The Guardian Archive

Far Too Much Wasted Effort:
The History of guardian.simplenet.com and project-apollo.net, 1998-2005

So I was digging around my hard drive recently and I found all these fascinating old versions of my web pages and I said to myself, "Self," I said -- and I knew it was me, because I recognized the voice -- "why not re-upload these pages for all to enjoy? Because certainly if there's one thing a casual visitor to this web site will find fascinating, it's a trip through these monuments to a complete stranger's overweening ego." The logic was compelling, and so here they are: just about every version of my web site that there's ever been, and possibly even one or two I never actually got around to using. Enjoy!

Keep in mind, of course, that none of the links on these pages will be functional. So if some ancient, abandoned project intrigues you... well, um, too bad, I guess. Okay, though, if you're really interested in some old bit of flotsam feel free to email me and ask anything you please. I'm always a polite correspondent.

An early, early version of my site from when it was located at netaxs.com.
A later placeholder that lived at www.netaxs.com/~sleet for a long time until they eventually noticed I had cancelled my account years ago. The image is from my part of the improvisational manga, Mech Slayer.
The first placeholder that appeared at guardian.simplenet.com. It was kind of a while before I actually got the content up there, admittedly.
The first "live" version of Guardian, featuring many alarmingly obsolete projects.
Guardian 2.0. I kept this around for a while with different front page images because I liked the nice shiny buttons and OCR A Extended font.
Guardian 2.1. I'm not certain what's the real difference between 2.1 and 2.0. Oh, right, I messed with the table settings a bit.
Guardian 3.0. Can't say that this ever went live; at least, all I've got is the background image, a gimmicked Wipeout screenshot. But it does look pretty sweet, so here it is. If anyone out there knows what that wacky font is, please tell me; it got lost innumerable computers ago and I miss it so.
Guardian 4.0. Not so different in its fundamentals from 2.0, but it has a nice blue cast to it. The picture is a CG I did of some of the characters from Rareware's N64 game, Jet Force Gemini.
Guardian 5.0 aka "Project Apollo." Heh, yeah, that went absolutely nowhere. I bow my head in embarrassment. But that is where the new name for my web site came from originally.
Guardian 5.5. When I realized Project Apollo was going nowhere I sent it down the memory hole and made this front page instead, and I'm gonna have to level with you here: it is awesome. This is the sort of scary, broken atmosphere I had pictured for the Malarkey project I kept trying to do. The front page image is of Alecto from my part of the improvisational manga, The Unseen Hand.
The first "live" version of Project Apollo. I was forced to abandon my comfortable old URL when Simplenet was bought by Yahoo! and shut down. I was going to get a new website elsewhere in protest but laziness forced my hand and I registered project-apollo.net through Yahoo instead. I suppose I'll have this address forever now. Note the awkwardly revealing choice of front page image from John Kovalic's Dork Tower.
A newer version of Project Apollo from 2001. Getting very close to the current layout, as you can see.
An unused new version of Project Apollo that was more Miracle of Science-centric. This one never went live (obviously, given its not-done-ness) but that certainly is a nice picture of Caprice.
The current front page at last.

Back... to the future!