After almost a year without contests, due to a busy schedule IRL, SFC is proud to present the September 2004 Contest! Anyone who accidentally entered the contest before it started can enter properly now.
You could be the proud owner of a Shining Tears/SF:RotDD Promotional Fan… good luck! 😀
…and as I type this, the Shining Tears event at TGS should be about half way through now – I wonder what it will bring? :excited:
The first ‘major’ update to SFC since the redesign 🙂
Today we have…
I’ll also try to work on SEE a little more this afternoon, and get a contest ready – the Lik-Sang contest has been delayed for a few months, in order to allow for SFC to receive a review copy of Shining Tears. But, not to worry – I’ll also be giving away my ST review copy in a contest when I’m finished with it, so although the official Lik- Sang/SFC contest is delayed, you’ll in a sense be getting 2 for the price of 1 😉
In brief Shining news, it’s the Tokyo Games Show this weekend, so expect more updates over the next few days!
Just an FYI to say I’m getting the old contest data imported into the new site. Not very important, but another thing to cross off the list.
Contest details from 2001 & 2002 are now here, and I’ll get on with 2003’s ASAP.
Starting from today, our site is proudly sponsored by the nice folks at Lik-Sang.com. This means discounts, giveaways, reviews and possible other options as the sponsorship develops…
Lik-Sang.com has been around for many years and became one of the most trusted places online for import games, gaming gear and other hot videogame stuff. Lik-Sang.com ships the latest import games and systems (including Sony PSP and Nintendo DS pre-orders), thousands of top-notch videogame accessories, game music, videogame toys and figures and other cool stuff. Go here for more.
Greetings all!
Welcome to the new, improved SFC – it’s been a long while in the making (and it’s not done yet ;)) but I hope you’ll think it has been worth the wait.
I’d like to apologise once again for the delay in getting this done and also for my lack of updates of the old site over the last few months. 2004 has been far from a good year for me in real life, but at least it’s been a good year for Shining fans!
Normally I’d not launch a redesign until it is complete – on this occasion however, I have good reason to bring the site online early. A few weeks ago I was contacted by a company interested in sponsoring the site! You may be familiar with them, as they are one of the biggest and best known gaming import shops on the web: Lik-Sang.com.
Not only will they be providing prizes for the forthcoming SFC contest, but they’re also being very generous for SFC visitors in general. Now that SFC is proudly sponsored by Lik-Sang.com and the redesign is live, I am able to give you the following discount code for shopping on their site:
Now, on to stuff about the site (and shortly, I’ll have to get all the latest Shining news typed up too, it’s been a while and a lot has happened!).
Let’s start with the good things – new and exciting features at SFC!
New Stuff:
However, as I mentioned, the new site is not yet complete, so I’ll also warn you of a few things not to contact me (“It’s not finished!!”) about 😉 I’ll be trying to get these finished, or at least further underway over the next week or so.
Things to do:
Also, I’d like to make a little mention of the Shining Force Webring – I started this webring back in June of 1997, but last year another user was assigned as it’s owner, due to my inactivity (real life can get kinda busy, and the webring wasn’t exactly bustling with new entries 😆 ). He has kindly agreed to give me the chance to earn my webring back, so please do sign up if you have a Shining site – if I can prove to him I’ll manage it, it’s mine again 🙂 Unfortunately, though he allowed me to make a new navbar, he resized it and changed it a little, as you can see on the front page of the site. I’ve used my modified version on the main navigation, but have to use his version on the front page. I’ll change it when I get the ring back, meanwhile sorry for the nasty look of it!
Well, I’d best get this posted, as well as my official Lik-Sang sponsorship announcement 😉
I hope you enjoy the new site and will remain (or become!) part of the community.
Well folks, I’m typing this on Tuesday, but you’ll not see it until Wednesday when the site goes live 😉
As you probably know, various real life situations have delayed the launch of the new SFC, and also unfortunately its completion. However, most of the site will be ready and I’ll be sure to keep adding to it, now it’s so much easier to update! Well, it will be when I finish coding the management system – for now, posting news is much faster and I can do it from anywhere too!
Some of the site might still need more pictures and the like. There may even be a few bugs I’ve not yet found… but hopefully I can fix anything that comes up.
Now, I’m off to (finally!) get to work on “SEE”” – the Shining Electronic Encyclopedia
Another quick update to say I’ve not abandoned SFC 😉 Still working on the site redesign which is coming along nicely 🙂 Not sure if it’ll be ready by the end of the month as I’d hoped, but it shan’t be too much later than that if all goes to plan 😉 I’ve been posting progress reports in this topic at the forums, so feel free to keep an eye on what’s going on 🙂
Just a quick post to apologise for the severe lack of updates in recent weeks. Since moving house, I’ve been rather busy doing house-type things, and also prepping the new design for the site. Got a lot of exciting things in the pipeline for SFC, so don’t think I’ve abandoned you 😉
I hope to have the new site ready sometime in July, at which point I’ll get a new contest started and be updating more often as usual. I’ll post a preview of the new design in the next week or so, though I know some of you have already seen it 😉
Although the hosting fee of US$300 wasn’t quite achieved, I managed to scrape together the extra funds and will still be sending out a prize to a random contributor in the near future. Again, my apologies for the delay!
