You have Shifted intoOverdrive
Lore & Legacy

The Chronicle of Overdrive

Three decades of patches, players, and pixelless dungeons.

  1. March 1991 — Sunrise on Farcaern

    Rusalka, Imagnos, and Dharma brought forth their new world of Overdrive. At this time OD was a standard LP-Mud utilizing a village based system. Also it was the first mud known to have classes. OD ran from Rusalka's home system until the game closed in December of 1991.

  2. June 1992 — Updated World

    In June of 1992, Blackhawke took over administration of Overdrive and between December 1991 and June 1992 there was a complete overhaul of the game. When the MUD reopened there was a new skill and combat system in place; along with other features that OD has today; it has continuously been open to the world, with a few server moves. Talyessin currently is the High God, with Zygo and Lethe serving as Gods.

  3. 1992–2000 — As the World Turns

    During this time, the world of Overdrive and Farcaern expanded greatly. Wizards created new and exciting areas. Quests, and a plethora of mini-quests were brought in giving players a chance to solve some of the most unique puzzles out there. Players and Monsters met their end countless times; as is the case today.

  4. April 2003 — The Death Quest

    The death quest was introduced in April of 2003. Prior to the Death Quest, players' deaths mattered, and if you had more quests solved than deaths then your character benefited greatly. After the quest was installed, those benefits went away, and deaths had little effect on player growth.

  5. September 2004 — RUSTY!

    Thanks to Milkyway, The Steel Beast (originally coded by Jagdoe) made her way back to the Dragon Spire Mountains. She still roams the dark caves to this day, looking for her next meal.

  6. 2005 — The Fall

    Around 2005, shortly after the death quest was installed, and the rise of MMORPG games such as Everquest and World of Warcraft, OD saw a dramatic decrease of player population. Some players would leave the game behind; others would make their way back. And a select few stayed to continue on the legacy.

  7. March 2009 — Death of the Death Quest

    The Death Quest was officially removed from the game by Lethe and Zygo. Players would still get negative percent on their skills, stats, talents, spells, gifts but those would still be burned off by gaining experience. The good news was though, no more death quest!

  8. September 2009 — Updated Rule Changes

    As of September 2009, you are able to have up to four (this was changed after Necromancer install to 5) characters on at the same time. Botting, and sharing quest information has been allowed.

  9. February 2011 — 9Hells

    Shinnasuka (along with some minor help from Neon), updated and reinstalled 9hells. The original map was used for most of the area, along with the same theme, monsters, guards, and items. Some new items were created also. They made the area for (pre uncapped levels) Ultra High-Level Players at 130+. Players definitely would need to party up in this area to succeed.

  10. May 2013 — Hero Levels

    Hero Levels made their way to the lands of Farcaern. At this time a lot of players have maxed out the old level cap of 160, and also the training caps that followed. Hero Levels offered a way for players to continue spending their experience points and progressing through the game. Shortly after Hero Levels were installed, class specific items were installed (such as Hero Class Rings) which their bonuses grew based on a player's hero level.

  11. July 2013 — Color Quality Items

    Psycho brought in quality color for weapons, armors, and other items. A wizard will set the quality of an item, while the player can choose which color they want to represent that item. There are seven possibly quality items: Trash, Normal, Good, Superior, Epic, Legendary, and Quest.

  12. August 2013 — XTerm 256 Colors

    Xterm 256 colors were installed by Psycho allowing for 256 colors, a drastic increase from the basic eight that we had.

  13. January 2018 — Necromancers

    Nerezza and her acolytes found their way home in the form of a new class. The Necromancers! Necromancers marked the fifth class that players can choose from. They came with a really well-made animate incantation so players could animate up to 5 corpses to do their bidding.

  14. February 2021 — Increased Levels and Training

    The level cap to the game was significantly raised to a point where it will take years to get to, also the training caps were removed to accommodate the plethora of experience that can be earned.

  15. August 2022 — Overdrive Classic

    Overdrive Classic is another server created for those players who wish to play the game without the distraction of botters (players who choose to let the computer play the game for them) therefor botting is not allowed, also you can only have one character on at a time. Also, the quest to death bonuses is back for those who wish to choose to make the best out of their character.

  16. January 2023 — More Quests on Classic!

    Overdrive Classic has now up to 22 main quests, with more coming! These quests offer additional benefits to players in regard to the quests to death bonuses.

  17. September 2023 — Variable Monsters on Classic!

    Packrat has made it so that Wizards can create variable monsters (varmons). The varmons, once attacked will align their level and difficulty with the first player to attack it. This is great for classic and players looking for multiple targets to kill while playing.

  18. January 2024 — OD 64!

    Lethe and Talyessin switched servers and we now have a 64bit system running for both Overdrive and Classic Overdrive!

  19. May 2026 — Increased HP/SP

    Lethe, with assistance from the other wizards, found a way to increase the ability for Players and Monsters to increase their HP/SP pools. Now all the HP/SP is available!

  20. July 2026 — Classic Goes Offline

    The gods deemed the Classic Server was no longer needed and closed the server down. All characters that were on Classic were transferred over to the main Overdrive server so they can continue their adventure. This move also allowed all the quality of life fixes that happened on Classic to be easily transferred to Overdrive.