Old Web Sites

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pacman000
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Old Web Sites

Postby pacman000 » January 6th, 2016, 2:08 pm

The Web is over 20 years old; it's time for a nostalgic trip back in time.

Here's DMOZ in the year 2000. You can explore the web from here by clicking through their categorized links. https://web.archive.org/web/20000511143 ... .dmoz.org/

Post anything you find interesting. If you know of any old sites still online, or if you know of an archived site that DMOZ doesn't have listed, feel free to post those too.

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Rookie1
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Re: Old Web Sites

Postby Rookie1 » January 7th, 2016, 8:34 pm

all the sites I used to go to wont show up on there.

cheatcc.com and videogames.com were both my faves back in "the day." They were both text based at the time, and had a basic list of games they had cheats for. I used to have binders of all the cheats and walk-throughs I would print from them. Wish I still had that.

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pacman000
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Re: Old Web Sites

Postby pacman000 » April 25th, 2017, 5:40 pm

Yeah, the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine is a great service, but it can be buggy. If you know a URL you should probably use their main page to type it in: https://archive.org/web/

Here's the earliest version of CheatCC they have, from 1999:
https://web.archive.org/web/19990417222 ... rames.html

And here's their earliest crawl of VideoGames.Com, from 1997:
https://web.archive.org/web/19970314114 ... games.com/

If DMOZ doesn't have what you're looking for, you can try another directory. Here's a list from 1997: https://web.archive.org/web/19970716152 ... om/search/

You might also try free-hosting sites. Here's links to Geocities and Xoom, from 1999:
https://web.archive.org/web/19990125095 ... ities.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/19990223190 ... .com/home/

Here's a site I used to enjoy:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050101090 ... smbhq.com/
It's still there, but they haven't updated in years, and it has a bunch of spammy in-line links. :cry:

DMOZ was closed last month. :cry:

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Rookie1
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Re: Old Web Sites

Postby Rookie1 » April 27th, 2017, 6:40 am

pacman000 wrote:Yeah, the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine is a great service, but it can be buggy. If you know a URL you should probably use their main page to type it in: https://archive.org/web/

Here's the earliest version of CheatCC they have, from 1999:
https://web.archive.org/web/19990417222 ... rames.html

And here's their earliest crawl of VideoGames.Com, from 1997:
https://web.archive.org/web/19970314114 ... games.com/


Ah man, that brings back memories. I remember when CheatCC updated their look with those color menus lol.

Thanks for the post.

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pacman000
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Re: Old Web Sites

Postby pacman000 » April 28th, 2017, 12:50 pm

https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20000815055220/http://happypuppy.com:80/

HappyPuppy, in 2000. Anyone remember this? By the time I got on the internet it's popularity had dropped, so I never used it. It closed a few years ago. It used to be a major site, it was a contender for a Webby Award in'98 or '99, but today it's virtually forgotten; Wikipedia doesn't even have an article on it anymore. I like the layout and formatting.

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Gentlegamer
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Re: Old Web Sites

Postby Gentlegamer » April 28th, 2017, 3:28 pm

Who needs archive?

Gentlemen, I present the web site that time forgot: https://www.warnerbros.com/archive/spac ... ie/jam.htm

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pacman000
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Re: Old Web Sites

Postby pacman000 » May 1st, 2017, 4:13 pm

Ah, yes. The Space Jam Website. Fun. Take a look at the source; it appears to be hand coded. Tons of white space, and one of the first lines is a comment which no code generator would create: Badda-bing, Badda-boom.

You can see the beginnings of commercial webdesign here. Eventually the basic elements would be codified in a book: Creating Killer Websites. Here's it's website, from 1996: [url]http://www.killersites.com/killerSites/core.html
[/url]

Basic layouts wouldn't change too much til the iPhone came out. Even then, most sites are conceptually the same; they just hide the menu behind a hamburger button. And they need jscript to work correctly. :x

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astrodomekid
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Re: Old Web Sites

Postby astrodomekid » May 1st, 2017, 7:05 pm

As a person who has an interest in MLB ballparks, I find "Stadium Mouse" to be a fascinating time capsule of late 90's/early 2000's internet. What draws me to this website so much since the past 12 years is "The Great American Baseball Trip" where back in the summer of 1997 (the same year my little sister was born), the creator visited every ballpark active at the time and wrote deeply detailed reviews of them. My only personal problem with it is that his review of the Astrodome - my favorite place in the whole world (hence my username) - wasn't very positive. I'm fine with him having an opinion, of course. But as the first domed stadium ever built, it invented several innovations still in use by ballparks today (i.e. luxury boxes, animated scoreboard, etc.). Sure it might have been a bad idea in the eyes of purists, but in the hearts of Houstonians like myself it will last forever.

If you have the same interest in where the Major league teams play like I do, you'll definitely enjoy this website. I know the Critic would appreciate their 5-star review of Camden Yards. ;)

http://www.stadiummouse.com/
Last edited by astrodomekid on May 1st, 2017, 11:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Robotrek
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Re: Old Web Sites

Postby Robotrek » May 1st, 2017, 9:06 pm

http://web.archive.org/web/200302191456 ... ic.net:80/

I remember when those were the latest reviews........

That banner, those reviews......

I'm 44 now............

I think memory lane is killing me.

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scotland
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Re: Old Web Sites

Postby scotland » May 1st, 2017, 9:32 pm

Robotrek wrote:http://web.archive.org/web/20030219145605/http://videogamecritic.net:80/
I remember when those were the latest reviews........
That banner, those reviews......
I'm 44 now............
I think memory lane is killing me.


Wow. Thanks for this. Its amazing. The link to the poll still worked too. I got to some forum, where one topic was how crazy Ebay prices were in 2003. Funny. Another was a whole forum on emulation too.

And the webring association at the bottom. Are webrings a thing anymore? It was The Classic Videogame Syndicate.

The old reviews caught my eye too. Freedom Fignters (Odyssey 2) was a D+, where now its a B-. Big difference there. Beyond the letter grades, the reviews then were tiny capsule reviews. Very different feel.


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