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Posted on Dec 23rd 2008 at 03:28:55 AM by ([Tan:realName])
Posted under Site News, RFGen, Database

2005 was a big year for RF Generation. Members were joining by the hundreds and we had anniversaries, contests and milestones aplenty! It was also the year that our staple, the Collection Profile tool, was unveiled for registered members to use for the first time.

So, replicated here for your reading pleasure, are the significant milestones of 2005 more or less as they once appeared on our Wikipedia page. Thanks once again to the hard work of the RFGen Wikipedia team, here are the highlights from our second year of operation:



Site History:

  • January 3, 2005 - There was a new addition to the collection tool, Collection Profiles. Users were given the ability to write a description about their collection as well as upload 3 MB worth of pictures to showcase it. On the top of each person's profile page was their description.  Below that were their stats, which was very versatile and allowed people to see percentages of games owned across consoles, regions, genres, release years, and publishers. Lastly, below the stats were any photos of that member's collection that they had uploaded.


  • January 31, 2005 - The first System Checklists were uploaded to the website. There were 68 [[PDF]] lists available at this launch all of which were for the most complete [[NTSC-US|NTSC]] consoles listed in the database.


  • February 7, 2005 - The second volley of System Checklists were available on the website. These where for the Brazilian, NTSC-J, PAL region|PAL regions.


  • February 18, 2005 - Another new feature was added to the site. On the main page of the website a section for a Featured Game was added. The first game showcased was Tales of Symphonia.


  • February 23rd - The main page receives a few more new additions to make updates and changes to the website visible as they were happening. These new features were the Updated Games, Updated Collections, and New Images sections. They appeared in that order on the right side of the page below the Featured Game. Updated Games displayed the last 5 updated game pages and the games' titles were linked to their respective game pages. Updated Collections was similar, but instead it linked you to the users' respective collections. Updated Images linked to the game page just like the Updated Games would, since the game page is where one can choose to view any scans or screenshots of a particular game.


  • March 18, 2005 - Rick Johnson, aka Captain_Nintendo, gained his position among the RF Gen Staff.


  • The events of April Fool's Day 2005 came as a surprise to quite a few members of the RF Generation community. Whenever anyone tried to visit the website they would be redirected to Composite Generation. There was a new set of message board rules written up, and all systems that use RF switches were excluded from the database. Only three of the site members even knew about the prank, Michael Collins (who's username at the time was Reverend Nepenthean), Eddie Herrmann (St0rmTK421) and David Murnan (TraderJake).  Therefore, it was a surprise even to staff members. Some people had been truly fooled by it and did not realize it was a joke until it had been more or less pointed out by those on the new forums.


    Arguably one of the funniest things about the day was not known until April 6th when Michael Collins, the webmaster at the time, received an email from a website that sold various kinds of cables. The email stated that they had put a link to Composite Generation on their website under the Composite Cables section and hoped that the favor would be returned. Stating that it had "...some really good stuff related to my site's topic of cables
    and would be a great resource for my visitors as it deals with some great
    aspects of cables that I'd like to give my visitors more information about."


  • April 6 - was also [sic] the debut of the RF Gen Top 100 games. All games in the database with 3 or more votes would be put into the running for the Top 100 list.


  • On April 21st - due to the great volume of members posting scans on the message board or sending scans via email to staff members, a new script was added to allow normal members to submit images. These images would then be reviewed by a staff member to assure the quality of the scan and subsequently added to the database.


  • April 28, 2005 - was the release date of two Mozilla Firefox plugins. One for searching the database for gamepages, and another for doing an image search in the database. Both of these can still be downloaded at the bottom of the RFGen homepage, www.rfgeneration.com.


  • May 24, 2005 - Pieter Verhallen, aka Speedy_NES, became a Staff member.


  • June 1, 2005 - Tony Holly, aka tholly, joined the RF Gen Staff.


  • On June 8, 2005 - RF Generation celebrated its one year anniversary. In one year's time, the database had grown to include over 18,000 games and over 17,000 images. To celebrate the one year anniversary, RF Gen held a "Birthday Blowout Contest." Mike Collins supplied a photo of himself wearing a Tiger R-Zone and in order to enter yourself into the contest, you had to supply an edited version of the picture. The winner of the contest was to receive the Tiger R-Zone that was pictured, games (to be announced), an official RF Generation baseball cap, and a one-year subscription to the gaming magazine of their choice.


