Old Sonic sites that are still up (or 100% accessible in web archive)

[Marco9966]

Hey guys!

I love to discover old Sonic fansites or blogs, it's a piece of Sonic history and how fans perceived the franchise at the time. I also feel that Classic and Adventure fans were more unified.

There was character profiles, fanarts sections...

Sadly 90% of these sites that existed 10 years ago are down.

What old fansites do you know??

[Shaun Shikeishuu]

Shadow of a Hedgehog (SoaH) is still around after opening on Dec 31st 1999. Original owner sold it in 2014 though and while it's still going the community has died. That place was crazy active during the early to mid 2000s.

[Big Panda]

This was the first ever Sonic-related site I ever found when I first started using the internet as a kid all the way back in the early 2000’s. It was through this place that I learned about SatAM, and first got wind of Sonic X when it was starting up in Japan.

One of its highlights is a fancomic that adapts Sonic’s story in Sonic Adventure.

It can still be found through a basic internet search, but it hasn’t been updated in over a decade.

[pppp]

http://www.sonicstrike.net/~sonicroms/

This was one that I used to visit back in the day and yet somehow it still exists with all its download links still up.

[JezMM]

This is a VERY deep cut but for anyone who used to go to SonicAnime.net, and was around at the time that the main site/forums exploded (Series 1 (eps 1-52) of Sonic X was still airing but nearing it's end in Japan, for the exact timeframe) and we had to migrate to some temporary boards hosted by another member (Bazil, to be exact)...

Well, those temporary boards are still up.

Sadly the main forum area is no longer accessible since when SA.net went back up the admins changed it to just link directly to the new, proper forums (which are gone completely now).  But the off-topic, non-main Sonic boards, and RPG section are still accessible.  Also if you want to browse topics you need to manually request it to display topics since "the beginning" or else every area will be empty.

[Shaun Shikeishuu]

35 minutes ago, JezMM said:

This is a VERY deep cut but for anyone who used to go to SonicAnime.net, and was around at the time that the main site/forums exploded (Series 1 (eps 1-52) of Sonic X was still airing but nearing it's end in Japan, for the exact timeframe) and we had to migrate to some temporary boards hosted by another member (Bazil, to be exact)...

Well, those temporary boards are still up.

Sadly the main forum area is no longer accessible since when SA.net went back up the admins changed it to just link directly to the new, proper forums (which are gone completely now).  But the off-topic, non-main Sonic boards, and RPG section are still accessible.  Also if you want to browse topics you need to manually request it to display topics since "the beginning" or else every area will be empty.

I remember posting on those forums for a bit in the mid 2000s. Didn't remember the temp boards so I must have been there before or after that. Thought I joined in like 2005 but I could be wrong.

[Sean]

2 hours ago, Ernest-Panda said:

This was the first ever Sonic-related site I ever found when I first started using the internet as a kid all the way back in the early 2000’s. It was through this place that I learned about SatAM, and first got wind of Sonic X when it was starting up in Japan.

One of its highlights is a fancomic that adapts Sonic’s story in Sonic Adventure.

It can still be found through a basic internet search, but it hasn’t been updated in over a decade.

Oh man, this website takes me way the fuck back. I really loved this place for hosting all sorts of random stuff like the Spanish SA1 fancomic that never got finished and all those fanfics. I'm pretty sure I read the SatAM fics by Brown/Tolbert multiple times, and it was back when I actually shipped Sonic/Sally pretty hard hahaha. This was also where I primarily followed information on Sonic X back when it was first unveiled. I'm so glad the site is still up and I'm tempted to back everything up myself (or at least a lot of it) because I can't bear the thought of all of this going away one day.

[Mr Loopone]

In my early days of going online, I used to go to Sonic HQ to look at info. As an AoSTH fan, I was pretty annoying of their anti-bias of the show and even purposely made mistakes however there wasn't many places even referencing the show. The forums from what I used to remember were pretty much pro-Archie/SatAM as it was typical of the era of the early 2000s. Surprisingly the place is still around and updated with all the versions backed up however its popularity has dropped over the years and the forums are lost to time.

Luckily there was an AoSTH fan site (might want a pop up blocker) and to this day, still the largest one, yep still here too mostly intact. The community weirdly enough was splintered between DeviantART and Fanfiction.net, the community never got a place to call home and most of the original fanbase were female. These were the days before Youtube Poop and that created a different fanbase. Online was certainly a different place back then.

SatAM fans were even more in treat since not only they got two places to call home but they are still around getting updated. Used to look at Saturday Morning Sonic quite a bit and its kept its layout since Day 1 but there was a more famous one called FUS and that certainly got changed last time that I looked at it. Different owners, different layout but was still on about SatAM.

My first place that I joined online was Sonic Vegemite. It was a hoaxing (edited pictures) website, got a fangame called When Tails Gets Bored and also had a section called What Cheese Me Off. Sadly the website no longer exists and closed on an unusual date (9/11) however weirdly the forums have outlasted the site and they are surprisingly still here. Most of the pictures have gone though.

