Welcome to the Extraordinary Thing wing of the Shacknews 2024 Hall of Fame class. We define "extraordinary thing" as something directly or indirectly related to video games that influenced or spoke to some facet of the industry. Some entiries include Further Reading sections where you'll find features and other stories that further illuminate this year's inductees.
When you're finished, use the Table of Contents at the bottom of the page to visit other areas of the Shacknews Hall of Fame Class of 2024.
Office Space
Office Space marks the first film admitted to the Shacknews Hall of Fame since Hackers in 2021. This workplace comedy not only brought us a plethora of eternal memes, but was also Mike Judge’s follow-up to the Beavis and Butt-head movie a few years earlier.
These days, Office Space serves as a fascinating time capsule of the software business in the 90s. The internet was so young, and many of the movie’s jokes have aged in the most hilarious way possible. Besides, who among us hasn’t fantasized about taking a faulty printer out to an open field and beated the absolute hell out of it?
Napster
The creation of MP3 file compression ushered in an era of change in the music industry. CDs lined the aisles of Best Buy, Camelot Music, and Tower Records as the age of ripping, mixing, and burning became affordable to the average computer user. While there is still nothing wrong with backing up purchased media, it took no time at all for music piracy to get completely out of control in the late 1990s.
Napster sat at the center of two shifts in the delivery of music. The peer-to-peer file-sharing service offered users access to all types of music for free. For a few summers in 1999 and 2000, the platform exploded with tons of users hosting thousands of hours of songs.
The Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) took notice by December 1999, suing Napster for copyright infringement. While Napster was not hosting the pirated music, it had become the number one source for infringed content at the time.
While Napster never succeeded as a business, its popularity did open the door for legal platforms like iTunes and eventually Spotify to be born. The music industry’s transition to the digital age was likely accelerated by Napster’s disruption to the entire packaged good CD/album business model.
Truly extraordinary.
JibJab
Remember those goofy internet videos from the mid-2000s where people would put the faces of themselves, their family, and their friends onto the bodies of singing and dancing cartoon characters? That was JibJab! The website was founded in 1999 and brought plenty of laughs the world over. If you never made a JibJab, somebody has probably made one with your face.
What’s even more fascinating is that JibJab is still around! It’s days of early internet virality are long gone, but you can still make JibJabs to this very day. Trends are fleeting, so it’s pretty cool that this site has managed to stick around for a quarter century.
Reptile and Akuma
Arcade fighting games were infamous for eating quarters by the dozens. However, there was a period when arcade fighters became legendary for the secrets they held. Mortal Kombat and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, specifically, were said to feature fighters that were not playable on their core rosters, nor were they included as boss characters.
Mortal Kombat's Reptile and Street Fighter's Akuma represented a phenomenon unlike anything else in arcade fighting games. In an age before the internet, these legends spread mainly through word-of-mouth. They were spread on the schoolyard, tips were shared among friends, and Mortal Kombat would even go so far as to have Reptile himself taunt players with clues as to how to find him.
It's a phenomenon that would continue through Midway and Capcom's subsequent fighting games. Noob Saibot would become a legend in Mortal Kombat II while Akuma would find new ways to hide in future fighters, including an unlikely appearance in X-Men: Children of the Atom. Once the internet became part of everyday life and allowed people to communicate faster and more effectively, the legends of hidden fighters came to a close. Long-time players, however, will always cherish the period of awe and uncertainty brought about by Reptile and Akuma and it's a key reason why both remain extremely popular in their respective franchises to this day.
Poutine
Poutine was invented in the late 1950s in Quebec, Canada. What is now one of the best-known Canadian dishes typically comprises fries mixed with cheese curds with hot gravy poured over it. Over the years, many have iterated on this Canadian staple, creating more indulgent poutine dishes that remind you of hamburger helper, pulled pork, and many others. Ask any Canadian what they should try while visiting Canada and they will typically answer with poutine and Tim Hortons.
