I think I created an account here when I was 10, promptly started arguments over emails with someone, demanded somebody help me make an AI version of one of those multiplayer warthog run maps, and add Drumrun/Devils... Monsters... to a UI map. Crazy.

In 2019 I "really" joined the Halo community and got involved on an ambitious project to reconstruct the Halo CE soundtrack faithfully, using all of the original synthesizers and production gear. Now I've sound designed for VKMT and did guitar work for their and TSCE's 1.4 trailers, found myself creating and running The Marty Army discord server, started a proper career in game audio, help on 343's Digsite project, and this week I both released my first album and got the second-to-last synth necessary for Odyssey.

Crazy

To everyone I've met on the Halo community journey, friends and colleagues alike, and to anyone I've yet to; here's to one last hurrah to this funny community for a funny video game.

You can find me lurking the Modding Reclaimers server, & other social media.

I may have only recently gotten involved here as part of the new wave, but it wouldn't have happened without this forum.

Cheers, Dennis. Cheers, everyone.

I see many nostalgic names in here. Been like 15 years since I discovered these forums. This place will be remembered, that's for sure.

As for Dennis, I'm sure I've been responsible for a fair share of your headaches in the past. Thanks for keeping up with us.

Only really active on discord and twitter. My tag is Moot#6050.

My twitter tag is @HiIAmMoot

Goodbye all, it's been good.

So many good moments I can recall since 2006.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Hello,

Some of my most important core gaming memories are Halo: CE related. There were days I faked sick to get out of school to play CE all day and interact with the people of this community.


So long and thanks for all the fish,
Danny

You're screaming low across the desert in a jet fighter as people call for Pelican evac over the text chat. "They've got a Scarab coming up!" as a giant alien quadruped belches plasma at oncoming Longswords and anti-tank rifles bounce off the hull. A nuclear mushroom cloud blossoms in the distance.

Thanks to the discovery of Halomaps.com: combat had evolved.

In 2007, this was the coolest video game experience I'd had in my life. The scale felt massive. The possibilities felt endless. Looking back on it now, the low-res desert has lost a bit of its luster. But behind the cookie cutter cliffs and beneath the barren desert lay the hopeful optimism of ten thousand Halo fans who had not yet been jaded by the passage of time. And because it hooked me as hard as it did, this site became one of the cornerstones of who I am as a person on the internet.

When I joined the forums a bit later (probably after Peep210 had started teaching me the basics of modding), that opened up a whole new world in itself: now I wasn't just trawling the repository for new maps, I was looking for the behind-the-scenes glimpses of upcoming projects and tag concepts, which in turn inspired my own threads outlining ambitious projects that I never quite got around to finishing. But the fun was in the journey, I suppose. I was as happy just to talk to people about modding and Halo as I was to actually complete anything. I checked the forums every day after I got home from middle school, then after high school, then after college, then after work. And even as other social sites went down or fell into disuse (RIP Xfire, so long Skype), the Halomaps forum was always here. At this point it's been a part of my life for longer than it wasn't, and it has spawned friendships with a similar longevity, and this is beautiful to me in a way that compels me to try to distill all those feelings and emotions into a final post that feels befitting of a place that has had such a substantial and positive effect on my life. It can't be done of course, but I figured I'd try.

I was the 1,347th user in a forum that now numbers over 4,000. We inhabited this bastion for over 6,500 days. And while we may be losing the forum, Halomaps yet lives. That means whatever small legacy we may have carved out in this place that Dennis made for us lives too, and I will forever be grateful that a stranger on the internet made a promise to his nephew.

Apologies, I had to create a new account on here as for some reason my old account DN_Lasky was not accessible...

My question...

Who will continue this going forward?

Would it not be good for a new board to be created to continue this legacy?

I would sure like to give that a go...

I have mirrored the whole forum in its current state, and am in the process of standing up a web server to browse it.

There's an open discussion in the #community-meta channel in the Halo Modding Reclaimers Discord server (http://discord.reclaimers.net) about setting up a new forum (and other stuff, like where to centralize information).

Several days after the Forum is closed to membership, I will place a pure HTML read-only archive of the discussions online for future reference. It may take a week or longer before Google or other search engines index the new pages. However, the information will be retained for future searches.

Unfortunately, the new archive will retain all your embarrassing posts, but at least the information will not be lost.

-- Dennis

I was only a passive modder & lurker of these parts all the way back in 2008 when I had an old hooptie of a laptop, half-way through high school. Most I've ever done were some crappy map mods (hey p0lar bear, remember Coagulation Nation on the Xfire forums?), some useful sound tags, and even some pony flag skins. A lot of memories of this place...

Fast forward to now, and I've been working independently while living with good company. Not only that, but I'm back into Halo modding because of the MCC. Not to toot my own horn, but I've been working on a legit remake of Extinction for CEA in Blender. I hope to have it ready in the coming year.

Anyways, do be good to each other, eat right, all that jazz. I'll see some of you on the other side, that being the MCC. ♥

Its sad to see the forums go but I do remember searching the forums to troubleshoot errors or ask for help as the noob map modder I was (and still am, yes I kinda am modding maps again for fun).

Its a bummer yes but at least there will be an archive.

About the new Archive: As far as people not wanting old posts to be available on the internet. That ship has already sailed with the Web Archive.

Would be great if the domain was easily remappable/redirect-able such that the dead link can easily derive the archive-link.

Kinda like

http://forum.halomaps.org/index.cfm%3Fpage=topic&topicID=51617&start=36

-->

http://forum.archive.halomaps.org/index.cfm%3Fpage=topic&topicID=51617&start=36

It would be great. However, it's not. Query strings and dynamic processing are going away, as is the old database. The Archive will be HTML pages.

I have mt own web hosting... just saying...

Sadly, the map files should stay here, I assume they are...