Nostalgic websites: the old internet, still online

If you grew up online, there is a decent chance something you loved is gone. The nostalgic websites below are the ones that are not, along with the preservation projects, emulators and tributes that let you visit what is.

Webamp is Winamp 2 rebuilt in your browser, skins and all. 98.js puts a Windows 98 desktop in a tab, and JS Paint is a pixel-faithful clone of Microsoft Paint. Infinite Mac boots classic Macintosh systems through emulation. Cameron's World is a collage of text and images dug out of archived GeoCities pages, glitter text and all. Space Jam (1996 website) is the original promo site, kept online with its tiled backgrounds. The Million Dollar Homepage is the 2005 grid of one-dollar pixels, still online.

Nostalgia needs a warning label. The old web is the part of the internet that decays fastest, and a lot of it was taken over by parked pages or worse. That is why we check every link daily and treat parked or redirected domains as dead.

Use "Surprise me from this list" for a random pick, or work from the top. Many of these, including Webamp, 98.js and Infinite Mac, work best on a desktop, and the mobile badge on each card says so.

If you are here for the feeling, put on a playlist, open a few tabs and take your time.