Newgrounds
The archive has not found a surviving copy.
2000·Early web, before YouTube·informative
The site where a generation learned to animate, five years before YouTube existed.
At a glanceThe facts
- Spread in
- 2000
- Began as
- A web page
- Where it started
- newgrounds
- Format
- Phenomenon
- Made by
- Tom Fulp
- Original title
- New Ground, a fanzine he began in 1991
- Origin
- Not an upload originally
- Available
- Not held by ViralWorld
What this wasThe story
Tom Fulp started Newgrounds in 1995 and turned it into an open portal: anybody could upload a Flash animation or a browser game, and everybody else voted on it. Nothing was commissioned and nothing was gatekept. The front page was whatever had survived the vote that week.
Adobe's discontinuation of Flash in 2020 could have deleted the entire archive; Newgrounds built its own player and kept it running. The site is still operating, thirty years after it started, and remains the largest surviving repository of a decade of internet animation that would otherwise be gone.
Why it matteredWhat changed
From 2000 it let anybody submit an animation or a game through an automated portal. Salad Fingers, Alien Hominid and Meat Boy were first hosted there.
TimelineIn order
- Made
Tom Fulp starts a fanzine called New Ground.1
- Posted
He launches a website, New Ground Remix.1
- Later
The Portal opens as a place for his smaller Flash projects. By 2000 anybody can submit to it automatically.1
- Picked up
Salad Fingers is first hosted there.1
- Came back
New members arrive in large numbers from Tumblr, after that site restricts adult content.1
- Later
The Ruffle emulator for Flash content appears, which Newgrounds sponsors.1
What people misrememberSet straight
Commonly remembered asIt began as a website.
ActuallyIt began as a paper fanzine, four years before the site.1
Commonly remembered asA games site.
ActuallyIt hosts films, audio and artwork as well.1
What it createdWhat came out of it
- Works first hosted on it include Pico’s School in 1999, Alien Hominid in 2002, Meat Boy in 2008 and The Binding of Isaac in 2011.1
RelatedMore like this
Records this one is explicitly related to — a copy, a remake, a parody, the same meme or the same maker.
Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast
This began as a web page, not as a video. Originally published on Newgrounds.
Where it came fromWhat we know
There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. There is no copy of it here either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is what this page can tell you.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This began as a web page, not as a video. Originally published on Newgrounds.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
ConnectedFollow it further
- It helped spread All Your Base Are Belong To Us2001
The animated music video that took the phrase out of gaming forums was posted to Newgrounds on 16 February 2001.
- It helped spread Xiao Xiao2001
The stick-figure animations were released on Newgrounds.
- It helped spread Numa NumaVideo · 2004
Gary Brolsma first posted the video to Newgrounds, in December 2004, before YouTube existed.
- It helped spread Salad Fingers2004
The series was first hosted on Newgrounds, in 2004.
- It helped spread Charlie the UnicornVideo · 2005
The cartoon was first posted to Newgrounds, in November 2005, before any copy reached YouTube.
- It helped spread Animator vs. Animation2006
First posted to Newgrounds on 3 June 2006, where it reached second place on the daily chart the next day.
- It helped spread Potter Puppet PalsVideo · 2007
The characters first appeared as Flash cartoons posted to Newgrounds in 2003.
- Spread by The Tumblr adult content banEvent · 2018
Newgrounds gained members in large numbers in November and December 2018, after Tumblr restricted adult content.
SourcesWhat was read
Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things