Everybody get up, it's time to slam now
August 19, 2015 1:49 PM Subscribe
The original website for the movie Space Jam, still up and mostly functional on Warner Brothers' servers, is an incredible time capsule of mid-90s web design. In 'Space Jam' Forever: The Website That Wouldn't Die, Erik Malinowski profiles the the site and its creators. The site was rediscovered in 2010 and likely would have been taken down by Warner if two of its original creators weren't still with the company.
Marvel at the tales of transparent spacer .gifs, snarky comments in the site's HTML, and Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in 14 Days!
Marvel at the tales of transparent spacer .gifs, snarky comments in the site's HTML, and Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in 14 Days!
Web design was at least a little creative and interesting back then. No one does wacky stuff like circular menus these days.
posted by octothorpe at 1:54 PM on August 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 1:54 PM on August 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
Recommended listening for this thread: the comeonandslam channel on YouTube, for all your Quad City DJs mashup needs.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 1:56 PM on August 19, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by escape from the potato planet at 1:56 PM on August 19, 2015 [6 favorites]
I think I came across a parallel port Zip Drive a few weeks ago but I'm not sure I still have a computer with parallel ports anymore.
Well at least they have it backed up on Zip Disks instead of a Jaz Drive.
posted by vuron at 1:57 PM on August 19, 2015 [6 favorites]
Well at least they have it backed up on Zip Disks instead of a Jaz Drive.
posted by vuron at 1:57 PM on August 19, 2015 [6 favorites]
I'm welling up with tears that Malinowski's article isn't An Oral History Of The Space Jam Website.
posted by griphus at 1:59 PM on August 19, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by griphus at 1:59 PM on August 19, 2015 [3 favorites]
all your Quad City DJs mashup needs
As if one channel could ever meet those.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:00 PM on August 19, 2015 [5 favorites]
As if one channel could ever meet those.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:00 PM on August 19, 2015 [5 favorites]
Pathfinder portal
Now there's a name I've not heard in a long time... a long time.
posted by entropicamericana at 2:01 PM on August 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
Now there's a name I've not heard in a long time... a long time.
posted by entropicamericana at 2:01 PM on August 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
And it's not an oral history because back in 1996, it was the style of the time to code by hand and write in paragraphs with onions tied to our belts.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:08 PM on August 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:08 PM on August 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
Wait... there's going to be an Independence Day sequel?
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 2:09 PM on August 19, 2015
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 2:09 PM on August 19, 2015
It remains, to this day, the highest-grossing basketball movie ever made.
Jimmy Chitwood pulls his coat tight around him, and walks alone into the grey Indiana winter...
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:11 PM on August 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
Jimmy Chitwood pulls his coat tight around him, and walks alone into the grey Indiana winter...
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:11 PM on August 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
Web design was at least a little creative and interesting back then. No one does wacky stuff like circular menus these days.
It'll probably come back around again sometime. Flat design is a trend as much as skeuomorphism was, and swooshes in everyone's logos before that, and flash-like vector drawing was before that.
posted by chimaera at 2:34 PM on August 19, 2015
It'll probably come back around again sometime. Flat design is a trend as much as skeuomorphism was, and swooshes in everyone's logos before that, and flash-like vector drawing was before that.
posted by chimaera at 2:34 PM on August 19, 2015
Glittery black background: check
Blink: check
Frames: check
It's Geocities!
posted by oheso at 2:39 PM on August 19, 2015
Blink: check
Frames: check
It's Geocities!
posted by oheso at 2:39 PM on August 19, 2015
Tired of that glowing "N" up in the corner? Change it to our hypercool spinning basketball.
Unfortunately, this only works on a Macintosh running Netscape; sorry, Windows users.
posted by Kabanos at 2:41 PM on August 19, 2015 [9 favorites]
Unfortunately, this only works on a Macintosh running Netscape; sorry, Windows users.
posted by Kabanos at 2:41 PM on August 19, 2015 [9 favorites]
Recommended listening for this thread: the comeonandslam channel on YouTube, for all your Quad City DJs mashup needs.
As if one channel could ever meet those.
Perhaps r/comeonandslam will be a useful supplement.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:44 PM on August 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
As if one channel could ever meet those.
Perhaps r/comeonandslam will be a useful supplement.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:44 PM on August 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
I was *born* ready to jam.
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:45 PM on August 19, 2015
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:45 PM on August 19, 2015
Tired of that glowing "N" up in the corner? Change it to our hypercool spinning basketball.
Unfortunately, this only works on a Macintosh running Netscape; sorry, Windows users.
And they literally hand you a copy of ResEdit and ask you to replace the resource in Netscape. Genius!
posted by zachlipton at 2:50 PM on August 19, 2015 [16 favorites]
Unfortunately, this only works on a Macintosh running Netscape; sorry, Windows users.
And they literally hand you a copy of ResEdit and ask you to replace the resource in Netscape. Genius!
posted by zachlipton at 2:50 PM on August 19, 2015 [16 favorites]
Clicked that link for the comeonandslam YouTube list and I was like, shit, did I accidentally leave FTL running in the background again? Because that's been happening a lot.
posted by bbuda at 3:02 PM on August 19, 2015
posted by bbuda at 3:02 PM on August 19, 2015
So I'm like, surely this is a double--I saw this a few months ago on MeFi.
