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Quake (video game)
| Quake | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | id Software |
| Publisher(s) | GT Interactive[a] |
| Director(s) | John Romero |
| Designer(s) | John Romero American McGee Sandy Petersen Tim Willits |
| Programmer(s) | John Carmack Michael Abrash John Cash |
| Artist(s) | Adrian Carmack Kevin Cloud Paul Steed |
| Composer(s) | |
| Series | Quake |
| Engine | Quake engine[b] |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS, AmigaOS, Classic Mac OS, RISC OS, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, Linux, Microsoft Windows |
| Release |
|
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Quake is a first-person shootervideo game developed by id Software and published by GT Interactive in 1996. It is the first game in the Quake series.[5] In the game, players must find their way through various maze-like, medieval environments while battling a variety of monsters using an array of weaponry. The overall atmosphere is dark and gritty, with many stone textures and a rusty, capitalized font.
The successor to id Software's Doom series, Quake built upon the technology and gameplay of its predecessor.[6] Unlike the Doom engine before it, the Quake engine offered full real-time 3D rendering and had early support for 3D acceleration through OpenGL. After Doom helped to popularize multiplayerdeathmatches in 1993, Quake added various multiplayer options. Online multiplayer became increasingly common, with the QuakeWorld update and software such as QuakeSpy making the process of finding and playing against others on the Internet easier and more reliable.
Quake features music composed by Trent Reznor and his band, Nine Inch Nails.[1]
Gameplay[edit]
In Quake's single-player mode, players explore and navigate to the exit of each Gothic and dark level, facing monsters and finding secret areas along the way. Usually there are switches to activate or keys to collect in order to open doors before the exit can be reached. Reaching the exit takes the player to the next level. Before accessing an episode, there is a set of three pathways with easy, medium, and hard skill levels. The fourth skill level, "Nightmare", was "so bad that it was hidden, so people won't wander in by accident";[7] the player must drop through water before the episode four entrance and go into a secret passage to access it.
Quake's single-player campaign is organized into four individual episodes with seven to eight levels in each (including one secret level per episode, one of which is a "low gravity" level that challenges the player's abilities in a different way). As items are collected, they are carried to the next level. If the player's character dies, he must restart at the beginning of the level. The game may be saved at any time in the PC versions and between levels in the console versions. Upon completing an episode, the player is returned to the hub "START" level, where another episode can be chosen. Each episode starts the player from scratch, without any previously collected items. Episode one (which formed the shareware or downloadable demo version of Quake) has the most traditional ideology of a boss in the last level. The ultimate objective at the end of each episode is to recover a magic rune. After all of the runes are collected, the floor of the hub level opens up to reveal an entrance to the "END" level which contains a final puzzle.
Multiplayer[edit]
In multiplayer mode, players on several computers connect to a server (which may be a dedicated machine or on one of the player's computers), where they can either play the single-player campaign together in co-op (cooperative) mode, or play against each other in multiplayer. When players die in multiplayer mode, they can immediately respawn, but will lose any items that were collected. Similarly, items that have been picked up previously respawn after some time, and may be picked up again. The most popular multiplayer modes are all forms of deathmatch. Deathmatch modes typically consist of either free-for-all (no organization or teams involved), one-on-one duels, or organized teamplay with two or more players per team (or clan). Teamplay is also frequently played with one or another mod. Monsters are not normally present in teamplay, as they serve no purpose other than to get in the way and reveal the positions of the players.
The gameplay in Quake was considered unique for its time because of the different ways the player can maneuver through the game.[citation needed] For example: bunny hopping or strafe jumping can be used to move faster than normal, while rocket jumping enables the player to reach otherwise-inaccessible areas at the cost of some self-damage. The player can start and stop moving suddenly, jump unnaturally high, and change direction while moving through the air. Many of these non-realistic behaviors contribute to Quake's appeal. Multiplayer Quake was one of the first games singled out as a form of electronic sport.[8] A notable participant was Dennis Fong who won John Carmack's Ferrari 328 at the Microsoft-sponsored Red Annihilation tournament in 1997.
Plot[edit]
In the single-player game, the player takes the role of the protagonist known as Ranger (voiced by Trent Reznor)[9] who was sent into a portal in order to stop an enemy code-named "Quake". The government had been experimenting with teleportation technology and developed a working prototype called a "Slipgate"; the mysterious Quake compromised the Slipgate by connecting it with its own teleportation system, using it to send death squads to the "Human" dimension in order to test the martial capabilities of humanity.
The sole surviving protagonist in "Operation Counterstrike" is Ranger, who must advance, starting each of the four episodes from an overrun human military base, before fighting his way into other dimensions, reaching them via the Slipgate or their otherworld equivalent. After passing through the Slipgate, Ranger's main objective is to collect four magic runes from four dimensions of Quake; these are the key to stopping the enemy later discovered as Shub-Niggurath and ending the invasion of Earth.
The single-player campaign consists of 30 separate levels, or "maps", divided into four episodes (with a total of 26 regular maps and four secret ones), as well as a hub level to select a difficulty setting and episode, and the game's final boss level. Each episode represents individual dimensions that the player can access through magical portals (as opposed to the technological Slipgate) that are discovered over the course of the game. The various realms consist of a number of gothic, medieval, and lava-filled caves and dungeons, with a recurring theme of hellish and satanic imagery reminiscent of Doom (such as pentagrams and images of demons on the walls). The game's setting is inspired by several dark fantasy influences, most notably that of H. P. Lovecraft. Dimensional Shamblers appear as enemies, the "Spawn" enemies are called "Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua" in the manual, the boss of the first episode is named Chthon, and the main villain is named Shub-Niggurath (though actually resembling a Dark Young). Some levels have Lovecraftian names, such as the Vaults of Zin and The Nameless City. In addition, six levels exclusively designed for multiplayer deathmatch are also included. Originally, the game was supposed to include more Lovecraftian bosses, but this concept was scrapped due to time constraints.
Development[edit]
A preview included with id's very first release, 1990's Commander Keen, advertised a game entitled The Fight for Justice as a follow-up to the Commander Keen trilogy. It would feature a character named Quake, "the strongest, most dangerous person on the continent", armed with thunderbolts and a "Ring of Regeneration". Conceived as a VGA full-color side-scrollingrole-playing game, The Fight for Justice was never released.
Lead designer and director John Romero later conceived of Quake as an action game taking place in a fully 3D world, inspired by Sega AM2's 3D fighting gameVirtua Fighter. Quake was also intended to feature Virtua Fighter influenced third-person melee combat. However, id Software considered it to be risky. Because the project was taking too long, the third-person melee was eventually dropped. This led to creative differences between Romero and id Software, and eventually his departure from the company after Quake was released.[10][11] Even though he led the project, Romero did not receive any money from Quake.[12] In 2000, Romero released Daikatana, the game that he envisioned what Quake was supposed to be and despite its shaky development and considered to be one of the worst games of all time,[13][14] he said Daikatana was "more fun to make than Quake" due to the lack of creative interference.[15]
Quake was given as a title to the game that id Software was working on shortly after the release of Doom II. The earliest information released described Quake as focusing on a Thor-like character who wields a giant hammer,[16][17][18] and is able to knock away enemies by throwing the hammer (complete with real-time inverse kinematics).[citation needed] Initially, the levels were supposed to be designed in an Aztec style, but the choice was dropped some months into the project.[citation needed] Early screenshots then showed medieval environments and dragons.[citation needed] The plan was for the game to have more RPG-style elements. However, work was very slow on the engine, since John Carmack, the main programmer of Quake, was not only developing a fully 3D engine, but also a TCP/IP networking model (Carmack later said that he should have done two separate projects which developed those things).[citation needed] Working with a game engine that was still in development presented difficulties for the designers.[19]
Eventually, the whole id Software team began to think that the original concept may not have been as wise a choice as they first believed.[18] Thus, the final game was very stripped down from its original intentions, and instead featured gameplay similar to Doom and its sequel, although the levels and enemies were closer to medieval RPG style rather than science-fiction. In a December 1, 1994 post to an online bulletin board, John Romero wrote; "Okay, people. It seems that everyone is speculating on whether Quake is going to be a slow, RPG-style light-action game. Wrong! What does id do best and dominate at? Can you say "action"? I knew you could. Quake will be constant, hectic action throughout – probably more so than Doom".[20]
Quake was programmed by John Carmack, Michael Abrash, and John Cash. The levels and scenarios were designed by American McGee, Sandy Petersen, John Romero, and Tim Willits, and the graphics were designed by Adrian Carmack, Kevin Cloud and Paul Steed. Cloud created the monster and player graphics using Alias.[21]
The game engine developed for Quake, the Quake engine, popularized several major advances in the first-person shooter genre: polygonal models instead of prerenderedsprites; full 3D level design instead of a 2.5D map; prerenderedlightmaps; and allowing end users to partially program the game (in this case with QuakeC), which popularized fan-created modifications (mods).
Before the release of the full game or the shareware version of Quake, id Software released QTest on February 24, 1996. It was described as a technology demo and was limited to three multiplayer maps. There was no single-player support and some of the gameplay and graphics were unfinished or different from their final versions. QTest gave gamers their first peek into the filesystem and modifiability of the Quake engine, and many entity mods (that placed monsters in the otherwise empty multiplayer maps) and custom player skins began appearing online before the full game was even released.[22]
Initially, the game was designed so that when the player ran out of ammunition, the player character would hit enemies with a gun-butt.[18] Shortly before release this was replaced with an axe.
Music and sound design[edit]
Quake's music and sound design was done by Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, using ambient soundscapes and synthesized drones to create atmospheric tracks. In an interview, Reznor remarked that the Quake soundtrack "is not music, it's textures and ambiences and whirling machine noises and stuff. We tried to make the most sinister, depressive, scary, frightening kind of thing... It's been fun".[23] The game also includes an homage to Reznor in the form of ammo boxes for the "Nailgun" and "Super Nailgun" decorated with the Nine Inch Nails logo.
Digital re-releases lack the CD soundtrack that came with the original shareware release. Players can download the soundtrack online to recover it.
Ports[edit]
The first port to be completed was the Linux port Quake 0.91 by id Software employee Dave D. Taylor on July 5, 1996,[3] followed by a SPARC Solaris port later that year also by Taylor. The first commercially released port was the port to Mac OS, done by MacSoft and Lion Entertainment, Inc. (the latter company ceased to exist just prior to the port's release,[24] leading to MacSoft's involvement) in late August 1997.[4] ClickBOOM announced version for Amiga-computers in 1998.[25] Finally in 1999, a retail version of the Linux port was distributed by Macmillan Digital Publishing USA in a bundle with the three add-ons as Quake: The Offering.[26][27][28]
Quake was also ported to home console systems. On December 2, 1997, the game was released for the Sega Saturn. Initially GT Interactive was to publish this version itself,[29] but it later cancelled the release and the Saturn rights were picked up by Sega.[30] Sega then took the project away from the original development team, who had been encountering difficulties getting the port to run at a decent frame rate, and assigned it to Lobotomy Software.[31] The Sega Saturn port used Lobotomy Software's own 3D game engine, SlaveDriver (the same game engine that powered the Sega Saturn versions of PowerSlave and Duke Nukem 3D), instead of the original Quake engine.[32] It is the only version of Quake that is rated "T" for Teen instead of "M" for Mature.
