A Journey Through Colony History

Long before the modern web, a group of Cybertown residents set out to build a home for learning and community inside a 3D virtual world. This is the story of that colony’s lineage — drawn faithfully from the Cybertown archive.

The Conceptual Birth

In the earliest days, Cybertown set out to build a colony devoted to technology and the future. The concept was listed on the CT Directory, and a long season of planning began before the first graphics and materials were ever created — a year of waiting and design work by the colony’s architect.

The Dreamers

The colony’s architect was Halogen, supported by a development team of residents — arkducky, Toxic_Terry, JeetKuneDo, Brand_Of_On, 2k0, Robin, Golf_Prodigy, zoundite and CyberAngel2000 — with many more contributors and installation technicians who helped bring it to life before launch.

The Colony Leaders

Halogen led from the launch in late 2002 into early 2003, having immigrated to Cybertown in 1999 and served as a colony architect and community organizer. Leadership then passed to arkducky, a long-time deputy with years of experience across the Teens and Hi-Tek communities.

The Launch

After phases of preparation, the colony launched with a gala on November 3, 2002 — celebrated in a live chat log preserved in the archive. The weeks that followed were a flurry of homesteading, block updates, and neighborhood enhancements as residents moved in.

The Colony Map

The map evolved through many concepts across 2001 and 2002: an early holographic-grid design, the creation of the twin-moon logo, the “-Tek” neighborhood naming convention, and finally a high-tech 2D console paired with a 3D holographic map — the look the colony became known for.

Full Circle

Cybertown eventually closed, and for years this world lived only in archives. Today, through the Cybertown Revival project and residents who were there the first time around, The Campus Colony is being restored — the same community, coming full circle.