Newgrounds
| Newgrounds | |
|---|---|
| www.newgrounds.com | |
| motto | "Everything, By Everyone" |
| description | Flash portal |
| Registration | required for most services |
| languages | English |
| owner | Tom Fulp |
| Originator | Tom Fulp |
Newgrounds is a website founded in 1995 that hosts Flash movies and Flash games. It is currently owned by Tom Fulp (born April 30, 1978). The site was the first Flash portal on the Internet that enabled users to contribute their own Flash creations, such as films, games and pieces of music, and to view and rate the entries of other users. According to its own information, the site has over 1,400,000 registered members and over 660,000 entries (as of April 7, 2013).
Newgrounds allows users to rate other users' posts. Reviews can be given for the works on a scale from 0 (-) to 10 (+); there is also another scale from 0 to 5, which can also be used by non-registered users. The votes cast in this way by registered users are weighted higher. Posts will be removed if their average rating on the "public" scale falls below 1.0 from 100, 1.25 from 150 or 1.6 from 200 votes cast. This process is called blamming .
The site's current tagline is "Everything, By Everyone". The original slogan was: "The problems of the future, today".
timeline
- 1991 - Fulp releases the first New Grounds fanzine in his parents' basement.
- 1995 - Fulp launches its first website, New Ground Remix .
- Spring 1998 to Summer 1998 - Fulp starts experimenting with Flash and creates a Flash frontpage for New Ground Atomix . The now famous Telebubby Fun Land Flash film is created.
- Autumn 1998 - Inside Edition shows interest in wanting to publish a story about Fulp's flash game Assassin . In order to make it easier for his visitors to remember his URL , Fulp decided to register a domain . Since the domain name newground.com was already taken, the alternative newgrounds.com was selected. Inside Edition , however, loses interest in the story. Newgrounds is so popular and frequented that Fulp is forced to move to a new host and sell t-shirts to cover hosting costs.
- 1999 - Due to high traffic costs, Fulp is forced to change the hoster several times in order to meet the steadily increasing demand for bandwidth for Newgrounds. He starts placing banner ads on the site to pay for hosting costs, which are now over $ 1,000 a month. Fulp decides to work with Tromaville to host Newgrounds. The works Pico , UFA and Samurai Asshole appear .
- 2000 - Fulp adds a chat room and message board . He creates the portal - a site that allows users to post Flash movies and games on Newgrounds. However, all submissions must be selected by hand and inserted on the page. The portal receives so many submissions that it is impossible for Fulp to view all of them. Together with a friend, Ross Snyder, work begins on an automatic portal system to make the portal more effective. Fulp and Snyder leave the university to fully devote themselves to Newgrounds. When the automated portal goes online, it becomes Newgrounds' greatest success. Fulp produces the games Wasted Sky and Police Simulator . Snyder builds a new BBS system and Fulp hires his brother Wade to maintain the site. By the end of 2000, Newgrounds had grown into one of the largest online communities .
- 2001 - Commonly known as the "dot-com bubble burst" 2001 is not a good year for Newgrounds. Fulp realizes that many other Internet entertainment sites are leaving the business. Advertising on Newgrounds will be canceled and financial difficulties will arise. Snyder is forced to take a second job. The site is still under maintenance and Fulp kept making movies and games like Crazy Shuttle and Captain Low-Rez .
- August 15, 2001 - A user named StrawberryClock posted a Flash movie titled "B" online that later started the Clock Crew and other Flash communities.
- 2002 - The Newgrounds servers are no longer updated due to financial problems. Ross is forced to put his job above Newgrounds and leaves the site. Fulp and Snyder decide to re-enroll at Drexel University. Fulp graduates successfully and receives a BS in Computer Science . In addition to his training, he creates Alien Hominid , his declared best game. The automatic portal is now celebrating its 50,000th entry.
- 2003 - Tromaville releases Newgrounds from their contract. Fulp gains full control of the New York City servers that have moved to Philadelphia. At this point, Newgrounds' bandwidth is over $ 10,000 a month. Fulp opens the audio portal , which allows users to put their music and sound effects on the side. The layout of the page will be redesigned. Fulp begins work on a console version of Alien Hominid . The work prevents him from making more films, but the community continues with this. The portal reached 100,000 entries.
- 2004 - Fulp and artist Dan Paladin (Synji) release the console version of Alien Hominid with producers The Behemoth and publisher O3 Entertainment . Josh Bend , owner of Retrogade , is releasing a flash game called Oklahoma City Escapades . It receives attention from the Oklahoma News and appears on New Broadcasts . A group of Flash artists known as The Star Syndicate make their debut on Newgrounds. Your daily Flash entries known as "DailyToons" become part of Newgrounds and one of the largest Flash series on the internet. The DailyToons series ends with the hundredth episode (they later started again under the name Daily2oons in 2005. However, it is unknown how long the second series will run.) The Star Syndicate have not stopped making flash films for Newgrounds.
- 2005 - Newgrounds receives an entry from gman250 known as Numa Numa Dance. It causes a lot of publicity in America for the site and Gman - also known as Gary. The film spread rapidly over the Internet and was featured in many newspapers, including the New York Times and the Boston Globe , and on television. Fulps Alien Hominid is nominated in the Independent Game Festival 2005 and receives three prizes. Fulp is also bringing out his first game in a long time, namely Dad 'n Me .
- 2007 - The site was completely revised. New features such as B. added the blog function on the user pages. In addition, the appearance of the page has been revised.
- 2009 - On June 8th the "Art Portal" is founded. It now also enables drawings, animated images and the like to be added to the portal. In terms of the website and Tom Fulps, photographs are not permitted. Although he accepts it as an art form, he would rather give Flash artists and draughtsmen the opportunity to make their art public.
Groups and rivalries
Many groups of people have come together on Newgrounds, including the Clock Crew and its offshoots (Lock Legion, Glock Group and Star Syndicate are best known). The quality of the movies and games always depends on the people who are working on them.
Another popular activity on Newgrounds is the collab - different animators, artists and programmers work together on a project.
Individual evidence
- ^ Newgrounds Presents: Top User Rankings
- ↑ Fun Flash Portal Statistics ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The chronicle follows the presentation on The History of Newgrounds. Retrieved December 24, 2008 .
