Gamingforce Audio
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The Beginning
Gamingforce Audio (GFA) was started in 1999 by Pocky and bobo as a way to share MP3s and sheet music across the Internet. Somewhere in that first year, Pocky and bobo, having different ideas/feelings towards what the forums would mean/do, had a split, as Pocky left the forums... never to be seen again.
Nevertheless, the forums started out as a small collection, mostly focusing on sheet music. However, as time went on, people started to upload music to a free hosting service known as iDrive. Many a member had their Final Fantasy dreams fulfilled as other members posted, and then directed them to their very own copy of FFVII.
Staff
GFA started out with a hefty staff roster, consisting of the following:
- Pocky
- Job: General website management. Providing music and regular updates of the site.
- Bobo
- Job: Webmaster of gamingforce.com. E-mail him if you experience difficulties with the site. (Tech Admin)
- Kermy
- Job: General management of site. Also a music supplier.
- Artimas Sama
- Job: Gamingforce Audio! Research and Development
- Silver Queen
- Job: Singles Section Collaborator
- Fantasy
- Job: Assistant Webmaster
- Mtemisan
- Job: Music Provider
Eventually the list dwindled down to bobo, Silver Queen, and Fantasy.
Gamingforce Audio 2
Some time after Pocky parted ways with bobo, Naka was drafted to help with the site. GFA also expanded to include album covers.
iDrive was still used as the primary means of music storage and transfer. As time went on though, restrictions were placed on iDrive. The biggest one was a download limit for each file/account. This put a severe cramp on getting music as it was almost assured that even if you logged in at 12:02 AM (the reset was at midnight), that people managed to use the daily allocated limit for that file/account by 12:01.
Further restrictions were encountered as iDrive simply could not support so many connections at once. Therefore, iDrive would randomly cut various connections, leaving many members with half a file. They would try to redownload the file -- only to find out it was already past 12:02 AM.
However, as time went on, members of the forum began to find ways to allow Getright (and other download managers) to resume downloads. By adding a few letters to the link, they were able to resume their downloads, thereby not having to worry too much about the allocated limit. Alas, iDrive eventually found a fix for this. Along with the fact that iDrive stated they were selling off their servers, this was enough to encourage/force members to think of new ways to share stuff.
iDrive's popularity then waned, and finally, on June 30th, the servers were taken down.
Gamingforce Audio 3 & 4
The third iteration of the site was unveiled in mid-2001, showcasing bobo's now-familiar design style. All content, including MP3 files, were now hosted locally on the Gamingforce server. Paikuhan joined the GFA staff, while fLeSh took up the reins as main site coder (primarily to prevent people from hotlinking MP3 files). This carried over to the 4th iteration of GFA, launched in early January 2002. All seemed well until version 4.6 rolled around in late March.
Gamingforce Audio 4.6
This is where it all went horribly wrong. Having hyped the launch of the new site on March 27, 2002 to fever pitch, bobo imposed mandatory forums registration for access to downloads, which resulted in an unprecedented influx of zero posters and leecher accounts. Even with download restrictions put in place, GFA managed to rack up ever-mounting costs for exceeding transfer limits, eventually culminating in a mammoth $40,000 bill in August.
Bobo's response? Ditch the entire server, forums and all. Amazingly, he got off scott-free due to the fact that he was a minor when he signed the hosting contract.
GFA was effectively terminated after that point, and as a result, the new forums were plagued with questions like "When is Gamingforce Audio coming back?" Staff handed out warnings and bannings left and right in response.
Hope?
However, work has begun on reviving GFA in a different form. Using BitTorrent, the server load on bobo's end can be lessened, and yet still allow others to get all the copies of Final Fantasy VII OST that they want. This project has been put on hold as of mid-July, 2005.
For further information, see Gamingforce Audio Development.
