Deadsites

In this edition of Halloween on the Ancient Internet, you’ll see everything from the original Scream’s original site to a bunch of discontinued ice cream flavors. I’m pushing all of your best buttons. We’re gonna have a time! Unplug your landlines and settle in with that sweet 2400

Make a cup of coffee, fire up the 56k modem and settle in for another edition of Halloween on the Ancient Internet. If you missed the first edition, I dove into the depths of the Internet Archive to rescue little slices of Halloween goodness from the late ‘90s and early 2000s. This time,

Welcome to the first edition of Halloween on the Ancient Internet! I spent way too many hours poring over the Internet Archive, searching for spooky gold. It was a huge reminder of how much the internet has evolved over the last 25 years. In the late ‘90s and very early 2000s, there was

If you missed the shocking news, 10 Cloverfield Lane — which will apparently have something to do with the original Cloverfield — debuts this March. Oh. My. God. The first film — in particular the marketing of it — captured me in a way that few things do, to the poi

These Deadsites posts are always tricky. For every entry that seems to resonate with you guys, there’s another that maybe three people on the whole planet are interested in. Admittedly, today’s entry runs the risk of falling into the dreaded latter category. I can’t afford to care,

While scouring ancient and loosely archived versions of Playmates Toys’ website, I found a goldmine of late ‘90s Ninja Turtles crud. What an interesting time for those guys! Many of us stopped collecting TMNT toys years before the line died (if it ever truly did), so if you’re like

I don’t think many of us realized just how wonderful KB Toys was until it went under. In fact, things that once seemed annoying about the chain became somehow charming in its wake. The disorganized clutter! The over-reliance on old stock! The six different price stickers on every single

Welcome back to Deadsites, where I study defunct websites and revisit the internet’s barely recognizable past! I wanted something Halloweeny for this edition, of course. How about Froot Loops? From 2000, it’s Kellogg’s SPOOKY TOWN — a site-within-a-site that was only accessible

In November of 2000, I placed my first-ever order with Amazon. Reviewing my account, it looks like I bought Charmander earrings, two Furby Babies, and twenty of the exact same Darth Sidious figure, just because it was marked down to a buck. Probably shouldn’t have admitted all of that, b

That was the store for “posers,” or so the laws written by the weirdos higher up on the food chain dictated. What an idiotic protest. As if buying the same goofy shit from other stores made us any better? I think we were just mad that a shopping mall chain pegged us so accurately.

I saw House on Haunted Hill on its opening night – October 29th, 1999. A stone’s throw from the last Halloween of the ‘90s. I wonder if that’s why I have such fond memories of it? I really do. I think it’s amazing. Too many people focus on its admittedly dopey ending, and forget

At some point over the next two months, you’ll probably find yourself wading through the glut of online costume shops, hoping to find that rare glow-in-the-dark Predator mask that I’m pretty sure I just made up. If so, there’s a good chance you’ll land at Halloween Mart, which boa

In this edition of Deadsites, we’re taking a look at the official movie site for 2002’s Ghost Ship. Starring Gabriel Byrne and Julianna Margulies, it’s about an abandoned luxury liner stuffed with treasure and torment. Here’s the trailer: I saw Ghost Ship exactly once, on a night w

Today on Deadsites: A whole lotta Pikachu. If you don’t care about Pokemon, you uh… may want to pick a different article to read. I wrote two yesterday, if that helps? Technically, this isn’t as much a “Deadsite” as a changed site. Pokemon.com is still active, obviously, but

I’m no fan of Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla, but man, I wanted to be. I saw it way late, and hoped that its parade of awful reviews were only written by people who’d either “missed the point” or were inherently joyless. Nah. It really was terrible. But that doesn’t damper my memor

Today on Deadsites: The official site for The Craft, a film about disenfranchised high school teens who change their fortunes with witchcraft. In more direct terms: Fairuza Balk, hamming it up as a black magician. So of course I loved it. The Craft came out in 1996, as did its website. It

Deadsites rages on with its second edition. Today’s website is about old soda and Papa Roach. No guesses? Fine. Here’s an obnoxiously tall hint: Yep, we’re about to revisit the official website of PEPSI BLUE, from 2002! I wrote about this stuff when it was brand new. (I’m old, you

It’s a theme that’s come up once or twice in past articles, but I adore it too much. I must beat it into the ground. Presenting Dino Drac’s latest recurring feature: DEADSITES. Through the power of the Wayback Machine, we’re going to look at lots of old, dead websites. Why? Becaus