If you've read the
Newgrounds history, you'll know that 2002 started as a real low point for NG. The Internet bubble had burst the previous year, we were screwed over by all our advertisers and had resorted to adult ads to survive. Our hosting was locked in a contract that kept us from improving site performance, so we dealt with servers that could barely handle the load.
The adult ads, excessive pop-ups and slow performance weren't helping our image, especially when some other grimy sites were stealing our bandwidth to showcase NG submissions on their own sites. We tried to configure the servers to prevent deep linking of .swf files, but it degraded their performance so much that we couldn't make it work at the time.
Despite the site running like complete crap, artists continued to submit their Flash. For that, I'm eternally grateful. :)
January
The first of several Flash Fables appeared and quickly became one of the favorite submissions on the site.
Create-A-Ride started the trend of immensely popular car customization games, inspiring classics such as Custom Rides and Drag Racer.
Squigo got himself into his first deadly situation, while the Swearbear Cursing Keyboard generated tons of buzz for the talking bear doll. They were so pleased with their exposure on Newgrounds, they put our tank logo on the back of their packaging as a way to say thanks!
February
After a long night, we
introduced a fun Pico voting animation to the Portal. When users voted on submissions, they were treated to an animated visualization, making the experience feel like playing an RPG. You can read ahead to see what happened to it in October. I also
made some changes to the voting bar.
AlantheBOX made a name for himself on Newgrounds with the start of his B&W DRAMA THEATER series, although I'll admit it was one of those series that wasn't appreciated until well after the first episode entered the Portal.
CarrotClock wrapped up a Flash remake of League Bowling, one of my favorite Neo Geo games.
Krinkels also made his first appearance, with Marsh-Mellow-Madness. It was a great movie, but things wouldn't really take off until his next submission, in July...
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- Score
- 3.44 / 5.00
- Type
- Movie
- Popularity
- 123,927 Views
- Rated
- Ages 13+
-
League Bowling
by
CarrotClock
The Neo Geo classic, recreated pixel-for-pixel in Flash!
- Score
- 3.72 / 5.00
- Type
- Game
- Popularity
- 2,718,047 Views
- Rated
- Everyone
-
- Score
- 4.28 / 5.00
- Type
- Movie
- Popularity
- 1,731,349 Views
- Rated
- Ages 13+
March
The "BAGAGAGA BOP" fanimutation premiered and we got our first episode of Ytown Public.
-
- Score
- 3.33 / 5.00
- Type
- Movie
- Popularity
- 481,976 Views
- Rated
- Everyone
-
- Score
- 3.60 / 5.00
- Type
- Movie
- Popularity
- 52,412 Views
- Rated
- Ages 13+
April
This month definitely introduced some controversial submissions. Like a Pandora's Box that perhaps shouldn't have been opened, Hentai Simgirls started the dating game craze on Newgrounds. To balance out the sex with some violence, we featured fabulous999's Suicide Bomber game, originally called "KABOOM", on the front page.
The suicide bomber game drew a lot of hatemail, but we left it up on the site. It makes for a nice history page.
The submissions this month weren't completely nasty, though. Super Console Wars is pretty cute.
-
- Score
- 4.08 / 5.00
- Type
- Game
- Popularity
- 49,068,116 Views
- Rated
- Adults Only
-
- Score
- 3.50 / 5.00
- Type
- Game
- Popularity
- 1,619,687 Views
- Rated
- Ages 17+
-
- Score
- 3.94 / 5.00
- Type
- Movie
- Popularity
- 450,779 Views
- Rated
- Ages 13+
May
Some months have major moments in NG history, others not so much. Ravage and Wrath were both great games and Childhood Confessions will make you laugh. None of them introduced new artists, new series or new trends, though.
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Ravage
by
PsychoGoldfish
Rampage-like game
- Score
- 3.55 / 5.00
- Type
- Game
- Popularity
- 1,555,783 Views
- Rated
- Ages 17+
-
- Score
- 3.41 / 5.00
- Type
- Game
- Popularity
- 1,700,127 Views
- Rated
- Ages 17+
-
- Score
- 3.64 / 5.00
- Type
- Movie
- Popularity
- 421,369 Views
- Rated
- Ages 17+
June
The Portal was re-invigorated in June, as we received a lot of great submissions over the summer. Highlights of this month included a Pong spoof by Oska software.
ChuChu brought a delightful random energy to the Portal and Legendary Frog won a lot of fans with his Lord of the Rings spoof. Lastly, I submitted Project EDDIE. It isn't really noteworthy, but since I made it I get to put it here.
July
Krinkels lit the Portal on fire with Madness Combat, launching what would be one of the most successful original series to ever appear on NG. Another popular series started this month, with the introduction of the Tomorrow's Nobodies crew. I later met both Krinkels and the TN guys at
Comic-Con 2006!
LegendaryFrog continued his rise to power with Chocobo Mix and Pikanjo launched the first episode of the Perfect Kirby series, which was a consistent crowd-pleaser. LF and Pikanjo would later collaborate on some future submissions, such as
The Matrix Has You in 2004.
