All the original's I remember were just the different types of flagging/powerball zones. The first actual theme based zone with any type of backstory probably would have been Vespar's Starship Wars T1 that was based on Star Wars.
So this same issue happens on my work computer, but not on my home computer. I'm not really sure why, it's not a performance issue on my side as my work computer is the faster of the two with dual quad core processors.
How do you update your e-mail address on your Continuum account? I have a old one on there from 98 that I don't even have anymore. Is there a in game command?