Some of mine span years, you've all seen the learning curve image (or should have). You are always starting out in DF. If anyone doesnt know what im talking about with that pic then pipe up and someone will link it, its part of our heritage
I've seen remarks, but no images.
Does anyone know what the original game to be shown with the Learning Cliff was? I remember seeing this back almost a decade ago with Eve Online as the black line (though I agree it works with DF just as well ), but even then I could swear it was an altered image.
I first saw this image with in connection with Eve Online as well, and I was wondering about it too.
The earliest similar image I could find was from 2008:
http://www.computerbase.de/forum/showthread.php?t=361613although there were a few that may have been older.
The earliest Dwarf Fortress version of the image that I could find was from 2010:
http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=18453Looking at the font, on the Eve image, in "TIME SPENT PLAYING" and "LOTR ONLINE", the T and L appear to be identical, so that indicates that is original text. OTOH, in "Eve: The Second Genesis", the E and S appear different from the E and S in "TIME SPENT PLAYING", so that is most likely 'shopped.
-- On closer examination, the T and L are ever so slightly different. The height is the same, but the width is off by a pixel or two. So, that makes it a copy of a copy.
in the Dwarf Fortress image, the fonts are completely different for the axis and line labels. The DF image has much fewer jpg artifacts, so that indicates it is not a copy of the Eve image. The two axis labels appear to use the same font. The gap between the blue line and the origin is much smaller in the DF image than in the Eve image. This indicates that the Eve image is not a copy of the DF image.
The gif displayed in the post above has much sharper edges than the jpegs, indicating that it is not a descendant of either of these two images. However, the image size and the dithering on the gif is not seen on the jpegs. So, there was an earlier version of the DF image that both of these are a copy of.
http://presentation.drupalgardens.com/book/export/html/101 also is a fairly early version of the file, but it is ever so slightly more blurred than the Eve image. It is also interesting in that it lacks the background grid. I would guess that the CMS image is a descendant of the Eve image that went through some fairly major cleanup.
In short, none of these are the original. The DF image is not a copy of any of the Eve images I looked at. The Eve image is not a copy of any of the DF images I looked at. The DF images would appear to have a more legitimate claim to the throne, but I couldn't find any mention of the DF image until 2 years after the Eve image was seen. Also, the different font for the labels on the bottom of the DF image indicates, but is not proof of, a 'shopped image.
Maybe a more thorough search would be able to find the original, because these aren't it.