Good morning all, and welcome to May 5th, which happens to be the 13th anniversary of the day I first uploaded my Shining Force II site!

Thanks to everyone who has continued to visit over the years and kept this site alive, even while I have failed to do so myself. Without your constant encouragement and enthusiasm I wouldn’t still be doing this malarky.

Yes, it started way back in 1996 and look how things have grown. SFC itself came to exist a few years later in 2000 (although had originally come about in early 1997 under a different name), and so technically SFC is celebrating its 9th anniversary today… but since the sites are part of one whole big mess of webdesign and everlasting obsession I count it as 13 years of the entity which became and always will be SFC.

While I had hoped to have the new CMS & redesign ready for this special day, various things have gotten in the way (not least of which being the site downtime & subsequent server issues during the week I had off to develop the new stuff) and as such I can’t offer you the gift of Shiny newness today. Soon I hope though, soon.

As something little to make you all smile though, I have recoded the April Fools avatar overlays from the old forums… pop along and browse a topic to see what comes up 🙂

This is also my small gesture to show you that I do still care enough to make time for silly bits of code like this 😉 …and that I’ll be able to have the ol’ RPG overlays back when the new SFC RPG is finished. Watch this space 😉

Okay, enough rambling. Go on and enjoy yourselves, celebrating SFC Day!

Well folks, I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I last posted any news here… and that was a beg too.

I keep meaning to work on some updates, but am lacking in time and motivation at the moment. I have, however, started work on a new shop/RPG system for the forums – which I’m sure I’ll be able to complete this year. I hope to get on with some more of it today.

I’ve also considered splitting the site into 2, SFC Classic (for the original series of games, pre-Shining Soul) and put all the non-gospel Shinings into a seperate site – perhaps letting other members of staff run it as I haven’t had the time or money to play the new games. Just some thoughts.

Anyway, yes… speaking of money, it is indeed that time of year again where my hosting is due for renewal and I need to raise some funds. This year I’m more skint than ever, as following last year’s split with Lee, the legal issues surrounding the sale/split of our house have still not been resolved and I am now paying the mortgage for the house in full myself – on top of my normal cost of living, and despite the fact I can’t live there myself.

I literally have no money at all for the site at this time. Thankfully, a generous donation from a user in the last week has really boosted the SFC coffers and I’m pleased to announce that this year we only need to raise US$80 in the next 6 weeks. I’m sure that’s quite achievable!

Of course, if anyone wants to donate anything extra, I’m so skint I wouldn’t say no 😉 It’s been a while since I last bought myself any new clothes, and even those have been from charity shops. Plus I need a new spinning reel for fishing over the summer!

So, if you can help to raise US$80 in the next 6 weeks… clicky clicky!

Thanks all 🙂

Well folks, it’s that time of year again… hosting payment for SFC is due at the start of June if I recall correctly and this year my beg is more urgent than ever.

In the past I have had at least a little money to add in to the cause myself. This year my situation is entirely different. As many regular SFCers may know, my relationship of over 9 years ended just a couple of months ago, leaving me without my own home, or the financial support I have been accustomed to. My life is very much up in the air and I have next to no money at this point, to last me an indefinate period of time. I cannot go into great detail due to the current legal proceedings regarding the split, but suffice to say I’m skint.

SFC costs US$360 a year in hosting, which is something of a bank-breaker for me now. So, I’m here once again asking you to dig deep and help keep the site going for another year. I know updates have been thin on the ground, with my crumbling relationship having taken priority in recent years, but I know the forums are still very much used, and once my life is in some kind of order again I hope to spend a bit more time on this place. Hope.

So, we’ve got about 4 weeks to raise US$360. I hope we can do it!

On this day in 1996 – a full ten years ago – I uploaded the first (of what would become many) of my Shining sites… Moogie’s Ultimate Shining Force II Guide. It was not only one of my first sites, but also one of the first Shining sites on the web. The web was much smaller (and tidier!) back then.

