The Unnoticed Passing of an Era
Over the years, I've put some of my most notable links on a simple HTML page to serve as a "home base," but I don't visit every one of even those links every day. One day not that long ago, I selected one of the links I hadn't gone to in a while just on a whim, only to realise something I'd been sort of anticipating for possibly over fifteen years had happened at last.
One of the first things I'd searched for when I first went online (a few years before reputable search engines, although the first human-curated directories had started up) was information on Robotech, and my idle curiosity turned up several interesting sites. Somewhere off to the side of the arguments over whether the novelizations refined a ramshackle "canon" or let some dubious inventions and forces overshadow what had made the animation interesting to some people, there were some resources devoted to the role-playing game, even if it had come in for its own share of criticism from those who had the series on videotape. Beyond mere criticism, though, one person named Dave Deitrich had created an "RPG supplement" building from one final point of the RPG I had heard about and just sort of shrugged off before. Apparently unwilling to face the possibility campaigns might have to end, the RPG had had the enemies of the "Third Robotech War" turn around and head back to Earth, just perhaps jettisoning any possibility of "lessons learned" with a "take it from here, just the same as before" directive. "Third Invid War," however, invented some actual new equipment and set down a timeline that did eventually conclude, just perhaps managing to "create" without "complaining" in the process. As much as the timeline pointed to things not actually available (the way a great many other "Robotech fan projects" managed to), he'd also worked on a comparable online supplement presenting some of the Macross mecha.
One day in 1998, though, Dave Deitrich added a "sorry I haven't updated; I've been buying a house" note to his site, and that was that. He did keep his site up for long years afterwards, and along the way I found a "site downloader" tool that let me save the files for myself (although I suppose the "Wayback Machine" had more than enough time to archive the site itself), but now that the site's not loading any more I'm that much more conscious of Robotech "fading into the past" even in its anniversary year (as much as I know some other people would have different reactions to that...)
This entry was originally posted at http://krpalmer.dreamwidth.org/230094.html. Comment here or there (using OpenID) as you please.
One of the first things I'd searched for when I first went online (a few years before reputable search engines, although the first human-curated directories had started up) was information on Robotech, and my idle curiosity turned up several interesting sites. Somewhere off to the side of the arguments over whether the novelizations refined a ramshackle "canon" or let some dubious inventions and forces overshadow what had made the animation interesting to some people, there were some resources devoted to the role-playing game, even if it had come in for its own share of criticism from those who had the series on videotape. Beyond mere criticism, though, one person named Dave Deitrich had created an "RPG supplement" building from one final point of the RPG I had heard about and just sort of shrugged off before. Apparently unwilling to face the possibility campaigns might have to end, the RPG had had the enemies of the "Third Robotech War" turn around and head back to Earth, just perhaps jettisoning any possibility of "lessons learned" with a "take it from here, just the same as before" directive. "Third Invid War," however, invented some actual new equipment and set down a timeline that did eventually conclude, just perhaps managing to "create" without "complaining" in the process. As much as the timeline pointed to things not actually available (the way a great many other "Robotech fan projects" managed to), he'd also worked on a comparable online supplement presenting some of the Macross mecha.
One day in 1998, though, Dave Deitrich added a "sorry I haven't updated; I've been buying a house" note to his site, and that was that. He did keep his site up for long years afterwards, and along the way I found a "site downloader" tool that let me save the files for myself (although I suppose the "Wayback Machine" had more than enough time to archive the site itself), but now that the site's not loading any more I'm that much more conscious of Robotech "fading into the past" even in its anniversary year (as much as I know some other people would have different reactions to that...)
This entry was originally posted at http://krpalmer.dreamwidth.org/230094.html. Comment here or there (using OpenID) as you please.