Matthias Franke has left us

[Hunchman801]

Hi all,

I noticed last week that Rayman Fanpage, the iconic website created in 2000 and a staple of the early Rayman community which remained active for almost of quarter of a century, was down. After a little bit of research today, it appears that Matthias Franke, its creator, left us in June. An obituary can also be found here.

This is very sad news for the Rayman community and we extend our heartfelt condolences to Matthias's family. In order for his legacy to continue, we will do our best to ensure that his website lives for at least another quarter-century; please bear with us while we work on a continuation plan.

Goodbye, Matthias! You will be missed.

[danyq94]

RayCarrot is the one who gives us the sad news.
I used to visit this site a lot as a child in the early 2000s, and I always loved its “old internet” style that I will cherish and always carry in my heart.
Thank you for everything Matthias Franke. You have been one of the biggest fans in the entire Rayman community.



I can't explain exactly how I feel right now.
I feel like I have lost an old friend who accompanied me for so many days of my carefree childhood on the web. Although I never had the honor and opportunity to speak with Mr. Franke, this news has devastated me.

[hoodlumsworld]

RayCarrot is the one who gives us the sad news.

I think you mean he's the one who relayed the news posted here.

Anyways, this is pretty sad news. Matthias Franke created and maintained one of the most iconic Rayman websites and he will not be forgotten. My thoughts go to his family.

I think he would appreciate that some people intend to keep his legacy alive. Huge thanks to everyone who's gonna help with that.

[boomboleros7]

Such terrible news, I know Rayman Fanpage since so many years. It was amazing, full of exclusive images and content from official websites.

One of the best things I found there was the Rayman 1 guide which allowed my sister and I to finally complete the game after so many years without finding missing cages.

Goodbye Mr. Matthias Franke and thank you, you will not be forgotten. Condolences to his family.

[Droolie]

This is terrible news. For a long time this was the best Rayman page available. Very well made, and at least at the time of its creation it contained lots of information just not available on other sites. Very fun, too, with all the little animations Matthias presumably made by himself. For sure it's a page I visited a lot ever since I became a Rayman fan (and I'm happy that the effort to restore it is already underway).

To know that he was 50 years old when he first created the site and kept it alive for so long is truly impressive and says a lot about his dedication. It's rare that people of his age are this active in gaming communities, which makes it all the more sad to see that he has passed away. It seems he really was one of the biggest Rayman fans ever.

[PluMGMK]

Such sad news Another titan of the Rayman world has left us… It is indeed interesting that he was 50 when he created this site. I salute his dedication for all those years!

My condolences to his friends and family.

[The Jonster]

This is a very sad day for the community. That is real dedication to be 50 and still be part of a gaming community, let alone this one! I hope the restoration goes smoothly and quickly and a big thanks to the ones making that possible!

My condolences to his friends and family. Rest in peace Mr. Franke.

[Elite Piranha]

It was really sad to read this, I used to visit the site a lot when I was younger, I was fascinated by all the stuff you could find there.

Rest in peace Matthias Franke. My condolences to his family and friends.

[lyndo64]

This is really sad, I always liked that website.

Rest in peace, Matthias Franke. I send my condolences to his friends and his family.

[Greengoop]

Rest in peace, Matthias Franke. May you and Rayman Fanpage live on forever.

[Cairnie]

Very sad news to hear, the Rayman Fanpage was really informative, inclusive and quite literally one of my earliest attempts to even network with the Rayman community going as far back as 2001. I briefly spoke with Matthias himself mainly to write in the guestbook and submit fanart which having just looked at the archived copy is still there. Best of luck with getting it all mirrored to here too.

He and his family have my condolences.

[EdgyRabbid]

Rest in Piece Matthias Frake... You will be missed..

[DaveRattlehead]

It's a real shame to read that. Creating that page at the age of 50 and maintaining it for almost 25 years says a lot about him. It had an excellent guide for Rayman 1 and had very interesting content from the classic games. Also, it was a pretty cool website because it captures the essence of the Internet in the 2000s pretty well. At least we have the Wayback Machine so we can revisit it; that surely makes his legacy unforgettable. I'm glad to read that work is underway to restore it. I wish I could help in some way, but my computer skills in that sort of thing are practically nil.

Hopefully his family and friends can read our posts so that they know how fond the community is of him. Rest in peace, Mr Franke.

[Magelin]

This is truly terrible..
While i don't know much about the fanpage, it seems like it was very important for the Rayman community back in the day.
Rest in peace, Matthias Franke.

[Flat Earth Society]

I knew his website for a long time, and its content was really nice. RIP Matthias Franke.

[ItzalDrake]

This is very sad news.. I used to visit that website a lot to learn more about Rayman, download rare goodies and it was the only place where I could find some info that wasn't present in the wiki..
This website became so important that it has also been helpful for the development of the Rayman DLC for Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope:

Sad to hear this...
When I was a kid I sometimes checked if there were new pieces of art uploaded and even during the development of the DLC this website was vital.

Big hug to his family, may he rest in piece.

[poberteii]

Christ, I wasn't expecting to come back like this. Yeah, so last week as I was verifying my TCRF citations I noticed that the website was still online and made a small mention to my buds. Suddenly this morning the website stopped working and that was when I knew something was up. I looked up the site and found out the news about Franke.

It's just... man! That website was INVALUABLE in so many ways to not just Rayman history but to pretty much French gaming as we know it. Rayman-Fanpage was a beast of a time capsule and had one of the last surviving pictures of Rayman's international presence, so it being down is a end of a era. I'm glad that Archive.org has managed to save most of the website, because without it we would've lost a lot of knowledge on Rayman's history.

RIP

[Master]

I can't say I had much interaction with the fellow myself, but I have a lot of memories just messing around the old Fanpage back in the day. I hope his passing was peaceful and my condolences to his loved ones.

[Hunchman801]

I put together an archive of the website here, please have a look and let me know if anything's broken or missing. I already noticed a few absolute links to the old domain name that need to be replaced.

[Greengoop]

Hold on, is that completely everything? That’s really impressive