In Focus: Web 1.0
Artist and director Jay Tholen on creating a nostalgic alternate ’90s internet for the wonderfully weird Hypnospace Outlaw.
OLD SCHOOL
1 “The old web aesthetic is fascinating to me, because all kinds of everyday non-tech people were being drawn into the digital world for the first time. The internet was a blank canvas. There was no visual consistency.”
IMAGE CONSCIOUS
2 “For the bad pre-rendered animated gifs I used old 3D software packages such as Wings3D and Bryce 5.5. I then converted them into my own ‘Hypnospace safe’ 64-color palette using Floyd-Steinberg dithering.”
INTERNET EXPLORER
3 “For the browser I drew up a design and sent it to Mike Lasch, our programmer, who made it real and functional. Over time we added new features such as bookmarks, virtual pets, and a functioning media player.”
NEW BUILD
4 “All of the pages in the game were created using the Hypnospace Page Builder, which we’ve bundled with the game for players to make their own. We’re hoping to add support for creating networks of pages too.”
GOLDEN YEARS
5 “If Hypnospace Outlaw has any kind of message, it’s to scrutinise the fuzzy nostalgia we often cling to, and that very human tendency to measure everything against what we consider ‘the good old days’.”
CUSTOM MADE
6 “Players can change their desktop wallpaper, visual/ window color, sound theme, and screensaver. You can also add stickers to your desktop, customize your ‘start’ menu, and add fancy cursor trails.”