Click Here to visit the official Arena 3.0 website!

Current Arena Version: 2.5
Server Status: 7/10/2000: The arena server should be running fine.

7/10/2000
I've had a rash of people asking if they should give out their password to somebody named "Scoots" in the arena. The answer is NO! I haven't been asking for passwords on-line, so somebody is trying to trick people into giving them out.

ONLY give them to me when I ask for them and you can verify it's me you're talking to, and ONLY send them to me via email, at scoots@quakecity.net.

6/2/2000
2:29PM CST: TONS of updates today! Note! I'm doing lots of changes and updates today--if you see an error, or a missing page, or you get the login screen suddenly, please be patient and continue playing!

10:28AM CST: Thanks to Maaarten (FFwebmst), staff writer from Console Village and Nintendo Village, for the new images you see for Oak's Lab, the Arena, and the PokéCenter!

10:28AM CST:Where's the arena??? It's in Viridian City, of course! Visit the travel center near you to get there!

6/1/2000
11:59AM CST: Increase your chances of finding wild Pokes! Viridian Forest can now be reached from the Travel Center. More areas coming soon!

11:25AM CST: Trading Center is up!

11:14AM CST: Storing and retrieving Pokémon in Oak's Lab works again! If you have problems seeing all of your active Poke's in a battle, try putting them in storage, and taking them back out.

10:11AM CST: Working on a few login problems, and trading center today! You may be prompted for a login from time to time and I make changes.

5/31/2000
4:24PM CST: General Store is back online! Trading center will be up shortly.

1:10PM CST: New members can now pick their first Pokémon--the feature won't go active until I restart the site, but it should just be a few minutes.

5/30/2000
4:12pm CST: Quick update--my cable modem (@Home) died this morning and I just got online again. I'll try to get the few things below added to the arena as soon as I can!

5/30/2000
Wild pokes are back! Just walk around and you're sure to find one!

Levelling is back! I removed the block that was preventing levels from increasing in Oak's Lab.

General Store and Viridian Forest is next!

5/25/2000
Arena 2.5 is on-line. There's a ton of missing features, but the performance so far, even with more than twice as many players than usual, is great! We'll be bringing the general store, wild poke's and other missing features back online today and tomorrow.

5/24/2000
Arena 2.5 is underway! Some people are asking what 2.5 is... well, I've come to realize that version 3.0 is a ways off yet, and the current version 2.0, well, just sucks. I've come up with some ideas that will seriously speed up the game, eliminate the traffic errors (which are a result of database timeouts) and give you even a bigger view of the map at the same time! I'll be working on an early verison over the next few days--expect Arena 2.5 to be ready for testing as soon as Thursday!

5/23/2000
After an attempt to upgrade the server yesterday, the arena isn't running for more than 10 minutes at a time, so today I'll be taking the Arena off-line from time to time to work on things! Sorry!

5/21/2000
Things fixed:

5/21/2000
I've adjusted exp. points needed for evolution back down closer to where it was previously, and limited level growth to level 100. That should let people start growing their Poke's again, but prevent the radically high HP and levels that was occurring.

5/21/2000
Big news! I've realized that the scope 3.0 version of the Arena has grown too big to finish in even the next few months--the game is going to be able to compete with any commercial on-line RPG game available, and has a lot of work left. Still expect a test release sometime soon, with chat and avatar capabilities. It'll become our new virtual chat until the full game is released.

But on to the good news! Because Arena 3.0 is a ways off, I've started working on version 2.5, which will be a complete re-write of the 2.0 game. It'll still be web based, and your accounts will stay intact!

The current version has too much sloppy code, relies on heavy database use, and can not be improved beyond it's current state. Version 2.5 will take the performance issues we ran into with the 2.0 version and use different techniques. Performance should be spectacular! The game engine should also be flexible enough to create a DBZ and Digimon Arena as well, with little or no modification to the code!

Visit our Online Arena discussions and leave your thoughts--I'd like to know what new/different features you'd like to see in the game... what's important, what's not important.

5/19/2000
I'm aware that most people aren't happy with the recent adjustments to the Pokemon levels and hit points. Give me a few days to work on it, and I'll get things back a little more like they were. We had to scale back the hit points, because some people's Pokemon were getting HP's in the billions, and the battle system can't handle that. Trust me--we'll do everything we can to make it better!

5/18/2000
A few new updates today--I changed some code that should help things run a little better, and cut down on the "Heavy Traffic" errors some. A LOT of code had to be updated, so a few errors might have creeped in--let me know if you run into problems!

5/17/2000
We're working on the account database structure today--if you have troubles logging on, please be patient and try again later today!

Also, most of the cities have been populated with more buildings and scenery--some of the remote cites now have Labs, PokeCenters and more!

5/17/2000

New Arena 3.0 Shots!
Yes, the new arena is underway! Check out the Pokémon Village home page for news and updates! Eventually the new arena will be featured on it's own website, but for now, watch PV for more info!

More good news! I've worked out a way to improve the current arena's performance by a HUGE margin--it'll take some work and time, but we'll basically be off-loading people's accounts and caught Pokemon info to a different database, until a user logs in--then we'll transfer the data back to the live table.

That should drastically reduce the time spent waiting for pages to refresh, and also fix most of the "Heavy Traffic" errors!

