25 Years ago Today...

[shiva]

Hard to believe, but today is the 25th anniversary of the founding of shivaSite. At the time, I just wanted to be a starcraft site, but funny how things worked out.

It was 1999. By the end of that year, the entire Pinball industry went right to the crapper, and there was a time when it looked like it was over. Even then, there were rumours Williams was going to pull the plug, we had already lost Gottlieb and Capcom, and Sega was done as well. The industry was dead, and it looked like it would never return. IPDB (first version) closed it's doors, and things looked grimmer and grimmer as 1999 went along. Williams did close, and though Gary Stern bought what was left of Sega, the odds were not with him. The entire web presence for pinball was down to a few very small websites and a mail news group (remember those?).

I can't remember when I did my first pinball related post on my then (real tiny) website, or even why I continued to do pinball related content. Maybe because I couldn't handle the fact the game I love was pretty much gone, but something inside me said "maybe things will get better, maybe I can make a difference".

so 25 years later...

There was no way anyone could have predicted what we have now. Just looking back at that time now, and the impact and the pure insanity that was shivaSite is still a marvel to behold. There was no master plan, it was if it was pinball related, throw it againest the wall and see if it sticks. Literally, nothing else. The biggest downfall was it didn't occur to me that there would be so many people who felt the exact same way that I did.

It all started with wpcMame (basically the grand father of Vpinmame) and the set of "Clean" master roms I got my hands on, and then it sort of snowballed from there. I found the first set of pdf manuals, and the site just kept growing and growing and growing and... People like Destruk, Steve, Joxer, and Blue Tex became involved pretty quickly, then Randy and I (and later Chris) got together and the result is history.

The website stopped being my site, it became everyone's website, and I think that's why the site became so special, because everyone contributed to it in their own way, because we all wanted pinball to stay alive. The most important thing I can say about shivaSite was, it came at exactly the right time, and when it was most needed when the times were very grim. The website was the starting point of so many things that we all enjoy now, VP, FP, a arcade pinball industry that is thriving, and a computer base industry that is really growing. We have tens if not hundreds of thousands of pinball games we can play, we have the entire cabinet industry, we have VR, and pinball is back where it belongs, in the arcades.

I still see shivaSite stuff all over the place even now. IPDB (2nd version) ended up with a lot of the content, but it's all over the place. The torch has been passed on, and there are so many great pinball websites out there, so hopefully, we will never need a shivaSite ever again because there is no need. That's a good thing in my books. Our community is strong now. Our industry is strong. Pinball doesn't just have a past and a present, it also has a future, and that is the most important thing.

I'm proud of what shivaSite and everyone involved with it achieved, never in my wildest dreams exactly 25 years ago today would I have thought we all enjoy as much as we do now, and the shear impact it actually had. I am grateful that people still remember the website fondly even to this day, it truly turned into a special website. So today is the one day we think of the past, with the knowledge that when tomorrow comes, it is the first day of our future.

And what a future it could be.

 

[GeorgeH]

I am a late comer to this site. I started on the old GoPinball site and resided there for many years. I became amazed with the 3D nature of Future Pinball and was sold on it it when I saw the "Attack From Mars" table for the first time. Then sadly the GoPinball site went away and so the Future Pinball folks moved here. Charles (aka Xenonph) single-handedly downloaded every table from the old PinSimDB site and uploaded them to this site. All this was done manually, one table at a time. I originally suggested that we just electronically upload all the tables from PinSinDb here in a folder structure to save time. Charles took the initiative on his own to upload them using the same prefixes and tags used elsewhere on the site. Charles not only uploaded the tables from PinSinDb, but also went through all the existing FP and VP tables on the site and added prefixes, tags and made everything consistent. This site is the most search friendly site I have ever used, mostly because of Charles's work but also from the administrators implementing some of the enhancements I requested. I am happy to be a member of this site and am especially pleased with all the support the administrators here provide. Happy 25th anniversary everyone!

 

[madmrmax]

Happy 25th anniversary to this community brought together by Shiva! I'm glad to have this home with Steve's gopinball gone. I love the friendliness of the forum tech as well (easily add images to topics, tags, search, etc) so thank you to everyone who runs it.

 

[AnonTet]

It had to start at some point. I'm glad it started and continued, with such great guys. If it wasn't for that, I doubt we'd be here today.

Thank you and happy 25th anniversary (makes us feel younger saying it this way right? :D )

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

I'm not sure I ever saw the original-original shivaSite. If I understand correctly, it became something of a co-project with AJ Russo, who later wrangled it away and renamed it "VPF."

IIRC, sometime after I joined the scene in late 2001, shivaSite was relaunched completely independent of the original VPF, and was a distinctly quieter place for some years. Which tended to be a welcome thing for people tired of the drama at VPF, as it got bigger and noisier.

Sadly, I was unable to preserve the big history thread I started, which chronicled the early history of the VP project. That would have been really handy at times like this. Unfortunately, AJ stopped paying the bills on his site, it went down, and the HDD I was using as backup crashed and burned.

Anyway, thanks for your long, dedicated work, Shiva. It certainly must feel good to know you were a significant part of keeping pinball alive through the 'dark years.'

