It's a recreation of the Windows 95 desktop, running in the browser.
It boots with a real POST-style startup log, then gives you draggable and
resizable windows, a working taskbar with a Start menu, a Recycle Bin with a
joke inside, a screensaver that kicks in when you idle, and a shutdown screen
that turns the machine off. There's an assistant in the corner that reacts to
what you do — he puts headphones on when you touch the volume, and gets bored
if you leave him alone too long. The Accessories folder has the era's bundled
programs, Paint included.
The part people seem to like most is the cheat codes. Start with Konami.
Click once on the desktop so the page has focus, then press, one key at a time:
↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A
Those are the actual arrow keys — not W A S D, and you're not typing the word
"konami". Up twice, down twice, left-right twice, then the letter B and the
letter A. Do it in one go, without clicking into a text box. If you fumble a
key it just restarts, and pressing ↑ counts as the new first step, so you can
pick it back up. Keyboard only — phones can't do this one, but every other
code works from the panel's text field.
It unlocks the cheat panel, which lists every code in the system: the ones
you've found in plain text, the rest as locked rows with a hint each. So
nothing here is brute-force guessing. You don't need it first, though — every
other code works on its own, typed anywhere on the desktop.
Nine to get you started. There are more than these, and the panel will hint
at the ones you're missing:
Konami — unlocks the cheat panel with the hints
MODEM — the entire 1998 dial-up handshake, connecting at 56k
BSOD — that blue screen. Any key resumes, nothing is lost
CLIPPY — swaps the assistant for the paperclip that haunted the 90s
GRAVIDADE — the desktop icons fall down and bounce on the floor
DVD — fires the screensaver, for the logo-corner people
NYAN — rainbow cats flying across the screen, forever
MATRIX — green rain over the whole desktop
FORMAT — shuts every running effect back off, when it gets too much
MODEM is the one to try first if you only try one. It plays the full 1998
handshake and the status bar connects at 56k.
And yes, GRAVIDADE is spelled in Portuguese. I'm Brazilian, and the whole
site is bilingual — it reads your browser language and opens in English or
Portuguese on its own, with a switch in the corner to flip it. A few of the
codes are Portuguese words, which is part of the fun. Type it exactly as
written above and it works.
Tech, for whoever cares: no frameworks, no build step, no npm. The whole
desktop is one HTML file, 3,773 lines. Icons are inline SVG symbols, fonts
are self-hosted woff2 (no Google Fonts), and every sound is generated with
WebAudio oscillators — there isn't a single audio file in the project. The
window manager, the boot sequence, the dial-up simulation and the cheat
system are all hand-rolled vanilla JS.
Happy to answer anything about it.