Quake had also been ported to the SonyPlayStation by Lobotomy Software, but the port was cancelled due to difficulties in finding a publisher. A port of Quake for the Atari Jaguar was also advertized as 30% complete in a May 1996 issue of Ultimate Future Games magazine, but it was never released.[33][34] Another port of Quake was also slated for Panasonic M2 but never occurred due to the cancellation of the system.[35]
On March 24, 1998, the game was released for the Nintendo 64 by Midway Games. This version was developed by the same programming team that worked on Doom 64,[36] at id Software's request.[37] The Nintendo 64 version was originally slated to be released in 1997, but Midway delayed it until March 1998 to give the team time to implement the deathmatch modes.[38]
Both console ports required compromises because of the limited CPU power and ROM storage space for levels. For example, the levels were rebuilt in the Saturn version in order to simplify the architecture, thereby reducing demands on the CPU.[39] The Sega Saturn version includes 28 of the 32 single-player levels from the original PC version of the game, though the secret levels, Ziggurat Vertigo (E1M8), The Underearth (E2M7), The Haunted Halls (E3M7), and The Nameless City (E4M8), were removed. Instead, it has four exclusive secret levels: Purgatorium, Hell's Aerie, The Coliseum, and Watery Grave. It also contains an exclusive unlockable, "Dank & Scuz", which is a story set in the Quake milieu and presented in the form of a slide show with voice acting. There are no multiplayer modes in the Sega Saturn version; as a result of this, all of the deathmatch maps from the PC version were removed from the Sega Saturn port. The Nintendo 64 version includes 25 single-player levels from the PC version, though it is missing The Grisly Grotto (E1M4), The Installation (E2M1), The Ebon Fortress (E2M4), The Wind Tunnels (E3M5), The Sewage System (E4M1), and Hell's Atrium (E4M5) levels. It also does not use the hub "START" map where the player chooses a difficulty level and an episode; the difficulty level is chosen from a menu when starting the game, and all of the levels are played in sequential order from The Slipgate Complex (E1M1) to Shub Niggurath's Pit (END). The Nintendo 64 version, while lacking the cooperative multiplayer mode, includes two player deathmatch. All six of the deathmatch maps from the PC version are in the Nintendo 64 port, and an exclusive deathmatch level, The Court of Death, is also included.
Two ports of Quake for the Nintendo DS exist, QuakeDS[40] and CQuake.[41] Both run well, however, multiplayer does not work on QuakeDS.[40] Since the source code for Quake was released, a number of unofficial ports have been made available for PDAs and mobile phones, such as PocketQuake, as well as versions for the Symbian S60 series of mobile phones and Android mobile phones.[42][43][44] The Rockbox project also distributes a version of Quake that runs on some MP3 players.[45]
In 2005, id Software signed a deal with publisher Pulse Interactive to release a version of Quake for mobile phones. The game was engineered by Californian company Bear Naked Productions.[46] Initially due to be released on only two mobile phones, the Samsung Nexus (for which it was to be an embedded game) and the LG VX360.[47]Quake mobile was reviewed by GameSpot on the Samsung Nexus and they cited its US release as October 2005; they also gave it a Best Mobile Game" in their E3 2005 Editor's Choice Awards.[48]It is unclear as to whether the game actually did ship with the Samsung Nexus. The game is only available for the DELL x50v and x51v both of which are PDAs not mobile phones.[48]Quake Mobile does not feature the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack due to space constraints.[47]Quake Mobile runs the most recent version of GL Quake (Quake v.1.09 GL 1.00) at 800x600 resolution and 25 fps. The most recent version of Quake Mobile is v.1.20 which has stylus support. There was an earlier version v.1.19 which lacked stylus support. The two Quake expansion packs, Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity, are also available for Quake Mobile.
A Flash-based version of the game by Michael Rennie runs Quake at full speed in any Flash-enabled web browser. Based on the shareware version of the game, it includes only the first episode and is available for free on the web.[49]
Mods and add-ons[edit]
Quake can be heavily modified by altering the graphics, audio, or scripting in QuakeC, and has been the focus of many fan created "mods". The first mods were small gameplay fixes and patches initiated by the community, usually enhancements to weapons or gameplay with new enemies. Later mods were more ambitious and resulted in Quake fans creating versions of the game that were drastically different from id Software's original release.
The first major Quake mod was Team Fortress. This mod consists of Capture the Flag gameplay with a class system for the players. Players choose a class, which creates various restrictions on weapons and armor types available to that player, and also grants special abilities. For example, the bread-and-butter Soldier class has medium armor, medium speed, and a well-rounded selection of weapons and grenades, while the Scout class is lightly armored, very fast, has a scanner that detects nearby enemies, but has very weak offensive weapons. One of the other differences with CTF is the fact that the flag is not returned automatically when a player drops it: running over one's flag in Threewave CTF would return the flag to the base, and in TF the flag remains in the same spot for preconfigured time and it has to be defended on remote locations. This caused a shift in defensive tactics compared to Threewave CTF. Team Fortress maintained its standing as the most-played online Quake modification for many years. Team Fortress would go on to become Team Fortress Classic and get a sequel, Team Fortress 2.
Another popular mod was ThreewaveCapture the Flag (CTF), primarily authored by Dave 'Zoid' Kirsch. Threewave CTF is a partial conversion consisting of new levels, a new weapon (a grappling hook), power-ups, new textures, and new gameplay rules. Typically, two teams (red and blue) would compete in a game of Capture the flag, though a few maps with up to four teams (red, blue, green, and yellow) were created. Capture the Flag soon became a standard game mode included in most popular multiplayer games released after Quake. Rocket Arena provides the ability for players to face each other in small, open arenas with changes in the gameplay rules so that item collection and detailed level knowledge are no longer factors. A series of short rounds, with the surviving player in each round gaining a point, instead tests the player's aiming and dodging skills and reflexes. Clan Arena is a further modification that provides team play using Rocket Arena rules. One mod category, "bots", was introduced to provide surrogate players in multiplayer mode.
Arcane Dimensions is a singleplayer mod. It's a partial conversion with breakable objects and walls, enhanced particle system, numerous visual improvements and new enemies and weapons. The level design is much more complex in terms of geometry and gameplay than in the original game.[50][51]
There are a large number of custom levels that have been made by users and fans of Quake. As of 2019[update], new maps are still being made, over twenty years since the game's release. Custom maps are new maps that are playable by loading them into the original game. Custom levels of various gameplay types have been made, but most are in the single-player and deathmatch genres. More than 1500 single-player and a similar number of deathmatch maps have been made for Quake.[52]
Reception[edit]
Sales[edit]
According to David Kushner in Masters of Doom, id Software released a retail shareware version of Quake before the game's full retail distribution by GT Interactive. These shareware copies could be converted into complete versions through passwords purchased via phone. However, Kushner wrote that "gamers wasted no time hacking the shareware to unlock the full version of the game for free". This problem, combined with the scale of the operation, led id Software to cancel the plan. As a result, the company was left with 150,000 unsold shareware copies in storage. The venture damaged Quake's initial sales and caused its retail push by GT Interactive to miss the holiday shopping season. Following the game's full release, Kushner remarked that its early "sales were good — with 250,000 units shipped — but not a phenomenon like Doom II".[53]
In the United States, Quake placed sixth on PC Data's monthly computer game sales charts for November and December 1996.[54] Its shareware edition was the sixth-best-selling computer game of 1996 overall, while its retail SKU claimed 20th place.[55] It remained in PC Data's monthly top 10 from January to April 1997,[56][57][58][59] but was absent by May.[60] During its first 12 months, Quake sold 373,000 retail copies and earned $18 million in the United States, according to PC Data.[61] Its final retail sales for 1997 were 273,936 copies, which made it the country's 16th-highest computer game seller for the year.[62]
Sales of Quake reached 550,000 units in the United States alone by December 1999.[63] Worldwide, it sold 1.1 million units by that date.[64]
Critical reviews[edit]
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Quake was critically acclaimed on the PC. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the original PC version 93% and 94/100,[65][67] and the Nintendo 64 port 76% and 74/100.[66][68] A Next Generation critic lauded the game's realistic 3D physics and genuinely unnerving sound effects.[72]GamePro said Quake had been over-hyped but is excellent nonetheless, particularly its usage of its advanced 3D engine. The review also praised the sound effects, atmospheric music, and graphics, though it criticized that the polygons used to construct the enemies are too obvious at close range.[77]
Many critics have cited Quake as one of the best video games ever made. Next Generation listed it as number 9 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", saying that it is similar to Doom but supports a maximum of eight players instead of four.[78] In 1996, Computer Gaming World declared Quake the 36th-best computer game ever released,[79] and listed "telefragged" as #1 on its list of "the 15 best ways to die in computer gaming".[80] In 1997, the Game Developers Choice Awards gave Quake three spotlight awards for Best Sound Effects, Best Music or Soundtrack and Best On-Line/Internet Game.[81]
Entertainment Weekly gave the game a B+ and wrote that "an extended bit of subterranean mayhem that offers three major improvements over its immediate predecessor [Doom]".[82]
Next Generation reviewed the Macintosh version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "though replay value is limited by the lack of interactive environments or even the semblance of a plot, there's no doubt that Quake and its engine are something powerful and addictive".[73]
Next Generation reviewed the Saturn version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and said that "Quake for Saturn is simply a latecoming showpiece for the system's power".[74]
Next Generation reviewed the Nintendo 64 version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "as a whole, Quake 64 doesn't live up to the experience offered by the high-end, 3D-accelerated PC version; it is, however, an entertaining gaming experience that is worthy of a close look and a nice addition to the blossoming number of first-person shooters for Nintendo 64".[75]
Next Generation reviewed the arcade version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and claimed that "for those who don't have LAN or internet capabilities, check out arcade Quake. It's a blast".[76]
In 1998, PC Gamer declared it the 28th-best computer game ever released, and the editors called it "one of the most addictive, adaptable, and pulse-pounding 3D shooters ever created".[83]
Speedruns[edit]
As an example of the dedication that Quake has inspired in its fan community, a group of expert players recorded speedrun demos (replayable recordings of the player's movement) of Quake levels completed in record time on the "Nightmare" skill level. The footage was edited into a continuous 19 minutes, 49 seconds demo called Quake done Quick and released on June 10, 1997. Owners of Quake could replay this demo in the game engine, watching the run unfold as if they were playing it themselves.
This involved a number of players recording run-throughs of individual levels, using every trick and shortcut they could discover in order to minimize the time it took to complete, usually to a degree that even the original level designers found difficult to comprehend, and in a manner that often bypassed large areas of the level. Stitching a series of the fastest runs together into a coherent whole created a demonstration of the entire game. Recamming is also used with speedruns in order to make the experience more movie-like, with arbitrary control of camera angles, editing, and sound that can be applied with editing software after the runs are first recorded. However, the fastest possible time for a given level will not necessarily result in the fastest time used to contribute to "running" the entire game. One example is acquiring the grenade launcher in an early level, an act that slows down the time for that level over the best possible, but speeds up the overall game time by allowing the runner to bypass a large area in a later level that they could not otherwise do.