It started as a single page, very basic in design. Yellow text, blue background, SFII logo at the top and not much in the way of pictures or screenshots. Back then emulation was not an option, and in order to obtain screenshots I invested in a rather expensive video capture card. I set up my VCR to record me playing SFII, and slowly managed to gather some less than perfect quality screenshots.

The site continued to grow, as did the amount of emails I received asking for help. A FAQ section needed to be started, and an enquiry form to ensure I received all the necessary information to be able to help. Then came the problem of users who didn’t have their own email but still needed to receive a reply. Thus, the ‘Replies Page’ was born, and dutifully every Saturday I would post responses to questions from users without email.

As the site expanded, the design changed several times – not to mention the dodgy screenshots being replaced with nice quality emulator screenshots. Soon enough I found out about Matt Wright’s WWWboard script and went about setting up my first Shining Messageboard. It’s great to see that so many of the original posters are still around at SFC today 🙂

The SFII site may not have had much in the way of updates for some years (it sucks how busy adult life gets) but it’s still going strong and despite the game being over a decade old, The Ultimate Shining Force II Guide still receives well over 150 visitors a day.

It would take me hours to type up the entire history of my Shining sites, and I’m not really sure anyone would want to read it. Suffice to say that over the years I’ve started up a variety of Shining sites – some more successful than others.

Shining Force Central has without a doubt been the biggest success story of my online ‘career’, and in all honesty I am really quite proud of this site. I’m delighted that so many people still love the Shining series and frequent this place. It’s great to know that people still want to see content for games from consoles long dead. We’re a dedicated fanbase and we should all be proud of the community we’ve developed here. What we have today is exactly what I’d hoped for all those years ago when SFC (or TUSRL, as it was originally named!) first started.

“What is TUSRL?”, I hear you cry! It was The UnOfficial Shining Resources List a Shining directory site, linking to all the Shining sites I could find on the web and also with a little bit of an introduction for each game. Today the directory is but a small section of the monster that is SFC, so much has been added… and there’s so much more I’d like to add.

I miss the days when I had so much free time, and I could work on whatever part of the site I wanted to; add new things; chat with other fans; do a redesign on a whim… those days are gone. Adult life has taken over and I no longer have the time I’d like to be able to keep this site as fresh as I used to 🙁 The last year has been blatant evidence of this.

However, I shall perservere! Although I have not had the time to do much on the SFC site update panel (which selected members of SFC staff will be able to use to update areas of the site), it will be done. I know, that’s been said about many things – SFII site redesign, SFI site overhaul and update, SSII site… I could go on 😉 I still intend to do them, but it’s all about time. I’d be lying if I said there aren’t occasions when I think about just deleting the site and putting it behind me, not having to worry about keeping it updated. Don’t worry though – I know that’s not the right thing to do. The site is still thriving despite the lack of updates, and no doubt this is due to the SFC Forum Community. I know that even if the main site never had another update, the content would still be valued and the forums still active, thus SFC remains. That’s not all the SFC Forum-goers have to be thanked for though – so far we have raised almost US$250 towards the US$360 hosting bill for the next year, and this takes a lot of pressure off of me financially.

Over the years the SFC community has achieved quite a lot:

• Translations – we’ve seen scripts for Shining Force III and Shining Force Gaiden III translated and even inserted into the games to some degree. Fantastic work, and a real community effort.
• Campaigns – gathered postal letters, online signatures, printed emails and made professional campaign packages to raise awareness of the desire for a new Shining game. Some very positive responses were received from Sega, and we have indeed seen the continuation of our beloved series… even if it’s not quite as we hoped.

• Relationships – SFC has formed a relationship with Camelot Software Planning, which has allowed fans to ask questions of the staff there in an interview and also been a source of contest prizes. Not only have Camelot provided prizes, but also the kind folks at Working Designs and Half Quarter.