    The ability for the addition of software variations was also added on this day. This allowed for Greatest Hits, Platinum Hits, Player's Choice and other similar titles to be added to the database.


    On top of all of that, RF Generation also had its 200th member register.


  • July 11, 2005 - TraderJake was announced the winner of the first Birthday Blowout Contest. His photoshopped work of art entitled "R-Zone's Secret" narrowly beat Danvx6's "R-ZoneThinker" by one vote and The Evil Leon's "Tian Men Mike" by two votes.


  • September 26, 2005 - RFGen had its 300th registered member.


  • September 27, 2005 - RF Generation experienced its second server problem. It had 'filled' the server space, and items were being deleted from the message boards. Within a few hours, the problem had been isolated and the deleted items restored, possibly the two most important items that were restored were the accounts of Anthony Terzi (Izret101) and Zac Saxton (CatchFiveBats).


  • December 12, 2005 - Anthony Terzi set up and began work on the RF Gen MySpace page.


  • December 18, 2005 - The RF Gen MySpace page was released to the public.

Database History:

  • January 4, 2005 - Over 7,000 total screenshots were in the database.  This was the fifth month in a row that 1,000 screenshots had been added.


  • January 8, 2005 - The 16,000 game mark was overtaken. In just three short weeks, 100 new titles had been added to the database.


  • February 1, 2005 - The PlayStation Portable was added to the database.


  • February 9, 2005 - After nearly 4 months, another 100 scans had been added to the database. 4,000 scans had finally been reached.


  • February 11, 2005 - Two more consoles where added. The only GameMaster, which was only released in Europe, and the Nintendo iQue, which was only released in China.


  • February 25, 2005 - The website passed the 12,000 image mark and was at exactly 12,100 images.


  • February 26, 2005 - The 17,000 game mark was passed.


  • February 27, 2005 - The total number of screenshots in the database passed 8,000.


  • March 5, 2005 - The Bandai SuFami Turbo and the Playdia|Bandia Playdia.  All 13 games released for the SuFami Turbo were also added.


  • March 14, 2005 - The Sharp X68000, BIT Corporation Gamate and ColorVision were all added to the database.  Also all of the games released for the ColorVision were added to the database.


  • March 30, 2005 - The total number of screenshots grew another thousand plus and passed 9,000.


  • April 10, 2005 - Two new consoles where added to the database.  The Philips Tele-spiel ES-2201 and the Video 2000|Interton Video 2000.


  • April 12, 2005 - Another new console was added to the database. It was the Mattel Children's Discovery System.


  • April 22, 2005 - The 5,000 unique scans mark was passed, and completely eclipsed three days later by the addition of 500 more scans.


  • April 26, 2005 - The PC-FX|NEC PC-FX as well as all of its released games were added to the database.


  • May 22, 2005 - The Sega 32X achieved a complete set of scans. This means the front and back of the box, the manual, and the cartridge could be viewed for every Sega 32X game in the database.


  • May 31, 2005 - The database passed 7,000 scans.


  • June 4, 2005 - Scans of the Nintendo World Championship 1990 cart for NES were uploaded. The scans of, and a ton of information for, this extremely rare NES game were supplied by Ben Smith.  The same cartridge sold, shortly before we received the scans, for $1,975 on eBay.


  • September 23, 2005 - The Commodore Amiga was added to the database.


  • September 29, 2005 - The GP32|GamePark GP32 was added to the database.


  • October 11, 2005 - 10,000 scans were reached and surpassed.


  • November 8, 2005 - Four new consoles were added to the database. The Epoch Cassette Vision|EPOCH Cassette Vision, Bandai TV Jack Super Vision 8000, Entex Select-A-Game Machine and the Exidy Sorcerer.


  • November 10, 2005 - Etch-A-Sketch|Ohio Arts Etch-A-Sketch Animator 2000 and the Colour Genie|EACA EG2000 Colour Genie were both added to the database.


  • November 15, 2005 - The Magnavox Odyssey˛ had the last game in its library, Atlantis, scanned. Every game for this system has a complete set of scans in the RF Gen database.


