Mario Fan Games Galaxy
Mario Fan Games Galaxy (MFGG), long ago Bowser Technologies, is a freeware website that focuses on creating parodies and tributes for the official Super Mario Bros. series. The site is founded by the currently dormant Thunder Dragon, who still appears on occasion. MFGG is currently hosted by Retriever II's server, Taloncrossing, having been passed on from Willy Goldwater who hosted the site before.
Content
MFGG hosts a plethora of multimedia applications and resources is available for a variety of purposes, although the site retains its strong titular focus on Mario fangames. Users can download fangames submitted to the site, as well as download Sprites (Both in Lib form and sheet form), Howtos and Sounds (both music and sound effects) as well as miscellaneous downloads, which can be used to develop their own Mario fangames.
As the name suggests, all the games hosted are treated as "Fan" works (like "Fan-art" and "Fan-fiction"), meaning no profit is made from them. However there have been rare occasions where some games have been illegally sold through markets such as Ebay without the author's consent.
History
The main site began under Thunder's Dragon's personal development name, Bowser Technologies, which did not hold a particular focus on Mario fangaming -- indeed, Mega Man, Sonic, and Doom also made their appearances -- but still contained relevant material. Guests would communicate through the comments section of the Guestbook, before replacing this feature with an EZBoard forum.
Due to the site's generalised content, it was soon morphed into Mario Fan Games Galaxy, with the EZBoard forums replaced accordingly. It has been that way since, having gone through a number of site redesigns to the current version; MFGG 2.0.
Originally the site had a very simple layout, with each game, lib or how-to listed on a single page. This was a huge strain on those with slow internet connections, so the site was re-designed by Kritter who offered to re-build it from the ground up. The site was re-organised for easier access and to improve the loading times, for example, placing sprites into "hand made" or "ripped" categories, which would then be sorted into "Enemies", "Backgrounds" and "Misc." etc.
Kritter's site design has since stuck around to MFGG today, and while the system may have been improved since the transition from HTML to PHP, the basic layout of the site remains the same. Kritter's graphics are also still present on the main site, forums and even this Wiki.
Current Site Interface
MFGG runs through on Taloncrossing Site Management System (TCSMS), a GUI developed by Retriever II through which users may submit, view, and download content. This software is also used on Metroid: Fan Mission, with permission from Retriever II, and was also used for a brief period at Zelda Fan Games Network before the site re-design. The purpose of both sites was to originally do the same things MFGG does, but obviously for different Nintendo franchies.
TCSMS has been met with generally positive reviews and may eventually be released publically.
See Also
- Current or former web hosts:
External Links
- Bowser Technologies, July 2001
- The current MFGG Mainsite
- The current MFGG Forums
- Online Highscore GlobalID Registration, for dedicated online highscores in a fangame, courtesy Retriever II; compatible with TGF, TGF2, MMF 1.5, MMF2. Contact Retriever II for the client-side software
