To those of you interested in joining the current CG's around LTT 4961, here's a post about CMDR Greg, who is the...
To those of you interested in joining the current CG's around LTT 4961, here's a post about CMDR Greg, who is the person that the new station will be named after hopefully:
Thank you to everybody who is chipping in on the Null CG's this week. Many of you have no idea why the new station is named after my mate Greg, so I thought I'd tell you a bit about him. Some of you are doing it for the money or your ranks, and that's great, but if you're sitting on the fence or not too bothered to join, it still might make an interesting read for a couple of minutes.
I bought my Commodore 64 in 1985. I was year 10 of school and, growing up as a non-white South African, living in a relatively poor community in Apartheid South Africa, it was a miracle that I had heard of and more still, gotten interested in computers. Meeting another computer user was like winning a jackpot, but literally 12 days after getting my C64, I met Greg. Greg was a primary school teacher, had a C64 and most importantly, the fatherly personality to encourage me into using my computer. He was married and had a car and within a few days, he was calling and asking if I would be willing to go with him to meet other computer users. This was a wierd experience for both of us. In today's society, I would never let my kid drive around with another adult, but my mom liked Greg ( nice guy ), and this started our trading career. We started with a handful of games & utilities (SAM Speech, anyone?) and we basically did the Elite trading thing, swopping tapes and building a library of games. Back then, pre-internet and all, it was hard to find like-minded people and it was kind of like flying into an anarchy system (White neighbourhoods), avoiding the system police (parents) and hooking up with the station contact (like minded white teenagers). We built a sort of routine around swapping games & utils and it some point we met a Maths teacher who gave us a pirate copy of Elite on floppy.
I didn't have a floppy drive, but after playing elite for a few minutes on Greg's pc, I started saving and bought Elite C64 on tape. Even with a turboloader it was still a pain. I played forever on that version, but Greg would lend me his 1541 floppy drive whenever he and his wife would go on holiday. Greg wasn't a gamer, but my enthusiasm for Elite got him hooked. We both gave up somewhere just short of Elite. The Deadly-Elite grind was particularly painful on the C64. We both regretted never completing it. We lost touch when I got my Amiga and he didn't and eventually, we just sort of fell into our own family routines.
When I got married, he pitched up ( I hadn't told him ), but that was Greg. I would bump into him at network conferences and he would tell me how he was leaving teaching and was getting ito Cisco. Got his certifications, started building his lab at home, was teaching his son about Cisco, etc. Just once a year, we'd have limited contact.
In November 2014, he started making contact again. He was soooo ezcited. Did I know that they were remaking Elite? Of course I did, I had already pre-ordered! On release day we both started the painful download and probably 24 hours later we both started with Elite Dangerous. It was just like the old days. I was in heaven. Elite was everything I had imagined and listening to Greg go on about it and recalling our exploits together, just made the game even better.
I told Greg about flying into Lave for the first time ( I think we both spawned miles away ) and it genuinely brought us both to tears. Sooooo many memories. To cut a long story short, both of us didn't get into combat, or should I say, we got our arses solidly kicked initially so we headed into trading. We pushed to be the first to get a Cobra Mark III ( primary goal! ), and then it was the first million. Getting an Asp, Getting a python, etc. At this point we were doing rare trading. We were both doing massive runs of 100 stations. Each one had a better route or theory as to making money faster.
At this point, we were existing on text chat ingame. I was starting to make more friends and TeamSpeak became a thing. I tried to get Greg involved, but no go. Wasn't keen. He would wing up with us and so he was exposed to many of the Null folk (pre-Null), but we mostly hung around Leesti/ homeworlds back then.
When we started looking for names, he suggested something like Old Bunch of Wankers (in good spirits), but I remember we were worried about the name being banned if Frontier got wind of it. He moved to Conway, but didn't connect via speech. Eventually I found out that he had cancer. It was in his mouth of all places. He had had his teeth removed, then his gums and his speech was severely impacted. He hated the way he sounded and he refused to speak on voip or telephone with many folk, including me.
His wife later told me how much it affected him to hear his voice and so he chose to not speak at all, except with them. I respected that, but I wanted to have him feel included so I convinced him to login without the microphone. He did it a few times and when we winged up he would type this questions on the elite console and we would respond in voice. It worked out. During one of these conversations he was complaining about how many jumps you had to do to complete a rare trade segment of 150 ly. I said, its not so bad in an ASP, but he told me it was taking him > 50 jumps. Guess who didn't know you could optimise your jump route for fewer jumps vs fuel economy.