[Marco9966]

10 minutes ago, King Koopone said:

The community weirdly enough was splintered between DeviantART and Fanfiction.net, the community never got a place to call home and most of the original fanbase were female. These were the days before Youtube Poop and that created a different fanbase. Online was certainly a different place back then.

Yeah, I remember the french community used mainly planete-sonic.com (still available) and HUNDREDS of french blogs on the skyblog platform.

I was going there a lot and even witnessed people forming couples through these blogs, they would post their pics how they met their BF or GF who is also a Sonic fan on these blogs and go on real life dates... Sadly 80% of these blogs are down now. These were the good old days man.

By the way do any of you got backups of old sites or their interesting stuff? I save all  the fanarts I like, and I copy paste on a word the interesting "encyclopedia" articles on a word. (I also loved to find a backup of the old fan-made Sonic CD DVD on this forum).

[Shaun Shikeishuu]

10 minutes ago, King Koopone said:

My first place that I joined online was Sonic Vegemite. It was a hoaxing (edited pictures) website, got a fangame called When Tails Gets Bored and also had a section called What Cheese Me Off. Sadly the website no longer exists and closed on an unusual date (9/11) however weirdly the forums have outlasted the site and they are surprisingly still here. Most of the pictures have gone though.

I remember this one from my early days on the internet. I use to love checking out the Sonic hoaxes. Never joined the forums but the place inspired me to do some hoaxes of my own years ago.

[Dr. Detective]

Oh man. I remember when I was a little kid, and the internet felt like it was in it's infancy to the point where often I would just go to Sonic info sites and look at the minimal files on the characters they had there and re-read them. They had websites for the individual games a whole lot. It was fun looking through the one for Shadow the Hedgehog. Some of the character files there said some things about the characters that even at the time I had to raise my eyebrow at.

Like I think Amy's profile said something like "This girl knows what's hot and what's not!" and I was like... that short red dress doesn't seem like high end fashion... 

There was also this really old site that was blue and sometimes played songs when you went to them. It was weird as well because I remember the character list they had being something like, "Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman, Fang, Shadow," or something like that and... I was like "Who the fuck is Fang?" 

Ah man. There go the memories of sitting at my grandma's computer in her apartment at New York City. It was such a warm setting and a warm time. 

[Big Panda]

2 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

There was also this really old site that was blue and sometimes played songs when you went to them. It was weird as well because I remember the character list they had being something like, "Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman, Fang, Shadow," or something like that and... I was like "Who the fuck is Fang?" 

I was thinking Sonic Central until you brought up Fang.

[Dr. Detective]

2 minutes ago, Ernest-Panda said:

I was thinking Sonic Central until you brought up Fang.

No, I think that might have been it.

[EmmBee]

I remember browsing certain fansites back in the day solely to listen to some of the music that would play on them. One site I recall had MIDI versions of both Twinkle Park and Egg Hornet from SA1. The character profiles for the characters would list all of these odd minor details about them, like their interests and dislikes.

One detail I thought was odd was how Eggman was listed as having red eyes, probably just because of AoStH, but having only played a couple games at the time I was wondering where they were getting that. How and where they were able to see behind his glasses.

[Shaun Shikeishuu]

Anyone else remember in the early days of the internet that sonicteam.com wasn't owned by Sega but a fan? I remember it just had random Sonic art posted on it before Sega bought it.

[Marco9966]

I just found the website Concept Mobius.

They have pages and pages theorizing about the status of the Super Eemralds, whether it's 2 worlds or 1 world, the canonicity of Sonic Battle...

I wish they'd do that for today's plothole issues like the Phantom Ruby and classic/modern split...

https://web.archive.org/web/20120822024856/http://concept-mobius.technoguild.com/Moderate-Plotholes/black-and-fat-or-green-and-lean.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20120822025406/http://concept-mobius.technoguild.com/Moderate-Plotholes/sonic-battle.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20120822030252/http://concept-mobius.technoguild.com/Moderate-Plotholes/super-emeralds.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20120822030438/http://concept-mobius.technoguild.com/Severe-Plotholes/humans-in-the-world-of-sonic-the-hedgehog.html

[Big Panda]

On 6/17/2018 at 4:15 PM, Sean said:

Oh man, this website takes me way the fuck back. I really loved this place for hosting all sorts of random stuff like the Spanish SA1 fancomic that never got finished and all those fanfics. I'm pretty sure I read the SatAM fics by Brown/Tolbert multiple times, and it was back when I actually shipped Sonic/Sally pretty hard hahaha. This was also where I primarily followed information on Sonic X back when it was first unveiled. I'm so glad the site is still up and I'm tempted to back everything up myself (or at least a lot of it) because I can't bear the thought of all of this going away one day.

I sure hope you got around to it, because the original link now just brings up a “NOT FOUND” error message

[MainJP]

Does anyone remember Secrets of Sonic Team? It's STILL up.

