# Ancient Web: War of the Worlds Fans Ran an Alien-Invasion Newsroom A fan-built War of the Worlds site with 1997–2009 design credits organized books, radio, films, games, and merchandise as if the invasions had really happened. 2026-10-16 :: Switchboard Tech Services ![Ancient Web: War of the Worlds Fans Ran an Alien-Invasion Newsroom](https://switchboardtechservices.com/static/images/defaults/articles.webp) Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). Some fan sites collect facts about a fictional universe. The Complete War of the Worlds Website goes further: it files the fiction as though it were classified history. [Visit the Complete War of the Worlds Website](https://www.war-of-the-worlds.org/). The site's design carries copyright years 1997–2009. Its hand-linked sections sort the franchise into aliens, invasions, technology, books, broadcasts, movies, music, television, games, merchandise, people, downloads, and news. That alone would make it a substantial old-style fan reference. But the curatorial voice is its most unusual feature. Rather than merely announcing the 1953 film, the [movies section](https://www.war-of-the-worlds.org/Movies/) presents it as a reconstruction of a real alien assault. The page's official-sounding talk of secrecy, missing memories, and recovered documentation is clearly part of the imaginative premise, not evidence that Martians visited Earth. ## The archive that refuses to break character The [radio section](https://www.war-of-the-worlds.org/Radio/) similarly reshapes Orson Welles's 1938 broadcast into an account of an actual landing concealed by government disinformation. The historical broadcast is real; the secret invasion narrative is fiction. Reading the two together shows how fans could create immersive storytelling using the same visual language as reference websites. Other sections are more straightforwardly useful as period records. The [arcade-games page](https://www.war-of-the-worlds.org/Games/Arcade.shtml) discusses the Cinematronics vector game and early emulators such as MAME, MacMAME, and Cinemu. Its technical references include Windows 95, DOS memory requirements, and an emulator development status noted as stalled in 1999. This is a snapshot of late-1990s retro-gaming information embedded inside a science-fiction collection. The [games hub](https://www.war-of-the-worlds.org/Games/) invites readers to submit leads on obscure or rumored adaptations. The news section separates updates about the site from other related sites and offline media. Here, the pre-social-media method of maintaining a fandom is obvious: the webmaster builds the filing cabinet and asks everyone to bring missing folders. There are broken or dated external references, but the surviving structure still captures both the obsession and the playfulness of independent fan publishing. It turns a bibliography into role-playing, and occasionally turns the role-playing back into a useful bibliography. [Explore the surviving games and broadcast sections](https://www.war-of-the-worlds.org/Games/). Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). - Categories: [Ancient Web](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/categories/ancient-web/) - Tags: [#ancientweb](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/ancientweb/), [#webhistory](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/webhistory/), [#radio](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/radio/), [#fandom](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/fandom/), [#videogames](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/videogames/), [#scifi](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/scifi/) [Articles RSS](https://switchboardtechservices.com/feeds/articles.xml "Subscribe using an RSS reader") --- Canonical URL: https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-war-of-the-worlds-fans-ran-an-alien-invasion-newsroom/ Language: en-us Content type: article Author: Switchboard Tech Services Published: 2026-10-17T01:11:18+00:00 Modified: 2026-10-18T21:04:59.919357+00:00 Description: This surviving War of the Worlds fan archive blends real adaptation history with an elaborate in-universe account of extraterrestrial invasions.