Adventures in the Image Server

[Jelani]

So, yesterday, I discovered that you could now view directories on the images.neopets.com server. I'm guessing this has been the case since the server move, and no one updated the .htaccess file (unless you've been able to do this for ages and I am just totally behind the times).

For a Neopian historian like myself, this is basically all my Christmases come at once (oh my god, that sounds humiliating). Here are some interesting things I've found out so far:

• There must have been some sort of server move on 27 January 2005 at 01:27, as lots of files that should be older than that show that as their last modified date.
• All the Hunt for the Battledome plot images have been deleted (the entire folder). There was me hoping they were just moved somewhere.
• The Faerie's Ruin: There was meant to be a puzzle between the brightvale library and the caves, judging by this directory. The directory relating to the cave step has been deleted - I was hoping it had just been moved or renamed by accident . Judging by the numbering, though, something I hadn't noticed before, there was also meant to be a puzzle between the cave step and the ritual. Off the top of my head, this corresponds to the chapter where Hanso gets the second artifact from the old thieves guild hideout, and remarks that it was easy. I remember people on the neoboards at the time saying it felt like they had cut a puzzle from that bit.
• They never made another chapter of the Adventures of Jake
• The alternative ending to HATIC, with Dr Sloth mutating Hannah in revenge for cancelling his plot, isn't still on the server
• Kreludor Meteor: did you know it was designed to do things other than give you an item? Emit hot gases and lava, an alien disease, or contain a space squid
• Hidden Sloth Lair: At some point (I'd guess as part of the original Return of Dr Sloth plot) we were meant to discover Dr Sloth's hidden lair on the moon?
• Defenders of Neopia: Here's some original pencil artwork for one of the DoN comics.
• Mystery Islands: The other islands are called Umbuku Island and Tikutaku Island (Tikutaku is referred to again by that name in the url for one of the images in the hunt for the crown)
• At some point in history, a chia flew around in a helicopter - not sure what this relates to.
• Look how cool some of these old games are! I remember Techo Safari, but Coconut Catch must have been before my time.
• Wishing Pool: An earlier incarnation of the wishing well, perhaps?
• Charter a boat: at some point, you were going to be able to charter a boat at Mystery Island.
• Neoschools: were going to be a lot naffer than we might have expected. Grades were going to be designated by bits of bitten apple, and they had designed a lot more teachers than we knew about. anyone remember 'Detention for PPT Forums'?

I also found some more of the old art assets for the Arrival of Virtupets plot, so I'll be updating the Neodex article on AOV later.

[Siniri]

Wow, Jelani, that's really cool! Those old games were fun. And I love the other options for the meteor.

[Jelani]

I was checking web.archive.org - because it occurred to me that maybe they would have archived some of the hunt for the battledome and tfr images - and it seems like the image server has been behaving this way since at least the 26th September (when they made an archive of the /items directory).

[Blue]

Awesome find, Jelani! Thanks!

[Jacob]

i'm actually surprised this didn't occur to me. So many image and image links were used as placeholders when making articles in the past. I can only guess the number of issues this has caused with old links throughout Neopets, which has had a tradition of keeping them active.

[Jelani]

Here's something new for you. There's an empty folder set aside for Lutari Island random events.