The
"sequel" to the original habitat is Habitat II. This
software was launched by Fujitsu in 1993 after they
bought the rights to the idea from Lucasarts.
The
problem with this was that the software, and indeed
the entire world was in Japanese! If course, it wasnt
a problem if you lived in Japan... but Americans werent
able to get their mitts on it for quite a while.
Habitat II is still running til this very day,
but the reason why you probably havent heard of it
before, is because the new site is impossible
to understand (even when translated). There used to
be a ghost-preview function which let you explore
Habitat II as a ghost (without the ability to communicate
or unghost), this is how we got the pictures below.
We have tried to get into Habitat II recently... but
it requires some sort of Japanese Citizen code, and
it is certainly not free. A nice change from todays
worlds though, Habitat II only costs $4 a month to
join.
The
flagship Habitat II world, Graceville, just happened
to be our Dreamscape but with many new and different
locales that are not in the English version such as
a hotel and traditional supermarket.
A
year later, Fujitsu got thinking and decided to give
a piece of the hyped-up cartoony action to English
Speaking countries... so the software was sent to
Fujitsu-America and an english version of Graceville
was built.
Today,
Habitat II is a thriving virtual world, with its own
exclusive 'zones', artwork and even sounds.