OC ReMix
By the end of the 20th century, games became just as known for their musical compositions as their actual gameplay. Gaming music could set atmospheres and imprint themselves into people's memories, especially if they're associated with unforgettable moments. It has also inspired generations of composers and music makers who have started their careers or bolstered their hobbies by creating incredible covers of their favorite tracks. OverClocked ReMix has been one of the forces at the forefront of this outlet of musical creativity, opening the door for musicians to create covers of their favorite tracks from their favorite games.
With a full catalog of thousands of song covers from more than 1,300 games from platforms across the ages, there's a song cover for nearly anybody. OC ReMix has also released over 100 curated themed albums with user-created covers, the most recent of which honors the late Satoru Iwata. All of the content is available to users free of charge.
What started as a passion project for David 'djpretzel' Lloyd has since blossomed into a full-blown non-profit organization. It has also grown to include new forms of media, with remix compositions that continue to be uploaded regularly to YouTube.
Blockbuster Pokemon Snap Station
Pokemon Snap was a big deal for Nintendo and the blossoming Pokemon franchise in more ways than one. It was such an anticipated release that Nintendo teamed with Blockbuster Video for a promotional blitz unlike any other. To help enhance players' photography experience, the video rental company established Pokemon Snap Stations across the country. The Pokemon Snap Station would allow players to insert their cartridge (or use the cartridge provided in the demo station) to print any pictures they took of Pokemon in the wild into stickers.
It was a rare case where players could take their actions in a video game and transform them into something tangible. Much like Blockbuster Video itself, the Pokemon Snap Station didn't last forever and was slowly phased out in the ensuing years since the game's release.
Blockbuster Video's Pokemon Snap Station was another idea ahead of its time. Before screenshot functions became commonplace in PCs and consoles, this kiosk allowed for players to show off their handywork. Blockbuster's efforts remain appreciated by collectors today with functional Pokemon Snap Stations selling for over $1,000 on internet marketplaces like eBay.
The Matrix
The Matrix deserves our designation as an “Extraordinary Thing” for multiple reasons. First, its contributions to video games, movies, and other technical mediums cannot be overlooked. Inventions such as bullet-time cinematography have influenced games such as the Max Payne series (and the first to coin the “bullet time” term) and Superhot. Bullet time also lends itself to parodies and has become instantly recognizable regardless of its context.
Second, the aesthetic of The Matrix—everything from its world and characters to their clothing and martial arts—have influenced generations of gamers, moviegoers, and sci-fi aficionados. Its status as a science fiction film is well deserved due to its thought-provoking story and depiction of tech-focused culture.
Originally released in 1999 and now a veritable multiverse of films, video games, and other media, the original film is considered must-watch even 25 years later, and is a deserving addition to the Shacknews Hall of Fame.
Urban Dictionary
If you need to look up traditional words, stick to traditional dictionaries. Urban Dictionary is the world’s best source for slang words and phrases. Its terms and their definitions come directly from its user base, who to date have contributed over seven million definitions. Many words have multiple definitions, and besides as a source of information, the examples provided with definitions are usually good for a laugh.
Freshman computer science major Aaron Peckham founded the site in 1999 as a parody of dictionaries. Four years later, the site received widespread attention when a judge in the United Kingdom used Urban Dictionary to interpret lyrics in rap songs written by two competing artists. As of 2024, the site receives over 2,000 new submissions every day, with volunteer editors determining which words are published by using a “Publish” or “Don’t Publish” voting system.
Major companies, including government services, make use of Urban Dictionary. Several state Departments of Motor Vehicles (DMVs) use it to determine whether vanity license plates are appropriate. Linguists rely on it to map the development of slang terms, with a special emphasis on those that originated before the advent of social media and other modern tech platforms that make tracking such usage much easier.
RSS
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a web feed that allows users and apps to access a website. RSS version 0.90 was released in March of 1999 by a team of Netscape engineers for use with My.Netscape.com, but the technology didn’t see broad use until the mid 2000s. News aggregators still use the technology to this day, and we even offer a Shacknews Reader service to our users. While RSS is a simple concept, it’s an extraordinary thing that was a core building block of the modern Internet and is still a very useful means of disseminating information to this very day. Welcome to Canton, RSS!
