Roblox is an entirely different game from when It was released. It’s gone through various eras with many online users debating over the game’s golden age. I joined Roblox at a time that already felt late, 2009. It’s crazy that Roblox went on to be one of the world’s most popular games. This post is a love letter for fans of Roblox during the years of 2009 through 2011.
TIX (Tickets)
Roblox’s Ticket system, often abbreviated as “Tix,” was a virtual currency used on the gaming platform Roblox. Introduced in 2007, Tix served as a secondary currency alongside Robux. Unlike Robux, which could be purchased with real money, Tix could be earned by players through various in-game activities such as visiting places, logging in daily, or having others visit their creations. Tix were primarily used for purchasing items, gear, and accessories within the Roblox catalog. However, in 2016, Roblox discontinued Tix, shifting towards a more simplified economy based solely on Robux. Tix usually was a free player currency. They had methods that allowed users to trade currency in-game for the opposite funds. Some hats could only be bought with tons of Tix, making some Ticket hats much more valuable than robux.
Roblox Guests
Roblox Guests were temporary user accounts on the Roblox platform that allowed players to try out the platform without creating a full account. Guests were identified by a randomized series of numbers as their username, such as “Guest1234.” Guests could not chat with users in game, which led to the iconic bullying of guests. or the occasional over-protective play where players would defend the guests. In October 2017, Roblox removed the ability for new players to create Guest accounts. This decision aimed to encourage new users to create full Roblox accounts, which would offer them more features and benefits within the platform.
Original Quick chat
Roblox’s odd features included this very in-depth quick chat message bubble on a player’s in-game interface. From my understanding this was implemented to the game as a safeguard for younger players. Being restricted to a small set of messages would make sharing sensitive information impossible. You can find the whole list of message options on this Reddit post.
Classic Website Layout
Like most websites, Roblox went under some needless user interface changes. Some tabs have been simplified, like the Game, Catalog, and People tabs being combined to a search bar. I really liked on the old clients you could see your friends full avatar at the bottom part of the website. If your friends were online, they would light up green. Old user profiles had the players games easily searchable. Modern Roblox makes navigating people’s profiles a nightmare. Old Roblox would categorize game’s to what was trending at the time by most active players. If you could sustain user engagement after midnight, you had a big chance of your game making it to front page the next morning.
Old Roblox Avatars
This is where modern Roblox fails. These rectangular player models was all the game ever needed. The game would iterate over the original model with some new ideas. The Dev team would introduce packages, which would make your player model look more like an action figure or unique character. I couldn’t find the exact photo for this next feature, but Roblox’s avatar creator would allow users to select individual pieces of their body to be certain colors. This allowed for people to make blank characters that simulated nude models. Today you can select a skin color that colors all pieces with no interchangeability. Old avatars could only wear one hat. Because of this tons of infamous glitches began to appear that’d teach people how to glitch hats on their avatars. These exploits caused people to lose their accounts due to scams. Roblox would also release tons of unique items called Gear, which would give players some fun things to use in games. Some gear were overpowered, such as the gravity coil giving players a moon jump. A lot of old school Roblox items are broken to various Roblox engine overhauls. Because of this, many original gear don’t function today.
old Roblox places
Tons of iconic games came out of Roblox. Many of these places will be personalized nostalgia. Ones that I know a majority of players played were the official ones by Users Roblox and Builderman. Community made games that were insanely popular included Work at a Pizza Place, Iron Cafe, Minigame Mania, and Fall down stairs. Some of my personal favorites that I remember was Reason 2 Die, which was a Left 4 Dead styled zombie game. And games like themed obbys were my favorite.
The Roblox OBBY Genre
Obby is short slang on Roblox for obstacle course. It originate when people realized that game titles would cut off with “…” at the end, so the term ‘obby’ was used so people could see the entire title. Obbys were simple platform challenge games that used the Iconic spawn points to guide players to the end of a level. The reward section at the end of a level would usually be filled with path givers which were great for trolling players. If you didn’t feel like actually doing the obby, or that it was too hard, you could support the creator by buying a VIP shirt. Many map creators would use this feature as a selling point in their games, granting them powerful items that were hiding behind VIP rooms.
User Created Ads
User created ads were hands down the best but worst part of the game’s community. Often times an ad would lead to a misleading place or model, but when it was used right, it’d lead you to an awesome game. Tons of comic style ads were created to sell users on games to play.
Brick Textures + Extras
Roblox originally shared a brick stud design similar to Lego. The studs would use an R logo in contrast to the usual Lego stud logo. Over the years to avoid copyright, Roblox changed the design to be square and free of stud design.
Seasonal Events
Seasonal Events were the bread and butter to Roblox. During these Roblox Dev created events, tons of free items would be created for users. Many remember the Easter events where you collected Eggs that you could wear, but after a certain time period they would hatch into actual hats (similar to the Roblox presents). I also remember having to bake an excessive amount of pies during the 2009 thanksgiving event to get the Pi(3.14) Pie.
Old point & click movement
The point and click disc that’d appear when using your cursor may seem pointless, but it would detect invisible paths on obbys. Because Roblox removed this iconic feature, tons of old obbys are unplayable today.
Builder's Club
Builders Club was a premium membership program on Roblox offering users various benefits. Members received a daily allowance of Robux. You could get access to exclusive items in the catalog, and the ability to trade and sell virtual goods. You could create and manage groups, enjoy an ad-free experience, and have a higher limit on the number of game levels you could make. Builders Club was popular for those who wanted to support Roblox and enhance their gaming experience. In 2019, it was rebranded as Roblox Premium, consolidating membership tiers into one subscription model for a simpler user experience.
Official Badges
Roblox had an official set of badges that users could unlock by doing various things on the platform. One achievement was unlocked by having tons of people join your games, and others were earned by knocking out people in games. Later on Roblox would allow creators to make their own badges, which has unfortunately flooded the “badge economy” with tons of pointless achievements.
What are some of the things you remember about Roblox?