I used to visit this place along with Sonic Cult all the time in the early 2000's.

[Kazhnuz]

SoST was one of my favourite site during junior high school xD It was just so full of lost stuff that was cool to imagine what could have been. The Xtreme section was one of my favourite.

I remember at this time I was trying to make a remake of Sonic Xtreme, and thus used the assets found on that website. I should dig on my old computer the prototype, because it might be one of the few things that I haven't lost.

 

2 hours ago, Marco9966 said:

I just found the website Concept Mobius.

They have pages and pages theorizing about the status of the Super Eemralds, whether it's 2 worlds or 1 world, the canonicity of Sonic Battle... 

I wish they'd do that for today's plothole issues like the Phantom Ruby and classic/modern split... 

The old sites doesn't do that anymore, but we are a lot to do that in forums, I mean, even here there are regulary post about theorizing (I mean, the headcanon post is pretty successful, for a forum post, it doesn't disappear and get back at a regular fashion).

TBH, theory-making and over-nerding over details haven't really diseappered, the "timeline" topic of PSoF lasted until the forum demise by the evil god Discord, and in this forum we have a lot of thread trying to work around different vision of the universe, and trying to theorize stuff that are either badly explained or downright bizarre. Samewise, we have theories on youtube and too (and honestly, I often find discussion nowaday a bit more interesting than those theories, because a lot of us have learn since, and that there is more baggage to fandom analysis, and just by looking on that site I can see how much the fandom got better at that).

 

It's fun to see fan theorizing on stuff that are seen as true by nearly everybody now (like Sonic Battle taking place after Shadow…), though.

[batson]

On ‎6‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 9:55 AM, Marco9966 said:

 I also feel that Classic and Adventure fans were more unified.

Really? I have to disagree on that. As far as I remember, the chasm between classic and Adventure fans was huge at the time. I actually feel that this conflict have somewhat lessened over time if mostly just due to the fact that most of the original classic fans have left the fanbase at this point...

[Kazhnuz]

I agree on that point, we weren't united at all during that time.

I started really going on Sonic forum around 2005 and a bit before, and the fanbase wasn't united xD And the Classic/Adventure divide was especially strong and honestly I've seen during this era more problematic behaviour than now. I feel that nowadays there is a bit less of elitism in the Classic/Modern era, while in the forum I knew, I kinda remember several members being full-on elitist on that point. Sure, it wasn't "everybody", like always, but it was enough to ruin a bit the mood for some people (and I've got friend that left the fanbase because of that, during this era). And even not going to that kind of territory, there were many people that were diappointed with the 3D games and thought that the franchise needed a Sonic 4 to return to its root (and that's where come the "back to its root" tendencies that the franchise got). It was then amplified by Unleashed with the boost gameplay that pleased some, but was hated by some other, but even before, there where a lot of that.

During the first few time of the Adventure era though, it wasn't as bad, the separation wasn't totally made (I kinda remember a lot of mixt between Classic and Modern stuff in the really early 00's fangames), but it really arrived fast.

The separation isn't a problem thought, it's mostly when the behavior become too much problematic for something that is just a game. And I think that we got better on that point : there is still a divide, but I've seen less people attacking other about that. And that's a really good thing. I really don't want people to prefer one thing or another to feel bad or attacked because of that post : there is nothing wrong with prefering something to the other. What was problematic was that sometimes during this era, there were some people that added to that a lot of elitism and attack toward people that had different tastes.

 

And that's not even talking about another divide that existed way before that and that continued for a long time : the "SEGASonic vs American Sonic".

You can even see some trace of it, with people getting angry when Robotnik was being called Eggman, or when Sonic X arrived many fan of SatAM where especially angry against it (and calling it and even sometimes the game - often sans SA2 though - "kiddy") and its fans, and some of them went especially angry when Flynn started to make the first Archie continuity (but here we are going post-2006) more like the games. On the other side, there have been a lot of over-hartred of SEGASonic fans (sometimes with a biiiit too much of pride of being fans of the "real Sonic") toward everything not japanese-made.

As again, the problem wasn't that people didn't agree, it was that it was full of stupid debate that went on for hours and just made everybody angry for nothing xD

 

But all that doesn't mean that it wasn't a good time on other aspect.

[Sean]

On 9/9/2019 at 6:52 AM, Forgetful Panda said:

I sure hope you got around to it, because the original link now just brings up a “NOT FOUND” error message

What happened was that the URLs for the main.htm and navi.htm pages got turned into .html files and broke the main layout. If you rename them you can access them and the rest of the site.

https://www.deco.franken.de/main.html
https://www.deco.franken.de/navi.html

Might try to back up what I can from this site sometime next week.

[batson]

Anyone else remember the Sonic Zone forums? I'm sad that it's gone forever, since that's where I spent my teenage years. I would love to be able to go back and read my posts from those days and just cringe at them.