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Bookmarks (Cool Websites)

This page has a bunch of cool links I found for retro computing fans.

Note: Links that are followed by https use SSL and will (probably) not work if clicked from a vintage web browser.

Table of Contents

Useful for Retro PCs:

Modern nostalgic “new old” websites (not necessarily reachable from vintage browsers):

Accessible to Vintage Web Browsers

Vintage web browsers from the 90’s and early 2000’s can’t cope very well with the modern web. Not only do they not understand modern CSS, HTML and JavaScript features, but they don’t support our modern encryption algorithms for HTTPS and almost all the important websites require HTTPS these days.

Here are some cool services that can support these vintage browsers and allow them some semblance of access to the Web.

FrogFind: The Search Engine for Vintage Computers

FrogFind is a search engine and plain text proxy server that allows vintage web browsers to basically access the modern Web.

It was built by the YouTuber Action Retrohttps.

Protoweb: Retro Web 1.0 Simulator

Protoweb is a cool project that allows for seamless, ‘authentic’ access to old websites (from legacy browsers or modern browsers alike!)

It is not simply a front-end to the Internet Archivehttps, but instead Protoweb’s developers have fixed up some old websites to make them run better.

They even have support for current news articles and live weather reports appearing inside of the old web design of news/weather sites from the 1990’s! For example you could view the old Reuters.com or Weather.com sites in their authentic, era appropriate styles but get up-to-date news articles from them.

It works by configuring a Proxy Server in your web browser, and they have various options for the proxy server, including ones that can simulate 56k dial-up Internet speeds for that fully authentic experience of slow page load times!

They go for “quality over quantity” so they don’t have every historical website supported; see The Old Net below for a more general front-end to the wider Internet Archive instead.

Note: their website uses HTTPS and may not be accessible directly from a legacy browser. Use a modern device to check them out and find their proxy server details. Once you configure the proxy in your vintage Internet Explorer or Netscape browser, you can seamlessly browse the Web like it’s 1999.

The Old Net: Internat Archive Front-end

The Old Net is a front-end to the Internet Archivehttps which is accessible to legacy web browsers over plain old HTTP. You can enter a website URL and select the year (from 1994-2010) to access old sites from the Internet Archive.

Browservice: Access the REAL Modern Web from Vintage Browsers

Browservice allows vintage old web browsers to actually access the Modern Web and render them correctly and everything!

It works by using the Chromium Embedded Framework to run a headless modern Chromium browser that fetches and renders the websites for you, and then serves them in a “proxy” interface as image screenshots and some JavaScript. Legacy old browsers like Internet Explorer 5.0 can fully interact with modern websites including Instagram and even YouTube!

You run the Browservice program on a modern computer and access it via web browser from your vintage computer.

Modern Continuations of Obsolete Services

These are some cool projects that bring back online services that have long since been shuttered as old platforms became obsolete.

Windows Update for Old Windows Versions

The Legacy Update and Windows Update Restored services can replace the Windows Update service in abandoned old editions of Windows (like Windows 98 through Windows XP), allowing you to get the final service pack updates, etc.

AOL Instant Messenger (Retro OSCAR Server)

Open OSCAR Server is an open-source instant messaging server compatible with classic AIM and ICQ clients written in golang.

For end users: there are a few hosted AIM servers that you can configure in your legacy AIM and ICQ clients (such as AIM 5.9, Pidgin, Trillian, etc.)

Retro Software and Drivers

These are links to software archives where you may be able to find old drivers and software that runs on retro operating systems.

Emulators and Virtual Machines

Here are some of the best ways to run a vintage Operating System safely on top of your modern computer.

I will list them in the order of most interesting first.

  1. 86Boxhttps is an IBM PC System Emulator and it may be able to provide the most accurate emulation for vintage OS’s (such as Windows 3.11 thru Windows 98).

    Unlike a Virtual Machine, 86Box actually deeply emulates the hardware peripherals themselves. They have dozens of CPU types and hardware peripherals emulated, which work using the real driver software on the guest OS, and the CPU clock speeds are true to their physical counterparts, so software that runs ’too fast’ on modern CPUs will behave as it should in 86Box.

    86Box works best for operating systems older than Windows XP. For Windows XP and newer, VirtualBox may yield a much better result.

  2. VirtualBoxhttps is a Virtual Machine app for Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

    It provides the best experience for running somewhat-modern systems from Windows 2000/XP and newer. It includes “Guest Additions” drivers that work as far back as Windows XP to enable more seamless integration between the guest and host OS, with easy ability to share folders, clipboards, and USB devices from your host.

    It is possible to get Windows 3.1 or Windows 98 to work in VirtualBox, but compatibility won’t be the best. Old games from that era might run ’too fast’ on modern CPUs, and without deeper emulation of hardware devices, some video and network drivers for older OS’s won’t function correctly. You are usually limited to basic VGA video devices and SoundBlaster 16 for older guest OS’s.

  3. DOSBoxhttps is a well-known DOS emulator most used for playing games and running old DOS software.

    It can also be a workable host to install Windows 3.1 within it for light tinkering. It won’t be 100% compatible but can be good enough to run some graphical Win3.1 games with audio working!

Modern Nostalgic Websites

These are new websites that are styled after nostalgic old websites from the 90’s and early 2000’s.

These websites are generally modern meaning a vintage web browser can probably not access them.

SpaceHey: Bringing back MySpace

SpaceHey is a modern clone of the old MySpace social networking website. Its look and feel is very authentic, even down to allowing HTML and CSS to be used on profile pages to really stand out from the crowd.

Neocities: Bringing back Geocities

Neocities is a free static website hosting site which is very much in the style of the old Geocities service.

You can browse their website directory, which is full of quirky new websites which all have their own very distinct styles, very much in the spirit of the early Web 1.0 internet.

Copyright © 2026 Noah Petherbridge