16 replies to this topic

[Elemental Crisis]

Back when PS1 was still popular, I purchased RPG Maker for the PS1 and created about half a game using it. If you never used a console based maker, you're lucky. There was no keyboard so you had to scroll through each letter when writing sentences. I wanted to see what other people had done with RPG Maker so I did a generic search for RPG Maker and found myself at Don's old RPG Maker site. I was amazed to learn there was a computer version of RPG Maker called RPG Maker 95 so I downloaded it but didn't really use it. I don't remember if Don had released his translation of RPG Maker 2000, if he had then I didn't know about it just yet. It was a couple months later and a friend of mine was talking about this RPG making program he had downloaded. I asked him if it was RPG Maker 95 and soon learned that a newer, better version of RPG Maker was out called RPG Maker 2000. I ended up downloading it when I got home and started learning how to use and the rest is history.

[Mako]

I don't even remember how I found Don's site. Man, that was SO damned long ago.
So long ago, in fact, it was even before the time of cell phones when having a beeper in middle school made you cool lmfao.
Yeah, I must have been in the 6th or 7th grade at the time.
I had alot of fun fooling around with it, but never really dove into it like I did when I discovered RM2k a few years later.
RM95 was fun to fool around with, but it took alot of work. When I found RM2k, however, I was completely hooked on the series.
Felt like a pretty big geek at the time, because I would try to get my friends into it as much as I was and the general response was "meh".
So, I was pretty glad the community had a strong backbone.

Lots of people at the time thought it was a fad... But look at where we are now. Sure, I guess you could consider it a fad, but the community is still there. Even more so now that EB has given coders a chance to really utilize the software to bring theirs and our own dreams and visions to life.

God that last bit sounded cheesy as fuck. Oh well.

[Lethrface]

I started about a year or two before RPG Maker for PSX came out.  I was looking for a way to make games and saw RPG Maker for PSX in a game informer or something and I decided to look for a PC equivalent.  I decided I wanted to get the PSX version the closer the release date came and my mother and my grandfather checked around all game stores with the store clerks telling me "they cancelled it" and so I went a few more months without knowing about it until I suddenly had the idea to call a game store in the mall that WASNT ran by a major corporation and they had a copy in stock so me and my grandfather took a drive over to pick it up.  It sucked so I stuck with the pc versions.  I prefer rpgmaker 2k out of all the older makers.  2k3's sideview system was too annoying to me.

[Xeigrich]

I was staying with my dad for a couple weeks one summer, and one day I saw him playing something that looked like FF4 with Dragon Quest style battles on his laptop. By the end of the night (literally, when the sun was coming up), I was bleary-eyed and had just delved into the beginning of the one hobby that would eat up more of my free time than simply playing video games: RM2k. This was several years back, of course. I wanna say it was 2001-ish but I don't really remember. I didn't find Don's site until well after the fact, and in turn I never really gave RPG Maker 95 a fair chance. I can also say I spent way too much time messing with iDraw3 and so many lost hours waiting for resources to download on our dial-up back home. I almost completely missed RPG Maker 2003 and came in rather late on XP. I was frustrated with VX to the point of sticking to tried-and-true 2000. VX Ace has pretty much taken 2000's place as my maker of choice.

I got the PS1 RPG Maker, too, but it was just way too unwieldy after having used RPG Maker 2000 on a computer. However, there was something satisfying about playing your "game" on a genuine game console, something that let you ignore some of the glaring amateur flaws and limitations. But Fighter Maker? God that was terrible, and that was before I'd heard of MUGEN.

[Lethrface]

I couldn't figure out how to get mugen or fighter maker to work so i stopped trying.

[harbin91]

First experience with RPG Maker was Fantasy Quest, which I attempted to make in 2006, although I did first come accross the program in 2005, but didn't download it then.  The game was utter crap TBH... poor mapping and quite laughable plot line (not funny as in funny, funny as in awful).... it ended up dying completely in 2007.  It was available on Filefront before they decided to remove everything, and since I've not copy of it left on my PC, I'm not even sure it still even exists, unless someone somewhere still has a downloaded copy of it.

I've got a side project going on called Fantasy Quest though... completely unrelated to the game, it's meant purely for me to experiment with RMXP and improve my skills, whilst creating a game that is solely limited to the RTP, with the only additional script being for the text.

[Rose Guardian]

It's a funny story how I found out about the RPG Makers for the computer.  I was actually looking for something else and came across the program RPG Maker 2000.  So I decided to download it and see what I could do.  As much as I hate to admit it I had trouble figuring out how to use all of the features.   I eventually got a hang of it and I am glad I didn't give up because I found something I really enjoy doing as a hobbie.  I now buy every computer version of RPG Maker when it comes out and I am glad I do.