Previously . . .
Ah good. I'm not going crazy. *clicks Previously link*
Come on and slam, and welcome to the jam!
December 29, 2010 10:37 AM Subscribe
OK, I'm not just old, I am actually coming unstuck in time.
posted by The Bellman at 3:10 PM on August 19, 2015 [3 favorites]
Previously . . .
Ah good. I'm not going crazy. *clicks Previously link*
Come on and slam, and welcome to the jam!
December 29, 2010 10:37 AM Subscribe
OK, I'm not just old, I am actually coming unstuck in time.
posted by The Bellman at 3:10 PM on August 19, 2015 [3 favorites]
ResEdit: king of tools, tool of kings.
So much fun, digging in application resource forks. Bungie used to leave messages there in the Marathon days.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 3:34 PM on August 19, 2015 [10 favorites]
So much fun, digging in application resource forks. Bungie used to leave messages there in the Marathon days.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 3:34 PM on August 19, 2015 [10 favorites]
So in my office we have a student worker and an intern, and our designer was taking them on a tour of the history of layout in web design. Ending with flexbox, which as an old-timer: OMG MAGIC.
I sat in as the requisite "onion on the belt". While we were talking about the olden days, I remembered Space Jam (a Twitter friend's significant other created @spacejamisdown and @spacejamcheck), so we used that to show them a little bit about table-based layouts.
The student worker is 38, but she's new to webdev. The intern is 22 and got started playing with HTML & CSS in MySpace "as a kid."
posted by epersonae at 5:09 PM on August 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
I sat in as the requisite "onion on the belt". While we were talking about the olden days, I remembered Space Jam (a Twitter friend's significant other created @spacejamisdown and @spacejamcheck), so we used that to show them a little bit about table-based layouts.
The student worker is 38, but she's new to webdev. The intern is 22 and got started playing with HTML & CSS in MySpace "as a kid."
posted by epersonae at 5:09 PM on August 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
I think I came across a parallel port Zip Drive a few weeks ago but I'm not sure I still have a computer with parallel ports anymore.
I sat in on a recording session about two months ago with a producer who was making beats on a sequencer that saved to a Zip drive. His son was also sitting in the studio making beats on a MacBook. It was surreal.
posted by vibrotronica at 6:48 PM on August 19, 2015
I sat in on a recording session about two months ago with a producer who was making beats on a sequencer that saved to a Zip drive. His son was also sitting in the studio making beats on a MacBook. It was surreal.
posted by vibrotronica at 6:48 PM on August 19, 2015
Bungie used to leave messages there in the Marathon days.
When they weren't leaving cryptic blocks of hexidecimal numbers in in-game computer terminals, that you were mean to paste into ResEdit, and then perform a few other obscure file operations, to get the secret level.
posted by radwolf76 at 7:12 PM on August 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
When they weren't leaving cryptic blocks of hexidecimal numbers in in-game computer terminals, that you were mean to paste into ResEdit, and then perform a few other obscure file operations, to get the secret level.
posted by radwolf76 at 7:12 PM on August 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Tetris mashup works far better than it has any right to.
posted by kaibutsu at 7:26 PM on August 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by kaibutsu at 7:26 PM on August 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
Wait... there's going to be an Independence Day sequel?
Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman are both in (as well as some others from the original). Will Smith is out. It's due out next summer.
posted by sparkletone at 1:38 AM on August 20, 2015
Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman are both in (as well as some others from the original). Will Smith is out. It's due out next summer.
posted by sparkletone at 1:38 AM on August 20, 2015
The Bellman: "OK, I'm not just old, I am actually coming unstuck in time."
I regularly think, "Now, I know we talked about this relatively recently," and then it turns out to have been posted more than five years ago.
I also think of 1998's "Interplanetary" as that fairly new-ish Beastie Boys song.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:48 AM on August 20, 2015
I regularly think, "Now, I know we talked about this relatively recently," and then it turns out to have been posted more than five years ago.
I also think of 1998's "Interplanetary" as that fairly new-ish Beastie Boys song.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:48 AM on August 20, 2015
Well, that's not too bad. That song's only, what, 7-8 years old, right?
posted by entropicamericana at 12:45 PM on August 20, 2015
posted by entropicamericana at 12:45 PM on August 20, 2015
You can make an Independence Day sequel without Will Smith???
posted by subdee at 1:22 PM on August 20, 2015
posted by subdee at 1:22 PM on August 20, 2015
Science has made remarkable advances in the last twenty years.
posted by sparkletone at 2:03 PM on August 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by sparkletone at 2:03 PM on August 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
If we're talking about secrets in old computer games there was that old post about Action Half Life and the AHL_5AM map.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:12 PM on August 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Going To Maine at 2:12 PM on August 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
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posted by zsazsa at 1:51 PM on August 19, 2015 [15 favorites]