Dawn of the Internet: A Showcase

Kung-Fu Yoshi

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2014
Messages
1,201
That was horrendous, that site. It even had a pop-up for something, but Google Chrome on my grandma's laptop blocked it. At least there wasn't any ads, probably because it would've cluttered the clutter. Didn't even go past the homepage, besides the ''NEW LOCATION'' link.

Might be newer than 2001 though. The magazines in the pictures don't look that old. But, it's a good late 90s-early 00s site imitation (I hope) at least.

Does anyone still visit the Best of the Web site? (post #19)
 
Last edited by a moderator:

RandomMe

Walrus Toy Store owner
Joined
Dec 30, 2012
Messages
54,916
Location
Braga, Portugal
[MENTION=58550]Kung-Fu Yoshi[/MENTION]: The website doesn't appear as blocked on my computer. It looks a bit like another website that used to exist, Havenworks.
 

Kung-Fu Yoshi

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2014
Messages
1,201
I meant to say the browser blocked the pop-up on Yvette's site, not the site itself.

I looked at Havenworks.com through the Web Archive. It was a 2010 version, but it was even more cluttered than Yvette's, and more outdated. It was also more cluttered than the February 2001 version.
 

Kung-Fu Yoshi

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2014
Messages
1,201
Oh yeah. I visited the site again. There were no pop-ups, but Google Chrome said something about a plug-in being blocked. I don't know why there were plug-ins in the site. Sorry for misleading you, [MENTION=51596]RandomMe[/MENTION].
 

JoeMabbon

The Warrior
Joined
Aug 8, 2014
Messages
9,210
Location
Cybertron
What the—! That's all I can say, that was hideous. "Psychological Thriller creaking Gate !!" is what makes me suspicious. The random terrible pictures interrupted by what appears to be a 90s fax machine are setting off some alarms.

Does anyone still visit the Best of the Web site? (post #19)

Uh no, not that I'm aware of.
 

JoeMabbon

The Warrior
Joined
Aug 8, 2014
Messages
9,210
Location
Cybertron
The No No Site by Pikachu Rameriaz (represented by a photo of a guitarist with a superimposed Pikachu head) has a bunch tips for becoming a teen delinquent including:

-Growing Marijuana
-Shoplifting
-Crafting bongs out of soda bottles
-Running away from home

If you get caught don't come back to him, the site is for "entertainment reasons only." "How to Steal" is my favorite due to its abundance of typos. The whole site is riddled with spelling errors and laughable advice. The page on how to grow weed is an exception, likely because the author just stole the info from somewhere else. There are links to his other pages, but they're all down.

http://www.angelfire.com/zine/nono/
 

JoeMabbon

The Warrior
Joined
Aug 8, 2014
Messages
9,210
Location
Cybertron
Here's a hardcore, anti-McDonalds protest site. McSpotlight is a pretty informative resource. News articles, talking points, and interviews all gathered in one place. Actually, compared to most of the stuff we find, this one is really good. Only things going against it are the shrill, radical tone and the lack of more recent material. The site was already slowing to a trickle before it just dropped dead at the end of 2003.

M c S P O T L I G H T
 

JoeMabbon

The Warrior
Joined
Aug 8, 2014
Messages
9,210
Location
Cybertron
http://www.charlesmartinet.com/

Charles Martinet's website hasn't been updated since the Nintendo 64 era. You can get a feel for what voice acting was like in the late 90s to early 00s, listen to voice samples, watch sample videos, and check out vintage Mario Kart 64 jpegs complete with artifacting.

 

JoeMabbon

The Warrior
Joined
Aug 8, 2014
Messages
9,210
Location
Cybertron
This was spotlighted by Something Awful a couple of days ago, but the Amazing Flygun website is still up and unchanged since '03. The product sells itself as the new fly swatter for our enlightened internet age. It claims to turn pest removal into a fun pastime. Its basically a spring loaded plastic gun that shoots a mini-swatter at winged insects.

There's a FAQ explaining the product and a VERY long page of fly trivia that seems to be there to remind potential customers that flies are super gross and must be disposed of in the most convoluted, labor intensive way possible. They say its the perfect gift for the men in your life and Summer's right around the corner so...check it out?

Kill Flies with The Amazing Flygun
 

JoeMabbon

The Warrior
Joined
Aug 8, 2014
Messages
9,210
Location
Cybertron
IcyBrian's RPG website is still up and more relevant for this thread, his pages on Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross are still around as they were in 2002. The highlight is the "Points to Ponder" Page which is a long, bulleted list of every shower thought anyone has ever had about Chrono Trigger.

There are also poll results. Surprising no one, Magus managed win both coolest villain and favorite party member.

