Webware100

Category: Entertainment

You Don't Know Jack was a popular computer game in the 1990s, and has since lived on in Internet form. Users can pit their wits on this often-peculiar weekly quiz show, or on the shorter, daily iteration called DisOrDat. Players compete for prize money, using their keyboard to chime in and answer multiple-choice quiz questions. The game is fondly remembered by many for its charismatic narrator, who mixes humor with player humiliation.

One of the reasons the game became so popular was for its low system requirements, which would allow the game to be run even on aging hardware. The current version is entirely Web-based, and runs on any browser with the Flash player plug-in installed.

Web site: www.YouDontKnowJack.com

Webware coverage: 'You Don't Know Jack' is back

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Category: Entertainment

Newgrounds is a free portal site for Flash games. It has been around for more than a decade, and also serves up cartoons, user forums, music and audio clips, and an online magazine. The service has a social-networking component, too, with user profiles, social bookmarking, and game ratings. What it might be best known for, however, is the series Alien Hominid, which had its beginnings at Newgrounds. The game began as a free Flash title in 2002, and is now a popular title on modern-day gaming consoles.

One of the more interesting aspects of Newgrounds' collection of titles is that games which go unplayed or are poorly rated are sent to a deadpool where they are given one last chance from users before being deleted by site admins. The system ensures that people remain active and are utilizing the built-in ranking system.

Web site: www.Newgrounds.com

Webware coverage: Fun in a Flash

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Category: Entertainment

Your desk is under attack by invaders coming from both land and air. Your only solution? Defend it at all costs, using tiny turrets. Fight off waves and waves of attackers that get more challenging with each onslaught. Use your victory winnings to fortify and buy more defensive units. Losing this battle means losing your humanity.

This is a fun--and free--Flash game that's easy to pick up and sure to waste several minutes or hours of your day. The game keeps track of your stats, and you can also see how you're doing with worldwide rankings and challenges.

Web site: www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD

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Category: Entertainment

GameGum is a Flash-based gaming community and portal service. Users can find a wide variety of free Flash games to play, chat about, and rank. GameGum also doubles as a social network, as each user gets a profile. GameGum employs an interesting technology called "Pulse," to keep track of what users are doing. It monitors user comments, game submissions, and forum activity. All of this can be seen at a glance, or you can drill down deeper and see the Pulse history for each user.

Like other Flash-game portals, GameGum offers game authors a place to promote their work, while the site handles the tricky things like hosting, and maintaining uptime. Game authors get a 50 percent cut of any revenue, along with a place to interact with their users and fans.

Web site: www.GameGum.com

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Category: Entertainment

Line Rider is a free, Web-based Flash game that's one-part entertainment, and one-part creativity. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to create a track for a tiny person on a sled on at high velocities. While seemingly simple, Line Rider employs realistic physics that force you to design well--otherwise the line rider will tumble to his doom.

At any time in creating your Line Rider course, you can view the outcome in the built-in player. The site has become immensely popular for this playback function, and for its community of avid artists and designers who have created complex and highly entertaining Line Rider runs. Some of the best border on being digital art.

Web site: www.OfficialLineRider.com

Webware coverage: Weekend Webware: Waste time with Line Rider

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Category: Entertainment

Yahoo Bix is a fairly simple idea. Users can create their own one-on-one online talent contests that others can vote on. Contests can contain pictures or videos, and users can see how others have voted after making their decisions.

While part-contest, Bix is also a full-fledged social network. Users get their own profiles, where they can host and list their entire history of Bix face-offs. Users can subscribe to others' profiles and keep track of what?s new.

Web site: www.Bix.com

Webware coverage: Bix, the online contest utility

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Category: Entertainment

Eventful is an event-finding and listing service to find fun things to do in your area. What makes the service noteworthy, and particularly useful for the lazy or novice user, is the capability to upload all sorts of schedules and data to the service and have it figure out what you're interested in so it can recommend and keep track of events for you.

Also neat is Eventful's Demand service. Users can rally together to create new events, by effectively creating an online petition for a band, for instance. Eventful doesn't limit these events to one town or city; instead, it lets users group together around one event, keeping the list of locations separate while still allowing the event to be ranked.

Web site: www.Eventful.com

Webware coverage: Eventful bypasses concert producers

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Category: Entertainment

Revision3 has more than a dozen original shows that you can get only on the Web. Many are aimed at tech-oriented people, but the service has also spread into cooking and music as well. It's best known for its show Diggnation, the official podcast for Digg.com, where hosts Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht chat about some of the most popular stories that have made the front page of the site each week.

In addition to hosting over a dozen original shows, Revision3 also has an active user group that frequent the forums. Each show gets its own forum, where people can talk with the creators, or voice their opinions.

While Revision3 is completely free, paying premium members get an early crack at all the content. Content is then released to everyone else a few days later.

Web site: www.Revision3.com

Webware coverage: Revision3 launches new music show

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Category: Entertainment

You may not even realize it, but you're likely to have seen Homestar Runner or one of the site's characters before. The site is a mix of entertainment and games, together on one site. The site is probably best known for its flagship character Strong Bad, who answers site visitor e-mails with a sense of sarcasm and ridicule. Homestar Runner also has over a dozen other characters who are placed in the site's entertainment games and video clips.

Homestar Runner launched in early 2000, and has since gone on to sell DVDs with cartoon content and to produce video Podcasts. The site even has its own wiki, which features a user-created and -maintained encyclopedia that chronicles all the characters and events in Homestar Runner's virtual world.

Web site: www.HomestarRunner.com

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