[Sigia-l] WARNING LOW BAND WIDTH TOPIC Fun for under 5K-

[m o r r y]

Given the recent topic of bandwidth and fun and usability I offer to you a
possible creative solution.

My good friend was recently featured in the New York Times for his 5k (very
low bandwidth) version of the game Wolfenstein.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/18/technology/circuits/18DIAR.html

ONLINE DIARY

One of the hottest games online is a simple blow-the-heads-off-the-monsters
challenge: a first-person shooter, in game parlance, called Wolfenstein 5K
(www.the5k.org; click on "2002 Entries"). It is the highest-rated entry in
the 5K, an annual contest for Web programmers.
The contest suggests that rather than struggling against the rigid
constraints of Web design, programmers should see those limits as a creative
opportunity. Thus, the image and script files that make up each entry must
total less than 5 kilobytes, a relative thimbleful of Web
coding.

Wolfenstein 5K may not look like much at first - it is in black-and-white
and appears as a small rectangle the width of two postage stamps onscreen -
but it works and is eminently playable. In the words of its creator, Lee
Semel, "Flashy 3-D graphics and sound are not a prerequisite for fun."