An “AA Chatroom” is a type of multiplayer, online chatroom with avatars based on AA characters from 2channel. These were mostly popular in Japan during the mid-2000s, around the Golden Age of Flash, but usage naturally declined as things aged.

In the Japanese internet, nostalgic discussions mention that Monachat, BarGiko Online, and Project Machi were the main three AA chatrooms of the mid-2000s with Monachat being the most “known” of the three. However, the western internet had a more narrow view of the subject matter since BarGiko Online ended up being the only AA chatroom that got any real attention outside of Japan.

Monachat (もなちゃと, Monachatto) was the original, two-dimensional chatroom that was active from 2003 to 2020 at the “monachat.dyndns.org” domain. It looked plain, but you could change your color palette and there was an apparently addictive “fight” (喧嘩, kenka) feature. They had an issue with spam in latter years, but Monachat managed to survive until Flash was deprecated.

BarGiko Online (BARギコONLINE), also known as BarGiko (BARギコ) or Old BarGiko (旧バーギコ), was an isometric chatroom that was active from 2003 to 2007 at “www13.plala.or.jp/bargiko/”. It was originally a small town with a gyūdon restaurant and a multi-purpose hall with each floor dedicated to a subject. Some 4chan users discovered BarGiko in 2005,¹⁾ so foreign access was restricted to the 9th floor.²⁾

In 2007, BarGiko moved to “uzeee.orz.hm/bargiko/”, but there was a complete format change which let users create threads on boards that would generate rooms for people to gather in. This iteration was active from 2007 to 2011, but more people used Monachat (locally) or Gikopoi (globally) instead, so one would assume it sorta just died and people completely forgot about it.

ProjectMachi (Project街, lit. “Project Town”) was a two-dimensional chatroom that 'surfaced' in 2006³⁾ and moved several times. The town was very colorful, unlike Monachat, and you could click to move around. It somehow managed until Flash was deprecated, leaving hints that a 5th version dubbed “ProjectNekoMachi” or “NekojectMachi” was being tested, but there hasn't been a lot of news since then.

• Gikopoipoi