20 Years

Two decades ago, I created this blog. It might feel like stating the obvious, but times sure were different back then. I was a teenager, for one thing. I recently mulled through some ancient posts because I was feeling nostalgic and it left me feeling conflicted. On the one hand, I remembered just how enthusiastic I used to be. On the other, I was reminded how unenthusiastic I had become. It would seem that being an adult really does suck the life out of you. 

It's been eight years since I've posted anything here, and even longer than that since I was actually active. Still, I remembered this 20th anniversary because this place is special to me. Maybe sometime soon I will return. After all, the world could use more of the passion and positivity I used to bring in my youth. I would like to try and recapture that, if only a little. 

So here's to 20 years of Installation 04! May the next 20 be even better.

The first 10 years

Did you know Installation 04 is ten years old today? The ribbon there is a bit misleading since the site was founded with only two weeks of the year remaining. The real 10th year is 2015, so I ought to change that. But who cares anyway, because ten years is a long time to be online! So long, in fact, that you probably don't even realize how long. 

To put it in perspective, here's a bunch of websites that Installation 04 is older than:

• Facebook (publicly available only since September 26th, 2006– the private Harvard version is only a year older than this site)
• Twitter (launched July 15, 2006)
• YouTube (February 14, 2005)
• Tumblr (launched in 2006)
• Destructoid (launched March 16th, 2006)
• GamesRadar (launched 2005)
• Polygon (launched October 24, 2012)
• The Verge (launched November 1, 2011)
• The Huffington Post (launched May 9, 2005)
• Reddit (launched June 23, 2005)
• Wordpress (launched November 21, 2005)
• Instagram (launched October 6, 2010)
• imgr (launched February 23, 2009)
• Netflix streaming (launched February 2007)
• Hulu (launched 2007)
• Dropbox (launched 2008)
• Buzzfeed (launched 2006)
• Pinterest (launched March 2010)

Here's some websites older than Installation 04:

• IGN (launched September 1996)
• GameSpot (launched May 1996)
• CNET (launched March 5, 1994)
• Joystiq (launched June 2004)
• Kotaku (launched October 2004)
• Engadget (launched March 2004)
• Google (launched September 1998)
• Yahoo (launched January 1994)
• Amazon (launched July 5, 1994)
• Wikipedia (launched January 15, 2001)
• Blogger (obviously– launched August 23, 1999)
• eBay (launched September 3, 1995)
• Ask (launched June 1996)
• MSN (launched August 1995)
• Craigslist (launched 1996)
• DeviantArt (launched August 7, 2000)

FAST FACTS:

• When Installation 04 started, the iPhone and Android didn't exist. The iPhone was first released June 29, 2007. And Android was released shortly after.
• The most current game consoles were the Xbox, GameCube, and PS2. The DS was released only one month (November 21st) before the site launched.
• Halo 2 had just been released on November 9th. And Fable had just been released on September 14th.
• It would be another year before Kingdom Hearts 2 and Shadow of the Colossus were released.
• The most recent Pokemon games were Fire Red and Leaf Green, released September 9.
• Invader Zim was still on the air and Avatar wasn't on the air yet.
• Toonami had just been moved to Saturday nights in April.
• Samurai Jack had just concluded on September 24.
• Sonic The Hedgehog didn't completely suck yet. The latest game was Sonic Advance 3.
• The latest Harry Potter book was "Order of the Phoenix".
• The SpongeBob movie had just released on November 19th.

So happy 10th birthday to Installation 04! The 10th year should be an awesome one, so stay tuned. Hopefully we can do this again for the 20th anniversary.

Oh, stupid me! I almost forgot to thank everyone who's contributed over the last ten years! Thanks to Doegab, Battsman, RaiderBear, Prince Omega, and MonkeyLord! You guys are awesome.

Real talk for serious times

As you know, today is April Fools' Day. In the past, I have trick, duped, and outright lied to readers. This has been a tradition every April of the blog's existence, all the way back to 2005. Today is no laughing matter. Today is no joke. I have finally had time to think and I've concluded that I just don't have the time for this any more. You may have noticed that I'm not posting as much as I used to. As much as I'd like to get great content out to you, the readers, on a timely basis, I just can't. The older I get, the more complicated life gets. So I will soon be shutting down Installation 04 as you know it. It sure has been a good run (over 8 years!).

