CONTENTS:
Timeline
1. History/Early Subspace
2. The Beginning of the end
3. Subspace Council
4. Thoughts from tm_master
^topTimeline
01.06.1995 - Sniper is created as a DirectX project
18.02.1996 - SubSpace opens for Public Beta
05.01.1997 - Release: SubSpace: v1.34
13.09.1997 - Release: SubSpace: v1.35
27.11.1997 - SubSpace: The Internet Game ships
19.12.1997 - JeffP and Rodvik leave VIE
15.01.1999 - VIE Shuts down SubSpace servers
21.09.2007 - Release: Continuum 0.40 (by: PriitK)
^topHistory/ Early Subspace (December 1995 - October 1997)
Continuum was originally known as Subspace. Subspace itself began as a project by programmers Jeff Paterson and Rod Humble. They were attempting to create a demonstration product for their employer, Virgin Interactive Entertainment (VIE) to show the viability of Internet gaming. The very early versions of Subspace were called Sniper. With a somewhat working program in the form of online asteroids, the alpha test for Subspace began for selected people in December of 1995. After a few months, in March 1996, the beta test began for the game. With the only advertisement for the game as a few messages on a games newsgroup, the early community rapidly expanded.
Originally with only one zone, four ships, and no squads, Subspace became a hit among it's small but loyal community. In those days, players would give suggestions directly to the programmers themselves and many even made friends with the programmers. In fact the idea of repels was a player suggestion. Soon it was time for the test to end. As word of the impending end of the VIE test was spreading, the players who loved the game so much begged and pleaded for it to continue. Happily the programmers complied.
Soon after, rumours spread that Subspace was going to a pay model. The general agreement was $10/month with a small initial fee for the software itself. The players were getting scared, but month after month nothing happened. During the summer of 1997 the greatest days of the beta test were happening, the population tripled in mere months, and now there were easily 1500+ people playing during peak times. Subspace was saved from going pay during that time by Pepsi, which gave a bunch of money to sponsor Subspace.
^topThe Beginning of the end for VIE (October 1997 - November 1998)
In October 1997 Subspace changed forever as the game finally went pay. The final plan was just the initial purchase of the game with no monthly payments. All of a sudden you could only play for free as someone named '~Demoxxx' (xxx = a number). Even with piracy being rampant, more than half the population quit forever never to be seen again. The pay version saw the addition of the Shark as a permanent ship (before it was the ship that only the VIE Programmers could use and was the super sysop ship), and of course the biggest change of all: the addition of the server program free to all players.
Players could now make their own zones and make the changes to the game they always wanted, but this also meant that VIE would probably depart soon with the possibility of a central server also fading. This provided a beautiful opportunity for cheaters to run rampant, although for the time being the VIE servers with their more secure software would be safe. Finally this meant what the players feared most, a fragmentation of the community. The difference between Subspace and other Internet games such as Quake was most evident in the community. Whereas Quake players generally did not know each other and people randomly played everywhere, in Subspace no matter what zone you were in you were always able to talk to friends.
Over the next year, zones such as Star Warzone, A Small Warzone, Extreme Games, Death Star Battle, and a few others appeared on the stage. However, also at this time, Subspace was on the decline. Although the new zones were slowly picking up players, the main VIE zones were slowly dwindling away. Players who had played since the beginning were moving on and it looked as though Subspace's days were numbered. In November of 1998, a historical moment in Subspace's history occurred. Although the players were more or less prepared for it, VIE finally pulled the plug on their servers and with that Subspace changed forever.
^topSubspace Council (November 1998 - May 1999)
With no more central billing server, and without the more secure version of the server client that VIE used, SS was in shambles. iNet quickly asserted itself as the central billing server for most of the old VIE zones that were now housed in different servers around the world. The VIE zones were now called SVS or Standard VIE Settings. The population dropped, and the greatest of the new zones had stabilized around 80 players during peak times. At this time there was no guarantee that the zones would not languish in obscurity. The population reached an all time low at around 450 people on peak times during early 1999. Without the VIE server, cheating was now rampant everywhere and some of the most popular zones turned inwards and towards the old policy of maintaining a private list of players allowed to enter. Eventually that very same policy allowed for these zones to forever languish in population size. The stage was now set: Subspace would die and fade forever into obscurity, unless something miraculous happened.
That something came in the form of Baudchaser, a player who started the SSCx project. With the additional creation of the SS Council, every zone in Subspace was asked to join under the banner of SSC under the central billing server of iNet. SSCE (Pro League server), SSCU (iNet), and SSCX (a US West Coast server) were created. A server upgrade was given to the SSCx participants and some of the major cheats were blocked, but still there were gaps. Then the second miraculous event happened. During 1999, a single programmer decided to step up and single-handedly create something which in effect saved Subspace, this is where our story really begins. The programmer's name was PriitK, a player in Trench Wars. He had just created BanG, a system for banning players that cheated among other things. It was with this invention that Subspace finally began a turnaround. In addition to the security improvements, Continuum added increased visual and gameplay capabilities.
