Anyone remember the OJ Simpson chase animation on older Macs?

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caver01

Tinkerer
Oct 30, 2021
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This is one of those questions like “on the tip of my tongue” but instead of trying to remember some TV show or movie, I am looking for information about a silly piece of software I downloaded from some BBS in the 90s. Everyone who lived through the events surrounding OJ Simpson‘s white bronco police chase remembers the media coverage. Someone who saw the news feed created a short animation—maybe a screensaver, or maybe it was DA or even a Hypercard stack. Here’s what I remember:

It was a somewhat useless display of animated sprites and audio featuring the white bronco shown from above as the highway lines moved past and several police car sprites (and maybe a helicopter?) trailed behind. As this animation looped, you would hear “OH JAY. ohh jay. OHJAY OJAY” at various speeds and pitches. Maybe you could enable sirens or adjust what audio was played?

Does anyone remember this goofy little screensaver item? I am sure I was running it on a Macintosh Plus with upgraded RAM, and maybe even a Radius 030 accelerator (with Full-Page Display). The real event took place in June, 1994, so that puts it somewhere in the System 7 era and three years before System 8. Maybe that helps someone locate or remember the software. I’d love to get my hands on it!

Disclaimer: Just to be clear, the controversy around OJ including the alleged crimes at the time that led to the events with the Bronco chase, the televised trial that followed, the acquittal—and of course the the tragic murders are all serious, and it is not my intent to belittle the impact and grief of those involved or to make light of the injustice. Mostly, I am interested in the silly audio that accompanied this animation which poked fun at the intense media coverage—something my brother and I reference every time we see something related to OJ Simpson.
 

caver01

Tinkerer
Oct 30, 2021
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It‘s worth mentioning that I have already spent time searching info-mac and other archives and even employed the help of AI to try to track this down. In the end, I figure my best shot is finding someone who saw this and squirreled away a copy.
 
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JDW

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Hilarious. I just Googled it and found this very thread...

1770790010240.png


Just goes to show how awesome this forum is (not the Discord though because it's not indexed by Google).

The search continues!
 

Daxeria

New Tinkerer
Mar 16, 2022
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The "OJ's Bronco" After Dark module, v1.0.3, is attached. :)
 

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  • after_dark_ojs_bronco_v103.sit
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JDW

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I confirmed it doesn't work in System 7.5.5 with AfterDark 4...

1770802418354.png


And it refuses to run in AfterDark 2.x as well...

1770802650416.png


How about version 1.1c of After Dark, you ask?
Well, that too doesn't work, at least not under System 7.5.5...

1770803356648.png


Can someone provide me with the exact download URL of the version of AfterDark that is compatible with the OJ module, or specify which After Dark version requires which MacOS version in order to run the module?

Or maybe someone could just post a screenshot so I can see what it looks like. Because that's all I'm trying to do. :)
 
Last edited:

Daxeria

New Tinkerer
Mar 16, 2022
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Well, I got it running in After Dark 3.0b on 7.5.5 (screenshot attached)... but it doesn't seem to contain any sound whatsoever. So I guess the OP remembers either a later, enhanced version (which I don't see any sign of having existed), or someone else's more elaborate take on the same idea. :unsure:

There was a conceptually similar O.J. screensaver for Windows, but its two audio choices were a loop of siren and tire screech sound effects or a loop of the Simpsons theme song—still no chanting of "OH JAY".
 

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  • after_dark_ojs_bronco_v103.png
    after_dark_ojs_bronco_v103.png
    1.3 KB · Views: 8
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