• Praise – SFC has been complemented by various respected companies and peoples – Sega Japan and USA have commented on the quality and dedication of the site. Camelot Software Planning considered it worthy of a site link, as did Sega Europe for a time. Hiroshi Kajiyama (artist for SFCD and Scenarios 2 and 3) was impressed by the site and wanted to arrange to sell Shining artwork through it (sadly this never came to fruition). There may be more that slip my mind 😉

• Assistance – Atlus were so kind as to allow me to advise on some translation/consistency issues within the scripts of Shining Soul I & II. I also had this opportunity for RotDD, but unfortunately due to my other half’s hospitalisation, I was unable to have this done in time for production. They were also kind enough to provide pre-release review copies, exclusive news and allowed me to post the first good quality shots of RotDD at SFC.

It’s been so long… there’s probably much more that I’ve forgotten to mention. Most importantly of all though, SFC has created a great many friendships. Some of us have met up in real life, and I’m sure more of us will do so over the years. We’re a great community, and even those who leave will always end up dropping back in at some point. You know it’s true 😉

I could write so much more here, but I think I’ll leave that for you guys – this is a good place to discuss days gone by, both here and at my other sites. Let’s not let this turn into some kind of oldbie/newbie war – not that I see that sort of thing going on here these days, this place seems to be quite well under control (thanks to the forum staff and sensible members :)). Let’s just see some fun reminiscing… maybe someone wants to crack out the WayBackMachine? I wish it had my original SFII site in it, I don’t think I have a copy of that anywhere 🙁 … except maybe a few print-outs!

Some things you might remember if you’re from the very early days (Pipex, Dragonfire, Geocities):
-Arc Valley, my alternate SFII site which used a rather tacky navigation system & design
-The Tavern chat system
-An impersonator posting that they were me, and that I was pregnant
-JKM coming out
-OddEye1982 (did I remember it right?) and his flame wars
-Dark Zombie’s death

Some things from the middling days (Zophar.net):
-WWWboard at SFC
-Ikonboard/chat
-The return of OddEye1982
-Dark Zombie’s return!
-The Campaign: Phases I & II
-Board Wars …and the subsequent SFC shutdown

…and more recently (Practical Hosting [boo, hiss! stole my money!] and SmooveNET [so good I could kiss them]):
-Buggery hosts causing over a month of downtime
-phpBB & the RPG system I built for it
-The newbie troubles that came with the RPG system
-Item collections, screen/avie changers
-Members sneaking in to the new forums before they officially opened

What do you remember?

Whatever you remember, remember this: other sites have come and gone. SFC remains 🙂 …and it’s because of you… nay, we, the community 😀

Well folks, it’s happened again. Hosting renewal time has crept up on me once again and in a month I am due to pay US$360 to Smoove for the next year of hosting SFC.

I recognise that I have been very slack with updates on the site in the last year, and that the staff control panel for updating the site is nowhere near to complete, so can understand if not many of you wish to donate this year.

I should say, however, that I am skint as far as finances for the site go at the moment. My new kitchen is being fitted soon and the bill for that is wiping out my finances, not to mention the Madonna tickets I owed my sister and have just paid out for.

I would like to keep the site running and indeed get the update panel… er… updated, so that SFC can continue to develop and grow. Although the 10th Anniversary of my running Shining sites is coming up, I am no longer quitting the site, just taking a back seat, rather like I have this last year 😉 …but hopefully the site will see rather more updates in the next year than the last.

So, one month and US$360 to raise. Can we do it? Let’s try! Every dollar helps 🙂 I’m just sorry I’ve got nothing (well, apart from the US$20 sitting in my PayPal account) to contribute at the moment.

Just a little update, since there hasn’t been one in ages!

As is probably quite apparent, my life has been as busyas as (if not moreso than) usual. But, the day draws near that SFC is to be handed over to someone else.

Or does it?

As you may have read in various discussions at the forums, there doesn’t appear to be any one person able to take on the role & expense – I suppose this is to be expected, most sites of this size have a group of staff members for maintaining the site.

So, here’s the plan as it stands. SFC already has a (very minimal) content management system which can be accessed by selected members, thus enabling them to perform site updates. All I need to do (which makes it sound like a small task, as opposed to the fairly mammoth one it is ;)) is expand the content management system to encompass most (if not all) areas of the site, and allow different levels of access to different users.

In this way, members (subject to approval) will be able to post news, maintain the site directory, add comics, merchandise, etc etc.