^topThoughts from tm_master 
I have quite a personal history with Subspace/Continuum as well. I started playing the game in 1995 when I was 11 years old. Originally the Devastation zone was called Halabalooza, based on StarCraft, first coming online in 1999. The Zone name was changed to Devastation in 2000, and I became a moderator in this (my favorite) zone later that year. After our zone experienced downtime in 2004/2005, towards the end of that year several others and myself-as co-owner, co-system-op, and head of staff-decided to revive it. Since then, my Continuum zone has underwent several server moves and tons of active development by many, but has still survived and is up as SSCJ Devastation. I have a great desire for others to play and enjoy the game I grew up playing and loving, especially my zone in which I have fostered a sense of community and development for all these years. Today Devastation strives to be a zone where everyone from varied levels of skill can come find a home, and an arena they can enjoy playing.
^top
^topTimeline
01.06.1995 - Sniper is created as a DirectX project18.02.1996 - SubSpace opens for Public Beta 05.01.1997 - Release: SubSpace: v1.34 13.09.1997 - Release: SubSpace: v1.35 27.11.1997 - SubSpace: The Internet Game ships 19.12.1997 - JeffP and Rodvik leave VIE 15.01.1999 - VIE Shuts down SubSpace servers 21.09.2007 - Release: Continuum 0.40 (by: PriitK) ^topHistory/ Early Subspace (December 1995 - October 1997)Continuum was originally known as Subspace. Subspace itself began as a project by programmers Jeff Paterson and Rod Humble. They were attempting to create a demonstration product for their employer, Virgin Interactive Entertainment (VIE) to show the viability of Internet gaming. The very early versions of Subspace were called Sniper. With a somewhat working program in the form of online asteroids, the alpha test for Subspace began for selected people in December of 1995. After a few months, in March 1996, the beta test began for the game. With the only advertisement for the game as a few messages on a games newsgroup, the early community rapidly expanded. Originally with only one zone, four ships, and no squads, Subspace became a hit among it's small but loyal community. In those days, players would give suggestions directly to the programmers themselves and many even made friends with the programmers. In fact the idea of repels was a player suggestion. Soon it was time for the test to end. As word of the impending end of the VIE test was spreading, the players who loved the game so much begged and pleaded for it to continue. Happily the programmers complied. Soon after, rumours spread that Subspace was going to a pay model. The general agreement was $10/month with a small initial fee for the software itself. The players were getting scared, but month after month nothing happened. During the summer of 1997 the greatest days of the beta test were happening, the population tripled in mere months, and now there were easily 1500+ people playing during peak times. Subspace was saved from going pay during that time by Pepsi, which gave a bunch of money to sponsor Subspace. ^topThe Beginning of the end for VIE (October 1997 - November 1998)In October 1997 Subspace changed forever as the game finally went pay. The final plan was just the initial purchase of the game with no monthly payments. All of a sudden you could only play for free as someone named '~Demoxxx' (xxx = a number). Even with piracy being rampant, more than half the population quit forever never to be seen again. The pay version saw the addition of the Shark as a permanent ship (before it was the ship that only the VIE Programmers could use and was the super sysop ship), and of course the biggest change of all: the addition of the server program free to all players. Players could now make their own zones and make the changes to the game they always wanted, but this also meant that VIE would probably depart soon with the possibility of a central server also fading. This provided a beautiful opportunity for cheaters to run rampant, although for the time being the VIE servers with their more secure software would be safe. Finally this meant what the players feared most, a fragmentation of the community. The difference between Subspace and other Internet games such as Quake was most evident in the community. Whereas Quake players generally did not know each other and people randomly played everywhere, in Subspace no matter what zone you were in you were always able to talk to friends. Over the next year, zones such as Star Warzone, A Small Warzone, Extreme Games, Death Star Battle, and a few others appeared on the stage. However, also at this time, Subspace was on the decline. Although the new zones were slowly picking up players, the main VIE zones were slowly dwindling away. Players who had played since the beginning were moving on and it looked as though Subspace's days were numbered. In November of 1998, a historical moment in Subspace's history occurred. Although the players were more or less prepared for it, VIE finally pulled the plug on their servers and with that Subspace changed forever. ^topSubspace Council (November 1998 - May 1999)With no more central billing server, and without the more secure version of the server client that VIE used, SS was in shambles. iNet quickly asserted itself as the central billing server for most of the old VIE zones that were now housed in different servers around the world. The VIE zones were now called SVS or Standard VIE Settings. The population dropped, and the greatest of the new zones had stabilized around 80 players during peak times. At this time there was no guarantee that the zones would not languish in obscurity. The population reached an all time low at around 450 people on peak times during early 1999. Without the VIE server, cheating was now rampant everywhere and some of the most popular zones turned inwards and towards the old policy of maintaining a private list of players allowed to enter. Eventually that very same policy allowed for these zones to forever languish in population size. The stage was now set: Subspace would die and fade forever into obscurity, unless something miraculous happened. That something came in the form of Baudchaser, a player who started the SSCx project. With the additional creation of the SS Council, every zone in Subspace was asked to join under the banner of SSC under the central billing server of iNet. SSCE (Pro League server), SSCU (iNet), and SSCX (a US West Coast server) were created. A server upgrade was given to the SSCx participants and some of the major cheats were blocked, but still there were gaps. Then the second miraculous event happened. During 1999, a single programmer decided to step up and single-handedly create something which in effect saved Subspace, this is where our story really begins. The programmer's name was PriitK, a player in Trench Wars. He had just created BanG, a system for banning players that cheated among other things. It was with this invention that Subspace finally began a turnaround. In addition to the security improvements, Continuum added increased visual and gameplay capabilities. |
^topThoughts from tm_master
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^top