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......Slow day at work today.....
So your username you have chosen to identify yourself on this forum, why did you chose it, what does it mean, what significance does it have or hold for you?
Many think mine is based on the V8 engines I love......well whilst that would appear the case (and I do love V8's btw) it actually has nothing to do with V8 engines......
Now this is going to sound really sad, but back in the mid 90's when I was still at school (just) and I bought my first PC, it came with a flight simulator called Novalogic F16 Multirole Fighter. It was one of the first massive online simulations of its time.
The internet was in its infancy back then with (if you were lucky) 56k dial up, mostly is was 28 or 33k.
But this game had a massive online community, you all logged into and flew in what was called the IBS, Integrated Battle Space, where the F16 was flown against the other big name game from the same company, the MiG 29 Fulcrum......
As the community grew, squadrons were formed with strict rules of engagement, private games were setup to challenge different squads against each other, competing in leagues to see who was the best squad on the internet....it really did get massive and hugely competitive. up to 256 players could log into each IBS server at a time, the dog fights were huge, the squads began creating fighter wings and bombing wings, escort duties were given to different wings at specific times of the week to protect the vulnerable bombing wings....you had to log in, be briefed over a very very early predecessor to Skype called Roger Wilco, and be ready to fly at certain times.....it really did get very regimented.
But that was also part of its charm, you formed online friendships, had your favourite squad members who you would fly with, you got to know the enemy and made friends with them while blowing the hell out of them.....you repsected the players by 'gg' and 'gs' over the chat channel (Good Game and Good Shot), you had to call 'tally' when you wanted to join an already in progress dogfight.....it was respectful, no trolling, no abuse....it was fun.
Anywho, I tried out for a very well known and well respected online squadron called Viper Strike. during one of their intake sessions (only 3 spots available this time round) so I called up my best mate Richard and told him we needed to try-out and get in the squad. We had already made some decent waves in the IBS flying together unsquadded as wing-men to each other, getting some good kill tallies under our belts and getting our callsigns established and known.....
He flew a black camo F16 and was known as Genocide......and I flew a desert camo F16 and I was known as Saint.
During our squad try out which was a gun only game, there was a group of others also trying out for the squad, one of those was an American kid called Angel. Immediately we both got on the mic at pretty much the same time and asked if we could wing for the other....we both couldn't agree who was to the lead wing, so we then mic'd Gen and said if we allow him to be point the pair of us would be on his wings. Gen (Rich) agreed and the three of us formed up and annihilated the others in the try out....it was the three of us against about 17-18 others and we just tore them down, on each re-spawn they headed back to the battle ground and within moments, either Gen Angel or myself were on their tail pipe and stuffing a handful of 30mm rounds up their chuff....
We impressed the Viper Strike squadron and the 3 of us were immediately offered placements on their squad......I mean this was prodigious.....flying in a squad on the IBS was the pinnacle of the game, you were given a custom paint job in the squad colours, allowed to have private team chats during the game, special privileges on running games over the IBS ...... I know it sounds sad, but when you're a kid on the internet playing against other kids all over the world I mean it was awesome....now-a-days it is common place, but back then it was phenomenal.
As part of the Viper Strike Squad you were allocated a Squad Number.....some had left the squad and a few numbers had opened up, hence the tryout. You had no control on the number allocated to you, that was done by the squad commander, Viper.V1......and you guessed it I was allocated V8, Gen was V15 and Angel was V10.
And so the online callsign and handle of Saint.V8 was born and lives on today....IBS has since closed, but there is still a small online community trying to get it back, and I would love to fly in it again.....playing the single player version of the game just isn't the same....I still have the game and it is loaded on my current PC at home and has been loaded onto every PC i have owned since on the off chance someone gets the IBS off the ground again.
My best mate is still Richard and I have known him for over 23 years now, but I lost touch with Angel many years ago.
So that is my (long) story about the Saint.V8......whats yours??
(And it doesn't have to be as long as mine!!)
EDIT: How exciting, found the old Squad listing on an old Novaworld/Novalogic webiste....pity the link is dead!!
