SMBIS RETROSPECTIVE

November 19, 2006

Every so often, usually when I update the layout of the site, I update this commentary documenting how the SMBIS has changed since its conception on October 11, 2000 with a brief description, and some screencaps.

Version 1.0

It was 2000. I had found Nintendoland during the summer, and started reading the fanfics there, especially Toasty's High School Days. Because of those fanfics, my interest in Nintendo was enflamed more than previously before. I had made some web pages for a class, so I modified them slightly and this is what I came up with. When I started the Info Station on Tripod, it didn't have any fanstuff and had crude, simplistic graphics. However, you have to start with something. V1.0 originally had Fanshrines for Mouser, Lemmy, Bowser and Koopa, but were taken down after lack of updates. On October 26, 2000, the IS was graced with the donation of the ever-so-popular Super Mario Bros. Freaky Show fanfic by Toasty, with more Fanfics being added later.

Version 1.2 | Version 1.3 | Commentary

Version 1.4

I started making sub-versions pretty early, and typically the main page is the only thing that's affected. When the IS reached Version 1.4, I made so many drastic changes to it, so many that this could have been a precursor to Version 2. By the end of Version 1, I added Mario Nostalgia, where all of you can see the Mario stuff I collected through the years, as well as the Commentary page, with the Mario Ice Capades being the first article.

Fanfics

Version 2.0

Three weeks after Version 1.4 started, I decided to change the layout of the IS. So, in V2.0, the IS was given a new design based on the SNES game, Tetris Attack. V2 also introduced the Fancomic page, a Countdown to the latest Mario games, and the Interesting Mario Facts, little random Mario tidbits. At around this time, the IS received it's first award by Latisha Banks and the first Ultimate Mario's Link of the Month Award in April (That site is long gone now, unfortunately). The Awards section was added later to hold these wonderful gifts. I later removed this section because these were the only 2 awards I've ever gotten. The Fan Shrines and the extra SMU info pages were also removed for lack of updates. I also found a JavaScript that made the blue star background scroll diagonally, but it became glitchy, so that was removed as well.

Version 2.1 | Links

June 11th was the same day Game Boy Advance and Super Mario Advance were released in America. So, to commemorate that special occasion, the IS was upgraded to Version 3.0. V3.0 wasn't that much of an upgrade from V2.1; just a few cosmetic changes. However, soon afterwards, the IS started taking Polls and offering fan-made Mario Games.  In August 01, I added Toasty's cartoon summaries for the SMB Super Show in the Cartoon page. During this time, Tripod lowered the disk space of the site to a mere 15MB, and my site was borderline full. Because of this, the Nostalgia and Scans pages were removed from the site.

Version 3.1 | Version 3.2 | Fanart

After 16 months of Version 3, I was experimenting on different designs for a new style change. I wanted to use another theme based on a Mario game. I attempted to make the main page look like Super Mario Bros. 3. However, I couldn't decide on the best way to work the other pages into this design, so they still had their v3 graphics. I only updated the site once when I put up this beta design. After 3.5 months of stagnation, I came to the conclusion that this site had to have a drastic facelift, and the design had to look more original than reusing SMB3 graphics.

I used most of the graphics I used in the beta and used them to create NES Style. This was the first version to be called a "Style", as I was heavily influenced by Bemani game inferfaces. This style was the first to use the horizontal frame menus at the top and bottom of the page. NES Style only saw three updates within it's five-month history. With Tripod's limited disk space and annoying popups. I knew it was time to find a new home for the SMBIS.

I don't recall how I found NES Central. Probably a link on a random Nintendo page, or a Google'd result. Doesn't really matter, because I had stumbled upon a really nice webmaster who was offering free web hosting of NES sites on his server. After all the hassle of Tripod, I decided that this would be a better alternative. So after months of trying to design a new Style to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Famicom, I launched the newly-relocated SMBIS and Fami-Style on NES Central. Because of the additional space, I brought back the then-retired Nostalgia and Scans pages, and started my own Forums. There were even sounds that occurred when the cursor hovered over links. This style is actually half of a bigger style I had initially planned out. There was to be a DX version of Fami-Style, with the Disk System as a major motif. The Mario Mania pages would be "Side A" and the Fanarchive pages would be "Side B", and there would be two main pages, specifically for each side. However, I was pressed for time, so I nixed this in favor for an easier design.

For the site's third anniversary, and the 15th anniversary of the Japanese release of Super Mario Bros. 3, I replaced the red and black graphics with enlarged, altered graphics from the game. Almost an ode to the failed v.4 beta. As the site gained more popularity, I focused more on the "Info" on the Info Station, especially the Commentary section. After years of being a side-comment, I finally posted up some screenshots (photos taken from my digi-cam :P) of the Mario Ice Capades, which ultimately lead to the Mario Videos page, with rare Mario commercials and clips about the Mario Movie, as well as the Mario Ice Capades special.

I had always wanted to make a special Style based on my favorite Mario characters. For several months I've been playing with new designs and changes. Koopa Style was initially meant to be frameless, and utilizing a new color organization method. The Infostation pages would be green, the Mario Mania pages would be red, and the Fanarchive would be blue. The letter system and header images that Pixel Style uses now originated in Koopa Style. However, Koopa Style as it stands never made it on the web. There was something about it that I didn't feel right with. Because of that, I kept it a side project for months until the true Koopa Style was released a year later.

Out of a sudden whim, I ditched the green, blue, and red colors, to go towards a sterile grey and white design, then quickly upgrading the site. The design was a stark change from the colorful Fami-Style. At this time, many sites were going through facelifts and such because of incoming E3 stuff, so I wanted to refresh my site as well with newer graphics. I pretty much combined Koopa Style Beta with Fami-Style to make this. For those who have noticed, the squares in the page background is in fact an exploded sprite of regular Mario from SMB3.

After more than an year stressing myself out, trying to come up with something really interesting, I finally decided on a design for Koopa Style. It is a mixture of a futuristic green interface, grey Koopa hexagons and Bowser's mug plastered everywhere. My original plan on dividing subsections by color is reborn. Besides cosmetic changes, the only major difference now is that I retired my SMU art page, and replaced with with Klub Koopa, a fanpage devoted to everything Koopa-related, including my SMU Koopa art.

Sadly, Koopa Style wasn't maintained as much as I had wanted to. Random distractions kept me from updating enough, enough so that I hadn't posted anything new in a year. When the site temporarily went down, I immediately jumped at the chance to start over from scratch. Thankfully, I was able to put back up the site on NES Central. I had decided to remove the fanarchives and try to focus the site more on info and nostalgia.