From the archivist
It started with a game that needed a few authentic AIM icons. Then I had 1,000. Then 10,000. At some point, I had a buddy icon problem.
Read how this happenedYou made it this far
You have scrolled past 1,024 buddy icons, so I have some suspicions. My blog is where the other shiny digressions end up.
Subscribe to Shedletsky.comA language of tiny pictures
A picture barely 50 pixels wide, sitting beside an AIM screen name, could announce a mood, a fandom, an inside joke, or who someone wanted to be that day.
Read the short historyRecovered from the early web
Buddy icons survive in old directories, fan sites, downloadable packs, and web archives. The archive preserves the original files, groups known copies, and records where each one was found.
How the archive worksPac Man Icon refers to icons where the classic yellow Pac-Man is a direct visual motif, usually paired with bold pixelated text on dark backdrops. It is often framed by black borders with the yellow character kept small and corner-positioned so the game cue remains readable at tiny icon size.
![Black square with yellow border contains white text 'courtney' and ':]' with yellow Pac-Man icon in bottom-right corner.](/image/23c55e542671f82fd0fc8f28753fc20e97f6f2a58b630721f068e6294cd85364){kind=small}
![Blue square with yellow border contains text "I eat ghosts :]" and yellow Pac-Man icon; four identical](/image/3b8819730d7463aa1bd44930c07bbe9040e958d559aba5a80613960c22eee68f){kind=small}
