Exactly how old is this game? (Also, hi from 2005)

[aardhog]

So I first joined the SRB2 forums back in like... summer of 2005 I think. I was like 12 and really new to internet stuff. So it was one of the first forums I went on, and only because I was banned from the first forum I ever joined (which I then made a new account a year later and still use to this day but anyways...).


I don't remember where I heard about this game from or if I found it myself, but I remember even then, the game was already "old". So like... how old is this game? I mean the first build of it released. Because I cannot seem to find that information.



I'm assuming it's from the early Noughties though.



Also, anyone else here from 2005 or before?

 

[clairebun]

circa 1998 IIRC

I think I came about a year later in 2006

 

[Unknownlight]

SRB2 began development in March 1998, and its first public release was in October 1999.

 

[fickleheart]

Older than a lot of its community members.

 

[Goldenhog]

So like... how old is this game? I mean the first build of it released. Because I cannot seem to find that information.

The "Archived Versions" page of the main site and this timeline chart a bit hidden in the wiki have the answers. Though it's a bit subjective, really. The very, very first version of SRB2 ever released, the one that didn't use the Doom engine at all, popped up in April 1998 (this one is missing from the wiki for some reason). Later in October 1999 there was SRB2 Halloween which is more of a proof of concept than anything. And then the very first build to actually have the iconic Greenflower Zone was Demo 1 in November of the year 2000. Most people take one of these as the "start" of SRB2.

fickle is very right, btw. Probably older than a few of the devs too.

 

[aardhog]

It's so bizarre to talk to people online who say they're born in 2000 or later... and they're adults or older teens. I feel so old. I'm still not used to this feeling yet. The fact that some adults weren't even born when some of my favorite childhood video games were released is so odd.


And damn I was expecting maybe like 2002... didn't know it was that old! I was raised by boomers who had kids late in life, they didn't know anything about computers so I didn't get internet until 2005 (when everyone else in my area had already had it for years). So sadly I missed out on all the late 90s and most early noughties internet stuff.

 

[Monster Iestyn]

From the account of old history pages and such, SRB2 development supposedly began in March 1998, only around a month after the original Sonic Robo Blast was released wherever. The SRB2 TGF download on srb2.org is marked as being from April 1998, but keep in mind this version was never really "finished", as they abandoned TGF and moved onto a different engine. I don't even know if it was even really released as such at the time!

As for devs being younger than SRB2 though, I don't think there's actually *that* many who are if at all. Many of us are in our 20s, some even 30s! Personally I was born in '94, so I'm a good few years older than SRB2. (By amazing coincidence though, I was born exactly a year after Doom was first released, haha!)

 

[Tye2KOfficial]

It was around 1998 when production first started according to the "Archived Versions" page on the SRB2 website, literally two years before I was born (I was born in 2000). It's kinda odd that I didn't hear about SRB2 until 2008, about 10 years after its first release! This was about a year before 2.0 saw the light of day so when I started playing SRB2 it was still on the Final Demo 1.09.4 version, which had so much support in terms of modifications (so many of these wads for said version are unfortunately EXTREMELY hard to find or just gone and forgotten, since IIRC most of the websites hosting these wads were either on Freewebs or sepwich).

I don't know if it's still around, but during 2006-2008 in my elementary days I'd always go on this website called "Planete-Sonic.com". I'm not sure exactly how I came across this website but they would have their own minigames embedded from other game sites but one day in '08 I saw that a game called "Sonic Robo Blast 2" was on that page and since I couldn't access it at school I had to wait until I got home to try it out for myself. I was amazed at the gameplay and the soundtrack! I absolutely loved it and played it almost every single chance I got, and this was before I even knew about WADs and such. Ah man what I would give to be able to enjoy the Final Demo when it was relevant (I know it's around but y'know.. a lot of my favorite wads are gone and forgotten.)

 

[Frostav]

Older than a lot of its community members.

I'm barely older, being born at 1995.


That this game predates even SA1 is crazy.

 

[SSNTails]

And then the very first build to actually have the iconic Greenflower Zone was Demo 1 in November of the year 2000.

Not quite! GFZ1 was released as a secret map in SRB2Xmas v0.93 (with this weird tunnel thing added to it.. I was just messing around) which I believe was February 23rd-ish, 2000. Boatloads of the official maps were already plenty 'finished' by then... at least by standards at the time. It's really amazing how long we had a giant batch of maps... I want to say the whole campaign sans DCZ2 onward was probably 'finished' by mid-1999.

but keep in mind this version was never really "finished", as they abandoned TGF and moved onto a different engine. I don't even know if it was even really released as such at the time!

Correct... SRB2:TGF was never publicly released until quite a bit later.

That this game predates even SA1 is crazy.

It was literally a response to years going by and Sega never making a new Sonic game (at least one that could be considered a canon S3K sequel). To this day, I think the game prides itself on not being a fangame of 3D Sonic; although design decisions will overlap if there's something that was a good idea.

 

[Unknownlight]

Boatloads of the official maps were already plenty 'finished' by then... at least by standards at the time. It's really amazing how long we had a giant batch of maps... I want to say the whole campaign sans DCZ2 onward was probably 'finished' by mid-1999.

...

...

Do you still have these maps?

That sounds fascinating.

 

[Radicalicious]

\I want to say the whole campaign sans DCZ2 onward was probably 'finished' by mid-1999.

Does that mean there's a Dark City Zone Act 1? I've seen a few "screenshots" of Dark City from back in the day and it just looked like a dark Greenflower Zone.