900s and Pizza

How a Demo Disc from 1999 Shaped my Life

Alright, party people, welcome to the FIRST EVER blog post on my site! Your eyeballs gracin' this page means a lot – seriously! I'm still figuring out how this whole blog thing is gonna roll, but hey, gotta start somewhere, right?

So, to kick things off, I figure we gotta dive into the story behind the main dude, the head honcho, the face that runs the place: Maverick Lobo!

It's been a wild ride getting to this point and there's def going to be future posts to elaborate on a lot more of this back story, but for now – let's crank up the time machine and go back to the beginning of Maverick Lobo to see how he came to be.

Welcome to 1999

Today's kids are totally missin' out on how mega-corps used to team up with video game, music, and toy companies to sling out product demos! Like, remember snagging music CDs IN cereal boxes? 

Top 5 Blockbuster Movies

• Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

• The Sixth Sense

• Toy Story 2

• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

• The Matrix

Top 5 Chart-Topping Bangers

• Believe by Cher

• Smooth by Santana

• Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of...) by Lou Bega

• ...Baby One More Time by Brittany Spears

• Genie in a Bottle by Christina Aguilera

Top 5 Games That Ruled

• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

• Soulcalibur

• Grand Theft Auto 2

• RollerCoaster Tycoon

Top 5 Cartoons That Blew Our Minds

• SpongeBob SquarePants

• Futurama

• Family Guy

• Ed, Edd n Eddy

• Courage the Cowardly Dog
  (Shout out to Batman Beyond!)

Seriously, it was the BEST time to be a kid/teen. Picture this: a tiny, four-year-old version of me, glued to my dad's PlayStation, barely knowin' what's up, but already kickin' butt and choosing my own destiny on that console playing demo discs then BEGGING my mother to rent the full games from Blockbuster. 

Why Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was a freakin' REVOLUTION

Like they break down in the Pretending I'm a Superman doc, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was a HUGE gamble because there was literally nothing else like it at the time, and skateboarding was still trying to be taken seriously by the mainstream corporate world. Skateparks were getting shut down left and right in the early 80s (thanks to crazy insurance costs), so skaters had to either quit or get creative. That's how street skating blew up (no park? No problem, use the streets). And that sparked the whole culture around it: skate videos, legendary skate brands and the clothes to go with it, and magazines like Thrasher, Transworld, and a ton more. Skating became its own subculture and art, a form of expression and community. 

Like with most mainstream sell-out stuff, there was a total disconnect. Companies were quick to latch onto skaters and the culture, then drop it like a bad habit when it stopped makin' them money. Basically, the suits just didn't GET it, leading to unfair reputations and stupid stereotypes that painted all skaters as caricatures of rebellious punks at best and actual drug peddling thugs at worst.

The rise of skate culture through the 80s and 90s, mixed with some seriously clever marketing, helped set the stage for the X-Games in the Summer of 1995. It was the first big-time platform for skateboarding to reach a massive audience. And get this: Tony Hawk landed the world's FIRST 900 at the X-Games on June 27, 1999 – just THREE MONTHS before THPS dropped! Talk about the PERFECT hype machine!

And BAM! History was made. THPS became the 24th best-selling PlayStation 1 game EVER (with sequels 2 and 3 landing in the top 50), and the whole franchise raked in an estimated $1.4 billion over the next 16 years! Skateboarding's now way more accepted; it's even an Olympic sport. THPS busted down doors and helped bring skateboarding and its culture into homes that never would've known about it otherwise. 

How it Shape My Life

Back in '99, little 4-year-old me was one of the zillions of kids blown away by that game. I was too young to truly get it, but it was the perfect intro to a game that'd become a total staple of my childhood. 

Some peeps say Tony Hawk's Underground was the last jam before the franchise started to lose its steam. After three killer sequels to the OG THPS from '99, the devs had to keep pushin' it and stay fresh. So in Underground, they unleashed a full-on rags-to-riches story mode where you could create your own skater and live out their career (at warp speed, mind you!). With wild twists and dramatic moments, it was a seriously addictive campaign (shout out to Ben Diskin's amazing voice work as your best friend-turned-rival, Eric Sparrow!). 

I got this game for Christmas back in '03 and, little did I know, my brother and I would be shredding it on and off for the next DECADE. Like a ton of other kids, it kicked off my own skater phase during the Pop-Punk explosion of the mid-2000s. Apparel companies were all about latching onto the skater and punk scene harder than ever, and it was plastered all over MTV. I'm talkin' borrowing my best friend’s Wal-mart Dragonball Z skateboard and bombing down my driveway with zero protection or technique...good times!

But to say I had the support to really dive into skateboarding would be a lie – I'm talkin' culturally, emotionally, and even just the lack of opportunities (more on that in a future post). Long story short, I bailed after a nasty fall and never went back to skating, but I always dug it from afar. Still, whenever I cranked up some punk tunes or watched skate highlights on YouTube, it'd throw me right back to those crazy days.

Fast forward almost 20 years to 2023, and I'm standing at a crossroads, realizing that time's runnin' out on some of my childhood dreams. I had to figure out what to do with my life (ya know, a 5-year plan or somethin'), and after surviving the brutal lessons of a past failed dream, I was really diggin' deep to figure out what the heck I was still longing for. I knew I wanted a platform to create for a living, that I wanted to be a part of the furry fandom, and that I needed to be 100% myself – no sellout garbage. And then it hit me like a flying elbow drop while I was chillin' playing WWE2k23.

In the game's female career mode, there's this side story where you team up with (then) NXT up-and-comer Cora Jade, who had a female skateboarder gimmick. Instantly, it smacked me back to my childhood, and I finally got it: THIS is what I really wanted. To go back and celebrate the simpler times, embrace the craft I've always been stoked on, and use my skills to create. And just like that, Maverick Lobo was BORN! 

In 2024, I went deep into the history of skateboarding, starting with documentaries, books, podcasts, and digging through old Thrasher mags. I signed up for lessons that summer and spent the year leveling up my animation, dance, and programming skills to really bring this fursona to life. And in January 2025, I started takin' online courses and in-person lessons for vocals, bass guitar, and drums to create music.

Developing the skills to rock this fursona has been a blast and has taken me to places I never thought possible. But like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, there's levels to this craft and I've got a long way to go to get where I want to be.

In short, Maverick Lobo's skateboard/street culture vibe comes from a deep rooted yearning inside of me to bring my childhood wishes to life before its too late. I can't wait to create as Maverick and share more stories as I go, and as this platform grows.

Thanks for checkin' this blog out! The first of many to come!
Got any comments or questions? Hit me up at mavericklobo2024@gmail.com.
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Catch you all next time!