Salutations, Reader.
Here is a quick retrospect about the ‘History’ of StarArena game portals since Gods-Vicious-Babies entered the internet. If my memory serves me right, the War-Babies made their first appearance in an experimental webzine named What’Sup in 1995. This is around the time when your humble narrator started drawing the “Battle Modes” for the Atomic Baby Clones. And ‘we’… back then, it was me and my mate who ran a Comic-Craft and Design-Studio called TBHead-Quarters, went: Digital!
A few years later, when the discussion about the-better-web-browser was still between ‘Nutscrape‘ or ‘Exploder,’ we made our first website. It took some digging in very old and dusty memory-banks, but I found an original screenshot from way back then. Back in the age of dial-up modems, we already were Graphic Heavy! To ensure reasonable loading on your screen, we kept the size at 400 x 600 pixels. But I digress and stray from my point…
The StarArena game board was originally designed for the Navigation menu of the Baby Universe, as seen below.
The StarArena Origin… Fortunate Accident or Synchronicity?
Since we were already working on The Card Game, while looking at the printout of the navigation menu, we both instinctively said, “What if we turn this into a Game Board?” This can then become our Battle Arena! We could call it the Star Arena. And so it passed into history, a true story that occurred in the spring of 1997. Soon after, the Tournament Table was constructed for game development.
This addition brought an extra dimension to the Card Battles and became the Game we still play to this day. Even though the website contained many more pages and character back stories, a quick fly~by is provided below. The core of the story has always been about cyber soldiers who must battle it out in a virtual world. Here, you can observe the ‘Evolution Stages‘ and ‘Physical Appearance‘ of a First Generation Atomic Battle Clone from the Game-Cards.
End Of An Era! TBH-Q (BabyHype.com) Becomes Obsolete…
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Just shy of a decade, me and my mate decided to dissolve our partnership in 1999. Having both bounced around here and there, I mainly leave the creative minefield, by concentrating on making coin with Carpentry. While ‘Baby-Ice‘ hones his skills and masters the art of Dermatological-Illustration, leaving a lasting impression by punching-ink into people’s skin.
Much like in Graphic Design, in Carpentry, the client can have what they want within reason and good taste. But when it comes to “Drawing,” your game-smith becomes protective because he can’t stand idiots invading his creative-space or mindscape. This creative act becomes increasingly private and transforms into a hobby to be pursued in between woodwork projects. However, that changes when…
Cracks start to appear in my armor and my body starts to exhibit serious wear and tear. At age forty, I seriously wonder if there is enough of me left to continue as a Wood-Smith until retirement?
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In 2010, your humble narrator dusted off the Old StarArena Battle Box and took inventory. Decides to overhaul the Story-Engine that powered the Baby-Universe and started rebuilding the Story-Design into the StarArena MetaVerse.
The latest gaming website, which was originally built in 2002 by Niven, _and later expanded by Yonar_ had become a virtual-shipwreck adrift on the internet. After a few years of using a refreshed version, the Game-Smith and the Code-Master decided that building a new platform was the better course of action. The Legacy-Gallery & Card-Factory is somewhat of an unsung hero, as it feeds !!FREE!! game-cards for online Booster-Packs. Being a large part of the plan to convert occupation and vocation from Wood to Game-Smith.
Building For A Better Future?
During the coronavirus pandemic, your humble game-smith has been struck with another dose of bad-luck and must endure a period-of-agonizing-pain. Three years later, he is still unable to perform carpentry and works on the Compendium in between physical therapy sessions. At the end of 2023, he decided to “Build & Bomb” new webshops in the hope of generating revenue from selling Original-Artwork.
Starting in 2024, all efforts will be focused on creating Comics & Cards! One season later than previously planned, but now we have multiple game portals to purchase awesome items from.