For those of you who eat, drink, and sleep Zelda, prepare for a double-whammy of sadness: Dampe (aka Richard Denton) is reported to have passed away this weekend in a fatal car accident. Dampe had been working on an unofficial 2D remake of the Ocarina of Time. The OoT2D website has been closed down by Dampe’s family, and the details of the accident as well as the project can be found in the forums for the game.
It should be noted that several users across the Web claiming to “know” Dampe suggest it’s likely he has e-faked his own death in order to get out of developing a game that had begun to lose his interest, not to mention the increasing amount of stress coming from the hype surrounding the title. It seems possible, considering the fact that when I was his age (15), I faked my death to get out of going to Chuck E. Cheese because seriously, those animatronic monsters are ka-ree-py.
Regardless, do you agree with his “family's” decision to terminate the project he had dedicated so much of his life to, or would finishing the game be the ultimate tribute to him?
[Update: Like Elvis and Tupac, Richard Denton is very much alive, as was reported this morning. Before you go getting all soggy-eyed over the next allegedly corpsified programmer, make sure you see a body first.
Just kidding about Tupac though, that bitch is dead.]
Contest:
6:53 PM on 03.25.2007
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It sucks the game won't be finished, I was looking forward to it, but like icarus said you have to respect his families wishes.
If it comes out that the guy really died, I'll the be the first one there to express my condolences as it's never a good thing when something like occurs. But I'll sleep just as well tonight as before.
But, it really smells of something else... something sloppy that will definately come to light soon I'm willing to bet. And, if it comes out that this was all a sham...whoopti-do, just another example of some loser looking for attention only to find out when they couldn't deliver. Then, instead of being a man and admitting as such and either looking for help or respectfully closing the project, he pulls some emo stunt because he's a bit immature.
Like I said, if I'm dead wrong (no pun intended), I'll be the first one to admit as such. If I'm not, add another to the loser pool.
D
K...
the game has been in the make for a while... as gamers, yes we would want to see the final finished game. but we must respect his pass-away. at least for now, hault on production, once the family is over the death n all, if they see it in their hearts to let his final project be finished, then later on re-open the project.
But still, that sucks that this kid died if he did. This IS the internet, though, so I'm pretty skeptical.
But I have heard of noobs complaining about a project to the point where the author of said project quits development of it. The author of one of the first CPS2 emulators comes to mind.
it's kinda hard to feel bad for somone on the internets dead or not just minutes after watching Flags of our Fathers.
Tonight I weep for his pet project, dead in the water
Oh but it came so close, oh so close. You can tell the collective Dtoid consciousness is burning with the desire to ridicule.
P.S. When I die I hope someone exclaims "That's Gay!"
Anyways, cool article, good stuff.
If he really IS dead though, a few people are going to feel pretty stupid... I will try to interview them to gauge the level of feeling stupid-ness, and of course post it here for everyone to see.
So you would you feel stupid too for posting that he might have faked his death?
Correct!
Now it's Murder
Those Bastards.......