Greetings! Sami's old flint and steel video still somewhere?

[Warren_K]

Hello everyone, I wanted to share a short story with you all. I first found this game ~20 years ago when I was just a kid in middle school. Back then I liked the idea of the outdoors but I wasn't very skilled, so playing UnReal World was fascinating to me and I would learn about plants and shelter building in my spare time.

Later when I was in my early 20s, I discovered a video by Sami where he was next to a stove. He produced a fire bag and from it he pulled tinder fungus, a flint, fire steel, birch bark, and some other form of tinder. Back then I found this fascinating and the bushcraft scene wasn't on YouTube like it is now, so this was my introduction to flint and steel. It was like magic to me and I wanted to learn how to do it. Lacking the internet resources available back then, I had to figure out how to make do with what I had and by carefully watching that video. I ended up using a smooth sided file as my fire steel and red jasper for my flint. After learning how to make charcloth from old jeans and an altoid tin I finally got a coal going. Then a small fire. Man... that might have been a little moment, but to me it meant a lot.

You might say things took off like a fire after that. I became really intrigued with all aspects of primitive living and the differences across all cultures in how they lived. Now, I don't produce any content because of an admitted lack of drive, and I'm no name in bushcraft although some are aware of it. But really, it's just been a life passion and I credit that video and this game for helping me get so interested when I was younger.

Thank you to everyone involved in this game for bridging such a rare gap of gaming and the true feel of the outdoors. The UnReal World is still an incredibly unique game. Maybe it's nostalgia for me at this point, but nothing else brings images of actually being in the wild to my imagination.

So I must ask... I've tried hard to find that flint and steel video. Is it still available anywhere?

My recreation of Sami's birch bark fire starting method, from 2013:

This works amazing even when the whole forest is soaked, by the way!

Another rainy day in the forest:


Getting ready for tea out in the steppes:


Take care, everyone!

[Sami]

It's so nice to read testimonies like this one. For me it's very rewarding to hear about the game actually leading people outdoors, exploring and trying things.
That's our ultimate development goal. Thanks for posting.

I guess I have the firemaking video still on CD-ROM somewhere. We could think about putting it available at Enormous Elk YouTube. I'll try to remember to browse the archives at some point.

[Warren_K]

That would be so great, thank you! I will be sure to check for it there later.