"Some fan websites come up with random stuff that makes NO sense, or is blatantly made up, or just flat-out wrong. I mean, do fans ever check their data when they make websites? Or do they credit sources when they put down things which are supposed to be "facts"? The frightening thing is, the site (Terminator: 2029 AD) lists fictionalized technical readout data for all of these made-up units, and I have NO idea where any of it came from - the site doesn't list any citations or source lists for where any of it came from. Unfortunately, the site also forgot to include a mailto to contact the site owner / maintainer through, so I can't ask them about any of this. It's crap like this that makes me wonder why I should make a fansite - people will look at my site, then look at these other ones chock-full of BS, and say mine is "wrong", simply because their data looks correct. Well... It's not. It's all made-up, and has no basis in reality or fact."
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T-850 205, resident anal retentive troll
of the official
Terminator 3 forums
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DISCLAIMER
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When I first started this wonderful little site, it was with the intention that those who visited it would be smart enough to understand that this website was not an official Terminator website. Many years ago, there were quite a lot of Terminator based websites and webpages. Most of these were your typical Geo-City / AOL flotsam and jetsam created by some raving, acne-faced fanboy. None of these sites were very memorable or worth the space that they took up on the Internet. Most of these websites had a few standard pictures of Arnold or some other star of the Terminator movies, some rotating gifs, eye straining backgrounds, MIDI, maybe a battle scene or three and the text portion of the content invariably consisted of words like "kewl!" and "awsome!" with numerous spelling and grammar errors to add to the overall entertainment or torture value. "Please sign my Terminator guestbook" was a perennial favorite quote displayed on many of these sites.
Thankfully, most of these HTML abortions are gone now as their original owners have moved on to far greater things, like junior high. Very few of these fanboy sites were ever updated past their first installment let alone had any original content or focus. These websites were, for the most part, instances of people who were first learning how to code HTML and had nothing better to do than create the equivalent of Internet coasters or place holders.
T2029AD was different, and it was designed to be that way from the very start.
T2029AD was actually built from the incomplete and un-submitted sequel to Bethesda Softwork's 1995 PC game "Terminator: FUTURE SHOCK." The original title of the game was to have been "TERMINATOR: HK- HUNTER KILLER" and it would have allowed the player to take on the role of many of SKYNET's creations in the war against the Resistance. The player would have assumed the role of everything from a small unarmed scout, to a screaming Aerial HK, a ground pounding tracked HK, a T800 endoskeleton (with and without organic camouflage covering) and even the mighty Sentinel quadruped gun platform. Variable damage aspects would have been modeled heavily from the movies, allowing you to enter normal or "Terminator" vision, damage could accumulate and result in systems not working, hazy or static filled visual input, slower movement, or having to crawl when your legs were blown off. The final reward for playing the game was that on the last few levels, you were allowed to play as a prototype T1000, a very powerful unit with many capabilities, one of only three such units produced at that time by SKYNET. During the course of the game, you would be tested in combat, ultimately coming to the shocking conclusion which would have tied in perfectly with the first and second movie. Infiltration and recon were as much a part of the game as direct combat. The game would have rewarded careful, recon-like play in some scenarios with a wealth of information that would have unlocked additional scenarios of opportunity and allowed the player to take control of other, more advanced units.
T:HK's story was seamless and beautiful. It still is, in hindsight, even after almost a decade has passed. I think it is better fiction now than I've seen in the past few years with regard to the Terminator franchise. T:HK would have given the player the chance to experience the battle from the 'bad guys' side, where the Resistance was wrong and SKYNET was simply defending itself. T:HK would have shown us far more of SKYNET and its thought processes than anything previously presented. It is still a desire of mine to produce this game, and the graphics technology available today is light years ahead of what I had originally envisioned for the game engine, so perhaps we may one day see T:HK, if some company reads this and takes an interest in my work. I think T:HK would make a very good console game, as the technology of console gaming has also made quantum leaps in the last decade. In other words, I have the story and the details, I just need someone to help me translate them onto a viable platform. If we do see this game, expect a brutal world, not some pretty eye candy. Combat would follow the rhetoric of the first movie, when Reese told Sarah that the Terminator was out that, that it didn't feel pain, or pity, it couldn't be reasoned with, and it wouldn't stop, ever, until she was dead. Death dealing technology on a relentless march to victory, that was the core emphasis of the T:HK game.
