HomeFeaturesHypnospace Outlaw
Hypnospace Outlaw is a time capsule for when the internet used to be funI think you should all start a blog
I think you should all start a blog
Image credit:No More Robots
Image credit:No More Robots
Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer ReviewHypnospace Outlaw spin-off Slayers X is equally nostalgic but in very different ways.Watch on YouTube
Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer Review
If, like me, you daydream endlessly while sitting in front of the computer about those halcyon days of sitting in front of a different, slightly larger computer then may I recommend checking out Hypnospace Outlaw as part of this month’sRPS Game Club? A detective game set within an accurate (if slightly surreal) depiction of the World Wide Web circa 1999, Hypnospace Outlaw serves as an effective time machine for those early days of being online.
Image credit:No More Robots
In 2023, the personalised homepages of Hypnospace are enviably quaint. Garish background colours. Wacky fonts. Obnoxious GIFs and autoplaying MIDI music tracks. As a proud member of the MySpace generation and someone who spent countless evenings hand-coding his Game Boy themed homepage (Damien Rice’sThe Animals Were Gonewould play in the background because I was very deep and interesting), I remember the joy of digital self-expression dearly.
Image credit:No More Robots
Why must we shave the edges off things? Why is Twitter - sorry,X- so boring? Why is TikTok so curated? What happened to forums dedicated to niche interests that allowed me and 43 strangers todiscuss Half-Life 2 modsin great detail? What happened to blogging, writing your thoughts without worrying about algorithms, monetisation and other numeric metrics that dictate your success? Hypnospace is silly and weird and sad, and I think I want that version of the internet back. I don’t want access to it all the time. I don’t want to be given an endless feed of thoughts to absorb. I want to log on to someone’s website just to see if it’s been updated. I want to read thoughts as they were always meant to be consumed. In their own space. In my own time.
Image credit:No More Robots
But look! There they are! So clearly visible in every pixel on the screen. A page about dinosaurs. A page that documents the history of music genres. A page about hot dogs. A page about video games. A blog. A comic. A music track. People, using the internet as a tool for self-expression rather than being subjected to the whims of the most divorced man in history.
I think you should start a blog. It should be messy and weird and riddled with errors. It should be a reflection of you. Or maybe it should be about your cat. It should be filled with your favourite recipes and 300 word movie reviews. No one will read it, except maybe for your friends and your cousins and someone you went to school with 15 years ago. I think that would be nice.
I think that would be better.
