[lotharbot]

My wife and I met on a Descent forum, our 3 sons are named for Descent friends (KoolBear, Jediluke, and Mark392), and we've attended weddings (and sadly one funeral, RIP JinX) for Descent friends. Even though I considered D3 the weakest of the Descent games, this news makes me happy. Thank you, Kevin!

[dcrazy]

After years of lurking, I had to finally create an account to post this. I remember when you and Drakona got married. Congrats again!

It’s been a long 15+ years since I was last active in the Descent community. I lost access to my ICQ account when my PlanetDescent email went away, and I no longer go by DCrazy online, in part to distance my adult self from the preteen I was then. But Descent (especially D3) is heavily responsible for me getting into software engineering, and I will always be grateful for those memories.

[lotharbot]

Drakona, sitting next to me: "Dcrazy? I remember a dcrazy!"

There's still an active online community around Descent and Overload (Mike/Matt's spiritual successor.) If you look up Overload on Discord you'll find that server, and the #descent channel will have links to the various other Descent servers.

[dcrazy]

Hopefully only good memories remain :)

I backed Overload and left a note about how important Descent had been to my career. I think my backer rewards were a free license and an Overload keychain. :)

Writing D3 mods was a big reason I got a copy of Visual C++ as a birthday present. And I laid down an absolutely awful drum track for an album UNIX was recording with Stephan Jenkins (I think) from 3rd Eye Blind. An interview about those demos was the first thing I did after joining my college radio station, where I then became responsible for converting the PC workstations to Mac… which exposed me to Xcode and sent me across the country to work on software for Apple devices for the next decade and counting.

[Dove]

I love how many of us who are IT or software professionals now got our start cobbling things together at the dawn of online gaming. Not as professionals, just as people who happened to be there and wanted to make something work. The 90s were a wild and wonderful time.

It's fun to hear from you! I'm glad you said hello!

[UberFly]

KoolBear, Jediluke, and Mark392. Those are their first names?

[lotharbot]

I thought about putting their actual names -- Michael, David, and Mark (even though Mark392 isn't really named Mark) -- but I thought it'd be funnier to just put their pilot names at first.

[Dove]

To add some missing context (though perhaps also to spoil my husband's joke) -

Koolbear, whose real first name is Mike, founded and was instrumental in the life of the forum where the two of us met and has been a hero and inspiration to both of us.

Jediluke, whose real first name is David, is the most vigorous and prolific competitor the game has ever seen, recognized by pilots of practically every era and environment as elite and dominant. He is also a close personal friend and the three of us ran the definitive ladder for the modern community together. And we are both big fans of him as a competitor.

Mark392 (whose real name doesn't matter for this purpose) is widely recognized by the modern community as the GOAT and is also a close personal friend for both of us.

[lagniappe]

Yall are too cute :)

[anakaine]

What an awesome thread with these three catching up. I love it!

90s gaming and hacking things together (or apart) was absolutely what got me into programming, too.

[fngjdflmdflg]

I guess Jediluke -> Luke and Mark392 -> Mark. Not sure about KoolBear. Maybe a middle name or a different language like Bjorn.

[joshdev]

I remember KoolBear from playing on Kali. That brings back good memories.

[khalladay]

Im loving the idea that one of your kids is literally named "koolbear"

[ant6n]

Actually, “KoolBear”.