Picture Credit: Bingebuster
If you’re tired of the endless “doom scroll” through the Netflix UI and find yourself longing for the nostalgic days of wandering the blue-and-yellow aisles of a local video store, a brand new project might be exactly what you need.
Enter BingeBuster (available to try at bingebuster.net), a brilliant new web-based experience that takes the digital streaming libraries we know and love today and puts them right back where they belong: inside a 3D, walkable, browseable Blockbuster store.
Given the legendary (and somewhat ironic) history between Netflix and Blockbuster, seeing the Netflix catalog populate the shelves of a virtual Blockbuster feels like a full-circle moment. It works a bit like Google Street View: you start in one section of the store and can browse the shelves, which are sorted into genres across the room. Once you select a title, you get it in a 3D physical box that provides more details on the title, lets you play a trailer, and takes you straight to the title. It allows you to restock the shelves with a fresh batch of titles.
Curious about how this ambitious crossover of physical nostalgia and digital streaming came to be, What’s on Netflix reached out to the creators to get the inside scoop on how BingeBuster was built.
Picture Credit: Bingebuster
As it turns out, the brains behind the operation are a pair of London-based software engineers. Oh, and they also happen to be identical twins.
“Originally we were drawn to the idea of creating something which mixed the physical and the digital world,” Oli Evans, one of the creators alongside his brother Patrick, told us. “Our first project in this realm was recreating the Criterion Closet and after some success we felt we could expand this concept into something larger scale and with a slightly broader demographic.”
If you’ve ever seen the viral videos of celebrities visiting the famous Criterion Closet, their digital recreation of it is a pretty accurate predecessor to what they’ve accomplished with BingeBuster. But scaling up to a full video store wasn’t without its hurdles.
“The most challenging part was expanding what made The Closet work while also allowing you to move freely through the environment in a way that felt natural. It took many iterations!”
Picture Credit: Bingebuster
While Netflix is a massive draw for the site, BingeBuster actually supports multiple major streaming services. When you load into the virtual store, you can browse a sprawling selection of titles across different platforms.
“As of right now, both the US and the UK are supported for Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, and a few others; however, we are hoping to roll out more support for more locations as time goes on, e.g., Crave for Canada,” the creator explained.
As for what the future holds, the twin duo has some very exciting plans for self-hosted streaming fans, as well as a few fun surprises hidden in the aisles.
“Our main focus right now is to expand the support to Plex and Jellyfin so users can explore their own personal libraries in this way. We are very excited about that! We are also looking to add some little Blockbuster and movie related easter eggs too so make sure to look out for those!”
Whether you’re looking for a new way to pick out your Friday night movie, or you just want to take a nostalgic stroll down the New Releases aisle without having to rewind a VHS tape, BingeBuster is incredibly well worth your time.
You can check out the project for yourself over at BingeBuster.net.
Will you be taking a stroll through the BingeBuster aisles to pick out your next Netflix watch? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