Meanwhile, keep an eye out at the forums for any new Shining news – and don’t forget to check out Sega’s Shining World site for cool new pics of the forthcoming Shining games!
BTW, huge thanks to Atlus USA, who I notice have added a link to SFC on their site 😀 Yay!
I think there is going to be quite a surge in interest in the Shining series, what with the release of the SHining Force Remake and with the recent news: and I think SFC needs to be ready to cater for that. I don’t think my spending time building guide sites is a great idea, when plenty of other people will want to do the same… and have more time for it than I.
SFC is fairly unique as Shining sites go and that’s why I think I need to focus on it, and no longer build guide sites. Existing sites will remain of course, and may occasionally be updated (rather like now I guess ), but no more new guides. I want to work much harder at SFC, maintaining the site directory, adding reviews, screenies, extra info, maybe getting some more exclusives for y’all, and building up the community 🙂
But, I would miss the design element of working on new sites, and I doubt I’ll give SFC a facelift more than yearly. So, I may offer design services (most likely for free ) for fellow SF sites, so users who have the content/info to build a site but aren’t so able with design can get something that looks quite nice (modest, aren’t I? *lol*) to use, and can focus on the content.
Perhaps one day in the distant future I’ll go back to guide-building… but at this SHiningly busy time, I think SFC should be my priority. Who knows, maybe SFC can even somehow get affiliated with Sega, or at least linked to. Anyone at Sega reading? Drop me a line if you like the site 😉
Thanks to everyone for their support of my guides over the years. Rest assured that I shall continue to be an active part of the online Shining Community, just my role will change a little 🙂
Another quick update – Lee had last week off work so didn’t get a chance to do any updates, and now he’s off work poorly, so yet again my SFC time is limited (hence I’m also behind on my emails, sorry if you’ve mailed and had no reply as yet)!
Just updating to say that we’re now just US$10 away from the US$300 target for hosting, so soon I shall be drawing a random contributor to receive a Shining prize 🙂 Wanna donate? Scroll down a bit…
Meanwhile, no idea why the SF Remake hasn’t hit the shops in the UK and Europe yet – THQ seem to be anything but helpful/responsive in my experience. No doubt it’ll be out soon, and believe me it’s worth the wait.
Don’t think that the last week has been entirely unproductive Shining-wise though! Lee, during his time off, has been further developing his Shining Force-style game creation engine, Tatakai and I’ve been developing a little game MOD for it, for testing purposes. Why not check out the latest developments at the Tatakai site, or become a tester (if you have the time to actually do some testing, rather than whining about the test-graphics 😛 ).
Finally, two things while I remember – no time to update the other links throughout the site at the moment, but…
The Shining Source has moved due to server loss, and is now on it’s way back.
…and…
Jumesyn.net though still down, is likely to come back I understand. Meanwhile, an online archive/backup of this top SFIII site can be found at the WayBackMachine Internet Archive, here.
Here’s the donate button again!
Want to support the site in some other way? Clicky-clicky!
Ordering UK version of the SF Remake from other countries…
It’s come to my attention that some non-Brits want to get their hands on a European copy of the Shining Force Remake, to start playing it sooner! Though I’d strongly recommend waiting and buying the offcial USA release later on (keep those sales statistics legit, ne?), I’ve just signed up with an affiliate scheme for a reputable UK game store which will ship internationally.
Purchase links for Brits & non-Brits:
Note: GAME is a big chain store in the UK, I’ve shopped there many-a-time, they’re legit 🙂 But, the SF Remake is not yet on their pre-order list. Give it a few days, eh? USA shipping is reasonable at UK£3.95.
 Available soon! |
 Buy for £26.99 |
Purchase links for Brits only:
Buy for £24.99 |
Buy for £22.49 |
…and just a quick update on the funding front – only about $30 dollars left to go, yay!! Thanks for all the contributions! Please scroll down if you want to contribute – the button is with the previous news post.
…in two ways! Scheduled for release later this month (April 9th, it would seem) Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon is now up for pre-order at Amazon.co.uk – so why not go pre-order it there, which gives a lil’ bit of comission to SFC (at no extra cost to you!). And while you’re at it, you could pick up Shining Soul II which is available to buy now – it should keep you busy at lest until the SF Remake reaches you 😉 The prices are great too!
Buy for £24.99 |
Buy for £22.49 |
The second “almost there” for today is regarding donations for SFC’s next year of hosting. Many thanks to all who have contributed so far – we are now just US$60 away from the target of US$300. So, if you’ve not donated yet but intend to, please go on ahead – and don’t forget I’ll be offering a Shining prize to a random contributor, once the target of US$300 has been reached 🙂
Here’s the donate button, yet again!
Want to support the site in some other way? Clicky-clicky!
Will post more SF Remake screenshots ASAP – though soon a lot of you will be playing it yourselves, no doubt! Enjoy 🙂