[Dyhalto]

I remember looking at RPG Maker 95 on a friend`s computer long before internet was a household item (just the privileged households at the time). It was a novelty, and we went back to Warcraft II in short order.
Years later, I was curious and wanted to download it. I found out that 2k had been made and got it instead. RPGMaker became a part of my life after that.
In the mid-00s, I was looking for games other people made and stumbled on 2k3. The addition of a side view battle system brought me massive joy. The funny thing is, for all those years into RPGMaker, I never made one complete game or joined any community (during what was apparently it`s prime). Probably for the best. I was a dumbass anyway.
Sometime in 2008, I found this site and Sim RPGMaker95. At that point, I decided to use one of my abandoned projects (originally a Suikoden-esque game in 2k3) as a template for a Sim95 game. I`ve been working on it ever since, and will probably be able to finish it early next year.

[TheRexion]

Ahh, the memories.  I was young and stupid, new to the internet, and looking for random things to download for free.  By happenstance, I stumbled upon a link to RPG Maker XP, and I went crazy.  I had so many ideas and visions of games I could create, one of those was ever worth working on.  That I ended up crashing and burning, virus on computer, computer died, and a bunch of other things happened that lead me to RPG Maker 2k3 on my new PC...

[Mako]

Xeigrich, on 15 June 2012 - 11:08 PM, said:

But Fighter Maker? God that was terrible, and that was before I'd heard of MUGEN.

You mean Fighter Maker for the Playstation, right?
I actually found that rather fun! Making your own combos and everything was pretty enjoyable.
My friends and I were way into Tekken and DoA at the time, so we were all excited to be able to make ourselves(or how we would appear in a Fighter game) and whomping on each other.

[Elemental Crisis]

Mako, on 27 July 2012 - 01:35 PM, said:

You mean Fighter Maker for the Playstation, right?
I actually found that rather fun! Making your own combos and everything was pretty enjoyable.
My friends and I were way into Tekken and DoA at the time, so we were all excited to be able to make ourselves(or how we would appear in a Fighter game) and whomping on each other.

He's talking about the PC version, it didin't take off simply because it had an extremely steep learning curve. We have it available for download here if you wanna give it a look.

[OrionPrime]

One of my mates downloaded RPG Maker 95 then told me about it, and so I had a blast making terrible games.

[roruke]

As for me I came to know it rather late. I was hooked up with MUGEN when i first started making games, I first tried RPG Maker series when XP came out... At that time my imagination was from another world so I made up the most random huge and epic (imo obviously cos its crappy in reality xD) projects ever... I never get to finish one because I always jumped to another idea and so on (until I changed my focus to IGM because of action rpg)... Now I don't really remember my first project ever in it (too bad i lost 'em along with my old computer).. it were too many at the same time but I loved how I spent hours on ASCII's/Enterbrain's series (not only XP but also 2k/VX/Sim RPG Maker/Fighter/Renai)... I also remember I had a melody one from ASCII/Enterbrain but i completely forgot it's name >

[Elemental Crisis]

roruke, on 01 August 2012 - 07:21 PM, said:

but I loved how I spent hours on ASCII's/Enterbrain's series (not only XP but also 2k/VX/Sim RPG Maker/Fighter/Renai)... I also remember I had a melody one from ASCII/Enterbrain but i completely forgot it's name >

I'm currenty working on translating Renai Maker 2 and the maker you are refering to is either Music Maker 95 or Music Maker DX.

[roruke]

Ohh Renai Maker 2 translation would be interesting, I once thought about trying doing it but I gave up since I still have to learn HEX >

[Rustus]

it was a cold, rainy day back in 2006. My little bro just got a PSP, which he let me borrow and I found out I could leech internet on it (we didn't have any at the time.) and I started looking up game design programs, something I wanted to do since I was little being to make a game.

The first engine I tried was Map 001, which was more of an action engine and I wanted something I could re-create FFV with, or something close to it. Then I found it, the Mecca of 16-bit gaming (at least at the time): RPG Maker 2000. I downloaded it from some site I can't remember, and for the next two months after transferring everything to my computer, I was hooked. I did nothing but eat, sleep, go to school and RPG maker. Eventually finished a game, with a lot of bugs I still haven't worked out yet and have to replace soundtrack with MID's instead of WAV's. if I get around to it i'll post it.

After finishing that game I found 2003, and tried to make a sequal but just couldn't focus, too much going on in life. But here I am, still making games.

[Elemental Crisis]

You should upload your game so we can take a look!