The Old School Otaku Lounge

I was trying to find the url to the first DB site I visited years ago, Dr. Gero's Laboratory. As far as I can remember it was the first major DBZ site, and I wanted to see if it was available in the Wayback Machine. I have searched high and low to no avail, but I remember it was a .edu (I THINK), if that helps jog anyone's memory. Also, I'm pretty sure it existed as early as 95 if that helps. Thanks!

.edu sounds like Usenet, though there was a .edu domain on the web. I don't think the servers go back that far. Most are between 1100 and 1500 days for Usenet postings. The web is far younger than Usenet so old fragments survive. If it was a Usenet URL, it would have to be stuff saved by someone on other media. I have stuff saved on 3.5" discs from the late 1980s to the late 1990s when that format was abandoned. I'm unsure if I have any equipment to be able to read the discs anymore. Maybe in some of my older gear. Is it really that important?

_D_ wrote:.edu sounds like Usenet, though there was a .edu domain on the web. I don't think the servers go back that far. Most are between 1100 and 1500 days for Usenet postings. The web is far younger than Usenet so old fragments survive. If it was a Usenet URL, it would have to be stuff saved by someone on other media. I have stuff saved on 3.5" discs from the late 1980s to the late 1990s when that format was abandoned. I'm unsure if I have any equipment to be able to read the discs anymore. Maybe in some of my older gear. Is it really that important?

No, it was a university webpage, maybe it wasn't as old as I remembered though. I'm almost positive I found it in 95. The guy who ran it had an allotment of space on the university's site, and used it to host his Dragon Ball page. So it would have been something like http://www.universitynamehere.edu/~hisu ... rtwas.html The reason why it would be helpful is that he had an extensive links page that predated the Anime Web Turnpike and even had site reviews, so it would be a good way to find other sites as well (that you could check out in the Wayback Machine). I still post on a Dragon Ball board occasionally, and some posters there asked me about trying to find it. To be honest with you, I know Anime Sennin is a big Dragon Ball fan and was active back then, so I was hoping I might luck out and he would know.

Also, I'm aware of how Usenet worked, I was (and still am) a subscriber to a paid Usenet server and used to be a pretty active newsgroup poster. Giganews actually goes back to about 2001 for newsgroup postings, but only 1500 days for binaries. I use Tweak News though.

I do seem to have a vague memory of this site, but unfortunately I do not know what became of it. I know the feeling of not being able to find older sites that you used to frequently access all too well; I wish I had saved my bookmarked pages from that era!

I'm not sure where you've checked, but a lot of the older DragonBall fans can be found on the Kanzenshuu forums. It might be a good place to see if you could find any more information.

I actually found it, at a url it had later. https://web.archive.org/web/20031003021 ... rg/drgero/

The way I found it was that I had a sudden memory of a guy called SREDBZ, who also had a good links page, and found it in the Wayback Machine. His url was easy, because it was a members.aol.com page. https://web.archive.org/web/20031217223 ... links.html Also, that shows how foggy memory can be, it only went back to 97'. I do remember some basic image galleries and character shrines before it, but this was the first big one that was later supplanted by planetnamek.com Very nostalgic, anyway.

Glad you found it Ben! Thanks for sharing the link, I love going back and seeing these old sites. As you mentioned, it is very nostalgic, and brings back a lot of great memories.