Net Surf
Zen and the Art of Videogames: The Revival of Classic Simplicity
Amid the hoopla surrounding the videogame industry, it's important to remember how it all started. It was in the late 1970s. Home videogame systems like Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, and Vectrex were unleashed upon the feathered-haired consumer populace. Life became weird, frantic, exciting. And home entertainment was never the same again. By well into the '80s, the half-dozen game manufacturers then dominating the market had produced thousands of videogame cartridges: Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Pitfall, Missile Command, Frogger. Consisting of durable ROM chips housed in a hard plastic casing, these cartridges were meant to last.
And last they did.
Now, two decades later, these game systems and carts are turning up at thrift stores, garage sales, and flea markets around the world. Though the games work as well as they did the day they were released, most gamers pass over these software antiquities for their flashier post-Nintendo descendants. Despite (or because of) this, there is a growing cult of "classic" enthusiasts. While most post-modern gamers will trash or trade in their old systems for zillion-bit players, classic gamers happily harvest ancient cartridges for anything from US$0.50 to $2 each. And whatever they don't find IRL, chances are can be picked up via active Usenet newsgroups such as rec.games.video.classic, alt.games.video.classic, and alt.atari.2600.
The appeal of these old games isn't surprising. They're fairly cheap, and the hardware can usually be found at your favorite Goodwill or Salvation Army store. Then there's the nostalgia factor: the kids who played these games so many years ago are now money-toting adults with a penchant to horde. But perhaps the headiest explanation for the games' appeal is their artistic value. Though these games were "the shit" when they were first introduced, they're mighty clunky by today's standards. The screen imagery is more impressionistic than realistic: the playability of these games is a Zen-like experience in simplicity and a relief to eyes tired by today's 3-D, motion-mimicking, first-person tension fests.
Thanks to resources like VGR's - aka Craig Pell's - Classic Videogame & Computer Systems Lists (www.wam.umd.edu/~vgriscep/lists.html), the classic-videogame collectors' community is alive and well on many Internet hubs. VGR has compiled extensive lists (see the exhaustive Atari 2600/7800 tally) covering all known cartridges and their relative rarity - a must for collectors. In the "magnificent collection of information" category is Greg Chance's Classic Videogames Homepage (www2.ecst.csuchico.edu/~gchance), which covers every known pre-Nintendo home-videogame system and provides an archive of Atari instruction manuals (very useful when you need to know how to play those old carts). For those wanting more immediate gratification, revel in live chat with fellow classics fans on such IRC channels as #classic.
Given the above, it's not surprising to hear that most of the old Activision games made for the Atari 2600 and Intellivision are now being adapted to CD-ROM for use on PCs, or that Atari plans to make updates and sequels to many of its old games for its new Jaguar system. Ahh, nostalgia in the data age; digital romps down read only memory lanes. You can't stop progress, but you can make it take you home.
Ed Stastny (ed@synergy.net)
Future Fetish
Design student Hugo Manassei doesn't believe "industrial design really changes people's lives." He may be right - but it can sure make for one hell of an interesting Web page. Manassei's alma mater, The Glasgow School of Art (now celebrating its 150th anniversary) has put the Department of Product Design's degree show into HTML format (www.mech.gla.ac.uk/~gsapd/sig.htm). These pages, constructed by Manassei, are every bit as fine-tooled as the items they showcase. By clicking on pleasantly sparse image maps, you can select categories such as furniture, CAD, packaging, systems, and concepts. A vivid combination of beauty and utility, some of these items are certain to pop up in Wired's Fetish section. Your eyes will pore over everything from digital wallets to bottled-water packaging geared for kids. The Urban and Transport Design section showcases the most interesting creations: an art deco electric motorbike, and, for the weary pedestrian, public obelisks to lean on. Perhaps Manassei underestimates the power of good design.
Godzilla versus the Web Monster
Before Mozilla, there was the original big, green Tokyo-stomper, Godzilla, who now has his own home page. Lumber over to www.ama.caltech.edu/~mrm/godzilla.html and learn the finer points of urban destruction in technicolor. Your eyes will glaze at the sight of monster-sized, modem-crushing gifs, and you'll screech with delight at the complete filmography, plus stills of the green behemoth ripping the flesh off various leviathans. But whatever you do, don't miss the scintillating 'Zilla trivia. Question: What actor got his start dubbing Godzilla films? Answer: George Takei!
Streams Online Media Development
Piercing Mildred is a bookmark for sure. Here's a site dedicated to the two favorite pastimes of the '90s: body modification and the Internet. Puncture in at .
This Server's Dead-On
Haven't heard much about John Candy lately. Did he croak? Find the answer without embarrassing yourself (or him) at the Dead People Server, professor Rich Holmes's tribute to the dearly departed - and the defiantly durable.
Dead People lists more than 100 past and present celebrities - those who've moved on to the beyond as well as those who might be considered dead because of age, drug habit, or lack of work. Included are "Mikey" from the Life cereal ads (alive), Frank Zappa (dead), and Elvis Presley (reports vary). Goner entries include a date of departure and cause of death: John Candy checked out in '94 of a heart attack, Kurt Cobain in '95 of ... angst. The server offers lots of links, both for those still kicking and those who've kicked the bucket: place your pointer on George Burns to view ASCII art of the persistent comic, or on John Lennon for a quick biography of the short-lived musician.
