Some Cutlass Isle History

Salty Dog · Sailing Master Posts: 10060 **191991 Gold** -

I wanted to reminisce about what it was like near the start of Cutlass Isle. I just looked down the list and the only people I see who were already on this board when I showed up were the Originator of the Board - Falconer, his friend Wolfwood and then 2 weeks before I joined my hero Gun Pierson showed up. I feel like a really old man!

I joined Feb 1st, 2005 and the board was almost a year and a half old. I showed up exactly one week after the high water mark! Yes, on January 24, 2004 there was a moment in a time when 273 users were logged in at the same time! Back then you would easily see 300 posts per day on the board. There were Challenges right and left, Polls almost every day and we were learning this new game at breakneck speed!

Then there was the Champion! The Pirate's Pirate, the King of them all. Yes, I am talking about rupertlittlebear! He OWNED this board, he was the ultimate authority and we all listened to him. He had the final say to all our questions and concerns. He was WAY ahead of the rest of us!

Duke Roland, you showed up in April 2006. The board was still pretty hot and heavy and you remember rupert well, right? You also remember Howie and Kristian and the other wild men on this board? I was a shy wall flower back then. I studied the posts and started reading Shashan's online guide and I had the nerve to write a post intended for brand new Pirates. It was a long tome but obviously it was only a raw beginner work. So, I was ridiculed at the time and then people actually got a bit upset because my 100 gold post started earning even more gold as others added their comments. That made them even more frustrated!

People made up very elaborate Avatars! They were fun to see, check out Kristian's and Gun Pierson's Avatars they are awesome! People came up with super questions, the enthusiasm for this game as amazing! I sure miss that!

All for now, I just wanted to start this off. When you look at this board and the list of all-time posters you see how hot and heavy it was from 2004 to 2007, awesome!

Roland, tell them about Rupert!!!!!!

corsair91 · Sailing Master Posts: 8162 **210870 Gold** -

Thanks Salty for the site overview back in the day.

Until Roland posts about Rupert,
you can get an overview of rupertlittlebear here

Collective Wittisms of rupertlittlebear
http://www.hookedonpirates.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7836

Collective Wittisms of rupertlittlebear
(or sarcasm) to uninitiated

Roland · Helmsman Posts: 4085 **22541 Gold** -

I recall Rupert as a curmudgeon. By the time I arrived, it seemed half his posts consisted of assertions that SMP was intentionally unmoddable. Shortly after jlangsdo started figuring out how to mod the savegame file, undermining Rupert's hypothesis, Rupert disappeared and hasn't been seen in these parts since.

As I recall, Rupert knew quite a bit about land battles in SMP. It was one thing he seemed to understand better than the rest of us.

Before Salty Dog and corsair91 mastered the art of inflating their post counts by finding and reposting interesting and relevant material on nautical history, Howie and Kristian pursued the same goal by a different means: a bilateral campaign of good-natured harassment and namecalling that required each to post several one-line posts every day.

Salty Dog · Sailing Master Posts: 10060 **191991 Gold** -

Interesting! I recall Rupert schooling everyone on everything but maybe that was just earlier on. I never paid attention to his posts about mods. Maybe I gave him too much credit.

Was Rupert or anyone else on this board one of the programmers of SMP?

As for the one line posts, absolutely true, they went back and forth all the time. However, I remember LOTS of people showing up with every conceivable question about the game and everyone answering them. There was a constant discussion about SMP related questions.

Pirate · Helmsman Posts: 5589 **109759 Gold** -

Glad I came after those days. They probably wouldnâ€™t have liked me much.

Salty Dog · Sailing Master Posts: 10060 **191991 Gold** -

They were interesting but also rapid fire and hard hitting. Things happened fast. What Roland said about a lot of one liners is very true, a lot of people were just trying to be cute. Nowadays we have 10-20 active people. Back then there were maybe 200-300 active posters.

Pirate · Helmsman Posts: 5589 **109759 Gold** -

I believe I was still living in district 12 Ho Chá»‹ Minh City when I joined up here. First time I played SMP. Found the game there and being a modder before naturally went hunting for SMP mod sites. Thatâ€™s how I discovered this place and the reason why. Iâ€™ve changed a lot since I first joined. Didnâ€™t post much at first but now Iâ€™ve gone completely berserk. I donâ€™t think I could keep up with 300 people posting in a day. I like to read but hell with that. Probably pick people I respected and read some stuff but Iâ€™m sure a lot of posts must have been hot air blowing. They were there because the game was a hot item at the time and now they trolling some Newby game pestering the hell out of somebody. Glad I did find this site though. I enjoy it and I like the folks here. I thought Spartan was coming back he posted not long ago said he was okay but havenâ€™t heard anything since. Rust Edge seems to be slowing down coming around and Parksbanyon pops up just now and then. I guess this ainâ€™t forever place perhaps we all be gone someday if nothing else the site wonâ€™t be here forever though it sure lasted longer than normal for a game that game out way back in the olden days so the young folks now would call the timeframe.

Pirate · Helmsman Posts: 5589 **109759 Gold** -

Mr. Blue must have turned blue too. Havenâ€™t seen anything from him in awhile.

Salty Dog · Sailing Master Posts: 10060 **191991 Gold** -

We don't see Captain Teague any more either, or Loki59.

Salty Dog · Sailing Master Posts: 10060 **191991 Gold** -

Two more:
Red Rabbitt
Mad Jack of the Red

they were active a short while back and have disappeared.

Roland · Helmsman Posts: 4085 **22541 Gold** -

I think sparticus said he still lurks, even though he doesn't post much.

Other than jlangsdo, I think my favorite past member was Irish Jim, who created a mod that turns the Dutch into Irish. When not gaming or modding, he played in an Irish band.

One of my favorite SMP events was a boat race. The nine participants all started from the same savegame file and played at Swashbuckler. The nine participants raced from Maracaibo to Trinidad, St. Martin, Grand Bahama, Vera Cruz, Puerto Bello, and back to Maracaibo. After each leg we would post our results. The race was won by unfortunate crow, who posted a total time of 341 days. I finished second, at 365 days. (We both captured war canoes in our first leg and never looked back.) Irish Jim finished last, at 1,426 days, due entirely to a horrible Grand Bahama-to-Vera Cruz leg.

Pirate · Helmsman Posts: 5589 **109759 Gold** -

No wonder they are all gone look at the screens in my Back at it thread.

Salty Dog · Sailing Master Posts: 10060 **191991 Gold** -

I don't remember unfortunate crow but he has the distinction of having the most gold per post! He averaged about 100 pieces of gold for every post he put up here!

I don't remember Irish Jim either. I was gone from this board for years at a time while playing Age of Empires II, Age of Mythology, Age of Empires III and all their permutations.

Wolfwood · Boatswain Posts: 2527 **33917 Gold** -

Thanks for that "look back", Salty Dog. Sometimes it is great to look back and reminisce. Although it is also bittersweet when one realises how quickly time passes...

I lived in Canada when we set this site up, I worked on the smileys (some of them borrowed with permission from another Pirate game site, but some I made from scratch) and created the avatar creator (Falconer made the code, I made the graphics) and shop items. Those were the days!
Retired in Panama

_________________
It is much better to be armed with a sword that has two edges than with an estoc [...], which is nothing more than a stick with a point. (Rapier Master G. Morsicato Pallavicini, La Scherma Illustrata, p. 14.)

themodelcitizen · Gunner Posts: 862 **14635 Gold** -