So if you’re an old fan of Pokémon Aaah! and are surprised to see the site back up and running once again… you might have wondered what I’ve been up to since stopping the site back in the day. I mean, sure I had “quit” the site a couple times here and there, but that time in March 2004 was officially it and I quit for good. So what happened to everyone in the mean time? Where did we all go? If you ever wanted to know, read on!
Philippe Van Lieu (Nick15)
So as you may know, I ran the website between 1999 and 2004. After that life happened and with Pokémon being what it was back then, I decided that the fun times were over and moved onto other, more grown up things. I did at least keep copies of the website up and running so that at least my work wouldn’t disappear unlike other now-forgotten Pokémon websites (RIP in peace). However, by 2012 I realized that Pokémon was actually sticking around, so I actually resurrected the site, albeit as more of a random blog thing where I would update it once a year. When Pokémon GO exploded in 2016, it just kept growing and I used it to make a 3D-360 virtual reality video of the 2016 Pokémon World Championships. Finally by 2019, I just had to start the site back up, and here we are!
But that’s only the tale of what happened to the website itself. What happened to me, personally, in that time??
Well, I’ll get to that in a little bit.
Everone Else
Life was good for them! Actually, I only just created this page, so I’ll need to get permission from them to share the story they want to share.
The Ghosts
Alas, these are some of the old heroes of PA! who have long since disappeared:
- The one person who had the largest impact on the site but has long since fallen off the fact of this earth has been Joseph Zollo (aka PokémonMasterX, PMX). Ever since he stopped working on the site, he plum disappeared. His website, zollonet.com, is long gone and has since been picked up by cybersquatters or something.
- Another major player in running the site was Zone15, as he helped run the forums for a while. His domain zone15.com is still technically up, but… likewise, he’s a ghost.
- BassPikaMew (BPM) is another mystery ghost… the last time I talked to him was back in 2009 when the cybersquatters who took pokemonaaah.com had left it available for renewal, and so he managed to pick it up for me. He was running his hosting and domain name service website omegadomains.net, and that’s what allowed him to snatch up pokemonaaah.com so quickly like that. I still have my account on it and I still want to support him… but I don’t know if he still runs it anymore.
- There’s also all the countless people who came and gone from the PA! Forums… of course I couldn’t name them all, but I remember the time we did a “PA! Avatar Icon” icon set for MacOS X (see/click image on right) and these were the forum members that joined in. Aaahhh, the memories. I did manage to keep in touch with LittleOD2, however.
I’m hoping that maybe we hear back from these old heroes again and to thank them for all their help back in the day. And I know I’m still missing a few names who have helped the site out but I’ve lost track of. But if I remember any, I’ll be sure to mention them here.
Anyways, I’m just glad you’ve joined us again! And I look forward to entertaining you once again with more Pokémon TCG fake cards and other random Pokémon-related stuff. 