Messages

1

Programming and Graphics / Re: TWC's Retro 8s Live

« on: July 11, 2025, 04:30:35 AM »

I "never" thought we'd see it again, at all. So I was surprised. It recieved positive feedback in '23.

A lot of people I know were surprised it came back at all. You'd think after that couple month long run in 2023 (as Bangles implied in an earlier post, it was reported to last even shorter than it did) they would just never attempt it ever again.

There's always a chance it returns again 1 day then. xD

Maybe next Retro Day. Methinks these instances are to be annual. That is, unless either TWC or AMG (who owns & operates the channel) decides otherwise. (they've had a history of that from what I've heard)

At least there's the many simulators or the stream TWC tried taking down while the near-daily version was still on-air. (and that one run even runs on the real hardware! Even better if you ask me.)

(edit: If the stream linked goes down by the time any dweller reads this, I'm probably not going to edit this post with the new one. Just go to cc17926's YouTube channel and it should be right there.)

2

Programming and Graphics / Re: TWC's Retro 8s Live

« on: February 27, 2025, 08:58:37 PM »

Looks like in celebration for National Retro Day (as of posting, that is today), The Weather Channel has brought back Retro 8's Live!

From what I have observed, this has been airing all-day right either before commercial breaks or at the end of programming, rather than dedicating an entire hour-long timeslot to it. The English version of Twilight has also made a return (as mentioned in a post below this one), which is also pretty interesting to hear.

I'm not sure if this will last for just today or if there are plans to have it continue airing in the future (although I highly doubt it, maybe unless it's another Retro Day), but regardless it's quite interesting to see it (and Twilight) again, especially at much earlier times! (9:05 PM EDIT: Going off the wording of this tweet made earlier today, it sounds like Retro 8's Live has finished airing. I do wonder if it will return in the future though.)

Video footage: https://youtu.be/XBpEbJUPlKQ

3

TWC Fan Art / Re: pjfrix's (TWC) Fan Art

« on: June 02, 2024, 09:21:45 PM »

Whoops, I managed to forget this thread existed. Anyways, here are some more things I haven't yet shared here:

Weather Star XL v3 Traffic Flow concept, made not too long after I made the v2 concept.


An Air Quality concept for Weatherscan Local (XL) I made back in October 2023.


And more recently, here is a concept of Retro (on the) 8's except a bit more accurate to how it could be presented on the WeatherSTAR 4000. Featuring a custom LDL that fits with the current era of TWC (although probably doesn't look the best with overscan.)

4

TWC Fan Art / pjfrix's (TWC) Fan Art

« on: November 24, 2023, 05:33:59 PM »

Might as well make a thread of my own for containing these, even if people don't check these boards much anymore.

Starting off with a Weather Star XL v2 "Traffic Flow" concept, taking inspiration from TWCZach's concept from 2009:

5

Contributions / Re: WeatherStar XL Graphics for WeatherScan Emulator!

« on: November 04, 2023, 09:31:23 PM »

Do you still have a copy of the emulator? The CINE registration got shut down due to inactivity.

Even if you had a copy of the emulator, you will still need a CINE account to operate it normally.

And since registrations are closed, there's not much else to say in regards to that.

6

Programming and Graphics / TWC's Retro 8s Live

« on: June 28, 2023, 07:14:11 AM »

Seems that around June 27 of this year (yesterday as of writing), The Weather Channel went and "brought back" their Weather Star 4000 for a nightly hour-long (around 4-5 AM eastern, including commercial breaks) set of looping national forecasts known as Retro 8's Live. Rather than actually bringing back such old hardware/software, they replicated its graphics (and even intros) in a modern fashion (likely using Max or whatever graphics engine they rely on.) In a way, some may say that they made their own simulation of the 4000.

Other than a few differences from the real deal (for example, the lack of Current Conditions icons (the only icon set used throughout is the smaller ones from the Regional Forecast segments), the fonts used and a date in the upper right instead of being both a clock and date), it's still quite interesting!

11-06-23 EDIT: Seems that as of this week, The Weather Channel is no longer airing it. Matter of fact, the entire evening/nightly programming block (which included this and an English language iteration of Twilight, which seems to have been exclusive to The Weather Channel en Español) has been replaced with long-form programming.

02-27-25 EDIT: In celebration of National Retro Day, The Weather Channel has brought it back (for that day only, until 9c/10e), opting to air it before commercial breaks rather than airing in an hour-long block of sorts. I talked a bit more about it in this post.

7

General Emulator Discussion / Re: How do you create an emulator?

« on: October 28, 2021, 01:50:42 PM »

How is a 3000 or 4000 emulator created? I would like to learn how. I've seen http://www.taiganet.com/ 4000 emulators, but still don't know how.

Programming, mostly. Taiganet's WS4000 simulator was programmed with C++.

Though that's not to say all simulators are built with that. Some simulators use video editing software, some use PowerPoint, and heck, some of them are even built with HTML/JS. (weatherscan.net; qconrad's 'IntelliSTAR Emulator'; WeatherStar 4000+)

8

General Discussion / Re: WeatherScan App (weatherscan.app) Discussion

« on: December 16, 2020, 07:10:19 PM »

Unfortunately this program no loner works because of the Weather Underground API discontinuation.

Weatherscan.app did not use Weather Underground, it used the Yahoo Weather API, which has been discontinued back in 2019.

9

Local Forecast / Re: the Real WeatherSTAR 4000 Lives again.

« on: May 08, 2020, 11:09:45 PM »

Now THAT is really interesting. Never before would I see a 4000 functioning in some form that isn't simulated before.

10

General Discussion / Re: Charles Abel-Lear 1980-2019

« on: November 15, 2019, 11:18:59 AM »

Charles' videos were basically how I became interested in The Weather Channel and inspired me to make my own emulations in the first place. Hearing that he's no longer with us anymore really makes me sad. He contributed quite a lot of things to the community and created some outstanding & professional graphics.

I would feel like this community would've been a whole lot different without him and his work. Condolences to his family and everybody else. He will definitely not be forgotten... 

11

Announcements / Re: Status on the WeatherSTAR III Project (September 3, 2018)

« on: November 13, 2019, 05:00:08 PM »

I'm probably late to this, but this is some pretty neat stuff! Can't wait to see what this'll look like once it's finished!

12

News and Updates / Re: Public Release Now Available (Dec 2017)

« on: December 15, 2017, 01:55:05 PM »

 
Glad to hear.

13

Weatherscan Discussion / Re: Live Retirement of Weatherscan Streaming on December 5

« on: December 11, 2017, 09:47:12 PM »

I was watching cc17926's latest YouTube stream, and Weatherscan is apparently still on in Willow Grove, PA (they also have Xfinity too).

And it looks like his is gone, too.