The Malphas Mystery

#1

Hi all. I’ve decided to post this mystery here as I’ve been unable to find a conclusive answer to this for weeks if not months.
The basis of this mystery is this: I believe that there are 4 malphas sprites that have been used at some point. Not 3, as previously believed. The problem? I have no definitive proof.

Here’s why I believe this.

Timeline (Format MM/DD/YYYY):

12/20/2010
RotMGVulcan releases this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiJqkbt5H7o
This video uses a golden Malphas sprite. Few people know about this sprite, but this is not the mystery sprite.
This is Malphas’ first sprite.

6/18/2011
Alex and Rob release update 117.0.1: https://web.archive.org/web/20130605135133/https://forums.wildshadow.com/node/3772
This includes “New behaviours on Oryx, […], Malphas”. This likely includes shrinking behaviours, which are featured in zxcvRoTMG’s 6/20/2011 video.
Nobody in the comments mentions a sprite change on Malphas.

6/19/2011
VivaLaResistancee releases this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASeN5OeVd6Y
This video is recorded on version 117.0.1 Prod.
This makes me believe that versions always had 2 numbers after it and started with x.0.1
Contents of video not relevant.

6/20/2011
zxcvRoTMG releases this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dApO-CfMF7E
This video is recorded on version 117.0.1 Prod.
This video shows a sprite that was supposedly created several days later.

6/21/2011
zxcvRoTMG releases this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iztKh7mo9U
This video is on version 117.1.1 Testing.
Contents of video not relevant.

6/21/2011
BoomerangXD releases this video: https://youtu.be/hx_3bv0Sx50?t=201
This video is on version 117.1.2 Testing
Contents of video not relevant.

6/22/2011
BoomerangXD releases this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukaTftMF0mM
This video is recorded on version 117.0.1 Prod.
This video was recorded for Alex/Chedd/Danc
Contents of video not relevant.

6/23/2011 3:36 PM
Alex & Rob release a wildshadow post about version 117.1 being live: https://web.archive.org/web/20120509182337/https://forums.wildshadow.com/node/3935
The Malphas sprite was changed this release according to the comments, to something purple.
This is odd, as it seems the sprite had already been changed to a purple sprite a few days ago.

6/23/2011 5:35 PM
THIS IS KEY
HugeGuts replies with a complaint about Malphas’s new sprite.

image
image.png1866x728 91.8 KB

They then shows their proposal for a new sprite: https://web.archive.org/web/20130522000835im_/https://forums.wildshadow.com/sites/default/files/Malphas.png
This sprite seems to be the same as the one in zxcvRoTMG’s 6/20/2011 video.
Just for comparison:
image zxcv’s video shows this. image This is HugeGuts’ sprite.

Useful tools:
Youtube search allows you to search by date if you append before:YYYY-MM-DD and/or after:YYYY-MM-DD after your search term.
Reddit Search (unddit.com) allows you to search through many reddit posts efficiently. Looking at r/rotmg might help.
Wildshadow forum archives can be accessed on archive.org.

Overall, this is very bizarre. I’ve come to the conclusion that I am not solving this by myself. I would love to hear any thoughts on the matter.

#2

By the way, does anyone know what the “Gusion” sprite referred to in this image even is?
image
There’s a chance that could help.

#3

image
Original Malphas sprite. New sprite was tooled in hotfix, and that’s where ur mystery goes.

PS took me literally 30 seconds to find it, u lazy bitch

#4

I don’t think that’s correct. See Skoad’s poast on the 117.1 release

image
image.png1143x888 79.3 KB

“I think mine looks like a demon instead of some pink mutant thingy with 3 eyes, but is easy to see in lava:”
this means this sprite was created by Skoad, unless I’m missing something

#5

No, it was created by Paulo. The image shown in post is realmofthemadgod.com/draw.html game resource.
To be correct: Paulo is some1s IGN. Skoad is also some1s IGN. Idk if these accounts belong to one person.

#6

They are the same person. Skoad’s forum signature at the bottom says Sprites tagged "paulo"

My point being, either way, I don’t have any evidence it was ever actually used in-game. Is it not true that you could share your own sprites on the Art Maker? Do you have any picture/video evidence or even memory of that sprite being used in-game?

#7

are you sure this is the sprite that’s actually being proposed? because it doesn’t address the concerns HugeGuts raises in the first place. he says “his dungeon places strong emphasis on fire and heat. his colors simply don’t match the theme of the abyss”. it makes no sense to complain about not fitting the warm color palette of the abyss and then turn around and produce a purple hulk as a proposed alternative. There also doesn’t appear to be any indicator that HugeGuts’ sprite was ever made official here either, you’ve instead assumed this because what you’ve found looks like what was on prod for a while.

I agree that the skoad sprite nhater found is incredibly unlikely to have ever made it to prod. there are thousands of fan re-sprites on the sprite art tool, so finding it there alone doesn’t mean anything. that sprite also falls to exactly the same argument I made against the first sprite in my first paragraph: if HugeGuts disliked a sprite for being purple, he wouldn’t make a new one that was also purple.

without additional clarification that HugeGuts’ contribution was ever acknowledged officially I’m comfortable assuming there never was a sprite in between the gold demon and the purple hulk.

#8

I have actually thought that might be the case but I never thought too critically about it. The question then is, where is that sprite that HugeGuts created? It doesn’t seem to have left behind any trace - not an element (far as I can tell), not a broken imgur or imageshack link, etc.

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This might be to blame on the archival process itself, or I’m just not looking in the right place. Additionally supporting your theory: the malphas sprite appears to be taken from the website itself as the image comes from the link http://forums.wildshadow.com/sites/default/files/malphas.png, while other images are usually not (far as I can tell).

If only the “New Malphas” image had saved :cry: would’ve saved me a heck of a lot of time
image

This doesn’t matter a whole lot, but unlike HugeGuts, Skoad complained about the sprite being a “pink mutant thingy”. I think Skoad might be colorblind.

I do think that your explanation is almost certainly correct, but it would be cool to totally disprove my theory.

#9

Just ask Kabam for a snap.

#10

Wdym?

#11

Kabam sold the game to DECA :face_vomiting:, but they might still be in possession of some assets. Idk what happened to Rob, William and Alex (according to twitter posts, William still works in Kabam), but u may check this.

#12

Rob’s making Galactic Assault Squad, Willem seems to be working on Blood Moon and GO GO Kudamono.. No idea what Alex is doing, but Amit is still doin stuff @RedBlobGames.
I’ll try to contact Kabam at some point.

#13

if this is from the wildshadow days (which I think they are given you’re using wildshadow forum links) then kabam wouldn’t know. rob and alex would be the ones to ask.

#14

Good point, as this is mid-2011. Since I don’t even know how to contact Alex, I’ll probably contact Rob soon (along with a few other questions I have)

#15

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