When and what was the first Sonic fansite you visited?

Either Simon Wais Sonic 2 Beta or The Mystical Forest Zone; can't remember the order but it was roughly about the same time in 2005-2006.

 

Sonic Fan Games HQ for me, seeing everything being made by the other users (Jamie Bailey's works especially) inspired me to start making my own games (and also kickstarted my obsession with PC gaming).

First game was called 'Sonic The Last Strike', finished it when I was 12 back in 2003. It was so bad I entered it into the first RAGE contest a few years later (so it's my only game still being hosted by anybody :v: ).

 

It's hard for me to pinpoint what Sonic fansite I visited first. I always used to look at them from time to time in early 2000 for info on Sonic, mainly retro stuff but at that point in time I was heavy into DJing, clubbing and writing music. Sonic Retro is the first fansite I signed up to and that was only because S2HD needed music artists. I don't think I would be here in the Sonic community if it wasn't for that.

 

SWS2B, around early 2006.

I was, what, 13-14 years old?

All I know is, I got jammed into Pending Approval at least twice! :v:

 

I stumbled across SWS2B in my Sophomore year of high school, during English class. I was supposed to be working on a project, but I Googled "Hidden Palace Zone" and stumbled across the site. I didn't have a computer at home at the time, and the damn volume was up on the speakers and I remember some kid in my class said "Is someone playing Sonic?" because I clicked on a Youtube link that contained footage of Hidden Palace Zone in Sonic 2 Long Version. xD I quickly closed out of the page so I wouldn't get in trouble, and continued on with my work. I didn't join Retro until I got a laptop for college after graduating HS. I honestly thought I wasn't going to get approved because I recall being a bit snippy towards Tweaker about a glitch I mentioned in Sonic 2. (You know the glitch that causes the music to either speed up or slow down after fading back in from playing the 1-up jingle? I think he just read my post wrong and I wanted to prove that I was right or something but meh.)

 

I'm not sure what the first Sonic fan game I visited was, but I certainly remember the first one I joined. It was the SSRG, back when it was ssrg.shadowsoft-games.com or whatever, but pretty soon I came over to SWS2B. I was so obsessed with "the community" at the time, and I kept up to date with every single thread. Weird to think how much free time I used to have!

 

I stalked Ultima via email to grill him for hacking tips after playing his Sonic 2 Ultima hack, in which he led me to the Sonic Cult hacking forum. I'm pretty sure this was when I was still in high school, so either 1999 or 2000. I eventually braved the 'Everything else' forum and somehow managed to not be too scarred by the experience.

That would mean I've been here longer than Overlord though, which can't be right. Overlord is eternal.

 

I don't remember exactly. It's been over 15 years. I was on the web in 1997 for the first time.

I do remember sites like Sonic HQ (I considered this site superb compared to others out there at the time), The Sonic Foundation (remember e-mailing the webmaster in 2001 asking how he got full versions of the SA2 character themes and he directed me to the TokyoPop site), Team Artail, Sonic Knux (fuzzy on the name, had a large collection of Sonic & Knuckles Collection MIDIs), some site that had MIDI jukebox in a frame at the top that played and remember e-mailing the webmaster that Ice Cap didn't work and he fixed it.

 

Sonic HQ was my first, too. I also remember lurking Sonic Cult for years...but never posted, was too afraid of doing so because of my poor english at that time ( not much better now but...)

 

Andy Wolan's Sonic site or whatever it was called back in 1995. Either that or rat.org I can't recall.

 

I'd say it was SFGHQ for me, I wanna say it was around 99, as I recall being on the site before I moved to Jersey (Which was before Y2K)

 

Hmmm... I think the first Sonic fan site I actually visited was of a similar format to Shadow of a Hedgehog, though with more focus on comic-stuff and less on music. The first community I actually remember actively participating in was... The Sonic Factory, me thinks. All around 2006. I wonder if it says something I never even bothered with communities in my own language until some years after? (and that fad kinda died for me again, too, so, back to Retro for me these days. :v )

 

Gamewinners' Sonic forums in 2001, if that counts. If not, I guess Fireball20xl in 2002, followed by deviantART in 2003 which led me to Sonic-CulT around that time.

 

I stumbled around here in the summer of 2007, as I had been looking at the wiki and realized that the site also had a forum, so I just lurked around until I joined in early 2014. :v:

 

I think the first sites I visited were around 1994 - 1996. I wish I could remember exactly what the first sites I went to were, but they were very rudimentary. Like the sort with basic text, and very simple stock tile wallpapers. I remember being amazed by those tiny animations of Sonic running and Tails running. And I remember downloading a really old 3D picture of Sonic, like from Sonic 3D Blast I think, and having that as my wallpaper forever. Oh, and the midi music, that was about the height of content back then. If anyone knows of any of these sites that still exist it would be incredible to revisit them.

So does this like make me the longest running Sonic fan so far...? lol

 

I'm not sure if it counts well enough, but my first Sonic-related site visited was the Sonic topic on Bionicle Zone Power Forums. It's actually where I spent a majority of my time on that forum, back in the 2000's (I don't remember exactly when, but it was no earlier than 2002, no later than 2006- I definitely remember the hype/lead-up to games like Heroes and Shadow, and I remember discussing SA2B/SADX back then...)

 

I'm glad you added the '/lead-up' there because if you were implying Shadow had any sort of hype, I was going to have to correct you. :v:

I've seen people say that it caused a split in the community which, honestly is kind of laughable. I mean, I think that was one issue where I saw nearly everyone agree on something for once. At least, as soon as we saw the guns.

 

Yeah, no way am I going to imply Shadow had hype. Heroes definitely did, though... I'm pretty sure of that. Hell, 06 had a lot of hype for it, though I think I was on Sonic Stadium as a guest during that period of hype? I can't remember that far back ago very well, but I joined Sonic Stadium as a member in 2009, and I joined here as a member in 2010, on September 11th, as can easily be seen whenever I post. So clearly I wasn't an active member of these communities until then, ergo it was either mostly on BZP until around 2009 or I mostly just browsed Sonic Stadium some point after 2006.

 

I started directly here in Retro, like 10 years ago. Although I'm fan for more years, that's because I didn't have stable internet access in that time...

I remember being here when the Sonic 2 HD project was in development... and Sonic Unleashed was announced...