Classic Research Walkthrough

Originally based on a post from Nilbog

Using Google For Classic Research

The first thing to remember is that most of what you are looking for no longer exists in a current google search.

For example, let's say I remember a "body guard" NPC that used to exist in "highhold keep": I know it used to exist, but I can't prove it. Not only do I want to find proof, I want to find the details to implement it, like its race, class, hp, locs, and any comments about its unique characteristics.

Most people's first instinct would be a Google search.

   body guard

But if I only want to find text about "body guard" where highkeep is also mentioned, I could add:

   +"body guard" +highkeep

The quotes indicate what order something should be in, and the + guarantees it will be included in your search. But that turns up ... nothing.

When using the "+" symbol, Google gets very specific, so we need to get the zone name correct (with spaces):

   +"body guard" +"high keep"

Results

The first link is for Allakhazam's (aka Illia's Bestiary). Cool, let's look at the site's entry.

The oldest comments have been removed (NOTE: the poster was spammming "dick" back in 2001), with newer conversations continuing into 2005. This shows the bodyguard existed at some point, but not much else ... which is not very helpful to the devs.

Keyword Variations

Obviously, we could replace +"high keep" with variations of the zone name, such as "highkeep", "high hold keep", "highhold keep", "highpass keep", etc. Even if a zone/mob has an official name, it can often be helpful to search for common incorrect variations, since classic players often used incorrect names.

However, even with variations, we still don't find a lot of useful info on Google; next stop: the Way Back Machine!

It's continuing mission.. to archive webpages. Since 1996, if a certain website was public, and it was archived, this is the place to find it.

If you like Allakhazams, then you can do a search for an Illias bestiary that was archived. http://everquest.allakhazam.com/ is the address that we will be looking for. After entering it in the waybackmachine, it should produce a page similiar to this

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://...allakhazam.com

So this shows the dates between May 11, 2000 and and August 22, 2008. Not all links within the archived pages will be archived, so its hit-and-miss on what was gathered. So let's try the first entry, May, 11, 2000.

Clicking on the link, if I then try the archived Bestiary and scroll down to Highpass Keep, choosing it results in an error that it wasn't saved in the archive. Ok, that's fine. Moving on. If I return to the original archived allakhazam's page, if I were to choose.. Antonica, under Zones, then choose Highpass Keep, then Highkeep bestiary list, it displays properly. After that effort, there was still no valuable information on the page. This is the hit-and-miss I referred to earlier.

Moving on.. There are saved showeq spawn logs on various places on the internet. In this example, I'll be using a german-made one accessible via browser. Doing some random searches for "body guard" and variations of highkeep eventually produced this. http://www.adminpage.net/eq.nsf/NPC%...enPage&Start=1

So, that page listed all types of npcs and their zones, wuwu. It provided this information:

body guard, a454540Rogue(-89,-305) So.. if I went back to a google search, using their address.. I could do a search for +"body guard" and only use their site. quotes and + to make sure its listed and in the right order, and whatever follows site: will be where it looks. Code: +"body guard" site:www.adminpage.net/ Okay, now we have the correct name, "a body guard", its level (45), its hitpoints (4540), class (rogue), and a Y/X loc in highkeep.

Lets take 1 more trip.. over to Everlore.com. It used to be great for information... prior to 2002 or so? Don't remember exactly, but now its just adspace.

waybackmachine search for. http://everlore.com

Let's try.. August 15th, 2000.

Using the same methods we used to find the old allakhazam page, let's search for the body guard. :P

Bestiary, High Hold Keep. And there we go, a body guard, with comments and general loot information

There is plenty of information available online; you just have to find it. Using those methods for the common npc research is generally fruitful.