  • November 23, 2005 - The total number of games in the database passed 20,000. The Xbox 360 was also added to the database

An incredible year to be sure. As you can see, the humble beginnings of our community here grew in leaps and bounds rather quickly! Stay tuned for part 3 when we take a look at 2006!

RF Generation Timeline Part 1: 2004


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Comments
 
I've looked everywhere for those Firefox plug-ins, but I can't find them. Help? Tongue
 
After all the site changes, front page revisions and updates to Firefox, those three and a half year old outdated plugins are long gone now!
 
And I quote: "April 28, 2005 - was the release date of two Mozilla Firefox plugins. One for searching the database for gamepages, and another for doing an image search in the database. Both of these can still be downloaded at the bottom of the RFGen homepage, www.rfgeneration.com."

You should change that to "not available anymore", just as to not confuse any more people. Tongue
 
"....more or less as they once appeared on our Wikipedia page."

We also have 5 Mb instead of 3 for space, no featured games currently, no updated images, no top 100. several staff have stepped down while others promoted and several of those listed systems have been altered in some way. Meanwhile gaining dozens more features, staff and countless other things that have greatly improved and evolved the site and community.

The point of this is to showcase our history not pimp out the site. The current Wikipedia article already does that. Half the reason Wikipedia only has a limited amount of credibility is because people constantly modify the history to suit their moods and agendas. To do so would diminish the story of how we got here and deny new members knowledge of RF Generations's past.

Besides, I didn't write that nor would I edit someone else's hard work and remove a portion of their contribution. You don't create history on purpose to suit the moment, you record it. Wink
 
It's so much fun to read these articles!

@c3704:We still have a Top 50 Tan, here: http://www.rfgeneration.com/cgi-bin/toprated.pl

Smiley
 
@c3704: Oh, whoops. I didn't see that first line there. Tongue I thought that you were just writing this, and such. laugh
 
@Sirgin:

Yes but that's not a top 100 it's a top 50. Wink

@logical123:

I wrote the later ones from 2007 and re-wrote the bulk of the Wiki article that still exists today, but the early work was done by Izret101 and others. Also DotDarkCloud added the logo and page shot.
 
I remember when we got all the NWC info that was awesome.
Its so strange/cool seeing all this stuff again.

Once you get up to the 07/08 its probably going to be stuff i don't remember as well.
Can't wait to read it!
 
Christ, those fucking checklists. Those damn things pissed me and Mike off to no end. I remember when we made those. It was at my house. We just got bored that weekend and went for it. It was one issue after another for hours till we finally had something we were happy with. If you're curious as to why we even did them in the first place.. We needed them! Every time we went game hunting we both ended up buying shit we already had (sure many of you do this). Those checklists saved me god knows how much money...lol

...The Tales of Symphonia page really pisses me off to this day. Some douchebag went in and swapped my review and overview around, added his own two cents, and claimed all the credit. Isn't even what I wrote anymore. Still not getting credit for my scans of the game, extra media additions and photos/scans, and screenshots. It's one thing to edit to correct spelling errors and whatnot. It's another to do it just because you want more fucking credit for yourself around the site. RFG has lost credibility in my book because of that shit. When we started this thing we started it with prevention of that type of behavior in mind. Because Andy was doing exactly that to us. Changing our shit around a bit and claiming credit for all of our work.  ...I noticed that wasn't exactly mentioned in the history. Why we left VGB to do this. I feel it's pretty damn important for people to know. Just a shame that all of the newer staff and the folks responsible are ill informed.
 
@Antimind:

Let me address the two major issues you have:

1. Tales of Symphonia - Screwing around with someone else's contributions is a big no-no here. We always have and always will, hold to Mike's tenet that no one should ever be forgotten. If there was a misuse of staff privilege that took place here by someone no longer on staff, then I apologize. Just out of curiosity, why in the nearly two years since it happened (according the the submission logs) have you not mentioned it to anyone? Fixing something like that is quite easy and effortless. Also there's plenty of room for multiple reviews on each page, so if you want the proper credit as is due, PM me the details and submit your review again if you want to.

