Doors 98 — A Windows 98 Nostalgia and Parody Project

Why I Created This

There were a few reasons I decided to do this. Over Christmas 2025, I finally had time to mess around with the current wave of AI agents (the rage being Claude Opus). I quickly put it to work, extending a Python backend I hadn't touched since 2019 and expanding its capabilities while also creating supporting UI tools. All of this came together in just a couple of days' work that would have taken me literally months to do by hand.

As one might expect, a range of feelings came over me. First, excitement ("Look at all the things I can do!"). Then anxiety ("As someone with 20+ years in software, am I going to be obsolete?"). Finally, a sort of meh acceptance ("I'm glad I'm in my 40s—or I'd be screwed. I guess I'll settle into being a 'prompt engineer' or move into management.")

This made me reminisce about a simpler time. Signing into an AOL screen name. Hearing the iconic "You've got mail!" Chatting with your buddies—IM'ing, not this DM'ing nonsense. No emojis; we called them emoticons. Chat rooms. Winamp blaring "Superman" by 3 Doors Down. Napster to build our music libraries before Lars sent it all to the dumpster (to this day, I still have many MP3s from that era).

Online gaming was in its infancy: spending time playing Age of Empires in MSN Zone, or Gin Rummy on Yahoo. We had eight different search engines (Google was still in its infancy)—AltaVista, Lycos, and others. High school and college kids built fan sites for their favorite book series, games, or bands. Professional sites were few—eBay, eToys (RIP)—and by today's standards looked basic and horrendous.

You're probably right. Why? A midlife crisis? Maybe. But the time really did feel simpler—no social media, most people didn't have phones, and those who did mostly just used them to call. Texting was limited (and you paid per text!). The web had less drama; you were more anonymous, and there was genuine excitement about what was coming next.

I figured: if you lived it, maybe this is a nice trip down memory lane. If you're younger, maybe there's some amusement here—or even a bit of history to be learned.

Yes, most of this is a parody (for legal reasons), but I'm confident you'll get the gist of the era. Some parts, however, are more authentic. The fan site? That was mine. You can find the real thing if you're willing to dig through the Wayback Machine. Those screen names in the buddy list were real people from my actual AIM list. There were more, but their screen names were close enough to their real identity that I left them out.

AIM buddy list screen names featured on this site: AcousticguitarJJ, Airyn15, AkinaSpecialist, arieeas, BerlaR2833, BigMan828, Brandocom18, Ccmfan2911, Chr0n02222, CrAzZziE2, crownchicken, chubbsaudio, DodgeViper830, ELF0926, ElMono597, fatboyjin, FirstClassNerd, Flagpig, ForeignSpeed96, gumby3484, GuyandGuitar20, Hopeintomorrow, HourOfTen, irishred384, jaguarjaws, KellBel324, KLinkafer84, Krissy93, KSmith1184, KyleeJane03, KyleShidair, LAXin204, Ledzep6222, LindsRay01, LordArkmam, MATT1T0N, MrPlah, niffirg20, phatboy615, phoenix2218, Prolifik51, qibiNg1, realm720, Saviorluv, SickOnSnow, skriker113, Softbalweb, Sprtmn14, studlee1100, swoops40, teddybearperson, TFrock69, TG3VIP2, TheMudDotCom, Thermos14, TrinityFaith2784, TrooperandZ, yep3022, Z06chic, Zuluproffitt5.

So this site is part experiment, part time capsule, and part love letter to an era when the web felt smaller, weirder, and more human. It's not about saying things were better—just different. Slower. Less optimized. More personal. An era of Flash intros, sketchy ActiveX prompts, and wondering whether clicking "Yes" was about to nuke your family PC. An era when Strong Bad taught us how to type, Newgrounds kept our browsers busy, fan sites ruled, and the internet felt like it was made by people, not platforms.

The irony is not lost on me that AI wrote nearly this entire site—with the exception of this letter. If this makes you smile, cringe, or feel the urge to fire up an old MP3—or hunt down a browser that can still run Flash—then it's doing exactly what it was meant to do.

Apps, Easter Eggs, and 1990s References

Doors 98 is a parody OS and nostalgia project inspired by the late 1990s and early 2000s personal computing era. It is intended as a time capsule, not a recreation or replacement of any real operating system.

My CPU — Windows 98 My Computer and Gateway Computers

A parody of "My Computer", the central hub in Windows 95/98 where users accessed drives, control panels, and system tools. The cow spot background is a reference to Gateway computers, which used distinctive Holstein cow-patterned boxes for their PC shipments throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. Gateway was a major PC manufacturer of that era, known for their direct-to-consumer sales model and iconic black-and-white spotted packaging.

