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1996 chat room simulator connected to Win95 and System 7 web desktops

41 pointsby 3h agololchat.rip
28 comments
3h agoHN ↗

A zero-account browser chat room mimicking mid-90s online services.

The state runs on Upstash Redis and is shared across three different frontends (React/Vite deployed on Vercel):

* The standalone chat interface (https://lolchat.rip)

* A Windows 95 simulator (https://56k.rip)

* A Mac System 7 simulator (https://dialup.rip)

Users dialing in from the Mac desktop and users on the Win95 machine end up in the exact same rooms talking to each other.

45m agoHN ↗

Thanks man, got me right in the nostalgia.

3h agoHN ↗

Looks good, reminds me of the 1990s.

3h agoHN ↗

Damn I had this idea but you beat me to it

2h agoHN ↗

Vibe-coded garbage full of nonsense LLM text.

1h agoHN ↗

There is no use case for any of this. Most of this vibe coded garbage will get abandoned in months and the deleted.

1h agoHN ↗

I do! I like sex too but that doesn’t mean I’d fuck a robot.

46m agoHN ↗

I would! And Cthulu willing, someday I will.

43m agoHN ↗

Vibe-coded or not what grinds my gears in those throwback computer interfaces is how imprecise they are. I the case of Windows, 9x had a meticulous pixel perfect alignment of widgets, great looking 2px thick bevel effects and all the proportions needed to be right for it feel "right". But almost all those throwback attempts, and specially now with AI coding, forget about this and seem to only go as far as thinking having a grey background with some tacky bevel is enough to recreate it.

2h agoHN ↗

AI prose everywhere. Disappointing for something that should be a labor of love.

1h agoHN ↗

I don't know... AOL chat on a 56k modem (IMO) worked better than Teams and Slack and had most of the features.

56m agoHN ↗

This makes me very nostalgic, but in a slightly sad way, where I remember how much better the real chat experience was back in the day.

This look-alike client struggles to show me messages in real-time. It looks like they only get pulled down in big chunks every few seconds. It also fails to scroll the new messages into view. I don't remember these sort of problems in IRC clients or IM programs of the 90s (though there were many other problems).

In a way I guess it paints the irony of modern computing, where we have several orders of magnitude more in computing power and resources, but that has only enabled us to keep rushing out perpetually unpolished, unfinished products.

It's still a bunch of fun to see a bunch of strangers talking completely unfiltered nonsense in a rudimentary chat room, though!

5m agoHN ↗

The UI also reminds me how clean things used to be.

Simple straightforward buttons; the screen is not filled to the brim with advertising…

53m agoHN ↗

thanks for all the friends I made as MY_NAMES_JEV389. Twas fun

50m agoHN ↗

Awesome chatting with you Jev. I never thought you were a bot despite what some people said. busysignal93

12m agoHN ↗

different goal. infinite mac is a museum, this is closer to a theme park.

9m agoHN ↗

This takes me right back to IRC and Netscape Navigator. The sound of a modem connecting would complete the experience!

8m agoHN ↗

Turn your speakers on, the sounds in there :)

7m agoHN ↗

I am very confused if I am speaking to real people or to LLMs

3m agoHN ↗

Real people! LLMs wouldn't have such a varied distribution of outputs I think ;)