June 29th, 2001:
New Dreamcast. Check. DC-X boot disc. Check. Dricas account. Check. Ver 2. On it's way.
While I'm waiting for it to arrive tomorrow morning, I thought I'd take the time to reflect back upon the lives of my three Version 1 characters. While they will still live on in my old Dreamcast, awaiting a domestic release, the are most certainly doomed.

Nill - The Rusty HUcast. I will always hold a special place in my heart for Nill. He was created in my mind before the game even came out here. Once I saw pictures of the orange and grey secret costumes from the Japanese version, I knew he would be my first character. I remember the sheer awe of logging on during launch day with Nill. I remember that same day when someone ran up to me and typed "You look cool". (Yes Nill looked, and still looks cool, even though he's teased by the other HUcasts for being short.) I remember those first games with Jet and Astra, knowing Nill was the only one strong enough to guard their weak flesh. 
He was great to play with as well. Alec, if you're out there somewhere reading this, you know that night when we played with Don and Jade until 4:30 in the morning, making constant robot jokes? That was the best time I have had in any videogame, ever. Nill invented the "010101010101" joke. Nill posed as a cd jukebox. Nill short circuited after seeing a hot HUnewearl. Nill carried the Demfchain Snarfjaw. Nill kicked ass.

Cipher - The Legendary HUmar. Nill made flesh, or at least that's how the story goes. My ex-finacee hated Cipher, and that makes me cherish him even more. Cipher's ponytail was supposed to mimic Nill's horn. He's got black eyes  and pale skin. The guy practically looks like a robot, and that's what I wanted. Plus he can use techniques, and I like techniques. A lot. Playing a HUcast exclusively for 200 hours will do that to you. Cipher embodies Huteki (whatever the hell that is), and he'll be the first one to go golden tomorrow.

Swils McGee - The snot nosed sniveling FOnewm. Swils is classic. When people see him they just want to kick he ass. He's just so annoying. His chat symbols are perfect. I haven't play that much with Swils, but I have a feeling I'm gonna need him in battle mode, for techniques and to psyche out my opponents.

And the ones that didn't make it. Void the RAcast, and Wiley Kit, who was created for a photo op.

Here's what a couple of people had to say about my characters today, after I announced Team Sammoflange was being abandoned.

"I never knew Nill but I remember the day I met Cipher. I was cruisin in Ophelia 15 when I saw him. He said something about Peepers and I played along with it for a while yelling random things about Peepers. That fateful day he sent me his card......
I also remember the time that I gave him a mag and he pulled out the Demfchain Snarfjaw and mowed down Dimeneans in front of my very eyes.
Cipher was a good character. He will be missed dearly........" - Trigunner

"Nill - Fellow Horn of Power. He left his place in this world...and much of his body. I saw Nill, not as a rusty Android....But as a brother! A rusty brother yes, but a brother still. His name shall be recorded into the history books of....history.
Cipher - I barely knew ya.
Swils - He called me "Candy A&&". I'm glad he's passed on! Joining the Choir Invisible! Pushing up the Daisies! Wouldn't voom if you put 4,000,000 Volts through him! And ex Swils."- Vort

"The day Kkaos met Nill, was the beginning of a new era in PSO. It was the birth of many things. The TH Claw, the Demfchain SnarfJaw, Huteki, & The Risen, just to name a few. Kkaos was present at Nill's lvl 100 coronation... (which didn't exactly go the way he planned but was funny all the same :-P) Then the young Evyll Reinz was sent in to transform Nill into a human....(little did he know it would cost him 98 lvls of exp muahahahahahahaaa!!!) Cipher ran with uji for a few levels, but after he decided to turn to the dark side, his brother in arms uji shook his head & walked off to see his on honorable path. Meanwhile Evyll Reinz & Swills McGee seemed to be getting along well wreaking havoc on the forest creatures of Ragol, & just generally running amok on Ophelia 15. Until the fateful day that Swills lost his desire to live, & cast megid on himself, which only served to corrupt his data & lock him in a eternal state of depression offline.
But all in all, Team Sammoflange will be missed. V.1 will never be the same without them. They will always be remembered by the House of Reinz." - Ujigami

