Oh, yes! 3D Maze was one of the greats in terms of classic screensavers.
Line Rider was a memorable part of my early internet days too. I remember seeing one of those McDonald's commercials on TV and thinking it was the tightest shit. I even made a fake Pokemon card of the Line Rider (who I didn't know at the time had an actual name, Bosh), back in November '08 if the modified date is to be believed. https://puu.sh/GLlhD/b37547e714.JPG
Nice, did you ever draw your own track, record it, and then upload that video to YouTube?
I certainly drew my fair share of tracks, but sadly I never recorded them. I do have a video of a track I made in Line Rider 2 Unbound, but that's a completely different beast than the flash game, with different physics, more line types, new graphics (though I'm using the Classic graphics in the vid), and other additions/changes. Here it is if you wanna check it out anyway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je0Yg04006o
A couple more bits about Unbound you might find interesting: It's not featured in the video, but Bosh has voice acting by Tom Kenny, who I'm sure you know voices SpongeBob. Also, the game has a puzzle mode, where you're given an incomplete track, and you have to complete it to get the rider(s) to the end. The puzzle mode tracks are designed by none other than TechDawg.
This is all (very interesting) news to me; I largely stopped paying attention to Line Rider after 2008, except for watching the occasional video on YouTube. (I also enjoyed the Jack Black octagon reference you placed at the end. How many years has it been since that meme appeared on YouTube, again?)
The original video was uploaded July 18th 2008, so that'd make it 12 years. I remember when I first saw it back then, my first reaction was that it was so LAME that a COOL GUY like Jack Black was on a DUMB BABY SHOW like Sesame Street, though as you can imagine, my opinion has changed since then. :)
Good stuff. I remember wasting a good amount of time on these games. I forget where I found this, but it's been in my bookmarks for a while now: https://www.androdome.com/Sand/ This page has all of fallingsandgame.com's games in desktop application format, including Etch-a-Sketch Sand.
Also, have you ever heard of this one? https://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/dust/ Despite the URL, the current version uses JavaScript, and not Java, though it used to at one point. Here's what seems to be the latest archive of the Java version: https://web.archive.org/web/20130827192844/http://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/dust/ I sadly can't confirm if it works, because I'm using a "modern" browser with no Java support.
I remember playing this ages ago! What a blast from the past. That was an hour well spent.
a-rok, that androdome.com link is actually very useful for those who are using browsers that no longer support Java applets -- thanks for bringing this to my attention! I will make sure to add it to the page during the next update.
Also, yes, I am familiar with Powder Game, but I never played it as much as the ones on FallingSandGame.com; I always disliked the fact that it had a limit on the maximum number of particles which could be on-screen at once. As for the Internet Archive capture, in Internet Explorer I can confirm that the Java applet loads, but it throws an error.
I miss the old YouTube too. 2009-2011 were my particular favourite years though. I was using Google Video in 2007.
Well, now, I didn't expect to receive a comment this quickly. I used YouTube very much between 2007-2009, so those will always remain my favorite years of the site. I remember Google Video, but never used it reguarly; was it similar to old YouTube, with customizable channels and such?
I have pretty much the same memory of 2007 YouTube/Hare Hare Yukai as well. Watching that video again makes me miss that period of time a lot.
I'm courting understatement by noting that his successors are equally ebullient. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ci2hj7CSHI
I'm afraid to say this one passed me by first time around for various reasons. The more I read about it, though, the more I think I ought to give it a go. I was a fan of Dexter's Lab when I was younger, and I've just recently watched Primal, so maybe I should aquaint myself with another of Genndy Tartakovsky's works.
I definitely recommend it, as I consider it to be his greatest work, being even better than Dexter's Laboratory and Star Wars: Clone Wars, which I also watched back in the day and enjoyed.