The chronicle of GTA-Xtreme.

01.June.2003
Gta-Xtreme.de was born, at that time under the direction of Oliver alias Zoomie, Gta-Xtreme.de was famous for its comics at that time, the most famous one was called Go get mickey.

Profile of Zoomie:

My nickname is Zoomie, first name Oliver, after Gta-Xtreme.de I came to Krawall Gaming Network (Krawall.de) on K-Files.de and I’m leading editor for modifications there.

June 12, 2005 at 15:48:56
Michael (micmc) took up the work and created the basis for the GTA-Xtreme as you know it now. New concept, new design, new team – new site!

Interview:

How did you come up with the name Gta-Xtreme of all things?
Long story, I hope the short version is enough for you.

It all started with GTA-Paradise on a free-hoster. Quickly it was clear that nothing could come out of it, because it was just another one of thousands of GTA sites.
So I wrote to several network sites, if there would be a place for a GTA site. One day later everything was settled and GTA-News.de was born. A few members will probably still remember it darkly. But it was a few years ago, if I remember correctly the start of GTA-News was in September 2004.

Through daily research the site quickly became internationally known and counted more than a thousand visitors a day. About half a year later I left the site incl. network for personal reasons.

After a short break I realized that I missed the whole thing after all. So I started to design a new GTA site. When it came to naming the site, brainstorming was the order of the day again. First I thought of GTA-eXtreme, but since this already existed I searched further and came up with GTA-Xtreme.

Did Gta-Xtreme already exist before your time as a website?
Yes, once as far as I know. However, I only noticed this when the site was about to be released. Through research, I found out that it was a site that was mostly known for its GTA comics. The team consisted of Zoomie and LSD, who I already knew. So I asked both of them if it was okay that I use the name. Yes… and now you have GTA-Xtreme again.

Did you start the site alone?
Yes, but after the design was done I wrote to a friend (Jason) and asked him if he wanted to help writing the articles. Other people quickly joined the team, including GTAGamer.

When did the site go online?
Puhhhh, you ask things. I just took out the CD with all the GTA-Xtreme.de backups to have a look. One moment please…

(15 minutes later) So according to the database, the official launch was on June 12, 2005 at 15:48:56. However, it was already online about a month before, but not accessible because some articles still had to be written.

When was Gta-Scene.de added and how did you come to the merger?
Now it gets a bit complicated. I can’t tell you the exact date with the best will in the world ;). I knew Dennis (GTA-Scene.de) for ages. The nice thing was that there was never any kind of competition between us. We both were and are proud to run one of the most successful GTA sites in Germany. Since we already supported each other newtechnically, the idea of a fusion arose sometime. This merger was limited to the forum and had no influence on the main page.

Why did you finally give up all your projects?
I felt it was time to do something new and was very satisfied with what I had achieved. Although some offers from various GTA sites tried to lure me back into the GTA industry, I stayed true to my decision. Besides GTA-Xtreme there were other sites in the game, which cost me a lot of time. Alan-Wake.de, a clan page and a personal forum. With the abandonment of these projects there was more time for me to continue programming on my self-developed systems, which I am very happy about today.

Are you as fascinated by GTA today as you were back then or have you grown older?
GTA interests me today as much as it did in the past. I think the age doesn’t matter, because the fun remains, even if the child in you slowly fades away.

Can you still remember your very first user?
Oh dear, there were definitely too many projects. If we refer to GTA-Xtreme.de, my first users were: GTAGamer, J@son_Vorhees and Hahnibal.

Nanu no more questions there. That’s enough. Thank you for reading and once again I would like to thank all the users who make the daily work of the staff worthwhile! Thanks also to all former users. It was a great time that I will not forget!