Holmes, who teaches and studies physics at Syracuse University, is fairly confident of his facts, but he's been known to list living as dead. So, don't buy that black frock till you're sure. Peek into the casket at .
A Life Raft on the Web
Doris was punched when she was pregnant, slapped if dinner was a minute late, and shoved and beaten when dinner was on time. Her story is just one of the harsh threads of domestic reality woven together by the Net life raft Shattered Love Broken Lives. First published locally by The Standard-Times of New Bedford, Massachusetts, Shattered Love is a collection of more than 60 articles exploring the causes of and possible solutions to domestic violence. Now digitized and hyperlinked, the Shattered Love site is a brutal reminder of the painful reality faced by so many. Explore this arresting site of shadows at www.ultranet.com/newstandard/projects/DomVio/domviohome.HTML.
Here Come the Fuzz
An innovative edge on the hyperspatial-event horizon, hyperFuzzy is a self-generating media trigger-hub of ideas, philosophy, and new memes that explode in colorful and optimistic frequencies. The Fuzzy collective wraps the Internet voyager in rich folds of energy that balance counterculture with the culture itself. What emerges is a virtual, intellectual tsunami.
Guest transmitters including Jon Hassell, Howard Rheingold, Douglas Rushkoff, and Fuzzy MVP (Most Valuable Philosopher) Timothy Leary contemplate the wealth of alchemical power available to the cybernaut, and remind us again and again that it's all about evolution and empowerment. (And by all means don't miss the hyperFuzzy bazaar - a profoundly exciting new model for future Net commerce.) Fuzzify yourself at www.hyperfuzzy.com. This is not mere experience, this is evolution in action.
Detail Oriented
Whether you're a die-hard kung-fu aficionado or just appreciate John Woo by way of Quentin Tarantino, alt.asian-movies is your ticket. From Akira Kurosawa's oeuvre via the filmography of Jackie Chan to Jet Li's sword-fighting films, alt.asian-movies is a veritable multiplex of Asian cinematic info and Otaku-esque factoids. (Now, if it only had some RealAudio effects....)
The Wide World of World Wide (Web) Sports
Sure, the football season's in full swing, but you may feel you're neglecting all those other sports you follow. You know, surfing, wrestling, full-contact badminton.... Whatever your poison, chances are the World Wide Web of Sports covers it. Found at www.tns.lcs.mit.edu/cgi-bin/sports/, this gold mine covers everything from football to baseball, soccer to golf, frisbee to cricket. Even less mainstream sports - like running, rowing, and rugby - are given "air time." And speaking of air time, jump to the Michael Jordan page, covering his basketball (not baseball) career. If that's still not enough to turn a couch potato into a cyberjock, how about "plays-of-the-day" video clips, upcoming schedules, and links to Sports Illustrated, ESPNET, and other action-packed pages. Just do it.
Random ASCII art o' the month
Virtual Couch Potato
e\/#|_ (_|_###\ ___| |_
hURL!
Sure, we may be pushing the pun a bit too far, but this site definitely ... errr ... speaks for itself. Was this a happily timed candid? Is that guy with the cup trying to catch some for later? Take a deep breath, travel to , and see if you can't find some answers. (Be prepared, and remember, this comes to you from the employee Web page at Silicon Graphics. Our guess is that those SGI folks are just a liiiiittle overworked.)
And HEEEeeerrrre They Are!...
Let's face it, it's a pretty lonesome journey cruising the bleak boulevards of cyberspace. After all, what good's a T-1 connection if no one's there to share the bandwidth? Fret no more! The World Wide Web Dating Game can help. Here, you just might find that certain special someone - the Michael to your Lisa Marie (or vice versa). Think of it as a hybrid of the popular TV show of old, and its more recent incarnation, Love Connection (without Jim Lange or Chuck Woolery). Just send in a scanned photo and a short bio by e-mail, and answer the five tantalizing questions from the contestants. If the online "audience" likes your answers, you'll be on your way to an IRL mystery date. The Dating Game will even reimburse you up to US$75, more than enough clams for a swell night on the town and breakfast at some plush locale like Denny's. Can an online newlywed game be just around the virtual corner? Set your love compass to www.cid.com/cid/date and get set to play the ultimate game.
The Geometry Site, located at www.geom.umn.edu/pix/archive/top.html/, offers elegant, visual representations of fractals, crystals, differential equations, and much more. This is math you've got to see.
Thanks to the Wired 3.11 Surf Team
Jeff Baskin jbaskin@cruzio.com
Michael "Ernie" Behar michaelb@wiredmag.com
Mandy "Mandolin" Erickson mandy@wired.com
JC Herz mischief@phantom.com
John Reul JohnReul@aol.com
Brent Sampson brents@rmii.com
Dan Sicko pp002580@interramp.com
Ed Stastny ed@synergy.net