I had always planned to expand the system for whoever took on the site after me, but just haven’t had enough time over the last year – it’s been busy.

Anyway, it looks like SFC will still be my baby for some time to come – but I will do my best to make sure that at least the news system is ready for the May “handover”, so that I can appoint some relevant users to perform basic updates. Ugh, I dread to think how much news this site is missing from the last year while I’ve not had so much time or interest. Sorry folks. In my defence, it’d mostly be about Neo – and we don’t care about that do we? 😉 Just kidding, I know some of you do!

So, SFC’s content may be updated by other users in future, but the site itself (and thus the cost of it ;)) remains mine – essentially allowing me as much or as little involvement as I please. I can do a redesign if I have the time and inclination, I can add bits and pieces easily if I fancy it… or I can just let other people do updates as needed.

Sounds good? Hope you don’t all feel I’ve lied about giving the site up or that I never intended to – I absolutely did, but it just hasn’t panned out that way, and I’m not going to let the last decade of work go down the drain!

Will I ever bow out completely? Time will tell! But for the foreseeable future, SFC belongs to its members, and to me 🙂

Sorry it’s been a while folks – what with Lee’s time off work, my birthday, food poisoning and a heavy workload I’ve been rather busy – and besides, news on the Shining front has been rather slow of late.

In SFC updates we have today a new poll, lots of fanart (Shining Force II, Shining Force CD, Shining Force III, RotDD, Shining Tears, and Neo), some new desktops for Shining Force and Shining Tears and also high quality cover scans for Neo.

I do have some new videos I’ll try to get uploaded next week, and also I have a few new books to scan including the Shining Tears artbook.

In Shining news, Sega USA have confirmed (though you probably all know this by now) that Neo will be seeing a US release this autumn, and Sega Japan have recently released the fifth scenario for Shining Road and second scenario for Shining Force Chronicle I.

Plenty of people have contacted me to say that the Chronicle site lists Wendy as being the sister of not only Tao, but also Diane – I suppose it’s possible they share a father somehow, but we won’t know more until we find someone who’s played the game.

The Fanart contest has been extended another month, due to insufficient entries – three more and I can pick a winner at the end of the month 😉 Get drawing peeps!

What else? I still need to update my Collection page to remove items which I’ve now sold. Still some bits and pieces up for grabs via the forums, though I’ll probably put the leftovers on Ebay shortly.

We’re long overdue for a new comic, but I’ve just not had time to draw one 🙁 If anyone else feels like submitting one, please be my guest!

I think that’s about all for now. Oh wait, no. You’re probably all wondering about the Final Conflict patch. Well, here’s the deal! z80 managed to get back online and patch my most recent script revision into the game, giving essentially a finished patch. I’d like to avoid having too many unfinished versions of the patch floating around, so until someone on the new team has figured out just what to do with the stuff from z80, there won’t be much progress. Aspartate has been kind enough to send through some revisions/corrections to the script, which I hope to incorporate just as soon as somebody is able to get it into the game 😉 Maybe I’ll take a looksie this afternoon and see if I can figure it out.

Okay, now that’s it 😉 Probably more next week!

Ah, where to begin?

It’s been a long time, peeps. A long time since what? Since a truly decent Shining (FORCE!) game hit the shelves, or since I first started running my various Shining sites…? Both, actually… and thus the reasoning for this message unfolds.

I must admit, I never thought I’d be making this post – I thought that I’d spend my whole life doing what I’ve been doing for the last 9 years. Reality has kicked in however, and I am beginning to realise that my real life requires a lot more attention than I’ve been giving it.

I’ve always said I’ll stick around for at least 10 years, and I fully intend to hold myself to that promise – I owe it to everyone out there who’s ever supported or enjoyed SFC and its sister sites.

However, as my 10th year working on these sites begins, I feel it is time to prepare for calling it a day. The new games (thus far at least) don’t hold the same attraction for me as the old, I can’t afford to keep up anymore and I find myself feeling more and more stressed each day as I struggle to keep on top of the news about games which quite frankly barely interest me. What kind of a life is that?

