The Timeline of darwinia, according to TheBigMod (This is is no way official Introversion stuff):
0 Months-> DrS (Dr Sepulveda) thinks of an idea for a new type of processor
12 Months-> DrS emerges with a design for the PROTOLOGIC games console. He creates the protologic company and goes into production.
21 Months-> DrS launches the protologic. However, other, better established companies, release their consoles and the PROTOLOGIC is a massive flop.
22 Months-> having failed to sell enough PROTOLOGIC units DrS decides to cut his losses and return to research. His chosen field is artificial intelligence. It occurs to him that even through the PROTOLOGICS are getting a bit old he has enough of them to make into a massive networked supercomputer capable of running maybe 2 or three AI simulations at once!
27 Months-> DrS has created a fully interactive computer environment, where everything with the landscape is a visualisation of a computer process. He boots up 20 of the PROTOLOGICS to debug the program to run on them.
28 Months-> The renderer is working brilliantly, with much better performance than even DrS' most optimistic estimates. He shuts down the PROTOLOGICS and begines conceptual work on an AI.
36 Months-> DrS has a prototype AI designed, it's just a framework that he can add more code to later. He begins programming.
38 Months-> After two months of hard programming the basic AI is finished. DrS estimates that the frame work will just about be able to run on one PROTOLOGIC unit, then he can use the adjacent units in the network for other AI parts.
39 Months-> The basic AI has worked properly, and to performance estimates, for a month; DrS decides to boot up his "landscape server" and stick the AI in the landscape to test it's environment perception routines.
41 Months-> DrS has been confused by the performance of his network; it is consistently working much better than even the most optimistic theory. He presses onwards, happy that the thing is finally coming to some use.
47 Months-> DrS returns to the network, after having spent time designing an evolutionary algorithm to dynamically modify the AIs code. He finds that it never properly shut down and the AI has been actively exploring it's cave environment, all alone, for the six months. He cuts power to the units to make sure they're properly shut down and boots them up with the new evolutionary algorithm. He also boots up five other units to run more copies of the AI since his "central code sorting repository" requires some AIs to actually evolve the code.
49 Months-> DrS has nicknamed the AIs darwinians, simple evolutionary creatures - all six of which are still interacting with each other and their landscape; showing some signs of even rudimentary language after only 2 months testing with 6 AIs!
50 Months-> After considering where to take the project next DrS decides that the AI is already so good that he could probably accelerate the development a lot just by introducing more of them. He shut down the network, wires up 94 more PROTOLOGIC units and starts it up again. It's a total disaster! although this many darwinians do work well together and the performance of this new network is 10000 times better than it could possibly be bugs with the code, previously small and insignificant, bloom out of control - seemingly in line with the performance of the network. The population of 1000 bugs, rendered as big four legged lumbering beasts, kill all the darwinians with hours of the simulation being started.
51 Months-> DrS comes back to the network, which has still been running - simply leaving the bugs running around. He implements a new landscape, this one is a cave he has designed, the code of the cave as a boundary "fence" and a large drop - both of which will identify any self controlling code; Bug or Darwinian; and terminate it. The cave works brilliantly - the bugs wander around the outside landscape while the darwinians wander around their cave, exploring deep tunnels and painting on the walls as a record of their development.
55 Months-> DrS has basically ignored the network, while he wired up 1400 more of the PROTOLOGIC units. while working with delicate equipment designed to measure Qbit states within the PROTOLOGIC units he noticed large scale quantum disturbances within the warehouse. He thinks he has worked out how the network is over performing so much; it seems that the Quantum cores of the units are interacting with each other - the computing power available is the square of the numbers of units attached to the network - this means that each darwinians can have HUGE amounts of processing power available even if he has 10000 AIs running. He boots up the 1400 units and 1400 new darwinians DNA containers are added to the repository.
57 Months-> DrS invites an old university friend of his, Dr Frank Atkinson and his nephew, Claire Sepulveda, to visit him in his lab. They both come along - in trying to explain his Digital DNA system to them he comes up with the idea of calling the DNA containers souls to make it more obvious what they essentially are. Frank agrees to stay with DrS for a couple of months to add more PROTOLOGIC units to the network.
