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The community turns 20 years old this year

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by Cooljerk, Jan 3, 2017.

  1. FollOw

    FollOw

    The sun sets forever over Black Water Park Oldbie
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    I've been lurking since 2001. I remember loving Area 51 until it fell apart...
     
  2. Man I think I only go back to like 1999 or so; the Wai prototype was out in the wild, Sonic fan games had a rudimentary headquarters that would grow into something big, there was a cavern of moogles that was starting to fill with Sonic fans, and EZBoard wasn't a thing yet. I've held off on replying for awhile as I wanted to do a big retrospective thing going over each "era" or whatever, but after taking this long to even get started I just don't think I have it in me.

    Ever since I discovered IRC in 2000 or 2001 thanks to a friend, I used to be a regular name in nearly every IRC channel that was related to the community, from #s2beta/#mooglecavern/#srb2/#gameshow/#lemonade on Mysteria to #retro on badniknet. I found some twitchy pokemon thing online in 2014, likely due to someone linking it from IRC and started spending my time there instead. I made some internet acquaintances there and spent plenty of time getting super-involved in that community, eventually hosting the PCs and all that, but I got burned out from dealing with behind the scenes drama there and quit their moderation team for the sake of my own sanity. Part of me wants to drift back to #retro like the old days and see what all I've missed, but I've been using my huge increase in free time to learn guitar and I'm enjoying it.

    Shoutouts to GerbilSoft for being on most of the same IRC channels as me, Gene and Shad for our old takeovers of #retro every Monday night to laugh at our favorite soap opera for men, and to so many others that have been fun to hang out with online over the years!
     
  3. Aerosol

    Aerosol

    Not here. Moderator
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    Not where I want to be.
    Sonic (?): Coming summer of 2055...?
    SFGHQ had at least one look before this one I think. I remember stumbling on it and it had a lighter (in color) design, but it was only there briefly because it looked different the third of fourth time I dropped by.
     
  4. I've been only a member for almost 2 years (25 January 2015), but I was a lurker before I joined and I'm happy to be part of this great community!
     
  5. Yuski

    Yuski

    Dragons, dragons everywhere! Oldbie
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    I remember to find a Sonic forum in 1998 and used a lot to visit Segasonic.net, Sonic HQ, SFGHQ and various others, but just after Simon Wai's S2 Beta Page I jumped on it and helped on brazillian fanbase with Totalmente Sonic and Portal Sonic websites. Today, I'm not that active in community like I was... 8 years ago... But always check the forums and try to bring something interesting when I find.
     
  6. Dark Sonic

    Dark Sonic

    Member
    14,631
    1,610
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    Working on my art!
    So, community members.

    Who used to have fan characters? I know I did, I had 3. I had one named Flame the Hedgehog who was a red Super Sonic, one named Shadowknux who was a black Knuckles with blue Shadow like stripes, and Dark Sonic, who started out as an orange shadow with blue stripes that eventually became a black Sonic with green Shadow stripes.

    So much young angst :specialed: Now Dark Sonic is basically just a name, one that was unfortunately taken by that version of Sonic in Sonic X that made an appearance for a hot second.
     
  7. Herm the Germ

    Herm the Germ

    Hmm, not bad. Well done, doctor! Member
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    Dresden, Saxony, Germany
    MIDI-to-SMPS-conversions, mostly. Takin' requests, too.
    Haven't exactly been a member of the online-communities for 20 years (I'm way too young for that :v ), but I've at least been a fan for the last 20-or-so-years, maybe a bit more. Discovered some online-communities around a decade ago; I think it started with a query if there was a way to edit levels in Sonic 3 & Knuckles PC (I only had the PC demo and wondered if the first level could at least be edited back then); which lead me to CulT, and the idea of hacking in general. Ended up doing some embarrassing thing or another that eventually got me banned, I think? Eh, it's been too long. Around that time, I also found my way on here and had been lurking ever since. :v: That was also the time I realized no one cares about Sonic game stories as much as I do which was a major disappointment back then. :B
    I also just remembered I discovered complicated-as-all-hell ways with which to edit all the textures in Sonic Heroes (PC), including generating recognizable mipmaps. Even figured a pseudo-cell-shading looking by abusing that weird gloss-texture every character had in ways they were never intended.

    Nowadays, I occasionally dabble in SMPS-music-conversion, with some level of success (seeing as I cannot COMPOSE MIDIs, though, it always depends on the source and my general mood. :v: )

    Congrats, community, we're all grumpy old people now
     
  8. MartiusR

    MartiusR

    Member
    I'm member of SR since two years (and one month :P), but I didn't have any "lurking period" before, due to the fact that I didn't care about Sonic earlier, up to November (?) 2014, when I've played for the first time in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, where I was (almost literally) charmed by content (levels and music) brought from Sonic universe (which gave me motivation to find out more about Sonic games). And I've registered here by two reasons - due to the fact that on forums where I was registered earlier, almost nobody/very few people cared about this series at all (so in searching of some forum oriented on this subject), and secondly, in my searching to find working method to change keyboard control in Sonic Heroes (sadly, up to this day, despite many methods, I didn't achieve that goal).

