July 10, 2001
11:46 PM Subscribe

So I was checking out Andre's FilePile, and I noticed the new page title: "ROR Alucard". A search at Google turned up over a hundred results...few of which really explained anything. This ASCII file was the most promising explanation. So what is it, who started it, and where did it come from?
posted by canoeguide (18 comments total)

I was wondering the same thing! One thing I noticed is that Alucard=Dracula backwards. Not that that really helps or anything!
posted by rio at 12:10 AM on July 11, 2001

...and RoR = Rise of Rome, I think...a multiplayer game. Ok, time for sleep now. =)
posted by rio at 12:25 AM on July 11, 2001

A little background here. Just like the All Your Base thing, this is a throwback to earlier days -- in this case, the BBS Textfile community.

The RoR is probably an abbreviation for R____ of R_____, but what those words are I don't know.

In any case it seems to be a private joke by this Doctor Murdock guy that he threw into everything for deliberate Discordian nonsense purposes.
posted by dhartung at 12:29 AM on July 11, 2001

More clues might be lurking HERE.
posted by canoeguide at 12:31 AM on July 11, 2001

ROR seems to mean many, many things, but given the Dracula connection and the way dictionaries indicate pronunciation, might it be some sort of 'leet-cult abbreviation of horror?
posted by southisup at 12:58 AM on July 11, 2001

RoR= Rise of Rome, the expansion pack for Age of Empires II? Alucard is obviously as noted Dracula backwards, and also a character in the old NES Castlevania game- both of those are games, so there's sort of a connection there. Maybe Alucard is a particular persons alias for AoE? However, the ror alucard thing seems to predate AoE II, it has earlier net period feel to it (but that could be misleading).

But I agree with dhartung that it's mostly a stupid hacker joke term, like inserting "fnord" into paragraphs, which probably seems monstrously clever when you're 16, socially inept, and hopped up on mountain dew and doritos... :) Actually, it also kinda reminds me of this Straight Dope column about the whole Necronomicon/ Cthulhu thing, how basically a group of writers including H.P. Lovecraft and Robert Howard all decided to use some of the same names and mythos in all their novels, a sort of spine-chilling backstory, to give their novels a sense of eerie authenticity- a sense that some people mistake for a real occult history to this day. Interestingly, making fun of that sort of thing, and people's willingness to believe it, is pretty much the point of the Illuminatus trilogy- rather ironic. It does exactly this- drop enough seemingly related clues to make it seem like a glimpse at some "secret" that you are fortunate to now be privy to, when really there is no "there" there.

Oop- just previewed my post, and saw in the page refresh southisup's post- and in his second-to-last link another meaning of ROR is an in-development online RPG called "Realm of Ralnar" (sounds more fitting than AoE). That's could be what it is- but I guess the point of my above ramblings is that we may never know and it doesn't really matter... if I said to you "b-sunoco" or "fingah sandwiches!", there's maybe 5 or 6 people who know how funny that once was... but I don't use it as a sig for the same reason!
posted by hincandenza at 1:15 AM on July 11, 2001

Nice dissertation...it reminds me of this little mystery...which, by all "inside" accounts, actually does have a story behind it, but few know it, and won't tell.

I grew up about 20 minutes from the brewery, and we used to sit around and debate this in High School...not a bad beer either...
posted by canoeguide at 1:34 AM on July 11, 2001

"..which probably seems monstrously clever when you're 16, socially inept, and hopped up on mountain dew and doritos... "

Would that be anything like being hopped up on Dristan No-Doze and shots of dark rum? I tells ya, that definitely makes everything seem monstrously clever...

Highly recommend Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco as a massively entertaining (and monstrously clever) piss-take on the whole secret society thing, amongst other stuff.

The real Secret of It All, of course, was clumsily revealed in your post, hincadenza : There Is No "There" There.

begin mantra now...There Is No "There" There...There Is No "There" There...
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:34 AM on July 11, 2001

There Is No "There" There... There Is No "There" There... There Is No "Which" Where... Damn.. There Is No...
posted by Kino at 5:15 AM on July 11, 2001

"Alucard" was the name of Dracula's son in one of the Castlevania games for Nintendo (III, I think), and you could play as him. He was cool.
posted by MonkeyMeat at 6:55 AM on July 11, 2001

Alucard is also the hero of one of the best Playstation games ever: Castlevania, Symphony of the Night. If you like videogames, you need this game...
posted by tweebiscuit at 7:30 AM on July 11, 2001

fnord

tee-hee, that was funny
posted by briank at 7:31 AM on July 11, 2001

ROR is Rotate Right, of course. The accumulator is shifted one bit to the right, with the lowest-order bit moving to the carry flag and the previous content of the carry flag rotating into the accumulator's high-order bit.
posted by kindall at 9:02 AM on July 11, 2001

ROR Alucard is the previous All Your Base. Which was the next Good Times Virus. Which was the previous Mahir. Which was the next Cabbage Patch Kid. Which was the previous Pokemon. Which was the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Zippity BOP™ doesn't figure in here. Zippity BOP™ is timeless.
posted by daveadams at 9:27 AM on July 11, 2001

Appropos of nothing, Alucard is also the name that Billy Idol uses at hotels.

I don't know why I know this.
posted by Dreama at 10:11 AM on July 11, 2001

Rise of Rome wasn't around in textfile days, dudes. The originals date from ca. 1990.

One of the R's is probably Rat or Ratsnatcher, a handle for one of the writers and his BBS. It's used as an expression -- "RoR, Man" -- at least once, seeming to mean "your mileage may vary" or "watch what you're doing".
posted by dhartung at 11:36 AM on July 11, 2001

This is precisely what "RoR Alucard" was all about. Thanks guys.

Did anyone here used to frequent the old bay area BBSs? I've always wondered what happened to those guys. Especially this one guy, Blue Bandit, he stole my USRobotics HST Dual Standard.
posted by perplexed at 12:03 PM on July 11, 2001

Oh Jeezus Christ. This is a total flashback from my past. The Pirates Hollow and Rat Head were BBSes in my area (East Bay, SF Bay Area.) I went to high school with one of them.

From what I remember, RoR was a play on words from BoB. Bob -> Rob -> RoR. Or something.

Speaking of BBSing 10 years ago, does anyone remember ANSi? Any ex-members from MiRAGE or TRiBE? Heh, heh, heh...
posted by littleyellowdifferent at 12:51 PM on July 11, 2001

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July 10, 2001 11:46 PM Subscribe

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