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Post by Sac (a.k.a Icaras) on Feb 3, 2016 2:51:08 GMT -5
I general miss the days of the fan site, back in the late nintiesyou could runa search on something and come across a bunch of not only professional sites, but also heaps of fan made websites on things like geocities. These days it seems those interested in making such content do it as a wiki, or hide it on crap like facebook One site I was sad to see die was omf.com, the site of the team behind one must fall 2097 and its sequel battlegrounds. I was quite active on the forums there for awhile, but eventually drifted away (The few times I did go back, I found most of my contemporaries had also vanished and so felt no desire to re-join the community) I also like classicgaming.com, not so much for their content, but because they had a ton of fans sites I liked browsing when I was bored. I'd also list my own Halloween Harry/Alien Carnage site, but that's down mostly out of laziness to find a free host or pay for some webs space. (Plus I'm too lazy to actually work on it, too)
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sumez
Junior Member
Posts: 53
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Post by sumez on Feb 3, 2016 3:56:10 GMT -5
GamesDomain used to be my one stop for everything Video Games
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sumez
Junior Member
Posts: 53
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Post by sumez on Feb 3, 2016 3:58:34 GMT -5
Here's a blast from the past that I photographed off one of my old Danish video game mags of the time (I think, from 1994), lots of screenshots of company and fan sites, and what the Webz looked like at the time. (hope deeplinking to Facebook images works)
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Post by elektrolurch on Feb 3, 2016 5:49:14 GMT -5
That was another one that was really something at the beginning, but I think I hung around too long watching it slowly decay. Even at its best it was plagued by slowness and then people leaching off the site's bandwidth and then poorly-functioning hacks meant to circumvent the leaching, all for incomplete, cracked rips that sometimes required a good deal of coaxing just to get running even on the hardware where they were originally intended to run. It was an adventure, but in the end, GOG has filled much of its role better than it ever could have. I don't think you can compare GOG to HotU at all. I mean, on GOG, obscure old games very rarely make it.... on HotU, it was a paradise for those titles. For bigger, at the time also well known titles, sure, GOG is awesome. But for drawing attention for obscure,unique, awesome stuff that is long forgotten, the best state of HotU still is a benchmark.
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Post by jorpho on Feb 3, 2016 9:19:29 GMT -5
That was another one that was really something at the beginning, but I think I hung around too long watching it slowly decay. Even at its best it was plagued by slowness and then people leaching off the site's bandwidth and then poorly-functioning hacks meant to circumvent the leaching, all for incomplete, cracked rips that sometimes required a good deal of coaxing just to get running even on the hardware where they were originally intended to run. It was an adventure, but in the end, GOG has filled much of its role better than it ever could have. I don't think you can compare GOG to HotU at all. I mean, on GOG, obscure old games very rarely make it.... on HotU, it was a paradise for those titles. For bigger, at the time also well known titles, sure, GOG is awesome. But for drawing attention for obscure,unique, awesome stuff that is long forgotten, the best state of HotU still is a benchmark. It's true HOTU had a lot of old, obscure stuff, but a lot of that old, obscure stuff was obscure for a good reason. Things probably would have turned out very differently if people hadn't been flocking there to download the likes of Metal Gear Solid and System Shock 2.
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Post by Woody Alien on Feb 3, 2016 9:25:37 GMT -5
Anybody remember Sydlexia? I think they were less about gaming and more just general 80's/90's stuff in general, but I remember enjoying their stuff, at least. I'd say their highlight was a review of every finisher from MK 1-3, probably. I do! I used sometimes to read his articles on bizarre NES games and wacky Japanese stuff, also those on forgotten pieces of pop culture like breakfast cereals and such things. It was there that I knew first about the original version of Monster Party, later confirmed to actually exist. Also, about that FFVI fansite shaped like a town someone of you mentioned: too bad nobody does this sort of thing anymore! Sure, most Geocities and similar games were crap, but once in a while there were some truly original and/or bizarre layouts that were forgotten in favor of clean, uniform designs. This old R-Type fansite for example was pretty neat, shame it can't be shown properly on Archive.org. Also also, props to whoever mentioned Flying Omelette.