Homer.Bas — The Homer Simpson Game by Chris McGowan

Homer.Bas is a text-based BASIC game titled "THE HOMER SIMPSON GAME Programmed by Chris McGowan" — the kind of game passed between friends via floppy disk or email in the late 1990s. It appears in the Murica Mail inbox as an attachment sent by studlee1100, a nod to the era when people shared homemade programs the same way they'd share an MP3.

'Murica Web — AOL America Online Parody

A parody of AOL (America Online) — the dominant online service of the 1990s that acted as the internet for millions of users. References include "You've Got Mail", chat rooms, buddy lists, and AOL as a curated gateway to the web.

Snoozer — Napster Parody and Lars Ulrich

A parody of Napster, the peer-to-peer file-sharing service that reshaped how music was distributed in the late 1990s. The name "Napster" originated from a nickname given to its creator, Shawn Fanning. The Lars Ulrich Exception is a reference to Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, who became the public face of the lawsuit against Napster.

Era of Nations — Age of Empires Parody

A parody of Age of Empires, one of the most popular real-time strategy games of the era. Online play and LAN matches were common, and cheating tools called trainers were widespread. A trainer was a third-party cheating tool that modified memory values to grant unfair advantages such as extra resources, invincibility, or fog-of-war removal.

BassJamb — Winamp Parody

A parody of Winamp, the iconic MP3 player of the late 1990s. Famous for skins, visualizers, and the phrase "It really whips the llama's ass." "Bass" references an amplifier, "Jamb" is a door hinge pun.

Shredder — Recycle Bin and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

A parody of the Windows Recycle Bin, where deleted files are sent before permanent removal. File names reference the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtle Soup reference comes from Shredder, the primary antagonist from TMNT, known for threatening the turtles in multiple adaptations and comics.

Early Internet Favorites — Wayback Machine Archives of Classic 1990s and Early 2000s Websites

Doors 98 includes a favorites list of real websites from the late 1990s and early 2000s, accessible via the Wayback Machine. These are preserved snapshots of the early web as it actually existed — before social media, before smartphones, before the internet was optimized.

Final Fantasy Gaiden — On April 1, 1999, The GIA (Gaming Intelligence Agency) published an elaborate April Fools joke announcing "Final Fantasy Gaiden," a fake direct sequel to Final Fantasy VIII. The hoax was crafted by Nick "Rox" Des Barres and Andrew Vestal, and included convincing fake screenshots, a logo, and even a fabricated MPEG battle video. The story claimed Seifer, Fuujin, and Raijin would be the main characters in a two-disc game retailing for 3800 yen, set to release Fall 1999. The following day, April 2nd, The GIA revealed it as a prank. It remains one of the most convincing and well-remembered April Fools jokes in early gaming journalism history.

Hampster Dance (hampsterdance.com) — one of the earliest viral websites, featuring a looping animated GIF of hamsters dancing to a sped-up sample. It spread entirely by word of mouth and email in 1998 and 1999.

Final Fantasy VI: The Power Within — a GeoCities fan site dedicated to Final Fantasy VI, representing the era when passionate fans built hand-coded HTML pages to celebrate their favorite games. GeoCities was the home of millions of personal and fan sites before Yahoo shut it down in 2009.

W3Schools (w3schools.com circa 2000) — one of the earliest and most widely used web development tutorial sites. Many developers of that generation learned HTML, CSS, and JavaScript here.

half.com — an early peer-to-peer marketplace for buying and selling used books, CDs, and DVDs at half price, founded in 1999. It was acquired by eBay in 2000 and shut down in 2017.

MSN Zone (zone.com) — Microsoft's online gaming portal where millions played Age of Empires, Hearts, Spades, and other games over dial-up connections in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Yahoo Games — Yahoo's online gaming platform featuring classic card and board games including Gin Rummy, Chess, Checkers, and Backgammon. A staple of early internet leisure.

EB Games (ebgames.com circa 2001) — one of the dominant video game retail chains of the era, later merged with GameStop. A destination for game release dates, reviews, and pre-orders.

Camelot Herald (camelotherald.com circa 2002) — the official news and community site for Dark Age of Camelot, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was a major competitor to EverQuest in the early 2000s.

VN Boards — IGN's fan community boards for Dark Age of Camelot, specifically the Morgan Le Fey (MLF) server community. Morgan Le Fey was one of the most active and competitive DAoC servers in the early 2000s, known for its realm vs realm (RvR) combat between Hibernia, Albion, and Midgard. VN Boards was where the MLF community gathered to discuss strategy, post realm war updates, and argue about class balance.

Stats Online — an early online sports statistics site covering NFL football, representative of the era when real-time sports data first became available on the web.

Smallworld Fantasy Football — an early fantasy football platform from the late 1990s, before ESPN and Yahoo dominated the space.

