Ghostbusters Prop Archive

[largetext]URL: [url=http://www.gbprops.com/]http://www.gbprops.com/[/url][/largetext]

History

The Ghostbusters Prop Archive started out as a part of Slime Square, and was originally titled "The Slime Square Prop Site". The site first opened under the name "Ghostbusters Prop Archive" on October 1st in 2000. The original Slime Square Prop Site was started in a tradition similar to Eraser99's Ghostbusters Prop Site in 1998, where users would email in photographs of their own custom made props.

The site's main draw was the 75 reference photographs of a [url=/equipment/reference/6/]Ghostbusters Hero Proton Pack[/url] taken at Planet Hollywood at the Mall of America in Bloomington Minnesota. The photographs were taken with a Sony Mavica digital camera at 1024x768 resolution and were stored on 4 floppy disks holding about 21 photos each. The less than a megapixel photographs were viewed and downloaded hundreds of times in 2000, and would become the basis to start a revolution in Ghostbusters prop making.

Towards the end of 2000, a German Ghosthead named Stefan Otto ([url=/fans/bug-stomper/]Bug Stomper[/url]) began submitting CAD renderings and drawings of the Proton Pack that he based on the Planet Hollywood reference photos. He used the photos directly to accurately come up with correct proportions and measurements based off of found items. The plans were released on the Ghostbusters Prop Archive on July 31st, 2001 and were adopted immediately by prop builders as the ultimate set of measurements for the Proton Pack.

In the beginning of 2001, the Prop Archive suffered from several identity crisis�s in terms of design and main goals. In early February the site was given a facelift to a purely yellow on black design, many agreed that it was not as nice the previous design. The site was also struggling to become anything but a quick stop on the road to prop building as other sites like A Site About Props (A.S.A.P) became a large community that gave users the ability to discuss their creations.

Something needed to change...

By the end of 2001, there was a new website which offered Ghostbusters Prop builders a new and easy way to submit and upload their own prop photos, Ghostbusters.net. The site was beyond any other existing website in scale and scope that it was hard to find a reason to keep the site up. In December 2001 the Ghostbusters Prop Archive went offline.

Several months went by and the site remained offline. It was not until May 4th 2002 when the site would come back... and it would be better than ever. New to the site was an entire system programmed in PHP that would provide the ability to login and upload Prop photos, as well as send messages to other users. It was starting to become a cohesive community all under the new domain name: [url=http://www.GBProps.com/]http://www.GBProps.com/[/url]

In early 2003, the site boasted 430 users, 2000 prop photos, 628 reference photos and was getting 200,000 hits per month. It became one of the top visited Ghostbusters websites on the internet, and was even mentioned in Modeler's Resource Magazine. Things were growing and booming in the Ghostbusters Community but something was still missing...

The site remained stale and stagnant until 2005 when a server crash prompted the need for a change. The site was nearly whiped out completely. In July 2005 the site shut down once again for what would be the last major update of the site, and it would make the site self reliant and able for users to keep in touch directly with each other.

On November 9th, 2005 the Ghostbusters Prop Archive reopened and was completely brand new. The newest addition to the site was the Forum system which would allow users to communicate and work with others in new ways. The Ghostbusters Prop Archive was one of the only remaining websites that was still being frequently updated at the time as Ghostbusters.net folded in 2004.

The site was continually updated for the next year. Users were embracing the new forums and posting regularly to keep in touch with others, post their prop build progress and purchase parts from other fans. In November 2006 the site began being funded by [url=/fans/supporting/]Supporting Members[/url] in order to help pay for a new and faster server. The change to the new server would become a transition to yet another redesign of the Ghostbusters Prop Archive.

2007 was the year of the Ghostbusters Prop Archive. The new design and new features were beloved by many as power was placed in the hands of the fans with the new addition of the Ghostbusters Part Wiki. The Wiki allowed the site to be updated by Supporting Members to ensure that the newest and accurate information would be present on pages of the site. Along with the Wiki was a brand new GB Props Shop, the best new feature of the Ghostbusters Prop Archive. In stock were hundreds of real prop parts available at reasonable prices for members of the site. As the year went on, dozens and dozens of new products were made available and hundreds of Ghostheads were able to build accurate Ghostbusting gear.

As 2007 came to a close... yet another change was about to happen. A new revolutionary Ghostbusters site that would encompass everything that was the Ghostbusters Universe was announced for development. The site merged with the Ghostbusters Prop Archive to become the largest Ghostbusters Community.

2008 is the year of Ghostbusters Fans.