TSSZ Fan Fridays: The Green Hill Zone

Sonic fan sites are numerous and varied across this internet of ours, but few have the longevity of this week’s Fan Friday spotlight. The Green Hill Zone was founded way back in 1997, when the creaking sounds of dial-up modems and the thought of the internet were essentially synonymous. The site’s staff page describes The GHZ as follows:

What began on May 17, 1997 as a worthless “me too” fansite has evolved into a really freaking BIG worthless “me too” fansite. Although there have been lengthy periods of inactivity and no less than six different home servers, the Green Hill Zone has persevered and always emerged triumphant. Larger sites have risen and fallen during the GHZ’s silent tenure, and although it’s true that we’ve never quite achieved big-name popularity, the fact remains that WE’RE STILL HERE AND THEY’RE NOT! HA!

The site continues to host information about the games and staff of Sonic Team, although this information is out of date to varying degrees. The site is also home to a long-running forum that still sees reasonable amounts of activity. We recently sat down with the three people most responsible for the website’s existence: Jared Matte (aka Green Gibbon), Nathan Tsui (Segaholic2), and Madhu Sharma (big_smile). We discussed various aspects of The GHZ’s creation and operation, and that interview can be read in full below. As always, we’re on the lookout for fan works to spotlight, so if you have something you’d like to see featured, send us a link at fansonfriday@tssznews.com!
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TSSZ: When was Green Hill Zone formed, who founded it, and why?
Jared: That’s my fault, I guess, and I’m pretty sure it was in the summer of ‘97, May-ish.  I was 16 years old and home schooled, so I had gaping, abyssal voids of free time and constructive pursuits bored me as much then as they do now, so I made The GHZ.  These days, fan sites are clean and professional and followed, respected, and even feared by media makers, but of course back then the whole scene was just a driveling GeoCities mess.  (GeoCities, incidentally, was where The GHZ sprouted.)  I thought someone needed to put it together in a way that made sense.
TSSZ: How do each of you currently contribute to the maintenance, upkeep, and livelihood of GHZ?
Jared: Mainly, I serve coffee and change the toilet paper rolls.  People here shit a lot.  Must be the Drano.
Nathan: I host and administrate the website and forum. It’s a pretty hands-off job nowadays.
Madhu: I’m supposed to update the newsboard, but sadly I don’t have time for it these days. I do, however, manage to post some vaguely-interesting Sonic findings every now and then, the most recent of which being these posters that show some deleted characters from the original Sonic.
TSSZ: There’s a lot of Sonic sites out there. What do you think separates GHZ from everything else?
Jared: The most outdated code of any website that still exists outside of WayBack’s archive.  Also the most hideous forum, at least until Tsui decides to rein that horizontal nightmare back in with a table or something.
Nathan: Yeah, I’m not a designer at all, and I really don’t have a lot of time to work on the site actively anymore. I’m sure this is also the case for Jared and Madhu and everyone else involved with the site. Though our site and content are pretty old, the quality of the content we do have, created almost entirely by Jared, is very high, making it a fantastic resource and entertaining to read as well. We also have a dedicated community of members that has stuck around for years, so we’re more like a club of cranky old men and woman who complain about everything.
Madhu: Most of the other Sonic sites are community-run wikis. Jared beat them all to it by nearly a whole decade and did it by himself, which is a big achievement. Plus, I think when The GHZ started, it was the only site that focused on the games, as the rest were concerned with the comics.
TSSZ: The GHZ’s been around for a long time. Is there any one point in the website’s history that you find most memorable?
Jared: Definitely the early 2000’s was the best time.  At that time, I honestly think it was the best Sonic website on the internet.  Being contacted by people associated with the games (even in small capacity) was always a thrill.  Of course that sort of thing is common now, but back then it was like Zeus poking his head down from the clouds and waving at the plebs.  These days power has shifted to the fans (for better or worse), but ten years ago, it was huge to think that someone who mattered was listening.
Nathan: I like the times when we’d troll annoying new members mercilessly. It wasn’t as cruel as it sounds, because we only did that whenever they deserved it. One time, I modified the whole forum so that everyone had the same avatar just to annoy one person, who promptly left. Mission accomplished.
Madhu: Like Jared, hearing from development teams always gave me a giddy thrill. Out of these, my favorite moments were the interviews I did with Taylor Miller (Sonic Rivals) and  Steve Lycett (Sega Superstars Tennis). There were several interviews planned with other developers, including some from Japan, but they never went anywhere.
TSSZ: The digital life gets frustrating sometimes. Was there any time in GHZ’s history that proved to be particularly trying?
Jared: It was always a pain in the ass to change servers.  I guess there must be faster ways to do it now, but it used to take me days to do that shit.
Nathan: That time Jared drank all my Drano and left his soiled underpants in my Dreamcast.
TSSZ: What was the first Sonic game you ever played, and which one is currently your favorite?
Jared: Of course Sonic 1 was the first one I played, on a demo unit at Toys R Us.  It was the most incredible thing I’d ever seen on a TV.  I still think it’s a great game even now, completely independent of nostalgia, but Sonic 3 & Knuckles is definitely the pinnacle of the series.  Most old guard fans think it went downhill right after that, but I also really like Sonic Adventure, though it hasn’t aged as well.
Nathan: I’m a little surprised because I didn’t remember this, but Jared and I have pretty much identical stories, except mine was a Best Buy or Target and not Toys R Us. I also agree that Sonic 3&K is the best the series has ever been, and have fond memories of Sonic Adventure as well. Sonic Adventure 2 was the first game where, as I was playing it, I had that slight gnawing at the back of my mind, because I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I thought I should be.
Madhu: My experience is identical to Jared and Nate: Sonic 1 was the first game I played and Sonic 3 & Knuckles gets my vote for the best title in the series. More recently, I’ve had a surprising amount of fun with Sonic Generations and Sonic Colors. Both titles aren’t without problems, but I think this is the first time I’ve sincerely enjoyed Sonic since Sonic Pocket Adventure.