NE 20th Anniversary / Fond Memories

I feel like we should have a place to reminisce on all of the memories we might have as a community. Whether it is specific conversations on here or discord, contests or event moments, or even great instances with individual members. 

 

As for me. I really resonated with Royr h2h 8 videos. Whenever I need to gather some inspiration I can always count on those to help!  I've met a good couple handfuls of members too and so far every single encounter has been wonderful. I'm really glad I have a group of friends to be able to plan trips like the ones I've been able to take the few past years. It's a real blessing.

Stop reminiscing, start finishing parks.

somehow participating in h2h while living on a boat

 

all these NE members getting married and having kids

 

1930s animation style grape

 

pothiccs

Pothiccs <3

I remember the awards ceremonies being quite fun when the site would be closed and a chat room placed on the front page. The one where Lew dropped a fakeout Disney park with a stitched together aerial that turned out to be a troll was brilliant.

- Lurking the Whiskey Station/Tycoon Paradise servers and the NE group parks. Wasn't active in the NE community back then so that was really the first time I interacted with any of you. I especially remember watching Sandwich Springs being made, learning how to use the tile inspector with the Goliath sign to splice words, and being shocked at Jappy's first NCSO attempt.

- Stumbling across an incredible Intamin LSM in a MP server and talking with the creator for a bit. That design later got fleshed out into Coors Park!

- A recurring theme here is how supportive NE has been. I joined the NE Discord for Micro Madness 3 and then absolutely bombed on an entry that could have potentially gotten me to round 2 had I really fleshed it out. Despite this, NE was still super supportive and one even said it was one of their favorites of the round.

- The A-team of names willing to help me with the rooftop party that was my Cuba entry for Grand Tour 2020. CP6 helped me with my first shoestring, Nin and Dr. Dirt came in handy for helping me with overall construction and teaching me what crunch was, it was nuts. That was a pretty big revelation for me at the time; these legends who had been around NE for years and years stooping down to help me crank out my first not-micro map.

- Even if I didn't get drafted, watching the bar get launched into the stratosphere during H2H9 made me more invested in RCT2 than I was in elementary school. And trust me, I had whole school assignments about that game. Becoming both finalist teams' MVP by doing absolutely nothing was cool too.

- Finding out I didn't get last place in the Most Promising Parkmaker category in the 2021 NE Awards and then finding out four of my favorite parkmakers nominated me.

- Kicking ass with RWE in NEFC2. My first collab park and one that taught me a lot.

- Not necessarily NE but my little brother and I watching me win a (albeit tiny) RCTClub flat ride contest in real time. We started yelling and throwing things and hugging. That first dub is always exhilarating no matter how insignificant it is.

 

It's not a stretch to say NE has been more supportive of me than any other community I've been a part of. Maybe it's just my consistent history of godawful first impressions that somehow didn't happen here, but this is the one community which not only didn't see me as a total joke from the get-go and long after but actively wants to see me improve. It's already inspiring enough seeing what you guys can do with some game I tried out at my grandma's house and instantly fell in love with, but for you all to return the favor and actively want me to elevate to your heights is just unprecedented. That's the kind of attitude which builds communities and makes people want to stay. I swear on my life I will do you all so proud some day.

Yeah these pre discord era chats were great. Also people joining with names of random NE legends was a classic then.

Of the top of my head

 

- SA showing up on Discord, telling me he was "okay"

- Ancient Worlds

- Ombezi

- Dropping the H2H9 teaser trailer by Royr in #announcements

- That whole rush together with Fisch and the guys for the H2H9 draft that followed

- Having IntelOrca send me a bespoke tool to dramatically simplify our object linking procedure for SV6 (which sadly now is done for since NSF but oh well)

- Seeing scenery manager for the first time on stream with Sadret and Fisch, and the initial excitement for it

- Finding an open ear in Saxman for certain topics

- Lous! finding his way back to NE, even if not partaking quite as actively

- Dirty American Realism finding a definite end with Grand Tour, and a return to (what I find) more interesting RCT

- The H2H9 captain's lounge, and its general feeling of maturity, decency, and desire for mutual support

- Jappy being kind, always

 

Might add more later

- Jappy being kind, always

 

 

Awh stahp it you.

 

I have many fond memories of being a member here, but just to pick a few:

 

- H2H7: while not participating, it was the first big event I was here for and loved seeing the new matchups every time they were posted.

 

- Micro Madness was my favorite contest so far. Big ideas, small maps and a pretty laid back feeling. Making it to R2 was fantastic, but I wanna go further in the next edition!

 

- OpenRCT2 was a revelation in building that first I was sceptical about but have fully embraced now.

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- NE's Mirage Islands: building together on a map was such good fun! Same for Sandwich Springs

 

- The Awards. I forgot how I joined these but being asked year after year really makes me feel appreciated and I love doing those.

 

- Coining the term 'Dirty American Realism' and somehow turning it into the definition of a style. 