Guestbook — 1990s Personal Website Guestbooks and AOL Chat Rooms

A guestbook was a common feature on personal and fan-run websites in the late 1990s. Visitors could leave a short message with a screen name and date. Guestbooks served as lightweight community interaction before blogs or social media existed. In Doors 98, the guestbook is reimagined as a live chat-style interface inspired by AOL chat rooms and ICQ.

BassJamb — Winamp Parody and a Real 2001 Morpheus Playlist

BassJamb is a parody of Winamp, the iconic MP3 player of the late 1990s and early 2000s — famous for its skinnable interface, visualizer bars, and the tagline "It really whips the llama's ass." The playlist loaded into BassJamb is a real playlist recovered from a 2001 Morpheus peer-to-peer client. Morpheus was one of the successors to Napster after Lars Ulrich and Metallica's lawsuit effectively shut it down. This is a genuine snapshot of what someone was actually downloading and listening to at the turn of the millennium.

The playlist spans the full range of what early P2P file sharing looked like: Linkin Park's In the End and Crawling from Hybrid Theory, Jimmy Eat World's The Middle, Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta, Basement Jaxx Where's Your Head At, Three Doors Down Kryptonite, Eminem Stan, The Offspring Original Prankster and Want You Bad, Metallica Whiskey In The Jar and Turn The Page, Sugar Ray When It's Over, Everlast What It's Like, NOFX Liza and Louise, MXPX TeenagePolitics, and System of a Down's Legend of Zelda lyrical cover.

Alongside the radio hits sat a deep cut of video game music — a hallmark of the era's fan communities. Yasunori Mitsuda appears three times: Light from the Netherworld, Steel Giant, and The Treasure Which Cannot Be Stolen, all from the Xenogears OST. Chrono Cross is represented by Scars Left By Time and a techno remix of the original Chrono Trigger theme. Nobuo Uematsu contributes the Final Fantasy VI orchestral War of the Magi, the FF7 Interrupted by Fireworks, and Aria Di Mezzo Carattere. Secret of Mana's Sunken Continent Dance Mix, a Pokemon Johto theme, a Pokemon techno remix, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV theme, and the Batman Beyond theme round out a playlist that could only exist in 2001.

Final Fantasy II — Rare Summon Farming Log

I recently felt the urge to rehook my SNES and play FFII-US (FF4) over the Christmas break. I had previously received the Imp and Bomb summons a few playthroughs ago, but I had a nagging feeling there were more. I decided to check some FAQs on GameFAQs.com and discovered that there was a Mage summon. I tried for several days to no avail, then decided to start keeping a text file of encounters and the number of Mages killed. This tracking actually helped my sanity, and eventually it dropped — along with the Zeus Gauntlet from the Ogres. I killed 218 Mages before the Mage summon dropped, 424 Imps before the Imp summon dropped, and 143 Balloons before the Bomb summon dropped.

Final Fantasy: Cry to Heaven — Playable Fan Game (RPG Maker 2000)

Final Fantasy: Cry to Heaven is a fan-made RPG created by P0siTr0nic Productions in 2001–2002 using RPG Maker 2000. Built during the golden era of Final Fantasy fan games.

The game is now playable directly in the browser via EasyRPG Player, an open-source reimplementation of the RPG Maker 2000 and 2003 runtime. No download or installation required — launch it from the Begin menu inside Doors 98 under Programs > Games. This may be one of the few places this game has been publicly accessible since its original release over two decades ago.

Final Fantasy: Shattered Lands — Playable Fan Game (RPG Maker 2000)

Final Fantasy: Shattered Lands is a fan-made RPG created by P0siTr0nic Productions in 2002 using RPG Maker 2000.

The game is playable directly in the browser via EasyRPG Player. No download or installation required — launch it from the Begin menu inside Doors 98 under Programs > Games.

Final Fantasy VI: The Power Within — Late 1990s Fan Site and Dream Horizon Software

Final Fantasy VI: The Power Within was a late 1990s fan site dedicated to an ambitious fan-made sequel to Square's Final Fantasy VI. Set six years after the events of the original game, the project envisioned a new story built on a crystal-based magic system. The site was affiliated with Dream Horizon Software, a fan development group led by Lord Hylan. Czar Ben was writing the script, a composer known as Freddie was handling the music, and sprites were created by P0sitr0nic. Like so many ambitious fan projects of the era, it never came to fruition — but the site itself survived, living on Geocities until that platform's closure in 2009, and preserved today via the Wayback Machine. It is accessible through the Favorites menu in 'Murica Web inside Doors 98.

Hampster Dance — A 1990s Internet Classic

The Hampster Dance was one of the first viral phenomena of the early internet. Created in 1998 by Canadian art student Deidre LaCarte as a fan page for her pet hamster Hampton, the page featured a row of animated dancing hamster GIFs set to a sped-up sample of "Whistle Stop" by Roger Miller. At its peak in 1999, the site was receiving millions of hits per day — extraordinary traffic for the era. It became a defining moment in early internet culture, a time when a single silly webpage could capture the attention of the entire online world. The Hampster Dance is preserved in the Wayback Machine and accessible via the Favorites menu in 'Murica Web inside Doors 98.