It was a rueful CMDR Greg, who realised his mistake and in no time at all, he had moved form Python to Anaconda and he was trading a storm. By this time, we had trade route calculors, web sites and all kinds of tools available, but Greg still made his spreadsheets, wrote his prices down on bits of paper and made his trade routes using the rare trade route calculator. He didn't get into all the tools, didn't like mining. After I made my run to Sag A, he told me he would like to do that someday, but he was feeling more and more tired with play.
He didn't enjoy combat, so he did mostly gold trading. I managed to get him into CG's and so he did a few trade CG's before dropping out due to declining health. I would message him regularly and send him the patch notes of each major release of ED. I knew he wasn't well enough to play, but he was always interested in hearing what new functionality ED was brining out. It was literally the game of his life. When I spoke to his wife, after he died earlier this year, she would tell ne how much he had enjoyed playing ED. It wasn't something he thought would ever exist, but it seemed to be fitting that he would get to feel those feelings again.
A large put of what contributed to Greg's enjoyment was the community. He loved being a passive member. He loved reading about our principles (mainly, don't be a dick). He loved reading about PowerPlay and repelling the evil auntie. When they effectively disbanded against the uprising of Null/Mahon/Independents he felt it was due to his mates who would never meet.
Thank you to all of you who are making the CG's successful. You don't have to do it for Greg or Null, but in both cases, they're an okay bunch to support. I haven't played much Elite due to burnout and also my frustration with Season2. I am playing this week for Greg ( and Null ). I am enjoying the game again, and I might even stay playing at this end of this week after all.
Thank you to the leadership at Null who have supported this cause to make it happen. A special word to those of you who remember Greg and felt enough to name this station for him. It is a generous gesture that only a few will understand.
After completion of this week and when the station is alive, I will try and get Greg's account credentials and then fly his ship into Greg's Legacy and land her for the last time. It's a pointless & meaningless thing to do, but I can guarantee you that Greg would approve and applaud and say thanks. Whenever I fly into Greg's legacy, I will pretend he is an space bar waiting to chat and meet new friends.
Come on, those of you sitting on the fence. Come fly along with this old bunch of wankers. We'd love to meet you. Look up our Discord Channel and say hello.
Thank you to everybody who is chipping in on the Null CG's this week. Many of you have no idea why the new station is named after my mate Greg, so I thought I'd tell you a bit about him. Some of you are doing it for the money or your ranks, and that's great, but if you're sitting on the fence or not too bothered to join, it still might make an interesting read for a couple of minutes.
I bought my Commodore 64 in 1985. I was year 10 of school and, growing up as a non-white South African, living in a relatively poor community in Apartheid South Africa, it was a miracle that I had heard of and more still, gotten interested in computers. Meeting another computer user was like winning a jackpot, but literally 12 days after getting my C64, I met Greg. Greg was a primary school teacher, had a C64 and most importantly, the fatherly personality to encourage me into using my computer. He was married and had a car and within a few days, he was calling and asking if I would be willing to go with him to meet other computer users. This was a wierd experience for both of us. In today's society, I would never let my kid drive around with another adult, but my mom liked Greg ( nice guy ), and this started our trading career. We started with a handful of games & utilities (SAM Speech, anyone?) and we basically did the Elite trading thing, swopping tapes and building a library of games. Back then, pre-internet and all, it was hard to find like-minded people and it was kind of like flying into an anarchy system (White neighbourhoods), avoiding the system police (parents) and hooking up with the station contact (like minded white teenagers). We built a sort of routine around swapping games & utils and it some point we met a Maths teacher who gave us a pirate copy of Elite on floppy.
I didn't have a floppy drive, but after playing elite for a few minutes on Greg's pc, I started saving and bought Elite C64 on tape. Even with a turboloader it was still a pain. I played forever on that version, but Greg would lend me his 1541 floppy drive whenever he and his wife would go on holiday. Greg wasn't a gamer, but my enthusiasm for Elite got him hooked. We both gave up somewhere just short of Elite. The Deadly-Elite grind was particularly painful on the C64. We both regretted never completing it. We lost touch when I got my Amiga and he didn't and eventually, we just sort of fell into our own family routines.
When I got married, he pitched up ( I hadn't told him ), but that was Greg. I would bump into him at network conferences and he would tell me how he was leaving teaching and was getting ito Cisco. Got his certifications, started building his lab at home, was teaching his son about Cisco, etc. Just once a year, we'd have limited contact.
