Pinball-Originals.com is down

[KoldMonster5]

Hey! Did you ever notice that Pinball-Originals.com is ever down since maybe 3 years ago? Anthias hasn't been awhile ever since.

[Ike Savage]

i noticed that a couple months ago.

not too surprising, since running a VP originals site is a pretty uphill battle.

i think i still have anthias on facebook. i could ask him about things if there is interest.

[LeeVanCleef]

yeah, three years sounds about right. It's been MIA a good long while. Damn shame, too. There were some fine tables there.

[GSGregg]

One of the first tables I grabbed when I became aware of all this was his InFlipperSane table...he titled it well.

Wonder if he's devoting more time to his Sci-Fi writing?

Edit: Checked at gopinball; no posts since late Oct. 2012.....

[Anthias]

Hi guys.

Thanks Ike for messaging me on facebook.

yes, sadly what happened was at a time when I was flat out with real life stuff, RH had some things go down which meant he forgot to renew the domain. The domain was then squatted, and we both have had a few pressing things that pulled us away from worrying about it.

The site and files were stored here, on JPH's server, along side Pinball Nirvana. If somebody wanted to take over, and the files were still intact, they could register a new domain, and attach it (with JPH's help) to the existing site and get it up. If that happened, I could log into the site with my old password and set such a person as admin. It would be nice to see all those old files again, I don't have them now. But I don't have the time or energy to run such a site either.

Alternatively, you might be able to access the table files and launch a new site. But I can't say for certain on that score. It would be up to JPH and whether the files were still available on the server.And JPH has his own site and other things to worry about of course, but he was always the "silent partner" and greatest asset PO ever had. Without him, Pinball Originals would never have existed, for which I think a lot of us are extremely thankful.

[Anthias]

Originally Posted by GSGregg

aWonder if he's devoting more time to his Sci-Fi writing?

Good guess :P I was working on my MMORPG project as well for a while, but between the books and planning my wedding (and keeping her happy so there is still going to BE a wedding), I barely have time for my day job!

[Rockinghorse]

Hi Guys,

I haven't been around much myself either. AsAnthias said, things have been a bit GGGRRR for the last couple of years. \The good news is that I still have the original FTP details for the site and will attempt to back it up soon. The domain will need to be re-activated for it to work plus, as Anthias also said, if JPH is still able to piggy back it we could go ahead and re-launch.

The other alternative we have is to self host. Might be an option but the site is quite large and would need a high capacity storage and bandwidth to be possible.

Anyway, yes we are both still very much alive and kicking and still addicted for life to Pinball.

Will keep in touch through this thread

RH

[LeeVanCleef]

Good to hear from both of you gentlemen again! Your site provided many hours of pinball fun! Thank you for all the years you spent doing the Lord's Work!

[Rockinghorse]

I tried to contact the site through FTP without success.

Please be patient and I'll keep on it.

[Ike Savage]

i wonder if PO could be set up as a subdivision of this site?

for example-- "originals.pinballnirvana.com" could be the new URL, taking one to what would be an exact continuation of the old site. that way the domain expiration problem wouldn't come up again, etc... assuming JPH was cool with that and all.

btw i don't know if you guys noticed, but PN itself recently came close to being retired, then shiva stepped in and helped jon manage some site software and database issues. point is-- right now might be a decent time to work on this stuff, since jon and shiva have recently been involved with similar stuff.

[Ike Savage]

hmm, my previous post is awaiting mod approval.

...

oh, and i also wanted to say much thanks guys for running PO for so long!

this scene has always had an underappreciation for originals IMO, but there were some fabulous and fabulously-interesting originals made through the years... maybe most of them being carried at PO once VPF died.

[shiva]

Actually, was just a sounding board for JPH, he did all the work. I was pretty happy about that one.

A lot of the old sites are now gone, which is a big shame as there was a ton of author created stuff that is now lost. Personally, I would think the old way I had, have a file server just for dump files would be the best, find a free or cheap file server for that. The problem is bandwidth, and I am pretty sure PN wouldn't be able to handle that one.

A lot of uploading though, but if one was available, I would dip into my stuff and upload them, which could take quite a while, as I also have old VPM stuff and multiple versions as well. If someone does that, I figure about 500 gigs of space and 2-3 terrabytes of bandwidth to hold EVERYTHING.

Boy, just thinking about it, just how much stuff was actually released the first 2 years of VP, then vpinmame came out.

[Anthias]

Now there's a name out of VP legends! How have you been Shiva?

[shiva]

Good, still breathing,you? We lost touch years ago after I retired for good, shame things have changed so much now compared to the good old times. Congrats on getting married.

[Anthias]

Yeah still breathing here too not a lot of pinball time these days, and sadly had to sell off my machines, due to finances being stupid, so the gameroom is a bit empty these days. But you take the good with the less so, right? Somehow I found a beauTiful lady who supports my hobbies - I count that as my lotto win for this decade!

But yeah, those good old days were a blast. Funny how nostalgic you can feel about the good old days of pinball nostalgia.

[KoldMonster5]

Right. I've been there since 2008 or so, but I didn't have a chance to upload any completed VP tables to the uploads or 4shared.com. Fuuuu... I should redo these nearly-completed tables to what we had finished. Maybe I'll upload those completed VP tables to 4shared or something. It's great!

[Rockinghorse]

Hi Guys,

A big thank you to JPH for finding a 2014 backup of P-O. I have been able to get it through FTP and in time I'll look at the details. The site ran of PHP-BB2 so I'll have to set up a dummy SQL server to test it.

Only thing is I might not get to it soon but one day in the hopefully not too distant future I will.

The future looks flippy.

RH

[LeeVanCleef]

That is certainly good news! Hope to see it some day when time and real life allows for it!

[Itchigo]

I'm probably biting off more than I can chew but can my site help?