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"Help Our Cause!", as seen on FUS in 2001; energetic fighting to revive SatAM was common in the late 90s to early 2000s.
(A picture of a Dalmatian)

Fans United for SatAM in the Epoch Era

These days there's probably not a lot of Internet dwellers who remember how present-day Fans United for SatAM came around. It was in effect a byproduct of the original Sonic Epoch game, and in fact Epoch's creator came up with the original ancronym, but also had to do with Sonic the Hedgehog Internet politics of the time. "Sonique", as she was known, was partly inspired by the spirit of Epoch and by the other SatAM fans that were struggling that she spun off a website designed, at the time, to be a gathering place for Sonic the Hedgehog fans who primarily were interested in SatAM. To make this point clear, let's review a time that many have probably forgotten...

In the late 90s-early 2000s timeframe, there was a lot of divisive nature among Sonic fans over which variety was "best." There were essentially three: Sega's mainline, SatAM, and Archie Comics. (Sonic Underground appeared in this timeframe but never really seemed to gain the notoriety of these others and was often more seen simply as a poor replacement for SatAM.)

Sega's mainline of course generally conflicted with SatAM. In the 90s, the Sega plots were simple, but had core elements -- Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Dr. Robotnik ("Eggman" only in Japan back then) as characters, and 7 "Chaos Emeralds" that were the source of all power. Every game was Dr. Robotnik transforming helpless animals into mechanical slaves with Sonic and friends to the rescue. First introduced in Sonic CD and then later in Sonic Adventure, Amy the pink hedgehog held Sonic as her romantic interest. Despite the sinister nature of the simple plot, the environments were always bright and colorful, with catchy, upbeat music to drive the experience.

Contrary to everything above, SatAM had a dark setting (especially for a Saturday morning kids show), there were a few more characters, Chaos Emeralds were essentially replaced with the "Deep Power Stones", and the world is (mostly) far from bright and colorful. The same basic frame of a plot is followed, but expounded upon greatly for dramatic purposes.

Archie Comics started a bit before the time of SatAM and yet persists today. Very early issues were more or less based on the video games, while issues at its peak popularity were more or less based on SatAM. Since it has outlasted SatAM it occasionally associated itself with the video games and other times is on its own path.

The mainline and SatAM fans had the most clashes at this time which was interesting since both were basically "in trouble" at this point -- Sega was dropping the ball on its failing console market and SatAM had been cancelled after only two seasons on a cliffhanger. In any case, fierce Internet battles were fought over trivial issues about styles and as vicious as which girl (of Amy and Sally) was the best for Sonic. Issues of "loyalty" to the brand (i.e. what Sega says should be right) were argued over the richer experience of the cartoon show. Archie fans complicated the matter because they weren't really compatible with either, but often tried to fit themselves in as the best of both worlds (when realistically they were not the best of either.)

While mainline fans had numbers and content on their sides, not to mention officially sanctioned by Sonic's original creators, SatAM fans were a proud bunch of their own Sonic interpretation. Sonique's Fans United for SatAM, better known as FUS, was born to give them a place to congregate safely without risk of the mainline fans bashing their fandom. The website has changed hands, been radically redesigned, and its original purpose mostly forgotten, although vestiges of its past remain. FUS was the official home of Sonic Epoch and also had its own "Sea3on" (Season 3) comic designed to faithfully extend the SatAM plot. This project still exists in a form that is much more feasible than it used to be, probably in part due to better tools, and also due to some monetary incentive.

In any case, here are some old artifacts from the FUS that existed in the Epoch Era:


  • A timeline that was posted on the front page of FUS (with some ommissions) which shows some of the activity:

  • October 2000
    -FUS is launched with little to no recognition at all

    December 2000
    -FUS starts growing stronger and the announcement for a comic following Ben Hurst's guidlines is announced

    July 2001
    -The annoucement is made that DiC will be releasing Sonic the Hedgehog DVDs is made; no information as to which series is given

    August 2001
    -The first comic issue is released but it is not without it's flaws

    October 2001
    -Issue 2 is released with a much improved overall look than the first

    November 2001
    -The breaking news that the DVDs to be released are infact, carrying four SatAM episodes, and VHSs will be released as well

    December 2001
    -Sonic Christmas Blast is released on VHS, which contains a cameo appearence of Princess Sally
    -A date is set for the SatAM DVDs, February 28th, 2002

    February 2002
    -Issue 3 is released which has the over all most consistent art of any issue
    -SatAM DVDs hit the stores and Amazon.com, and make quite a profit

    Summer/Fall (??) 2002
    -Issue 4 is released way past it's due date (sorry)

    December 1 2002
    -FUS relaunches with a promise to be better than ever, a promise that the comic will get better as time goes on, a promise that issue 5 is coming within the week, and a promise that we will stay more united than ever, and get Ben Hurst's storylines out somehow, I swear to it...




  • Several logos as found on the Wayback Machine, ordered chronologically:






  • A couple old "awards" from other Sonic websites: