Starly396Edit

Starly396, or Ross, was a long-time video uploader on youtube. Back in 2006, starly ran out to buy Super Smash Bros. Brawl along with millions of fans of the fast-paced fighter action series, but there was one thing about Brawl that kept Starly coming back: the music. More than 200 songs, some originals, some remixed, all hand-picked for being exceptional (minus Electroplankton of course). He checked online to see if somehow, someone had taken the time to assemble every song together in one download. Sure enough, songs could be plucked right from the ISO. He was thrilled. From there, starly began amassing a collection of video game music so big he had no idea what to do with it.

The birth of his channel is the fairy-tale inspiration story. In every video game there's those certain songs that stand out, the ones you wish you could listen to forever. In Nintendo games, it just happens to be every song ever. While actually playing a video game, it's easy to just stop playing for a moment and admire the beautiful or catchy song, while the game rotates camera angles or shows Mario taking a nap in the middle of Rogueport. On the computer, and more specifically on Youtube however, this wasn't possible. And so starly devised a plan to loop his favorite music and upload it to Youtube.

So fired up to begin, starly unnecessarily swallowed his reputation, borrowed the username of his Neopet, and uploaded Dawn's Theme, his first extension. It was poor quality, it had a provocative anime picture slapped on it, and it was online. Most importantly, it had a purpose. Back then, the word "extended" was nowhere near a buzzword in video game music. Everytime starly uploaded a video he made sure no one had already extended it, but even "video game music extended" garnered almost no results save for SonicKAI. So he went on extending, from Nintendo games outward to games he'd never heard of, whatever his commenters wanted. After all, he was only 13. But with only trusty Garageband and iMovie he had found a niche. And soon, he wasn't alone.

Almost 4,000 subscribers later, Starly had made a name for himself. He had done everything from compiling hilarious clips from the Pokemon anime to biweekly music quizzes, and when the work of... (shit I can't remember their name, whatever the hacker group that targeted Pokemon uploaders was called, their logo was a scary dark face with a pumpkin mouth... Djibouti?) rolled around, he gladly volunteered/wasted his time making tedious sprite videos mocking them and keeping his subscribers informed. When he found a 2-way audio cable lying around, he thought he was the coolest guy on the block and made a few game rips of his own. Every new Pokemon release called for a channel redesign, and his most ambitious project, a background with every trainer sprite photshopped with Starly on them in appropiate poses, never saw the light of day. He loved what he did, and while he sometimes disappeared for a week or two, he always came back ready to work. Soon, the word "extended" appeared on every search for vgm, as if it had worked its way into the algorithm.

Dawn of the Final DayEdit

At the release of Pokemon Black and White, Game Freak had become very protective over their material on youtube, especially music. Uploaders left and right were being suspended. Starly already had a strike from a past song, but he kept on uploading. This proved to be his doom. One B/W video was stricken, and the final takedown was from an anime video. All that work, dashed instantly by greedy corporations. Starly was in the process of filing for protection under the Free Use Clause, but as soon as he saw the box marked "Home Address," he figured it wasn't worth the trouble.

He certainly didn't leave youtube in the dark, however. What he left was a legacy, and plenty of uploaders to fill the void. Video game music extenders are everywhere now. You can't search for a song without seeing a suggested "extended" appended to it, and most people buy into the suggestion. Some incredible people, namely furrybob, have taken songs extensions and made them automated and available to everyone, going so far as to drop the loops back into the game that started it all: Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In all, there's no denying the effect that extensions had on the youtube community. At least they did, before the youtube community went to hell. But that's another story.

You can find starly at his Steam account or his backup youtube channel, SinnohStarly. He's always chill and around to chat.

Note from StarlyEdit

If you still didn't notice that I wrote this whole thing... well I did! I was heartbroken the day my channel got suspended, I still remember it well. I had a friend over that day, it totally killed the mood. I was torn and furious.... but it was a major turning point for me. I had to decide whether to continue on my backup or simply devote my time to other things. I never even had a backup before the day I got suspended, so I rushed out and made one. But I knew it would take a LOT of time and effort to build the channel back up, and I just wasn't sure if it was worth it. So many good friends of mine, and plenty of people I didn't know, had uploaded a vast amount of songs. Most of the songs I'd extended had been replaced, and I really didn't want to be come "that guy" who started stealing everyone's else's vids. It felt wrong. Lunardragon2607, you were a great friend and partner, and I'm sorry about the suspensions. Wish you the best! (You can find his tumblr here) Furrybob, keep up the awesome work. All my old subscribers, you guys made my life awesome. I have so many great memories of all of you, your comments and your kindness, but there are two comments I received that I will never forget. On my Torterra Bill Nye video, one person left a comment with a simple "HAHAHA that's hilarious!" But that comment also had one reply: "I TOLD you it was funny!" That really got to me. It made me wonder how many people went to school and told their friend "Dude, there's this guy on Youtube that makes video game music LONGER! Like for 15 minutes!" or "Have you heard of this guy named Starly396?" With over 3 millions views, it was bound to happen somewhere. Hell, I listened to my own music all the time while doing homework. I was blessed to come to know a lot of you, and I hope I brightened the days of many more. I'm off to college, and this is a little adventure I'll always hold close. Finally, to everyone: Never let extensions die!