Recently I've rediscovered Goodcow's archive of selected Pre-NeoGAF threads, and I want to share the wonder and sheer embarassment with everyone by going over what came before.
UBB Era: The Forum Of An Internet Gaming News Site
Main Page. 07/2000
General Forum, Page 1. 07/06/2000 (Goes to Page 6. No threads viewable.)
General Forum, Page 1. 11/14/2000 (The ArtX thread with 593 replies was known as Superkyro 2 at the time)
While this is actually the second incarnation of the forum, it is the first under the Gaming-Age name, with website staff managing it. Mods from that time who are still around include bishoptl and Jim, and some former GA staffers like Alucard and Drinky Crow (aka Castellan aka Wrathful God of Moses aka Doug) continue to post in a non-moderation role. GAF was definitely a much smaller forum than it is today and not many threads went into multiple pages. The Off-Topic Forum didn't even exist then. It went on for a few years until certain folks at IGN offered to host our forum using their software.
Sample Threads:
Who's NOT getting a PS2 simply because of price? - Hilarious in hindsight.
I CAN'T STOP LOOKING AT THESE!!!! OMG!!! - Bickering over framerates and sales figures isn't new apparently.
GOOD GRIEF!!! Internet porn is getting ridiculous! - Thread derail representative of an old GAF personality.
Kutaragi-san talks PS3 - Amusing how speculation ran wild back then.
wanna a PS2? just $1074.... - Ebay Shenanigans Part 1
Opa is the proud owner of a PS2! - Ebay Shenanigans Part 2
Opa-opa makes the web news - Ebay Shenanigans Part 3
Opa-opa facing legal trouble - Ebay Shenanigans Part 4
Woo hoo! I got banned by Ebay - Ebay Shenanigans Part 5
Snowboards Era: IGN Sponsorship
Main Page. 04/2001
General Forum, Page 1. 03/30/2001 (Goes to Page 10 and more, but not sequentially. No threads viewable.)
The most notable change about the new software was the lack of images in posts, which was sorely lamented by some. Also during this time certain members were awared "VIP" status which proved problematic. Otherwise, things continued pretty much as they had until IGN decided to boot us off their servers, but with bums like myself becoming mods.
Sample Threads:
Portable Saturn? Sort of. Check this out.... - Second to last post is an example of the horror that was Deadmeat, although that last line is kinda funny now.
Ouch! The N64 is not aging well (2)
Ezboards Part I: Refugee Camp
Main Page. 07/2001
General Forum, Page 1. 07/29/2001
General Forum, Page 1. 07/31/2001
After abruptly losing our home, we ended up turning to the website that hosted forums without money or setup. It was here that the forum started to take on a life of its own as members gradually took more control over the management of the forum and GA staff proper grew less interested, not to mention the rise of rival forums on the same free system. Since accounts were shared system-wide, many had to change their names to avoid conflicts and simply adding "GA" was fairly common. Unfortunately, it turned out that the free hosting provided by Ezboards was inadequate to our needs.
Sample Threads:
GameCube here I come - Hype over Gamecube, courtesy of Diablos.
I did it I beat FF7 (2) - Orin's personal victory.
Nintendo to ship 1.1 million GameCube systems for US launch (2, 3) - Early Sales-Age
Squaresoft: Obsolete, Unnecessary, and Unwanted...oh well - Rantings of a Nintendo fanboy.
Ezboards Part II: Traffic Manipulation
Main Page. 04/2002
General Forum, Page 1. 04/06/2002
This was the solution a certain member came up with. The cost of upgrading an Ezboard forum to Gold membership was based upon the traffic it received, and GAF ran up a bill in the thousands of dollars. However, a newly created forum had no traffic and cost only $30 to upgrade. We simply moved over to a duplicate forum to get around our actual upgrade bill.
Sample Threads:
Ferrio's Art Contest. VOTING OVER. RESULTS ARE IN! - A lot of these photoshops are beyond crude, but at least they were mildly creative.
Okay, who is messing with teh forum - Contains evidence of an old GAF meme.
Rare buyout rumors take shape - Amusing on multiple levels.
