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ESC!Webs Featured Site Week of December 3, 2000 Lite-Brite Web Site: http://www.sfpg.com/animation/instruc.html Parent Site: http://www.sfpg.com/ Week one of "Toys on the web" brings us to the Lite-Brite site. Now before anyone gets into a trademark infringement tizzy, I am pretty sure this site is not "authorized" to use the Lite-Brite name. But what else are you going to call it? The site was created by SFPG or the San Francisco Production Group to help showcase their talents. SFPG is a multimedia / web / animation / video company and Lite-Brite is a result of their experimentation in the animation field. The Concept Like the Lite-Brite board you grew up with, this Lite-Brite has a black background with numerous "holes" staggered across its face. You can choose from one of eight colored "pegs" to "stick into" the holes on the board. With only your imagination to guide you you can create pictures just like on a real Lite-Brite! When you first enter the site you are given the choice of 640x480 or 800x600 sized boards. For most home users 640x480 will be sufficient, but if you have a large enough monitor, go for the bigger board -- you'll be happier with the extra space. You'll also notice that there is a little "trial" area on the first screen where you can see how the program works before moving on to the big board. Which Is Better? I'd have to say that the old Lite-Brite is definitely the best way to go. While this site is cool and easy to use many of the things you expect from a Lite-Brite are just not there like the pre-printed patterns you can load into the machine, the warm glow of the light bulb and the feel of running your hands through hundreds of colored pegs looking for the right color for Bugs Bunny's nose. The best things about the web version, however, is the ability to remove a peg without leaving a little circle of light where the paper backing was broken. (I remember carefully pulling the pattern off of the Lite-Brite so I could push up the paper that got poked by the errant peg -- don't have to do that now...) Finally, if I could change one thing about the site it would be to give it the capability to save your final creations. No one wants to sit there planning an intricate design only to lose it when you move to the next site.
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