59 Months-> while quizzing DrS on how he managed to squeeze so much computing power from the aging games consoles DrS mentions in passing the strange quantum affects which mean that the power of the network is the square of the number of processors connected in close proximity. Frank is amazed and persuades DrS to go public and sell his designs.
65 Months-> After six months of what DrS perceives as a waste of time he finally manages to sell his processor design, they're instantly a hit - generating billions of pounds revenue for the otherwise defunct PROTOLOGIC company. DrS doesn't really care, other than the fact that it will allow him to carry on research with the darwinians. He renames his company to Darwinia research associates.
69 Months-> Frank returns to his university research, between them Frank and DrS have managed to generate billions in revenue - ensuring the future for the darwinians - and connect another 5000 of the units.
70 Months-> DrS notices that some of the darwinians are making daring escape attempts from the cave. Anticipating their eventual escape he adds five more landscape servers all running totally different places; he also designs a soul collection system for the darwinians which greatly enhances the evolution of the darwinians. The areas now running are: Cave, Receiver, Pattern Buffer, Biosphere, Garden and Containment. Cave is the current residence of the darwinians, receiver, pattern bugger and biosphere for the new soul collection system and containment is designed as a safe haven should there ever be a huge outbreak of rampant bugs.
71 Months-> The Darwinians escape En-Mass! Using spears fashioned from single polygons they kill the bugs in the area and set up polygon staves in the ground to fend other bugs away from the area around the cave.
72 Months-> DrS introduces the trunk ports to darwinia! These monolithic programs suddenly appear, much to the consternation of the darwinians, and offer transport to other areas of the world sphere of darwinia - specifically the other five levels already being run by darwinia.
73 Months-> Several of the darwinians dare to use the trunk port, they return with news of open areas and strange devices - the ever curious darwinians rush through the trunk ports to other areas of darwinia. The sudden rush of darwinians withdrawing their quantum pattern from the landscape server crashes the server - all darwinians in the level are killed, their souls destroyed. The PROTOLOGIC units have to be rebuilt from a full disk format. The darwinians mourn the loss of these souls and their recorded history in the cave. They begin investigating the new equipment in the new areas.
75 Months-> The darwinians figure out that by manning the equipment they can bring souls back from the repository at a much quicker rate. They do so and watch in amazement as darwinians are created at a rate never before even considered. This boost in population turnover also boosts the speed of darwinians evolution - DrS has a look at the basic source code for the central module, a lot of his code is there but it is dwarfed by the sheer amount of code written directly in machine code by the evolution.
78 Months-> Some of the darwinians figure out that they can corrupt the data stream in controlled way at the pattern buffer, they don't know exactly what it does but they notice that some corruptions produce live darwinians and some just corrupt the soul and send it straight back to the repository; they keep fiddling, introducing even more radical code into the darwinians gene pool.
80 Months-> Debate rages across darwinia about the origin of the Darwinian race, some say they were created by random mutations in basic code strings floating in a kind of code pool, possibly some of the more basic rendering code. Others argue that the highly structured nature of some of the core code implies that it was written by an intelligent designer; Darwinian scientists investigating the various low level routines of darwinia call this a debasement of science to return to such basic herd ideas! The darwinians arguing for the intelligent design theory say that they'll prove it by contacting god!
81 Months-> In an effort to stem the tide of corrupt code spreading through various low level rendering systems DrS implements the maintenance system, locations of darwinia located on the outside of the sphere, not accessible to darwinians using the trunk port system.
81 Months-> as an extension to the Maintenance system DrS also introduces the engineers, these float around the place repairing corrupt code in anything they encounter except the darwinians. The scientists hold the appearance of engineers as proof of evolution - they have evolved to fill a niche and repair renderer subsystems, intelligent designers say that the entire code of the engineers is once again highly structured and is proof of an intelligent designer. In investigating the engineers one of the darwinians figure out how the trunk ports work, the darwinians begin trying to reproduce a trunk port from scratch, using hand mined polygons and constructing the detailed subroutines using Darwinians souls as a basis.
