I miss it too. Maybe it was around 1998, I was relatively new to flight simming, having spent my early years with a PC invloved with racing sims like the old Indy Car/Indy Car 2, the original NASCAR racing and Grand Prix.
But I soon found flight sims like DI's Apache and the early Jane's sims like US Navy Fighters, ATF, Longbow and F-15.
Seeking info on flight simming led me first to Combatsim and shortly after to SimHQ. I soon picked up the Euro release of the classic MiG Alley. The campaign in MiG Alley really sucked me in and I was soon posting AAR's and campaign strategies on CSim and SimHQ. One of the guys who participated in these threads was Ken 'KC23' Cook, who at that time was also involved at Frugalsworld, and he asked if I would consider popping in over there and hanging out in their fledgling MA forum. I did, and Frug's became my 'home' on the net. I would spend hours flying MiG Alley campaign missions, and then hours more posting about it at Frugals. I loved it, and I loved the sense of community I found. And the intercontinental mix of people I was interacting with just blew my mind. I mean, here I was in NJ having discussion with folks in England, and Finland and Australia and Germany. It's easy to take this all for granted today, but to me back then it was like a portal to the world was opened. So freakin' cool it was.
Back in those days, in 1999, Frug's was the old green and black cascading style forum, featuring the ever popular Comet cursor
Mark started I believe more into space sims than flight sims, but it wouldn't take long for Frugalsworld to establish itself as one of the go-to places for info on flight sims, especially Falcon and MiG Alley IMO. Mark took a liking to what I was doing with my MiG Alley posts and asked me to join the staff, and I quickly agreed. I became a moderator, and also wrote some articles, pieces on some of classics such as EAW, BoB and Steel Beasts. It was great fun, and the association with Frugalsworld started many internet friendships with some really good people.
And even though it was the simulations that brought us together, it was the people that made Frugs special, as many others like BBall have stated in this thread before me. As the membership exploded there's no denying that with it we had some less than desirable characters making waves, and anyone who was hanging around Frugs for any length of time with readily admit we had troublemakers. But the vast majority of members were damn good people, who shared a common interest, and found in Frug's site a place to share and seek info, and feel appreciated and understood for their chosen pastime, simming.
And as TG just said, there was more to it than just the sim stuff. I've had many great conversations there about history, sports, fishing and guitars for example. I miss the place, there's no doubt about it. I still have the site bookmarked and occasionally I'll click it just in case...
My life has changed alot since Frug's went down... new home, new state, new job, wife, step kids and baby.... so I don't have time like I once did for simming and sim related websites. But I still hope Frug's rises from the ashes one day. So much good info, so many good people and far too many good times for it all to be history. But I suppose sometimes all good things must come to an end. I'm just hoping Frugalsworld doesn't become one of them.
Thankfully SimHQ is still going strong and I come here a couple times a week just to try and stay up to date, and get some sort of Falcon fix even if I don't find myself in the cockpit these days, or involved much in campaign threads like the old days. Good to see many old, familiar names in this thread, and I hope someday soon we're all reunited over at Mark's.
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