The Internet in its early days was very different from what it is today. Here are some sites that will remind you of this golden age.
Do you remember when the Internet was still entertainment? The web was a huge new world to be discovered and explored. Today the Internet seems normal, cleaned up and boring by comparison. But some sites are far from all this. You won’t find any tweets or apps above. 13 sites that seem straight out of the good old internet.
Cameron World
Let’s start with something straight out of the 1990s. Cameron’s World is a web-based collage of text and images taken from GeoCities archival sites. This is a “love letter to the old Internet,”a huge dose of nostalgia for anyone who lived through the early days of the Internet.
Not everything is aesthetic, of course. Hover your mouse over some of the images and you will see hyperlinks. Clicking will open a fake Netscape browser window that will download the appropriate GeoCities archive. You can easily get lost on Cameron’s World and related sites.
DriveMeInsane.com
DriveMeInsane.com may not surprise you as much as it shocked fans in 1997, but the site hasn’t stopped in 25 years. The idea is simple: you see a live webcam and you can control different objects in the frame. All visitors can do it at the same time.
Unfortunately, today there are not many visitors. However, the site is still interesting and serves as a reminder of all the changes it has undergone since its inception. I doubt its creator could have come up with something like Twitch Plays Pokémon in 1997.
The evolution of trust
Trust Evolution is the game you’d expect to find on StumbleUpon. In 30 minutes, the game uses a cool minimalist style to prove to you that game theory can be used to better understand how trust works in human relationships.
While the game offers multiple levels of interactivity, you can also click events very passively. So it’s more of an experience than a game, but you can easily keep yourself occupied for half an hour.
nation states
NationStates is a text-based country simulation game that is very simplistic in style. You give your nation a name, choose its values, and launch it into the “world”for other players to see. During the game, you will face various political issues and problems. According to your choice, you will shape your nation. This will affect its population, economy, etc.
But you don’t play alone. NationStates is multi-user and highly interconnected. Your nation will be able to join different “regions”, which will affect its ranking in the “world”, as well as your social life in the game. The more you play, the more difficult things become. You can create as many countries as you like. If modern games in this genre are too “modern”for you, NationStates may be perfect.
Exit Reviews
Today it is difficult to make a purchase without reading the reviews. But most of these reviews come from people who have just purchased the product in question. We rarely get feedback from customers who bought it a long time ago.
This is the problem that Exit Reviews wants to solve. The mission of this site is to enable consumers to share their experience of using products after their death or after prolonged use. In this way, you can evaluate whether the investment is worth your money or if you should invest your money elsewhere.
My TV!
My TV! is a site that recreates TV experiences from different eras. Choose between the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s with the right TV. There is no live content, but you can change channels to watch different programs. Depending on the era, you can even customize the TV settings however you like or would like. It’s a very enjoyable experience, a good dose of nostalgia for some!
JSPaint
JS Paint is a remake of MS Paint that looks like it came straight out of Windows 98. A perfect throwback with all the tools and features of the original version, right down to the warnings when you try to close the window.
Kung fu chess
Kung Fu Chess is a chess game without the concept of turn-based play. Players can play at the same time. But there is a countdown for each piece, so you can’t play the queen all the time and, for example, win the game in two seconds. Even in easy mode, it’s not easy. Test!
Radio Garden
The Internet connects people all over the world. Radio Garden makes this possible by offering the opportunity to listen to radio stations from all over the world. So you can find out what is being listened to in Paris, Tokyo or Bombay, as well as in small towns in almost all countries of the world, and this is in real time.
Windows 93
Windows 93 is weird. Windows 93 is mysterious. Windows 93 does not exist. At least not as a Microsoft product. Windows 93 is a simulated OS full of surprises. I won’t spoil the surprises for you, but… try dividing by zero!
If the moon were just one pixel
It is this site that prompted me to write this article. I remember seeing him a long time ago, but I had a hard time finding him. Here it is.
If the Moon Were Only One Pixel is an interactive site conceived and designed to show you the greatness of our solar system. The site makes the moon a 1 pixel element and places other celestial objects at a proportional distance. Then you need to scroll to find other planets.
wimp
It’s amazing to know that Wimp still exists. Every day, the site offers seven hand-picked videos that you might be interested in. It’s like having a friend who knows YouTube inside out and shows you what to watch every day.
You can leave your suggestions to the YouTube algorithm or try Wimp.
Hacker Typer
We all know that hackers don’t do things like NCIS. If you really want to impersonate a TV hacker, check out Hacker Typer. Every time you press a key on your keyboard, a “code”appears on the Hacker Typer terminal. You would swear you know what you’re doing.