Did you know someone reverse-engineered the Weather Channel computer system from the 80s/90s and now you can generate your own private weather channel for your location? weatherstar.netbymatt.com - ThreadSky

thomasfuchs.at • 3 days ago

Did you know someone reverse-engineered the Weather Channel computer system from the 80s/90s and now you can generate your own private weather channel for your location?

https://weatherstar.netbymatt.com

Comments

laurentide.bsky.social•2 days ago

I actually prefer the downloadable simulator at https://Taiganet.com which allows you to add your own music and channel logo, and can even have different playlists for each season (or any other date ranges you prefer). They even got the original narrator to rerecord his lines for it!

dorianscott.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

blaiddydblue.bsky.social•3 days ago

therealshrum.bsky.social•3 days ago

I wish this had a public API; I'd love to be able to embed this or link to just the video directly.

Someone was mentioning forking this? Is there a public source repo?

therealshrum.bsky.social•3 days ago

nm found it: https://github.com/netbymatt/ws4kp

sherbetalex.bsky.social•3 days ago

Hey @darenquacks.com

rianfowler.com•3 days ago

Kiosk mode? You had exactly the use case I wanted in mind. Dusting off an old iPad mini right meow

grumpyburr.bsky.social•3 days ago

Omg this is awesome. This is how I'll get my weather from now on

dd9000.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

jupiterjazz89.bsky.social•2 days ago

Can I run this on @jellyfin.bsky.social

amipr.bsky.social•2 days ago

THIS IS AWESOME. THANKS!!!

joywalsh.bsky.social•2 days ago

Hey, this is my husband's program! He is so excited you all found it and love it! Exactly what he was hoping for when he created it. Keep enjoying it, and he's fairly responsive if you want to reach out to him through the website. Thanks for making our night!

386dx4.bsky.social•1 day ago

If you want the full experience, I run a stream of the software simulator of the same Weather Channel back end with smooth jazz tunes 24-7 on Twitch - https://twitch.tv/retroweatherchannel
Big ups to the guy who developed the simulator: https://www.taiganet.com

martinfff.bsky.social•3 days ago

cool

martinfff.bsky.social•3 days ago

there's even music

hillybatcher.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

pissy-badger.bsky.social•3 days ago

Aw, no Canadian weather. : (

porterpizzazz.bsky.social•3 days ago

MEMORIES

tzed250.bsky.social•2 days ago

GLORIOUS

tommyhighrise.bsky.social•3 days ago

I love this! Reminds me of seeing the Weather Channel when I was younger.

ramsey.house•2 days ago

It even has a Docker container version! This is amazing.

voldemooch.bsky.social•3 days ago

@crendor.bsky.social dude, it's back!

dieratte.bsky.social•3 days ago

And now your local on the rights.

thomasfuchs.at•3 days ago

This goes oddly well with the Wii Shop music

thomasfuchs.at•3 days ago

There’s a way too long and nerdy Wikipedia article on the computer system they’re using, including sordid details like that it was once hacked to show racial slurs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WeatherStar

xar.ph•3 days ago

this thing needs to get emulated by mame

xar.ph•3 days ago

I remember when the linux svga driver was sponsored by the weather channel and would print that to dmesg on bootup and linus got mad and banned nonfunctional printf in kernel modules.

thomasfuchs.at•3 days ago

Don't forget to turn on audio btw.

leetnightshade.bsky.social•3 days ago

Dang, could really use a volume slider.

thomasfuchs.at•3 days ago

There’s also a version that works for locations outside the US https://mwood77.github.io/ws4kp-international/

rmi.bsky.social•2 days ago

made my day

hatkidsays.bsky.social•3 days ago

Hell yeah

frost.folf.blue•3 days ago

The GitHub page says they used AI to generate the music, sadly :(

But the rest of this is incredible.

thomasfuchs.at•3 days ago

Good find, yeah. But the music is elsewhere pretty readily available luckily.

mihoda.bsky.social•3 days ago

omg

t0sun.bsky.social•3 days ago

So THAT'S what happened to Retro-8s live and Twilight live, I loved those segments. Weird that they retired them so quickly.

gavinastrawolf.bsky.social•3 days ago

Ok but it goes better with the Wii's weather channel tho lol https://youtu.be/1H5b4n0l7SY?feature=shared

greenydth.bsky.social•3 days ago

And there's emulators made for other WeatherStar systems too BTW. I believe there's one for IntelliStar 2 and one for Weatherscan too.

