10 Years of Salade !
Writing about the development of the VGM western internet resource scene inspired me to check archives.org for previous versions of saladedemaïs. I was actually surprised to see that the original website was launched more than 9 years ago already !!!
What was going on back then ? Well, the PC88/98 compilation and Story of Thor II albums were already out. I was working on the now defunct Falcom Encyclopedia wiki and only then figuring out stuff like the names of the people behind the Sound team JDK and the Dragon Slayer timeline. It was also the years of discovering Doujin Music on Winny and Share back when only a handful of people in the West knew about what is now this common part of the VGM world. VGMDB didn’t exist and sites like Chudah’s Corner and GMR Online were still reference databases. Back when the VGMCentral DC++ hub would still be filled with people.
Good old days ? It certainly feels nostalgic to think back about them. Browsing Japanese websites in search of composer info, learning to use the few Japanese translators available back then, scouring Winny like adventurers discovering new uncharted waters full of unsuspected booty to bring back to the old country, sure was a great experience.
Like I said in my previous entry though, how things have progressed in 9 years ! Ties between the Asian and Western worlds were made, information was collected tirelessly by passionate fans, impossible to find materials was made widely available through years of scouring Y! Auctions by philanthropic individuals who did it for the love of VGM, and only that. And most of all, VGMDB was born. With VGMDB, the “western” fans showed they were able to all gather around a central project, and created something that has, to my knowledge, no equivalent even outside of the VGM boundaries. To see it linked on Japanese websites shows how much the tables have turned, and what a tremendous success the project was. Seeing it grow was quite something, and I’m proud I got to be a small part of it.
So yeah, here is to this last decade of VGM, and to this almost decade of Salade !
Long live VGM love ~
February 10th, 2014 at 12:12 am
Congratulations and thanks a lot for all your work! I still enjoy a lot visiting here and listening to some FM soundtracks from time to time.