Who is Spparrow?

[GanonZD]

Who/what is this Spparrow guy/girl/horse/shoe/car/thing, and why does he/she/it not seem very active (okay, I admit it, I don't check the French forum very much)? Which role does/did does he/she/it play, and why is he/she/it still listed as a co-creator/-darklord even after Unas rewrote AAO from scratch?

[Kroki]

It is a ghost.

[GanonZD]

Good, call the Fey family then.

[Kroki]

No need, you may see it appear in October. If you are ever so lucky.

[Unas]

Time for a short summary of the beginning of AAO's history I guess :

- October 2006 : Spparrow creates a website to play a French translation of AA3's first case online. It was a basic playthrough, using only static html pages.
- Around April 2007 : I discover Spparrow's site, play through it, and decide to improve on it. First prototype of the AAO player is born. On Spparrow's suggestion I also start working on an editor so that people can use this player for something else than just this first case.
- July 2007 : Spparrow's host dies. I take over his site and host it by my own means; I also release the very first version of the editor. Throughout summer 2007, Spparrow is still actively working on the site with me. Not the development (he's not a dev by a long shot) but gathering resources, and getting the community a little organised.
- 24 Aug 2007 : V2 editor released.
- September 2007 : With editor V2 just released, we are both starting our high education studies. Spparrow stops being active, while I somehow manage to keep development going.
- 2 March 2008 : AAOv3 released.
- 24 March 2008 : English localisation released.
- 22 Feb 2009 : AAOv4 released.
- 6 Nov 2009 : AAOv5 released.
- 1 Apr 2015 : AAOv6 released.
(Wow, that last gap does seem huge now ! )

That's pretty much it.
Spparrow was only here at the very beginning, and didn't contribute to the development of the engine itself, but given that initially I was the one to take over his site, I still give him the honors on the credits page, and he keeps an honorary Red name on the forums.
He no longer has actual administration powers of course - leaving those to a mostly inactive account is not a great idean in terms of security

[GanonZD]

So you mean he is not a car?

[Unas]

Kroki already told you, he's a ghost.
Have you ever seen a ghost car ?

[GanonZD]

Google Images is here to save the day:



This is Spparrow. Say hi.

[Reecer6]

That abridged history is pretty enlightening! It's great that the origins of this entire project have been preserved almost as they were ~8-9 years ago, because humble beginnings are always fun to look at. You can even see traces of the current evidence system (and especially V5's) in V1! Although, that black background for V1 and the brown one for the V2 editor were really odd design choices I'm glad no longer exist.

wait this thread's about spparrow not aao in 2007. uh, dead cars!

[GanonZD]

Now for the bonus question: Maya takes the form of the spirit she channels. So if she channels a dead car, then...?

[Unas]

Although, that black background for V1 and the brown one for the V2 editor were really odd design choices I'm glad no longer exist.

Well, they were mine xD
This brown was the background colour of CE blocks. (CE blocks were introduced in V2)
I've never been a good designer.

Basically, AAO started getting pretty when Meph joined. He made all the mockups for V5, and later on for V6 (not to mention he did the forum themes as well).
While I have changed the interface quite a lot from his initial mockups, I always counted on him for the overall design, because you can see it looks a whole lot nicer than everything I ever did by myself

[GanonZD]

So now that Meph has also turned into a ghost car, what is to become of all of us?

And what if Unas does some day (he said he might eventually stop being in charge)?