sweetmagus.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

cdlv.bsky.social•2 days ago

This is so great!

zacbentz.com•3 days ago

aw yeah time to bust this out and chill

https://catsystemcorp.bandcamp.com/album/sunday-television-2

nik.dog•3 days ago

I love Cat System Corp
Oasys is probably my all time fave!

dancap.bsky.social•3 days ago

Ok that’s pretty fun!

sooner95.bsky.social•3 days ago

Ok. This is coolest thing ever.

lettuce.blue•3 days ago

https://mwood77.github.io/ws4kp-international/
An international version for those outside the US

somekittycat.bsky.social•3 days ago

I wonder if there will ever be a version that just accepts any location on the world.

chilichapters.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

jkfecke.bsky.social•3 days ago

caelarue.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

bikerglen.bsky.social•3 days ago

I used to work in the cable TV industry so I once worked with someone who helped design that system.

cmj.pi.gs•3 days ago

Hah I run a fork of this, you have to complete it with the right soundtrack too.

Fun stuff.

https://github.com/cmj/weather-channel

cmj.pi.gs•3 days ago

I recommend Florida Rains

https://floridarains.bandcamp.com/

vonotar.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is the best thing. The hours I would spend as a kid just watching the Weather Channel. I know I had some of those songs memorized at one point. One of them was "Lily Was Here", by David Stewart, formerly of the Eurythmics.

matthewsp.bsky.social•3 days ago

America is already great

toolemera.bsky.social•3 days ago

👏👏👏👏👏👏

justabaldguy.bsky.social•3 days ago

That's the coolest thing I've seen in ages!!

rubyluvcow.bsky.social•3 days ago

The music playback could use an audio control if you work on upgrades.

novacaine.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is cool and all, but it's only for the USA. :(

beninquiring.bsky.social•3 days ago

Well now I’m curious. Has the Weather Channel ever broadcast outside the U.S.? I’ve only ever seen them show US maps.

genericable.com•3 days ago

Yes, there were several international editions of TWC. The Weather Network in Canada still exists to this day. TWC Latin America (1996-2002) also found some success.

There were also a handful of unsuccessful European versions (TWC UK, Germany, Netherlands, Italy: 1996/7-1998).

genericable.com•3 days ago

Forgot one other, there was a spiritual revival of TWC Latin America as TWC en Español in 2022. It was intended to serve the US’ Spanish speaking community that is largely underserved, but also still covered Latin America. This was short lived and died last year.

Source: extreme TWC fan 😎

beninquiring.bsky.social•3 days ago

That sounds so cool!!!

genericable.com•3 days ago

It really is neat! I’ve been doing a lot of research into them as there is very little known about all/very few footage from all except TWN & Latin America editions.

What’s especially interesting is that some of them even had their own local forecast computers like the HTML app above simulates. 🤠

novacaine.bsky.social•3 days ago

I'm not sure, to be honest. I think the Canadian equivalent is The Weather Network?

But this site looks pretty neat and would be cool to use it for any part of the world. I got sad not being able to select my city.

raynegrimm.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌

husaria.bsky.social•3 days ago

what if i wanted this to interface with my private weather station?

kaspar-stonenature.bsky.social•3 days ago

@lucahjin.bsky.social

rckiwi.bsky.social•3 days ago

The NTSC shader really makes this.

hazer.bsky.social•3 days ago

And another docker container to setup and keep updated... hehe

katarjin.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yooooo, thank you for letting crow know about this.

tatermort.bsky.social•3 days ago

Too cool

sentinal133.bsky.social•3 days ago

Crashed, gave my phone an an anyeurism I had to completely restart it from.

isnert.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

fusionshaun91.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is super neat, though sadly it seems like it only works in the US and not in Canada.

voteblue4vr.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

kaipanpng.bsky.social•2 days ago

Looks good in our library!

toffball.bsky.social•2 days ago

There’s a widescreen setting to fill the whole TV!

turbineseaplane.bsky.social•3 days ago

I don't know why we can't still have this (officially) -- it's wonderful. I'd leave it going in the background all the time. I used to love zoning out to TWC in the 80's & 90's

bradlovett.bsky.social•3 days ago

Just add some smooth jazz

heykatieday.bsky.social•3 days ago

This makes me giddy happy! Thank you so much for sharing it!
📌

evanphx.dev•3 days ago

I love this. So much.

gamerfoxem.bsky.social•2 days ago

Oh wow, this is a blast from the past for me. I hate being 40.

