Kinda like Tailspin, but as a game...

December 15, 2006 3:58 PM

Skyrates,pronounced like "pirates," is a new flash game currently open for beta testing. Designed by a group of seven students at Carnegie Mellon University, the concept was to create an MMORPG that you could simply check on every few hours throughout the day, like you would with your e-mail. The outcome is a simple but enveloping, and somewhat silly game that manages to be addictive as hell while only taking up a few minutes per day. (plus it's free.)
posted by Navelgazer (80 comments total)

The server's telling me to get a snowcone.
posted by brundlefly at 4:03 PM on December 15, 2006

Well, it's beta testing... sometimes you just gotta get a snowcone.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:06 PM on December 15, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm not complaining. This snowcone is damn good.
posted by brundlefly at 4:08 PM on December 15, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Every post in this thread must contain the word snowcone. So let it be done.
posted by fleetmouse at 4:11 PM on December 15, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

I didn't know furries were this much into... snowcones.
posted by ODiV at 4:12 PM on December 15, 2006

I prefer fudge.
posted by liquorice at 4:16 PM on December 15, 2006

In New Orleans, snowcones are known as snowballs, despite the fact that they are indeed cone-shaped.
posted by brundlefly at 4:17 PM on December 15, 2006

I used to have a snoopy snowcone maker.
posted by knave at 4:17 PM on December 15, 2006

Well... this might be a record-setting derail.... Snowcone.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:18 PM on December 15, 2006

You broke the snowcone rule, liquorice, but you make up for it by being named liquorice but preferring fudge.
posted by brundlefly at 4:19 PM on December 15, 2006

Some kind of badger with a clipboard is telling me to download flash 9, which is on my pc already. Also, I bet the user rolls are going to be full of "xxGadgetxSephirothxx" and such.
posted by boo_radley at 4:27 PM on December 15, 2006

I've also got the badger telling me my snowcone maker's inadequate. how rude. anyone actually try the game?
posted by Busithoth at 4:29 PM on December 15, 2006

I signed up as routergirl, because XXroutergirl666XX was taken. I'm a female ferret. Now then. Where are the snowcones?
posted by routergirl at 4:33 PM on December 15, 2006 [2 favorites has favorites]

I was expecting a cute badger. That was not a cute badger. Despite the uniform. And he has no snowcone.

Badger badger badger.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 4:34 PM on December 15, 2006

laaaaaaaggggggggggg. no snowcone for me, i guess.
posted by yeoz at 4:34 PM on December 15, 2006

The snowcone is down
posted by Flashman at 4:35 PM on December 15, 2006

I met some of the guys who made this game when they interned at the Disney VR Studio this summer. Props for CMU, every person I've met from that school has been really nice and extremely smart.
posted by mullingitover at 4:36 PM on December 15, 2006

I once saw this live stage show where an obviously talented but rather naked young woman would straddle a common block of ice and by a rather creative and noisy application of her hoo-hah she would make snowcones.

When offered one I declined as I had just eaten twenty-three very delicious cheesecakes for lunch, but it was reported that the snowcones tasted like an iced nine volt battery.
posted by loquacious at 4:44 PM on December 15, 2006 [2 favorites has favorites]

snowmen? wait, no snowcones! Hey, did I miss the whole derailment?
posted by Holy foxy moxie batman! at 4:44 PM on December 15, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

A moose washing a glass mug has suggested that as an alternate to waiting, refreshing and logging-in, I could get myself a delicious snow cone. I am assuming the snow-cone will come in handy with the cleverly specific function of cooling down my over-heating engine, further saving me from crashing, once I start playing the game. That is, of course, assuming I can ever start playing, and that it has anything to do with such antics. And get me some snowcone.
posted by Sprocket at 4:48 PM on December 15, 2006

Obviously I'm pimping the game, though I didn't develop it, nor do I personally know any of the guys who did, but it truly is fun if you can get in. I've wanted to post this for a few days now, but waited until I got the developers' okay on it, what with not wanting to crash their server and all... maybe it did anyway.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:51 PM on December 15, 2006

It worked for me once I went to signup, logged in, and came back to the play page.
posted by crawl at 5:01 PM on December 15, 2006

In my youth, there was a snowcone place down the street from my dad's office. It was actually the Sno-Cone Palace. It must have been a drug front, because I can think of no other reason a Sno-Cone Palace stand could thrive for decades in a industrial/commercial zone. It has since been torn down.

