Tame's ActiveWorld @activeworlds - Tumblr Blog

Welcome to Tame's ActiveWorld

This blog serves to showcase parts of the long deserted society of ActiveWorlds, one of the first true online virtual worlds and the precursor to the modern "metaverse", just without the blockchain nonsense.

ActiveWorlds was launched in 1995 for Windows 95, serving as a digital space for users across the world to meet up, build communities and explore, and has maintained a dedicated, albeit dwindling, community since then, even in the face of the modern Internet. While not the only of its kind, as around the same time would see the launch of Worlds.com, another virtual world, it was the first true virtual world, and while it has fallen off severely in activity since the early 2010s, it still stands to this day as a time capsule of an Internet and world that once was.

ActiveWorlds' popularity dwindled into the 2000s, and especially into the 2010s, but it was briefly revived due to a stream by Twitch personality Vinny Vinesauce, in which he encountered Hitomi Fujiko, an entity he assumed was an NPC, but later began expressing human-like characteristics before referring to Vinny by name, despite his account not having his real name anywhere on it. The stream's eerie presence led to the ActiveWorlds immigration servers crashing, and led to a (now nulled) creepypasta theory shortly after. However, after this stream, the popularity of the world would continue to dwindle once again, leaving the userbase at around 20 consistent citizens at best in 2026.

Exploring ActiveWorlds today is primarily achieved through the third party DeltaWorlds browser, as the official browser does not function correctly on modern Windows despite requiring it, not to mention the official universe server is currently down. DeltaWorlds provides a full archive of ActiveWorlds' primary universe server as it was around the mid 2020s, including the historical AlphaWorld, the inaugural world that started it all, but also including popular worlds such as AWRPG and AWTeen, as well as 70 other worlds begging to be explored, which this blog uses.

Most content on this blog is sourced from exploring AlphaWorld, the default starting world when starting the browser, with constructions ranging in creation date generally anywhere from 1996 to 2012. Coordinates will be provided where possible so that you yourself may visit the areas showcased here.

Happy exploring, citizen! - Tame The Clown

#activeworlds #virtual world #old internet #mmo

Non-Exploratories: Archiving Audio Files

Audio you encounter in ActiveWorlds is made up of a mixture of MIDI, MP3 and WAV files streamed from the Internet and downloaded to your computer through an object, typically a speaker, scripted to fetch from a specific URL.

When an object that is scripted to play audio enters your browser's render distance, the browser will download it to your computer and (by default) never delete it to ensure no hitch when returning to that object. This also goes for anything you encounter in ActiveWorlds, including textures and other citizens' avatars. As a result, archiving content from the worlds you visit is deceptively easy.

Archiving audio files can be done by going to the browser's cache folder. By default, this is C:\Alphaworlds or C:\DeltaWorlds depending on which browser you're using. In the cache folder, the sub-folder titled "art" contains all content that you've encountered in your time exploring worlds. Generally, the first folder in the art sub-folder is content you've encountered in Alphaworld, as it's the first world the browser visits. It'll also probably be the largest folder for most citizens.

Audio files are stored in C:\Activeworlds\cache\art\[worldid]\sounds or C:\DeltaWorlds\cache\art\[worldid]\sounds. If you've teleported anywhere or otherwise heard an audio file playing anywhere, you should see a list of files generally in .MID and .WAV format with junk names. ActiveWorlds does not save the names of files uploaded, however any metadata associated with them will be preserved.

Playing MIDI files requires Windows Media Player or any other program that is able to open MIDI files.

#activeworlds #archaeogaming #old internet #digital archiving

SirQus' Genealogy Path (6749S 14239E)

A hillside showcasing the lineage of ActiveWorlds citizen SirQus, dated to a rather late (by AW standards) March 27th, 2016. On approach, a series of logs fall from the sky in the distance.

Statues.

Every plaque on the hill climb itself. The lineage continues beyond this at the top of the hill.

#activeworlds #virtual world #old internet #archaeogaming #mmo

Billyat's Junkyard and the surrounding area (multiple coordinates)

A time capsule of a place, most definitely not a junkyard. The image above's coordinates are at 22S 1E facing west, near Blur's House at ground zero, serving as a teleporter.

On clicking the Billyat square(s) above, you are teleported to 498N 286W, placed in the uppermost and possibly unfinished floor of a museum-esque building. You can escape by going downstairs or by flying out.

Surrounding where you spawn immediately most notably is Billyat's signature and face, a giant DNA helix, a building next to a pentagram containing multiple GIFs of Pikachu, an overflowing fountain, and a roadway.

A sphere with Billyat's face on it, forever bouncing back and forth.

Pikachu and another pentagram.

Perhaps the most influential aspect of this area is the museum you spawn in. On turning around and going downstairs, you will find multiple floors with a multitude of pictures from Billyat's personal life, from comic strips, and from historical memes that were once funny.

To protect the online privacy of the individuals in these images, the pictures of Billyat's personal life will not be posted to this blog. You may visit the coordinates above if you wish to explore this time capsule.

An assortment of non-personal images.

#activeworlds #old internet #archaeogaming #digital exploration #mmo #virtual world

Blur's House (14S, 0E)

A condemned home near ground zero belonging to a man who appears to have left this world, bearing objects inconsistently dated from the early 2000s to the 2010s.