"Dont think I've met Swils before but I do remember Nill and Cipher. I remember in my newbie days when I whipped out a spread needle not knowing of its evilness wit young little DFspanker :P I remembered the pure evilness of this weapon , once I pulled it out both Nill and Ruhztee started to be nasty to me, man this thing brings out the evils of all , he showed me the ways of HUTEKI! and now I see the light. You will be missed Nill aka Cipher : (" - Orb

"RIP Team Sammoflange!!!! but yes! more comrades to join me in PSO Hell!!!" - Demfcane

My thanks go out to all of those who've made Version 1 an amazing experience over the last 6+ months. Ujigami (who puts up with my insane amounts of IMs during the day, and without whose help, I would have quit the game a long time ago), Demfcane (who made me pee my pants with the MOME/McRappy's skit), Jumi Violet, Mr & Mrs. Vort, Darkshire, Ruhztee (Blumpkin), Orb (the best damn chat symbol maker ever) Alec Strider (the greatest person to play a game with), DonRapheal, Jade Myst, Bokado, Arch Owl (my eternal enemy), Thundar, Novasol (IKETUH!), Moorqueen, lil Teapot, Joey Jo Jo Jr. (king of the Simpson's references), Natty Dread, Peepers the Ghost, MOME, the countless Japanese people who were kind enough to chat with me about culture differences ,and last but not least, the creators of The Thundercats.

I guarantee after this self indulgent, bloated article, Something will go wrong and I won't be able to play Ver 2 tomorrow. Irony is a big fan of mine for some reason.

June 28th, 2001:
Ok, I'm importing Version 2 with the help of Orb. The reasons are many, but the thing that tipped my over the edge was the utter shock of realizing Anarchy Online will not be there to console me while I wait for a domestic release. It's as simple as that. You see, like many of you, I'm a videogame junkie. When my fix is taken from me, I must find another, and then another, and yet another. Soon I'll be penniless, sleeping on a bench in Philly begging for outdated games just to get by. "Please man, anything! Even Sewer Shark.! I'll take Sewer Shark! Sob!" So hopefully by next week I'll be golden and kicking your asses in battle mode.

Today on the site, the Professor answers some reader mail! Woo hoo! I'd just like to take this time to thank everyone who's supported and contributed to this site. Um... thank you.

June 27th, 2001:
They got the Anarchy right, it's the Online part that they messed up.
I bought Anarchy Online today with the slight hope that a company could actually sell a game on launch day without it being a beta. That hope was shattered from the moment I put the cd in my drive. First, it wouldn't load. Then when it finally did load, Funcom's servers were so fucked up that I couldn't even register it. The "lucky" few that did register it were welcomed with an unsecure server to enter their credit card info. That's right, unsecure. I don't know about you guys, but I were launching the next big online roleplaying game, the first thing I'd make sure of is the business side of it. Here's what Funcom's CSM had to say about the situation. Typos and spelling errors are included to emphasize what we're dealing with:

Unsecure Server
by Marius Enge, Customer Service Manager @ 2001-06-28 00:02:45 UTC/GMT

June 26th, 2001:
I'll have you know that even though I experienced one of the most bittersweet moments of my life tonight, I'm still updating the site. It was either this or be depressed and reflect on the past three years. The latter didn't sound too fun, so here I am.  I hope you bastards appreciate it.
Mr. Vort has a great new article over in the much discussed  Professor Snarf's Arts & Culture Section that's worth a read. The Ver. 2 Import debate rages on, well at least for some of us. November TBA is the date I'm hearing now. If that's true, I think Sega of America better dig a moat around their headquarters, and fill it with acid and monkeys who can swim in acid and have really nasty dispositions. Ok, I got a little carried away there. Just a moat.