True story.
posted by absalom at 5:02 PM on December 15, 2006

CMU has a surprisingly large video game research department. A friend of mine is a student there.
posted by delmoi at 5:08 PM on December 15, 2006

So is this like Urban Dead with furries instrad of zombies? And, of course, snowcones? Care to fill us in, Navegazer, since the server's borked?
posted by lekvar at 5:09 PM on December 15, 2006

um, snocone.
posted by delmoi at 5:10 PM on December 15, 2006

I, too, have been snowconed.
posted by Malor at 5:15 PM on December 15, 2006

I was going to make that same analogy, lekvar, but only because I was such an Urban Dead fan when it came out.

This isn't text-only. The graphics are a beautiful cell-shaded style and there's real-time combat when you choose to accept it. The thing that makes it casual is that most of the time you're flying in real time, and you can just set up an action queue and let it go for up to around eight hours or more if you aren't going to be there, but at the same time, you can take the combat when it comes up, and check your logs and points, upgrade your character and plane, and so forth. Really, you can play it as obsessively or casually as you like.

It doesn't have the AP limiter that Urban Dead did, either.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:17 PM on December 15, 2006

You know, I don't like that moose's attitude. Look at they way he's looking sideways at me while cleaning that glass. And what's the deal, is he some kind of bar tender? You know what? Screw you moose! I'm not drunk, there is no way you are cutting me off yet! Don't you know who I am? Get your hands off me! Hey moose, you just bit off way more than you can chew, I'm an important man in this town and after I make some phone calls, you are going to have the city health inspectors all over this place. Look, I'm going, you don't need to push. Your done moose. Done. This whole place is finished.

Now I'm leaving, and I'm going to get me a god damned snowcone.
posted by quin at 5:20 PM on December 15, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Um, I'd just like to thank loquacious for that delightful snowcone story. Which, for my own mental health, I'm going to believe is pure fable. I don't want to live in a world where it is possible for a woman to shave ice with her vagina.
posted by Help, I can't stop talking! at 5:20 PM on December 15, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

This thread is proof of the profound dullness that results from the lack of img tag.
posted by knave at 5:21 PM on December 15, 2006

Designed by a group of seven students at Carnegie Mellon University, the concept was to create an MMORPG that you could simply check on every few hours throughout the day, like you would with your e-mail.

I don't have Flash at the moment, but I'd like to see how this game compares to Progress Quest.

Progress Quest is a next generation computer role-playing game. Gamers who have played modern online role-playing games, or almost any computer role-playing game, or who have at any time installed or upgraded their operating system, will find themselves incredibly comfortable with Progress Quest's very familiar gameplay. Progress Quest follows reverently in the footsteps of recent smash hit online worlds, but is careful to streamline the more tedious aspects of those offerings. Players will still have the satisfaction of building their character from a ninety-pound level 1 teenager, to an incredibly puissant, magically imbued warrior, well able to snuff out the lives of a barnload of bugbears without need of so much as a lunch break. Yet, gone are the tedious micromanagement and other frustrations common to that older generation of RPG's.

...

Progress Quest belongs to a new breed of "fire and forget" RPG's. There is no need to interact with Progress Quest at all; it will make progress with you or without you.
posted by Anything at 5:26 PM on December 15, 2006

Once when I was a kid, I gave my brother a yellow snowcone. I was grounded for a month.

This game isn't like those addictive pimp games, is it?

They are so first-half of the decade.....
posted by peewinkle at 5:28 PM on December 15, 2006

Posting imgs would only derail this thread. I'm glad they're turned off.
posted by horsewithnoname at 5:29 PM on December 15, 2006

It told me my flight will take an hour and a half.

And now there's a moose.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:38 PM on December 15, 2006

I especially love the little shovel that came with the Snoopy snow cone maker.
posted by washburn at 5:39 PM on December 15, 2006

I'm in ur snowcone, snowconing ur snowcone. Snowcone.
posted by Colloquial Collision at 5:42 PM on December 15, 2006

Snow cone stress test?
posted by edgeways at 5:43 PM on December 15, 2006

I signed up, but the server seems to be down. Damn.

