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***Links Tyrell*** · (This post was last modified: 10-30-2009 07:07 AM by Links Tyrell.)

Board History

Sonic Aftermath was originally formed in June 2002. Fresh out of his A level exams at college, Links was only just starting to test the waters in terms of the internet and it was correct to say that he didn't have the slightest clue what he was doing. At the time, Links was playing his way through a game for the Sega Dreamcast called Skies of Arcadia and decided it would be fun to look up some more information, looking for secrets and the like. What Links found instead was a message board dedicated to the game so he decided to join.

The board had a forum for roleplaying although it was not heavily used or visited by anyone. This was until a member by the name of Shiro created a Sonic roleplaying topic. Due to Links' earlier love of the Mega Drive games (even if he couldn't complete them), he decided to join and have a go. Links decided to play as Tails and whilst early on the going was slow, more and more of the board's members began to join. After the first topic reached several hundred posts, they made a second and continued. It was during this second topic that the original creator, Shiro, vanished from the board and left Links in charge of organizing things.

By then, the topic had around ten active players and things were getting a little crazy. They all decided that something more was needed, so they asked if they could have their own forum for the RPG like a number of RPGs before had received. They didn't have much luck and they didn't get their own forum on the board. Not content with the decision and not having the money to buy his own board, Links went looking for a free board server, finally finding it in My Ikonboard.

It took about a week to get the initial board up and some basic rules written out, but the first version of Sonic Aftermath finally opened in late July 2002. The name originally came from a Sonic fanfic series Links was writing at the time by the same name. The board quickly drew a good handful of people, both from the previous message board but also from people they knew. Things ran surprisingly smoothly although the lax rules and lack of staff did mean that they were plagued by excessive godding and uberness.

It was about four or so months later that Links met some of the people who are still on the staff to this date: Viper, Nokame, and Yoli (or Jodie as she goes by at the moment). Although early relationships were a bit uneasy or at the least unsure, they became good friends and in turn sealed the future of Sonic Aftermath to this date. A few months after meeting Viper, the board suffered a fatal crash whereby it would not allow anyone (including Links) to login. Without the ability to do this, it was impossible to post and so the RPG looked set to crumble into dust before it had even begun. This was compounded by the fact that Ikonboard did not seem in a rush to fix the error as it was a free board service.

A life line was thrown out by Viper who, although barely knowing Links at this point, decided to download some board software and host a new board on his own domain! To say that Links was eternally grateful was an understatement and he gladly accepted the offer. All the members worked together to transfer the previous couple posts and carried on where they last left off.

By this time, Sonic Aftermath was approaching its first birthday and things were going well. The new server proved very stable and the updated Ikonboard software was reliable. As things progressed into December of 2005, by a member decision, the board headed into a new restart with the new year. This marked the start of the second round, a round that is still running to this date.

Changes occurred again in April 2008 when the staff decided to purchase the board's own domain name for Sonic Aftermath. Saftermath.com was finally purchased but the board wasn't actually moved over until later. This was due to concern over the board security when the Ikonboard support forum was hacked in early 2008. Due to the software being old, no security updates were planned and there was concern that their own board could be hacked itself. As such, Viper and Links began to investigate new software and finally decided on MyBB. Following this, the board was finally moved to the new server and upgraded in October 2008.

Sonic Aftermath has recently celebrated its seventh birthday in July 2009 and we hope that many more are yet to follow. Following the restart in November 2009 Aftermath now has a new story and more options. The future looks bright!