A second attempt, Quake done Quicker, reduced the completion time to 16 minutes, 35 seconds (a reduction of 3 minutes, 14 seconds). Quake done Quicker was released on September 13, 1997. One of the levels included was the result of an online competition to see who could get the fastest time. The culmination of this process of improvement was Quake done Quick with a Vengeance. Released three years to the day after Quake done Quicker, this pared down the time taken to complete all four episodes, on Nightmare (hardest) difficulty, to 12 minutes, 23 seconds (a further reduction of 4 minutes, 12 seconds), partly by using techniques that had formerly been shunned in such films as being less aesthetically pleasing. This run was recorded as an in-game demo, but interest was such that an .avi video clip was created to allow those without the game to see the run.
Most full-game speedruns are a collaborative effort by a number of runners (though some have been done by single runners on their own). Although each particular level is credited to one runner, the ideas and techniques used are iterative and collaborative in nature, with each runner picking up tips and ideas from the others, so that speeds keep improving beyond what was thought possible as the runs are further optimized and new tricks or routes are discovered. Further time improvements of the continuous whole game run were achieved into the 21st century. In addition, many thousands of individual level runs are kept at Speed Demos Archive's Quake section, including many on custom maps. Speedrunning is a counterpart to multiplayer modes in making Quake one of the first games promoted as a virtual sport.
Legacy[edit]
The source code of the Quake and QuakeWorld engines was licensed under the GPL on December 21, 1999. The id Software maps, objects, textures, sounds, and other creative works remain under their original proprietary license. The shareware distribution of Quake is still freely redistributable and usable with the GPLed engine code. One must purchase a copy of Quake in order to receive the registered version of the game which includes more single-player episodes and the deathmatch maps. Based on the success of the first Quake game, and later published Quake II and Quake III Arena; Quake 4 was released in October 2005, developed by Raven Software using the Doom 3 engine.
Quake was the game primarily responsible for the emergence of the machinima artform of films made in game engines, thanks to edited Quake demos such as Ranger Gone Bad and Blahbalicious, the in-game film The Devil's Covenant, and the in-game-rendered, four-hour epic film The Seal of Nehahra. On June 22, 2006, it had been ten years since the original uploading of the game to cdrom.com archives. Many Internet forums had topics about it, and it was a front-page story on Slashdot.[84] On October 11, 2006, John Romero released the original map files for all of the levels in Quake under the GPL.[85]
Quake has four sequels: Quake II, Quake III Arena, Quake 4, and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. In 2002, a version of Quake was produced for mobile phones.[86] A copy of Quake was also released as a compilation in 2001, labeled Ultimate Quake, which included the original Quake, Quake II, and Quake III Arena which was published by Activision. In 2008, Quake was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for advancing the art form of user modifiable games. John Carmack accepted the award. Years after its original release, Quake is still regarded by many critics as one of the greatest and most influential games ever made.[87]
Expansions and ports[edit]
There were two official expansion packs released for Quake. The expansion packs pick up where the first game left off, include all of the same weapons, power-ups, monsters, and gothic atmosphere/architecture, and continue/finish the story of the first game and its protagonist. An unofficial third expansion pack, Abyss of Pandemonium, was developed by the Impel Development Team, published by Perfect Publishing, and released on April 14, 1998; an updated version, version 2.0, titled Abyss of Pandemonium – The Final Mission was released as freeware.[88] An authorized expansion pack, Q!ZONE was developed and published by WizardWorks, and released in 1996. An authorized level editor, Deathmatch Maker was developed by Virtus Corporation and published by Macmillan Digital Publishing in 1997. It contained an exclusive Virtus' Episode. In honor of Quake's 20th anniversary, MachineGames, an internal development studio of ZeniMax Media, who are the current owners of the QuakeIP, released online a new expansion pack for free, called Episode 5: Dimension of the Past.[89]
Quake Mission Pack No. 1: Scourge of Armagon[edit]
Quake Mission Pack No. 1: Scourge of Armagon was the first official mission pack, released on March 5, 1997.[90] Developed by Hipnotic Interactive, it features three episodes divided into seventeen new single-player levels (three of which are secret), a new multiplayer level, a new soundtrack composed by Jeehun Hwang, and gameplay features not originally present in Quake, including rotating structures and breakable walls. Unlike the main Quake game and Mission Pack No. 2, Scourge does away with the episode hub, requiring the three episodes to be played sequentially. The three new enemies include Centroids, large cybernetic scorpions with nailguns; Gremlins, small goblins that can steal weapons and multiply by feeding on enemy corpses; and Spike Mines, floating orbs that detonate when near the player. The three new weapons include the Mjolnir, a large lightning emitting hammer; the Laser Cannon, which shoots bouncing bolts of energy; and the Proximity Mine Launcher, which fires grenades that attach to surfaces and detonate when an opponent comes near. The three new power-ups include the Horn of Conjuring, which summons an enemy to protect the player; the Empathy Shield, which halves the damage taken by the player between the player and the attacking enemy; and the Wetsuit, which renders the player invulnerable to electricity and allows the player to stay underwater for a period of time. The storyline follows Armagon, a general of Quake's forces, planning to invade Earth via a portal known as the 'Rift'. Armagon resembles a giant gremlin with cybernetic legs and a combined rocket launcher/laser cannon for arms.
Tim Soete of GameSpot gave it a score 8.6 out of 10.[91]
Quake Mission Pack No. 2: Dissolution of Eternity[edit]
Quake Mission Pack No. 2: Dissolution of Eternity was the second official mission pack, released on March 19, 1997.[92] Developed by Rogue Entertainment, it features two episodes divided into fifteen new single-player levels, a new multiplayer level, a new soundtrack, and several new enemies and bosses. Notably, the pack lacks secret levels. The eight new enemies include Electric Eels, Phantom Swordsmen, Multi-Grenade Ogres (which fire cluster grenades), Hell Spawn, Wraths (floating, robed undead), Guardians (resurrected ancient Egyptian warriors), Mummies, and statues of various enemies that can come to life. The four new types of bosses include Lava Men, Overlords, large Wraths, and a dragon guarding the "temporal energy converter". The two new power-ups include the Anti Grav Belt, which allows the player to jump higher; and the Power Shield, which lowers the damage the player receives. Rather than offering new weapons, the mission pack gives the player four new types of ammo for existing weapons, such as "lava nails" for the Nailgun, cluster grenades for the Grenade Launcher, rockets that split into four in a horizontal line for the Rocket Launcher, and plasma cells for the Thunderbolt, as well as a grappling hook to help with moving around the levels.
Tim Soete of GameSpot gave it a score of 7.7 out of 10.[93]
VQuake[edit]
In late 1996, id Software released VQuake, a port of the Quake engine to support hardware accelerated rendering on graphics cards using the Rendition Vérité chipset. Aside from the expected benefit of improved performance, VQuake offered numerous visual improvements over the original software-rendered Quake. It boasted full 16-bit color, bilinear filtering (reducing pixelation), improved dynamic lighting, optional anti-aliasing, and improved source code clarity, as the improved performance finally allowed the use of gotos to be abandoned in favor of proper loop constructs. As the name implied, VQuake was a proprietary port specifically for the Vérité; consumer 3D acceleration was in its infancy at the time, and there was no standard 3D API for the consumer market. After completing VQuake, John Carmack vowed to never write a proprietary port again, citing his frustration with Rendition's Speedy3D API.
QuakeWorld[edit]
To improve the quality of online play, id Software released QuakeWorld on December 17, 1996, a build of Quake that featured significantly revamped network code including the addition of client-side prediction. The original Quake's network code would not show the player the results of his actions until the server sent back a reply acknowledging them. For example, if the player attempted to move forward, his client would send the request to move forward to the server, and the server would determine whether the client was actually able to move forward or if he ran into an obstacle, such as a wall or another player. The server would then respond to the client, and only then would the client display movement to the player. This was fine for play on a LAN, a high bandwidth, very low latency connection, but the latency over a dial-up Internet connection is much larger than on a LAN, and this caused a noticeable delay between when a player tried to act and when that action was visible on the screen. This made gameplay much more difficult, especially since the unpredictable nature of the Internet made the amount of delay vary from moment to moment. Players would experience jerky, laggy motion that sometimes felt like ice skating, where they would slide around with seemingly no ability to stop, due to a build-up of previously-sent movement requests. John Carmack has admitted that this was a serious problem which should have been fixed before release, but it was not caught because he and other developers had high-speed Internet access at home.
With the help of client-side prediction, which allowed players to see their own movement immediately without waiting for a response from the server, QuakeWorld's
Internet Archive Blogs
The recently released video game documentary High Score includes a sequence in the third episode about a game called GayBlade. GayBlade is one of the first commercially-sold LGTBQ-themed video games, a role-playing romp for Windows and Macintosh occasionally referred to as “Dungeons and Drag Queens”. Once thought to have been lost, the game’s software was recently discovered and preserved—and is now available in the Internet Archive!
Although LGTBQ people have been creating video games since the earliest days of the industry, there were very few games before the 21st century that explicitly had LGTBQ themes. Game creator Ryan Best hoped to change that with GayBlade, remarking, “This game gives lesbians and gays—and straight people—a chance to strike back at homophobia from behind our computer screen.”
The game is definitely political, racy and unafraid to make waves, as it definitely did in 1992 when it was released. Players are tasked with exploring a deep dungeon filled with homophobic enemies, trying to rescue the Empress Nelda and return her to Castle GayKeep. Best (and co-creator John Theurer) filled the game with humorous spells, items and antagonists while still keeping it all within the traditional role-playing genre. There are over 13 levels and 1,300 different rooms in this dungeon, reflecting the remarkable amount of work put into it by its creators—truly a unique work of art.
After being lost in a move from Honolulu to San Francisco, the game was thought to have disappeared forever. In High Score, creator Ryan Best laments that he was unable to find any of the game files, and was not very hopeful he would ever find them. But that’s not the end of the story—between the close of filming and the release of the documentary, Best discovered another copy of his game. Thanks to efforts by the LGTBQ Game Archive, Strong Museum of Play, and Internet Archive, it was preserved.
If you want to experience GayBlade for yourself, it’s available in our emulated games collection. You can play it directly in your browser if you’d like, or download the original source code. Additionally, an even earlier LGTBQ game called Caper In The Castro, a mystery adventure dating to 1989, is also emulated in the archive. So hit play and take a look at a little-known slice of LGTBQ history!
It was supposed to be magazines.
Elaine Wooton contacted me as many people do – in the middle of a shutdown and discard project, asking if the Internet Archive might want some of what is destined for deep storage or the trash compactor. In this case, she said, there might be some old journals and magazines I’d want. They were centered around the culture and innovations of the modern office, “modern” being the 1970s and 1980s. My general policy is to say yes, and if possible, make my way down to get the materials themselves. This set was in New York City, and as I live outside the metropolis, I said I’d be glad to pop down from my home and pick up these 5-10 banker’s boxes worth, to make it easier.
Elaine brought out the boxes on a cart, and said that if at all possible, I might consider coming upstairs to the office she was cleaning out to see if anything else might be of interest.
