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As written & reported by Tom Fulp:
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Every day, approximately 500,000 unique visitors come through Newgrounds. Many of them are regulars, while others were simply passed a link from a friend. For those people who are here and have no clue what the story is behind the site, I've assembled this simple primer with all the necessary information.
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1. Newgrounds is the original - and still the largest - Flash portal on the web.
I started this site on July 6, 1995, originally hosting it on the free web space provided by my local ISP. As a teenager with a thirst for blood and violence, my original web games were point and click gorefests such as Club a Seal and Assassin. They look pretty tame by modern standards, but they were very "edgy and cool" a decade ago and inspired a lot of hate mail.
I eventually started using Flash in 1998 and the site turned into a huge showcase of my Flash work. I was getting a lot of traffic, so on-line buddies started sending me their work to showcase in front of the existing audience. This snowballed out of control and eventually the first-ever automated Flash Portal was launched on April 6, 2000. This system allows anyone anywhere to submit Flash and have it appear on the site instantly! We receive hundreds of submissions on a daily basis, with a daily top five selected by visitors like yourself!
If you are interested, you can read a lot more about the history of Newgrounds...
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2. Newgrounds is not a faceless corporation.
For more than ten years, I ran Newgrounds from basements and bedrooms. Now we have an office, which rocks, but we're still 100% independent and love what we do. The database and back-end programming are handled by Ross (college friend) and James (long-time NG fan from England). My brother Wade helps manage the endless issues that arise from the on-line community. My friend Tim manages the servers, which we own and maintain in a hosting facility here in Philadelphia. Stamper, one of the first contributors to the automated Portal system, now does web design for the site.
If you want to know more about me, you can read my rarely updated biography...
Also be sure to check out the staff page!
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3. NG is the birthplace of Alien Hominid, the first Flash game to cross over to consoles!
In 2002, my friend Dan Paladin (aka Synj, artist) and I (programmer) made a web game called Alien Hominid. We then partnered with two of Dan's friends from the console industry and formed a company called the Behemoth. Together, we independently funded and developed the production of a console version of Alien Hominid for the PS2 and Gamecube. It was released in November, 2004.
Check out the Alien Hominid website!
I'm trying to keep this as brief as possible. For further questions, be sure to consult the FAQ!
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