EON-4 was the first sci-fi episodic website. The story, created by Rockne S. O'Bannon

Rockne S. O'Bannon

Rockne S. O'Bannon is a television producer and writer. He is the creator of the science fiction movie Alien Nation, television shows seaQuest DSV, The Triangle and Farscape. He is married with one daughter and two sons - all three children adopted from Russia. He resides in California,...

 (Creator of Alien Nation

Alien Nation

Alien Nation may refer to:* Alien Nation , the 1988 motion picture, and several spin-off properties:** Alien Nation , the 1989–1990 television series, and five made-for-TV movies that continue its story:...

, seaQuest DSV

SeaQuest DSV

seaQuest DSV is an American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon. It originally aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, it was renamed seaQuest 2032. Set in "the near future", seaQuest mixes high drama with realistic scientific fiction...

, and Farscape

Farscape

Farscape is an Australian-American science fiction television series filmed in Australia and produced originally for the Nine Network. The series was conceived by Rockne S. O'Bannon and produced by Jim Henson Productions and Hallmark Entertainment...

) was based around the mysterious Groom Lake

Groom Lake

Groom Lake is a salt flat in Nevada used for runways of the Nellis Bombing Range Test Site airport on the north of the Area 51 USAF military installation. The lake at elevation is ~ from north to south and from east to west at its widest point...

 or Area 51

Area 51

Area 51 is a military base, and a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base. It is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles north-northwest of downtown Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large military airfield...

 site as the point of contact with an alien race. Three explorers from earth, U.S. Navy Captain David M. Crocker, Russian Alona Renee Kalinova, and John Eric Lange were allowed visitation (as EXPLRR TM I) with these aliens known as the Sentients, but were soon involved in a political intrigue on the alien world. Crocker dies on the trip to the Sentients contact point on Mars.

The website was considered as a kind of interface for visitors to interact with the drama unfolding before them. Each day, several images and a bit of the story were presented documenting the experience (in a sort of "static laden transmission") form. Often details would be kept obscure to heighten the sense of mystery.
Imagery for EON-4 was created by compositing still photography over 3D rendered graphics and adding various effects.

The web episodic lasted for little over a year and despite having gained the sponsorship of Apple, Toyota and Visa (New York Times), it ended shortly after the bankruptcy of its production company American Cybercast, producers of the first web episodic, The Spot

The Spot

The Spot, or thespot.com, was the second episodic online story , after an earlier experiment by AOL's QuantumLink Serial, and pioneered the underwriting of bandwidth and production costs by offering paid advertising banners on the web pages and product placement within the journal entries...

.

After the demise of AmCy, a number of Eon-4 fans set up another interactive episodic story, called Marsdawn.

External links

• http://www.research.umbc.edu/~frizzell/Reports/eon4.html - Preliminary Investigation Of Claims Made On The EON-4 Web Site by Michael A. Frizzell
• http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue23/web.html - Eon-4 as Sci-Fi Site of the Week, Review by Alexander Kirtland
• http://chaseclub.com/preon.htm - Chase Masterson Fan Club, Eon-4 Press release about second crew.
• http://www.marsdawn.com/ - another interactive sci-fi web story, refuge for fans after the Eon-4 site folded.