Boneyard

Hyperspace starfield · Star Wars 1977 · the 1/z starfields of the early 1990s · Windows 3.1 Starfield Simulation 1992

The stars you were resting under begin to streak. Hold the pointer, a finger or Space to raise warp; let go and it settles.

Slit-scan · Douglas Trumbull, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968

Fly through a neon canyon drawn from one column of a real Sonoran sunset. Boost to pick up speed.

Voxel Space · NovaLogic, Comanche: Maximum Overkill, 1992

A flight over the real Santa Catalinas: SRTM and USGS 3DEP elevation in 64 m cells, drawn with 2x vertical exaggeration.

Vector-field particle advection · scientific visualization, 1990s

Rain finds the washes on the same mountains you just flew. The drops follow the downhill slope of the ground. It is a slope model, not hydrology.

Rutt/Etra scan processor · Steve Rutt and Bill Etra, 1973 · CP 1919 plot, Harold Craft, 1970

The range you flew and watered, held as an object: scanlines bent by elevation, turning slowly until you drag it.

Dotted planets · Elite, David Braben and Ian Bell, 1984

A dotted globe with today's day line, computed from your clock. Tucson in amber. Drag to spin; it comes back to face Tucson.

Oscilloscope XY mode · Lissajous figures, Jules Antoine Lissajous, 1857

Hold the pointer or Space to hear two tones; the trace then draws the actual audio signal, left channel across and right channel up. The engine bed fades down while the trace sings.

Glenz vectors · the Amiga scene, about 1989 to 1990

The Desert Data Labs mark as a see-through solid, the same glyph that stood as every pylon on the way in. Drag to turn it.