MODEL HALT AND CATCH FIRE IN PIXELS · ARC II · MUTINY · 1985–86 · page 16 of 32 · under KEEPER ERIS
16 · Packet-Switched Nights
Rented mainframe time, packet networks and a bank of modems that are always busy at 9 pm. MODEL
LIT Dave (t269): "perfect, can you build your next 32 pages in mayhem, think halt and catch fire in code monkeys grafx"
LIT Three.js r160 (local copy), DPR capped at 2. MODEL Original voxel art in a Code-Monkeys-style pixel look: the scene is drawn into a low-resolution target, then one shader pass adds CRT curvature, scanlines, phosphor glow (P1 green) and snaps colours to the c64 palette. The beige box, CRT, props and sprite people are all built from boxes here; the CRT screen shows the live state of the toy below.
Play / poke
The history
- LIT 1975 · Telenet (1975) and Tymnet (1971) carried dial-up users to online services over packet-switched networks. (Telenet / Tymnet history)
- LIT 1917 · The Erlang B formula (A. K. Erlang, 1917) gives the chance a caller hears busy, given the number of lines and the traffic. (Erlang B)
- MODEL 1985 · In the show, Mutiny struggles with line capacity and rented computer time. (Halt and Catch Fire S2 (reference))
Checked live on this page:
- checking…
The show & the cast
MODEL Season two (1985–86): Cameron Howe and Donna Clark run Mutiny, a fictional online-games company working out of a Dallas house, on dial-up lines and rented mainframe time.
MODEL BUILDER buys lines, WEAVER spreads callers across nodes and CRITIC prices the busy signals with Erlang B. Drag the sliders to see the evening rush.
Original pixel cast on this page MODEL
Made-up characters who stand in for roles. They are not the show's characters, and no show art, logos, likenesses or dialogue are used. The show and character names appear only as text references.
Improvement loop · BUILDER+WEAVER+CRITIC
MODEL BUILDER and WEAVER take turns changing the look (pixel block size, scanlines, palette snap, CRT curve, exposure, phosphor glow) and CRITIC renders a 128×96 test frame, reads its pixels and scores five things: palette fidelity, contrast, scanlines, exposure and pixel blockiness (weights come from this page's seal). A change is kept only if the score goes up. LIT Scores are measured from pixels, never guessed, and the page throws if the best score ever goes down or doesn't reproduce.
params:
Gallery
Exports
WALL Nothing here goes online: the modems, boards, networks and markets are simulations. No real BIOS or ROM code is included. Show footage and art are not reproduced by design. AMBER facts are sourced but approximate.
proving…
Seal sha256(name|slug|blurb): f461df4b15a74595d1d93106e843cbac8186873555b9d10390b54834e86ad0a4 · written to seals/hacf-16-packet-switched.dlw only if missing