I parked my car and came up.
This is what I saw.
I asked a few questions about the nature and story of this office, and based on those answers, I said something that I honestly don’t get a chance to say that often:
“We will take all of it.”
A month later, nearly the entire contents of this office and storage were here:
As our team of folks began remixing the collection of boxes from the quick job done by movers into something more manageable for the Archive, Elaine and I were standing at the final chapter of a family history that spanned many decades and represented both a disappearing world and a fascinating story.
“Psychoanalysis for your typewriter“
Imagine being so well-known for your craft that letters addressed to “Mr. Typewriter, New York” would get delivered by the Post Office to your door. Imagine you mount a letter wrong while crafting a typewriter, and it causes a country (Burma) to change that letter to accommodate your mistake. Or that, through decades, your expert testimony about the accuracy of a brand of typewriter and the characters it types means the difference between guilt, incarceration, freedom or the swapping of fortunes. Such was the life of Pearl and Martin Tytell, of Tytell Typewriter. From a shop on Fulton Street of NYC from 1938 to 2000, the couple oversaw not just endless consultations and repairs, but fabrications and projects that were revolutions in themselves. Hanging from a wall near Martin and his bowtie and lab coat was a sign reading “Psychoanalysis For Your Typewriter.” Many people, famous and not, stood under that sign, hoping their machines could be repaired and tuned by this expert shop.
Besides the repair and care of typewriters, Pearl and Martin also had a thriving and critical business in forensic document analysis, or “Questioned Document Examination” as the discipline is known. When the typewriter business wound down, the Tytell’s son, Peter, became a giant in that field and continued it as his primary vocation. These examinations became critical for researchers, criminal investigations, and courtroom testimony.
It would be a true short-changing of the Tytell legacy for me to cobble together and leave these few paragraphs about the family’s accomplishments and outlook on life, as well as the part they played in the character of New York City. Luckily for all of us, the Tytell story was unique and attractive enough to get a huge amount of stories, especially in the 1990s and 2000s, written in magazines, newspapers and blogs. There was just something incredibly compelling about the discipline and activity the family engaged in.
A Door Closing, Another Opening
Elaine, a protégée of Peter Tytell’s, was overseeing the shutdown of the Forensic Research company this summer. Peter had pleural mesothelioma and was not expected to live for much longer, but he was using his remaining strength to give instructions where he could about the closure. Among the questions were the destination of the racks of material and various artifacts and equipment inside the building.
Elaine reached out to me primarily because of our working together on the 2015 Manuals Plus loadout, an ongoing project to maintain one of the larger paper manual collections in the world. She figured I might take a few extra parts of this considerable collection, while the rest would be split between another forensic group and put into deep storage. When I indicated the Archive would just take it all, this set things into motion in a different direction.
Ultimately, Peter saw it as a good fit and a proper destination, and gave his permission during the final month of cleanup. He died on August 11, a week before the trucks began transporting the boxes of materials away.
Mostly Internet, But Still An Archive
For people who mostly pay attention to the online experience of Internet Archive, it might come as a surprise that we maintain extensive physical materials, primarily printed. It might come as a greater surprise to know these items number in the millions and span many different mediums. A documentary called Recorder touches on the Marion Stokes collection we house, which are thousands of videotapes recorded over decades.
While some of the items in the Tytell Collection might be outside the realm of what we would normally acquire, it seemed right to just accept the entire set, as together it tells a stronger story than having parts of it discarded or stored elsewhere. This was, after all, a multi-generational family business and the already-whittled results of years of maintenance and caretaking by Peter Tytell; there didn’t seem to be a reason to arbitrarily cut it down further.
Two Days of Sorting
Upon arrival, the collection was mostly in large sets of arbitrary piles with some rough markings by the movers, as well as scrawled notes by Peter put there over the years. While some boxes might have seemed crushed, in fact it was because they were housing heavy typewriters, wrapped in bubble wrap, and had combined into a sort of gravity well of cardboard. They’re all fine.
We spent two days inspecting all the boxes, and moving them into rough classifications: Books, Ephemera, Typewriters, Equipment, and so on. In doing so, we got a (very) initial assessment of the treasures within. Some notable examples:
The subject matter of the hundreds of books in the collection range from criminal law (related to the investigative arm of the company) to graphology (study of handwriting) as well as overviews of law enforcement, detective work, and extensive guides of typewriter history. Some of these books are very old; an 1892 treatise on the ins and outs of bookkeeping was particularly beautiful.
Hundreds of samples, both printed and hand-made, of typewriter output, separated by years, brands, and models. This may be one of the most important pieces of the collection, and one that will be digitized as soon as possible; they represent hard knowledge and evidence of what typewriters were capable of or what brands had which abilities at what time. These cards were used by the Tytells in court cases; research into what typewriters were capable of what featured in the Killian Documents Controversy.
Brochures, stand-ups and manuals related to typewriter and print. There are thousands of pages of documents in this collection related to the sale, operation and overview of typewriters. They are incredibly well preserved and very beautiful, and digitizing them will be a chore but also a joy with what comes out the other end.
Typewriters of every description; standard commercial models now long out of production and sale, as well as custom or extremely-low production examples, such as machines that type in Arabic or Hebrew. They will not be stored away never to be seen again; they will, however it is worked out, play a part in telling the story of typewriters and the family that lovingly worked on them for so long.
If the variation and size of this collection seems endless – that’s a natural reaction. In fact, it is exciting on many different levels, with all sorts of disciplines combining into pallets of boxes now sitting quietly in storage. That’s the magic of a acquisition like this; the character and nature of a family of experts breathes out from every container.
It’ll be an extensive project to process and understand everything here, and it’ll be an honor to play a part in its preservation. We mourn those who came before us and thank them, as we can, for the opportunity to keep telling their stories.
Further Reading of Tytell Typewriter Company and Peter, Martin and Pearl Tytell
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/11/typewriter-man/376988/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Tytell
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/no-carriage-return-for-the-jurassic-typewriter-1.304472
https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/12/nyregion/new-yorkers-co-mr-typewriter-new-york.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/nyregion/12tytell.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/19/nyregion/one-fewer-place-to-unstick-a-inicky-f-key.html
http://algerhiss.com/history/the-hiss-case-the-1940s/the-typewriter/forgery-by-typewriter/forging-a-typewriter/
http://afflictor.com/2012/06/11/he-could-make-an-american-typewriter-speak-145-different-tongues-from-russian-to-homeric-greek/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/obituaries/mary-adelman-89-fixer-of-broken-typewriters-is-dead.html
https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2020/08/a-tribute-to-peter-tytell-son-of.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/us/peter-v-tytell-dead.html
The Whole Earth Catalog, a counterculture magazine that lasted from 1968 to 1998, tried many experiments in bringing the goals and nature of their publication to other media.
Published regularly from 1968 to 1972 with additional editions throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s, Stewart Brand’s magazine covered all sorts of subjects, from nature and politics to technology and human potential. Issues can still be found online and bought used, and are beloved by many, either as a study or just a glimpse into a very idealistic, very technically-oriented view of the world.
The Internet Archive has been hosting a wide amount of references to this project, an index of which is maintained by Robert Horvitz at this item.
One of the many editions was the The Electronic Whole Earth Catalog, a CD-ROM version of the publication produced in 1989.
We have now made The Electronic Whole Earth Catalog emulate inside your browser: Click here to boot up a vintage 1988 Black and White Macintosh running this Catalog.
Weighing in at an impressive 430 megabytes of information, this CD-ROM contained over 9,000 individual pages done in Hypercard, the Web-Before-The-Web version of hyperlinks and document reading created by Bill Atkinson of Apple Computer, and available for Macintosh computers through the 1980s and 1990s. One of the great dead mediums, the power of Hypercard has shown itself to be ahead of its time and providing a deep amount of potential of hyperlinking, one which the World Wide Web would demonstrate.
The Internet Archive has been collecting Hypercard “Stacks” (documents) for years now, in partnership with the site Hypercard Online —a group that has been providing easy ways to upload user-created Hypercard Stacks that might otherwise be very time-consuming and difficult to interact with. As of now, the Hypercard Stacks collection on Internet Archive has over 3,500 examples.
A Quick Tour
Interacting with an emulator acting like a 1988 Macintosh that is then running a CD-ROM’s worth of data as a huge (9,000 page!) Hypercard stack is quite a huge task for a browser, even in 2020. The first issue is the download size and time. Once you click on the “show me the emulation” start button in the preview window, it will take you a while to download all 430 megabytes. For some it’ll be a few minutes, but others may take a whole lot longer.
Once it starts up (with happy mac and the rest), you will find yourself looking at a Macintosh desktop, which has an icon for the Electronic Whole Earth Catalog, which is a floppy disk image named EWEC.
Click on the desktop, double-click on the EWEC “floppy” icon, and it all begins. There’s a file called “Home” inside this EWEC disk, and you click on that to start the show.
In Hypercard, everything is a “Card” and those cards have “Links”, which go to other cards.
You move through indexes of other cards and read what they have to say, sometimes having to click through multiple cards on a single subject. The nature of the cards is very similar to the original approach of the Whole Earth Catalog that it’s drawn from. If you’ve never read a Whole Earth Catalog, it’s usually presented as a series of short articles and pointers to a range of subjects of interest to those who want to be part of the nature of humanity as seen through a techno-hippie lens.
Many of the paths in this collection are meant to be meandering—moving through straight-up indexes as well and unusually laid-out menus and pictures you can interact with. Back in 1989, it was all experimental and new—you’ll find excitement and frustration, eye-opening approaches and confusing bits. That’s the wild and free part of this era, and we encourage you to try it all.
Thanks to everyone who made this happen: Drew Coffman who started a conversation about it, Kevin Kelly who mentioned he had a copy of the EWEC in his possession, and then a bunch of folks who joined in with technical support to turn that copy into an online disk image, and then a emulated Macintosh: Stephen Cole, Noah Bacon, Natalia Portillo, Claudia Dawson, and others.
Now start clicking!
With the Internet Archive being mentioned prominently in the news for the past couple of weeks, we’ve had thousands of people discuss us in social media, and contact us directly with strong concerns and worries.
Above all, many want, in some way, to “help” and have asked us what they can do, if anything.
While your donations during this time have been appreciated, there’s actually many things you can do beyond that, which will have a lasting effect.
Use The Internet Archive Site
It may sound simple, but just using the Internet Archive for why it exists in the first place is a fulfillment of the dream of the many who have worked on it, past and present. An extraordinary amount of hours of continuing support are behind the simple archive.org address and website. Some of you are already enjoying the archive in its full potential, but many use it just for the Wayback Machine, or for a favorite set of media that you listen to or watch.
Take a walk through our stacks, browse, meander… enter a search term of something that interests you and see what pops up and what collections it’s part of. You’ll find it endlessly rewarding. Tens of millions of items await you.
The collections themselves vary wildly; a driven group will create a collection, or collaborations and partnerships worldwide will lead to a breathtaking amount of material you can enjoy. And, as always, billions of URLs have been mirrored to bring the unique miracle of the Wayback Machine to you for 20 years. We back up every link Wikipedia links out to at the time’s added, to make sure the web doesn’t forget its citations and relevant information anytime soon.
