Death of a Legend
A tribute to the late Steve 'The Toker' Phelps
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Steve Phelps was the leading man behind Remakes.org/Retroremakes.com for a number of years. Sadly, he passed away on the 1st of July 2005 and his presence on the scene will be sorely missed. It seems only fitting that the first of our articles on Rewind should be dedicated to the big man who helped so many....
Y'know - I've rewrote this over and over again, and every single time I've deleted it thinking "nah, too much like an obituary".
I think everyone who ever encountered Tokes would know thats probably the last thing that he'd ever want, as a matter of fact - he'd probably detest the idea that he was somehow thought of as a "hero of the scene". But to many of us, he was just that. A hero.
He didn't have to pick up Retro Remakes from [JJ] but he cared enough about the site and the folks round here who frequented it to see it slip away.
RR was never a money maker, it cost him an awful lot out of his own pocket over the years - not once did he moan about coughing up and only twice ever asked for financial help. That takes some dedication.
Over the 3 years I've been around RR, I've lost count of the amount of people he's helped or at the very least offered help to. The amount of arguments and run ins you'd have to have with Tokes to get him to back down and *not* help you, invariably was more effort than it was worth. Once he'd made his mind up, he'd find a way round to it by hook or by crook.
<thetoker> then scarper...
Tokes was far from perfection incarnate, and nowhere near being sainted - but he had more heart than your average person. From the little things like upping your bandwidth if you'd let it ride over to the big, big things when things went wrong in your life. You'd have to be the hardest hearted person ever not to have raised a smile when he really wanted you to, and his offers of help were always above and beyond what was called for.
Sometimes, he'd cause outright chaos in IRC or the forum with his jokes, or comments (anyone remember The Matthew Kelly Thread?)- but as long as you never mentioned PowerVR, you were usually free to debate, argue, swear and curse his opinion. Albeit, in the knowledge that if he'd gotten out of bed the wrong side - you should expect a kicking ;)
Most of all, Tokes was bloody good fun to be around. Who else could you chase round the forum at a ridiculous hour of the morning foiling his attempts to get a clear run of the board? (aside from Sickfish)
<thetoker> and they are ?
<smayds> giraffes mostly...
And of course, he wasn't just an admin of Retro Remakes - he was a closet remaker too. Along the way, he started many and finished few. Some he'd still carry a bee in his bonnet over (see: Minder, Frogger and doubtlessly many more) for not finishing, and some he actually managed to finish. We've re-upped the completed games for your enjoyment (?) even though they'd been tucked away in a dark cellar somewhere out of sight, doubtlessly with a sign labelled "Beware of the Leopard" in honour of Douglas Adams.
Rather than me witter on forever, I'll let some of his friends fill in the gaps...
- Oddbob