The technical data found on this site came from the unrealized PC game T:HK. If you think the level of detail of the information found on this site is incredible, you should have seen what the actual game was going to be like. The manual would have been worth the price of the game alone, if I had anything to do with its production quality or project direction. Fans who didn't even own a PC would be buying the game just for the manual and the information and artwork that it contained.
The current state of the T:HK project is that it is slowly gathering dust. The story is almost complete (some minor details remain to dovetail the T:HK story to the first two movies and tie-in) and the game has been in that state for years now. Almost complete yet unrealized. The look of the units are in place, the technology is outlined but other than that, I have no idea how to proceed with the project other than to simply add the material here for other fans to enjoy and ponder over. I may put the story of T:HK up on this site as an interesting bit of fan fiction, perhaps one day.
T:HK evolved over the years from a computer gaming project into the website now known as T2029AD:RATM.
T2029AD, as a website, has lasted for many years now mainly because this website offers something that the other Terminator websites do not: a fresh look at one possible world of the Terminator, a view that is free from compromise and the yoke of commercialism where profit overrules common sense. T:HK and by default, T2029AD, is an extrapolation of the original ideas presented by James Cameron, ideas that are taken in a totally creative and wholly new direction. This website is a view of the darker side, the less popular side, and displays the true terror of a world where technology has gone wild and turned on its former masters. This website offers an in-depth examination of the wonderful death dealing technology presented in the two films as well as the two novels and subsequently theorizes what that technology might become, how it might evolve, how it might be used, and what it might look like. T2029AD is therefore a completely original interpretation of the concepts found in the Terminator series, concepts that have been freed from having to follow anything other than the original vision as presented by director James Cameron in 1984.
T2029AD is a 'what-if' presentation where technology is the guiding factor, not the production budget. This website does not try to gather in every single reference to the world of Terminator nor does it try to make all the loose ends sync up and therefore coalesce into some kind of overall sense. That is an impossible task when so many different people, each with different views and agendas, have been allowed to contribute so much to diluting Cameron's original vision, all in the name of profit.
T2029AD makes its own history, its own units, and it explains these in a large amount of creative detail that not even the canon material can match for in depth, consistency, or logic. T2029AD draws upon canon as well as factual information found in the two movies and the two novels and expands heavily upon that information.
The technology portrayed in the two movies and in the two novels is the real star of the film, however I think that message has been lost now, especially to the younger fans who wait on the edge of their seat just for Arnold to have another chance to say "I'll be back." T2029AD is built upon the basis that Arnold Schwarzenegger was A Terminator, not THE Terminator. There were certainly other Terminators, other infiltration units that had different body builds, different facial features, skin color, eye color, etc. That much is proven in the original movie and in the T2 novel.
T2029AD is a website that doesn't have to accept that everything that is officially endorsed has to be canon material or that such material automatically has to be included in the overall vision in order to somehow be correct. T2029AD can pick and choose, accept or reject, tear down or build upon anything it may desire. That is the overall prerogative of this website or to put it simply; the smart stuff that represents the original vision of Cameron gets included, and the ridiculous stuff will be thrown out with no excuses made. Some of the canon material is further used as a springboard, to explore those technologies that are presented in the two movies and the two novels, and to extend them at least to their next logical step or even beyond into new technologies that may not be mentioned or even hinted at in the franchise.
As a website, T2029AD is unique. It is fresh, original, and creative. In many ways, it is the direction that the franchise should have taken but sadly didn't. Just because something is canon doesn't automatically make it smart, or logical. Just because something has the "Terminator stamp of approval" displayed proudly upon its exterior doesn't necessarily make it good. There have been many, many abhorrent commodities produced with the Terminator namesake attached. Were these canon pieces? Yes. Were they good ideas? It depends; sometimes yes, sometimes no. Did they make money for the franchise? Yes, invariably and that is the sole reason that they were created in the first place. Money makes the world go round and it also drives franchises.
So, where does that leave the poor fan?
The poor fan is left with having to make a decision. Either accept everything that has the Terminator logo on it as official and canon, or pick and choose what they like and what they don't like. There is also a third option, which takes its initiative from the old saying of "if you want something done right then you have to do it yourself." The third option is create your own vision, to jump off the beaten path and strike out into new territory. Of course, this last option requires a whole lot of creativity, an incredible amount of imagination, and a good degree of intelligence. This option isn't for everyone, especially those who like to throw the words 'canon' and 'official' around as some type of pseudo-intellectual blanket defense of their own uncreative narrow mindedness.
