CONFUSED? Don't worry, this page will help to soothe your poor aching brain...

This marvellous website is the end result of internet artist tank2tank having far too much time on his hands and a far too large ego to boot. It is a golden shrine of tank2tank's work... an endless museum of fun-filled extravaganza from the unadulturated realms of tank2tank's soul. In layman's terms, it's an entertainment website. And it's here for YOU!

Yes, you! That is of course, assuming that you are a teenager or young adult... A sloppy youth with nothing to do and a mind waiting to be boggled. In which case... welcome aboard! Oldies, erm... I think you may have gotten here by accident, as unfortunately I do not believe my work would be ah... especially appropriate for more civilised beings such as yourselves.

By now you're probably wondering, am I actually going to tell you something useful here or am I just going to spend the rest of this page rambling excessively? The answer is somewhere in between. It's not like I need to give detailed instructions on how to navigate round this site, is it? Because if you haven't figured that out yet, then I'm amazed you managed to make it this far.

Well, screw the user guide. Instead, I'm going to do a biography about myself:

tank2tank's biography

The person you know as tank2tank, Tom Cheshire, was born on Jupiter in the year 1496, which technically makes him the oldest person currently living on Earth, despite the fact that for most of the time he was frozen in carbonite, explaining his younger appearance. He has superhuman abilities, and is also very awesome. His favourite number is 53.

< switches to the first person >

So, anyway, my journey towards internet-land actually started a good five or so years before I officially made my debut as tank2tank in 2006 with Stupid Mario Bros. and Balloon Fight. I've always been a creative person, y'know, always thinking of ideas and conjuring up imaginary movies and video games as a young lad, and from the moment I was introduced to a computer, I was trying to make these ideas a reality.

Does anybody remember Kid Pix? It was freaking awesome! I used it all the time till I was about 9 years old, because it was so easy to use and ultimately really good fun. You can see below a couple of the early Kid Pix pictures I made, and you can also watch a very early video I made using the in-built slideshow maker here.

By the time I was eight or nine years old (2000 / 2001) I'd decided that I should probably try something new and less primitive, so I started messing around with a whole load of other programs, most of which being really obscure Mac apps I can't even remember. For a good few years I actually got into level designing for first person shooter series Marathon (basically the Mac's alternative to Doom.) I used the Forge and Anvil programs that came with Marathon Infinity, and even though I was young, I had a basic understanding of them and managed to make quite a few simple levels.

But out of all the new programs I tried out, I was mostly intrigued by a little sum'n called Flash, or Macromedia Flash 5 as it was back then. The fact that Flash could be used to create anything from short films to full games seemed incredible to me at the time, so over the years I experimented with the program as much as I could, with some help from my Dad (who uses Flash for professional design work.) Still, I pretty much taught myself everything I know how to do in Flash. I tend to only use tutorials when I run out of my own ideas of how to solve a certain problem.

The earliest things I made in Flash were Light Flash, a basic timing game and Atom Power episode 1, the first episode of a sci-fi 'franchise' I conjured up in my head when I was even younger. You can check out both of these on the ancient flashes page, along with other early flashes I created.

Over the next few years, I carried on creating new flash content which kept on improving and improving, but not to a professional level. I made games based on Lego Bionicle, games based on other games, Star Wars, and animation-wise I continued the Atom Power series, also attempting to remake it several times albeit unsuccessfully. A notable step was The Untitled Show in 2005, which is absolutely terrible now, but back then, it was my first shot at doing an original animated comedy, the first time I did voice acting, and so on.

We got broadband in 2006, and subsequently I discovered Newgrounds and YouTube, and decided it was time for me to make my debut on the internet. In about 2 minutes, I decided on the username 'tank2tank' and that name has stuck ever since. From that moment, I could finally show off my stuff to the public. It took some time, but by the end of 2007, I'd gained a small, but strong following, and of course, this website. Stupid Mario Bros. was clearly quite popular, based on the amount of demand I got for the sequels. Meanwhile on YouTube, fans started flocking to my YouTube Poops and when I started making 'DIE songs' as a joke, people really started getting interested. Check out some YouTube Poop highlight clips here.

In early 2008 I released my flash game Star Wars: Rogue Squadron flash edition. This was a massive achievement for me, as at the time it was the biggest and most ambitious thing I'd ever created. I was working on the damn thing for more than 6 months, which is an amazing feat for someone like me who usually starts making something big and then gives up after a few weeks.

The rest of 2008 saw the release of the hugely anticipated Stupid Mario Bros. 3, which got strong scores on Newgrounds and helped continue my quest of dominating the universe. The rest of 2008 and most of 2009 was relatively quiet in terms of flash, with most of my energy becoming devoted to videos, updating this website, and... sigh... 'education.' However, by the end of 2009, it was time for me to make my return to animating with Resident Evil: The Something Chronicles, which is also the first collaborative animation I've done.

What about the future then? Do I have some amazing top-secret master project in development that will totally blow everything out of the water? Not exactly, but I do have a bazillion plans that could all turn out very good if I invest in the time to make them. I still want to do Atom Power, and do it properly, because believe it or not, I've never lost faith in it, despite originally having the idea at the age of 9. The story and premise has simply evolved as I have matured, and it's at a stage now where I think it would be pretty damn awesome if I had time to make it.

Yes, time... Time and work are my biggest enemies, and going off to University later in 2010 isn't going to change any of that. But I've learned so damn much over the years and I'm at the point now where I can apply everything I've learned to make some really amazing stuff. Bottom line: I'm not going to stop making flashes and videos, and I haven't peaked yet. There's lots to look forward to in the future.

Good night. Thanks for reading this page which is now officially longer than The Lord of the Rings.