This is a list of projects which let vintage computers connect to the internet!
If you have a project you would like added to the list please say so on the Discussion Page or submit a PR!
Supplimentary information is available on the WIKI.
- TheOldNet.com
- The Old Net - HTTP Proxy
- The Old Net - BBS
- Protoweb
- Retrocampus BBS
- 68k.news
- Frog Find
- WRP (Web Rendering Proxy)
- Browservice
- Retro-Proxy
- Netscape Proxy
- WebOne
- MicroWeb
- DreamPi
- Kali
- Brow.sh
- Timeprox
- JWZ's http10proxy
- Cameron's World
- Telnet BBS Guide
- Doge Microsystems DIY Dialup Server
- CyberTown Reloaded
- Crypto Ancienne
Starting in 2019 I had the idea of being able to browse the 1990's web on a handful of of my 1990's computers. To my surprise the existing archives online were not compatible with vintage browsers even though the content was from that era. One weekend I wrote a proxy and everthing else grew from there. Two years later I've provided nearly a dozen free services to vintage computer enthusiasts around the world!
This is an HTTP proxy that has its aim on high quality completeness of websites. The protoweb team scrapes the Internet Archive and other resources and reassembles the websites by hand as thoroughly as possible. You will not find every website on Protoweb, but the ones that you do find will be of the best version out there.
This BBS has it all, games, chat, modern information from current web sites. Best of all it has compatibility for over a dozen systems!
This is a proxy to google news which returns text and images but none of the incompatible stuff that old browsers wouldn't like.
Frog Find is a great service which acts as a proxy to Duck Duck Go. It returns text parsed out of webpages to ensure compatibility on even the most limited of browsers.
This is a very clever and cool service. It lets you browse the modern internet on vintage computers. This is generally impossible because most websites are partially/fully rendered using client side javascript. Old browsers cannot handle this. WRP pre-renders the webpages in a headless chrome instance and then returns a screenshot of the webpage as an image map to the vintage computer. Very neat way of working through the problem.
This is pre-rendered proxy similar to WRP. It provides a smoother experience at the expense of compatibility as it requires a minimum javascript version to work.
A self-hosted HTTP proxy that removes ssl and javascript.
This is pre-rendered proxy similar to Browservice. It was created by The Eric Experiment to address a lack of Netscape support by Browservice. This proxy is not as mature as Browservice or Web Renderer Proxy as it is relatively new.
This is a CGA based DOS web browser which is currently in development, it's pretty cool!
If you have a SEGA Dreamcast and wish to play Phantasy Star Online again you can with this project! It turns a raspberry pi into a dial-up networking ISP. It lets you connect to other players over the internet through custom hosted game servers!
Kali was a program used back in the windows 95 era to do local/IPX gaming over the internet. It's a game lobby client/server and a proxy. It's quite impressive and it's still in operation today! This service was important as games transitioned from local/dialup multiplayer to TCP/IP internet multiplayer. Many popular games at the time could not play head to head directly over the internet. This proxy allowed these games to connect over the internet, which was quite amazing.
This is the most impressive service I've seen. A fluid, full graphics browser over SSH! You can even watch youtube videos in real time, in a pixelated fasion. Very neat.
It turns out the programmer for the original Netscape browser, Jamie Zawinski, also likes vintage computers. He wrote a proxy many years ago in PERL!
"A love letter to the Internet of old". One of my favorite sites, I'm particularly impressed with the level of detail put into this project by carefully curating and placing gifs!
Cameron's World will not work on vintage computers so it shouldn't be on this list. I just think it's so cool I want everyone to know about it!
If you've got a wifi modem or just a telnet client, this is the go-to directory of all BBS's currently operating.
In the beloved hay day of VRML cybertown was an absolute wonder. It was an online community where you lived, socialized, worked, decorated your house, threw parties, went to the theatre! All in glorious 3D in your browser. There were different neighbourhoods based on different interestes. It kind of felt a little like Geocities in that regard. This project is an attempt to rebuild Cybertown using archived resources found scoured across the internet.
A TLS library for old C compilers.
This list is maintained by Richard Bettridge