Ultima Underworld related: while searching for the Sound Blaster, I also found a childhood save disk I made to preserve my "Real Tough Mage with lots of stuff", and a set of Elder Futhark runes I begged my parents to buy for me because I thought they were the ones from Ultima Underworld. (The seller was a marketplace fortune-teller, and she was bemused but delighted to see a tiny child so excited by a set of runes. If only she knew.)
I'm too scared to try the disk to see if it's corrupted... my younger self would have been so upset!
@dabbling_duck But if it's uncorrupted, you could upload your mage's save somewhere for posterity! With this story, because cultural anthropologists live for this stuff.
(I go through this every time I have unpreserved media, I have to admit.)
@dabbling_duck This reminds me that I need to get a new 3.5in USB disk drive, because mine won't read most disks now, and I have to haul out my beige FreeDOS K7 tower if I actually want to archive disks.
Let this also serve as a reader's note that sometimes corrupted floppy disks are actually a borked disk drive.
@HauntedOwlbear fwiw, mine began doing the same. it turned out that it needed a cleaning (plain old rubbing alcohol + cotton swabs on the read/write head) and that it was incapable of reading 720kb/low density diskettes.
@vga256 I coveted that rune bag so much...!! And that reminds me how I managed to lose (throw away??) both the fellowship token from UVII and the pentagram from UVIII. But at least I still have the cute pewter pin from Ultima Online?
@dabbling_duck gah! i lent someone my U4 ankh and it never came back. and then, walking home from uni in 1997, my uo pewter pin fell off of my jacket into the snow, and was never seen again 😭
@vga256 at that age, I absolutely did not like finding out that the Guardian a) had a giant body, b) could reach into dimensions with a giant hand, c) POOR, POOR AVATAR
@vga256@dabbling_duck it’s fun to see more people with such similar memories and experiences! Our Underworld box never came with the runes and I’m still upset by it, and I also dropped my Ultima ankh in the snow! Since this the second time I mention it, guess I really have to make the runes next since I already made my own ankh... 😅
@eobet@vga256 The problem is, so many of these treasures were so easy to lose! I don't even want to think about all the lost Infocom feelies. My mother entrusted me with her Wishbringer stone...
@vga256 Almost all my Infocom games are empty boxes now :( At least I managed to keep hold of the plush Norn doll that came with Creatures 2... I can hug it when I'm feeling sad about all the feelies that never made it
@vga256 These are things that motivate me to slither into dusty, spider-infested crawlspaces above & below & around my parents' house! I genuinely believe many of the things are still there, somewhere, festooned in webs... I glimpsed a rare Wizardry Mordor Charge Card down there once, in the dust, and I tried to dig for it later, but I couldn't find it again. But I do find spiders. Lots and lots of spiders. And animal bones...
Re-reading this message, I'm starting to wonder if it's time to let go ;)
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