Earlier this year in February we posted our first feature article, “Where did it all begin?” We took you back through the first five months of animal crossing fans online. Now again here in September back in the month it all started, we continue our journey through a whole year of animal crossing fans online.

We left you at a point where we had changed to a whole new site. And from this point now we can see that what a change it was. In the previous article we said that we would take you through the bad times as well as the good but this time we can only take you through the good, because these 7 months have only been good. When we changed our site, this time we decided to stay on top of it with updates interactive games and much more, so we started with our Wii Sports Tennis league, and well, Animal Crossing Fans Online learnt to walk from there…

All of our pier sites started to offer animal crossing style pattern designers, so we did the same to keep up with the craze. But because we are Animal Crossing Fans Online we went up market with our Animal Crossing Style Character Maker. Plus as always we started to offer a whole chunk of info including DS and Wii internet connection email support.

And then we held our retro week for all retro fans giving you a chunk of the past of Nintendo. We took you through the best consoles and best games we took you there. A lot of cheap AC forums (not including Animal Crossing Forums.net) started to pop up on AC Top Sites. Knocking us down but we stormed through still as leading site.

Then we opened an Animal Crossing Search Engine, AC Search let you search all the ac sites for guides, games and more. Our forums had also returned in all their glory, and as popular as ever! And we let users get a support banner for forum, email signatures and on their own sites.

Well thank you for reading about our fun filled year. Enjoy Animal Crossing Fans Online and we will end this year the way we started it by saying…

IT’S NOT JUST OUR ANIMAL CROSSING FANS ONLINE, IT’S YOURS!

Animal Crossing Fans Online 05/09/10

As part of the current retro week we are going to take you back to the days when gaming wasn’t about touch screens or sensors just simple but addictive low graphic games. But what came out of that? Some of the best games ever created. Follow us as we take you back to an era of tricky platformers that gave us Super Mario bros. and Sonic The Hedgehog, two of which are arguably the best games ever created. As the world is took over by the new dsi and it’s incredible features we want to show you what real gaming is about.

It was back in 1985 and Nintendo was developing from a playing card company to making its first games console. Nintendo Entertainment System was born (NES as most commonly referred to) to follow the Atrari VCS. Later that decade Super Mario Bros. was born (notice without the ‘NEW’, yes there is such thing). In 1987 America saw the first Sega console come in to the world of gaming . Bringing another classic game that would change the fast developing world of gaming. Sonic the Hedgehog later arriving in the UK 1991. The Sega Master System was born, not quite as popular as the later Mega Drive. This was the first generation of games consoles, anything before that was not worth thinking about. (There is consoles we haven’t included but they were just spin offs)

Its 1991 and Sonic The Hedgehog has finally come to the uk. And Sega’s plans carry on with the release of the Mega Drive. This new console would give us the same Sonic The Hedgehog but with better graphics and would lead the release of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 on Master System and Mega Drive. Later that decade the sonic and Mario revolution carried on with Sonic The Hedgehog 3 and Super Mario Bros. 1&2. This was gaming’s primetime with a whole host of new games coming out. Let’s not forget the legendary Commodore 64 which bought us Impossible Mission 1&2 (I am still addicted now!). And of course Summer and Winter Games (Beats Mario and Sonic by miles!). To keep up with Sega and commodore Nintendo revealed the N64 with Mario Kart 64 when we first saw the legendary MARIO KART!

The 3^rd Generation of gaming was sloping in pushing out Master System for good leaving Mega Drive and NES nearly falling. We were introduced to the Sega Dreamcast (great for racing gamers) and of course THE GAMECUBE! And oh ye the PlayStation (Not too keen on that!). But now we are starting to lose that retro touch and bringing in special features and effects. IS THIS WHAT WE WANT!

