It's 1985 and extraterrestrials have landed, causing havoc, gravitational disruptions, and worldwide panic. But don't worry! Public access television channel KTMP-8 is here to keep you up to date on the latest developments. Between ads for Dave's Bakery, dating classifieds, and help wanted ads for McDonald's over at the Good Life shopping mall, are news feeds about the mysterious interplanetary invasion. — Read the rest
In this retro reimagining by Squirrel Monkey, a popular YouTuber known for imagining modern tech in the past, we find ourselves stepping back to the neon-tinted late 1980s. The video humorously features a MS-DOS version of ChatGPT, a nod to a time when computers ran on floppy disks, and the phrase 'Artificial Intelligence' was still confined to the realms of Sci-fi books and movies. — Read the rest
In this humorous video, YouTuber Squirrel Monkey once again takes us back in time, imagining Duolingo as a 1980s software for IBM PCs. Transporting the popular language learning app to a time when it would have been distributed on floppy disks. — Read the rest
This is a true story told to me by my neighbor's mother, Mary Alice, who grew up in South Texas after the Second World War. It was told to Mary Alice by her friend Guillermo, also known as Will.
"My friend Will told me about his aunt that lived in a small South Texas town named Taft that always made orders from the Sears mail-order catalog. — Read the rest
The folks at Squirrel Monkey reimagine modern apps and online services as if they existed decades ago. They do a great job making them look like software did in the 1980s and 1990s. This imaginary 1980s version of Wordle looks and sounds exactly like real PC games of the era. — Read the rest
The creative geniuses at Squirrel Monkey are back with another "What if?" video. This time, they present a 1990s version of Instacart, called Insta-Cart. It's exactly what a 1993 online grocery delivery service would be like.
The geniuses at Squirrel Monkey are back with a new video that imagines what a popular technology of today would be like if it had been created decades ago. This time, they show how an Amazon Alexa of 1988 would work. — Read the rest
This 6-minute VHS video from the Pyramid Earth Association is fiction. It's another great retrofuture alternate reality video from the brilliant Squirrel Monkey.
The funny folks at Squirrel Monkey made a fantasy promotional video for a computer that never existed, called the DC 640. It had a number of cutting edge features, including a built-in LED alarm clock, an FM transmitter (for data and voice communication), and a solderless breadboard.
The creative minds at Squirrel Monkey imagine what the new Galaxy Fold would be like if it had been released in the late 1990s. I don't know what technology they use to make these videos, but they do a perfect job of capturing the look and feel of the era.
The geniuses at Squirrel Monkey are back with another trip down alternate memory lane. This time, they imagine what the online game platform Steam would be like back in the days of modems and floppy disks. Their videos are a great reminder of what it was like to use computers in the 1980s. — Read the rest
Squirrel Monkey makes excellent videos that imagine what popular online sites and services would have looked like if they'd been around in the 1980s or 1990s. Squirrel Monkey uses actual vintage computer equipment in the videos, which look like 5th generation VHS cassette duplicates. — Read the rest
I love Squirrel Monkey's imaginings of what famous online companies would be like if they had existed in the 1980s and 1990s. Here's their take on eBay.
Activate your willing suspension of disbelief because Squirrel Monkey's back with Wonders of the World Wide Web. In this episode, they envision Amazon, "the department store of the future," as a virtual department store in the eighties. It's not historically accurate by any means, but that's part of what makes it so fun to watch. — Read the rest
YouTube channel Squirrel Monkey has imagined what it would be like to stream movies through Netflix on a 56K modem in 1995. It's a hoot, whether you lived through the ancient days of early computing or not.
Sara Varon is co-creator, with Cecil Castellucci, of Odd Duck, the 2013 outstanding kids' picture book, and her latest solo venture, New Shoes is a brilliant reprisal of the themes from Odd Duck: camaraderie among eccentric animals, charming small-town life, fascinating technical details, humor, and beautiful, engaging illustrations.