    These two years gave me palette of almost all possible impressions you can have on any forum - both very positive (due to reading many interesting trivias/opinions/etc, meeting cool and polite users, and of course learning about enjoyable rom-hacks and fan games) and negative (due to nasty jerks, insulting (in primitive way) other people and their beliefs/opinions and other stuff like that - sadly, none forum is free of these things). But I'm guessing that it's the thing which you can expect on every forum.

    I'm a bit jealous (but in positive way, no envy ;)) about experience of users who had contact with Sonic/Sega stuff back in 90' or early 2000 (especially if they were/are living in countries where this stuff was very/quite accessible). Lucky you :) Probably that's why I like to read occasionally memories/recollections of those users.
     
  9. Hez

    Hez

    Oldbie
    nope, never had one.
     
  10. Dark Sonic

    Dark Sonic

    Member
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    Working on my art!
    Quite :specialed:
     
  11. Endgame

    Endgame

    Formerly The Growler Member
    I for one am just so glad it's not still called the "Sonic the Hedgehog Information Treasury" - with its intentionally rude acronym which would have made us a laughing stock for years to come.
     
  12. Kyuu

    Kyuu

    Memory Access Violation Member
    Wow, 20 years? I remember lurking on and constantly rereading the old S2B site something like 11 or 12 years ago... I only registered in 2009 (partly because the S2B verification quiz was not something that 8-year-old me could figure out :flunked: ) but it's really weird to think I've still been watching things happen (albeit from a distance) for such a long time.

    Granted, that doesn't take into account all the times where I've stopped checking Retro and similar sites for months at a time, but still. :v:
    Ohhh, god, don't remind me. 9-year-old me thought that a red Sonic with blue shoes was the pinnacle of creativity. I'd like to believe I'm past that now, though. :v:
     
  13. InstantSonic

    InstantSonic

    Just add water! Oldbie

    I actually didn't have a fan character in all the time I'd been on the scene, then I made one about a year ago, but I consider it to be more of a mascot than a fan character.
     
  14. XCubed

    XCubed

    Will Someday Own a Rent-A-Center Oldbie
    Oh lordy, how the hell did I find this?

    http://www.angelfire.com/games5/vic_viper/sonique2.htm

    Now I feel really old as I didn't realize my current "name" hit the 13 year mark. Instant, I think you and Ryoga are the only ones I've met in real life and it's been several years since then! BTW, I'm also celebrating the fact that I've had internet for 20 years.....we got it in December of 1996.

    #nostalgiaAF
     
  15. Overlord

    Overlord

    Now playable in Smash Bros Ultimate Moderator
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    Long-term happiness
    Surely yours would have been an empty pitcher with some dust in it or something =P

    I never had one, though probably my avatar's become more a symbol of me than anyone else's in the community (with the sole exception of FriendOfSonic, imo). Also, random fact - take a look at the name of the image file, not changed since I set it up in the first place =P (though it has been hosted in several different places over the years).
     
  16. Sploit

    Sploit

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    I hope it continues for mant years to come.

    I joined this forum back when I was studying at university. Prior to that I had viewed it a fair bit and also used the retro wiki to learn about a lot of Sonic related stuff.

    I was never a member at the Sonic CulT, however, I do rember the website, and again I learnt a lot about Sega from it back when I was in school and college.

    I am grateful to this site/forum/wiki for helping me with my Sonic/Sega Game Collecting, it is easily the best resource for accurate information. :)

    Thanks to everyone here for making this place what it is. :v:
     
  17. RetrospectGreg

    RetrospectGreg

    Member
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    Hey all, I'm fairly new here. So I'm hoping to meet some newly like-minded people about the Sonic franchise.
     
  18. Billy

    Billy

    RIP Oderus Urungus Member
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    Indie games
    If you don't look like chibi Sephiroth IRL, I'm sorely disappointed.

    I had a fan character. It's just as cringey as you can imagine. Probably the best thing to represent me was a ms-paint picture that was Wyvernlord's depiction of me. It was really nice of him to do that, even though I was a pretty new member at the time.

    Speaking of consistent avatars, Wyvernlord's Chozo one is forever burned into my memory... unless that was somebody else.
     
  19. Flygon

    Flygon

    Member
    Oh man, you'd be astounded how bad that gets me. It's even worse when someone's avatar is an animal. :psyduck:

    Also kinda surreal to see all the old faces pop around. Signatures and all.
     
  20. Laura

    Laura

    Brightened Eyes Member
    As for me, I'm really good friends with Palas :p