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The Shaman's Home is now the oldest, active site dedicated to Populous: The Beginning on the net. So where on earth did it all start from?
Well, it was back in April 2002 that I came across SimCity 3000 and fell in love with it instantly. Not long after, I began to check out the starting menu and low and behold, the Populous demo was there. I installed it, played it and to this day, have never parted from it! I began to check out the sites dedicated to Populous on the net (older fans will probably recall 'the Blue Shaman's Command Post' and 'the Populous Shrine') and these made such an impact on me that I decided to have a go at making my own website.
On the 19th May 2002, I began working. As it was my first ever website, it took me a while to get things sorted out (finding a host, writing the content, sourcing pictures, etc) but less than two weeks later, on the 31st May, it was uploaded to the net Over the next three months, the site went through so many design changes (at least four) and I got so disheartened with it all that I broke away. At that time, I felt as if it was the end of websites for me. It wasn't until September 2003 that I had another go at the website in response to all the other sites that were closing.
The following year, in 2004, the Shaman's Home slowly grew in size and content, introducing funny captions which attracted the visitors in. Spring flew by without problems. However when May arrived, I ran into trouble with servers and hosts. I don't know how many server changes the site made but there were many. It wasn't until September and the release of Version 4 that things began to settle down. Then in Christmas of 2004, I bought the domain name umluk.com and settled the Shaman's Home for good, with Version 5 as a celebratory design. It definitely deserved to have a bit of stability after such a rocky year!
Since then, the Shaman's Home has gone from strength to strength, and has become fully recognised by the online Populous community, especially for all its exclusive content and regular updates (well every-so-often updates).
Version 6 is probably the hugest makeover that the site has undergone. All the content was re-written and extensive and detailed walkthroughs were added for the game along with more information and media items. It is now a giant information resource for all things Populous and will most definitely have a fruitful future.
And so ends this tale for this version!
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