-Mods, even though AwJ had sucked. I told my friends about TDN and they seemed somewhat interested. Turns out I was a little too excited, as I went on to create them both accounts. And what do you know? They never showed up to the site, even though I asked them multiple times. This is how my first two duplicate accounts were created: Dertin and Slime. Since my friends never showed up, I thought I'd take them under my own use. You know, have a little fun playing around as multiple guys (hey, I'm not the first one and certainly not the last to do so. Not that it excuses my actions, but). I think one reason I enjoyed this was cause I was still afraid of being the noob and getting ridiculed, so I thought of them as my backup for a fresh start. At this point I had no idea having multiple accounts was even against the rules. I went on to create a few more awful D-Mods, the Honor of the Cast -series. These I uploaded under the account of Slime, for whatever reason. It could've been an accident, for all I know. The fact that HotC's first part's name is "Slimes" is pure coincidence. After this, Dertin and Slime were removed due to Redink realizing they were my accounts.

At this point, I made an account for my father to join. This account was named Jameil (notice the CC2 names? Yeah, I really loved that D-Mod. Still do). After I told him I had made him an account, this actually was in my father's use most of the time. MOST! At this point I made the infamous Bill & Kill trilogy. Of course, this was just a joke and I intended to piss people off by saying I actually beat the game whereas others thought it was impossible. I uploaded these under the Jameil account cause I was afraid I'd get banned for releasing such awful D-Mods, and thought the Jameil account would have a better chance at surviving. Another instance where I used the Jameil account was defending myself when blamed for the usage of the multiple accounts, cause I was afraid I'd get completely IP banned if I got caught again. But most of the time (at least half, since he didn't post much) Jameil actually was my father. After he got banned though, he lost the little interest he had left in Dink.

Dertin2 was another duplicate that got banned at the same time. That one was just for the giggles, cause I was annoyed at the original Dertin account getting banned. I kinda was glad I got rid of that one, honestly.

After that I stopped with the fake accounts. I was still being a nuisance at the forums, but I started getting some form of repuation, whether bad or good. Not hard to guess which one mostly. During my double account business, I had made some D-Mod plans with my friend Dan online. Unlike my IRL friends, he actually had some genuine interest in making a D-Mod, though he knew not much about it. He went as far as to write a story for couple of D-Mods, and picked up some interesting things from TDN (graphics and stuff). The only problem was, now I had to actually build these D-Mods. Of course, I amounted to nothing, Dan quickly lost interest in Dink and everything fell apart regarding those D-Mods. This resulted in two demos, Fall of Darkness and The Hero of the Time (gee, I think I hold the record for most D-Mods that start with "H"). These D-Mods are ridiculously bad as usual, but it shows a slight bit of improvement and thought behind it. For the record, I advertised Hero of the Time as Dertin2, and uploaded it around a year after Fall of Darkness, for whatever reason.

So I uploaded Hero of the Time in 2008, but back to 2007. I got a new computer and finally jumped away from '98 to XP (yes, it took that long). I left the 4th part of Honor of the Cast on my old PC, without uploading it. It was a surprisingly big and complicated D-Mod for my work, but still total garbage. At this point, my dad wanted to make his one last contribution to my Dink -history. We decided to make a D-Mod together, which meant he wrote the story, jokes and the overall idea behind it. Once again the main work was left to me, but this time I was determined. The D-Mod didn't turn out to be anything spectacular, but was a great improvement over all my previous work. We uploaded The Rise of the Goblins under the name "The Legend Factory", basically parodying big game company names. I think The Rise of the Goblins has an unique appeal, I really like it even today, even if it's simple. The style has a clear watermark of my father on it.

From this point on, I think my history here is fairly clear and well-documented. Later on I released Hotel of the Middle Night, since I had wanted to create a horror D-Mod for a long time, and I was heavily inspired by the awesome Chzo Mythos -series. The Rise of the Goblins was going to have a sequel titled The North's Pilgrim. It looked pretty promising, but unfortunately my computer got a virus and had to be cleared of everything. I was devastated, but at the same time it opened a new door. I had learned much during Middle Night and The North's Pilgrim, and decided it was finally time to put all the lessons together and put my skills to test. I began an entirely new project, and was determined that I shall finally make the Dink adventure I always dreamed of making. This D-Mod eventually turned out to be Historical Hero. And it was a historical benchmark for me. For the first time I felt like I had made an actual D-Mod. To this day I feel a bit sad about North's Pilgrim. It was a fun project with me and my dad, but at the same time if that D-Mod was still here, HH wouldn't, so... Anyway, somewhere in there I managed to slip in a sequel to Hotel of the Middle Night. I intended to make a thid part, but that never happened thus far. After this, I decided to make another epic, only this time where I could really say I feel satisfied with the result. This D-Mod became Historical Hero 2.

Phew! That was a lot of writing. So there you have it folks. My Dinking history. If you read this far, I thank you for taking the time. And I hope you learned some more about me. I felt like I owed you all this explanation. It's been a rough road to get to this point. Sometimes I've been a friend to the community, sometimes I feel I've been almost a foe. I've put the people here through a lot of crap, and I apologize. In the end, I just want what's best for Dink and this community. Sometimes I just take things a bit too serious. As for where I'm headed? Dunno. I still feel the urge to make D-Mods, but haven't really got the strength nor time these days. We'll see.

Have a wonderful day, ya'll!