If you are a student from Dame Alice Owen’s, in the class that began in September 2005 - the same year as me, then you have a station. The best place to start is by looking at the index of stations found in the PDF version of the map. In many cases, station names are based on your first or last name. From my memory (and the yearbook did help on this one), friends tend to be around each other on this map, so you could look for a friend's station first, and see if your station is nearby. If you still can’t find the station, feel free to let me know.
If you are from Pope Paul, look to the south-east, in Zone B.
Generally, close friends find themselves in the inner zone, having large stations with multiple interchanges. More casual friends are either small stations in the inner zones or interchange stations in the outer zone. Acquaintances are primarily in the outer zone, having small stations. For those in Pope Paul, stations can be found in Barbica City – in the south-east.
One of the main goals of this map was to include every single person in my year – something which the original Conapega map did not achieve. I’ve endeavoured to compile a complete list of students; 239 in total, making sure that nobody was left out – however if this is the case (and you care enough to point it out - which I doubt) – I will update the map.
I am always open for suggestions for renames. It is quite hard coming up with names that I like. Provided that the name wasn’t used in St. Jacques or Zafarnia, any suggestions will be considered. In terms of positions, these are locked in and will not change.
Life goes on, and many of you have gotten married. From all of us at St. Jacques... well just me - Congratulations! Nonetheless, this map is a snapshot of the school years, so I may have used your maiden name as basis for the station name (or simply, just your first name) For security reasons (I know some of the security questions ask for a maiden name), if you’re uncomfortable I can make up a station using your first name.
I have not fully visualised the city in my head to the extent that I have St. Jacques, so I won’t have as much of a visualisation – but I am open to ideas.
When creating the map, landing on a design I was happy with, there was a small surplus of stations available. Not wanting to radically alter the design, I decided to grant people with a second station – almost all exclusively closer friends (during all eras of school). For each of these people, there will be one station in the inner zone and one station in the outer zone.
Also, people who attended both Dame Alice Owen's and Pope Paul school, will have a station each - one in Napega, and one in Barbica City.
Conapega was the original name for the city. From what I discern, Na was for Nathaniel, Pe was for Pearce and Ga was for Gabriel. I can't remember what the Co stood for. The only person in our year whose name started with a Co was Connor, I don't believe he was considered for the name.
When starting the initial designs for the map, with an idea for a logo in mind, the NM motif couldn't be passed off - hence I shortened the name to Napega. To remind everyone that this is a Owens based map - Owenia county was coined. It means a sweet logo too! Plus - ON - can be pronounced as Owen.
As for Barbica - this name was what I referred to the old Pope Paul map as - hence I kept it for this map. I suppose that when I was a child, I just liked the name Barbican on the tube.
If you’d like a print, let me know. As this map is smaller in size compared to St. Jacques and Zafarnia, an A1 print is viable - and quite a good poster size. If interested, send me a message. I will be exploring options for folded paper copy of the map in the future.
I experimented with a T-Shirt for the Zafarnia map (not being fully happy with the result). I may do the same for this map - watch this space.
Each letter of the alphabet has a line - 14 Metro Lines, 5 Barbica City Lines have been named, starting with a different letter. The 7 Owenia Suburban Rail lines are lettered from what remained of the alphabet. That is why the names New Fusco, Queen Kristina and St. Eireni were ultimately chosen.
Original line names: Awinnie, Central, Chiara, Brenner, Eirenideane, Ezinne, Fung & City, Gabriel Glider, Heaselang, Jacques, Kennaugh, Parkinson, Pearce, Rushton & City. I dropped myself from the list quite quickly.
Line names I would have used, had I included more lines: Toondano, Mauripaige, Deane, Jones.
240 students in my year (including myself) are represented on the map, as well 58 teachers. I didn't socialise with people outside my year very much, so don't remember many names - I count 12 people on the map that fit that category.
Of the 240 students, 36 of them joined for sixth-form and 29 of them left at any point before the end of Year 13.
In total, 368 people have representation on this map.
The map has 459 stations in total. There are 348 Napega Metro stations, and in total, 404 stations on the Napega Metro and Barbica City Metrorail.
The Napega Metro line with the most stations is the Kennaugh Line (42). With the exception of the Circular Line, the line with the fewest stations is the Awinnibelli Line (24).
In Barbica City, there are stations for all 32 people in my year at Pope Paul (including two who left before the end of Year 6), and 8 teachers.
I messaged most people from Owen's who had lines that were named after them. I got responses from most people; they were the ones I was closest with more towards the end of school, being the people I have seen or messaged most recently. Two people, I know would have messaged back, but they're not much on WhatsApp and are tricky to reach. I think it's far too long a time since graduating primary school, to message the six people from Pope Paul which had lines after them - I've lost all contact with two of them, though I have spoken to Jordan relatively recently.
