Started lurking around the Sonic Stuff Research Group around 1998-1999, at the wee ages of 9-10, kept lurking around there, Secrets of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic CulT, and Sonic Hacking Community in the early early 2000s (maybe 2001-2004), then joined this site (when it was still Simon Wai's Sonic 2 Beta Page) in 2005. Where does the time fly? Holy shit. I still remember GerbilSoft's old website, with that breakout clone + his other projects. I also remember being young and ignorant, making an ass out of myself on the Sonic Hacking Community with my attempts to think up fanciful, wacky ideas for utilities around 2002 or so. Similarly, I made a wee bit of an ass out of myself in the old Sonic Fan Games HQ with similarly fanciful and overblown ideas for fan games (maybe 2003 or so?). I went under a different alias back then, so you wouldn't be able find the moments under "Travelsonic." Thank god. XD :specialed: :specialed: :specialed: :specialed:
Wow. How the time flies. Started lurking at SWS2B and Area 51 way back in 1998. Started posting on the old S2B forum/ezboard in 2001! Took a hiatus from 2003-06 but got right back into it once I started seeing all the cool things that were being done (rom hacks!) and have been here ever since. Not the most prolific member but I've sure watched lots of ups and downs of the community go by... Here's to another 20 years?!?
I think it's incredible that our community has been around for so long! I started lurking on Area 51 in early 2000, before we had a computer in my household and my only one source of internet was the Dreamcast ;P I actually joined Area 51 and Sonic 2 Beta in 2001 or 2002 (I don't remember exactly when it was anymore). When Area 51 died I went over to Sonic Classic, whilst also co-running Sonic Spin at the same time. I have a lot to thank the community for, actually; it's been a wild ride but I still love it, even after all these years. Without it I wouldn't have found my husband Orengefox, or some of my very closest friends (the Retro Barcade regulars) <3 And also, as you're all asking about fan characters: Guilty =P Incidentally, that bloody thing was the reason why I ever chose the username JenHedgehog in the first place - which has still stuck, after all these years (and now that I actually have some fame in another fandom under that very username, I can't really ditch it either).
I never had a fancharacter, unless you count the fact that I used Ashura the Hedgehog as an avatar and name way early on, here. I don't count that, because I didn't come up with the idea, and I was more interested in the glitch than fantarding over a fan-designated persona for a bug in Sonic 2, but it is what it is.
I made a few characters, but never one I intended to represent me. I mean I made one, but it wasn't a fan character. Just a character.
Oh that did predate Alice, didn't it? I recall the mascot for the forum did change once, not sure what the order was though. Wikis really made things too easy to be honest. Also was there a family lounge to the original incarnations of the CulT? Does a backup of the nonhosted forum archive even exist? I'd love to see reactions to my first post.
Nah, Alice came first, I was just messing. But Alice did change to Marzipan out of the blue one day. Don't remember if it changed back to Alice after that though.
Chiming in my memories of getting access to this by hitting Nick Clegg on the head with a placard at one of his battle bus rallies in 2011. It was either that or my contributions to that thread on the Everything Else forum there. CulT was a crazy time. But I'm glad that I made the swim over to here when CulT eventually faded into obscurity, even if I'm much much less active here since.
The only things I really remember from CulT were when the drx proto flood of 2008 happened, and that goddamn doujinshi section. Y'all know the one.
I remember when I found Furry Bomb #1 on some random website (it was just an IP address) because people had talked about it every now and then. When I posted it on CulT people yelled at me for posting it. Someone found a better version later and it ended up in the doujin section.
It seemed astounding at the time. Now I get much worse by accident on certain online communities. :v: 10 years is a long time.
I would love to find my old Sonic HQ posts. Must have been about 18 years ago when I would have been a cringy 12/13 year old who just got Dial-Up and a Dreamcast. I think I recall jumping from Sonic HQ, to Sonic Stadium, to CulT, and finally to here. Although I never posted anything as part of the CulT community, I just found it was one of the better sites to visit, next to GHZ at the time. More importantly, Now I've mentioned Sonic HQ, I've suddenly got the urge to break into my old MIDI collection.
I stepped in around the time SSRG shut down in protest and then found Sonic CulT around 2003. I feel so old. I wish I could access the old CulT forums and topics on the Internet Wayback Machine. I remember sniping that Sonic Mars script off of ebay to help the community. My single contribution. Blew away 200 bucks to get it in collaboration with biggestsonicfan to obtain an important piece of history in the development of the ill-fated Sonic Xtreme or Sonic 32X. Oldbie tag plz :specialed:/> I always lurked around during free time at school and after homework was done. The CulT was my thing until it rebranded, then became more active on SWS2B. I wish I hadn't deleted those dumb forum drama audio parodies that another oldbie, Shade, had made when SWSB was still around. (A collection called Now That's What I Call Simon Wai's Sonic 2 Beta) I want to say that it's great seeing the talent that Retro members have creating game hacks, and where they have gotten now. After two decades of researching, modding, and creating fangames, it's great to see the community finally come into its own right with an official Sonic game created by well-respected community members. Mad props to all community leaders.
The old forums still exist. Here and older archive here, but the initial incarnation of the forums is lost to the ages so I believe, unless someone has a backup on some lost drive. I made a promise to you that I would get you a copy somehow and have felt the regret that you paid to ship it to me and created nice scans and I did nothing in return except contribute the larger portion. I am really sorry for that. The script is now fairly useless in my eyes as a collectable. If some gaming museum wants it on display I'd be happy to send it there, but otherwise I can send it back to you if you'd like. I want to make things right. Also, the editor of the History of Sonic book for the English release added a tidbit about Mars, very brief, but it's all we really got from it as far as time is concerned. Unless anyone is researching the Sonic X-Treme timeline, it's unlikely anyone will come across it.... except that weird guy who first found it on archive.org, tried to create a witch hunt, did not contribute, then demanded unwatermarked scans at Assembler forums.... I still do not know what their deal was... as we have seen with the test of time, if you ever put it out there unwatermaked, it will get watermarked by someone else who can take the glory. EDIT: OH AND ONE OTHER THING. I always remembered the Jun Senoue reacted to Sonic Crackers story and decided to surprise him with the Mars script at a Summer of Sonic event. I showed it to him and he thought I wanted his autograph on it for some reason and I explained what it was. He was very upset I had it and kind of scoffed me away after that. Not a happy end :v:/>
Wow, 20 years! Well done everyone! I must say that prior to applying for membership I had been a long time lurker of the forums (for about 10 years) and can remember when I would frequently check S2B and Sonicology for all Beta related news (and for the sweet MIDI loop of Green Hill Zone / You Can Do Anything which was the background for Sonicology). Sadly, I never checked out SSRG or Cult as S2B (Retro) was always my one stop shop. The amount of time that this forum has been alive and kicking speaks volumes about the level of community that we have here! Keep it up everyone. Here's to another 20 years!
