Sucks big time, lots of handy links and sites hosted by it.
Anyone have a backup?
Nope. Thankfully the forum is still there, so I can direct people here.
If they can even find the forum anymore...
Quote from: TheJamsh on November 24, 2009, 10:03:29 AM
Sucks big time, lots of handy links and sites hosted by it.
what happend to it?
where did it go?
did it get moved to a new location?
can I get directions VSMIT?
Yeah, I noticed PBZ was gone last night too, but I wasn't really sure if it was gone last night or weeks before. I'm sure it had something to do with Pandemic Studios closing.
PBZ was the first BZII site I came upon 9 years ago, before I noticed more people were hanging out at Pandi forum. At least we can thank Adrian Wong for keeping up PBZ during its heyday, as BZUniverse is a direct descendant (or "clone", more or less) of PlanetBattlezone, through the work of Menacer (and subsequently Wz).
Ah yes, I remember PBZ! It was original bz2 tutorial site, and it used to be the biggest bz2 forums around back in 2001, then menacer (the guy in charge of PBZ) got laid off from gamespy (the company which sponsored PBZ) or something like that, and BZU was created in its ashes. I liked menacer, he was a real bz2 fan and good guy.
Quote from: S.cavA.rmyG.en on November 24, 2009, 07:25:57 PM
what happend to it?
where did it go?
did it get moved to a new location?
can I get directions VSMIT?
It was removed.
It was removed, it didn't go anywhere.
It was removed, so the new location is a bin somewhere.
No.
Well that sucks...
At least most of the info from there was in the electronic manual anyways. On the bright side, maybe this means that EA will eventually let go of the Battlezone franchise. After all, with Pandemic going bye bye, what could they earn from it? They probably loose more money off the thing than they get from it at this point.
I know it's a long shot... but a guy can dream :-)
Then the copyright falls back onto Activision (who don't want it) and Atari (who will have it if it comes their way)
Think Atari could/would make a decent BZ game?
It wouldn't be as outsanding as most hot games today, but Atari seems to love running a ton of little projects all at the same time.
Quote from: CivBase on November 25, 2009, 06:39:17 PM
Think Atari could/would make a decent BZ game?
They already did and it became famous. It's called 'Battlezone', made around 1979. :P
There'd be no Pandi BZ1 or BZ2 without the Atari BZ inspiration, even if it was to be titled something else. It was so good, it even inspired the U.S. Army to contract Atari to make a version for them for military tank training, as some people here already know. Remember, it was state of the art back then also.
lol, BZ1 pwns the arcade BZ.
Still, Atari would own the franchise. Why not run with it? It's a well-written story and a great game concept (though the current game needs some major improvement).
Quote from: CivBase on November 25, 2009, 11:21:09 PM
lol, BZ1 pwns the arcade BZ.
Well of course it "pwns", if you mean technologically. Software game programming has come a long way in ~20 years (1979-1998). But it will be the same in ~20 years (from 1998), when someone decides to make a sequel (or reimagined) version of Acti BZI, in which case BZI will be "pwned" itself. But yeah, there are so many sci-fi military genre computer games out there, it would be difficult to say if the new Atari would be able to recreate a Battlezone along the lines of Acti/Pandi. What could be the next new thing for BZ1/BZ2 series? Hmm, probably something in MMPORG with VR would be nice, i.e. full immersion.
Speaking of PBZ (back to topic, heh)...
http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/fullstory.php?id=88108
From the list of names mentioned in the article, you might spot "Ghostfire", which is Adrian Wong, who I mentioned earlier, PBZ's site director, right before Menacer took over. You might have spotted both of them in the FE credits as well.
Chronological order of the BZ games we know and love:
Battlezone (Atari - 1979)
Battlezone (Activision - 1998)
The Red Odyssey (Team Evolve - 1998)
Battlezone 2 (Activision & Pandemic - 1999)
Battlezone (Atari - 2006?)