Imagination is truly a wonderful thing.
Without imagination, we would never have been given a movie like THE TERMINATOR or T2: JUDGMENT DAY. Now, almost a decade after its creation, T2029AD still fulfills its original intentions to its many visitors. T2029AD has a sterling record of achievement that few, if any, other Terminator sites can lay claim to.
As for T-850 205, I wish him well on his endeavor to create a canon, factual Terminator fansite and his desire to create perhaps the best canon, factual Terminator site on the Internet. When he brings it on line, if he ever does, then I'm sure that it will probably be a very nice site full of correct, factual information, but the content of the website won't be his information. None of the material found on his proposed site will be of his creation; it will all be someone else's information and hard work and he will merely be the caretaker, or curator if you will, of that online museum.
The distinction is valid and worth noting.
T-850 205 will merely be the indentured servant who builds the pretty box which stores other people's hard work for display. People may ooooh and ahhhhhh over the content, but in the end, it is the content, not the box, that brings praise. Content which T-850 205 had no part whatsoever in creating. Oh, he will be the person who builds the frame for the picture, but he won't be the photographer who takes the award winning picture that is displayed in that frame. If T-850 205 wants to compile a dictionary instead of write a novel, then that's fine with me. The world needs dedicated scribes as much as it needs great story tellers. Whenever his site comes on line, if it actually does come on line, then by its very nature, it will not be any competition for T2029AD, ever, as his site will offer nothing new, nothing creative, and nothing original.
Ah, the quandary of restricting yourself to canon material is about to rear its ugly little head.
Yeah, I have no idea either what the owners of the Terminator franchise were thinking when they gave the OK for a toy company to produce and market this toy. Meet "Kromium." Kromium (which is a knock off of the word "chromium") looks kind of like a scary metal court jester and I swear that the words under his name say "Grows into a towering fool!" even though it really says "grows into a towering foe!" And are those ... guns ... on his hips? What's the purpose of the drill bits on his shoulders other than to force him to go through doors sideways and probably get stuck a lot when chasing humans through the ruins.
I wonder where T-850 205 will include the canon Terminator units produced by Kenner Toys back in the early 1990's. Where will he place such powerful canon units as "Kromium(tm) the cyber demon" and "Cyber-Grip(tm) Terminator" (with the ridiculously exaggerated logging claw) in the logical progression of SKYNET's order of battle and how will he rank them among its combat units? I mean, who could ever forget such memorable canon and official units as Kenner Toys' "Techno-Punch Terminator," "Endoglow Terminator," "Battle Ready Terminator," "Rapid Repair Terminator," "Hot Blast Terminator," and "Hidden Power Terminator?" After all, if T-850 205 is so keen on creating a true, factual, canon based site, then he must include all of these plastic abortions of the franchise as well as they are officially licensed units, no matter how dumb they might seem. If he starts to pick and choose which units he will include and which ones he won't, if he starts to make a choice between which units are dumb and which ones are cool, then T-850 205 becomes a heretic of his own personally stated philosophy and he invalidates himself in a large puff of mediocrity.
And one final point to make, because I feel it needs to be made, is his reference to his inability to email me. There are multiple links to contact me via email located throughout my website and located throughout my entire domain. Those links have been there for many years now, and many, many other people have found them with what I consider to be relative ease. I'm sorry that T-850 205 wasn't smart enough to find any of the email links, as I thought it was rather obvious where I placed them within my site. Einstein once said that everything should be made as simple as possible and not one step simpler. T-850 205 is obviously an exception to that rule.
Please, enjoy this site!
Comments, good or bad as well as discussion via email of anything you may find here that you would like to talk about further in depth are always welcome. Let your mind wander and wonder through the pages of "what might have been" in the world of Terminator ... of "what should have been" in the world of Terminator.
I hope you have as much fun visiting this site as I have had creating, adding to, and maintaining it since 1998.
The future is never set ... there is always tomorrow.
Always.
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SITE CONCEIVED, CREATED AND
MAINTAINED
SINCE 1998 BY
CHRISTOPHER T. SHIELDS
BLACK ECHO
( HINT FOR IDIOT FANBOYS: CLICK MY NAME ABOVE IN ORDER TO EMAIL ME )