In November 2014, he started making contact again. He was soooo ezcited. Did I know that they were remaking Elite? Of course I did, I had already pre-ordered! On release day we both started the painful download and probably 24 hours later we both started with Elite Dangerous. It was just like the old days. I was in heaven. Elite was everything I had imagined and listening to Greg go on about it and recalling our exploits together, just made the game even better.
I told Greg about flying into Lave for the first time ( I think we both spawned miles away ) and it genuinely brought us both to tears. Sooooo many memories. To cut a long story short, both of us didn't get into combat, or should I say, we got our arses solidly kicked initially so we headed into trading. We pushed to be the first to get a Cobra Mark III ( primary goal! ), and then it was the first million. Getting an Asp, Getting a python, etc. At this point we were doing rare trading. We were both doing massive runs of 100 stations. Each one had a better route or theory as to making money faster.
At this point, we were existing on text chat ingame. I was starting to make more friends and TeamSpeak became a thing. I tried to get Greg involved, but no go. Wasn't keen. He would wing up with us and so he was exposed to many of the Null folk (pre-Null), but we mostly hung around Leesti/ homeworlds back then.
When we started looking for names, he suggested something like Old Bunch of Wankers (in good spirits), but I remember we were worried about the name being banned if Frontier got wind of it. He moved to Conway, but didn't connect via speech. Eventually I found out that he had cancer. It was in his mouth of all places. He had had his teeth removed, then his gums and his speech was severely impacted. He hated the way he sounded and he refused to speak on voip or telephone with many folk, including me.
His wife later told me how much it affected him to hear his voice and so he chose to not speak at all, except with them. I respected that, but I wanted to have him feel included so I convinced him to login without the microphone. He did it a few times and when we winged up he would type this questions on the elite console and we would respond in voice. It worked out. During one of these conversations he was complaining about how many jumps you had to do to complete a rare trade segment of 150 ly. I said, its not so bad in an ASP, but he told me it was taking him > 50 jumps. Guess who didn't know you could optimise your jump route for fewer jumps vs fuel economy.
It was a rueful CMDR Greg, who realised his mistake and in no time at all, he had moved form Python to Anaconda and he was trading a storm. By this time, we had trade route calculors, web sites and all kinds of tools available, but Greg still made his spreadsheets, wrote his prices down on bits of paper and made his trade routes using the rare trade route calculator. He didn't get into all the tools, didn't like mining. After I made my run to Sag A, he told me he would like to do that someday, but he was feeling more and more tired with play.
He didn't enjoy combat, so he did mostly gold trading. I managed to get him into CG's and so he did a few trade CG's before dropping out due to declining health. I would message him regularly and send him the patch notes of each major release of ED. I knew he wasn't well enough to play, but he was always interested in hearing what new functionality ED was brining out. It was literally the game of his life. When I spoke to his wife, after he died earlier this year, she would tell ne how much he had enjoyed playing ED. It wasn't something he thought would ever exist, but it seemed to be fitting that he would get to feel those feelings again.
A large put of what contributed to Greg's enjoyment was the community. He loved being a passive member. He loved reading about our principles (mainly, don't be a dick). He loved reading about PowerPlay and repelling the evil auntie. When they effectively disbanded against the uprising of Null/Mahon/Independents he felt it was due to his mates who would never meet.
Thank you to all of you who are making the CG's successful. You don't have to do it for Greg or Null, but in both cases, they're an okay bunch to support. I haven't played much Elite due to burnout and also my frustration with Season2. I am playing this week for Greg ( and Null ). I am enjoying the game again, and I might even stay playing at this end of this week after all.
Thank you to the leadership at Null who have supported this cause to make it happen. A special word to those of you who remember Greg and felt enough to name this station for him. It is a generous gesture that only a few will understand.
After completion of this week and when the station is alive, I will try and get Greg's account credentials and then fly his ship into Greg's Legacy and land her for the last time. It's a pointless & meaningless thing to do, but I can guarantee you that Greg would approve and applaud and say thanks. Whenever I fly into Greg's legacy, I will pretend he is an space bar waiting to chat and meet new friends.
Come on, those of you sitting on the fence. Come fly along with this old bunch of wankers. We'd love to meet you. Look up our Discord Channel and say hello.
Comments
Just yesterday randomly a science documentary was on TV with Morgan Freeman, and in the sense of preservation of information/energy: We are made of stardust, and in the end we will become stardust again. Nothing is truly most, and Greg continues to live on vividly in the memory of people who loved him.
"We are made of star stuff"
Also, I'm totally not crying at all, I'm chopping onions!!