 

[shiva]

I'm not sure I ever saw the original-original shivaSite. If I understand correctly, it became something of a co-project with AJ Russo, who later wrangled it away and renamed it "VPF."

IIRC, sometime after I joined the scene in late 2001, shivaSite was relaunched completely independent of the original VPF, and was a distinctly quieter place for some years. Which tended to be a welcome thing for people tired of the drama at VPF, as it got bigger and noisier.

Sadly, I was unable to preserve the big history thread I started, which chronicled the early history of the VP project. That would have been really handy at times like this. Unfortunately, AJ stopped paying the bills on his site, it went down, and the HDD I was using as backup crashed and burned.

Anyway, thanks for your long, dedicated work, Shiva. It certainly must feel good to know you were a significant part of keeping pinball alive through the 'dark years.'

No AJ came years later. I hosted his website (as well as others like PN, irp) and he was a admin sort of like we are here.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

No AJ came years later. I hosted his website (as well as others like PN, irp) and he was a admin sort of like we are here.

Oh rabbits, you could pretty much just make it all up at this point and I'd just nod my head and whisper "shaddap you face" like Joe Dolce.

Probably not much more efficient than 'the history of Visual Pinball as remembered by PacDude.'
From my end anyway.

 

[druadic]

Shiva, YOU were one of the folks that made me want to get into the Visual Pinball scene. I realize we started at the BEGINNING of Visual Pinball and man was it a rough road. I know you remember all this and for all of us it was in it's infancy. I STILL remember ShivaSite and all it's glory - when many numerous authors were kicked off of VPF you asked us to come here and we did. The support here is 100% better than 75% of the other sites I would watch with bated breath to see what they were like. ShivaSite was NOTHING like those sites and to this day, even though it had a name change I'm so glad I came over here.

I still can't remember what if anything or everything we all did but you came forward and started an amazing site. I STILL have your older icons and stuff from the old site somewhere. Every time I look at them I have flashbacks if what it was like then. To this day I enjoy remembering how it was and how fun it was trying to help one another with each other's problems using VP because we had so many issues to deal with with the earlier versions. Instant messages and emails were a normal part of authors talking to each other back then.

To see JPH keep this site up is just an amazing testament as to how so many folks have kept this hobby alive. Folks even today are finding pinball a breath of fresh air even though it's through software. I doubt Randy Davis could have seen just how far his program and influence was going to grow and blossom. I'm sure he's wide eyed as to how far it has come and Randy should be quite proud of what he created and released to the public. Without his program I don't think Visual Pinball would have gotten as far as it has.

To be honest, it's nice to see many of the past VP authors and folks still at the helm. You Shiva, JPH and many of the others that make VP what it is today. We've lost so many original authors of past releases and I sure do miss them and have tried my best to get in contact with no avail. Kind of sad, but they have a life to live and have left for numerous reasons. They will ALWAYS be remembered.

Visual Pinball is not completely about graphics but the game play. We did our best to create what we could with what we had and it was fun. Today I still consider VP fun but it is nothing like it was. I miss all the hustle and hub bub that went on in the past. Those days are gone but not forgotten. Same goes for the past authors such as Warrior, Duglis, Starman, tiltjlp, Kinsey, Plumb and so many others. It's nice to have the past filed into our heads but time goes on.

I fully support the VP community and hope everything goes well for those authors still keeping it alive. LONG LIVE VISUAL PINBALL.

Shiva, THANK YOU SIR. My highest and utmost respect for your dedication and kindness to the authors that were pretty much ridiculed or kicked off of VPF. You deserve the highest recognition possible to the pinball community. My thanks.

JonPurpleHaze, THANK YOU for being a friend and keeping this site alive. In respect I nod and tilt my hat to you sir. You are appreciated.

d-

Here's to another 25 years of Pinball Nirvana and the remembrance of it's beginning: ShivaSite.

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

As we get older our memories fade and that's happening with myself as well but there are some things in this thread that aren't accurate..

Congrats on the 25 anniversary of the beginning of shivaSite @shiva!
I believe I discovered the VP scene in 1999 with the old MSN forums which I think predates everything.

The beginning of Pinball Nirvana was inspired by Paul, used to be called Flipperless.com and was hosted by saharasales in April of 2003.
Paul helped me with the logo and suggested our first Content Management System (CMS) and might not have been started without his and John's (tiltjlp) help. PN and shivaSite weren't ever connected or hosted at the same place but PN hosted a shivaSite subdomain much, much later and up until about a month ago. I believe the same is true with IRP. PN isn't 25 years old and shouldn't be confused with shivaSite which was great!

I just remember the excellent resources that shivaSite had, a table builders paradise!
A lot of current VP and FP stuff probably wouldn't exist now without Paul!

 

[Anthias]

Don't know how I missed this thread, but thanks for the memories. I'll never forget sitting in Rockinghorse's kitchen on a random day back in 2000 sometime when we'd been making slots in the Ceasars palace game and saying it was sad there wasn't any pinball around, and how cool would it be if there was a modern pinball construction kit on the PC. So I went home that night and couldn't stop wishing so I dialled in and found you guys, and my world changed for the better. It took a while to get involved, but I never regretted it.