The present of GRADIUS III & IV INTERNET RANKING CONTEST, the one and only official world competition of Gradius ever, I finally got it from KONAMI early this year! Thank you very much KONAMI, thanks Mr. Bamba for presenting me the price! I just love it!
Perhaps many of you already know, the internet ranking contest was hold for GRADIUS III & IV on PlayStation 2 in 2000. It was the first world-wide Gradius ranking, hold officially, everyone can apply their score together with password (from Hi-Score Try mode) to KCETokyo's page. A never before grand new exciting shooting game experience of challenge, however, was ended shortly a few months later, like the AC one.
Players have their records ranked in the top 10 can win a price. With a lucky hand, webmaster KAY got a total of six records placed top 10 in GRADIUS IV rankings, one in each ranking of different weapon types.
Remark: The first official Gradius internet ranking was hold on the AC platform of GRADIUS IV in 1999. Event take place in Japan only as there were no export of such arcade machines.
The internet ranking contest bring on the purchase of PlayStation 2 machine of Kay, with all of my storage. It was started in April 2000, ended on September 1st the same year. I got mails from KCETokyo about winning the prize. However, nothing I received by then, day by day, year by year. It was like, the whole thing is for the people of Japan only. It counldn't be, it shouldn't be, right?
It was a hard time. The original server of GRADIUS ARMY located at http://homepages.go.com/~gdoti/ became unstable. Lost connection oftenly. The server was finally lasted to March 2001, sad to realize that Go Network no longer provide their free homepage services. They'd did a good thing, just too bad they decided not to keep it. There is no connection between the server down of GRADIUS ARMY and the internet ranking of course. I found it difficult to keep the website updated, to keep myself in touch with Gradius. The major reason is that I felt disappointed about KONAMI, too much. So, I just let it go. This is also why the section "No More Games" was named - I decided to play no more games of Gradius, start from February 2, 2002.
Note: Nothing goes absolutly. I've got the premium, and apparently KONAMI is not ignoring oversea consumers.
A new concept of update of website came out in my head at the early of 2001(about six months later after the ranking). A new idea doing with Flash technology. Marked with ????? ????? ???? ???? in the current main page. Perhaps the first net movie of Gradius, however, the project was suspensed shortly after started. Not because of my poor knowledge to the animation application, but mainly because of... you read it. I just can't keeping on. After waited for six months, it could be to be a forever!
The secret mode of website, just finished the first part, with only 5-10% complete. The unfinished piece of art will still be showed, as a memorial to GDOTI for the 5th anniversary in the next year 2003. Before that, final update to the "No More Games" section should be done, the return of GRADIUS ARMY!
As most sections of GRADIUS ARMY no longer exist on current server, it's not a good idea to keep using the original title I think. ELDORADO OF VIRGO hence become a new description for current homepage. In fact, I feel rich every time looking at the pages. Visiting the homepage is like visiting a country of gold, a place of perfection. The website gives me inspirational energy and power to carry on in the life of poor, in the world of dirty. And I wish it gives every visitor the same feeling of strength too.
Behind the scene: Heard from radio a couple of days ago that, the minimum/basic amount of money needed for each single person to live in Hongkong is three thousdand seven hundred and fifty dollars a month. While, my average monthly income has been far below that point, for years. I don't think you can imagine how hard it is to carry on with that and other negative climate. Perhaps this is not the case for other places in the world, but right here, there is always not necessary a positive reward for people who worked hard, being a good person, ..., etc. A lot of things we(the people of Hongkong) have to learn in order to build a brighter tomorrow for our children, and for our children's children. I'm talking about the basic manner of life.
Currently, I have got no plan for further update to EOV. As I said before, nothing goes absolutly. Prehaps economic hardship will get out from under on me. If that day exist, I'm gonna make EOV a complete new look. EOV means more than a website, it's a part of my life.
July 2 2002
kay CN