Metal Slug S showed people that Flash could make a good version of Metal Slug, much to my dismay because Dan Paladin and I had been working on Alien Hominid for months and were about ready to release it.
August
Dan and I submitted Alien Hominid and started the chain of events that would lead to
the Behemoth! We never thought at the time that we would some day make a console version.
Ben Spurgin released a big project of his own, raising the bar for Flash adventure games. Pimp's Quest combined great visuals with solid gaming. It was becoming clear that collaborations between artists and programmers were the way to go.
Rob Feldman introduced us to his creepy Dr. Shroud series, with the first episode of "Ally of the Dolls."
Sprite movies were still going strong, with Link's Quest for Ass being a fan favorite.
Portal Fighter 2 let players live the dream of battling it out as popular Newgrounds characters.
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Alien Hominid
by
DanPaladin
Blast FBI agents in this Metal Slug style shooter!
- Score
- 4.17 / 5.00
- Type
- Game
- Popularity
- 20,700,733 Views
- Rated
- Ages 13+
-
- Score
- 3.85 / 5.00
- Type
- Game
- Popularity
- 11,859,161 Views
- Rated
- Ages 17+
-
- Score
- 3.68 / 5.00
- Type
- Movie
- Popularity
- 126,349 Views
- Rated
- Everyone
-
- Score
- 4.11 / 5.00
- Type
- Movie
- Popularity
- 1,145,638 Views
- Rated
- Ages 17+
-
Portal Fighter II
by
raitendo
Play this beat 'em up to determine who is the true king of the portal!
- Score
- 3.71 / 5.00
- Type
- Game
- Popularity
- 1,362,299 Views
- Rated
- Ages 13+
September
OMG! Arfenhouse! It all started this month. Some great games popped into the Portal this month, such as the Skullkid and Bloody Rage. Pete (Bloody Rage creator) says he was inspired by the Miss Dynamite game I showed him but never finished, so I'll take whatever glory I can get.
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- Score
- 4.24 / 5.00
- Type
- Movie
- Popularity
- 609,396 Views
- Rated
- Ages 17+
-
the skullkid
by
korded
you're a kid, with a chainsaw, and a skull head
- Score
- 3.53 / 5.00
- Type
- Game
- Popularity
- 25,267,429 Views
- Rated
- Ages 13+
-
Bloody Rage
by
SESSNET
15 Fatalities, 18 Characters - Bloody Rage is Insane Fun!
- Score
- 3.39 / 5.00
- Type
- Game
- Popularity
- 8,976,916 Views
- Rated
- Ages 13+
October
Due to the site running unbearably slow and the .swf file not caching properly,
I removed the ultra-cool Pico voting animation. Voting was never quite as fun after that.
Ganguro Girl picked up the dating sim steam as Hentai Simgirls was finally going away, while Sterile Spongebob was just... wrong. We rounded out the month with some decent
Halloween submissions.
-
- Score
- 4.01 / 5.00
- Type
- Game
- Popularity
- 21,981,694 Views
- Rated
- Adults Only
-
- Score
- 1.78 / 5.00
- Type
- Movie
- Popularity
- 770,488 Views
- Rated
- Ages 17+
November
Joseph checked in to the "Ghost Motel", while MK sprites made us laugh. And who can forget those lovable eggs.
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Ghost Motel 1
by
Violet-AIM
An interactive movie about the ghost motel
- Score
- 3.63 / 5.00
- Type
- Game
- Popularity
- 159,280 Views
- Rated
- Ages 13+
-
- Score
- 3.93 / 5.00
- Type
- Movie
- Popularity
- 1,841,630 Views
- Rated
- Ages 13+
-
- Score
- 3.83 / 5.00
- Type
- Movie
- Popularity
- 162,097 Views
- Rated
- Everyone
December
I can't believe I released three games this month, it must have been the Christmas spirit! I had worked for months with -ROG- from
I-Mockery to make Domo Kuhn's Angry Smashfest. At the same time, I made Chainsaw the Children with Dan. If it wasn't for Chainsaw the Children,
Dad 'n Me wouldn't exist.
The Portal received a new feature this month! Having grown sick of abusive submissions, we introduced
the whistle.
The popular web comic, 8-Bit Theatre, made its Flash premier this month, with the blessing of the original creator.
We ended the year with our usual Christmas collection. You'll find my third game at the bottom of the
Christmas collection.
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- Score
- 4.24 / 5.00
- Type
- Game
- Popularity
- 2,616,837 Views
- Rated
- Ages 13+
-
- Score
- 3.96 / 5.00
- Type
- Game
- Popularity
- 4,225,843 Views
- Rated
- Ages 17+
-
- Score
- 4.26 / 5.00
- Type
- Movie
- Popularity
- 1,068,506 Views
- Rated
- Everyone
By the end of the year,
site performance was improving and we had started work on the
multi-author system, which would bring some
interesting new developments in 2003...
