The files linked below have been scanned, copied, digitized, recorded or scraped for archival purposes, and are copyrighted by their respective owners.
Books
When the World Was New: Stories of the Sahtú Dene by George Blondin (1990).
Some of my academic work involved indigenous phenomenology and linguistics. I was excited to discover George Blondin's careful re-tellings of Sahtú Dene oral history, and shocked that no digital edition of the book existed anywhere. It has been out of print for decades.
Ultima VII: The Comic by Damien Barban.
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. Voyager Expanded Books for the Macintosh.
Voyager Expanded Books were very early e-book editions for the Apple Macintosh of the early 1990s. Jurassic Park's layout was originally created on a Macintosh (using ClarisWorks), as is evident in the tables used for computer graphics in certain chapters. This particular book had not been archived by the team over at Macintosh Garden, and at considerable expense, I bought a copy on eBay for imaging and digitizing. The e-book has a beautiful cover that looks striking on a monochrome Powerbook, with hand-drawn pixel art for dinosaurs in several places. There are even dinosaur sounds that play when certain words are clicked on. This piece bends the concept of an e-book into interactive book territory.
ALEX Magazine (September - October, 1990) by Bell Telephone/ALEXTel.
ALEXTel was a late-era attempt at developing a teletext network in Canada. This particular magazine came in an ALEXTel terminal I purchased in 2022, and acts as an advertisement and listing for their online services.
IKEA Canada Catalogue (Summer 1986)
Games
The Betrayal at Krondor Help Web
A labour of love by its creator, Professor Eysteinn Björnsson of Iceland. The BAK Help Web as it is known, has been online since the mid-1990s as an online resource for Betrayal at Krondor aficionados and players alike. After Björnsson died in 2021, mid-pandemic, I took upon the responsibility of re-hosting his website on my server. At the time, I had planned on only hosting the files as they existed. Over time, updates to the website turned me into its webmaster and historian.
Portal (1986) by Rob Swigart. Activision and Nexa Corporation for the Macintosh.
This very early interactive book was originally programmed for the Macintosh, but was extremely difficult to find. After ten years of constant searching, I purchased it on eBay for archival purposes. It is a prime example of how perfect the Macintosh of the 1980s could be as an interactive book platform. Part game, part novel, Swigart's Portal is one of the best science fiction experiences I have ever had on a computer.
Ultima VII: The Black Gate Design Document Archive
Ultima Online Odyssey: Ruins & Riches by Britain Knights
Ultima Online: The Second Age Demo (Windows)
This demo was found on the Ultima Online CD, and contains a copy of the server and client, which allows the player to play a single-player version of the game. This local server software partly led to the development of server emulator projects that exist today.
Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Youth Design Archive (Misja van Laatum)
A memorial page for my friend and colleague Geoff, who passed away and will be remembered for his kind nature and coding skills.
Klaus Breuer's Games & Utilities
Bolo Home Page (Joseph Lo & Chris Hwang)
Multimedia
Stephen Biesty's Incredible Cross-Sections: Stowaway! CD-ROM (Windows)
The Secrets of DaVinci: The Forbidden Manuscript (Mac OS X)
I Mother Earth: Scenery & Fish Enhanced CD (Macintosh & Windows)
Grevious Angels: Waiting for the Cage Enhanced CD (Macintosh & Windows)
In Your Face: The Best of Interactive Interface Design (Macintosh & Windows)
In Your Face Too!: The Best Interactive Interface Designs (Macintosh & Windows)
The In Your Face books came out during the "Web 1.0" era, showcasing what were considered the most beautiful, imaginative and interesting user interfaces for web sites and CD-ROMs of the time. Now, the CDs that were included in the books are a treasure trove of mid-1990s and early-2000s visual design. Most of the demos included are built with Macromedia Director.
Cousteau's World Volume I: Cities Under the Sea by Enteractive (Windows)
A long-forgotten interactive edutainment title that explores the ocean and its biota. It is notable for its gorgeous futuristic 3D pre-rendered interface and Macromedia Director-like interactivity.
Piracy
The ATLANTiS Oldwarez Group Release Archive
In the early 2000s I enjoyed running an "oldwarez" piracy group with a few friends on IRC (EFnet), which was an early attempt at video game preservation. Long before companies like GOG existed, old computer games were treated as a sad and happily-forgotten backhistory by most gamers. Sites like Home of the Underdogs often provided copies of old games, but they were either uncracked or lacked the documentation to be playable. Our group focused on providing very high quality releases, pre-cracked and with all the documentation necessary to enjoy the game. After losing my only copy of our releases a decade ago, I was grateful that a USENET user by the name of "spam_musubi" collected them all and had them stashed on an old hard drive.
Software
Hypercard Heaven (Jim Stephenson)
Mr. TAXI's Palm Pilot Homepage
NetSurf '97 Internet Starter Kit (University of Alberta)
Planet Source Code Jumbo Resource CD for Visual Basic (Vol. I - VII)
World Wide Web
The Amateur Computerist Magazine Official Mirror
Audio
The Chicago Recording Company Sessions by Nine Inch Nails (320 Kbit)
Evergreen Nights by Lisa Lougheed (Cassette Remaster)
Betrayal at Krondor Soundtrack by Jan Paul Moorehead (Mastered on Roland SC-55)
Ultima Online Soundtrack by Kirk Winterrowd (Mastered on Sound Blaster AWE64)
Origin Audio CD Volume 3 by George Oldziey, et al.
Ultima Online Client Sound Library
Television
The Artists: A 10-Part Documentary Series on Videogames. CBC Gem.
Code Rush: A Year in the Life of Silicon Valley Supernova Netscape by David Winton (2000)
Podcasts
Battle Vortex Audio Show: An Ultima Online Podcast by William J. Purvis
A very early pre-podcast era Internet radio show that talked about Ultima Online during its peak era. Thanks to the hard work of user "Draculaskitten" and its creator "Fear", we recovered all known episodes of the show. It is a fascinating peek into the development of the MMORPG that shaped the entire future of online role-playing games.
The Blue Cup Tools Podcast by Francisco Gonzalez and Ben Chandler
