Where are the antique webpages on the world wide web?

April 11, 2014 5:29 PM

I stumbed on this gem through following bunch of links that began with a metafilter post. Somehow Geocities style webpages with bouncing icons and difficult to read fonts fill me take me back and manage to feel sort of charming like rotary phones or those 10 inch cell phones from the early nineties. I got the same weird technology nostalgia from re-watching the All Your Base video on youtube the other day. It got me thinking, where can you go on the world wide web to browse really outdated content, like old webpages or UIs that feel like an archaeological expedition?
posted by mermily to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)

Internet Wayback Machine. Pick a site and a date in the deep past.
posted by aught at 5:34 PM on April 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

bUD uGGLY Wab Design
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:04 PM on April 11, 2014

http://www2.warnerbros.com/spacejam/movie/jam.htm

See also Dole/Kemp '96.

Some more of my personal favorites from the late 90's/early 00's.
posted by Rhaomi at 8:06 PM on April 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age and the accompanying tumblr
posted by perryfugue at 8:07 PM on April 11, 2014

404 Page Found, and a few more similar old sites posted to MetaFilter.

Also: Club Bacardi, circa 1997 (via MetaFilter)
posted by filthy light thief at 8:50 PM on April 11, 2014

Hamster Dance
posted by cashman at 9:25 PM on April 11, 2014

Here's a single faux antique page: 2001DRIVE
posted by batter_my_heart at 11:51 PM on April 11, 2014

Here's a glorious one that is still in business and frequently updated: Sandalwood Goldens
posted by slightlybewildered at 2:09 AM on April 12, 2014

There's OoCities, which has some links to other old archives as well.
posted by limeonaire at 8:05 AM on April 12, 2014

Three River's Stadium's page has outlived the actual stadium by 13 years now.

This site has been optimized for Netscape 3.0 or above and Internet Explorer 4.0 and above.
posted by octothorpe at 2:38 PM on April 12, 2014

Here's a glorious one that is still in business and frequently updated: Sandalwood Goldens

Website updated 9/4/2014

It's from the future!
posted by jeoc at 6:24 PM on April 12, 2014

Even if it wasn't an antique webpage, the Acts of Gord website is worth a visit, featuring stories about running a video game rental shop. Think along the lines of notalwaysright.com with a much snarkier author, and you're mostly there.

(BTW, don't be fooled by the "last update" stuff on the front page. The vast majority of the content on this site has been untouched since the early 2000s.)
posted by Aleyn at 8:17 PM on April 12, 2014

You're on one now?
posted by anildash at 9:53 PM on April 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

John Walker's Fourmilab with adjustable frames
posted by maggieb at 11:37 PM on April 12, 2014

There's a quaint local surplus store chain here in the Twin Cities whose website, as recently as four years ago, still recommended Internet Explorer 4. Their current "redesign" is still pretty Nineties.
posted by neckro23 at 10:17 AM on April 18, 2014