OBS Memorial
OBS
On November 19th, 1999, Cool Guy unleashed OBS onto Space Battles. This was a thread that soon took the record of having the most replies, and with a barrage of pictures, it brought everyone's then 56k modems to their knees. The shear volume of images, densely packed into each page crashed web browsers and the number of replies crashed the thread itself as the board software was not able to cope with such numbers. To this day, OBS is the only thread to crash the forums due to enormity.
OBS was an attack on the notorious Big Steve, hence the name: Ohhhhhh Big Steve. And its target was his prized possession: an Eclipse Class Super Star Destroyer called The Asskicker. The very first post in OBS contained two images of an X type Galaxy Class starship destroying the Asskicker and sparked a war amongst Space Battle members (most who have now moved on). OBS became the most monumental event to ever occur on Space Battles. This great war spanned multiple threads with thousands of replies. Over three-hundred pictures were fired at one-another, each trying to crush their opponent's ego, while inflating their-own. Unfortunately, only sixty-five images remain and the rest were lost forever.
In OBS, there was only one rule: pictures remained supreme. The firepower of one's ship only depended on one's processing power, and survivability depended imagination. Putting 1000 galaxies on the screen and then blowing them up was commonplace; as was forgetting to render a followup picture allowing the opponent to squirm out of it (shielded galaxies were a bitch to behold). The war eventually turned into one of words, creating a Story Debate and marking the departure of most who were on the front-lines in the beginning. It was the first thread of its kind, and the date of its creation is what separates newbies from members.
ODB
The ODB thread was the first true successor to OBS. Just like OBS before it, ODB was an all-out picture war that followed all the same rules. The very first post contained two pictures declaring war on another member. Instead of Big Steve and his Asskicker, Cool Guy declared war on Deathbringer and his Shadow Battlecrab. The ODB war also kept the same spirit and fervent pace as its predecessor, even if it was not as epic in size. Unfortunately, very little remains of this grand war; only eighty pictures out of over three hundred have been recovered and the thread has been lost forever. The biggest crime, however, is that this glorious war is often forgotten. It may not have the fame of the original, but this was a true OBS style war in every way.
OBS II
The second OBS thread was an attempt to revive another great war amongst the forum members in October of 2002. This thread, however, was not created (or carried out) in the same spirit as the original. Whereas OBS (and ODB after it) kicked things off with a clear declaration of war from the beginning, OBS II started off very differently. In the very first post, the thread creator, Kosh800, asked the members if they would like to participate in a new OBS war. As members slowly announced their their intent to participate, several began trying to legislate rules to follow. The war was also slow to start, and was never able to match the intensity of the original. Even at it's height, the second OBS war was bogged down with logistical issues. With fourteen pages, and 150 pictures posted (of which eighty were recovered), this was certainly the smaller of the OBSverse wars.
OCG
The OCG thread is the fourth and final war in the series. OCG was started in 2005 by Kosh800 and it quickly turned into a full scale war (despite Kosh's inability to properly start a fight). Even though the conflict spanned only sixteen pages, well over two hundred (and maybe even three hundred) pictures were posted, making it the most intense war since the original OBS thread. With the same spirit and intensity of the original, OCG was a proper OBS war. With a quick and heated pace, along with many members participating, Space Battles was finally graced with another proper OBSverse war. Although the war was initiated by Kosh, his participation was practically non-existent. And for once, Cool Guy played only a limited role in the conflict. Whereas OBS and ODB were wars fought amongst the First Ones, and OBS II a war against the First Ones, OCG was a war amongst the newer members.