Today when we are surrounded by a world of CONSOLES FOR WATCHING MOVIES and CAMERAS FOR PLAYING GAMES let us not forget a time of great simple games that addicted us. Why not get onto the wii shop channel virtual console section and I can guaranty you will find something you will love and get addicted too! I AM ADDICTED TO SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 1, MASTER SYSTEM! Not the best graphics but its great.

Thanks, enjoy RETRO WEEK

Joshua Moorcroft-Jones

Join us as we look back over 5 months of animal crossing online experience for those who care about the game as much as their nearest and dearest. Entering a big market just over 5 months from now was a big step for a small little website that had just opened, but one that would change the whole market of animal crossing fan club sites. Through the bad peak times and the good peak times this small site has struggled through and on the way growing to one of the leading sites in the animal crossing fan club genre. As we take you through the secrets, good times and big developments of this site.

There is more than it seems behind the idea of this small animal crossing fan club. Believe it or not the idea of this site was originally an updated version of the small rundown site, Animal Crossing Fan Club Site. This was the original name of animal crossing fans online as we know it. As the new site started to grow, it started to grow its own brand Animal Crossing Fans Online as it is today. This new site had few features but was growing. A crucial part of the new sites development was it joining AC Top Sites. But starting here wasn’t an easy job. It was the middle of August and anyone who know about ac top sites will know the system works monthly and your votes are only renewed at the start of a new month. So we were starting in around 30^th place.

It was the end of august and the site was starting to grow, we had struggled our way on to the top 10 and were competing with long runners such as The Bell Tree Forums and of course Everything Animal Crossing a site in our same position, a new comer to the market. We had developed affiliate partners and were receiving links through that system. Our site was actually starting to grow now running in 3^rd place we were one of the front runners. We were also accepting members with a members area. This was a non-successful feature and closed at the end of October.

It’s the begging of September 2009 and we are growing massively with nearly 1,000 unique visitors. It was time to go up market and show we mean business. This was to mean one of the most major developments in Animal Crossing Fans Online’s time. Our own domain was the next step of this adventurous journey. http://www.animalcrossingfansonline.co.uk/ was born. Replacing our previous free domain, http://animalcrossingfansonline.weebly.com/. Later that month another massive development was to happen to change Animal Crossing Fans Online and the way we use it. As a non-donation accepting site we were forced to place ads on the site. But the site was not bombarded with popups or spam ads. Just ads about the animal crossing genre and just small block ads.

It’s the end of October that same year and the members area is becoming unsuccessful and we are forced to close it. This would be replaced by ACFO Forums our official forums with its very own member’s area. For site and game discussion this was sure to be a successful feature that would bring ACFO to the animal crossing discussion forum market. But no one was to know this was not a good Idea and could not survive. There was too much competition and it was pulling the attraction away from the main site as it being hosted on a different sever with a different address. It was decided the external forums were to be closed for good on the 10^th December 2009 and would be replaced with small embedded nabble forums.

Christmas had come and it was our first so we were celebrating big time with competitions, decorations and parties. Over the Christmas and new year holdiday the site came to holt with visitors away for Christmas and so was the owner. After Christmas the site was picked back up and it carried on. In January 2010 we joined JoJay Network a network of small sites and a service offering free blogs. Our owner was a co-owner of JoJay too. We moved our blog too JoJay away from the main site. Our small site was now growing into a massive site.

Its February 2010 and our site is set to make history by moving from Weebly to 000webhost on a WordPress platform. All our same pages and many features are still available and many more on their way. We made the move to increase page load times an give you a better experience on the site. Animal Crossing Fans Online is still the same domain.  This will be a significant land mark in the history of Animal Crossing Fans Online.

That’s Animal Crossing Fans Online, we’ve took you through the good times and the bad times and hope there will be many more good times too come. Join us in September when we celebrate Animal Crossing Fans Online’s 1^st Birthday and takwe you through a whole year of Animal Crossing Fans Online. Hope to see you then! Joshua Moorcroft-Jones

Animal Crossing Fans Online 16/02/2010