[intro]
Now, if there's one Christmas story which has absolutely crushed the souls of more British
children than any other, it's The Snowman, by Raymond Briggs. First published in 1978.
It depicts the story of a child, who makes a snowman, and then the snowman.. SNUFFS IT.
Leaving the child sad and alone.
*flump*
Thank you to SquareSpace for sponsoring this year!
Thankfully in 2001, Fast Trak publishing would release an interactive PC-CD ROM version so
that children could relive those night terrors, all over again.
Let's take a look!
Ahhh, the SnowMan by Raymond Briggs, with an included beanie toy snowman as if to illustrate
that point.
The artwork depicted here will be incredibly familiar to most of us, UK based or not, as
the Snowman was exported to many other countries in both book and film form.
And it's the film most of us will remember, Raymond Briggs, born in 1934, had created
various illustrated childrens books with this classic style, and perhaps the pre-cursor
to this, Father Christmas was released in 1973, but it was a brand new and fresh Channel
4 gracing British TV, who really brought both Brigg's Father Christmas and the Snowman to
our attention.
First airing on 26th December 1982 with an introduction by Briggs, it was exported to
America the next year where David Bowie instead took over introductory duties, but perhaps
the most memorable part of the hand drawn pencil animation is this scene..... Ahhh,
[WALKING IN THE AIR]
"We're walking in the air..."
ahhhhh yes Peter Auty, the choir boy singing the original rendition of Walking in the Air.
The animated version also features various scenes not included in the book, including
Father Christmas, but as a matter of course, all versions include that horrendous vision
of a melted, dead snowman, and the boy, holding a scarf, leaving the question for the viewer...
was it actually not a dream? Was it real, or did the boy have that scarf in his pocket
regardless.
Maybe this interactive CD could be regarded as therapy for adults, trying to deal with
these childhood memories. It certainly looks fun, and we even get to build our own snowman.
Oh god, what if he melts too??
We've got a little snowlabs logo in the bottom corner and a quick look on creaturelabs.com
reveals they also made a virtual Sea Monkeys experience. Wild stuff.
Spec wise we need a 486 CPU, Windows 3.1, 4MB of RAM and a multimedia PC.
Inside the box we find this squishy, stretchy beanie version of
the snowman, a jewel case sized instruction manual, a registration card and the CD-ROM
itself.
Let's see what it has in store for us...
*clunking, whirring*
MIDI SOUNDS OF FESTIVENESS
Autorunning directly from Windows, we're instantly thrust into a wonderful MIDI rendition of
Walking in the Air.... Beautiful. Those twangy Synthesised sounds never fail to cast me back
to another decade, another era.
Clicking on, we are presented with 5 menu options.
Read the Story Watch the Film
Choose a Page Go to the Information Page
and GOODBYE!
---- Which feels like a good place to Thank SquareSpace,
not just for sponsoring this segment, but for their sponsorship throughout this year.
With the New Year coming, you might decide that NOW is the time to create that website
you've been thinking about... and if so, why not use SquareSpace.
It's definitely cheaper than a web agency, it's easier, and it offers all the tools you
need to make your website work with all modern devices.
Get 10% off your first website or custom domain, by following the link in the description.
----
The information page is just that. Choose a page allows you to skip to chapters
in the story. Watch the Film plays the film in glorious
AVI quality, including the ending...
[Snowman music]
[Snowman music in A minor]
But it's the Story where the bulk of the CD resides...
As it stands, you can just skip through and read an abridged version of the story.
If you're feeling adventurous, you can watch the part of the film which ties in with your
page.
Look, here's James building his snowman.
Here he is having so much fun and joy with him.
AND HERE HE IS DEAD. AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. Playing over and over in your mind, all throughout
Christmas day and in your dreams, for years, and years so you're too scared to ever build
a snowman yourself, ever again.
All of this is 320x240 AVI glory, and if you've forgotten what resolution that is. Well, here
it is playing on a 4K desktop.
In fact, this entire CD can run under Windows 10, and here's what that looks like on a 4K
desktop. I do love how the tiled surrounding pattern takes up so much screen mass.
Anyway back an appropriate era, and the main features of this interactive story.
The first interactive scene is dressing James.
"can you help James to get dressed?"
Famously in the film he doesn't bother putting pants on.
"because there wasn't enough time in the scene.
you know, I was given a scene and he had to put his clothes on
and all I could do, was have enough time to put his trousers on...
so, that's always caused a lot of puzzlement amongst kids
because it's very important to have your pants on"
But here is he, standing proud as balls in a pair of white Y-Fronts. How you
dress him is up to you. Nothing happens once you've dressed him. Its like playing with
a virtual seasonal barbie. But it would probably keep a 7 year old amused.
Then we have dot do dot in the snow. Moles pop up and we have to walk between them creating
a picture. You can also draw your own if you want to create something truly festive. Unfortunately
it's not how you might traditionally draw a picture in the snow, you dirty sod.
"give the snowman a face"
Ahhh, here's where we get to create our own snowman. Just like James. But unlike James
you can create something original, something creative, or something truly horrifying. The
choice is yours. I mean, this would have made a much better snowman, you wouldn't mind if
he wound up dead at the end.
Oh god, I feel sorry for them now. This isn't going to work at all..."buttons"
Next. Tidying the house. No doubt after all the chaos that pesky snowman caused having
fun. It feels a bit like the 90s CITV show Finders Keepers, but a lot simpler.
"where does this go? This is the kitchen"
*glorrup* Find each out of place item and dump it in the correct room. It's actually
quite nice being able to get an interactive view of the house. You know, I'm starting
to feel like my snowman trauma is being healed. I'm enjoying this.
"everything is in its place, well done"...."help the snowman find James"
Then we have a little motorbike game, where you have to open the correct gates to reunite
Snowman with James. It's entertaining enough. It clears the mind. It's all snowy and festive.
*zoooom* As is the next section. The voice tells you which colour snowman to click.. "click on a snowman with a purple hat"... You click it,
and they fly up into the air to join the others.
"click on a snowman with a purple hat"... "blue"... "blue"
I'm colourblind!!!
[music]
"see you at the North Pole!"
Screw the remaining ones. Who cares?
Then we get this little dance section. It's nice that the main parts of the film are portrayed.
For this you simply click on the lower right button, and have to remember up to 3 parts
of the dance.
"point"...."kick"....
"excellent"
We're talking a level of simplicity that even George Bush could master.
I feel like joyful now. Quite festive. It's actually all rather nice.
Now if I can just avoid that end scene, one last time, all will be..... OH FOR FU.....
Anyway thanks for watching throughout this year folks. It's been great to have you here.
I hope you all have an excellent festive season and I look forward to seeing you on the other
side.
In any case, thanks for watching and have a great evening.
[The Snowman music]
"GOODBYE!"