Speaking of the Wayback Machine… the Wayback is our crowning jewel, and we also encourage people who see something to save a copy of it.
To do so, visit the main Wayback page and enter a URL in the Save Page Now form on the lower right. We’ll do the rest (de-duplication, archiving, and so on). It’s how we become aware of to-the-minute URLs that either don’t have a long shelf life or which we would not normally be aware of for a significant amount of time.
Become a Patron
If you haven’t registered with us, it’s incredibly easy to do so and absolutely free, and always will be. Having a virtual library card lets you build lists of favorites, write reviews for any items you have opinions on, and allow you to upload your own items into our collections. During signup, you can also register for our newsletter, which is really great for keeping track of news and events related to the Archive.
You can always browse anonymously, from anywhere, of course; that’s what a library is about. But consider being a member of the archive as well.
Curate and Upload to the Archive
As a member of the Archive, you can upload items into our stacks instantly. Texts, Images, Movies, Audio. Thousands of new items enter into the collection every day. Our Upload Page has helpful information about what you’re uploading to allow you to describe and verify the items you wish for us to store.
A lot of our strength as a collection comes from individuals uploading items they or their community have created, and in need of a hosting space that will provide access to the item continually, without limits. Artists upload their music albums, podcasters upload their episodes, and hundreds of organizations upload their media and meetings to us, to ensure they’re kept safe.
Tell People That the Internet Archive Exists
It’s always a surprise to us to find out that people don’t know about the Wayback Machine or the Internet Archive, but we live here. Buried among hundreds of tweets have been the excited responses of people discovering us for the first time. What a shame if your friends and family don’t know about us and all they need is for you to tell them we’re a few clicks away. Take a little time to spread the word we’re here and waiting for them. (Just link them to https://archive.org or https://web.archive.org – the site is pretty self explanatory).
We have a collection of images and logos from our years of work if you wanted to illustrate or link to examples of who we are and what we do.
And really, nothing makes us happier than others writing about what they discover in expeditions into the stacks; essays and posts have been written about discovered unusual magazines or articles, and citing 18th and 19th century predecessors of technology and schools of thought that are flourishing in the present. Our system allows you to bookmark printed items down to the individual page or music track and link to them.
Browse Our Many, Many Collections.
Our petabytes of data have a lifetime’s worth of things to see; here’s a few highlights of our tens of thousands of collections.
For decades, a group of tapers and fans have created the Live Music Archive, a collection of over 225,000 live performances of music, including the vast majority of all live performances of The Grateful Dead, as well as thousands of other bands.
The Bay Area Reporter, the oldest continuously published lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer weekly newspaper in the United States, made it a mission to scan and upload their entire back catalog of issues from their first to the present day. About 50 years of issues are represented, and are a fascinating deep dive. Other examples of broadsheets and bulletin history that have come to be hosted include the Sparrows’ Nest Library of radical zines and newspapers, as well as the cultural-remix and art potential of thousands of supermarket circulars.
The Netlabels area contains music and performances from “Netlabels”, online-only music groups, “record companies” and communities that have uploaded fully-produced albums with open licenses for years. For example, the Curses from Past Times LP is at 800,000 views and counting. (Be sure to click on the Llama on the right, too.)
The Building Technology Heritage Library is a 11,000 item strong collection of catalogs, layouts and information about all sorts of architecture and aspects of building. Maintained by the Association for Preservation Technology, these readable and downloadable works are a trove of artwork and design that are scanned, including, you’ll soon discover, items that have a tangent to building but also represent massive insights into long-lost items, like this 1,000 page Montgomery Ward Catalog.
Speaking of which.. we’ve partnered with many other libraries, archives, and collectors to mirror or host millions of individual items. Our space and bandwidth are at their service to ensure the maximum audience is ready to interact with them, as needed.
Public Resource hosts 18,000+ Safety and Law Codes with us, allowing individuals to view the laws that affect their lives and functions within society without paying expensive rates to do so. An attempt to prevent this service by the State of Georgia ended up in a legal battle that made its way to the Surpreme Court, which found in favor of Public Resource, allowing you to view these laws immediately. Over 22 million views of these laws have happened over the years.
The Media History Digital Library has a collection in our stacks of film theory, cinema periodicals, and related documents and writings, which can be viewed from the Media History Project site. These scans of industry trade magazines, announcements and advertising related to the film and television industries are instantly available and accessible by students, researchers and writers, as are all our collections.
And we don’t just host music and texts. Among our most storied and referenced items are the uploads of the Prelinger Library, which include government public health films, commercials, instructional movies, and a growing set of home movies, which allow us to parts of visual history that didn’t have a commercial aspect. This work is done, among other ways, by a large-scale digitizing process hosted in the Archive’s Physical Archive.
In our software collections, we have brought back thousands of hypercard stacks that used to be easily available for Macintosh computers in the 1980s and 1990s – they will boot in your browser and let you enjoy them near-instantly.
Just go in any direction in the Archive and you will spend weekends, days and nights finding and sharing what you discover.
However… if passively consuming media doesn’t feel like it’s “helping” us (although it is), there’s an even more active set of roles you can take:
Get Involved In Our Many Projects, Including The Wayback Machine
We’ve made an effort to work with many volunteers and collaborators over the years to ensure the Wayback Machine is capable of playing back as much of the now-lost and forgotten World Wide Web as possible. As you can imagine, the web is a moving target, and the terabytes a day of shifting websites presents one of the hardest technical challenges out there.
We have hundreds of guests in our Slack and other communication channels, working on open-source code and helping us improve the software that drives us.
We have also moved into the real world where we can (even if we, like many others, are taking a break right now). We have co-hosted events like DWebCamp, provided space for book readings, and engaged in a variety of Artist-in-Residency programs; we expect to do more in the future and would love for you to be involved.
You can write us if you have an interest in participating in any of these many and ongoing efforts.
But Most of All, Please Help Yourself First.
We’re touched by everyone who has spoken of their love and support of the Archive and its many missions, but this is also a time of much general uncertainty: economic, health concerns, and upheaval in society.
The Internet Archive is our job and mission. Your job and mission is to take care of yourself and those closest to you. Without you, we’re a bunch of hard drives on the Internet.
We’ll be here when you’re ready.
Greetings to everyone getting by at home, especially those looking to teach remotely, entertain your family, or find connections to your own past that used to live in programs from the 1980s and 1990s.
Perhaps, locked at home with your computer, you’ve finally got enough time to try out our collections of games for classic Sega and Atari consoles for the very first time. Or you find yourself longing for a simpler time in your history, when Prince of Persia, Pac Man and SimCity could make your troubles disappear, if only for a few hours. Or more likely, your kids have been assigned to set off on the Oregon Trail, but you can’t figure out how to begin that “long, difficult journey…that often resulted in failure and death.”
For all of you video game first time explorers, here’s a little boot camp for booting up Oregon Trail, and much, much more!
I’m Jason Scott, software curator at the Internet Archive, and I want to help introduce (or re-introduce) you to one of our more unique features—the ability to boot computers in your browser!
What Is Emulation in The Browser?
For more than five years, the ability to boot software, including video game consoles, computers and even handheld plastic games has brought millions through the Internet Archive’s doors. It’s been so extensive and even routine that it hardly gets mentioned now – it’s just something that happens. But for many who suddenly find themselves online a lot more than they used to be, this feature may not be something you’re aware of.
In the same way that music can be listened to inside your web browser and movies can be watched or books read, it is possible at the Internet Archive to “start” up a computer inside your browser that is running software, and that computer can be something completely different than what you’re running.
Imagine an Apple II (1980s) or a Windows 3.1 (1990s) or any of a number of long-gone systems, and the software they used to run that can’t be found or easily used anymore, coming back very quickly and easily, simply by clicking on a screenshot of the program and then playing it. That’s what people do by the thousands every day at the Archive.
Bringing back hundreds of thousands of old software packages brings multiple advantages—the games are generally simpler and extremely clear in goals and play, and have very little connection to later phenomenons like free-to-play, advertising or social media; they’re self-contained worlds, which is ideal for setting up games for children and education.
How to Use Emulation at the Archive
Any software item that can be activated will have a “Play” icon over the screenshot at the top. It looks kind of like a big power button – it’s green and transparent. This means that emulation is available for that program, and you just have to click in the general area of the button for the system to start “booting up” in the browser.
Try it out now! Visit this URL: https://archive.org/details/a2_Childrens_Carrousel_1982_Dynacomp_PD using a desktop or laptop computer (mobile devices will work, but there’s no keyboard to do anything). Click on the icon as it appears above, and watch as the system starts up an Apple II computer running a simple educational program called Children’s Carrousel from 1982.
There are a number of messages being shown while the system is booting, meant to indicate if something has gone wrong or how long it will take for data to be loaded to your browser. If you see red error messages, or the loading seems to stop, don’t worry—move onto other titles or contact me for tech support.
Where to Start Finding Software?
The hardest part of bringing materials to your students or family is finding appropriate or useful software packages out of a field of potential titles that can range from outdated or broken to simply difficult to use.
There are over 150,000 software at the Archive that can theoretically run in the browser, and naturally the collection runs from timeless classics to best-forgotten past experiments.
To help, I’ve assembled a collection called the Software Kids Zone: https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_kids – which has a bunch of chosen software packages that I have found are generally easy to use, self-explanatory, fun to play and in some way educational.
Things to Keep in Mind
Here are some tips and advice to bringing your classes or family into programs at the Archive:
- Always test the software yourself, clicking on items or using keyboard commands, to make sure everything works like you expect it to. There’s always a chance a program has issues past “it runs”, and taking a quick tour beforehand helps remove a lot of chance and issues later.
- Try to find several versions of software you want to share, or have a list that can be switched to, in case the first doesn’t work. Being able to go from one geography game to another quickly is much better than having to start another search from scratch.
- The best games and programs feel contemporary, even when 20 years old – it means they weren’t chasing graphics or trends and were trying to build something from the ground up. If you find a program hard to use or not intuitive, skip it, and move on.
- If you are working with a collection of kids or families, have videos they can watch or music they can listen to instead of using these programs, in case they run into technical issues.
And speaking of technical issues:
Some Common Problems with Emuation in the Browser and Potential Solutions
The most common issues related to emulation in the browser is that it requires a more recent desktop or laptop – the older the machine, the more likely to run into slowdowns, crackling in audio, and other issues.
Another issue is that some software is just not intuitive or needs a lengthy introduction to get working, which is not what kids or really anyone is looking for. The simpler the program, the better it generally is, so don’t hesitate to switch to other titles if playing a game or package is not enjoyable or easy. There’s many, many to choose from!
As above, if you need support or information or even want to ask some general questions, I’m available via e-mail at jscott@archive.org.
Some Suggested Titles
Finally, here are some programs at the Archive that are really fun and easy, and which can tell you if this great feature is right for your purposes.
Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess is an educational chess program that can not just play the game of chess, but teach all the rules about it and give historical information. It’s perfect for a family to learn the game utterly from a true master. It’s located here.
MathOSaurus is a dinosaur-themed mathematics educational game that quizzes you on a range of math concepts with a colorful and fun cartoon dinosaur theme. Originally for the Apple II and with great thematic elements and easy. It’s located here.
