For years, the Internet has been regarded as the future of entertainment. From iTunes to MMORPG’s (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games), the Internet is becoming home to more and more forms of media for all to enjoy. Eventually full-length movies and television programs will probably be streaming to customers through the Internet, but until that day arrives, people have turned to other forms of television- and movie-like media. One of these forms of media comes in the shape of Flash animations. And one of the best places to find high-quality, entertaining Flash animations and games would be Newgrounds.com.
Tom Fulp founded the current version of Newgrounds.com in September of 1998. However, Fulp actually started Newgrounds in 1991 when he was only 13 years old. At the time it was known as “New Ground” and was not a website, but as a Neo Geo fanzine. “New Ground” contained Neo Geo game tips, reviews and comics. Fulp had around 100 subscribers to his fanzine, which he printed in his parent’s basement.
Four years later in 1995, Fulp decided to create a web page and knew instantly that he would take the New Ground name online. Because he thought of this as a next step in the evolution of his fanzine, he called his new web page “New Ground Remix.” While Fulp’s page contained various bits of “goofy content,” it also had a page for dial-up BBS games. Then in 1996, Fulp created two games that would change his life forever. These games were called “Club a Seal” and “Assassin,” which as Fulp put it, “the games that finally brought meaning to the name New Ground.”
While in his sophomore year at Drexel University, Fulp used his Drexel web space to create “New Ground Atomix,” which hosted his new games, “Club a Seal II” and “Assassin II.” It was in 1998, however, when Fulp became introduced to Macromedia Flash and used it on the front page of his “Atomix” web page and the infamous “Telebubby Fun Land” was born.
All of Fulp’s previous exploits were just pastime hobbies he did for himself and friends. That all changed when he received a call from Inside Edition in September of 1998, who wanted to do a piece on “Assassin.” Fulp decided to get his own domain that would be easy for TV viewers to remember when it flashed on screen. Unfortunately, the URL “newground.com” was already taken, so he decided to buy “newgrounds.com” instead. Inside Edition later decided against the story, but now that Fulp was paying $33 a month for his new domain, he was motivated to maintain and expand his website. He even began to produce t-shirts to help pay for the cost as traffic picked up and the site became popular.
Newgrounds continued to grow and expand throughout the late 1990’s. It began to receive global attention in 1999 when the site was featured in Yahoo Internet Life, Stuff Magazine, wired.com and many other media outlets. But 1999 would be the defining moment of both newgrounds.com and Flash animations when Fulp released his new game, “Pico.” This game was considered the “pinnacle of Flash 3 ‘programming'” as Flash 3 did not even support variables. Fulp developed a very complex system to track events and data for “Pico” and thus created the most advanced Flash 3 game anyone had even seen. When Flash 4 was released and variables were introduced, people all across the world could create Flash animations and games in quantity and scope never seen before.
As more and more people created their own Flash files, they began to send them to Fulp to showcase on Newgrounds. Before long, Fulp was getting more submissions on his own and enlisted his friend Ross to help create the automated Portal. The Portal would be the most important aspect of Newgrounds. The Portal allowed artists to submit quality work and soon Newgrounds was the place to show off your work. Following the automated Portal would be a new message board for Newgrounds user’s and artists, the Grounds Gold system which gave users points for visiting the site and the Audio Portal that allowed independent musicians to submit their work for all to hear and use.
Newgrounds.com has been a major Internet attraction for many years. Thanks to the hardworking efforts of Tom Fulp, thousands of individuals are able to express themselves in their Flash animations and games. Newgrounds.com truly is one of the greatest Internet success stories. After all, a young boy’s fanzine evolved into the world’s first and number one Flash showcase site on the Internet. And if the past is any indication, the future can only look promising.
