This is surely one of the most beautiful pieces of black & white art I've ever seen, digital or not. It comes from the classic Mac title, Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel.
There's less info about it about the Net than I'd like to see, visually speaking, but this picture alone should tell you how whimsical it is. I'm playing an emulated version right now after many years of separation, and the sound design sounds amazingly rich. Some of you might know a later series of works which Robyn & Rand Miller would go on to create — called Myst.
As a kid, I used to make Hypercard stacks; one of them was titled Galaxy II. No, there never was a Galaxy I, but in Mr. Simard's 6th-grade class, I said, "Damn the UI!" and went out to create a world of my own. Sadly, it's long-lost now and I have no original floppy diskettes I can revive, but part of the inspiration was reading about Cosmic Osmo — that's right, I didn't even play it, or even see a picture… a blurb in Macworld magazine got my attention.
Nowadays, I like laying awake for a few minutes before sleeping and thinking of fantastic worlds harnessed by the imagination, and a fraction of their splendor brought into communal existence that can be enjoyed by other people.
I think that, at least in part, is what draws me to Second Life, and its rich tapestry of ever-evolving dreams, awakening.
Cosmic Osmo 1989! Amazing!
Hi. I guess you have to be thankful to that visual intelligence (and we others too) and maybe to Mr. Simard (unrelated to this one here :=) ) to have gone create your own world, lost or not you are harvesting now and it is beneficial to everyone. I, for one, remember those Macs. What is beautiful is your sharing of creative intelligence and by the way "rich tapestry of ever-evolving dreams, awakening" is a wonderful phrase. I don't live in SL 24/7 because trying to write and paint "here", sculpt there, never quite getting there but all this is very inspiring so thanks for sharing and also, have the greatest vacation with your wife! *Sending lots of good things to you both
OMG, I remember playing Cosmic Osmo.. I cant believe I had forgotten about this.
@starcomber: Yeah, Cosmic Osmo is underrated and revolutionary, as far as I'm concerned. Making all that gorgeous black & white in Hypercard too? Precious hardship.
@Ann: Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment here… humans have such amazing creative potential and I love sharing what I've been inspired by, in hopes it will carry on and make ripples throughout the timeline.
@Talila: Ah glad you played it too! There aren't many folks who I've run into who have.
You might enjoy my article When Multimedia Was Black and White which talks about Cosmic Osmo and some of the other great stuff of the HyperCard era.
Did you ever see The Colony on a black and white Mac?
@Kevin: I didn't see The Colony, but MY GOSH, I NEED to acknowledge that I've visited your site multiple times before, and it's a tremendous inspiration to me! So thrilled to have you here! The work you put into the beautifully-proportioned aesthetics brings me back to my elementary school days when I HyperCarded.