Cartoon Work Game

Cartoon Orbit was an online gaming network created by Turner Online to promote its shows and partners. The original site was registered in May 2000, with the beta phase ending in September. Cartoon Orbit officially opened to the public in October 2000. After countless glitches went unfixed, Cartoon Network closed the site on October 16, 2006, leaving users with a "Thank You" certificate as a token of their appreciation.

History

Cartooniverse was the brainchild of Sam Register. Register, who is also the man behind the development of CartoonNetwork.com in 1998, went on to become the creative director of CartoonNetwork.com and Cartoon Orbit from 2000-2001 before leaving to pursue television development with Cartoon Network in the Los Angeles studios. He came up with the idea after viewing PBS's Sticker World. After Sam left Cartoon Orbit, Art Roche became the creative director of CartoonNetwork.com, a post he continues to hold. Justin Williams was the project lead at Turner and Director of Community for Orbit until 2003 when he began working on other Cartoon Network interactive projects.

The original name of the site was to be "Cartooniverse". This can be seen in various early flash animation and screen shots. At release, the name was changed to "Cartoon Orbit". The reason for this was because the copyright for it was held by someone else at the time.

The original Cartoon Orbit was built using parts of Communities.com's "Passport" software. This software was a 2D, avatar-based chat server, where members could decorate their own spaces. Most of the chat functionality was removed, but the decoration part of the software was used extensively for displaying and editing cZones. Until the complete conversion to Flash, references could still be found in the HTML source code to passport "room servers," and links to technical documentation on Communities.com's web site.

The original Communities.com company went out of business in late 2000, another victim of the dot com bust. The current Communities.com website is unrelated.

Viant worked on the site as well, offering project and business management for the development and beta and back-end software development for the user and content management. Scott Gutterman served as the lead at Viant, and Stacie Spychalski, David Gynn, Chris Griswold and others managed plans, requirements and developed the code. Before being acquired and ultimately closing, Viant went on to work at several Turner Broadcasting/Time-Warner projects from 2000-2002.

Features

Players were given points to purchase stickers, called cToons, from the in-game store, called the "cMart". Players could also receive cToons, gToons, and cRings (the game's assets) by entering special redemption codes, during special events, bartering with other players (trading), or in an auction format.

cToons came with a wide range of functionalities. Most were static, however some were animated and/or had sound. Other cToons, when clicked, played mini-games or had special functionality (such as a Dexter's Laboratory-themed cToon that automatically counted down to Albert Einstein's birthday).

Players were given their own spaces, called cZones, to decorate with cards of their choice. One could further customize their cZone by changing their cZone's background.

Players could also participate in gToons, a collectible card game introduced in 2002. While gToons could be purchased and traded much like cToons, the game itself could stand on its own if removed.

Items

There were three main collectibles in the Cartoon Orbit game: cToons, cRings, and gToons.

  • cToons - These were the main collectible item of Cartoon Orbit. cToon was short for Cartoon, just as eMail is short for Electronic Mail. They could be thought of as trading cards or more accurately e-stickers (as they could be displayed on a cZone). cToons could be plain, be animated, play sounds, or both. Some cToons were part of special sets, and developed their own names. These included:
    • Golden cToons - cToons that were gold in color, some of which were very rare.
    • Ad cToons - Sponsored advertisement cToons. Typically gained via a code, and some of which would disappear after the promotion is over, be changed to remove the advertisement logo, or replaced with a different cToon altogether.
    • Code cToons - These were cToons that were only available by entering a code. They could be found on Cartoon Network commercials, as promotions on items, or at sponsor sites. Codes were only active for a set time, then expire. In early 2005, a bug in Orbit caused all old codes from around mid-2002 onward to be re-activated. These re-activated codes eventually started to slowly re-expire.
    • Game cToons - These were cToons that when placed on a cZone and clicked, opened a miniature flash game. Some of them would give you a 'prize' code cToon at the end if you achieved a certain target, like getting 10,000 points on the game.
    • Checklist cToons - These were cToons that when placed on a cZone and clicked, would be allowed to be printed off by the user and they would have a checklist of all the new cToons due to be released that month. New checklist cToons were created from November 2001 to June 2003.
    • Sticker cToons - Most like a traditional sticker, most had quotes or quips from the character portrayed. The majority of the sticker cToons were released in 2001.
    • Holiday cToons - First released at Christmas time in 2001, these quickly became some of the most popular cToons in Orbit. In 2002 and 2003, inexpensive Holiday presents were created. These were meant to be freely given to other players. After Christmas, the present cToons were automatically exchanged for a real cToon.
    • Auction Only cToons - As the name suggests, these cToons could only be purchased in Orbit Auctions. While some have a 'total released' number in the thousands, typically less than 100 each were actually auctioned off.
  • cRings - Much like a webring, cRings joined players together with a common theme. In the early years of Orbit, clicking on a cRing took you to another player's cZone that was displaying that cRing.
    • Blue Back cRings- Very rare cRings that got their name from the 'blue background' they were created on.
  • gToons - Cards used for Orbit's own Collectible card game (CCG). Each had a different power and point value. A player would build a deck of 12 gToons, and then use that deck to challenge other players to a match.
    • Slam gToons - These were a special type of gToon that were very rare. Every gToon pack purchased gave the player a small chance to win one of these gToons. They had especially strong powers and were always wanted for decks.

Areas

  • Challenge Zone - Challenge other Cartoon Orbit players in a game of gToons.
  • cMart - Where you could buy cToons. They were sorted "By Show", "By Character", "By Points", "By Type", "By Prop", and "By Set". Most cToons when released did not stay in the cMart for long and were soon sold out.
  • cZone - The part of the Cartoon Orbit site that belonged to the user. They could decorate their cZone with any of Orbit's cards, like a gallery or sticker book.
  • cZone Directory - Where a user could find other people's cZones. They would type in their user name, find the name, or find it by letter. There was also a cZone Spotlight (a list of some particularly well-made cZones). It was meant to be updated frequently, but rarely was.
  • Showcase cZone - Where users could view new cToons and updates on Orbit, and also the main Live Trading area.
  • My Collection - Where Orbiters could view their cards. They were able to sort them into shows, or by type of card. They could also hide their cards from trading or delete them.
  • Auctions - Allowed players to put cToons up for sale. At the end of the auction the highest bidder received the cToon, and the player received the bid points minus a small 'fee'.

Past features

  • My Favorites - Was a section that Cartoon Orbit originally had where one could visit someone's cZone and add them to a Buddy List. The Buddy List also allowed them to see if the friend they added was logged in. If they were logged in they could click ’follow’ and go to the section of the website that they were currently located at. The cZone Directory somewhat resembled this.
  • Team Orbit - Team Orbit was a group of 100 Cartoon Orbit users who were chosen to make suggestions about the game after it was released to the public. Team Orbit only lasted a few months in 2001. It was replaced by the ideas and comments coming from numerous fan sites.
  • ToonFlash Newsletter - Was a newsletter that Cartoon Orbit periodically sent out to everyone via email.

Orbit worlds

There used to be 'Worlds' on Cartoon Orbit. These were based on fictional places from the Network's cartoons. They were removed before the transition to Flash in 2002. The 'world' pages came complete with a quote or quip from that world's characters, a poll, and links to 'Spotlight' cZones.

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