Ezboards Part III: Redux
Main Page. 06/2002
Gaming Forum, Page 1. 06/22/2002
The Lounge, Page 1. 06/20/2002
Gold membership lasted only six months, by which time we were faced with an even higher bill than last time, but by then the original forum had long since fallen silent and so the upgrade cost was once again the minimal $30. Not even paying out of pocket thanks to old donation money, we just switched back. It was entirely possible to continue pulling off this scam, but our relationship with forementioned rival forums and their mischief drew attention from Ezboard staff, including the CEO himself. We were also increasingly frustrated with the limitations of Ezboard software. When it came time to renew, Jim found us a new host instead.
Gamesquad Era: The Dark Ages
Main Page. 02/2003
Gaming Forum, Page 1. 11/18/2002
During gamesquad we had a myriad of issues including spyware, audio ads, popups, and especially server load. The latter might have been addressed had we been able to do optimizations on the server, but it wasn't possible as only Jim had access and he was highly preoccupied at the time. It was a black box to us. The forum became closed to the public to mitigate traffic, but during events like E3 the forums were almost completely down.
What brought everything to a head was database corruption originating in a thread about Puzzledonkey, which we could not fix. A drive for donations was started when it was clear the forum was a sinking ship and we had to find new hosting, except this time we wouldn't be relying on outside parties for everything like we've done in the past. No black boxes. No strings. No landlords. We could have taken up a few kind offers from certain people, but it would have just put us in the same uncertain situation we had grown to hate. Sure enough, it wasn't long before the forum went down completely. What came after is the forum you're viewing today.
Sample Threads:
Female Troubles - Now Shuri-free! - Things never change.
Nostradamus's predictions for the next few years: - Always funny to laugh at these things.
I f'cking hate this forum. - Yes, FHUTA is over five years old.
Nintendo Announces Dual-Screened Portable Game System; ``Mystery'' Product to Launch (2, 3, 4, 5) - Amusing speculation over the DS.
no more goat secx.... - End of an era!
Whale explodes in middle of the street... - Before Gaborn News, we had this.
GA Forum Quotes - This thread includes the secret to the Magazine Rack meme.
So, I've started some kind of a GA thread archive (2000-2001 so far, and not done) - Here we come full circle.
Finally, The End Of Days. 05/2004
Note: Due to how Goodcow handled images, some images and avatars are missing or incorrect. Furthermore, the threads linked in this post represent only a small fraction of the actual archive.
UBB Era: The Forum Of An Internet Gaming News Site
Main Page. 07/2000
General Forum, Page 1. 07/06/2000 (Goes to Page 6. No threads viewable.)
General Forum, Page 1. 11/14/2000 (The ArtX thread with 593 replies was known as Superkyro 2 at the time)
While this is actually the second incarnation of the forum, it is the first under the Gaming-Age name, with website staff managing it. Mods from that time who are still around include bishoptl and Jim, and some former GA staffers like Alucard and Drinky Crow (aka Castellan aka Wrathful God of Moses aka Doug) continue to post in a non-moderation role. GAF was definitely a much smaller forum than it is today and not many threads went into multiple pages. The Off-Topic Forum didn't even exist then. It went on for a few years until certain folks at IGN offered to host our forum using their software.
Sample Threads:
Who's NOT getting a PS2 simply because of price? - Hilarious in hindsight.
I CAN'T STOP LOOKING AT THESE!!!! OMG!!! - Bickering over framerates and sales figures isn't new apparently.
GOOD GRIEF!!! Internet porn is getting ridiculous! - Thread derail representative of an old GAF personality.
Kutaragi-san talks PS3 - Amusing how speculation ran wild back then.
wanna a PS2? just $1074.... - Ebay Shenanigans Part 1
Opa is the proud owner of a PS2! - Ebay Shenanigans Part 2
Opa-opa makes the web news - Ebay Shenanigans Part 3
Opa-opa facing legal trouble - Ebay Shenanigans Part 4
Woo hoo! I got banned by Ebay - Ebay Shenanigans Part 5
Snowboards Era: IGN Sponsorship
Main Page. 04/2001
General Forum, Page 1. 03/30/2001 (Goes to Page 10 and more, but not sequentially. No threads viewable.)
The most notable change about the new software was the lack of images in posts, which was sorely lamented by some. Also during this time certain members were awared "VIP" status which proved problematic. Otherwise, things continued pretty much as they had until IGN decided to boot us off their servers, but with bums like myself becoming mods.