Some of the station names on Owenia Suburban Rail were named after people from the Metanet community, which I was a part of, mainly from 2006-09. The remainder of the stations come from the original Conapega map - those which I didn't use for St. Jacques!
Unintentional, but the choices for line colours for Barbica coincidentally almost match the school houses of the students the lines were named after (from memory)! Houses in Pope Paul school were named after rivers in the UK. Carla was in Mersey, which was coloured red, just like the New Fusco line. Sophia was team Tyne, coloured yellow, like the Morganmanco. (I can’t remember what house Jordan was in, I think it was also Tyne). Kristina, like me, was in house Severn, coloured green, just like her line. Marisa was in team Thames, coloured purple, just like the funicular. Unfortunately, Caterina was in Thames too, and I can’t have two purple lines in Barbica – Blue (team Avon) is close enough.
When I initially released the map, I realised very soon after that I had forgotten one student. Sorry, Dan Crawshaw. The map has quickly been rectified to include him. To be fair, he did leave school quite early on.
The map took around 5 months to create (from the finalised sketch to the completed diagram).
There are 745 stations in total on the Conapega Map. However, only 174 students out of 240 received stations - leaving 66 people without any stations on the map.
The people with the most stations on the original Conapega map are Stephen (8 stations), Ben Whitman (7 stations), Awinnie and Gabriel (5 stations), Josh and Pearce (4 stations). Oh, I clock in at 8 stations as well. In Napega, no one has more than two stations.
103 stations on the Conapega Map have come from Tube and Rail stations on the London map. For Napega, I've kept this number to just one. Can you find it?
Summer of ’06 – the fad game at Computer Club became ‘Stickman Adventures’, a platformer, elegantly minimalist in design, with 150 levels – starring a ninja with a skilled moveset. Adrenaline Challenge seemed very gauche by comparison. The cruelness of Interactive Buddy wore a little thin. Stickman Adventures was being played on every machine at Computer Club – with many players struggling with Episode 20, Level 2 – a tricky map with a design based on the Japanese Deku tree. I made it through, avoiding zap drones and mines – and finished the episode. I fell instantly in love with the game, and just had to continue at home – bell was ringing and it was time for Period 4.
The game was available for download. ‘Stickman Adventures’ was really called ‘N, The Way of the Ninja’ – by Metanet Software. Even better, there were 70 more episodes available. 500 levels – a true mission. I got right into it and made my way through the columns. The 00s, 10s and 20s were slightly easier than the following, with the true challenge being the 80s column – all levels made by fans of the game, hence generally trickier. My favourite column was the 90s, the maps there were particularly atmospheric. Gazizza my Dilsnoofus. (Also, damn you, 96-4).
Fads don’t last all too long in Computer Club. The deku tree wilted in the eyes of the nerds – and Need for Madness, a java-based 3D racer game, intrigued. Soon, they were all flocking over. I continued on with N, relishing the challenge – soon completing the 00s column, unlocking the bright magenta ninja! Fascinated with level editors, I got busy creating my own maps. More columns completed, more colours unlocked, I ended up completing 494 of the levels. I never did manage to solve the hardest level in the game, Episode 88 Level 4, ‘Mother Thumping Impossible’, a truly diabolical map devised by blue_tetris.
The game would have a stalwart and gregarious community. There were the forums, a lively discussion board, and the N User Map Archive (where Metanet Software sourced their maps for the 80s column). I joined the forums in the summer holidays, always asking for advice on the trickier levels. One member in particular, ‘AMomentLikeThis’ was always there to answer my calls for help.
The Metanet community was supremely talented in many ways – particularly in graphic design. Because of the Metanet Forums, I had sort of a grip on graphic design, primarily Photoshop – I learned the basics and was able to run my own ‘signature shop’. We all proudly donned sleek images for our signatures below our posts.
I then joined the IRC channel (there’s a nostalgic name) with more live chatting, now I could get my mind around it. I still haven’t mastered Discord, finding it daunting to use (besides, it’s just awkward dropping into a chat you don’t know if you’re a part of). Metanet became my primary social life after school, most of my friends were quite far away, not reachable by a walk across town.
By the start of Year 11, however, fellow Owenians were hosting and attending house parties. Beers in hand, I became envious. Things needed to change, my social life needed to diversify a little. By then I was allowed to leave town and head into London, sometimes by myself, sometimes with a friend. I would start to involve myself in the community a little less than before. By then it had started to lose its luster – becoming a twinge pretentious; I couldn’t really keep up.
Metanet still was an important part of my early teens – and in the original Conapega map, there were a number of stations named after community members. There were even a small number of stations on the St. Jacques Map.
Metanet will get more of a presence on my maps – with references on the Napega map, and more coming for the St. Jacques Map (which will be updated this summer/autumn, watch this space).
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