As you might have noticed over the years, I’m a dedicated person and I try to give my best at all times – but although I can multi task, I can’t fully dedicate myself to more than one thing, meaning anything else of importance to me will suffer. When I’ve spent more time with Lee, SFC has suffered. When I’ve spent more time on SFC, my relationship has suffered. There can be no balance, my life needs to change.

Things IRL could be much better, and I really need to work on those things now before it’s too late. We only live once; we only get one body; and though love may not be such a once-in-a-lifetime thing, it is nonetheless a thing to be nurtured and treasured… and the feeling will never completely die.

I feel quite at ease about the decision I’ve made, though admittedly it has been an upsetting one to make, I feel less stressed and indeed almost eager to act on it. But, 10 years spake Moogie, and thus shall it be 😉 The decision has not been made lightly, and unless I’ve got some condition I’m not aware of, I’m pretty certain I know what I’m doing 😉

So, over the next year I will be prepping the site as best as time allows, for a new owner. I’ve not yet fully considered who to pass this massive task on to, or whether to make the site more community based and allow users to post news etc. I’ll figure it out somehow… but come May 5th 2006 (and assuming that Lee and I are still together) I will no longer be running this place. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still be around from time to time – I’ll contribute comics, desktops, scans etc when I feel like being creative… but I can’t keep doing this.

For anyone thinking of suggesting that I delegate some tasks to mods/admins to ease my workload – thank you for the thought, but I can’t do that. It’s hard to explain quite why, but please accept that it’s just not something I can do.

To be honest, I rather feel like just stopping now – getting into my new lifestyle and just moving on – but there’s preparation to be done and loose ends to tie up. I hope you can forgive me for not seeing this place through until my deathbed as I’d always imagined – and I also hope that SFC will continue to thrive for many years to come 🙂

Now, to the part that might get a few of you excited: the Shining Sale of the Century! With all these changes in my life, it’s time to let go of some of my stuff. I plan to keep my games & books, at least for the meanwhile to help over the next year, but pretty well everything else deserves to go to a new home, to someone who’ll treasure this stuff as much as I have over the years. I don’t want to have to put this stuff on Ebay and sell it to strangers, so I’ll offer it all at SFC first and see if anyone around here wants any of it.

As always, thank you all for your support over the years. SFC wouldn’t be what it is today without all of you… and I believe that SFC will continue to be a great place to be, with or without me!

364 days to go now 😉

First of all, I’d like to thank you for bearing with me during my recent absence. Real life is a little tough at the moment, and I appreciate the support various members have offered me despite my keeping the details of the situation out of the public eye. Thanks folks. I hope the situation improves in leaps and bounds.

I’d also like to thank everyone who has so kindly donated to the SFC hosting fund – we are now only around US$50 away from the goal of US$360 total, and there’s still a month to go before I have to send it along to Smoove. Hurrah! Of course, any contributions beyond that amount will be used towards the cost of prizes & postage over the next year – it all adds up. I don’t know where this site would be without you all 🙂

Now, on to the updates for today!
A few lovely new additions to the fanart sections for Shining the Holy Ark, Shining Force III Scenario 2 and our first piece of Neo fanart too – all beautiful. Big thanks to Valkyrie and Belial from the SFC forums for these submissions. I’m sure you’ll all want to go and post your comments about these gorgeous pieces!

SFCer Aku has also been busy, and produced two lovely new Shining Tears desktops which have been added today (along with a bunch of SF Neo desktops from Sega Japan’s site *yawn*). Thanks very much 🙂

Oh, I’ve also replied to a handful of Mailbag messages – keep ’em coming folks!

In Shining news, Sega Japan have updated their Shining Force Neo FAQ several times during my abscence. To be brutally honest, I can’t be bothered to Babelfish or read it, I’d rather get on with some more of the script for the Final Conflict patch 😉 Some cute lil’ chibi SF Neo pics on the FAQ though 🙂

The Shining Tears Comic Anthology book has been released in Japan, and hopefully my copy will be arriving soon to scan and upload 🙂 Until then, enjoy looking at the pretty artwork on the cover, here.

