Argentum Online is a 1999 Argentine MMORPG video game. It is available on Microsoft Windows. The game is a modification of ORE v0.4 (developed by Baronsoft), made in 1999 by Pablo Ignacio Márquez (aka "Gulfas Morgolock") and Fernando Testa together with a group of friends in the Argentina. [1]
It has the distinction of being the first MMORPG developed in Argentina.[2] A sequel entitled Argentum 2 was at one point in development. [3]
The game has had a life outside of the fictional universe, one of the title's gamemasters noted "The fact that the Argentum community has transcended the barrier of pure fiction is for most of the players one of the most positive characteristics of the game. One day the idea of having dinner arose, to meet us all."[4]
The developers and fans worked together to create variants and mods of the game, by 2001 four different versions had been made.[5]
The game's source code was released in 2003 under the GNU GPL license and can be downloaded from SourceForge.[6] This has caused many player-run servers to be created. These servers aren't moderated nor controlled by the original developers and are normally mechanically different from the 2003 version of the game.
IOn September 4, 2020, Pablo Márquez together with Horacio Garófalo announce a new project showing a first version of what would be Argentum Forever; a recreation of the original Argentum using the Unity engine, and with isometric graphics.
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the creation of Argentum Online, Pablo Márquez, together with several members of the original staff and after the recommendation of Xavier Viger Navarro alias "SENSUI", created an updated version of the original game, using the RevoluciónAO project as a base, provided by its creator Pablo Mercavides alias "Ladder", who delivered the source code with promises of profit percentages that were never fulfilled, as was usual in the dealings of Mr. Pablo Márquez.
On April 29, 2022, Argentum 20 became the first version of the game to hit the Steam platform.