Before The Blue Shinra Project, there was the Shinra Tourist Information Center, aka ShinraTours. It was my first fansite of any kind, launched either sometime back in late 2000 or early 2001 (though I'm fairly sure it's the former).
The core concept behind ShinraTours is in its title: a tourist information guide to the Final Fantasy VII world as penned and presented by the Shinra Electric Power Company. It was always meant to be both a loving homage to that world and a tongue-in-cheek interpretation of Shinra's view of it.
The original Shinra Tourist Information Center site has been largely lost to the ether, and virtually no files from it still exist today. One file which has survived is my cleaned-up rendition of the Shinra logo, which has since been used to make graphics for the Blue Shinra Project in general. ShinraTours was redesigned and bounced to at least one other free host before The Blue Shinra Project offifically launched on February 2, 2002. This second iteration of ShinraTours, as seen in the picture to your right, shut down on May 1, 2004.
ShinraTours version 3, which you see before you, went online on February 2, 2009 (the VIIth Anniversary of the Blue Shinra Project) and includes most of the content from the second version of the site, plus a little bit more. I hope you enjoy this new version of ShinraTours.
—Reeve Kasahara, February 2009
Special Note Regarding the Compilation of FFVII
In keeping with the tone and spirit of the original versions of ShinraTours, which were made well before the Compilation was a twinkle on one of Tetsuya Nomura's titanium zippers, the site's content focuses only on the original Final Fantasy VII. As such, locations first introduced via the Compilation—such as Edge, Deepground, and Banora Village—are not touched upon.
Disclaimer
Final Fantasy VII and all related indicia are ©Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. All original content is ©2000-2009 The Blue Shinra Project.