2. Site history - It seems to me that if RFGen is to be credible and professional, it doesn't need to badmouth anyone past or present or put a negative spin on our own history. RFGen isn't a project borne of dissatisfaction and dissent, it's an evolving community that has grown far larger than it's original mandate and has exceeded the expectations of even it's earliest members and staff. As a co-founder I'm sure you can agree that putting a fresh face on the site distances itself from the ashes of the Video Game Bible which to most people here is just a noted reference in ancient site history to a project few have heard of.
 
@c3878:
The ToS thing had been mentioned before and has always been a sore point.
My advice to both of you is to let sleeping dogs lie. Wink Smiley

I know its been awhile but i wanted to make sure someone new didn't misinterpret a misunderstanding between our crass (but lovable in her own way) cofounder and a current high ranking and important RFGener Smiley
 
Plus she was nice enough not to name names Smiley Assuming she still remember them :-p
 
"RFG has lost credibility in my book because of that shit"

Oh there's no misunderstanding there believe me. While it may be an issue from before my time, I feel it's still my responsibility to try and rectify it. My offer to help sort out the page credits still stands but after two months I've yet to receive any PMs about this at all. It's only a simple two minute fix with the proper details in hand.

If someone is going to bash and put into question the integrity and credibility of this site, you better damn well believe that I, like any of the staff, won't let it go that easily. While it's disappointing to see something like that come from a co-founder whose contributions helped make this site what it is today, that honoured status doesn't make them immune to rebuttal either. Especially in response to my blog posts.

Condemning the entire site and all of the work we've put into it based on a messed up page credit or an error in judgement from a former staff member isn't fair nor is it in keeping with the spirit of this community she helped create. She of all people should know that.
 
@Antimind: I used to go to that page and look at the html code for that review to figure out how to make the big numbers and paragraphs and stuff when I first started doing the features in like 2006 or 2007 or something like that (it was the most fleshed out of all the pages with spoiler tags and everything). I'm fairly certain I never changed anything on that page though so I really hope that wasn't me. Kind of makes me worried though since I used to look at the html code for that page in order to teach myself how to do that stuff.
 
Oh son of a bitch it was me. Thanks for calling me a douchebag. You should have just pm'ed me instead of getting all pissed off, I mean really-- what point in there is stealing credit for a page? Furthermore, I used to bitch to TraderJake about that review because it wasn't a 100% and you included spoilers in the review-- that should show right there I wouldn't want credit lol.

Bottom line I wasn't trying to steal your credit or anything, I'm not like that. I just had no clue what I was doing to the point where I quit doing the features. I didn't even know the page was changed.
 
"Some douchebag went in and swapped my review and overview around, added his own two cents, and claimed all the credit. Isn't even what I wrote anymore."

Wait a second, I definitely never changed the review that would have had to been intentional and very dickish. Was this me? I know it says my name in the credits (as edited or something retarded), but I can guarantee I would have never changed the review or overview. More than likely I had the edit window open for the tales of symphonia page and an edit window open for the page I was working on and didn't realize I had inputed the credit info for the page I was working on to the tales of symphonia page without realizing.

But there is no way in hell I would have edited the review or overview.
 
Final post--

I'm really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really sorry. I can't stress this enough.

Also I went and dug up this post from a long time ago,

'Oh wow, hey Laharl. I don't think I've ever talked to you but I loved your reviews. Never really see you post anymore.'
 
Super duper final post- I went to try and take my name off the credits but apparently I can't. Please do that for me Tan.

Sorry for all the posts, my mind is kind of racing because of how incredibly bad I screwed up without even realizing it.
 
@Shimra:

No problem, consider it done. Smiley
 
@c4594: I'm still kind of freaking out that I did this, I mean she left for like 3 years because of what I did-- and the first thing I said when she came back was 'I love your reviews.' They were a huge influence on my review writing but really that is by far the worst thing I could have ever said I mean it is almost like a spit in the face (though I didn't know). Ugh... I can't believe all of this happened. I don't think I'll be able to forgive myself for this one.
 
wow, there is some strong words among staff sometimes. I think this site has alot of integrity, and professionalism. I know I've not been a member long, but I think this is a great gaming community. People make mistakes all the time, like me digging up old posts. I didn't even realize the negative consequences of my actions until the damage had been done. I apologized to the two offended members, and we have moved on. I am glad to put this ugly affair in the past now.

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