And while I'm bitching, a kid had to have superhuman strength to use the Snoopy Snowcone Machine. All that pushing and grinding of ice was way too much work for nine-year-old me.
posted by Greg Nog at 5:46 PM on December 15, 2006

Man, now I wish I had named my character Snowcone...
posted by dejah420 at 6:16 PM on December 15, 2006

I think was loquacious described was a hocone.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 6:22 PM on December 15, 2006

Well, apparently it doesn't really work for Mac according to one of the creators in the chat function. I was, of course, met with the saucy suggestion of upgrading to a PC after complementing them on how fun it looks and saying I wanted to recommend it to a large group of Mac gamers. Oh well.
posted by Captaintripps at 7:13 PM on December 15, 2006

Actually, it works on a lot of macs, and they're wokring to make it work better. I think they've just been overloaded with comments and suggestions since I posted this.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:27 PM on December 15, 2006

Well, kakigouri!

(Japanese equivalent to snowcone-in-cup.)
(Also, one of my favorite swear word substitutions. For polite company.)
posted by squasha at 7:31 PM on December 15, 2006

Well, there were two of us in there who said it wasn't working for us (very politely and non-snarkily, I might add) and that's pretty much what I got out of it.
posted by Captaintripps at 7:32 PM on December 15, 2006

anyway, the game does work. i don't know why the fpp link says it's down, but if you click signup and all that, as someone already said, you get in the game. it's actually pretty neat. thanks for the fpp.

snowcones.
posted by shmegegge at 7:41 PM on December 15, 2006

Since nobody's offered, where can others now eat?
posted by cgc373 at 7:56 PM on December 15, 2006

META [S.n.o.w.c.o.n.e.]
posted by ericb at 8:24 PM on December 15, 2006

Snarky Nerds Oscitate Wildly Causing Overbearing Nerdly Ecstasy
posted by ericb at 8:32 PM on December 15, 2006

I can't figure out how to get Mickey and Minnie bumpin' uglies in the third level.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:46 PM on December 15, 2006

hooha.
posted by unknowncommand at 8:51 PM on December 15, 2006

If you're dairy intolerant, the moose will give you a fauxcone.
posted by tracicle at 8:57 PM on December 15, 2006

Snowcones
sugar ice bones
the moose, he is winking
posted by Skygazer at 9:12 PM on December 15, 2006

Hey, there's a 3D mode! Awesome!
posted by five fresh fish at 9:12 PM on December 15, 2006

i think cmu is supposed to know better than to go around handing out flash 9 snowcones.
posted by 3.2.3 at 9:13 PM on December 15, 2006

And how the heck are they streaming CD-quality sound to this thing? I'm on 54.4 modem (local storms are knocking hell out of the system) and with my E3C's I'm hearing excellent dimensional audio.

This game kicks ass. My god, you're gonna love it when the server is upgraded. I'm glad I got in early!
posted by five fresh fish at 9:16 PM on December 15, 2006

Star Wars and chocolate and robots and porno
Ray guns and mayonnaise and not being born, oh-
Bad science fiction films (spaceships on strings)
These are a few of my favorite things

Ecstasy, blowjobs and sitting home drinking
Chicks dressed like school girls (you know what I'm thinking)
Cigarettes, Ishtar and rubber cock rings
These are a few of my favorite things

Comic books, reruns and extra ranch dressing
Thinking of Paris (but now I'm digressing)
Really good deep throat in casual flings
These are a few of my favorite things

When my nuts itch
When I've back zits
When I'm out of weed
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I know what I need

Snowcone.
posted by squidfartz at 9:22 PM on December 15, 2006 [3 favorites has favorites]

Shaved Ice,
Vaginal slice and dice,
ouch.
posted by Skygazer at 9:23 PM on December 15, 2006

Disney's a Snowcone / Bedlam Boys. Michael Penn.
posted by dhartung at 9:26 PM on December 15, 2006

Don't the cool kids spell it snoC0wn?
posted by arcticwoman at 9:26 PM on December 15, 2006

Is it just me, or is the gameplay a rip-off of Escape Velocity?
posted by docgonzo at 10:08 PM on December 15, 2006

I think the cool kids spell it snocpwn.

