The Internet Changed Me

Sometimes, it feels like James's indirectly flexing on the fact that he can draw hands.

i used to watch james so much in and before lockdown, and i come back every once and a while. he is still and will always be my comfort youtuber.

Now I'm not a millennial, but every time we went to my grandpa's house on the weekends, all there was to do was tv, space cadet pinball on a computer the size of a mini fridge, and an Atari. I was raised with the classics growing up. That space cadet pinball game footage and neopets just fired so many nostalgia shots it's insane!

I'm an older Gen Z (1999) and, honestly, I had pretty much the same childhood. I think people don't understand just how similar the experience was. I feel like a millennial when I see what younger Gen Z's are up to.

Hearing the startup for Space Cadet literally brought tears to my eyes. We had it on our old home desktop and I remember spending so much time playing that game when I had nothing else to do. It's crazy looking back on how the internet used to be when u don't actively think about how its progressed this quickly

Round of applause for James and his team for making this

Can we talk about how impressive James' animation has become?

Man, the animation in these videos is insane. I guess working on a Netflix show has perks.

I love how expressive the animation has gotten lately! I haven’t checked your channel in years lmaoo

this channel has went form james being mostly not moving other than his mouth to moving alot more and that shows progress keep up the work

As a Millennial it's great to see others talk about those wild days of early internet access. Creating your own HTML-page was a lot of fun as the programs evolved and it was sometimes difficult to discover other webpages, unless they were connected with a "web-ring" or had dedicated links-page. Thank you for making this video and every animator and screenshot historian involved.

I am effectively Gen Z as I born in 2005, but damn I had the same experience on the internet as James. Space cadet pinball was something I spent a lot of time playing as kid.

I was born in the Gen Z era but that pinball and paint program STILL hit me with some *hard* nostalgia!

As someone born in 1995...this just triggered nostalgia to a different level in me.....thank you James...

I was born in 2003, and u just unlocked a core memory of my father showing me pinball on the compter for the first time. Great video James!

Petition for James to make Sooubway 5: One Last Sandwich where he compares sandwiches from Su- I mean Sooubway with Jersey Mike’s and Jimmy John’s to see which food chain is the best

James talking about the internet on the internet being ran by the internet is truly one of the moments of all time

I don't know if it's because I'm at the beginning of Gen z (2001) or because I'm not American, but I relate so much to millennials. Most stuff James said felt nostalgic to ME. Maybe it's because a lot of these 90s-00s reached us a bit later, so I remember everything well?

as much as we hate the internet we can also appreciate how many opportunities it has brought to creative people and artists

can we just appreciate how detailed all the backgrounds are? just yes.

2:23 The animation on this part of the video is incredibly good, nice job animators!

I was born in late 97 and relate so much to this! Thanks for making this man this is so awesome and nostalgic!

i might not be a millennial but watching these kinds of videos make me wanna go back to those days

This has hit me to the core. I resonate with this. 🙆

I'm a Gen Z kid but even I got hit with nostalgia when James talked about Space Cadet Pinball and random free form selection in MS Paint.

I love your videos! Been a fan for years and your storytelling is so fun to listen to and the animations are so hilarious and high quality. Thank you!! Love you

Those background designers need a raise- I swear those backgrounds were amazing *chef’s kiss*

I was born in 2002 but when i saw the space cadet pinball that hit me with one of the biggest waves of nostalgia ive ever felt, i used to love playing that all the time when i got my first laptop

I’m a gen z so learning about space cadet pinball and the early internet was really eye opening to me

As a kid born in the 2000s I can confirm that the internet changed my life and made me into who I am today, glad that I grew up with the internet

I'm Gen Z and I got hit a big wave of nostalgia seeing that pinball machine too. There was also Wizards 101

You were the CHclipr that introduced me to animation. Now I work on comics and have a CHclip channel. 😁

It’s crazy to think I’m gen Z but watching this made me realize I was raised as a millennial 😅

5:49
M-my guy. You just grabbed my brain, threw it back 20 years, and made me watch my 6 year old brain process how to have fun on a computer. Seriously memory was more than unlocked. That felt relived. Thanks for that ❤

LoL The intro is so funny! 😂
Keep up the good work! 😄

Honestly, we don’t give enough credit to how the internet changes people

I am appreciative of how James put so much work to use not a fake homepage, but actually one from windows 95

James, one thing I hope you never change about your animations, is those chefs kiss detailed butt cheeks. never fail to make me laugh.

Respectfully, there were more than 2 buttons in Space Cadet Pinball, but nobody used the Bump buttons

I grew up with old fashioned parents so they raised us like they raised my millennial siblings. I can hardly understand my own generation at times. Even so, I have things in common with both generations. Not too much, not too little.

I remember when I was younger and despite the internet existing I still got an actual chain letter in the mail! I tried to keep it going but despite the fact that the letter said I didn't need stamps it turned out that I did and the post office sent them all back to me lol.

The amount of nostalgia in this video is palpable. Good on you for making me remember Pinball, James.