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Post by elektrolurch on Feb 3, 2016 9:30:07 GMT -5
It's true HOTU had a lot of old, obscure stuff, but a lot of that old, obscure stuff was obscure for a good reason. Things probably would have turned out very differently if people hadn't been flocking there to download the likes of Metal Gear Solid and System Shock 2. That's the thing, I was there for stuff like Alter Ego, PM2, Galapagos or Bad Day on the Midway.... Those unique, weird gems that show unique outlooks on what gaming can be. I didn't even know that Metal Gear Solid or System Schock 2 where ever on there, those were games I knew about before HOTU...
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Post by Resident Tsundere on Feb 4, 2016 2:21:28 GMT -5
Anybody remember Sydlexia? I think they were less about gaming and more just general 80's/90's stuff in general, but I remember enjoying their stuff, at least. I'd say their highlight was a review of every finisher from MK 1-3, probably. I do!I enjoyed reading them from time to time, especially browsing their various Top 100 lists. I didn't know it went down. Shame. I also remember All Game fondly too... used to browse them a lot in the early-mid 2000s when I was doing my Saturn thing. A similar website is defunctgames.com but thankfully they're still up. Wouldn't it be ironic if they were defunct too? For me, on a very personal note, my favorite "defunct" video game website has to be RVGFanatic.com. Of course, that was my baby, and it ran for nearly 9 years before meeting an untimely demise September 2015 due to issues outside of my control. On the bright side, I recently launched RVGFanatic.com/wordpress and it's basically RVG reborn and revitalized. I miss Rob's OPCFG site. Also, FlyingOmelette stopped receiving updates a good while ago and the webmaster even left a note saying something to the effect of "let's face it, fansites are dead in this day and age. And so now is this site. Just too busy with life. etc." I always enjoyed reading her reviews. I remember FlyingOmelette. I'm not surprised that it is not updated anymore, though, because that's the way that a lot of these websites go. I relate to the person that abandoned their blog because they received little to no feedback (less so their ambitions to generate ad revenue). The Like button is a double edged sword. It gives people an easy way to express approval without having to explain why. OTOH, you could day that they're pretty bitter, and I am one bitter bitch.
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Post by The Great Klaid on Feb 4, 2016 3:07:22 GMT -5
I do!I enjoyed reading them from time to time, especially browsing their various Top 100 lists. I didn't know it went down. Shame. I also remember All Game fondly too... used to browse them a lot in the early-mid 2000s when I was doing my Saturn thing. A similar website is defunctgames.com but thankfully they're still up. Wouldn't it be ironic if they were defunct too? For me, on a very personal note, my favorite "defunct" video game website has to be RVGFanatic.com. Of course, that was my baby, and it ran for nearly 9 years before meeting an untimely demise September 2015 due to issues outside of my control. On the bright side, I recently launched RVGFanatic.com/wordpress and it's basically RVG reborn and revitalized. I miss Rob's OPCFG site. Also, FlyingOmelette stopped receiving updates a good while ago and the webmaster even left a note saying something to the effect of "let's face it, fansites are dead in this day and age. And so now is this site. Just too busy with life. etc." I always enjoyed reading her reviews. I remember FlyingOmelette. I'm not surprised that it is not updated anymore, though, because that's the way that a lot of these websites go. I relate to the person that abandoned their blog because they received little to no feedback (less so their ambitions to generate ad revenue). The Like button is a double edged sword. It gives people an easy way to express approval without having to explain why. OTOH, you could day that they're pretty bitter, and I am one bitter bitch. Oh yeah I forgot about Flying Omelette. That place was pretty boss. Mostly, because someone else in the world cared about Arc the Lad 4. And yeah, probably one of the worst was SocksMakePeopleSexy. Which seemed to die after the feedback on her April Fool's Day pranks of editing the Final Fantasy Retrospective. Which proves that fan's are still the fucking worst.
