Safari Gets Gruggy

 Ozone grid was the scene of our final tour this season, and Spax Orion's two talking pigeons gave us the intro talk to his brand new project, aimed at encouraging more games in Opensim. 

It was a quick rez when we arrived directly at the game arena rather than the main landing Point on Atrius region. True, we missed seeing Dirty Helga at her receptionists' desk, but it meant we could dedicate all our visit to learning about IMAGE.

Spax Orion: make yourselves at home and I will wake up the birds

Thirza Ember: /me shakes the biker grit from my hair

Spax Orion: careful, the service androids are on strike

James Atlloud: should we go to the chairs?

Forest Azure: /me looks around for something to clean.. anything?

James Atlloud: You should travel with a towel Forest.

Guano Pigeon: shouts: Welcome to Ozone Miniverse @ xoaox.de OK... so now that your are here, settle down while we explain some VERY IMPORTANT details *** The GAME BOARD is DISABLED until we are ready to begin this exercise. *** Is Exercise a dirty word? *** Someone gave me a funny look!

James Atlloud: fertilizer

Safari on Track

The first season of Safari ended yesterday with two opportunities for playing - one classic and one brand new. Our first stop was on CCI grid with a return to an iconic build, Bikerworld, reputed to be the longest and biggest racing track in Opensim, by SoA BAD, the grid owner. 

SIWAS and SoA BAD, the owners of CCI Grid.

His name SoA comes from the TV series Sons of Anarchy, so it will be no surprise to learn this track is particularly made for motorcycles. SoA and his beautiful partner Siwas are both expert riders and can do the whole track in about an hour, going full blast from sea level, where you'll find the clubhouse and the group joiner and the various motorcycles that you can 'buy' and ride, to the highest point where there is a sort of gasoline dump with tankers and reservoirs. This aspect of motoring - filling your tank from time to time - is an essential part of the game, and you will need to get supplies a couple of times as you gradually rise up through the levels. The last time we visited we were all impressed by the way the region handled the lag made by the group, but that was over two years ago, so this was an opportunity for us to give it another whirl and remind ourselves of how much fun can be had here.

SoA BAD: Hello friends, welcome! Get yourselves a bike, but only copy or buy the bikes and then rez them yourself. Don't use the originals. Most bikes are also suitable for a passenger.  Additionally, you can find biker outfits in the display case on the left; also copy or buy them.

A Visit to Shark-ham

Felix Mafia is an Italian architect whose grid, Arkham, is almost four years old. Best known for the freebies, there's a lot more going on here, in terms of backstory and design, snd Safari wanted to know a bit more about that side of this popular destination.

There are quite a few seasonal regions on Arkham that provide explorers and freebie hunters alike the brief opportunity to visit, and we were invited to see Easter Land, in its 2026 iteration.

Felix Mafia with good friends Grid Admin and Andron Rae
were at the arrival point to welcome us all.

Felix Mafia: thanks for being here

Andron Rae: this is a fun region with a lot of hidden areas to explore

Felix Mafia [it→en]: Grid Admin is creator of the Arkham, he is English.

Grid Admin: I'll just hang out back here, out of the way

Andron Rae: hugs Cherry nice to see you! sorry if I am standing on anyone, I'm not fully rezzed and see clouds haha

Felix Mafia: welcome eva

eva Nowicka: hey Felix, nice to see you

Thirza Ember: we are not a gigantic group this week which is good for lag and for conversation... it's 'Shark city' make sure you see the shark while you are here, he is quite spectacular!

The Tao of Shenn

 Seduced by beauty in opensim, we visited some of the artwork of Shenn Tao, on Atlas grid. Shenn spends a lot of his time traveling in rl so it was an extra special opportunity to meet up with this influential and much loved French artists and to get a few insights into his work. 

Sure, we all know that good art speaks for itself, but that dialogue is always enhanced by a few hints from its maker, and also gives us a chance to thank them for their contribution to the collective cultural heritage of our virtual worlds.

Cornflakes with a Twist

We hit Cornflakes Week with all the bright colors and primmy nonsense of a decade-long tradition this Wednesday, as the HG Safari crew teleported to the newly revived Cornflakes Tribute region, now back online, this time on HG Safari grid. 

For more about the sim in general, don't miss this post that takes a deeper dive into some of the details of the historic region. 

Whirli Placebo

We were honored to have Whirli Placebo as our musical guest, he has been there for us so many times over the years, what we found extra special is the music he shared with us... more of that later.

IMAGE Awareness

IMAGE is a game system that Spax Orion of Ozone grid is working on with a view to making it available for free to other opensim grids. 

The name is an acronym for 'Image Matrix Action Game Engine' and right now it's up and running but needs people to come over and try it out so that any remaining bugs in the system can be worked out.

 So, ask yourself, could you 'sacrifice' a bit of time by going to sim Atrius, playing a shoot 'em up game, and then giving honest feedback, so that the IMAGE project can reach the stage that it becomes shareable?  

Going Solo

 Our second stop this week was on Avirtualworld. Bob Solo and the lovely Shea Butter were on hand to welcome us when we arrived on the region he was showcasing this time, SG1. As usual, the HG Addresses are at the end of the post, simply open your viewer on your home region, open the Map, and copy paste the address into it and go! Avirtualworld is open 24/7 and Bob says he is almost always online so you can go over and say hello to him any time.

Bob Solo

George Equus: SG1  and Atlantis was rather good series

Forest Azure: i have no idea what SG! is

Lavia Lavine: Star Gate

James Atlloud: TV show/Movie named Star Gate

Bob Solo: I built this all in prim, all after the tv show