So your username you have chosen to identify yourself on this forum, why did you chose it, what does it mean, what significance does it have or hold for you?
Many think mine is based on the V8 engines I love......well whilst that would appear the case (and I do love V8's btw) it actually has nothing to do with V8 engines......
Now this is going to sound really sad, but back in the mid 90's when I was still at school (just) and I bought my first PC, it came with a flight simulator called Novalogic F16 Multirole Fighter. It was one of the first massive online simulations of its time.
The internet was in its infancy back then with (if you were lucky) 56k dial up, mostly is was 28 or 33k.
But this game had a massive online community, you all logged into and flew in what was called the IBS, Integrated Battle Space, where the F16 was flown against the other big name game from the same company, the MiG 29 Fulcrum......
As the community grew, squadrons were formed with strict rules of engagement, private games were setup to challenge different squads against each other, competing in leagues to see who was the best squad on the internet....it really did get massive and hugely competitive. up to 256 players could log into each IBS server at a time, the dog fights were huge, the squads began creating fighter wings and bombing wings, escort duties were given to different wings at specific times of the week to protect the vulnerable bombing wings....you had to log in, be briefed over a very very early predecessor to Skype called Roger Wilco, and be ready to fly at certain times.....it really did get very regimented.
But that was also part of its charm, you formed online friendships, had your favourite squad members who you would fly with, you got to know the enemy and made friends with them while blowing the hell out of them.....you repsected the players by 'gg' and 'gs' over the chat channel (Good Game and Good Shot), you had to call 'tally' when you wanted to join an already in progress dogfight.....it was respectful, no trolling, no abuse....it was fun.
Anywho, I tried out for a very well known and well respected online squadron called Viper Strike. during one of their intake sessions (only 3 spots available this time round) so I called up my best mate Richard and told him we needed to try-out and get in the squad. We had already made some decent waves in the IBS flying together unsquadded as wing-men to each other, getting some good kill tallies under our belts and getting our callsigns established and known.....
He flew a black camo F16 and was known as Genocide......and I flew a desert camo F16 and I was known as Saint.
During our squad try out which was a gun only game, there was a group of others also trying out for the squad, one of those was an American kid called Angel. Immediately we both got on the mic at pretty much the same time and asked if we could wing for the other....we both couldn't agree who was to the lead wing, so we then mic'd Gen and said if we allow him to be point the pair of us would be on his wings. Gen (Rich) agreed and the three of us formed up and annihilated the others in the try out....it was the three of us against about 17-18 others and we just tore them down, on each re-spawn they headed back to the battle ground and within moments, either Gen Angel or myself were on their tail pipe and stuffing a handful of 30mm rounds up their chuff....
We impressed the Viper Strike squadron and the 3 of us were immediately offered placements on their squad......I mean this was prodigious.....flying in a squad on the IBS was the pinnacle of the game, you were given a custom paint job in the squad colours, allowed to have private team chats during the game, special privileges on running games over the IBS ...... I know it sounds sad, but when you're a kid on the internet playing against other kids all over the world I mean it was awesome....now-a-days it is common place, but back then it was phenomenal.
As part of the Viper Strike Squad you were allocated a Squad Number.....some had left the squad and a few numbers had opened up, hence the tryout. You had no control on the number allocated to you, that was done by the squad commander, Viper.V1......and you guessed it I was allocated V8, Gen was V15 and Angel was V10.
And so the online callsign and handle of Saint.V8 was born and lives on today....IBS has since closed, but there is still a small online community trying to get it back, and I would love to fly in it again.....playing the single player version of the game just isn't the same....I still have the game and it is loaded on my current PC at home and has been loaded onto every PC i have owned since on the off chance someone gets the IBS off the ground again.
My best mate is still Richard and I have known him for over 23 years now, but I lost touch with Angel many years ago.
So that is my (long) story about the Saint.V8......whats yours??
(And it doesn't have to be as long as mine!!)
EDIT: How exciting, found the old Squad listing on an old Novaworld/Novalogic webiste....pity the link is dead!!
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