Also, there's a number of problems with Poke's having levels that are too high, and causing errors in Oak's Lab and other places... we'll be fixing that soon!

While the new arena is coming well, it will be some time before it's ready to release, so we WILL continue updating Arena 2.0!

4/25/2000
Evolution is back! You can finally evolve your Poke's again. Pokemon that require a stone (moonstone, etc) can't be evolved yet--we'll be putting those stones in the game soon!

4/21/2000
There was a problem with logins for users with long usernames and passwords--if you username was over 10 characters, you should be able to log in now!

I'm still working on evolution--that's the very next thing to be added back in!

4/18/2000
Prof. Oak's Lab is back. So is pretty much everything else in Pallet Town.

The terrain and map objects engine has been re-written some, cutting about 30% off of CPU use and taking the map objects out of the database (which should improve DB performance, and prevent objects from being "hacked" out of the game).

Evolution is coming back tomorrow!

4/17/2000
I'm back from out of town! I'm putting a hold on new hosting because our servers are getting a little overworked, and I haven't been able to work on the arena at all. Tomorrow I'll have Prof. Oak's Lab back on the map, and a few new modifications which should speed things up. If all goes well, evolution will be available in the next 2 days.

4/5/2000
What's going on? No updates to the arena? We've been pretty tied up with other functions in the last week, and I've personally been neglecting the current build of the arena--but GOOD NEWS, the version 0.3 of the game is being planned and designed. Early stages, but I think you'll all see when it's opened to the public how big it is--can't say much right now, but we're taking the arena to the "next level" of gaming.

There's only so much we can do with current arena--a web-based game like this is very difficult, and continuing to expand it even more difficult. Cheating has been rampant, and so have the bugs that pop up. Most of those errors that people see are from the server being unable to handle the load. The arena is an extremely complex piece of work, and runs on it's own dedicated server. The bigger we make it, the worse the errors will be, so we're getting ready to begin development of the next phase!

Watch for a questionaire here soon, that will ask user what kind of PC's they access the net with, how much memory they have, type of video card, sound card, etc, so we can better develope the arena 3.0 to run well on everybody's machines.

3/29/2000
New chat server and client are running well. To help those who didn't want to use the chat, I removed the bottom frame, and put the chat in a separate window, which you can get to with the CHAT link on the arena menu, once you've logged in.

Also, because the chat server is attempting to verify usernames, it can take a minute or two to connect--please be patient and let it connect.

3/28/2000
Problems logging in? No, contrary to rumors, not a single account has been deleted. Some users have been having trouble logging in, because of a change in the length of the username/password input boxes...if you can't log in, cut your username or password down to the first 10 characters and give that a try!

New chat client and server... I put a Java chat client in the bottom frame--it should automatically use your logged in username, and connect to the right channel.

There's only 10 slots for users in the system until we get the fully registered copy installed, so use the "connect" and "disconnect" button to keep trying to get in.

One half of the engine for the trainer battles has been re-written (completely eliminating 1/3rd of the code and database queries). A few more major optimizations to go, then we can start adding new features:

3/27/2000
I'm going to start re-writing the entire arena battle section, to improve performance, cut down on DB requests, reduce complexity, and of course, eliminate bugs. The battles will probably off-line from time to time over the next few days.

3/24/2000
Trading center is OPEN! Sorry for the long delays, the server relocation has really kept me busy!

3/14/2000

Tentatively fix database error that was occurring in header.asp, various line numbers.

3/12/2000

MAJOR optimization in mapping and player location routines--resulted in 10X factor of improvement when looking up map objects and player locations for delivery to client.

3/11/2000

Wild Pokémon now also show in on the map! To battle them, walk up close to them and click on them once!

Added Cerulean City, Vermillion City and Saffron City, with at least a Travel Center in each. Use them to explore less-travelled areas for wild Pokémon!

3/10/2000

Optimized movement code by about 40%.

Adding a link on the top menu to reset your location if you're stuck in water!

3/8/2000

Returned to old database method of storing terrain and map information--increased performance over 200% and cut server CPU utilization down about 30%--at 100+ simultaneous users we're in good shape, and should be able to handle 200+ with no modifications.

I'm considering using a second server if performance needs a further boost, and splitting the WWW tasks between the two, but a single "world" database would still be used.

If you're stuck in the water or mountains--get back to the mainland! I've turned off the movement code that blocks water travel for ONE DAY.

3/7/2000

Added random treasure! Pokéballs may be found in random places! Click on them to pick them up!

Optimized map engine storage--system should handle many more users before performance is adversely affected.

3/6/2000

Letting everybody pick a new Pokemon (for free). Accounts HAVE NOT been reset.

3/5/2000

Bug in travel agency fixed.

Travel Agency added to Cinnabar Island.

Trading center off-line until pokemon stealing cheat is fixed.

You can update your message on your info page (bug fixed).

A player's current message displays by holding the mouse over their picture on the map.

Terrain/elevation ground effects--water, grass, beaches are all added. More to come.

3/4/2000

Viridian and Pewter City have been added.

3/3/2000

A travel agency in each city, so you can instantly travel between cities.

You can now update your messages on the ""Your Info"" page, and send other people messages from their info pages.

There's an option to turn of other players--it speed things up a bit!