It is quite obvious that the top multiplayer game on Roblox was a game called Crossroads.  But one of the things that stick out is how old it really is.

Crossroads wasn’t called “Crossroads” until around August or September 2006.  It had multiple names, either “Brick Battle” (coined by David Baszucki in July 2006 when Crossroads was officially released): Or Arena (also coined by Baszucki a month afterwards):

It is during this time that Crossroads was the only available multiplayer game, and all other places were only allowed to be played in single player.

Looking at the original place, it is quite obvious how far Roblox has developed as a platform.  The original version made around June 2006 has little to no structures on the map, and the areas that were on the map were sourced from places 3 months ago (The Castle model originated from Erik Cassel’s game Castle Destruction, and the house was originally from a model made by Baszucki).  However, there were some new things on the map, such as an overhead ramp, a playset, and a row of trees.  A player visiting the game would have the option to choose between 3 tools, those being the Rocket, Slingshot, and the Grab tool.

This version of Crossroads had pretty amateurish building quality, as the trees were misaligned, the white pathways were out of line, and much more little details that give me the most painful aneurysm.  Thankfully, after John Shedletsky joined, it was fixed.

Speaking of John Shedletsky, after he joined, he edited a version of Crossroads that made the house a hospital, expanded the castle, and added the iconic tower, which is still in the game today.  

Although this version was never released, its updates along with a brickyard and the Trowel were added later and the “lost” version was republished in 2008 as My First ROBLOX Level.

At this time Crossroads has started its full evolution as a Roblox game.  More sections were added, minute visuals were fixed, and the first completed section known as the Thieve’s Den was added.  

Another multiplayer game known as Community Construction Site was released, and it was the direct opposite of Crossroads, where people can build what they want, until they run out of bricks, because the game didn’t have the other tools for some reason.

One of the weird things about this game is how different it was to Crossroads at the time, which then looked like this.

It was still very incomplete, but many sections had some inspiration taken and created into the modern areas known today.

I won’t go into a full description on how the areas of this image above evolved into the modern structures, but the castle area turned into Blackrock Castle obviously.  

At this point, Crossroads has formed into it is today, and will likely never change.

Back in the day, many people used Crossroads as a method of war, for example Phoenix Fire, where they would fight to the death in Crossroads and other BrickBattle maps, one of them being Crossroads’ counterpart Chaos Canyon.

Crossroads has had multiple minor updates throughout the years, such as more tools being added, a day/night cycle, a skybox, billboards, and occasional themes such as the one in Christmas 2009.

After that though, Crossroads reached its endpoint.  From 2013 to 2017, Crossroads reached the lowest point since August 2006, only rolling in about 5 players at a time.  In 2018, it regained resurgence from GFink’s remaster, which is VERY competitive if I do say so myself.

There is now a large community dedicated to mastering the art of BrickBattling, and it really shows how far we have come.  We have started BrickBattling from quick rocket and slingshot dodges in the original version, tossing colorful bouncy balls in the classic version, to downright launching the Timebomb with the Rocket.

Crossroads now still has the same roots from 17 years ago, and thankfully Roblox and its community will continue to cherish the game that started it all, whether it be as a special level, a modification of the place, a piece of art, and the still active player base of BrickBattling and competitiveness.

I have made a collection of the major Crossroads revisions in honor of how this game made Roblox it is today, check it out!*

*(The modern version can only be played in the modern Roblox client, and pre-March 2007 uses the Hopper Class instead of StarterPack, so you will have to input the tools yourself if you decide to port it to modern Roblox.)

Your “pal”,

Jaydem