But don't cry many tears my friends! I04 will live on in spirit. You may have noticed that, for a brief period, I04 was known as Installed Base. That was a test. Since it's hard to get out articles in a timely manner, I've decided to switch to a new format: the magazine. Going forward, Installation 04 will be a magazine available both digitally and in print. This way, I can work on things when I have time and offer a big old stack of awesome content whenever it's done. I've been working on this in secret since January, and I think you'll agree it just makes sense. Why bother with the internet, where no one can find your content, when you could have a magazine instead? It's always been a dream of mine, and now it's finally coming true. I'm sure you'll agree this is a great decision. The first issue is actually available right now! Below are a few preview pages. Hope you enjoy. Head on over to the brand new Installedbase.co right now to download the first issue or order a physical copy!

 

Announcing the 2012 BOOTY Categories

Like I said before, this edition of the BOOTY awards is going to be different. Instead of making one long monster post, I'll be doing one for every category by naming the Five Or Less Best games in each category. Below, you'll find the awards I'll be giving out.

It's that time of the year again...

Prepare your body for the first ever BOOTY awards on Installed Base. Since the site has been revamped, so have the awards. This year, I'll be breaking it down into "The 5 Or Less Best" in addition to the zany awards you've come to know and love. In the end, only five games will be ranked into the overall Best Offerings Of The Year. Now I've just got to play the rest of the games in this large stack...

Hello again

You may recall that nearly five years ago I morphed GameWeb into Installation 04. Now I'm doing it again! As it turns out, there was too much bagage for me to continue with Installation 04 in its current form. I had really grown accustomed to the name, but now it just reminds me of days long past. I think that the only way forward is to make a change. So I did. Installation 04 is now Installed Base. Same content, new title under the flagship of me. No more fancy domains and no more trying to be something. It's just for me. That's the way I want it. I also want it with no sidebar, as you can see. I think it works. What do you think?

Halo Month: Now through November 6th!

Weapons! Maps! Enemies! Music! Impressions! It's over four weeks of Halo 4! Can you handle it?

Take advantage of this attractive offer by visiting your local Installation 04 dealer before time runs out!

Rebirth

Installation 04 lives again! Originally, I was hoping maybe I could get the old team back together. Now I realize that's not going to happen so I am moving forward as a one-man operation. From now on, Installation 04 is the one and only blog of me, Fuzunga. It'll have a mix of great stuff written by me ranging from analyses of video games, to top ten lists, to original fiction. I've decided to stop waiting and start up the machine once again. So prepare for the best era of I04 yet!

As you can see, there's been some reorganization. The menu at the top of the site will filter posts into pretty much every basic category, while the informational page navigation has been moved to the sidebar. At the moment, the Blogger page gadget seems to be borked. I have worked around this. The menu up top functions just fine, but doesn't look as nice and fancy (meaning it won't highlight what page you're on). I'll change this as soon as the problem is resolved to get it looking spiffy! Anyway, I hope the new layout is of use and keep a lookout for regular new content!

Welcome to the 21st Century

On this, the 900th post, I bring news of changes. No, the changes are not staff oriented. Yes, I'm still all alone. But maybe not for long. You see, I've finally brought the comments system into the 21st century by unleashing all the power Disqus has to offer. I've dabbled with Disqus during my previous endeavors and it has proven to be a very competent and featuretastic commenting system. In fact, tt was recently overhauled and improved! You can login with a variety of services, rate and share posts right from the comment widget, subscribe to comment threads, tag people in comments, link to individual comments, vote comments up and down, follow commenters, and more! I'm hoping this will actually get people to speak up.

Also now available are the Installation Fourms, not tied to the comments via single login because that was causing me problems (plus that comment system was kinda blah). You can access it in the menu bar. As a social experiment, the forums are totally free-for-all and users can post anything and everything. They're not too fancy, but have a decent amount of features including rich text editing, image uploads, sharing features, and the ability to login through several common accounts.

