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May 17, 2007
Virtual Bubble Wrap
Virtual Bubble Wrap: I was browsing the Microsoft blogs and saw that Silverlight has reached the bubblepop stage... you know, that little game where you pop all the bubbles, sort of like virtual bubblewrap. It's a rite-of-passage for browser plugins, I guess. The MS staff credit a Windows Mobile version for Dr. Pepper, but all the different Flash versions owe a tip of the hat to Joey deVilla, who ported the early Mackerel Media HyperCard stack to the Netscape 2.0 browser in 1995. Why's it so popular to pop fake bubbles? I don't know, I always preferred real bubblewrap myself, but this won Shocked Site of the Day and other awards... the Internet Archive has the original Mackerel page, although it looks like that Director 4.0 stuff doesn't fully play back in the browser anymore. (Notice the "loading" screen... took just one textfield, jiggered around to let you know it didn't freeze... we tried to keep plugin content below 40K in those days.) Anyway, the Virtual Bubblewrap demo has a long and honorable history... check out the above links for some of the context on this story.
Posted by JohnDowdell at May 17, 2007 01:55 PM
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Comments
Oh yes--I remember creating one of these with LiveMotion 1.0 (Flash 3-level interactivity). It is, indeed, a weird rite of passage.
Posted by: John Nack at May 17, 2007 04:25 PM
A Flash Lite version is also available for those times when you're on the move and absolutely must pop bubbles.
Posted by: Bryan Rieger at May 18, 2007 10:37 PM