Honestly though, I never lived through the early years of the internet but I weirdly have such nostalgia for it!! The internet was new, lot simpler, and definitely hadnt taken over society with such prominence as it has today. It seems to me like the 90s were better times for growing up..But what do I know:)
Oh and I love using the wayback machine to visit old websites and see how they looked, so I got a laugh out of the reference to backgrounds being a jpeg used multiple times!! Lol people in the early ages of the internet apparently couldn't style websites very well....But I have the same fond/nostalgia feelings for the early websites with the bright yellow text you couldn't even read against the background...which was just, like, the same picture of Hanson ten thousand times
I'm kinda happy to understand the references in this video even though I didn't even live thru the 90s.

I’m not a millennial (born in Jan 2004) but I distinctly remember going to visit my great-aunt when I was about 4 or 5 years old and firing up her Windows computer to hear the legendary Windows XP startup sound. Apparently it was from early on in the Windows XP production run, around 2001-2002. Good times.

6:05 as a 15 year old gen-z coinsure, you don't understand the levels of nostalgia i got from seeing that pinball game

This took me back….
“Imagine no Facebook or social media.”
I don’t have to. I was there… It was beautiful.

I am a mid-age gen Z and I agree with the positive things the internet can do. I have chosen a almost new path as a coder and yeah. That’s it.

Seeing these characters with hands will never not creep me out.

As a older Gen z'er born in the 98's, you still hit me with lot's of nostalgia. But I hardly got to use the early internet Because it was so "bad" back then.

Im a gen z kid, born in 2009, but that space cadet pinball game schmacked me with a tsunami of nostalgia

Im part of the gen z but i remember playing that pinball game every time i got into my school's computer lab like 7 or 8 years ago xD
(felt a little nostalgia btw)

Too young to be a Millennial, so old I relate to most of these. What a time.

First video I watched on this channel, and I wish there was a "Love" button but the "Like" will have to suffice. That pinball nostalgia hit me hard lol

i honestly really miss annotations they were so much fun

from barely still frame animation to full blown sporadic smooth animation
James, you've come so far and to be here to watch that growth throughout the years has been awesome and you are still one of my favorite comfort youtubers

I miss MS paint 😭 so simple yet it was the building block of my art. The free form tool where you could pull and stretch the line anywhere you wanted was the best !

Hearing that pinball game start up brought back a lot of memories, I was not allowed to be on the internet until I was 14 without supervision. I used the same old computers they had back then. James is 100% right

I hated those little boxes that you’d have to manually remove because they always covered everything. So happy I learned how to turn it off.

im from 2007, and i actually witnessed a lot of these things either cause we still had them or cause of my siblings. but the ones that definetly grew up with modern internet were Gen alpha, those kids at age 2 are using iphones, at that age i was spinning in the floor waiting for the time to pass by.....or watching some tv

I recall asking the Internet all kinds of questions. Mainly of the weird or gross kind just to see what they would say. I would ask things like "Should I lick the floor on the transit bus?" Or any random gross questions I could think of just to mess with them. XD Idk why I found that so fun then. (-_ -;)

james and his team’s animation and art style improved so MUCH

This is such an eye opening topic- as a 1998 kid too, I've grown up with the paint, mozilla firefox and the 'e' search engine lol that pinball is so relatable, but I played Solitaire more. And it was up until college that i learned to play cards than my kid self just randomly clicking everywhere. Its such a fun childhood tbh. ❤️

After I heard space cadet, I got hit with a wave of nostalgia.

I'm a 04' kid and I grew up with the internet, I feel nostalgic for the 2008-2015 internet

As an older Gen Z, born in 1999, we can relate to a lot of these things, Space cadet, 5 star rating in youtube, looking for numbers in the yellow phone book, I used to get really excited when I find our house number in others’ phone books 😂… I think that age period should be reconsidered for millennials and include us older Gen z, because for me and a lot of others, we relate more to millennials then to Gen z 🤷‍♂️.

Dude this is why i feel like i was a millennial even though i was born in Spring of 2000. I remember a time where only adults had cell phones, we had a landline and we would play pinball and solitaire on the computer. its crazy😂

It’s fascinating that James can talk about the old internet and fascinate me.

I am Gen Z, but more specifically earlier gen Z (I was born at the end of the 90s) and I can relate to quite a bit of it. I do agree with the sentiment that the internet is a good thing, but it's not without its downsides. We'd perhaps benefit from disconnecting a little more often if possible, though I acknowledge that for some, it's their only venue for socialising/doing much at all (not everybody can get out so easily to socialise or do any other, miscellaneous activities). It would sure be wonderful if we could rid of certain unhealthy cultures that have arisen on the internet over the years, but I do not believe that that is feasible.
Anyway. I do not recall MySpace being very prevalent, but I was on the internet between the late 2000s and early 2010s. I recall Facebook being the dominant social media when I was younger, including with younger people. However, as I did not have social media back then, excluding CHclip, my understanding of that side of the internet may have been limited.