Lastly, Sega Japan have added two more characters to the Shining Road: To the Force site, in the form of Reimia, a pretty little Shrine Maiden of unknown age whose ancestors were snake-people; and Enkuu an aged monkeyman who is a military officer in the Bestia Army.
Since we’re unlikely to get the chance to play this game without going to Japan, I’ve asked Rei whether he knows of any way mobile games can be emulated/exported. Fingers crossed!

Okay, I think that about covers it all for now 😉

My next task for today is to get some more work done on the FC script for the patch – shouldn’t take me too long 🙂

Well folks, this snuck up on me – for some reason I was thinking my hosting renewal for SFC would be due around June/July, but looking through the records it seems I’ll be getting a bill around the start of May – curse my rotten forgetting brain!

So, with around a month to go, I’m starting my annual beg for help towards the funding of the site – particularly now we’re in different financial circumstances (read: rather tight purse-strings). Thanks to some contributions earlier in the year, I already have around US$100 towards the hosting cost. That leaves around US$250 to be raised if possible. Yup, hosting costs went up to $360 from $300, on account of our need for more space. Bandwidth is no longer an issue, as Smoove have removed our limitations, but for the site to grow, I had to buy an extra gig of space – I do hope you all enjoy the video archive 😉

Lee suggested I sell some pairs of my panties on Ebay to raise money 😉 Any takers? 😆 Seriously though, as usual there will be a Shining prize (to be determined, but as you know, I’ve got quite a bit of stuff!) sent out to a random contributor once the target is achieved 🙂

So, if you want to donate, go to the Support SFC page and get your PayPal details ready!

Thanks for all the support over the years folks. Without you this place certainly wouldn’t have been around for the best part of a decade!

Today I’ve added a new contest and announced the winner of February’s contest.

Had a little time this morning, so put together a new comic – hope you like it 😉

In addition, I found today that Sega Europe have a means to contact them in which they guarantee a rapid response. As I’ve not received any information from them regarding Shining Tears in Europe, I thought I’d try asking this way. Unfortunately, the response wasn’t too encouraging. They say they have no information regarding Shining Tears being released for consoles in Europe – I guess they’re either keeping it under wraps, or waiting to see how the US release fares first. I made a point of mentioning I wouldn’t mind waiting for it, if it gave them the chance to fix the loading times issue. I’d like to encourage other SFCers from Europe to contact Sega Europe about Shining Tears, if you want to see it released in these parts. If it’s not already slated for a release, maybe a few enquiries about it will encourage them!

Nothing else to report at this time, but I hope to add some more entries to SEE in the next day or two. For now, it’s time to play a bit of Shining Tears 😀

At long last, it’s here – the new, improved Shining Electronic Encyclopedia!

It’s been a long time since I began work on the SEE and getting back into it was quite a struggle, but at last with a bit of free time and a lot of patience, it has come together. The system is working pretty much as I had in mind and the design, though something I might normally consider tacky, is complete and I’m pleased with it. Big thanks to all the members of SFC who have helped me during the testing and design process.

Although there are only a few dozen entries in the SEE database at the moment (and some of them need some cross-references and images added), I hope that it will grow considerably over the coming weeks and continue to expand indefinately.

Rather than boring you with more talk about it, why not just click here and go take a look? 😉

On top of all that, we’ve got a beautiful batch of fanart from talented SFCer Valkyrie who has sent us a number of pieces which you can find in the Shining Force, Shining Force II, Shining the Holy Ark, Shining Force III & Scenario 3 Fanart sections.

There’s also a new desktop in the Shining Force III section, check it out here.

Big thanks to Gamefront.de for allowing SFC to use some SF Neo scans recently posted on the Gamefront site. You can find the scans here.

In other news, if you saw the SF Neo Memory Card and thought “I want one of those!”, there’s a way you can get one – Play Asia will be stocking them, and they also have the latest Sega Gals Capsule Toys in stock including a rather revealing Elwing model 😉

Well, that’s enough for today – more tomorrow no doubt, when the latest contest winner will be announced and a new contest started. Watch this space! 😉