 

- VC in Discord: talking with you guys irl has really created a sense of community for me. I look back fondly on the Riverland streams and talking to Fisch during those.

 

- Meeting some of you for real were also some of the most memorable park trips ever! Puking in the car on the way home from Toverland, Fred flying face first against a wall in a dinghy on a waterslide, Cocoa ripping his pants in Phantasialand... Man, I really wish we can do more of these. 

I'm struggling to come up with real highlights, it's been a good time nearly continuously. I agree with some of the suggestions, and I can think of a few things that I thought were great times.

- Mirage Islands was a true moment of group 'magic', though it had better and worse episodes.

- Early Riverland multiplayer sessions

- Grand Tour

- H2H7 being chill with chill captains

- Every H2H draft

- Cocoa ripping his pants

- Fred crashing into a wall

Downloading Phatage’s Six Flags Worlds of Excitement in 2004. That park blew my 13-year old mind.

Lennox Mall H2H5.

The arrival of NE4 in 2010, and the release of Six Frags’ Europa Park World Showcase. NE4 was such a massive step forward that I think is sadly being forgotten more than it should, but such is the way things go as time passes.

The Korean Invasion: Freerider being probably the most notable with his absolutely bonkers The Island. A artificial mountain built up to RCT’s height limit, 500 ft tall roller coasters, a shoestring floorless that starts with the train together, splits in two, duels itself, then returns to the station as one train. What a park that was.

RCTNW’s Hyatt Project. Such a shame that Northwest Adventures drove him to quit… imagine what he could do nowadays.

H2H6 in 2012. Despite all the drama there were a lot of amazing parks released.

Pacificoaster. The AD topic for what would become Starpointe started out as just some new player showing their little American park. How nice. Then he joins the NEDC, ok he’s improved. Then he joined H2H6 and holy fuck balls. Then he starts streaming his build of Starpointe, and…

NE5. In 2013, the website became what it is today. And upon unveiling NE5, was Pacificoaster’s Starpointe. What a day. What. A. Day.

Lagoom coming out of nowhere.

Alex coming out of nowhere.

X7 and spacek started giving the community new ride vehicles, then X7 posted the first screen of rmc track and I couldn’t believe my eyes. New track type, what a day.

OpenRCT2 and some initial skepticism. There’s a thread somewhere of NE members asking if it’s really worth it to switch because a lot of the modern day features hadn’t been implemented yet. Makes me laugh to think back on that now.

DKS in H2H8, great stuff. Plus that was either the first or one of the first uses of the English palette.

Southwinds by G-Force.

H2H9, such a great season.

all because I... ripped my pants

 

IDK if anyone remembers this, but back in NE3, I remember one time kumba was hyping for weeks an 'orgasm' of amazing parks just coming up. I stayed up so late when I was like 12 waiting for the release and my parents made me go to bed...IIRC it was just a couple of average designs lol

I haven't been active over the last decade, really, but just wanted to let all you guys who are know that you're the reason that I still come back to this site daily.

 

Especially the couple of H2Hs (they honestly blend into one) that I had the pleasure of just viewing and not participating in, so many incredible parks and mind-blowing ideas. Thank you all so much. 

when rrp said "brown is not a theme"

I haven't been active over the last decade, really, but just wanted to let all you guys who are know that you're the reason that I still come back to this site daily.

 

 

Happy to see you poking around every once in a while still! Maybe one of these days you'll decide to build casually again

when rrp said "brown is not a theme"

 

RRP is just a funny dude in general. I still liked when he suggested RCTFAN put his laptop over a fire to dry after he spilled water on it or something like that

 

More good memories from the earlier decade:

- Gracing the front page for the very first time. Got a silver, later a gold. Magical!

- Scrolling through the spotlight page millions of times, marveling at the logos and the parks behind them. Dreaming about what it will look like with more logos added. I once made a mockup in paint that included Six Flags Carolina, EPWS and Dreamport

- Roomie's Christmas Giveaway, and winning a LL cd signed by Roomie

Early 2000's, mostly downloading the parks. I especially remember downloading RCTNW's stuff and being amazed by the giant hotel buildings.

Recently, getting to vote on all the H2H matches. That was so much fun getting hyped up for the next match, and having my mind blown when opening the parks. And getting my first ever (Bronze) accolade with a no-hack NCSO park.

- Roomie's Christmas Giveaway, and winning a LL cd signed by Roomie

Oh shit, I remember placing second in one of those too, only mine was an LL cd signed by John Wardley. Who knows, maybe they're the same person.

Oh shit, I remember placing second in one of those too, only mine was an LL cd signed by John Wardley. Who knows, maybe they're the same person.

 

 

I won one of them, with my only LL I've ever finished too. I had a few options, including the rct board game, but ended up going with a keychain that I had on my keys for roughly a decade. The only thing I"ve ever earned from my side hustle..