RobS
Rob S. is the current "non-committal" internet name for one formally known under various names; in the beginning, the oft-made-fun-of "Jomo25", transitioned to "The Epoch Man", then "Jinnai Guy" (or "Rob Jinnai", or "Rob the Jinnai Guy", depending on registration).
Rob S. is a Pittsburgh, PA native generally known for either the Sonic SatAM fangame "Sonic Epoch" or the El-Hazard website "El-Hazard Online." Somewhere around 1999, Sonic Epoch led Rob to his first entrance onto the Internet forum at SFGHQ, first as "Jomo25" (a temporary I-got-nothin'-better name, based on "Jomo" used from childhood games and "25" from AOL's forced appending of user names with numbers) and then formalized as "The Epoch Man." During that time, SFGHQ and Moogle Cavern seemed to have an "unofficial" relationship, where several folks essentially posted at both forums regularly, so Rob's joining of the Moogle Cavern was inevitable. Although at first an infrequent poster at the MC, Rob gradually shifted away from SFGHQ, especially as Sonic Epoch eventually failed due to depression over breaking up with Sonique.
Looking for something else to obsess over, Rob became "Rob Jinnai", from the (arguably) most popular/awesome villain character Jinnai from the anime El-Hazard. Over the next few years, Rob quickly constructed an El-Hazard website that essentially rose above all others (at least in US-based sites) and is still considered as such today, even though updates have ceased and its meager community has all but dried up. This site also brought a crude reconstruction of the El-Hazard Sega Saturn picture-RPG game created by Rob and his younger brother Tim for the PC and GBA platforms. (The former was generally ignored, the latter proved popular with GBA homebrew sites for its technical feat, but not so much for the content.)
There was also a brief period where Rob insisted he go by "Bob", because of some kind of retroactive feeling related to family issues. (Given the confusion this spawned with those who always called him Rob, some began to call jokingly him "Bobert" to avoid confusion.) However, he later reneged on this, as he found his "external to family" name has always been Rob, and decided to embrace it. Although currently Rob registers under the name "Southbird" at various websites, in honor of the South-facing bird from the anime One Piece, it is not so much an obsession as other names were in the past, and Rob felt it would not be worth the identity confusion. It also leads back to a hokey reasoning that Rob had, realizing that he didn't so much want to be "anyone else", or titled by a current project. Thus "Rob S." is the current stick.
In a somewhat unexpected twist, Rob and Quexinos got back together recently and happily live together in Minnesota.
Trivia[edit]
- Although Rob sometimes seems to want to be a video game developer, he seldom completes projects, and as of late has even been unable to produce a decent game engine
- The only game project he has ever fully completed would be the El-Hazard Sega Saturn port
- Sonic Epoch was later completed as a quick/lame job for the GBA, but, while Rob attributes this to finding websites of pure hatred dedicated to the title, he occasionally swears he'll do it "right" ... "someday, maybe", and at that time being sure to ignore judgment of lamers
- There is a flash cartoon series by the name of "Sonic Epoch", whose pilot episode is in fact a blatant poke at the entire plot of Sonic Epoch GBA with excessive Tails cursing, Dr. Robotnik mentioning returning "from space", and other things. However, later episodes deviated into their own material, though continued to use the name. Rob has chosen to laugh at it, figuring it's payback for screwing up what could have been a much better production. Again, "someday, maybe" he'll do it right.
- Haves sister
See Also[edit]