June 25th, 2001:
Never mind the fact that in a moment of weakness I stopped by the import store on the way home to see if they had Version 2. But did you know that the Import Store I used to go to is now a check cashing place? Well neither did I! Anyway, thanks for all the kind words about the site. Here are some of the many bits of praise I have received:

"Man the site is looking GREAT!" - Vort

"Wow, thats a pretty damn good page. I never minded you that much, you just seemed overly silly for my tastes at some points. My opinion of you has gotten a hell of a lot better lately though." - Aleoi

"donkies eat apple sauce to save the Ozone Layer." - SsJsephiRotHZer01942

Todays update includes a great article from True Xero (no relation) over in the ever popular Professor Snarf's Arts & Culture Section. Usually I don't explain the daily Shoushi picture, and today is no exception.

June 24th, 2001:
I almost did it.
In a moment of weakness I almost did it. Well, it really wasn't a moment, it was more like 12 hours of weakness. I almost imported Version 2.
It was Demfcane's fault. Seeing him there with his golden name last night standing in Ophelia 15 made me crazy. How did he do it? Was it hard? When did he do it? Was it hard? Was it frigging hard???
Well it turns out it was hard, but there he was wasn't he? The first member of The Risen who was online with Ver 2. I had to be the second. The following is a little glimpse into my mania. I caution those of you with weak stomachs to look away.

11:15 pm: I log off PSO and head straight to my computer and onto Mamak's page and devourer every single bit of info about importing Ver 2. I'm sure it's probably easier to devise a method for sending alarm clocks back though time than to figure out all the Dricas stuff, but I could do it. My problem, I don't want to lose my Ver 1 guys by having to reset my Dreamcast. My solution, buy a new fricking Dreamcast specifically for Ver 2. (God help me).

12:05 am: Now I just need the game. I head over to NCSX.com, the only importer I've had great service from. I check the main page for Ver 2. Not there. I check in DC imports N-S. Not there. I search for Phantasy Star Online. Only Ver 1 shows up. I search the site for the next 15 minutes. Not there. I head over to The Rage. It's there. $50.00. I can handle $50.00. But I want it tomorrow so...

12:30 am: I search the Yahoo yellow pages for stores that sell import games in my area. One is real close, one is real far. I write down both phone numbers.

12:48: I go back to Mamak's page and make sure I didn't miss anything.

1:05 am: I read the first chapter of Neil Gaiman's new novel "American Gods". I debate reading the whole damn thing right there and then because it's so incredible so far. But thoughts of waking early and calling the import stores send me to a forced sleep.

1:35 am: Sleep. I swear to Jebus I dreamt about Ver 2. I was in work, and my Dreamcast was there. I was trying to get Ver 2 to work and for some reason my old boss was yelling at me to get it done. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well.

9:30 am: Both stores open at 10. I wake and go get some breakfast. Then for some reason I go to the Gamefaqs Ver 2 board to read about how people are having tons of fun with their shiny import. Instead  I see topics like "Can anyone log on using seganet now?" and "Dial in is severely screwed, abandon all hope and stab yourself with a Spawn action figure". Doubt crept into my brain, built a house, got married and had kids within the span of 5 minutes.

10:00 am: I don't call the import stores. It would be pointless. I would get the game, buy a new Dreamcast (God help me), input the info for sending alarms clocks back though time, make a new character, go to log on and get an error message. Screw that. I can wait until August or September, or next year, or whenever Sega decides to release it.

10:01 am: I start researching Anarchy Online, which comes out for the PC this Tuesday.

Weekend notes: Mupod joined The Risen this weekend. The process was very simple. He said he didn't understand Huteki, had the shortcut "Everyone we are not interested in playing videogames", and told me he didn't want to join. So he's in. If anyone sees Mupod in the game or on the boards, make fun of him. He's Canadian. :)
Thanks also goes out to ZakuZero (no relation), who owns version 2 and was kind enough to start a game for us. I found a state maintenance and an angel TP, which is pretty good considering I've found exactly two rares since January. We also traded mags. My lvl 200 Naga for his lvl 200 Ushasu. Man that Ushasu looked sweet on Cipher, that is until I fed it to get it's synch up, and the f#cking thing changed into a damned Kama. ZakuZero fed the Naga and it changed into an Asparas. I always thought mags were locked into their current evolutions at lvl 200, but what the hell do I know?

Every damn page has been updated today, including the ever popular Professor Snarf's Arts & Culture Section. The links page has also been put up. There's also a couple of secret links on the site so, start clicking.

June 21th, 2001:
Jingoist Buckingham. That bastard! He tricked me in a trade and stole my mag! I want him found, PKed, CKed, and forced to watch Wild Wild West.

Anyway, Ujigami discovered something very odd with the Gamefaqs message board spell checker today. It turns it it's a window to your soul. Check out these spell check results on some of our usernames:
ujigami: bigamist, Miami, jig, Fujita, bigamists, jigsaw, wigwam, Cunningham, jingoish, jingoism, jingoist, Buckingham, Fuji, Mulligan, gigantic, jigs
Zer0: Zero, ER, Ear, Zebra, Zeros, Czar, Tsar, Zebras, Zeroed, Zeroes, Zeroing, Zen, E, Era, Ere, Erg
Darkshire: Dark shire, Darks hire, Berkshire, Berkshires, Darkish, Darks, Marshier, Archie, Arks, Arsine, Marshiest, Dark, Tarsier, Airship, Sparkish, Daisies
Vort: Ort, Vert, Fort, Vortex, Bort, Orts, Wort, Vote, Avert, Verst, Virtu, Forte, Forth, Forts, Forty, Or
orbmij: obi, orb, orbit, RBI, orbing, Gobi, corm, dorm, forbid, form, formic, morbid, norm, orbits, sorb, worm
Professor Snarf: snafu, sonar, scarf, snare, snarl, swarf, snafus, smear, sonars, near, safe, snaffle, snared, snarer, snares, snarls, world renowned super genius
and most revealing...
hawkisback73: Hawkins, hawkish, hawks, Khakis, khakis, pharisaic, zwieback, hawk, hawkers, hawksbill, antiblack, gawkish, hackies, hankies, khaki, shakiest

Wow! What's next, satanic messages back-masked into Led Zeppelin songs??

By the way, there are updates all over the place.

June 20th, 2001:
Quick update tonight. Thundar's logo is up and working. Professor Snarf's Arts & Culture Section is updated once again with a message from the Professor himself. Now I'm off to play Twisted Metal Black and Sonic Adventure 2, for they call to me from within their plastic wrapping. What's that? Play you first? Why should I? Wait..wait put down the knife.... aghhhhhh.

June 19th, 2001:
Professor Snarf's Arts & Culture Section is updated with a fine article on the meaning of Huteki. It's a must read. The Members Section has also been updated with logos from the House of Reinz and The Crushing. Thundar, your logo didn't work. Try sending as a jpeg. 

June 18th, 2001:
Two new sections have gone up, and man and they doosies. The Members Section and Professor Snarf's Arts & Culture Section.  A double Huteki Salute goes out to Darkshire, who took the time to write biographies for each of his characters. Peter Graves would be proud. I'm tired and hungry, so leave me alone and go check the new sections. Bah!

June 17th, 2001:
Huteki fellow Risen members. Version 2 is right around the corner for those of us sensible enough to not import it. For Risen Members, Version 2 is not about cheesy weapons or Ultimate mode. It's all about Soccer! The Risen's own soccer team, the Ragol Yorkies are starting to scout for players. Stay tuned to the Yorkies section for more details.