Do You Remember When We First Met? I Thought I Had Wandered Into A Dream.

“Do you remember when we first met? I thought I had wandered into a dream.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien

bout to pop 'em pills

Smoking that za since birth

It's been years since we spoke to each other, and everyday I want to reach out to you. This became awkward between us. I had feelings for you back then. I still do. Every night I cry that I'm not yours, I know it's stupid to say all this but it's hard to deny it. I still want to know.. did that kiss mean anything to you? Did our time we spent together really mean something?

For me, my answer is yes. The moment I kissed was the happiest moment of my life. I enjoyed our time together. It gave me a reason to carry on. You were the reason for me to live. You were the only thing enough for me to keep moving forward. You helped me smile again. Yes, I should of told you earlier how I felt.. and that's my fault.

Even tho I love guys and women, I prefer you more

I will always remember you. You are important to me no matter what

I don't know if you ever read the letter I left in your journal or ever got my messages I left for you in messenger, I want you to know I meant every word I said in that including that kiss we did in the clinic

If there was a way to turn back time and tell myself to say yes I want you to be my boyfriend, I would

I'm sorry I didn't tell you how I felt, that I wasn't enough for you

I'm not really great when come to expressing my emotions: I'm still scared of love, but I'm not afraid to say I LOVE YOU, I'm mean those three words

Your laugh, smile, voice really does make anyone smile and makes them think: I'm glad I have you in my life. Those were my thoughts as well

I will never forget you, D. Your name makes my heart smile

I could never hate you. I know you may think that you want to be forgotten, hated, a bad person.. I can't see you as those things. I can NEVER forget you. You may not be a saint, but that's doesn't stop me from trying to get close to you. I don't see your past self as your current self.

I want you to know that you being happy is enough for me, no one else can fucking take that away. I'm rooting for you

Thank you for being in my life, I really hate that you're the best fucking thing that ever happened to me, that's a good problem to have.

I know you won't see this, and I know you won't read this whole thing because its long like an essay. Everything I said here, I fucking mean it.

I just wish things didn't end awkwardly between us...

Bmw E30 Coupe

how good is Hypnospace Outlaw at the 90s aesthetics?

I haven't played Hypnospace! It looks fun!

But looking at the trailer and some gameplay videos... well, don't get mad, but this is exactly the kind of stuff I wrote my article in faux protest about.

It's not wrong, it's not bad, not saying that. There's truths in there about 90s design. But if you're asking me, the game has a thick layer of Vaporwave over everything. It just comes across as fake 90s to my tastes, personally.

But I think that was the point. I think that's what Tendershoot was going for. It's a surreal game about surfing the web in your sleep, right? So the design isn't going for accuracy, it's more that dreamy fantastical look people remember (or misremember.) It works for them!

Like, I like the key art! That's pretty good. CGI head in space would have been right at home on a Trapper Keeper. That USB cord should have totally have been a serial port instead tho.

And this box art is chef's kiss. I feel like I'd see this on a textbook in computer class.

What I've seen of the actual game though? Hmmmm. You're asking a web designer here for an opinion, and this is a game all about web design. Like they get some stuff right. UI is a lot of fun, down to the Winamp-style skeuomorphic buttons in some of the screenshots.

But for something that's supposed to be set in '99, that's a huge overuse of pastel pink and purple gradients. It's like an Instagram filter over the whole thing. That's Vaporwave, and while it looked cool in 2018 that's not really what was going on at the time.

The MS-DOS sized pixel text bugs me when they should have gone with Windows 98-style higher resolution. They seem to run all their images through an aggressive dithering filter when in reality, JPGs existed too. But it's funnier to have all those crusty GIFs in there, that ages the art more. And is that a poop emoji button? An emoji in a 90s game?

Sorry, that sounds like I'm picking on a game I haven't played. Not trying to knock down any Hypnospace fans. The game looks fun! I'm just being a design nerd and taking a magnifying glass to something I've never seen before today. If you love the look of the game, that's valid! I like Vaporwave too. But Vaporwave is its own separate thing.

So, real quick, let's talk Vaporwave. It's important to understand Vaporwave is evocative of the 1990s, but wasn't an actual thing in the 1990s. The point of Vaporwave is it's meant to be a surreal parody version of the decade, as seen through the lens of the 2010s. I think what happened over the past decade was everyone forgot it was a parody and took it at face value. Vaporwave and 90s just became equals.

And that's how we got this:

What I wanted to share with you all was Vaporwave and Memphis style graphics are starting to be like THE ONLY representation of the decade. I wanted to share that there's more out there to pick apart and use for retro throwbacks.

Maybe further into Hypnospace they get into that other stuff? Thanks for tipping me off about the game! I'll add it to my Steam list.

;-)