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Post by tokenflipguy on Feb 4, 2016 6:12:15 GMT -5
I general miss the days of the fan site, back in the late nintiesyou could runa search on something and come across a bunch of not only professional sites, but also heaps of fan made websites on things like geocities. These days it seems those interested in making such content do it as a wiki, or hide it on crap like facebook One site I was sad to see die was omf.com, the site of the team behind one must fall 2097 and its sequel battlegrounds. I was quite active on the forums there for awhile, but eventually drifted away (The few times I did go back, I found most of my contemporaries had also vanished and so felt no desire to re-join the community) I also like classicgaming.com, not so much for their content, but because they had a ton of fans sites I liked browsing when I was bored. I'd also list my own Halloween Harry/Alien Carnage site, but that's down mostly out of laziness to find a free host or pay for some webs space. (Plus I'm too lazy to actually work on it, too) Ah, I remember the first incarnation of Metalgear.net and metalgearsolid.org (which I did contribute to) The only site from the old days that's still kicking is thesnakesoup.org too bad the forum has become toxic that Ravi seldom posts there. Last year was the first time he was officially invited to E3. Did meet up with him as well a few other people from the fandom. It was odd to see the old generation and new generation to give the Metal Gear franchise it's expected last hurrah.
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Post by steven on Feb 4, 2016 10:12:33 GMT -5
I do!I enjoyed reading them from time to time, especially browsing their various Top 100 lists. I didn't know it went down. Shame. I also remember All Game fondly too... used to browse them a lot in the early-mid 2000s when I was doing my Saturn thing. A similar website is defunctgames.com but thankfully they're still up. Wouldn't it be ironic if they were defunct too? For me, on a very personal note, my favorite "defunct" video game website has to be RVGFanatic.com. Of course, that was my baby, and it ran for nearly 9 years before meeting an untimely demise September 2015 due to issues outside of my control. On the bright side, I recently launched RVGFanatic.com/wordpress and it's basically RVG reborn and revitalized. I miss Rob's OPCFG site. Also, FlyingOmelette stopped receiving updates a good while ago and the webmaster even left a note saying something to the effect of "let's face it, fansites are dead in this day and age. And so now is this site. Just too busy with life. etc." I always enjoyed reading her reviews. I remember FlyingOmelette. I'm not surprised that it is not updated anymore, though, because that's the way that a lot of these websites go. I relate to the person that abandoned their blog because they received little to no feedback (less so their ambitions to generate ad revenue). The Like button is a double edged sword. It gives people an easy way to express approval without having to explain why. OTOH, you could day that they're pretty bitter, and I am one bitter bitch. Heh, your post struck a chord with me. I prided myself on never abandoning my fansite even after nearly 9 years. Unfortunately, last September I could no longer update it for reasons outside of my control. The good news is, the original site remains fully viewable and I've launched a Wordpress as sort of a version 2. I consider it an extension of the original site and am just thankful I have a platform to create content again; it IS a form of a creative outlet for me, which I believe we all need to some degree in one fashion or another. What strikes me about your post though is how "lonely" it can be for webmasters. Although I've received much positive feedback over the past 9+ years, I noticed it was moreso 2007-2013 or so. In the past couple years people have not commented as much, when I feel my content has been just as strong if not better than my previous content. Even though I was never considered a "big boy" like say Sega-16, I knew my site was well received (especially for its obscure Super Famicom impressions) by many people. So I decided to launch a Patreon last year. It was a very humbling experience as to this day I still have zero pledges. I didn't think I'd be able to make a whole lot out of my Patreon, but I figured I'd have enough support to at least make say $10 a month. So that was a very humbling experience and it reminded me that I need to keep writing with this as strictly a free hobby... and not something that I could even make a cent off of. Because at the end of the day, I write to chronicle my gaming moments in time, and I enjoy the fact/idea that anyone anywhere and at any time can view those very thoughts if they so choose. I have to admit though, when I see Youtube gaming personalities raking in like $500+ a month from thousands of Patrons, and I'm sitting there at $0, it's a bit annoying/frustrating. It seems people just don't flock to fansites like they used to, but I get it. It's kind of a sign of the times, and has been for a number of years now. So this is nothing new. Bottom line, if you're creating content, in ANY medium, it's important to keep in mind why you're doing it. I think that's been the biggest lesson/reminder for me in the past 6 months or so.
