Stunt Island History
Compiled by Doug Armknecht in 2026

July 1990: Adrian Stephens begins development of Stunt Island

November 4, 1992: SI Released

November-December 1992: Patches 1, 2 released

Early 1993: User films are uploaded to the Disney BBS to be shared with the world

March 1993: SI Update text file released

March 31, 1993: SI Conference chat

Mid-1993: Patch 3 released

c.1994: Caprica/Disney FTP site started up (uses files from Disney BBS, users uploaded new ones)
Early film standouts: Mickey's Revenge, Mickey's Return, Desperate Measures, Winds of War

1995: Joe Lillibridge creates first know SI fan website (it exists until 1996)

1995: Ryan and Rory Johnston create "Boz" from what was originally a high school math assignment. A stunning look at the  filmmaking possibilities of SI

Nov. 1995: Disney FTP site reaches final state

June 1996: Stunt Island Central website created by Doug Armknecht

August 1996: Stunt Island Filmmaker's Association formed by Deadphrog. Some original members: Doug Armknecht, Josh Horowitz, Deadphrog, Chris Hagerthy, Casey Chang, Larry Faubert, Runar Eggertsson, WildThing

1996-1997: Josh Horowitz and Gavin Wigg separately release Independence Day parodies, each with an epic story and excellent soundtrack, helping to usher in a new era of creative filmmaking

Late 1996/early 1997: Adrian Stephens gets in contact with Doug after seeing Stunt Island Central. This leads to Adrian graciously giving SIFA a copy of the object editor

Late 1996: First collage film organized (by Josh). Released March 1997

May 1997: Truck Wars I released

August 29, 1997: SIFA chat with Adrian Stephens on IRC

1997: Mic Healey's Stunt Island Harbor, the longest-running SI page, goes online

Spring 1998: PittJet released

June 3, 1998: Vigilante 8, a Playstation game created (in part) by Adrian Stephens, is released

July 1998: Truck Wars II released

Summer 1998: Stuntzilla released

April 1999: SIFA community moves eGroups after times at OneList and Coollist. eGroups later is merged into Yahoo! Groups

August 1999: Flag Day released

October 1999: Bill Romig (Romrod) takes over as SIFA president. SIFA reached 79 members.

November 2002: 10-year anniversary of Stunt Island comes with much fanfare

2004: DOSBox becomes a good alternative for running Stunt Island on modern machines

December 5, 2004: Neil Halelamien has the foresight to begin collecting the Stunt Island archive. With help from SIFA he preserves hundreds of classic films and other material

December 2014: The Internet Archive puts an in-browser playable version of SI online

December 2016: Stunt Island first becomes available for purchase in digital format on Good Old Games

November 2018: Retro Man Cave (RMC) YouTube channel publishes a comprehensive video about Stunt Island

April 21, 2020: Fabien Sanglard publishes a new interview with Adrian Stephens with lots of technical details about Stunt Island

December 15, 2020: Yahoo! Groups shuts down, and the SIFA group and archives disappear with it

December 29, 2020: Stunt Island Central YouTube channel created, showcasing a decade of SI films

December 2021: Stunt Island Central returns to the web after a 15-year hiatus

May 2022: The SI version of the Top Gun: Maverick trailer is released on YouTube, and is viewed by thousands

December 2023: Stunt Island Archive 2023, a comprehensive collection of all files SI-related, goes online

February 2026: The 2026 version of the archive is released, with a browsable version on Stunt Island Central