Regular readers to our fair magazine, will remember that once not that long ago, I set out on a Phileas Fogg worthy trip around the world, using Second Life locations to get me from one bordering country to the next. Well, recently I have been yearning for another such quest, seeing as how much fun that expedition had been. However, seeing that I'd conquered the globe, I needed a new challenge. After some careful consideration, I decided that this time, rather than travelling in the conventional sense, this time I would take a journey back through time.

First things first, as any experienced traveller will tell you, the most important thing when embarking on any journey, is preparation. Therefore, to embark on my chronological mission, I would need the correct equipment. Fortunately, I discovered the "Pack to the Future" courtesy of Loftvoker, complete with a Flux Capacitor, a hover board, a sports almanac from the future, and the keys to a Delorean (if only I could remember where I parked it).

If Doctor Who taught me anything, it's that any time traveller worth their salt, needs a youthful companion to accompany them. With this in mind, I lured the lovely Allanah Tomsen along to assist me, through a clever use of a freebie Tardis that I once picked up on my travels. So now, with the right equipment, and my eager helper, we set out into the mysterious past.

To start off, we decided to make a small jump, back half a century to the 1950's. We typed our destination into search, picked a random desination, and shot into the past. Or rather, we teleported to Artilleri, a stunning sim, and location of the main store from which the sim gets it's name. As many of the most fashion concious in SL will be able to tell you, Artilleri produce some of the most stylish and well made retro and rockbilly clothing you can find inworld, drawing on 50's and early 60's style for their inspiration. As well as being able to pick up some of this superb clobber, on the sim, you can pick up some well built funiture from the period, as well as just enjoying the gorgeous builds on the sim, with the main store styled like a classic American diner, and a kitcsh bowling alley and drive in movie theatre to enjoy.

Leaving this time behind us, we decided to aim a little further into the past this time, heading back to the 18th Century, to a time when Pirates sailed the seven seas, getting up to all sorts of skulduggery as they did. To explore this time, we ended up at Buccaneers Reef, a swashbuckling themed sim. They have many Pirate Ships for you to enjoy, one that serves two purposes, as a giant aquarium and dancefloor, and undersea one for those of a mermaid persuasion, a chillout ship with a large hot-tub to relax in, and one out in the sea, which for some reason is full to the brim with almost every s&m toy you can find inworld. However, the main appeal of the sim, would be the pub, with regular musical events, and games for the patrons to enjoy, including arm wrestling, which Allanah and I had fun playing (even though she wiped the floor with me).

From there, we decided to get even more ambitious with our time leaps, this time ending up in Medieval England. I'll admit that at this point, we got a little touristy, stopping to pose with the soldiers who proudly stood welcoming us to the sim, and wandering around the beautiful buildings and gardens. There are a smattering of shops, but the real joy of this place is in the sights to see, from the rustic houses and gorgeous plants, to the majesty of the looming castle that dominates the area.

Our trip was becoming one feast for the eyes after another, as we now headed back from AD to BC, as we arrived in Ancient Eypt, on Pharaohs Isle, a desert sim replete with Pyramids and other buildings from the time. However, as we wandered into the Sphinx, we discovered a catacomb of tunnels, leading us all over the sim, into mysterious rooms covered in authentic hieroglyphics and statues, and also a little not-exactly-period nightclub, which at least gives you the chance to "Walk like an Egyptian".

I finally set the SL time machine back as far as it could go, taking us back to prehistoric times, courtesy of Spirit Stonehenge. At first glance, the sim has a plethora of standing stones and lush greenery, although at times, the overuse of the sculpty stones lends towards creations bordering on Flintstone-ish. Also there are certain items, like a hot-tub and beach furniture, which are completely out of place, and threaten to ruin the feel of the theme. However, as with the sim before, the true joys of the sim come when you venture underground. A series of linked caves, complete with cave paintings and animal skin decorations give a great caveman experience, and the Love Cave is filled with some very sweet and romantic poseballs for you to share with your special someone.

At this point, my SL Time Machine went haywire, and Allanah and I found ourselves thrown forward to the Future. Or rather, we ended up at Future. So, what can I report from Second Life's very own Future? Well, worryingly enough, the Future sim is owned by big business, with Nokia, Electolux, CNN, Organic, and Popular Science magazine all having builds there. On a more positive note, the work here is breathtaking, and shows a very positive attitude from these companies to the future, and to SL's part of it. From Popular Science creating accurate SL replicas of new renewable energy solutions, to CNN's new hub, where they film reports from inworld (check out Allanah and I playing newsreader below), and invite residents to submit their own stories from around the grid; and finally Electrolux's amazing light bulb lounge, showing off the awards for inworld innovation, given to some of the biggest names in inworld creativity. And that seems to sum up what the Future sim is all about: Innovation. And if that is what we have to look forward to in Second Lifes's future, I think we are in for some fun times indeed.