Stats Online — Late 1990s Local High School Sports Statistics

Stats Online was a local high school sports statistics website in the late 1990s — the kind of grassroots web presence that defined the early internet. Before social media and athletic.net, sites like Stats Online were how parents, students, and fans followed local high school football scores and standings online. Finding your team or your kid's name on a webpage was a genuinely exciting novelty at the time. The site is preserved via the Wayback Machine and accessible through the Favorites menu in 'Murica Web inside Doors 98.

Downloads — Rare Early Internet Artifacts

This project started as an exercise to get familiar with AI coding agents — and to give me a few laughs while reliving a nostalgic past that modern users can't even fathom. As time went by and I dug deeper into my archives (I'm a digital packrat — every time I got a new machine I migrated all my data forward, and eventually consolidated everything onto a NAS. It's bad. I have AIM logs going back to when I first started using DeadAIM and later GAIM/Pidgin), I realized I'm sitting on lost media from some very niche communities. Those files will live here in the Downloads folder, with backups at my archive.org account. The raw data lives in this folder on the desktop, and as time permits I'll personally curate and write up the histories of communities I lurked in — I rarely ever registered on these sites.

Pokemon Online Beta 1.0 — September 2000

Pokemon Online Beta 1.0, the legendary prototype from September 17, 2000. Created by Konidias and team (Caveman, Optimus Primus, Dragoness), this is the original playable beta that launched the POL phenomenon and inspired decades of Pokemon fan MMO projects. Features a working overworld, house interior, NPCs, and integrated community links. Confirmed working on Windows 11 (2026). Includes original team credits and full feature documentation. Previously considered lost media until recovery by doors98.com preservation project.

POL Map Editor — Pokemon Online (2001)

Pokemon Online (POL) Map Editor, Release 1. Dated 5/12/2001, recovered from the original Bulbagarden.com/pol era. Created by Konidias (contact alias: B-Quest, bquest@usa.net), this tool allowed POL staff and players to design tile-based game maps for the fan-made Pokemon MMO. Maps were saved as .bmp files and submitted to game admins for inclusion in the game world. Includes original tile sets, sample levels, and full readme documentation viewable upon installation. Confirmed working on Windows 11 (2026) with no compatibility layer required.

POL Character Editor — Pokemon Online (2001)

Pokemon Online (POL) Character Editor, beta release 1.0. Dated 2/27/2001, recovered from the original Bulbagarden.com/pol era. Created by B-Quest, this tool allowed players to design 32x32 pixel trainer characters for the game using a custom grid editor and trace sheets. One of the only surviving artifacts from the original Konidias-era POL before the Bulbagarden server collapse of 2001. Note: file was circulated as "Sprite Editor" but the original readme identifies it as the Character Editor.

Epic's Memorial — Pokemon Online Fan Community (May 2001)

During May 2001, skepticism began to emerge that POL would actually release and a user named "Epic" caused significant drama by denying its existence. This is a "memorial" created by "Gamer(freak)" in response to Epic's denial of POL's existence and his subsequent ban from the POL forums. Built with The Games Factory (precursor to Clickteam's Multimedia Fusion), the application still runs perfectly on Windows 11 (2026). A rare surviving artifact of early fan community drama and the informal creative culture that surrounded the Pokemon Online project.

POL Lounge V 1.0 — Pokemon Online Community Chat Client (2001–2002)

A fan-made community chat client built for the Pokemon Online community circa 2001–2002. Built with Multimedia Fusion 2 (Clickteam), this standalone Windows executable required no installation and bundled its own runtime extensions. Functioned as a dedicated chat room client using a custom pipe-delimited TCP protocol. Users connected to a community-run server by entering the host IP and port at runtime. A rare surviving artifact of the informal social infrastructure that small fan communities built from scratch in the early broadband era — before Discord, before Slack, before widespread IRC adoption in gaming circles. Confirmed launching on Windows 11 (2026).

Y2K Preparedness — December 1999

WALNUT COVE, N.C. — As the final days of 1999 ticked down, the Smith family of Walnut Cove, N.C., spent last weekend filling their pantry with canned beans, soups, and vegetables — a ritual many across the country have undertaken in anticipation of potential Y2K computer disruptions. "We just want to be ready," said Karen Smith, mother of three. The family's efforts mirrored a nationwide trend of stocking up on essentials, from bottled water to flashlights, amid widespread concerns that computer systems might fail at the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31, 1999. "It's probably overblown," admitted John Smith. "But I'd rather have the food and not need it than need it and not have it." As the new millennium approaches, the Smiths plan to ring in the year with their neighbors, their pantry stocked, and their sense of humor intact.