Works fine in Linux with ies4linux (I'm flying to Eltsina now), although it is kinda slow.
posted by pinespree at 10:47 PM on December 15, 2006

On year on of the neighbors rented a snowcone machine for their son's birthday party. It was the best party ever.
posted by kosher_jenny at 10:57 PM on December 15, 2006

er, replace the ons with ones in that last comment.
posted by kosher_jenny at 10:57 PM on December 15, 2006

Wh.. why is my snowcone yellow?
posted by Lush at 11:36 PM on December 15, 2006

Designed by a group of seven students at Carnegie Mellon University

That was me and six other guys.
(I was in charge of snowcones.)
posted by Joeforking at 1:41 AM on December 16, 2006

So no over weight civets on narrow escarpments somewhere?

(Even worked in a furry reference!)
posted by Samizdata at 1:56 AM on December 16, 2006

Why oh why do they force you to be a furry?
posted by Sukiari at 4:41 AM on December 16, 2006

For three summers in my early teens, I worked at a snowcone place. This place, which was a franchise whose name rhymes with Topical Schmoe, offered a lot of flavors--like, 60 of them. And so, people would often ask, 'What's in a fuzzy navel? What's it taste like?' And, as in most jobs, there are a few things that one simply cannot say. In this case, it was 'After you have about five of 'em, they all taste like Karo.'
posted by box at 6:13 AM on December 16, 2006

...while only taking up a few minutes per day.

Yeah, I thought the same thing about Kingdom of Loathing, too, at first... ("I mean, how long can 40 turns a day take?")
posted by Spatch at 6:22 AM on December 16, 2006

The AI is amazing, although I'm beginning to suspect they're stealing words from MetaFilter. It's pretty freaky when you tell one of the NPCs that you're gonna slice and dice him... and he launches into a tirade about the evils of circumcision.

This game is a stunner. It's not evolutionary, it's revolutionary. It's doing things that no game has ever done before!
posted by five fresh fish at 8:57 AM on December 16, 2006

We had one of the snoopy snocone machines. We called them slocones 'cause they took so long to make. Oh and they tasted like freezer shavings.
posted by sharpener at 11:12 AM on December 16, 2006

I signed up have a cool handle and avatar (boar) and the whole magilla and now I can't seem to do jack except look longingly at ammo and fuel.

...$%()*$&^@@# !!!

*Taking ball and going home*
posted by Skygazer at 12:29 PM on December 16, 2006

*Throws snowcone at Five Fresh Fish*
posted by Skygazer at 12:31 PM on December 16, 2006

joeforking, if you're serious, then allow me to say thanks. way fun.
posted by shmegegge at 1:28 PM on December 16, 2006

Its a fun game but I find I have to logout and back in pretty often to keep it from bogging down. Nothing like trying to dogfight when it freezes up every other second.

The game is decent but its a very rough beta.

And the AI for the dogfights is pretty easy to defeat.
posted by fenriq at 3:40 PM on December 16, 2006

Is this "Skyrates" something I'd need a snowcone to understand?
posted by Spike at 10:37 PM on December 16, 2006

Blah. I care not for this flash player mumbo-jumbo.

Get off my lawn!
posted by oxford blue at 7:03 PM on December 17, 2006

Ok, so I bought some trees and bread, and now I have to wait 3 hours to sell them? Whoa, teh realizm. "In real life, being a sky-pirate would involve a lot of boring flying around surrounding brief bursts of action." Please note, I have not actually had the 'action' part yet, but I can bet it involves me being routed by higher level player-killers and having to restart my game with a new character. But hey, it's a game that promotes productivity by making you say, "Shit, I gotta wait three hours for something to happen?" and then you come back in three hours and all your shit is destroyed so you just give up and go back to work. My kinda game!
posted by Eideteker at 10:33 AM on December 19, 2006

Oh shit, Snowclone.

Did I do that right?
posted by Eideteker at 10:34 AM on December 19, 2006