LEFT: Old web pages
were cobbled
together from clipart
CD-ROMs or stolen
from other sites—an
aesthetic Tholen and
his team have
brilliantly recreated
in Hypnospace
Outlaw’s web.BELOW: The drama
of the dreaded
‘Millenium bug’ is one
of many old internet
things skewered by
Hypnospace Outlaw.
The game celebrates
the ’90s web, but
isn’t afraid to
highlight how silly
it was too.RIGHT: It wouldn’t
be the old internet
without an under
construction gif.
Hypnospace will
feature several
classic animated gifs
from Sevenoaks, a
prominent gif maker
from in the 1990s.
GOLDEN YEARS
5
“If Hypnospace Outlaw has any kind
of message, it’s to scrutinize the
fuzzy nostalgia we often cling to, and that
very human tendency to measure
everything against what we consider ‘the
good old days’.”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.”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.”
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.”
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.”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.”WEB 1.
Artist and director Jay Tholen on creating a nostalgic alternate ’90s
internet for the wonderfully weird HYPNOSPACE OUTLAW. By Andy Kelly