3 Years Ago in SL: Screenshots Then and Now
Welcome to Second Life: The Ahern welcome region in March 2004
Electric Sheep Chris Carella reminded me recently of this page full of screenshots taken three years ago, in March 2004, in the virtual world of Second Life, by SL resident Essence Lumin. [Chris found them on virtual architect Lordfly Digeridoo’s redesigned blog.] Essence recorded every one of the 108 sixteen-acre regions that then constituted the world, snapping each from the southeast corner of the sim. A great project that would be impossible today, given the thousands of sims that now make up SL. Instead of trying to duplicate it, I’ve gone and taken screens of half a dozen regions from approximately the same spot. You can check them out below (with historical screens borrowed from Essence), and see how much the world has changed since then. The Ahern welcome area, which appears in the top left of the screenshot above, you’ll have to see for yourself in-world. [Warning: There’s about a dozen screenshots after the jump.]
Abbott, where master vehicularist Cubey Terra’s Aerodrome has long resided. The Aerodrome has come a long way.
Abbott, March 2004:
Abbott, March 2007:
The Jessie combat sim, which seems to be undergoing some renovation at the moment.
Jessie, March 2004:
Jessie, March 2007:
The Avalon sim, owned by Fixik Baskerville of Rivers Run Red, said to be the first private island in Second Life:
Avalon, March 2004:
Avalon, March 2007:
The Minna region, which I chose for no other reason than that I used to live on this street in San Francisco in the very early 1990s.
Minna, March 2004:
Minna, March 2007:
Jenner, chosen at random (although it is a great beach north of San Francisco which I’ve slept on).
March 2004:
March 2007:
Pomponio, chosen at random.
March 2004:
March 2007:
Feeds
I found this through Lordfly’s blog. Props to Lordfly
Ahh What a trip down memory lane. I miss the old Indigo castle that took up half of the sim.
great jump into history. while watching the world changing, and wild open space of sims years ago, it is to be asked if there is ecology of SL. do we need forests and untouched nature around our buildings?
You could have taken a snap of the endless tedious grassland with tablets of “blah blah realty” laid like tombstones all over the newest continent for more contrast.
Something about those regions in the pictures- they (the mainland ones) at least have some *interesting topography in the main. The new lands really are bland and uninspiring places, no wonder people don’t get inspired to build something interesting on them.
Ohhhh nostalgia!
Related, does anyone have any old-skool Second Life pictures showing SHADOWS? Remember when we had that as a graphical option, in the days where Local Lighting ran on the CPU (instead of being GPU-accelerated) and felt very slow? That’s one thing I sure miss, the ability to setup a tall building and watch it cast a dark shadow across the plains.
I also remember seeing some really beautiful locally-lit pictures of the Morris-Ahern Welcome Area which Huns Valen took, way back.