The Oregon Trail is still our most popular emulated title on the Archive, and with good reason—it’s well designed, a challenging and interesting experience, and kids love it. I suggest The Oregon Trail Deluxe, which has a more engaging graphical style while maintaining all the fun of the original works, which date back to the 1970s. You can find it here.
Another few thousand DOS Games are playable at the Internet Archive! Since our initial announcement in 2015, we’ve added occasional new games here and there to the collection, but this will be our biggest update yet, ranging from tiny recent independent productions to long-forgotten big-name releases from decades ago.
To browse the latest collection, hit this link and look around.
The usual caveats apply: Sometimes the emulations are slower than they should be, especially on older machines. Not all games are enjoyable to play. And of course, we are linking manuals where we can but not every game has a manual.
If you’ve been enjoying our “emulation in the browser” system over the years, then this is more of that. If you’re new to it or want to hear more about all this, keep reading.
A Recognition of Hard Work, and A Breathtaking View
The update of these MS-DOS games comes from a project called eXoDOS, which has expanded over the years in the realm of collecting DOS games for easy playability on modern systems to tracking down and capturing, as best as can be done, the full context of DOS games – from the earliest simple games in the first couple years of the IBM PC to recently created independent productions that still work in the MS-DOS environment.
What makes the collection more than just a pile of old, now-playable games, is how it has to take head-on the problems of software preservation and history. Having an old executable and a scanned copy of the manual represents only the first few steps. DOS has remained consistent in some ways over the last (nearly) 40 years, but a lot has changed under the hood and programs were sometimes only written to work on very specific hardware and a very specific setup. They were released, sold some amount of copies, and then disappeared off the shelves, if not everyone’s memories.
It is all these extra steps, under the hood, of acquisition and configuration, that represents the hardest work by the eXoDOS project, and I recognize that long-time and Herculean effort. As a result, the eXoDOS project has over 7,000 titles they’ve made work dependably and consistently.
Separately from the eXoDOS project, I’ve been putting a percentage of these games into the Emularity system on the Internet Archive for research, entertainment and quick online access to the programs. The issues that are introduced by this are mine and mine alone, and eXoDOS is not able to help with them. You can always mail me at jscott@archive.org with questions or technical concerns.
This should be all that needs to be said, but since the Archive is doing things a little strangely, there’s a lot to keep in mind before you really dive in (or to realize, when you come back with questions).
That Hilarious Problem With CD-ROMs
Putting these games into the Internet Archive has, over time, brought into sharp focus particular issues with browser-based emulation. For example, keyboard collision, where the input needs of the emulator are taken over by the browser itself, and the problems of a program needing a lot more horsepower to run in a browser emulator than a user’s system can handle.
Some of these have solutions that aren’t always great (Buy faster hardware!) and in some cases the problem is currently terminal (these programs have been taken offline for a future date). But the most obvious and pressing is that games based off CD-ROMs take a significant, huge amount of time to load.
CD-ROMs were a boon to the early-to-late 1990s, allowing games to have audio and video like never before. Depending on the tricks used, you got full-motion video (FMV), the playing of CD audio tracks for background music, and levels and variation of content for the games far beyond what floppy disks could ever hope.
But it was also a very large amount of data (up to 700 megabytes per CD) and it’s one thing to have the data sitting on a plastic disc in a local machine, and yet another to have a network connection pull the entire contents of the CD-ROM into memory and hold it there as a virtual file resources. This is going to be an enormous lean on the vast majority of Internet users out there – downloading multi-hundred-megabyte files into memory and then keeping them there, and then losing it all when the browser window closes. Network speeds will improve over time, but this is probably the biggest show-stopper of them all for many folks.
If you find yourself loading up one of these games and facing down a hundred-megabyte download, consider one of the smaller games instead, unless it’s a title you really, really want to try out. Maybe in a few years we’ll look back at cable-modem speeds and laugh at the crawling, but for now, they’re pretty significant.
Some Jewels in the Mix
Luckily, there are some smaller-sized games in this new update that will load relatively quickly and are really enjoyable to look at and to play. Here’s some of my recommendations:
First, a game special to me: the IBM DOS version of Adventure, calling itself “Microsoft Adventure”. It’s actually a small rebranding of the original start of the text adventure world, “Colossal Cave” or ADVENT, by Don Woods and Will Crowther. Remixed to be sold by IBM and Microsoft, this is how I first got into these, and it boots up instantly, providing hours of fun if you’ve never tried it before.
Mr. Blobby, a 1994 DOS Platform game, has all the hallmarks of the genre – bonkers physics, bright and lovely graphics, and joyful music. Be sure to redefine the keys before you try to play it, because besides running and jumping, you can spin and take things. The game does not get less weird as you go along.
Super Munchers: The Challenge Continues is a 1991 remix of the original educational game that sent your “muncher” gathering up words representing a given topic or idea. The speed of the game, along with the learning aspect, make this one of the more zesty “edutainment” titles available from the time.
Street Rod is a wonderfully compact 1989 racing game where it’s the 1960s and you’re going to buy your first hot-rod, tune it up, and race it for money to buy better and better rides. It’s a mouse-driven interface and loaded with all sorts of tricks to make the game fit into a “mere” 600 kilobytes compressed. Initially simple and then well worth the effort!
Digger from 1983 is a Dig-Dug-Clone-but-Not that came out right as IBM PCs were starting to take off, and it’s a lovely little game, steering around a mining machine while avoiding enemies and picking up diamonds. The most unintuitive thing is you need to fire using the “F1” key, so hopefully your keyboard has one.
I’m also going to suggest Floppy Frenzy from Windmill Software because it’s so much closer to the beginning of the IBM PC’s reign and you can see the difference in what the authors were comfortable with – the graphics are simpler, the game movement a little more rough, and the theme is geekiness incarnate: You’re a floppy disk avoiding magnets to leave traps for them, so you can gather the magnets up before the time runs out. If you don’t make it, an angel comes down and brings you to Floppy Disk Heaven. Again, F1 is the unusual key to leave traps.
There’s many more and I suggest people browse around and try things out, really soak in that MS-DOS joy. (And feel free to leave comments with suggestions.)
Thanks so much for coming along on this emulation journey!
- Jason Scott, Internet Archive Software Curator
Around the Internet Archive headquarters (and most of the United States), it’s summertime, meaning high temperatures, a lot of kids out of school, and a sense of taking it easy and being up for some relaxing and fun walks through the Internet Archive’s collection of material. Here’s a light, hopefully interesting set of materials that you might want to make part of your hot days and nights.
DJ Jazzy Jeff and Mick Boogie: The Summertime Mixtapes
Jazz and Boogie have been putting out free mixtapes every year for almost a decade with the idea of being played out on a radio durring summer. Called simply the “Summertime Mixtapes,” they’re a lovely platter of good tunes for a good time.
Wellesley Recreation Summer Concert
Five videos shot during the Wellesley Recreation Summer Concert in 2018 are a perfect blend of good fun and community spirit. Stretching into the hours are all sorts of bands, announcements and performances.
Eaton’s Spring and Summer Catalogue 1917
It’s too late to order (over 100 years too late) but the Eaton’s Catalogue for 1917 had all manner of summer fashions for sale and you can look over some lovely scanned images from that time on our in-browser reader. At the very least, you should check out some of the excellent choices in hats for beachwear.
Cooking With Gelatin
For cooking with gelatin it’s hard to beat this 1907 cookbook for the variety of jellies and gelatins you can make, called the “Cox’s Manual of Gelatine Cookery,” but unfortunately there are no photographs or illustrations, and it’s all about the unique sights and colors of gelatin culinary delight, so illustration from Cox’s is getting pushed aside for this Jello ad:
And Now… from You
Up next, recap & links
Full episodes of "Sunday Morning" are now available to watch on demand on CBSNews.com, CBS.com and CBS All Access, including via Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon FireTV/FireTV stick and Xbox. The show also streams on CBSN beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET and 11:30 a.m. ET.
WE'LL SEE YOU ON THE RADIO: "Sunday Morning" is available to CBS News Radio listeners, and is also streamed on Sirius XM Satellite Channel 124 Sundays at 9 a.m. ET.
You can also download the free "Sunday Morning" podcast at iTunes. Now you'll never miss the trumpet!
RECAP: SEPTEMBER 13
Host: Jane Pauley
WATCH THE FULL SEPTEMBER 13 EPISODE!
COVER STORY: Why did COVID-19 become partisan? | Watch Video
Almost since news of the coronavirus pandemic first broke, partisanship became the lens through which many Americans viewed the dangers of the COVID-19 outbreak – taking hand-washing, masks and social distancing seriously, or not. Correspondent Martha Teichner talks with health officials about the true hazards of the coronavirus, and examines how the federal government's public health response has been marred by the fingerprints of politics and the dynamics of an election calendar.
For more info:
HISTORY: Designing D.C.'s new Eisenhower Memorial | Watch Video
Twenty years in the making, a new memorial has been erected, in Washington, D.C., to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who led the Allies to victory in World War II and led the United States through the early years of the Cold War. Correspondent Rita Braver talks with Ike's granddaughter, Susan Eisenhower, and with the memorial's architect, Frank Gehry, about how best to honor the life and consequential legacy of the general and commander in chief, whose reputation has only grown with the passage of time.
For more info:
- Eisenhower Memorial, Washington, D.C. (Dedication ceremony September 17 at 7 p.m., streamed live)
- Eisenhower Memorial Commission
- "How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions" by Susan Eisenhower (Thomas Dunne), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon
- susaneisenhower.com
- Architect Frank Gehry, Gehry Partners
- Philip Kennicott, art critic, Washington Post
- For more on Eisenhower Memorial sculptor Sergey Eylanbekov
- For more on Tomas Osinsky, the artist behind the Eisenhower Memorial "tapestry"
- Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum & Boyhood Home, Abilene, Kansas
SUNDAY JOURNAL: Apocalyptic Western wildfires (Video)
From Washington State to Southern California, entire communities have been laid to waste during a week of fierce wildfires, in which more than 20 people have lost their lives. Correspondent Carter Evans brings us the latest news from Berry Creek, Calif.
TELEVISION: A new role for Drew Barrymore | Watch Video
Actress, producer, director, author and entrepreneur Drew Barrymore has worn many hats in her 45 years – and she's soon to don another, as host of a new daytime talk show, "The Drew Barrymore Show," which debuts on Monday. She chats with correspondent Lee Cowan about the challenges of launching a new broadcast during a pandemic, her lifelong work ethic, and how she is meeting the difficulties of a terrible year with what she calls "intelligent optimism."
To watch a trailer for "The Drew Barrymore Show," click on the video player below:
For more info:
PASSAGE: In memoriam
"Sunday Morning" remembers some of the notable personalities who left us this past week, including reggae singer and bandleader Toots Hibbert; St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Lou Brock; and British actress Diana Rigg, who garnered international fame as Mrs. Emma Peel in the 1960s spy series, "The Avengers."
GALLERY: Diana Rigg 1938-2020
The Shakespearean-trained actress gained international fame as sexy superspy Emma Peel in the 1960s TV series "The Avengers."