Sample Threads:
Portable Saturn? Sort of. Check this out.... - Second to last post is an example of the horror that was Deadmeat, although that last line is kinda funny now.
Ouch! The N64 is not aging well (2)
Ezboards Part I: Refugee Camp
Main Page. 07/2001
General Forum, Page 1. 07/29/2001
General Forum, Page 1. 07/31/2001
After abruptly losing our home, we ended up turning to the website that hosted forums without money or setup. It was here that the forum started to take on a life of its own as members gradually took more control over the management of the forum and GA staff proper grew less interested, not to mention the rise of rival forums on the same free system. Since accounts were shared system-wide, many had to change their names to avoid conflicts and simply adding "GA" was fairly common. Unfortunately, it turned out that the free hosting provided by Ezboards was inadequate to our needs.
Sample Threads:
GameCube here I come - Hype over Gamecube, courtesy of Diablos.
I did it I beat FF7 (2) - Orin's personal victory.
Nintendo to ship 1.1 million GameCube systems for US launch (2, 3) - Early Sales-Age
Squaresoft: Obsolete, Unnecessary, and Unwanted...oh well - Rantings of a Nintendo fanboy.
Ezboards Part II: Traffic Manipulation
Main Page. 04/2002
General Forum, Page 1. 04/06/2002
This was the solution a certain member came up with. The cost of upgrading an Ezboard forum to Gold membership was based upon the traffic it received, and GAF ran up a bill in the thousands of dollars. However, a newly created forum had no traffic and cost only $30 to upgrade. We simply moved over to a duplicate forum to get around our actual upgrade bill.
Sample Threads:
Ferrio's Art Contest. VOTING OVER. RESULTS ARE IN! - A lot of these photoshops are beyond crude, but at least they were mildly creative.
Okay, who is messing with teh forum - Contains evidence of an old GAF meme.
Rare buyout rumors take shape - Amusing on multiple levels.
Ezboards Part III: Redux
Main Page. 06/2002
Gaming Forum, Page 1. 06/22/2002
The Lounge, Page 1. 06/20/2002
Gold membership lasted only six months, by which time we were faced with an even higher bill than last time, but by then the original forum had long since fallen silent and so the upgrade cost was once again the minimal $30. Not even paying out of pocket thanks to old donation money, we just switched back. It was entirely possible to continue pulling off this scam, but our relationship with forementioned rival forums and their mischief drew attention from Ezboard staff, including the CEO himself. We were also increasingly frustrated with the limitations of Ezboard software. When it came time to renew, Jim found us a new host instead.
Gamesquad Era: The Dark Ages
Main Page. 02/2003
Gaming Forum, Page 1. 11/18/2002
During gamesquad we had a myriad of issues including spyware, audio ads, popups, and especially server load. The latter might have been addressed had we been able to do optimizations on the server, but it wasn't possible as only Jim had access and he was highly preoccupied at the time. It was a black box to us. The forum became closed to the public to mitigate traffic, but during events like E3 the forums were almost completely down.
What brought everything to a head was database corruption originating in a thread about Puzzledonkey, which we could not fix. A drive for donations was started when it was clear the forum was a sinking ship and we had to find new hosting, except this time we wouldn't be relying on outside parties for everything like we've done in the past. No black boxes. No strings. No landlords. We could have taken up a few kind offers from certain people, but it would have just put us in the same uncertain situation we had grown to hate. Sure enough, it wasn't long before the forum went down completely. What came after is the forum you're viewing today.
Sample Threads:
Female Troubles - Now Shuri-free! - Things never change.
Nostradamus's predictions for the next few years: - Always funny to laugh at these things.
I f'cking hate this forum. - Yes, FHUTA is over five years old.
Nintendo Announces Dual-Screened Portable Game System; ``Mystery'' Product to Launch (2, 3, 4, 5) - Amusing speculation over the DS.
no more goat secx.... - End of an era!
Whale explodes in middle of the street... - Before Gaborn News, we had this.
GA Forum Quotes - This thread includes the secret to the Magazine Rack meme.
So, I've started some kind of a GA thread archive (2000-2001 so far, and not done) - Here we come full circle.
Finally, The End Of Days. 05/2004
Note: Due to how Goodcow handled images, some images and avatars are missing or incorrect. Furthermore, the threads linked in this post represent only a small fraction of the actual archive.
