The most annoying video player of all time

It’s 1995. The arcade is a cathedral of noise and neon. I’ve thrown my hands up in the air, again, in disbelief; the unfairness of the Area 51 sneak attacks has me all riled up. I clutch a single quarter, heart pounding, eyes locked on the “Continue?” screen. Ten seconds. Nine. Eight. The world shrinks to a single question: Can I keep playing? Should I? What time is mom supposed to be here? That pay-to-play mechanic, while suuuuper frustrating, is suuuuper irresistible, and it became the main inspiration for my latest task while planning our Web Dev Challenge: use Media Chrome, our open-source video player toolkit, to build the worst video player I could dream up. Read on to see the player I came up with, how it was built, and how you can battle me for the crown of the most annoying video player of all time. Modern video players often feel like the same gray rectangle. Play, pause, scrub, repeat. Yes, I know, this exists for good reasons: consistency, accessibility, practicality… bu ... Read full article.