Introducing Installed Base Podcast!

Installed Base Podcast is a one-man podcast hosted by Fuzunga and currently entering into production. The first episode should be up by May 14th. For more information and future updates, see the Installed Base page that can be found all the way to the right of the menu bar. You'll be the first to know when episode one goes live!

Installed Base

It is coming. Prepare yourself.

Slightly New Things

As you can clearly see (unless you're bling... but then what are you doing on the internet?) I've created a well-deserved custom font for I04. Also changed the font for the post headers. Also, new stuff should be posted soon. I'm pretty busy, but I think it's lame when people say "YES, I WILL DO THIS THING" and then it never happens and you never find out why. While my mind's on it, The Daily Awesome... it turns out that's a bit more a hassle than I thought. I might just go back to the whole posting interesting tidbits to FB and G+ which you can find in the sidebar thing. That post I did a while ago about what I'm posting soon? Turns out that by soon I meant probably within the next six months. Of course as I go along, that might turn out to be an outline for most of 2012. You can scratch the 3DS review off that, obviously, as well as the Tower of Heaven thing. You can access "life in teh real world" (a secondary blog) from the menu up top now. I update that when I remember. Next on the agenda is a preview for Kingdoms of Amalur, followed by the BOOTYs. I promise to have that done before the month is over and it becomes irrelevant. I've got a pice on Gurren Lagann planned for soon, too, while it's still fresh in my mind. Other things will come when they come. I'm just letting everyone know because I believe in transparency.

The NEW new review policy

I've been doing some thinking, as often tend to do, and I have finally come to a conclusion: Installation 04 will no longer be reviewing games. Well, not in the traditional sense. I've decided to scrap our new review system completely, optioning instead for a new system that's not really a system at all. Our new "reviews" aim to answer one question: "Worth playing?" What will result is a review that focuses more on the important aspect of how the parts of the game work together as a whole. Is the game a fun and engaging experience? As I said before, readers often skip right to the end, so the answer to that all important question comes right at the start. Within the first paragraph, you will know if the game is worth playing, and you can read on for a more detailed look as to why if you wish. There are no sections. There are no colors. Just a straight discussion of how the game may or may not work. The idea actually came from what I was doing before with reviewing shows, a thing I called "worth watching".  We hope you find it... refreshing.

Introducing "The Daily Awesome"

Remember that thing I mentioned in the post below? That new thing I called "The Weekly Awesome"? Well I decided to make it daily. What is it, you ask? It's a collection of all sorts of awesome stuff from the web and our own site aggregated in one place. You can find it easily a number of different ways: on our Facebook page by clicking the "Paper.li" link in the sidebar, on the bottom of the site, the menu botton on the top of the site, or by clicking this link.

Next time on Installation 04 Z...

So, 2012 then. Lots to do. Installation 04 is back. And I mean back. There are plenty of great original features coming up including:

Welcome to 2012...

Say Hello to the New Review Layout!

As you may or may not know, I famously (well, I'd like to think so, anyway) created the review system for both The Players Republic and Twinfinite. If you'd like, you can read about it here. I never actually got to use this system over here at Installation 04, but the more I think about it the more I dislike about it. The execution, in my opinion, still needs work. So I've decided to streamline, reorganize, and birth a whole new review layout based on my original system. This will be used in all future reviews here at I04, and I think readers will really dig it. As always, I'm on a mission to write the highest-quality reviews around. Details lie beyond the break.

Happy 7!

As usual, I missed I04's birthday. The site turned seven on December 22nd. Happy birthday to us!

A Week of Halo!

What a time to relaunch, eh? Today is Halo's 10th birthday and to celebrate I've got a whole week of awesome Halo features culminating in the review of Halo Anniversary! Come to think of it, it's also the 10th anniversary of Xbox too. Lots of memories to relive. Stay tuned for awesomeness.

Holy crap we're back!

Yes, that's right. After going through two websites I've decided that Installation 04 is my true home. So it's back in business! Expect an influx of content coming up, whether it's just me or a team of great people. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have deleted the Facebook page.

Oh, and there's going to be a bit of maintenance going on for the next week at least.