"What is Neverwinter Nights?" you
may well ask. It's a game; a computerized role-playing game.
Related keywords would be "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons," "TSR," "Strategic
Simulations," "Gold Box Series," and "America Online (AOL)."
Back in 1994 I had a lot of fun
with it on AOL. In fact, that's the only place you could play it.
I
shared my experiences there in these web pages. In 1996 AOL dumped
the game to the consternation of thousands of players who had collectively
built up a sizable cyberspace community around it.
Nevertheless, it was one of the
first - if not THE first - game where up to 250 players could get into
the same on-line graphically based game at the same time.
Now, occasionally I get mail from
people want to play the game on on their computer. To play it as
it was played back then would be impossible. However, it is possible
to have a look at the graphic territory it was played in, IF you have a
machine that is SLOW enough to handle it. Download
it here.
But Neverwinter Nights will be coming
back again, in a new incarnation. Bioware - the creators of Baldur's
Gate - is creating a NEW Neverwinter Nights (nNWN) game which may come
out late this year or perhaps early next year. And the word is that
the game will come with editing software which will allow players to create
their own cyberspace gaming domains.
So, several OLD Neverwinter Nights
(oNWN) players have banded together to create the same layouts in nNWN
that players were challenged with in oNWN. This the Neverwinter Nights
Consortium that I am a member of. Visit
their web site here.
Using the oNWN stand-alone game,
I have been collecting encounter data in sections of the Neverwinter Woods.
This is one area within the game. Other Consortium members are working
on other areas. So far, I have done web pages displaying the data
for the Northeast and Northwest
sections of the Neverwinter Woods. These are graphics that are mapped
with links. A click on an enounter number within the graphic will
take you to the notes on that encounter. A click on the gateway to
the other area (NE or NW) will take you to the page for that area.
Most recently, I have just finished
rendering the complete Neverwinter Woods maps; all
six zones, using Dungeon Crafter
on Snake's recommendation. No attempt was made to tag the maps with encounter
data this time. Click on each of the six segments for closeups. You'll
also have to use the browser back button to return to the main page after
viewing a closeup of a segment.
And now, the fruits of the collective efforts of the NWN Consortium have come to fruition. In 2002, Snake went online with Neverwinter Nights Resurrection: The Old NWN Rises Again. The highly customizable Bioware version of the game makes it possible to translate the old areas and quests of the old AOL NWN into today's New Millennium evolution of Neverwinter Nights.