Quote from: AHadley on November 26, 2009, 11:40:48 AM
Chronological order of the BZ games we know and love:
Battlezone (Atari - 1979)
Battlezone (Activision - 1998)
The Red Odyssey (Team Evolve - 1998)
Battlezone 2 (Activision & Pandemic - 1999)
Battlezone (Atari - 2006?)
Forgot ROTBD.
Exactly, I believe it got some pretty bad reviews.
Quote from: Nielk1 on November 26, 2009, 06:45:34 PM
Forgot ROTBD.
I missed out ROTB because I've a) never played it, b) not researched it, and c) wasnt going to do any research on it :P
i believe it was built for the Nintendo 64 but was criticized due to its poor quality or something similar.
This is amazing. I stumbled upon a random post on reddit today which was simply titled "Battlezone. That is all."
Having been away from the gaming scene, it had been years since I had seen the words Battlezone come across my desk. With waves of nostalgia running over me, I found the introduction sequence (you know, the one with Grizzly One investigating the Soviet incursion) on YouTube and watched it with extremely fond memories.
My curiosity sufficiently piqued, I dug further around on the web to discover the very sad news that Pandemic Studios had been shut down earlier this month. A few more sites and links later, and I come across this site with usernames like Ultraken and GSH floating around with last post dates from this very month! I was shocked and stunned that the Battlezone community was going strong after all these years. It makes me incredibly happy to see that this amazing game still has such strong supporters and is still being improved.
It has been such a wonderful treat this evening to browse the forums and read about all that has happened since I was last involved with Battlezone. And I am deeply touched that someone even remembers my name after all these years. This has been a wonderful Thanksgiving treat.
I sincerely hope that I have time to drop in more frequently and follow all the progress being made! I just wanted to let you all know what a wonderful and special night this has been for me. Keep up the great work, everyone!
All the best,
Adrian "GhostFire" Wong
P.S. Back on topic, you can always try archive.org for old copies. I do not know how deep their crawlers go for PBZ.
Quote from: almostsquare on November 30, 2009, 06:28:39 AM
This is amazing. I stumbled upon a random post on reddit today which was simply titled "Battlezone. That is all."
Having been away from the gaming scene, it had been years since I had seen the words Battlezone come across my desk. With waves of nostalgia running over me, I found the introduction sequence (you know, the one with Grizzly One investigating the Soviet incursion) on YouTube and watched it with extremely fond memories.
My curiosity sufficiently piqued, I dug further around on the web to discover the very sad news that Pandemic Studios had been shut down earlier this month. A few more sites and links later, and I come across this site with usernames like Ultraken and GSH floating around with last post dates from this very month! I was shocked and stunned that the Battlezone community was going strong after all these years. It makes me incredibly happy to see that this amazing game still has such strong supporters and is still being improved.
It has been such a wonderful treat this evening to browse the forums and read about all that has happened since I was last involved with Battlezone. And I am deeply touched that someone even remembers my name after all these years. This has been a wonderful Thanksgiving treat.
I sincerely hope that I have time to drop in more frequently and follow all the progress being made! I just wanted to let you all know what a wonderful and special night this has been for me. Keep up the great work, everyone!
All the best,
Adrian "GhostFire" Wong
P.S. Back on topic, you can always try archive.org for old copies. I do not know how deep their crawlers go for PBZ.
Stick around! We don't bite (much). :-D
try the map room it has some old links on it.
some are dead but still.
Quote from: almostsquare on November 30, 2009, 06:28:39 AM
Adrian "GhostFire" Wong
Didn't you work on FE? I think I saw your name in the credits.
There's a new CP going on that you may be interested in.
Wow, cool, good to see you Adrian/Ghostfire. Yes, I remember you because I was a regular at PBZ for a few months before moving on to Pandi forum, and thereafter too, just not as regular.
Afaik, Adrian didn't really work on FE, he was merely a liaison between PBZ and the BZ2CP team, until, again, Menacer took over after the Planet sites decided that PBZ needed a big fat facelift that wiped out some things. Conflicts of interest ensued, thus moving files over from PBZ to what is now here, at BZU.
Hmm. Must have heard the name Adrian Wong somewhere in the forum history then. Nice to have you back anyways :)