I started playing the demo in spring/summer of 1997.
Up until the day I discovered Outpost 2, I had only been playing 1st person shooting games(Doom etc) and a couple of version of the Championship Manager games, and yeah.. of course Commanche 3 (Helicopter Battle Simulator which I loved!).
Finishing just about all the Commanche 3 Missions, I was sorta bored with the game, and spent alot of time playing demo's from the demo cd's that always come along with computer magazines. So, one day as I installed just about all the games on one of these cd's and played through the demos, I came across Outpost 2.
This was my first encounter with a strategy game. I had never encountered resource collecting in a game, and neither seen such a wide range of vehicles. At the first try I couldn't find out the vehicles purpose, and before I knew it, my base was under attack(played on normal level here), and I quit. After playing another few boring games I decided to try again, this time on easy setting. The vehicles purpose was still a big mystery, and after 2 years or so of english classes, my English was well below poor. After a few hours I gave up, I just didn't get the purpose of this game. --> Outpost 2 Demo DELETED!!
However, the puzzle still bugged me. I'm really the kind of person who has to know the trick behind everything, so after a few weeks Outpost 2 was back, ready and installed. After a few tries, I could now produce LASER TOWERS! what a magnificent discovery! I could now wipe out the pesky Microwave Lynxes roaming freely!! HAHA POWER! WORLD DOMINATION SOON AT HAND!!.. or maybe not lol..
By the time Christmas was closing in I had tweaked out what most of the stuff in the colony was doing and I could more or less destroy the computers bases, without solving anything (Again lol.. imagine the frustration..!) So for Christmas I got enough money so I could actually buy a game, and of course I wanted more of Outpost 2 as I was now really in love with it's many details and gameplay.
So I found the game in a games shop, early 1998. Unfortunately, my computer broke down, and I lent the CD to a friend, who burned himself and his brothers a few copies before giving it back to me (He had also been intrigued with the demo). While I was reading everything written inside and outside of the box, he could tell of magnificent battles, with previously unheard of weapons of immense firepower!
So finally, my computer was back up running by mid February. I played "Ne Campaign", then "Colony Games" and finally.. Multiplayer ? After registering at WON (With my Real name of course.. duh!) I quickly realised people couldn't be named "Blue Tiger", "J- Star" and "Killer of Thor" (Old players names, of Thor = Royal Order of Thor, biggest clan on WON in it's time). So I adopted the nick "Neal Fargo".
My first game was on La Corrida, it was me and another newb I figure, up against 2 advanced players. Things got a little heated up before we were to attack, where my (Still) poor English, and continuosly shouting "f*** off" to our opponents didn't help much. Quickly spoken, my friend went down faster than a falling rock, while I myself almost got a first kill on my top opponent(They decided to take us on 1 by 1). Unfortunately a big Thor's army from down south ruined both my last advancing Thor Tigers and my base. Though Life.
Still, I was left with a desire for more destruction, and now set my eyes on joining a clan. The Panther clan! After failing my initial test: 1 vs 1 against Falcon(Funny that sending Laser Lynxes 1 by 1 didn't even get past her Guard Post?). I committed an "honorable" Harakiri and demolished my Command Center. I continued to try to join the clan and failing a few times before I gave up. In this period I also changed my nick to "Highlander Hunter" (Highlander only was taken..)
So after playing around for some time, I played a nice guy who called himself Aslan. He became my mentor for the next year and a half to come. During this time I also joined the NASA clan, NSS branch, serving as an infiltration agent (Basicly I got into every clan that was around to scoop up any non-exsitant secrets). It was in my first weeks in NASA I came to enjoy LR's in the big world maps, as these were the ones played most often.
Finally came the day that I beat my mentor, and he revealed his true identity. It proved to be Falcon from the Panther clan. Around this time I was at my peak of playing ability, being able to Micro Rush anyone on WON. As time passed this became boring and I fell back into the pattern of playing Landrushes and trying to recruit new members into the NASA clan. It was around this time that I had some of the best games I can remember together with a fellow NASA player, "Dark Tiger"[MIA]. Were we played in joint bases in "Fort NASA" in "Around the Wolrd" map. (Some of you might be familiar with this Strategic Position
) At this time I also my first invitation to join the PÅ(Patriarch Alliance) which I turned down. I joined the clan with the 2nd invitation, but parted shortly after, as many of it's members didn't play as they preached. I stayed as the Leader of NASA, until I left WON.
Then, as I started school away from my hometown, I lost internet connection for most of the time, and shortly after WON closed down. I then played some tcp/ip games now and then, but this became rarer and rarer, until I found back here. I was able to play for a while, but the my connection shifted into a broadband and lost ability to play once again.
Thats most of the story up until now, when Hamachi keep me alive.
Feel free to comment or ask questions