jerrycakes.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is the one I've been using for a while

https://battaglia.ddns.net/twc/

richx1ku.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yes this one is the original.

rafuzo.bsky.social•2 days ago

Be sure to pair it with the old school weatherscan music. Beaufort needed a whole new scale for the way this cat blows on the disco flute
https://unknowndye.bandcamp.com/track/wxscan-music-track-26

andyroz.bsky.social•3 days ago

Has https://weather.com stopped working?

bunny.bismuth.gay•3 days ago

If you don't get it, maybe shut up

andyroz.bsky.social•3 days ago

Ah yes, some people need an explanation before they understand humour. Maybe I should have added an emoji for you?

mellopanther.bsky.social•3 days ago

I wanna say this was a thing 15-20ish years ago (possibly with different software) but nice to see it back.

saldemar.bsky.social•3 days ago

Does this also transport you to a Days Inn off the highway with one of those self-serve waffle makers perched beneath it?

aarong.gay•2 days ago

If you ingest enough mushrooms, yes.

zachfuture.bsky.social•3 days ago

Wait, really?!

benjaminlistwon.com•3 days ago

This is _very_ cool. Takes me right back. The geography may be a bit off though 😆

theleaderisgood.bsky.social•3 days ago

Well this is the coolest thing I’ve seen all day.

dennerdenner.bsky.social•3 days ago

Does it still play Jeff Lorber tracks?

davidwindham.com•1 day ago

I do now

alexdl-97t5.bsky.social•2 days ago

Will it have to option to select other countries for weather forecast?

mapleqb.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

nemesistwarlock.bsky.social•3 days ago

Dangit. The base one doesn’t support non us locations, and the international fork doesn’t have the music!!

nemesistwarlock.bsky.social•3 days ago

Paging @ompu.co

lolphillies.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is scratching such a nostalgia itch

astropotamus.com•3 days ago

Complete with overscan and burnin?

willcuthere.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is what I call "retrotacular". I didn't know how badly I wanted/missed this.

richx1ku.bsky.social•3 days ago

The original Trammell Starks local on the 8's tracks are here (Weatherscan at the bottom): https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Trammell+Starks%22

pathost.bsky.social•2 days ago

Love this!

boricu-ai.bsky.social•3 days ago

Duh! I know this already!

colinmungo.bsky.social•3 days ago

cut to emergency broadcast text

THEY ARE COMING

DON'T LOOK AT THE SKY

THE SHADOW PEOPLE WISH TO EAT YOUR KNEECAPS FOR DINNER

etc

bunny.bismuth.gay•3 days ago

freerangemink.bsky.social•3 days ago

Hey the website keeps crashing! Tell everyone else to stop doing it! (but yes it's super sweet!)

jametc.bsky.social•3 days ago

and to complete your immersion, someone found and dumped HOURS of iconic weather station jazz:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp95UC8UOf4&list=PLMUZjd023YBtp0iB962Uz7ao4vd6pkU5E

floatoverblow.com•3 days ago

I just need the ambience of trapped dust and dead yellow jackets in a boxy crt TV speaker with a broken front panel.

jametc.bsky.social•3 days ago

I've been seriously thinking of buying a small one, for the vibes alone

floatoverblow.com•3 days ago

I played with a genesis soundchip emulator VST a while back and -immediately- realized that's what I'd need to make it work for music, nothing we heard then was unfiltered and it's kinda crazy to think about. Absolutely everything on tv had the equivalent of a guitar's cabinet in front of the mix.

lianyapcm.bsky.social•2 days ago

Was the Genesis VST Chipsynth MD from @plogue.com by any chance? If so, they also have Chipcrusher which has a convolution engine at the end of the DSP, where you can use an IR to filter the audio as if it was coming from the console/tv

It has a 50s television IR that can be used for both use cases

floatoverblow.com•2 days ago

That looks like it yeah. I have a host of effects I could use to do the same, Convolver in FL could probably be bent to do that. I'll keep it in mind if I ever want a genesis sound again.

argonaught.bsky.social•3 days ago

Oh my gosh......

ts-brookhouse.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is literally what I checked the comments for, bless

laulaucarcar.bsky.social•2 days ago

Crazy how this transported me into my childhood living room

cheesemeister.bsky.social•3 days ago

I need the Prevue/TV Guide Channel.

genericable.com•3 days ago

You’re in luck, as there is a community dedicated to emulating the original software! Here’s a very helpful guide: https://prevueguide.neocities.org/guides/Esquire/1

cheesemeister.bsky.social•3 days ago

Perfect! Thanks!