Cartoon Orbit

Cartoon Orbit was an online gaming network created by Turner Online for CartoonNetwork.com that launched in November 2000 to promote its shows and partners. Its main attraction was a system of virtual trading cards called "cToons", which generally featured animation cells from programs broadcast on the network, though advertisement-based cToons were common. Added in October 2002 was the popular head-to-head strategy game gToons.

The site began to suffer from lack of maintenance beginning in 2005. On October 16, 2006, Cartoon Network shut down Cartoon Orbit and left users with a "Thank You" certificate as a token of their appreciation.

History

Development

Cartoon Orbit was the brainchild of Sam Register, who was behind the development of CartoonNetwork.com in 1998. He went on to become the creative director of the site as well as Cartoon Orbit from 2000 to 2001 before leaving to pursue television development with Cartoon Network in its Los Angeles studios. He came up with the idea for Cartoon Orbit after seeing Sesame Workshop's Sticker World website. After Register left Cartoon Orbit, Art Roche became the creative director of CartoonNetwork.com. Justin Williams was the project lead at Turner and Director of Community for Cartoon Orbit until 2003 when he began working on other Cartoon Network interactive projects.

Features

Players were given points to purchase stickers, called, from the in-game store called the. Players could receive, , and (the game's assets) by entering special redemption codes, during special events, bartering with other players (trading), or in an auction format.[7]

came with a wide range of functionalities. Most were static, but some were animated and/or had sound. Other, 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 gallery spaces, called, to decorate with cards of their choice. One could further customize their by changing their 's background.[7]

Items

Three main collectibles were available in the Cartoon Orbit game:.

: An online trading card.[19] 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 ). could be plain, be animated, play sounds, or both. Some were part of special sets, and developed their own names. These included:
Golden : that were gold in color; some of which were very rare.
Ad : Sponsored advertisement . Typically gained via a code, and some of which would disappear after the promotion ended, be changed to remove the advertisement logo, or replaced with a different cToon altogether.
Code : that were only available by entering a code, and after a designated amount of time, were expired. They could be found on Cartoon Network commercials, on promotional items, or at sponsor sites. Codes were revealed as part of on-air programming[2] during Cartoon Cartoon Fridays and on Kids' WB.
Game : that, when placed on a 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.
Checklist : that, when placed on a and clicked, were able to be printed off by the user so they would have a checklist of all the new due to be released that month. New checklist were created from November 2001 to June 2003.
Sticker : Much like a traditional sticker, most had quotes or quips from the character portrayed. The majority of the sticker were released in 2001.
Holiday : First released at Christmas time in 2001, these quickly became some of the most popular in Orbit. In 2002 and 2003, inexpensive Holiday presents were created which were meant to be freely given to other players. After Christmas, the present were automatically exchanged for a real cToon.
Auction Only : that could only be purchased from Orbit Auctions.
: Much like a webring, joined players together with a common theme. In the early years of Orbit, clicking on a took you to another player's that was displaying that.
Blue Back : Very rare that got their name from the blue background they were created on.
: Cards used in the game of.
Slam : A rare type of gToon with special abilities.

gToons

was Cartoon Orbit's own digital collectible card game extension. Launched on October 14, 2002, over 250,000 users had joined after the first month and over 400,000 users were playing after the first two months.[20][21] was discontinued alongside Cartoon Orbit on October 16, 2006, although it has been stated that it might return "as a stand-alone game sometime in the future with new sets of game pieces to collect".[22]

In December 2007, was revived as "Action Packs" for Transformers: Animated,[23] followed by a Ben 10: Alien Force version becoming available in April 2008.[24] Though the revival is now only available in a single-player mode, the rules and design are virtually identical to the original.

Gameplay

Players assembled decks composed of 12 cards each. Cards represented characters, places and props from shows broadcast on Cartoon Network, and each card had a color, value and occasionally a special effect that could modify the value(s) of other card(s). A game of, which typically lasted about three minutes, involved two players strategically using seven at a time to gain the most points by the game's end.[20] Two colors (determined by the "bottom" card of each player's deck) were goal colors: if the two colors were both "neutral" colors (black or silver), the higher total point value won. If there was exactly one non-neutral color (blue, red, yellow, green, purple, etc.) between the goal colors, a player with more cards of the non-neutral color would receive a 15-point bonus to their total before determining victory. If neither color were neutral, a player could win by having more of each color in play than the opponent; otherwise, the higher total value won. Five separate expansion packs containing different were released between 2003 and 2006.

Areas

Challenge Zone: An area where players could challenge others to a game of.
: An area where players could buy cards. Cards could be sorted by show, by character, by price, by type, by prop or by set. Most did not stay in the for long and were soon sold out.
: The part of the Cartoon Orbit site that belonged to the player. They could decorate their with any of Orbit's cards like a gallery or sticker book.
: Where players could find other people's . They would type in their user name, find the name, or find it by letter. A listed particularly well-made.
: An area where players could view new, site updates, and the main Live Trading area.
My Collection: An area where players could view their cards. Cards were able to be sorted into categories by show or by type. Players were able to hide their cards from trading or delete them.
Auctions: A standard auction setup which allowed players to put up for sale. The highest bidder at the end of the auction received the, and the seller received the bid points minus a small fee. Auctions were introduced in August 2002.
My Favorites: A section where players could visit someone's and add them to a Buddy List. The Buddy List allowed players to see if the person they added was logged in. If they were logged in, they could choose to "follow" the other player and go to the section of the website that they were currently located at. The somewhat resembled this.
Team Orbit: A group of 100 Cartoon Orbit players 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, and it was replaced by the ideas and comments coming from numerous fan sites.

screenshot	Viant cartoonOrbit1 lrg.jpg
commercial	Yes
type	Children's digital collectible card game
language	English
owner	Turner Broadcasting System (Time Warner)
author	Sam Register
launch date	November 2000
current status	Closed, October 2006
headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia, United States

History

Development

Launch and growth

Closure

Features

Items

gToons

Gameplay

Areas

External links

References

Gameplay