ASTRONOMY: A golden age of astrophotography | Watch Video
New, cheaper technology has made it easier than ever for amateur photographers to take stunning, out-of-this-world images of the night sky. But as correspondent Serena Altschul reports, our skies are becoming marred by light pollution and, increasingly, orbiting satellites. Still, for photographers, stargazers and astronomers alike, dark sky reserves (where outdoor lighting is regulated) offer some of the best views of the heavens above, and a chance to look up in wonder.
GALLERY: Astrophotography: Stunning images of Idaho's night sky
For more info:
See also:
HARTMAN: Home repair heroes (Video)
Last month 72-year-old Gloria Scott called John Kinney, an electrician in Woburn, Mass., to fix a ceiling fixture. But he soon discovered Scott's house was in total disrepair, from a lack of running water to broken lights. She was too poor to make any repairs – and too prideful to ask for help. So, Kinney returned and started repairing her home for free, and called on other tradespeople to join him. Steve Hartman reports on the inspiring renovation job by a crew dubbed "Gloria's Gladiators."
For more info:
MUSIC: Keith Urban on music during quarantine: "We're always gonna play somehow, some way" | Watch Video
Stranded at home in quarantine this spring, Keith Urban had a tough time getting used to life as a traveling musician with nowhere to go. But as he told correspondent Tracy Smith, he successfully pivoted to playing music during a pandemic, from holding a benefit concert for frontline workers at a Nashville drive-in, to finishing his new album, "The Speed of Now, Part 1," in which he recognizes the value of – for once – slowing down.
To watch Keith Urban perform "Tumbleweed," from his new album, "The Speed of Now, Part 1," click on the video player below:
For more info:
ART: Painting the presidents | Watch Video
The White House hosts a unique and historic collection of artwork: Portraits of the men who have held the highest office in the land. Portraitist John Howard Sanden talks with correspondent Mo Rocca about the pressures and pleasures of committing the likeness of a U.S. president or first lady to canvas. Rocca also explores the long-held and bipartisan tradition of artfully preserving the occupants of the White House.
For more info:
COMMENTARY: Jim Gaffigan on summer memories, '50s style | Watch Video
The comedian notes that the simple, family-oriented pleasures that filled our days while quarantining looked a lot more like post-war America than what we're used to.
For more info:
NATURE: Colorado Rockies (Extended Video)
"Sunday Morning" takes us among the bison, deer and prairie dogs at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Commerce City, Colorado. Videographer: Michael Clark.\
For more info:
RECAP: SEPTEMBER 6
WATCH THE FULL SEPTEMBER 6 BROADCAST!
COVER STORY: Maintaining a perfect lawn in a world turned upside-down | Watch Video
According to recent studies, Americans spend $40 billion a year tending to their 40 million acres of grass. So, no surprise coronavirus has made quarantined Americans lawn-care crazy. Correspondent Martha Teichner looks at why both lawn nuts and novices are keeping their patches of green neat and tidy during the pandemic.
For more info:
ECONOMY: Income inequality, and coronavirus' economic fallout | Watch Video
Two-thirds of the nation's wealth is owned by the richest five percent of Americans, while at the same time more than 38 million Americans live in poverty. The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer has been the story of economic inequality for the last 50 years, and COVID-19 appears set to continue the trend. Correspondent Jill Schlesinger looks at the downside – and what one business figure calls the upside – of income disparity.
For more info:
- KC Tenants, Kansas City, Mo.
- "Capital In the Twenty-First Century" by Thomas Piketty (Belknap Press), in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon
- Thomas Piketty, Paris School of Economics
- The documentary "Capital In the Twenty-First Century" (Kino Lorber), now screening in virtual cinemas
- Valerie Wilson, director Economic Policy Institute, Washington, D.C.
- edwardconard.com
- "The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class" by Edward Conard (Portfolio), in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon
SPORTS: Vin Scully's treasures of baseball | Watch Video
Over the years Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully accumulated a museum's worth of baseball memorabilia. Now, he's decided to auction off much of his prized collection, with the proceeds going to his kids and grandkids, and to charity. Correspondent Lee Cowan talks with the legendary announcer who shares the stories behind some of his unique artifacts of baseball history.
For more info:
SNAPSHOT: How Americans spent their summer (Video)
"Sunday Morning" presents a photo album of Summer 2020, featuring the work of Brad Jones, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Gabrielle Lurie, staff photographer of the San Francisco Chronicle; and Houston Chronicle staff photographer Marie D. De Jesús. Music: "Summer Madness" by Kool and the Gang.
For more info:
BUSINESS: How Netflix reinvented entertainment - and corporate culture | Watch Video
In his new book, "No Rules Rules," Reed Hastings, the co-founder and co-CEO of Netflix, spells out his highly-unorthodox management style, a radical candor inspired by his marriage counseling. In their first joint television interview, Hastings and his co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, talk with Lesley Stahl of "60 Minutes" about Netflix's innovative company culture whose "honesty is the best policy" creed has helped catapult the streaming service to exponential growth as a leading film and TV production studio.
BOOK EXCERPT: "No Rules Rules" by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer
For more info:
PASSAGE: In memoriam (Video)
"Sunday Morning" looks back at some of the notable figures who have left us, including New York Mets pitching great Tom Seaver; bestselling biographer and journalist Gail Sheehy; and legendary Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson.
JUSTICE: "Compromised": Peter Strzok on investigating the Trump campaign | Watch Video
In the summer of 2016 FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok led the bureau's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections with Russian officials, which brought forth criminal convictions of Paul Manafort and George Papadopoulos; Michael Flynn also plead guilty for lying to the FBI. But Strzok's personal conduct also led to his dismissal from the FBI, and raised questions over the integrity of his work. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin sits down with Strzok, author of the new book, "Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump."
BOOK EXCERPT: "Compromised" by Peter Strzok
For more info:
HARTMAN: A race track for one (Video)
When Dave Palazzolo's security camera captured someone repeatedly trespassing on his property – a four-year-old on a bicycle making loops on his driveway – the Salt Lake City homeowner knew just what to do: create a chalk-lined race track for the young rider. Steve Hartman reports.
CELEBRITY: The real Paris Hilton | Watch Video
Socialite and social media influencer Paris Hilton has been a fixture on TV and online for so long that most people think they know her. But, as she tells correspondent Tracy Smith, they don't know about a chapter in her life that, Hilton says, has been too painful to talk about … until now.
To watch a trailer for the documentary "This Is Paris," debuting on Youtube September 14, click on the player below:
For more info:
COMMENTARY: The smile behind the mask | Watch Video
Sharing smiles may be more important than ever in these difficult times, but doing so is even more difficult while wearing a mask. Correspondent Jim Axelrod faces up to a challenge of the COVID-19 era, with advice on how we can all find other ways to smile at each other.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Cartoons from The New Yorker (Video)
"Sunday Morning" sends you off to the rest of your Sunday with a smile, courtesy of recent cartoons from The New Yorker, from cartoonists Brooke Bourgeois, Ali Solomon, and Elisabeth McNair.
For more info:
NEWS: Updates for "Sunday Morning" viewers (Video)
Jane Pauley has a few loose ends to attend to in these waning days of summer, including updates on stories and messages from our viewer mailbag.
NATURE: Woodpeckers in Florida (Extended Video)
"Sunday Morning" takes us among the sounds of pileated woodpeckers pecking away at the Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area in Florida. Videographer: Doug Jensen.
For more info:
RECAP: AUGUST 30
Guest host: Lee Cowan.
WATCH THE FULL AUGUST 30 EPISODE!
COVER STORY: The use of less-lethal force | Watch Video
As protests against police brutality continue around the country, so, too, have the number of people being injured and maimed by what police call "less-lethal" weapons. While most police departments have access to tools designed to control crowds, experts say few are offered any significant training in how to use them. Correspondent Lee Cowan looks into the lethality of such police weapons, and talks with a protester and journalist whose lives have been changed upon being struck by projectiles intended to be non-lethal.
For more info:
PASSAGE: Remembering Chadwick Boseman | Watch Video
"Sunday Morning" looks back at the all-too-brief career of the star of "Black Panther," who died Friday after a four-year fight against colon cancer.
ART: Preserving dioramas of African American history | Watch Video
In 1940, at the American Negro Exposition in Chicago (marking the 75th anniversary of Emancipation), evocative dioramas were created to celebrate the often-unacknowledged achievements of African Americans. Today, conservators, including African American students, are restoring these dioramas, bringing their magical artistry, and history, back to life. Correspondent Rita Braver reports.
For more info:
HEADLINES: Hurricane Laura: Just the facts (Video)
Fifteen years after Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana, an even more powerful Hurricane Laura hit the Pelican State. How did it compare? Lee Cowan looks at the numbers.
NATURE: Untangling the mysteries of the octopus | Watch Video
The octopus is one of the most bizarre life forms on Earth – one of the smartest, most interesting, and most alien. It can camouflage itself in a flash, squeeze its entire body through a one-inch hole, and use their brains (yes, it has nine of them) to think and play. Correspondent Chip Reid visits scientists at New England Aquarium in Boston, and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and talks with Sy Montgomery, author of "The Soul of an Octopus," about these curious creatures. (This story was originally broadcast on January 12, 2020.)
For more info:
- New England Aquarium, Boston
- Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass.
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- "The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness" by Sy Montgomery (Atria Books), in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon
- symontgomery.com
- Roger Hanlon, Marine Biological Laboratory
- "Octopus, Squid, and Cuttlefish: A Visual, Scientific Guide to the Oceans' Most Advanced Invertebrates" by Roger Hanlon, Mike Vecchione, and Louise Allcock (University of Chicago Press), in Hardcover and eBook formats, available via Amazon
MOVIES: Now showing – The return of the drive-in | Watch Video
Because the coronavirus and social distancing shut down nearly all indoor entertainment venues this summer, going to a drive-in may be just the ticket. Nancy Giles looks into the resurgence of drive-in movie theatres, and their offshoots – projections in parking lots, and screenings on the water.
For more info:
- Shankweiler's Drive-in Theatre, Orefield, Pa.
- BallyHoo Media, Miami
- Bel Aire Diner, Astoria, N.Y.
- Cinema Drive-Ins
- Skyline Drive-In, New York City
- Kilburn Live
- Newark Moonlight Cinema, Newark, N.J.
- Rooftop Films, Brooklyn, N.Y.
- United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association
- Wal-Mart Drive-In Experience
FOOD: A world of corn, from farm to table | Watch Video
Delicious sweet corn is a staple of backyard barbecues, and a "corn-erstone" of traditional Mexican cuisine. Correspondent Martha Teichner has an appreciation of this summertime favorite, and explores how farmers growing heirloom varieties are bringing new flavors of corn to the menu.
RECIPE: Market Corn Tlayuda, from Oxomoco
A corn-on-corn tortilla dish from the Michelin-starred Mexican restaurant in Brooklyn, N.Y.
For more info:
HARTMAN: Serenade (Video)
Joe and Sharon Korst, of Raleigh, N.C., just celebrated 63 years of wedded bliss. And to mark the milestone, Joe gave his bride one of the best anniversary presents any girl has ever gotten – which was especially poignant after he recently suffered two strokes. Steve Hartman reports.
