Well, assuming the entry in the Soldat manual is correct, the very first public release of Soldat was, and I quote, "0.9.4b - first public beta (09.05.2002)".
So yes. Exactly 5 years ago to this day (not considering leap years as that'd just get confusing), Soldat was first released and played by the public. And ever since that magical dawn, the dim light of a single man's hobby and idea for a simple but fun game grew over the years to what we know now....mostly the same but better and with more stuff.
We had planned a huge graphical and audio montage extravaganza, showing the leaps and bounds the game took over the years through its numerous patches and updates, complimented with full commentary from George Lucas... but he backed out at the last second so FliesLikeABrick got drunk and suggested we just take a pic of him lifting his top up while we held cake over his breasts and just make a big sign saying 'happy 5th anniversary'.
So we did that.
