[Warning: Wall of Text] Confession 18 May 2014

Hi all, an earlier thread post by pastafreak inspired me to write this. I don't know if anyone is gonna read this in the future at all, as this is a dead forum, but I still have to say it.

 It's been 6 years now since DAL died and I was pleasantly surprised when pastafreak is interested in the game despite having never played before and the fact that there are existing similar, proliferating and much more well-known games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends which are fun in their own rights. This led me wanna let out some of my heartfelt feelings here which I have never done before.

 When DAL was officially taken down in 2008, I literally wept when I read the farewells on the Playpark forum. I was equally upset like everyone else and it lasted like throughout the year. I started playing Dota (I suck at it), but eventually lost interests in any games. I missed the DAL times occasionally throughout the 6 years and was even more upset when we are unable to access the replays. Occasionally, I also google DAL related things and answer some people's questions, or send them relevant DAL files etc. I even tried to record a full game replay (Exa vs Affinity) but it was a crappy job done.Thankfully, one day the Teh777 team managed to reverse engineer and make the replays work again. I was so happy back then and ever since, my regrets about DAL have fortunately dissipated.

Next, I also want to say here that I really enjoyed the DAL times with everyone. I had always told myself that even in that short period of time, and even though it's VIRTUAL, I really had fun and was happy. Had fun playing with my guildmates BooHooHoo, AngelicDeimos,RedBull,mountFUJI etc, and I loved the idea of the names of 10Rulez and Eox. People like ExaXiaoSky and ExaIceKaChang, and also ExaParadise were really funny. Also other people like UndeadSkill, LynerBarset were also people I was relatively closed with in the game back then. I also remember my first ever guildmates Xephic, Blacklord and the guild leader PrinceAlex. There are of course some bigshots and really tough players that I will never be able to forget, like the Rave and nurse, SuperAdoreable, Geminilias, SgVash. There's also the popular players like Kada,Paladin, Puklahala, KeiZho,SanZo.

Six long years, and I'm sure everyone has moved on in life through many stages. I wonder how everyone else is doing, despite never having known them in real life? I have recently ORD-ed from NS and is going to NUS Science this year. I did some googling, and even found that Kada has gotten married. DAL being dead was truly a sad and unfortunate event but I feel that losing valuable and cherished things is a part and parcel of life afterall. I hope no one is affected by it until now and even though I have not kept in contact with you all, from the bottom of my heart, I sincerely wish everyone all the best in their endeavors in life.

Cheers,
Bodhisattva

tsktsk, the one who reversed engineered the DAL client for viewing replays is RailKill!

<--- this RailKill!!

Those memories, it will never go away. And yes, RailKill had contributed most of the reverse engineering stuffs, we must thank him.

By the way, I'm currently not able to continue DAL project, bunch of college works and stuffs, it's killing me. Not sure when I can continue though. But one thing for sure, I will never abandon the project. Never. lol

Hi, I was also an extremely active DAL player back then. Forgot my username but I had a guild called Durandal.

I have looked through this forum and believe that most players have moved on with life and other games. The resurrection project for DAL on war3 enginer doesn't seem to be going well either.

It seems that the author is somewhat younger than me as i graduated from NUS in 2014. I also occasionally google for DAL related information (been 6 years nothing much to expect). However it is good knowing people are moving on and doing well.

I suggest for the modders to move the project to dota 2 custom map builder (Being implemented as of date: 18/6/2015). Would be much appealing to new players and having more functions to implement (war 3 engine limitations due to it being more than 10 years old)?

Do reply here and I will always look out for news

hahaha im definitely younger than you. was your ign perhaps called something novalegiadark? if you are interested in downloading the stuffs to watch the replays, i can upload them to somewhere more everlasting heh. afterall, you can control which area of the map you want to watch. but i will still record the nice ones to youtube if i have enough free time.

i did some quick internet searching last last time and also believe that most players have moved on. for example, some ppl still use same or similar game names, the guild affinity was actually a group that played several games together etc. the easiest to google was probably Kada, who still wrote long guides, on LoL. and it was even said that he got married. interestingly, he too started a thread abit about DAL there and got some ex-players attention etc.. but all these were already a few years back also.

i barely play any games now but im glad to see ppl remembering DAL till this date. hope you guys are doing fine too

Yea that was my ign. Completely forgot about it.

You can share the replays and I will watch them if i can get the client to work. You are right about Affinity. But I am not sure which games they played together as I am not close to their members.

Also hoping the modders will be building DAL using dota 2 custom engine. Hopeful for news.

Client with the collection of ss/replays: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ol85x31y3m44gcs/DAL%20Client%20Files%20and%20DAL%20Folder.rar?dl=0

I had a longer waiting times when opening the client in windows 7, and some replays will crash halfway unfortunately. set compatibility mode to xp also no use. now got windows 8, 10 liao also dunno what will be how now haha.

Other DAL miscellaneous stuffs:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jc6lepsjv7dpsg6/Darkness%20and%20Light%20stuffs.rar?dl=0

Amazing that this survived for 6 years. I read your farewell as well. You mentioned me and my guild. Have we ever played together before?

well, it's always good to backup important files mah. i nvr read those farewell msgs for a very long time also, and since we were both active players, surely got play together before but probably not on the same team (i used multiple accounts too). i mentioned you and all these people in my msg, i guess i must have really enjoyed the games with them.

Nice to see someone reply in this thread, email really did help to notify me when someone post something in this forum.

I think I heard Durandal guild, probably played with people there. Not sure if someone know me in DAL hmm?

Although I don't play MOBA-type of game anymore since DAL (I did try dota, dota2 and I don't really like it), I did some small research after nova900 said about custom map builder in dota2, I think there is huge potential to revive some DAL-like experience using dota2 platform. It will be hard, not sure if I can do it. But who knows, I will try it after I graduate from my studies.

@Bodhisattva
DAL crashed half way probably because some replays contain certain newer updates which the base game does not have. I should have backup my old DAL game files when DAL closed, it actually has the latest update and map in it (Frontier map), unfortunately my hard drive crashed otherwise some replays can be viewed (including the Frontier one).
Anyway nice ss and replay collection out there, oh yeah may I have the thread link about DAL in dota2 forum?

Those who still want the remaining files of DAL, screenshots and images you can check out these links to my blog.
Image Set Download
DAL Bypass and Game files

I rarely update my blog for quite some time but I can upload more screenshots if you wish.

yeah...too bad my original client is gone as well. laptop and external hard drive spoil around the same time =.=

iirc ur ign is shadow something also right? also the teh777 in youtube.

I don't think there's currently a DAL thread in dota 2 forums.

The custom game engine is currently under beta. Should be out soon but I am not sure when. I can help out as a beta tester

Oh, I didn't read it correctly, I suppose the thread is on LoL forum?

https://dalseacommunity.darkbb.com/t166-it-s-2014-but-is-this-dal-community-still-going-on

Its here.

what is it about that thread? o.o

Actually I'm looking for Kada's post on LoL forum.

Anyway, yes my IGN in DAL was shadowteamx3 (and some random igns), currently I have 2 Youtube accounts, teh777 and teh7thingy. teh7thingy is the newer one.

could this be what you are looking for?

http://forum.lol.garena.com/showthread.php?19929-The-Reason-Why-Nerds-Suck-At-RL-Fights