Selected rpg-o-manias

Written in 2019


Here you can find a few special versions of this page that I thought would be interesting or noteworthy. Maybe you can also dive in some nostalgia. A chronological history not just focused on these versions can be found here.

These might not even be the most successful versions per se, but some rpg-o-manias that meant something to me.

RPG-O-MANIA Version 1 (1999)

The first version online. This was based on a frame layout created in Microsoft Frontpage. This also was the first english version of RPG-O-MANIA and it was the first that was online, although only using a free hosting provider.

This version covered some self scanned images and some other pictures I found elsewhere, as well as some midis I found online. The "games" area provided some very, very short reviews.

Other than that, RPG-O-MANIA basically was a small personal homepage like there were so many out there back then.

Fact sheet
Web URL: http://rpg-o-mania.purespace.de (inactive)
Online from: April 12th, 1999 - September 6th, 1999
Visitors: n/a

RPG-O-MANIA: The supporter Page (Version 4) (2000)

This was the second version online and this basically was the first version that gained attention because of itself. I got in contact with various other webmasters and met some very nice guys from France around the website RPGLair and they helped me develop RPG-O-MANIA even further. This website still used frames and some nasty Internet Explorer exclusive ActiveX technology that enabled transparency.

RPG-O-MANIA TSP focused on higher quality stuff, which was hard to find. So I still scanned most of the artworks myself. After I discovered eBay in late 1999, I was also able to play games that weren't released in Europe, which widened my knowledge of games a lot. Famous of RPG-O-Mania TSP was the externally hosted Movieworld subsite, which hosted some early game trailers. Sadly though, hosting issues ended the career of the Movieworld soon enough.

RPG-O-MANIA was a bigger mid size website now that hosted some exclusive content.

Fact sheet
Web URL: http://www.rpg-o-mania.de (active)
Online from: Spring 2000 - Summer 2000
Visitors: about 40.000

RMX (2001)

RPG-O-MANIA TSP2 was a step towards being a bigger website, and its successors in 2000 were even more successful. I got in touch with other webmasters, and they helped me to grow the website significantly. But the success somehow was too much for me at that point, and I handed over RPG-O-MANIA to a friend of mine and only remained as the financial manager. Still, I wanted to share some of the stuff I found, scanned or upscaled, and so I created RMX.

This was a pretty short lived website back in 2001 which was meant as a side project - hence the name RMX, "RPG-O-Mania Extension". I soon went back and took over RPG-O-Mania which was subsequently restarted.

RMX was a simple, table based website that didn't survive long. I lost most of the source code due to a hard disk crash in 2001.

Fact sheet
Web URL: http://www.ower.de/rmx (inactive)
Online from: June 2001 - August 2001
Visitors: n/a

rpg-o-mania Version 9 (2003)

Oh my, this version has a special place in my heart. When I restarted RPG-O-Mania in 2002, I re used the kernel from 2000 and just replaced the images with some new assets. This was okay for some time, but the website had to be bigger, better and more modern. So I asked my friend Wite back then if he could create a completely new website kernel for me and help me understand it. This basic kernel was the foundation of the ower.de PHP kernel (ODPC) that's still beneath this website, even though I'm now able to create my own website cores.

We now had lots of high quality content online with a focus on fanart. Slowly, but steadily, coverage about various game topics started to appear. Back then, it was still put under the "others" menu, but things were starting to grow.

This version was continuously developed and was online and successful for quite some time.

Fact sheet
Web URL: http://www.rpg-o-mania.de (active), http://www.rpg-o-mania.net (active)
Online from: January 2003 - Summer 2004
Visitors: about 150.000

rpg-o-mania Version 10 (2005)

This basically was still the same website we had in 2003, with a different layout. Version 9 had a nice, simple layout approach that was taken back in this version. It had the navigation back to the side of the page, like many other websites had back then. Other than that, version 10 still based upon a static table layout, but back in the day, screen sizes didn't have such a wide range as they have today.

In those days, we removed most of the fanart and started writing more and more articles and columns. The new "Spotlight" section first appeared in this version, which is still a big part of rpg-o-mania today. It also featured some quite successful forums and this was the first version to have a layout completely created in Adobe Photoshop. Also, since I liked Japan so much back then, I came up with some strange website motto - "the most japanese german website in english language". Weeell...

I had some health issues back then when rpg-o-mania 10 was out thanks to an operation that went wrong, but RPGs and rpg-o-mania helped me to stay in touch with people.

Fact sheet
Web URL: http://www.rpg-o-mania.de (active), http://www.rpg-o-mania.net (active)
Online from: Summer 2004 - January 2006
Visitors: about 250.000

rpg-o-mania Version 12 (2007)

Above you see the pinnacle of old rpg-o-mania. After i tried out a dark, overly stylish layout in 2006, I quickly went back to a friendly, brighter version of my website. This version had everything: Lots of great images and wallpapers, a already pretty big coverage section, previews and reviews and a extensive midi music gallery. Users could comment on news articles (which was already released in the previous version).

The kernel of this website was enhanced and was able to switch the header image if required, there was a rotating splash screen gallery which even turned into some kind of magazine cover in the last days of old rpg-o-mania. The galleries were linked from many forums and discussion boards.

The layout was heavily inspired from the new Mac computersI got in the time and from the XBox 360 start menu.

Fact sheet
Web URL: http://www.rpg-o-mania.de (active), http://www.rpg-o-mania.net (active)
Online from: January 2007 - March 2008
Visitors: about 250.000

rpg-o-mania Version 13 (2018)

Yeah, it's been ten years, or almost ten years since I closed down rpg-o-mania. You can find out more about the reasons here. In my new job, I felt the desire to gather more in-depth information about web technology. And the easiest way to face all of the challenges a web developer faces nowaday is in creating a website on your own.

rpg-o-mania 13 started out as a 80% version of old rpg-o-mania 12. I developed a new kernel and created a new, responsive website that also works on mobile devices. The layout is created in Adobe Photoshop (which costs me a fortune every month). At the beginning, I very much tried to mimic the past and even included a splash screen. During the first year, I had to realize that times have changed and removed the splash screen - I also continuously tweaked the layout and content so that by the beginning of 2019, rpg-o-mania 13 is the biggest rpg-o-mania that ever existed.

This time, the layout is based on modern CSS, the kernel still PHP. For my convenience, I even have a comfortable management console at my disposal.

Fact sheet
Web URL: http://www.rpg-o-mania.de (active), https://www.rpg-o-mania.com (active), http://www.rpg-o-mania.net (active)
Online from: January 2018 - now
Visitors: about 61.000 (and counting)

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