Emulation Galaxy
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Emulation Galaxy, sometimes abbreviated as EmuGlx, is the first Serbian emulation news website founded on September 9, 1999 by Nikola "Nick4life" Jovanovic. It is one of the oldest and biggest emulation websites on Balkans. Besides the emulation news and downloads, site features "system sections" with articles about many popular video game consoles, both old and new, as well as handheld game consoles and old computers. There is an archive of various editorials covering many emulation and gaming topics. The Emulation Galaxy also features the biggest online archive of retro game reviews in Serbian language. For a long time the site was the only media in Serbia writing about console and arcade games.
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[edit] History
[edit] The early years (1999-2001)
The first Emulation Galaxy was simple, almost text-only, underground emulation news website hosted on Tripod.com. Nikola "[forsaken demon]" Dolapcev joined the team as the main news editor. Fist news were posted on October 11, 1999. After the longest period of inactivity in history of Emulation Galaxy (3 months, March - May, 2000), the site was revived with the second version that was introduced on June 19, 2000. The website was moved from Tripod.com to Nick4life.com hosting and domain. Besides the new layout, many new emulation topics were added. Second version of Emulation Galaxy was replaced with the third version after roughly 2 months on August 18, 2000. Third version introduced another expansion of topics and a new layout, with the new original logo and graphics (made by new, short-time member Ivana Milojevic).
[edit] Later years (2001-2003)
With the extremely expanded and redesigned 4th version of the website, introduced on February 18, 2001 and shortly after moving to national domain (www.emulationgalaxy.co.yu) on March 25, 2001, Emulation Galaxy started to gain media acceptance. Site was featured in almost all gaming press in Serbia, and even on some local TV stations. The 5th version of the Emulation Galaxy was introduced on May 4, 2002. That version of the Emulation Galaxy was also featured on RTS 3K TV (Serbian national television, as of 2003) for their 3rd birthday, [1] as well as on Politika. [2]
[edit] Modern Emulation Galaxy (2003-Today)
The sixth and the current version of Emulation Galaxy was introduced December 29, 2003. Focus of the site has been changed in the last few years, and is moving toward general console gaming and anime/manga. The emulation is still very important part of Emulation Galaxy, but since the whole scene has been quiet for some time, there is really not much to write about, especially because Emulation Galaxy was always focused only on the most important emulation topics, like releases of top quality emulators or stories about promising ones. "Quality over quantity" was and still is the main motto.
[edit] EmuForums
Ever since 1999 and the fist Emulation Galaxy, there were always some kind of messageboards and cult-like following on them, but the EmuForums as they are known today were established July 31, 2002. They are tightly tied to the system sections of the website, although they cover more topics then the website itself.
[edit] System sections
One of the main goals of Emulation Galaxy was to cover as many game systems (and emulation related topics about them) as possible, but focusing on the most important ones starting with video arcades and mainstream consoles like Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive, PlayStation and others. Later, there were introduced sections dedicated to the most popular European computers like Commodore 64 or Amiga line and even handhelds and pinball's found their place. But, there was always idea about promoting not-so-popular gaming systems, so next to the stories about the most successful Sega, Nintendo or Sony consoles you can also find strong info about famous NeoGeo system or ill-fated ones like Atari Jaguar or Atari Jaguar CD. Each system section consists of in-depth platform history (but without lots of technical information), few screenshots and emulation related downloads.
[edit] Anime/Manga section
Long before mainstream anime popularity in Serbia, Emulation Galaxy was the first to dedicate a forum to anime and manga in 2001. By popular demand from growing anime and manga fanbase on EmuForums, an anime/manga section was also added to the website in 2002, containing reviews of anime series and movies, as well as some other related materials. Ironically, due to the lack of other anime/manga related websites Emulation Galaxy, even with emulation and gaming as its main topic, is currently also the most popular center of the anime/manga community in Serbia.
[edit] Emulation Galaxy International
Ever since the EmuForums were opened, they were visited by people around the world, even though Serbian language was always the main language on them. Since many local users also spoke adequate English, international visitors were able to fit into the community. With time, more and more of English speaking visitors have come, so a separate section on the forums was created, and later it was even split to a separate website: EmuGlx International.
[edit] Notes
- ^ (Host: Andria Stamenovic). (2003). Cyberspace [TV Show]. Belgrade, Serbia: RTS 3K.
- ^ (Host: Unknown). (2003). GameOver [TV Show]. Belgrade, Serbia: Politika.