MUSIC: Olivia Newton-John on finding joy in a life with cancer | Watch Video
In an emotional interview at her Los Angeles home, actress, author and singer Olivia Newton-John talks with "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King about battling breast cancer, and the source of her unshakable spirit. (This story originally aired on September 29, 2019.)
READ A BOOK EXCERPT: "Don't Stop Believin': A Memoir" by Olivia Newton-John
For more info:
PULSE: Summer's end
COMMENTARY: John Lewis and the power of our vote | Watch Video
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham says the civil rights icon wanted citizens to use their votes as a means to rebuild America "in the image of God and democracy."
For more info:
SPORTS: The "underrated" Stephen Curry | Watch Video
With this team, the Golden State Warriors, out of this year's playoffs, the NBA star has more time to spend with his children – and to watch basketball. Contributor Kelefa Sanneh talks with the 6'3" shooter about his Underrated Book Club, his youth sports camp, and why he uses his voice to express both his faith and his politics.
For more info:
NATURE: Ladybugs (Extended Video)
"Sunday Morning" takes us among some tiny ladybugs amid the giants of Muir Woods north of San Francisco. Videographer: Lee McEachern.
WEB EXCLUSIVE:
THE BOOK REPORT: Reviews from Washington Post critic Ron Charles (August 30) | Watch Video
Recommendations of new fiction and non-fiction titles.
BOOK EXCERPT: "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents"
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson digs beneath historic, systemic racism to examine social hierarchies that transcend classifications based on race, gender or class
BOOK EXCERPT: "Piranesi" by Susanna Clarke
The bestselling novelist follows her award-winning debut, "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell," with a magical, labyrinthine fantasy.
BOOK EXCERPT: "Transcendent Kingdom" by Yaa Gyasi
In the new novel by the author of "Homecoming," Ghanaian immigrants in Alabama search for the answers to their family's suffering by turning to science and to faith.
BOOK EXCERPT: "Homeland Elegies" by Ayad Akhtar
In a new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author of "American Dervish" and "Disgraced," an immigrant father and his son search for identity in post-Trump America.
RECAP: AUGUST 23
Guest host: Lee Cowan.
WATCH THE FULL AUGUST 23 BROADCAST!
COVER STORY: Back to school, and into uncertainty | Watch Video
With every state experiencing a different COVID infection rate, schools across the country are reopening with a mix of in-person and virtual instruction – and the insecurities, disagreements and fears about protecting children remain. David Pogue explores the difficult choices parents and teachers face about sending students back to class in the midst of a pandemic.
For more info:
FOOD: Watermelons, for a taste of summer (Video)
There's nothing that counteracts the heat of summer quite like a big, sweet, juicy slice of watermelon. Luke Burbank offers up the history and lore behind that thirst-quenching favorite.
For more info:
VOTING: How suffragists finally won the right to vote for women | Watch Video
One hundred years ago the 19th Amendment, which would protect women's right to vote, was just one vote short of ratification. "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan reports on how the landmark legislation finally earned passage, and talks with historians Elaine Weiss, Susan Ware and Martha S. Jones about how suffragists such as Carrie Chapman Catt won the long-pitched battle which, for black women, continued long after the amendment became embedded in our Constitution. Brennan also talks with singer Rosanne Cash about the suffragists' legacy.
For more info:
- "The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote" by Elaine Weiss (Viking), in Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Bookshop.org
- elaineweiss.com
- "Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote" by Susan Ware (Belknap Press), in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Bookshop.org
- susanware.net
- "Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All" by Martha S. Jones (Basic Books), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available September 8 via Bookshop.org
- rosannecash.com
- Votes for Women: Legacy of the 19th Amendment (Nashville Public Library)
- Nashville Public Library
- Hermitage Hotel, Nashville
- Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, Washington, D.C.
- Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument, Washington, D.C.
- All Female Highlight Pro Skydiving Team
- 19th Amendment (National Constitution Center)
SPORTS: The armless archer | Watch Video
One of the top-ranked archers in the country is 37-year-old Matt Stutzman of Fairfield, Iowa, who has medaled in a sport that many would have thought beyond his reach: he was born without arms. Lee Cowan finds out how, with a simple bow and arrow, a man who just wanted to provide for his family became an inspiration. (This story was originally broadcast on November 3, 2019.)
For more info:
ANIMALS: Flying dogs to their forever homes | Watch Video
Correspondent Conor Knighton takes to the skies with Wyoming pilot Peter Rork, a retired surgeon and pilot who's found a new purpose in life by helping dogs in need find homes, flying animals to adoption centers through his non-profit, Dog Is My CoPilot.
For more info:
PASSAGE: In memoriam (Video)
"Sunday Morning" looks back at some of the notable figures who left us this week, including actor Ben Cross ("Chariots of Fire"); drag performer Chi Chi DeVayne; Robert Trump, brother of President Donald Trump; former Washington Senator Slade Gorton; and classical guitarist Julian Bream.
PUBLISHING: Vanity Fair magazine seizes the moment | Watch Video
Next month Vanity Fair, best known for great reads and great photography chronicling Hollywood and high society, will release a special issue on activism and art in the 21st century, featuring contributors of color on almost every page. "Sunday Morning" contributor Mark Whitaker talks with bestselling author Ta-Nehisi Coates (who is the issue's guest editor) and editor-in-chief Radhika Jones about how the magazine is capturing the cultural zeitgeist, and how a summer of protests might represent a turning point for race relations in America.
For more info:
COMMENTARY: Jim Gaffigan: Back to (home) school | Watch Video
The comedian wonders whether another semester of "distance learning" will provide much learning for his kids, when they won't be all that distant from him.
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TELEVISION: "Wheel of Fortune" star Vanna White, a woman of letters | Watch Video
Vanna White has demonstrated that no one reveals letters better than she does. Correspondent Mo Rocca talks with the "Wheel of Fortune" co-host about her 37 years revealing puzzle clues, her inauspicious audition, and filling in for Pat Sajak during his recent emergency surgery. (This story was originally broadcast on March 1, 2020.)
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HARTMAN: A lobsterman's friend (Video)
Pulling lobster traps way out in the middle of the Gulf of Maine can be a lonely job. But for 15 years, Captain John Makowsky had company – a gull he named Red Eye, who showed up one day in 2005 and basically never left. Steve Hartman reports how, when Red Eye suffered a leg injury a few months ago, Makowsky got the bird help at the Center for Wildlife in Cape Neddick, Maine.
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ELECTION 2020: Unconventional wisdom regarding the GOP convention | Watch Video
"60 Minutes" correspondent John Dickerson shares his thoughts on what to expect from this week's Republican National Convention, where President Donald Trump and his party will make the case for a second term.
Don't miss CBS News' coverage of the 2020 Republican National Convention, beginning Monday, August 24 at 8:00 p.m. ET on CBSN.
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MILEPOST: GOP trivia
According to Smithsonian Magazine and historynet.com, political cartoons used an elephant as a symbol for the Republican Party, formed in 1854, in part because soldiers during the Civil War used the expression "seeing the elephant" to describe seeing combat. The elephant became all-but-synonymous with the party after famed cartoonist Thomas Nast used it in drawings appearing in the 1870s.
NATURE: Elephants in Botswana (Extended Video)
"Sunday Morning" takes us to Chobe National Park in Botswana, to witness a convention of the GOP … the Grand Old Pachyderms. Videographer: Alex Goetz.
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WEB EXCLUSIVE:
FROM THE ARCHIVE: Finding their voices – Understanding stuttering
For the estimated three million Americans and 65 million worldwide who stutter, the 2010 movie "The King's Speech," by screenwriter David Seidler (a stutterer himself), brought stuttering into the spotlight. In this report originally broadcast on "Sunday Morning" on January 30, 2011, correspondent Mo Rocca talks to young stutterers, a speech therapist, and researchers at Purdue University's Stuttering Project, and visits a workshop run by the organization Stuttering Association for the Young (formerly known as Our Time), to demystify a condition that's been around since man has been speaking.
"SUNDAY MORNING" MATINEE: "I Want You," from "Girl From The North Country"
"Girl From The North Country," a musical featuring the music of Bob Dylan, was the last show to open on Broadway prior to the shutdown in March due to the coronavirus outbreak. To express the show's message of hope, cast members Colton Ryan and Caitlin Houlahan came together virtually for this performance of the song "I Want You," recorded exclusively for "CBS Sunday Morning" viewers.
RECAP: AUGUST 16
Host: Jane Pauley
WATCH THE FULL AUGUST 16 EPISODE!
COVER STORY: Rewriting the limits of presidential powers | Watch Video
The power of the president is enormous – and may be even more so with presidential emergency action documents (PEADs), classified orders granting vast presidential authority in response to extraordinary situations. PEADs are so secret even Congress cannot see them – and that troubles constitutional scholars. "Sunday Morning" special contributor Ted Koppel reports.
For more info:
- Brennan Center for Justice, New York University
- Elizabeth Goitein, The Atlantic
- "The Republic of Conscience" by Gary Hart (Blue Rider Press), in Trade Paperback and eBook formats, available via Amazon
- American Civil Liberties Union
- John Yoo, Berkeley Law, UC Berkeley
- "Defender in Chief: Donald Trump's Fight for Presidential Power" by John Yoo (All Points Books), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon
SUMMER: The cool story behind popsicles | Watch Video
Did you know the popsicle was invented by a child experimenting with soda and cold weather? Nancy Giles bites into the history of the tasty frozen treat.
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CORONAVIRUS: Keeping COVID bubbles from bursting | Watch Video
With NBA players living in isolation, actors and crew quarantining at Tyler Perry's Atlanta studios, and families forming self-isolating "pods" for the sake of their children, social bubbles actualize a desire to beat COVID at its own game. Lee Cowan reports.
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MILEPOST: COVID shopping list
Unilever reports that social distancing has led to a drop in demand for deodorant. Sales for brands like Dove soap and Axe deodorant have declined. But the company reports that sales for ice cream (brands like Breyers and Ben & Jerry's) have increased, as have sales for soups.
HISTORY: "Desert One": Inside the failed 1980 hostage rescue in Iran | Watch Video
Academy Award-winner Barbara Kopple's new documentary explores the aborted attempt to retrieve 53 Americans held by revolutionaries in the captured U.S. Embassy in Tehran. David Martin talks to Delta Force members who survived the calamitous mission in which eight U.S. service members perished.
To watch a trailer for "Desert One" click on the video player below:
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PASSAGE: Sumner Redstone (Video)
"Sunday Morning" looks back at the career of Sumner Redstone, a lawyer-turned-corporate mogul whose legacy includes ViacomCBS, who died this week at the age of 97. Jane Pauley reports.
ELECTIONS: The prospects for mail-in voting in this year's election | Watch Video
The pandemic, and the long lines experienced in primary elections during the COVID-19 outbreak, have created an unprecedented call for "mail-in" ballots for this fall's general election, with demand for absentee ballots in some states up by as much as 1,000%. And despite President Trump's claims that ballots delivered by mail will mark election results as "fraudulent," election officials say voting by mail has been proven to be safe and secure. The real concern is that some states are not prepared for the influx. Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.
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