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Post by Magma MK-II on Feb 4, 2016 11:54:58 GMT -5
Ah, Metal Slug Database... I remember it from it's beginning back around 2001. I've seen it shut down and resurrect miraculously three times (probably more), yet when the site stopped being updated I felt it was finally doomed, not because of the state of the franchise but the webmaster itself.
Now if there's one site I miss is EmuAsylum. It was probably the first emulation site I entered to be neatly organized.
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Post by Kubo Caskett on Feb 4, 2016 12:06:21 GMT -5
I really do feel you there, I don't get why people have to have this patreon thing in the first place then they just get some jobs (and no the content making isn't a excuse). I mean I have a job outside of the internet and I made like a decent amount of money (and occasionally spend it but not a whole lot but I don't need to), so I don't see why couldn't they either. Maybe time constraints I guess? If so then I can genuinely understand. But still this Patreon thing is silly and whatever happened to just mere donations or am I missing something?
But anyway, I quite disagree with that webmaster's notion that fansites are dead considering that some are still active (like the ZOE) one, but to be fair they aren't as great as they were (coming from someone who witnessed a fansite fade away). Sure we have wikis that sort of are successors to fansites, but whatever problems Wikipedia has can also happen to the fan wikis as well; that and they have those annoying taboola link things that I really despise.
Ah, Metal Slug Database... I remember it from it's beginning back around 2001. I've seen it shut down and resurrect miraculously three times (probably more), yet when the site stopped being updated I felt it was finally doomed, not because of the state of the franchise but the webmaster itself. Me, it's death seemed fitting as the franchise at the time the franchise was seen as a Panchinko joke (similar to how Castlevania and Silent Hill are), nowadays the series has become a tower defense joke even though SNK is returning to making games again (but who knows SNK might surprise us in the future).
Also, I seemed to remember coming across you there as well as a fellow fan of the series.
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Post by mrnash on Feb 4, 2016 12:46:24 GMT -5
I really do feel you there, I don't get why people have to have this patreon thing in the first place then they just get some jobs (and no the content making isn't a excuse). I mean I have a job outside of the internet and I made like a decent amount of money (and occasionally spend it but not a whole lot but I don't need to), so I don't see why couldn't they either. Maybe time constraints I guess? If so then I can genuinely understand. But still this Patreon thing is silly and whatever happened to just mere donations or am I missing something?
I assumed for many it's just used as supplementary income at most, but to a degree I wonder if we're at peak Patreon at this point. So many people have started to sign up for it that a lot of readers / viewers just tune it out now. By keeping tabs on various places big or small that use the service, a good chunk of them seem to be stuck at around the same amount coming in as I'd seen them at months earlier. I can still see it being useful for a while yet, but I wonder if Patreon is at the point where it's as popular as it's going to get.
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Post by GamerL on Feb 4, 2016 15:03:08 GMT -5
Ah, I remember the first incarnation of Metalgear.net and metalgearsolid.org (which I did contribute to) The only site from the old days that's still kicking is thesnakesoup.org too bad the forum has become toxic that Ravi seldom posts there. Last year was the first time he was officially invited to E3. Did meet up with him as well a few other people from the fandom. It was odd to see the old generation and new generation to give the Metal Gear franchise it's expected last hurrah. I was briefly a member of thesnakesoup's forums, but it was infested with assholes so I stopped going, it's too bad because the site itself is really cool.
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