Also, this gem from the FAQ:

Q: Can you find Schala after she disappears?
A: Nope. Face it, the game has been out for a few years now. Nobody's found her because she's not able to be found. That's what fanfics are for!

http://www.icybrian.com/games/chronotrigger/
 

pacman000

It’s root bear & a candy cigar!
Joined
Jun 5, 2017
Messages
610
I've been looking for old websites and posting them to my own webpage for about a year now. Here's my page: https://websitering.neocities.org/

Random ones I especially like:

http://fly.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/cvg/PacmanFever/ Used to go to this site in high school; glad it's still up.
http://www.geocities.ws/retrogamer.geo/back.htm An archived Geocities site, about classic games
http://www.irtc.org/ A defunct Ray-Tracing competition. Lots of cool early 2000's/late 90's CGI.
https://web.archive.org/web/19991013061925/http://7search.com:80/ An early version of 7Search, which shut down last year.
www.oocities.org/capecanaveral/lab/8803/fcometcr.htm Archived Geocities page about the 1st jet airliner.
http://stopmotionworks.com/ Resources for stop motion animators.
 

pacman000

It’s root bear & a candy cigar!
Joined
Jun 5, 2017
Messages
610
I was searching Google Groups for a Pac-Man related group, and I discovered this old conversation: https://groups.googl...man/_3SL8iLybtg



"wivax!dyer



4/13/82

At the risk of starting a long controversy (or maybe it's been mentioned
before, I dunno) I'd like to ask what other people think about ATARI's
policy of prosecuting individuals or firms that sell software games which
resemble their products. We are not dealing with software piracy, in the
strict sense. Rather, their intent, if I understand it (and I am very willing
to be corrected on this) is to suppress the distribution of "look-alike"
games which are completely "original" pieces of software, sharing no code
with the ATARI version, but, of course, share a similar appearance or
conception.
I bring this up to this news group, since "pacman" is now completely
"owned" by ATARI in the US. Where do we stand? I have to admit that
I was really flabbergasted when I read ATARI's announcements in major
newspapers of their intentions, and I don't feel very sympathetic.
It's very much a Goliath vs David thing. Can you imagine what furor
there would be if AT&T tried to carry out a similar policy towards
"UNIX-like" systems? How can they do this? Is there any precedent
for their behavior?



watmath!bstempleton

4/17/82

I have been told that Atari's attempts to fight copiers have involved
copyrighting the screen image, as well as the pictures of the monsters
and the pacman. In this way if somebody has a pacman program that draws
something like a pacman maze or a creature that looks like a pacman, they
say - Hey, he stole our copyrighted design of a screen. This is quite
valid.
Protecting an idea is another study. The mechanism for that is the patent, and
such things are almost never given for software.



hplabs!hansen

4/19/82

...copyrighting the screen image doesn't seem fair. I have worked
for some time in the typesetting industry, where the copyright laws
gave very little protection from copies of typeface designs. It turns
out that the typeface design itself was not 'copyrightable,' only the
name of the typeface design. Consequently, other companies would
copy the typeface design and give it a different name. We couldn't
touch them. Any attempt by Atari to circumvent that ruling without
asking for revision of the copyright laws should be bound to failure.
As to expecting any revision, many of you may recall that many major
changes to the copyright laws were made a few years ago. The issue
above was under consideration, but was rejected (the company I
was working for was lobbying for a change at the time)."




Now here's another response, which was somehow cut off from the other responses: https://groups.googl...man/KoX7BrNAo2A




"cbosgd!mark



4/18/82

Actually, in March 1981, the U.S. Supreme court held
that virtually all software and firmware inventions
are patentable (!) Also, algorithms can be patented."







And another one, which mentions K.C. Munchin specifically: https://groups.googl...man/KlnxIB2HL5s



" we13!kik

4/16/82

I want to add my feelings to a subject brought up a couple of days ago
about ATARI's attitude toward ODYSSEY's K.C. Munchkins cartridge. It's
true that ATARI bought the American rights to "homevideo" versions of
pacman, but as was pointed out, ODYSSEY doesn't call their game Pacman
and the game is slightly different. As an ODYSSEY II owner, I have a
slightly biased view of the subject. Even so, I think that after
ATARI saw how successful K.C. Munchkins was, they got a little scared.
I know I would be if I were in their shoes. After playing both versions
of the game, I can say that the ODYSSEY version is a whole lot more fun
to play. Maybe the scoring, etc, is not the same as Pacman but it was
never intended to be. I am sure it helped to sell many ODYSSEY II games
while it was available. It's just a shame that something couldn't be
resolved without bring the judicial system into it, but that seems to
be standard operating practice anymore. Too bad...

Kit Kimes
!lime!we13!kik"
 

RandomMe

Walrus Toy Store owner
Joined
Dec 30, 2012
Messages
54,916
Location
Braga, Portugal
Decided to bump the thread because I found something else (yet still minuscule).

About five years ago I brought up the JNN index page from 2001 that's still in use today. This page is from a competing network, specifically one of its stations, Yamagata Broadcasting (an affiliate of NNN).

There are two pages, the index page and one for sister stations (compare it to sister cities).
 

RandomMe

Walrus Toy Store owner
Joined
Dec 30, 2012
Messages
54,916
Location
Braga, Portugal
I don't know if this counts:

The reason why I said "I don't know" is because the group went out of activity in 1999 and even their disclaimer says that "they want to keep the site as it was when the group was still active", also they last updated in August 2019.

BTW I discovered this group from listening this in a class about Galician culture months ago.
 

Spotlight

Staff online

Who's on Discord?

Latest profile posts

Remember back when people were saying that "Streaming is the (bright) future"?
"I can't wait to eat this baby" - Paramount, presumably looking for tax write-offs
Happy Baseball Opening Day
"I'm probably going to watch Nymphomaniac Part II on Disney+ this weekend" isn't something I didn't think I'd ever say, but here we are.

Featured Posts

Top