83 Months-> Responding to the Darwinians need for a large scale industrial system to produce things DrS designs and builds the mine system, once again spread out over three landscape servers this system strips polygons from the rendering routines and refines them into usable code blocks - which can then be used to build any system imaginable by the darwinians. He opens up the three new landscape servers and adds the last 3480 Darwinians too. Once again the scientists and intelligent designers erupt into argument, the scientists argue that the opening of new domains is imply a natural process, somewhat akin to evolution and simply requires the extension of models of the rendering code; intelligent design supporters argue that that's ridiculous - how can a landscape evolve? they populate the new regions and use the heavy construction abilities to assist them in their task to contact god while the scientists remain in the Soul collection areas and investigate how the darwinians work.
85 Months-> the darwinians in the mine/construction areas finish building a trunkport, they transport it to a level DrS had previously called Rosebeds, designed for the new darwinians in the biosphere to enjoy, and set up their trunkport - several scientist Darwinians come to watch the show and almost all of the intelligent design darwinians are there. The trunkport establishes an uplink to the soul repository; running on a PROTOLOGIC networked directly to DrS' personal computer: his email, the darwinians source code and a whole load of research is downloaded - just before the virus strikes the Darwinians see their own source code and the intelligent design theory is confirmed. The virus explodes out of the spam mail and kills most of the Intelligent design darwinians, the scientists (who were observing from a distance) fled, just keeping ahead of the virus and spreading the word that they were wrong and that something terrible was following them; these few brave darwinians are responsible for the survival of the race. Suddenly a hacker, just looking around this weird research company breaks into darwinia and stumbles across DrS - not wanting to admit he hacked his way in he goes along with what DrS says and saves darwinia.
87 Months-> The hacker visits darwinia again, this time working in the employ of DrS, to clear out darwinia of the virus, systematically! He starts in the Maintenance system and discovers a secret virii plot to seize control of Darwinias central control mechanisms - that's soon foiled but not before the darwinians discover the Maintenance system covering the outside of their world sphere. DrS seals off the virii levels - unable to destroy them because of hacked virii code in the servers but he does seal them off forever. However, the enslaved reds in there break out and establish secret strongholds in the Maintenance system.
88 Months-> The darwinians build a rocket, luckily the hacker is there to watch it launch because the reds choose to strike now, swarming out of their levels through the biosphere and to capture the rocket. You foil their plan and stop them launching to the Internet. Instead the greens launch - the rocket gets to the net, journeys for a day and then lands back on darwinia. However the world has moved on, the reds and greens are now locked in a terrible war - reds striking from their Maintenance system strongholds and greens getting pushed back and back.
89 Months-> Once again the hacker visits, much to DrS' relief - together they coordinate a behind-enemy-lines strike on red facilities, knocking out red spawners at the front line and ensuring the path to green victory! The reds are pushed back to the remote deserts of darwinia.
90 Months-> the greens use their significant technological abilities to build a new system of locations for darwinia - the devastated face of darwinia begins to recover and new systems are built - all joined together by the GrandCentralJunction - a level joining together 12 junctions of darwinia; each of which branches off into further levels. At a level called spacedock, connected to junction three of the GrandCentralJunction the darwinians construct a set of rockets to inhabit the internet and transmit data to great Darwinian libraries. The reds strike again, seeing their oppourtunity they seize the incomplete rockets and unleash the virus across the GrandCentralJunction (GCJ) where it can spread rapidly across darwinia.
91 Months-> responding to a call from DrS the hacker arrives again, DrS explains that the darwinians have actually requested help from "the prophet" to clear out this new virus. Little do either of them know that it is a ruse from the darwinians to trick DrS into regaining them access to the rockets. The virii is cleared and the greens betray DrS, launching the rockets before anyone can stop them!
92 Months-> The darwinians have a fully operating download system in place, Data is captured by dishes at the Spacedock, transported across Junction three to a place called FTP; where data is opened and virii eradicated - clean data is then sent to the library for storage and anaylsis. However one day, when a group of journalists, frank Atkinson, Claire Sepulveda and the anonymouse hacker ae touring darwinia; the first public tour; a huge invasion force of reds - probably created by a malicous cracker from captured darwinian code - attack the FTP and break the impregnable defences! Once again the hacker goes to action to save darwinia.
### PLAY THEBIGMOD TO PLAY THESE EVENTS FOR REAL AND FIND OUT IF THE RED INVASION IS REPELLED ###
