Retro Terminal Website

A fully interactive, filesystem-driven retro terminal website simulation (green-on-black Linux shell) built with PHP + JavaScript.

This project is a web-based terminal emulation experience designed to look and feel like an old-school Linux shell running over SSH. Visitors interact with your site through simulated commands such as ls, cd, cat, less, and more. All content is stored in a simple folder structure and rendered dynamically — no CMS or database required.

Perfect for:

• Retro-styled personal websites
• Developer portfolios
• Documentation sites
• Easter-egg terminal interfaces
• Nostalgia projects

• Fake SSH login sequence
• Realistic green-on-black CRT-style UI
• Blinking cursor, auto-scroll, editable prompt
• Command history (↑ / ↓)
• Tab completion for commands & filenames
• Markdown renderer with headings/lists/bold/italic, clickable links, and inline ANSI art
• Responsive layout recalculates pager height + ASCII art width on resize
• Toggleable CRT bloom/scanline filter via the crt command
• Mobile-friendly keyboard helper so touch devices keep the software keyboard open
• Configurable file-type whitelist + download list (exposed through the get command)
• Faux utility commands (banner, figlet, find, locate, grep, get, etc.) for extra realism

Everything the user sees comes from the content/ directory.

• Add folders → becomes directories in the terminal
• Add .md files → viewable via cat & less
• Add images → rendered as ASCII art
• MOTD loaded from content/_meta/motd.md

Image files (png, jpg, gif, webp) automatically render in the terminal as ANSI-colored ASCII art using PHP GD.

Enable the blog-bbs plugin (see config.php) to unlock a faux dial-up telnet command. It dials into an ANSI BBS interface that lists markdown posts stored under content/Blog/, complete with customizable ANSI splash screens and an optional message board.

When connected you'll be asked for a handle, the prompt shifts to HANDLE@NODE>, and every BBS command clears and redraws the fixed-width UI so it feels like a dedicated dial-in experience.

retro-terminal/
├─ index.php
├─ api.php
├─ config.php
├─ content/
│  ├─ _meta/
│  │  └─ motd.md
│  ├─ About/
│  │  └─ About.md
│  └─ Projects/
│     └─ Projects.md
├─ assets/
│  ├─ css/terminal.css
│  └─ js/terminal.js
└─ README.md

• PHP 7.4+
• PHP-GD extension (for ASCII image rendering)
• Web server (Apache, Nginx, Caddy, etc.)

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/kimusan/retro-termnal-web.git
cd retro-terminal-web

Place the project in any PHP-enabled webroot:

/var/www/html/retro-terminal/

Open in your browser:

http://localhost/retro-terminal/

Done 🎉

All settings are in config.php:

return [
  'content_root' => __DIR__ . '/content',
  'shell_user'   => 'guest',
  'shell_host'   => null, // defaults to domain
  'default_theme' => 'classic', // or 'crt'
  'options' => [
      'enable_ansi_images' => true,
      'max_output_lines'   => 200,
      'allowed_extensions' => ['md', 'txt', 'png', 'jpg', 'jpeg', 'gif', 'webp', 'svg'],
      'downloadable_extensions' => ['zip', 'tar', 'gz', 'tgz', 'bz2', 'xz', '7z', 'iso', 'img', 'bin', 'appimage'],
  ],
];

Set `'default_theme' => 'crt'` to enable the CRT filter by default (visitors can still toggle it via the `crt` command). Adjust the extension lists to control which files show up in `ls`/`cat` versus which binaries are exposed through the `get` download command.

'shell_user' => 'kim',
'shell_host' => 'retrobox',

Prompt becomes:

kim@retrobox:/$

Content is zero-config and purely filesystem driven.

See CONTENT_GUIDE.md for detailed instructions.

Key points:

• Folders = directories (ls, cd)
• Markdown .md = viewable files (cat, less)
• Images = ASCII art (cat image.png)
• MOTD is read from content/_meta/motd.md

• Terminal emulation
• Prompt handling
• Tab completion
• History
• Command parsing

• Directory listing
• Markdown/text loading
• Image → ASCII renderer
• Path sanitization / security

See ROADMAP.md for long-term plans.

Upcoming features include:

• Improved markdown rendering
• CRT bloom / glow modes
• Custom themes
• “man pages” for commands
• Sound effects (optional)

MIT License — free to use, modify, and share.

PRs, issues, and feature requests are welcome!

If you use this in a personal site or portfolio, please share — it’s always cool to see how others extend the terminal experience.