Well some homes in the early 2000's still had the same experience.
I was born at 2000 and remember spending many times with pinball, clippy(more with the dog), shiny colorful blogs that every 10yo could make.
I didnt had a dial up internet, but i remember those massive books with every person phone call in it.
Most of the time i didnt even had internet as i was stealing from the neighbor 😌

As a full Gen Z'er (2009) i wonder how it was in the 2000s. I have a very brief like 1 year period where it wasnt discord: "yo hop on" but instead it was going to the park, meeting your friend and planning it out (i wasnt the one doing it, i just watched my family do so). And i feel like that was the peak of man.
Instantaneous connection is wrong. I truly wish i was born sooner

I am 23 and "officially" a gen z. Do you really think there is a magic line and everyone behind it had a total different experience?? I know most of the things you talked about and experienced them. The only difference might be that I was too young and weren't allowed to use it all the time. But even when I wasn't allowed to do it myself I've watched it

Ironically, I was there even though I was born only in 2002. I remember all these things. The only thing I never experienced as a child was dial up

Being born in 2001, a lot of this still resonates with me. Space Cadet pinball and Mindsweeper were the best things ever.

i am a gen Z and i played space cadet pinball as a kid, tbh i never really understanded how it worked or what i need to do, but the goofy sounds and music made me play it

I was born 1998 and I feel more like a millennial that a gen z.
I identify with the internet 100% like you did 😂
And I'm thankful, that I grew up with my toys and playing outside than scrolling through the internet like a zombie (like my cousins).
My niece has access to the internet but my sister thankfully raised her with limited screen time and she don't own a smartphone with six like somewhere else.

"you grew up with the internet. We grew up with the internet"
James -2022

the only computer that my family had was at my MeMe's (grandparents) house. space cadet pinball became how us cousins would communicate with each other. every time someone would beat a high score it would be a message to the rest that sucked, it was never an actual name lol.

I was born in 2008 but my parents still had all the classic stuff including a computer that had two slow games, VHS, and box like TV. Although now day's I used more modern stuff like the Oculus quest 2 and a gaming laptop, I still tend to use things like yahoo and such, and I used to play space cadet pin ball.

It's crazy how far he's come from a boardgame to a show and he still uploads

Even though I, yes am a part of Gen Z, I still know of a lot of these. I asked my mum about these, she said Space Cadet Pinball was a big part of her childhood.

Thank you so much for this! We thought this but you articulated it so beautifully. Great graphics and great voice. Well done 👏🏽

As a chinese person, you have no idea how much joy I felt when I heard you say year of the rat

Being a year younger than James, I can confirm this to be true

I definitely miss the days of finding new and cool websites. Unlike today, where everything is on either CHclip, Facebook Twitter or one of the other social media sites I don't use.

As an elderly millennial, I gotta say this brought back some memories. Mostly frustrating ones

I love the backgrounds that your people design!

went from 8 bit ping pong to being able to map out your entire city with photorealistic graphics

I feel like the separation of what each generation is supposed to be falls kinda flat with how technology progresses and as does the culture of the time. I'm 2000 so I'm technically gen z, but a lot of the things that James describes is much more relatable to me than any of the other stuff people in gen z seem to share as 'relatable.'

I'm gen-Z and because my dad was an IT guy, I do remember the awkward early 2000s when youtube was really clunky

this is so fun as someone born in the very early 2000s where i have baby memories of "graphic design is my passion" pages

James old videos: pure humor with stories
James new videos: humor with a life lesson.

I'm a 2000 baby but my family were always about 5-7 years behind in tech. I grew up watching Shrek on VHS over and over, playing Space Cadet, minesweeper and MS paint on our family PC running Windows 95 and not being allowed a flip phone till I was 13. I remember getting an iPod touch after that and being blown away by this whole new world of mobile tech.
Wow... That was literally only 10 years ago...

Millennial. Born 88. Omg this whole video is nostalgia for me. O: I was a child when computers became more easily available (Dad built computers and then worked in tech support for media) so I def grew up a large portion of my childhood without computers and then grew up seeing so much of the changes. Always fun to see the internet summarized because sometimes that stuff hits like you a truck and you're like "I FORGOT ABOUT THAT"

"Go touch your toes" that part made me die
james could cure me, if I'm ever sad and i watch his videos i will fly and become the most happiest person

4:07 I don't think I've ever been this terrified of James.

Hi James just finished your netflix series IT WAS AMAZING keep up the good work!!

I’m proud to say that I lived long enough to see James animate himself some hands

Man, space cadet was awesome. The game that made me live pinball. Now I play it whenever I have a chance to find one in bowling alleys and the like

I Remember Watching Those Wallpaper Mazes in Amazement, Wondering How Complex They Would Get if I Left it Going.

There's a reason why Space Cadet pinball was only in Windows XP and ME. There was a bug in the game that Microsoft wanted to patch for Windows 7, but they lost the license to the game. So they had to scrap the program to be bundled with the OS and just use a different game in its place. Fortunately, it has been fixed and you can download the game for Windows 10.