AceUplink
| AceUplink Robotics | |
|---|---|
 AceUplink logo, 2004. | |
| URL | http://www.aceuplink.com/ |
| Slogan | "human:robot::present:future" |
| Commercial? | No |
| Type of site | Robotics portal |
| Owner | Josh Franco (2001-2006) GameTechMods (2013- ) |
| Created by | Josh Franco (2001-2006) |
| Launched | February 23rd, 2001 |
| Status | Abandoned, domain bought by GTM |
AceUplink (formerly known as RoboUplink) was a robot combat portal and community owned and operated by JFranco. Toward the end of its life the website was managed by JFranco's brother, CFranco. AceUplink was seen as a popular alternative to the official Robot Arena forums and a link to AceUplink was featured on the homepage for the Robot Arena games. AceUplink opened on February 23, 2001 and went offline due to domain expiration on February 12, 2006.
As of 2013 the domain is owned by GameTechMods and redirects to the GTM homepage.
History
AceUplink began as a fansite for the Rollercoaster Tycoon PC game franchise (JFranco's former screenname was SimTycoon) and did not officially become a robot combat community until Spring 2001. A common misconception is that AceUplink focused solely on Robot Arena. This is untrue, as in the website's early months as a robot combat portal it maintained pages for Robot Arena alongside sections for the official Robot Wars games, RoboForge, MindRover, MechWarrior, and Robocode. The smaller communities did not catch on as well as Robot Arena's, and with the hype surrounding Robot Arena 2 the game eventually took over the majority of the website.
The eventual release and success of Robot Arena 2 propelled AceUplink into the spotlight as its featured link on the RA2 homepage served to drive increasing amounts of traffic to the community. To deal with the influx of new users, JFranco moved the Robot Arena 2 community into the "In The Spotlight" highlight section at the top of the forum. This discussion board would remain in this location until the eventual close of the website. AceUplink organized Robot Arena 2 tournaments with record entries and turnouts and toward the end of 2003 began to incorporate additional content such as the AceUplink Robot Database.
AceUplink became a huge hotbed of activity in the RA2 modding scene and lent a hand in forming a number of relationships that shaped Robot Arena 2's history. Dummee, the first user to ever create a custom component for RA2 (a Super Nintendo console), debuted his work on AceUplink. Cherry Flavored released his "anti-ballast" component on AceUplink which paved the way for "Super Heavyweight" (801+ KG) robots. SovereignII, the first user to make an AI pack for the game, debuted his download on AceUplink; Radio F Software, whose AI packs expanded the limitations of the game's AI roster allotment, was exclusive to AceUplink. DarkRat, Starcore, Lu-Tze, goose, and ACAMS (who would later establish GameTechMods) all met on AceUplink and eventually created the DSL "Total Conversion" AI, arena, sound, UI, and component pack later on down the road.
The activity eventually began to dissipate as players of the Robot Arena 2 game dwindled and additional fansites and communities cropped up. Disputes with the AceUplink staff and attacks from third-parties further deteriorated the community's userbase until in 2005 JFranco decided to put an end to AceUplink. His brother, CFranco, stepped forward with the intent to keep the community alive, however on February 12, 2006 AceUplink went delinquent on its domain renewal and the website went offline for good.
The domain was later obtained by GameTechMods in 2013, seven years later. AceUplink.com now redirects to the GameTechMods homepage.
Reputation
While popular, AceUplink was not without its dissenters. People critical of the community largely raised complaints about specific members of the moderation team and raised accusations of "mod abuse". A small number of users tossed around AIM chat logs of the staff saying disparaging things about other users, though due to the fact that these chats were taken out of context their meaning was lost.
The website was known as "AssUplink" among users who had been banned or who were simply unhappy with the moderation.
Notable Releases
- dummee unveiled the game's first ever custom components on AceUplink.
- The AceUplink BattleBots AI Pack
- TDS' Ubermod
Staff
Administrators
Moderators
VIPs
Special Users
Non-moderators with permission to view the staff and beta testing forum for the AceUplink BattleBots AI Pack
Legacy
AceUplink was an oft-celebrated and remembered community within the RA2 community. For a period of time the staff of RFSHQ established a side website titled "AUnet", a weekly flash loop archive, hosted at the domain AceUplink.net. RFSHQ also paid homage to AceUplink through their forum thread icons, one of the selectable tags was a resized "VIP MEMBER" rank graphic taken from AceUplink's archive.