First of all, let's wish CK Gan's Samurai Shodown Forever site a very Happy Adniversary. (Wee! Party-poppers, champainge bottles an' all!) Samurai Shodown Forever was originally called something else. I think it was "CK. Gan's Samurai Shodown Forever Page", but the name's not important to me 'cos I only ran into this site in July '97, which was after the name was fixed as Samurai Shodown Forever. During that time, the page had a pleasent purple background, with Sogetsu and Charlotte as "hosts". The format was the "row" format (each section is one on top of the other). Sections were highlighted with pink background. Sections included were the Ukyo Shrine, Samurai Jokes Section, and pics and links. I discovered this site when I was searching "hopelessly" through the endless web for Samurai Shodown sites. Maybe there's a better way to search but I did it this way. I'd go to search and type "Samurai Shodown" or "Ukyo or "Samurai Spirits" and then the search engine would say "18,000 matches found. Click here to display the next 20 sites"! Considering the fact that my old school server was terribly slow (It took 1/2 hour to download a 100Kbyte picture), it would take close to a month (or more) to get past the first 100 sites. Many a time, I'd stumble upon "site under construction" or not working links or the site just didn't offer much. Imagine my pleasure, joy, ecstasy when I found Samurai Shodown Forever! Stright away, I copied down the address (On paper as I didn't know at that time that Ctrl-C means copy and Ctrl-V means paste). So's like, during practical lesson, or lecture for some subject, when I find it boring or I can't absorb nomore, I'd turn on the browser and type the address in. It was simply wonderful to see Sogetsu and Charlotte appear on-screen, welcoming me to the world of Samurai Shodown. Good thing about this site is that it's updated frequently, VERY frequently when compared to some sites I came across which were like, last updated a few months ago. Being updated frequently, it gives good reason to come back frequently to find out what's new. During those months (July to November) I'd use the site for the following: Obtain pics, obtain text (esp. text on Ukyo), explore the Links section. And then, ah.... CK. Gan intoduced... the messageboard! Hee, hee, now this was GOOD! How exciting it was to be able to communicate with other Samurai fans around the world. In fact, I had learnt many things through this message board. For example, I learnt that Charlotte was actually quite popular. I always thought that nobody liked Charlotte 'cos all my friends hate Charlotte and they call her terrible names, and she's one of the persons they'd like to see chopped up way back in SS2. Another thing I learnt was that there are actually arcades out there which don't provide chairs and that one would have to stand up to play. (Hee, hee! Rasp, rasp!) I also learnt what an anime is. I even got to meet some frens (I just had a slash-fest with Basara last week). Well, all that was done in half-duplex. Just can't wait for that new chat, eh, CK? How's it going? Then sometime at beginning of this year, (or was it end of last year?) format changed to the present one. I kinda prefer the old colour scheme, but I prefer the new format. It's got all the "menu" in one handy corner, so's we don't have to scroll down. It also had Nakoruru at the top left corner (Where Genjuro is currently). Funny though, I'd expected to see Ukyo in the top left corner instead, 'cos I thought that Ukyo is CK's fave. Other than the change in format, all the previous contents were still intact. A while later, it finally occured to me that there's a Fighters to the Finish Ring, and that CK's site is in it 'cos it's good. Yeah, I tried exploring the Ring. Nope, Samurai Shodown Forever is still my main site! (Talk about being faithful, hee, hee) Yep, what I'm trying to say is that this site is tops! CK is doing a fantastic job maintaining this site with wonderful stuff which makes people wanna come back. Only set back is it has quite a long address, so's when I try to give the address to my frens, (They'd be expecting something like www.SSF.com or something) they can't seem to remember the address. Well, I really hope this site goes on, perhaps through the year 2000 and beyond. I'd like to come back after my National Service in 3 years and still be able to visit this site. Good work, CK Gan. You're doin' a terrific job! And may you have many more adniversarires to come!!!--====================987654321_0==_