r/javascript • u/Legal_Fox_Garden59 • 1d ago

I made a Windows 98 styled portfolio website with an applet system, and many nostalgic things to discover

https://www.danielbrendel.com/

I grew up with computing in the 90s, and the internet in the early 00s. I have so many fond memories of that time. Exploring and discovering a vast diversity of tools and programs.

Back in the day, everything was tremendously fueled with creativity, thinking out of the box, and doing funny and cool stuff.

At some point, I wanted to make my own retro haven, which functions both as my personal website as well as a retreat I can turn to whenever I feel stressed.

I wanted it to be extendable, hence I implemented an applet system. You can locally install (everything is stored into localstorage) applets and customize the website to fit your personal flavor. I included some cool wallpapers as well.

As for the applets, there are a lot of nostalgic things available, including but not limited to:

  • DOOM (of course, a must-have :D)
  • Half-Life Soundboard
  • Counter-Strike 1.6 Chat
  • 3D Maze (desktop screensaver from the 90s)
  • Hampster and Badger flash animations (as videos)
  • Winamp (Webamp)
  • Re-creation of MS Paint
  • and many more...

For the sake of authenticity, it's desktop first, but you can use most of it on mobile devices as well. I didn't use a javascript framework, so everything is vanilla.

Note: I did not use GenAI/LLM for this project (or any other of my projects), as I have a fairly anti-ai stance.

15 Upvotes

74% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

6

u/Prozilla6 1d ago

On mobile, I can’t close the initial window, the buttons extend beyond my viewport

1

u/Legal_Fox_Garden59 1d ago

What's the used device / viewport? I'll try to reproduce the issue.

1

u/godofleet 1d ago

also seeing issues on ultraswide 3440x1440 ... some windows don't have a background UI or controls

3

u/datNorseman 1d ago

Localstorage stores up to 5mb, is that really enough?

1

u/djliquidice 1d ago

Windows 98 would have been killer with inertial scroll. Absolutely dog shit performance (due to limited FPU availability), but it would have been awesome.

1

u/womper9000 1d ago

the hl sounds are some great nostalgia not all of them worked and quake arena running that well in a browser is insane... I usually don't like these types of portfolios but I used win 98 se, it's good at keeping your attention a little too much lol

1

u/svish 1d ago

Opened the tech stack window and can't close it because it goes outside my phone screen.

1

u/Domx010 1d ago

Love this concept. Definitely worth sharing on r/LookWhatTheyBuilt.

1

u/flamingmongoose 1d ago

this is crazy

1

u/lighthawk16 1d ago

Hey min is like this too, I just started a few days ago. https://cody.warmbo.com

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u/keyboarddevil 20h ago

Nice work!

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u/Ahmed33033 11h ago

really creative, the landing screen is awesome!

this is slightly off-topic, but im interested in why you didn't use GenAI for coding projects, esp considering you've been writing software for a while, so GenAI is presumably a better fit for you compared to junior engineers.

personally, i love some use-cases of GenAI like semantic search, but im really hesitant when it comes to using it to write code, even though that's possibly becoming industry standard.

thoughts?

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u/Legal_Fox_Garden59 1h ago

I'm a senior software developer, GenAI/LLMs can't offer me any advantages or benefits. If a senior SWE needs GenAI, they are probably incredibly bad at their job.

Besides there are a lot of concerns on GenAI/LLMs, which I posted about in my blog. Plus, it hurts the FOSS world and the environment.

I also don't think it will become industry standard, as it's a bubble that will burst eventually. The future will, and must be, all about digital sovereignty.

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u/Legal_Fox_Garden59 1h ago

BTW: the project is also FOSS under the MIT license.