NetMonster: A trip through early 2000s internet and the monsters hidden inside websites!
summary
NetMonster exists circa 1999–2001 as a collectible web game where one URL equals one monster and badges hidden on fan pages generate specific creatures the client recognizes. Source for version version 1.4 lost after a hard drive crash yet the runnable client client runs on Windows 10 still exists at rendon.net. Reconstruction uses Wayback Machine, Geocities torrents and data hoarder archives to recover fan sites, many broken, one collector listing 2400 monsters, freemium unlocks and oddities like looping MIDI and table layouts.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (10)
- 0:00NetMonster and early internet
- 1:04Pre-web 2.0 design
- 2:31What NetMonster was
- 4:17Free website builders
- 5:22Fragility of fan sites
- 6:26Exploring NetMonster fan sites
- 7:55Broken links and lost histories
- 8:37Chris’s site and dot-com burst
- 9:40NetMonster’s disappearance
- 10:01Loss of NetMonster matters
related talks
30mThe Most Annoying Website (aka "The Power of the Web Platform")
28mLet’s web dev like it’s 1999!
38mThe Most Annoying Website (aka "The Power of the Web Platform")
35mLet’s Web Dev Like It’s 1999!
14mEverything Always Everywhere
02mSummit Report – Wendy Ginsberg
42mMaking the web fun again
16mTo Infinity and Beyond: Exploring the Secret Worlds of the Internet
