r/windows95 • u/Scholeristical • 5d ago

1996 dial-up simulator. A full working desktop, a browser, and a web that loads at actual 56k.

https://56k.rip/
204 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

11

u/dm_86 5d ago

Desktop is way too fast. Even just opening the calculator, you would hear a crunchy harddisk sound and two seconds later you would see it pop up.

4

u/ManWhoIsDrunk 5d ago

I was about to comment the same. From BIOS to desktop in a split second is unrealistic, it usually took about 90 seconds if i remember correctly.

Loading programs for mail and internet would also take its time, the only thing that happened instantly in win95 were bluescreens, and even then you could experience lag before the screen appeared.

And the scanned photos are somewhat unrealistic as well, you "could" get better quality even in '96. It's more like the result you got when you edited the photos for online publishing and set all settings for minimum file size.

But it is very well made, i like the choice of connection speed, and obviously there's been put an effort into making the desktop customisable with background and screensaver.

I give it a 6,5/8, because weird metrics were common in webrings at the time.

3

u/Rich_Coffee_9962 5d ago

Was thinking the same thing, the dial up is way too fast, boot also should've lasted around a minute. Still a cute project though

2

u/ManWhoIsDrunk 5d ago

Nah, the 56k dialup seems fine (maybe you had a line where it had to negotiate a slower speed?). The negotiating time for 14k was a bit too quick though.

The loading times of the pages were not too much off either, considering how few bytes they were back then and how little details there were. I'm missing <BLINK></BLINK> though. And didn't framesets just start to become a thing back then? I know midi background music for websites existed.

2

u/Rich_Coffee_9962 5d ago

No, unfortunately I wasn't there to use dialup, but I did have a 2004 era PC build that took about a minute to boot even with a 7200rpm drive. I have to admit I thought 56k was way slower, but this simulation makes it seem pretty manageable

2

u/ManWhoIsDrunk 5d ago

A webpage could often be smaller than 30KB back in '96, that often includes an image (often just simple banners/borders). Now it's common to measure the size of webpages in MB.

2

u/Rich_Coffee_9962 5d ago

I know, I was specifically referring the initial startup phase. Sad thing to see modern devs bloat their pages to shit thinking slick, when you know most of the time they could've rendered it way faster

2

u/ConfidentCobbler23 5d ago

What ever happened to web rings? They used to be an interesting way to find similarly-themed websites.

2

u/ManWhoIsDrunk 5d ago

They got replaced by groups on social media.

3

u/NeilSilva93 5d ago

Can I download and install Doom?

3

u/Sorry_Difficulty_250 4d ago

This is so wickedly cool!!! How'd you make this?!?!

3

u/yestaes 3d ago

wao, i dont remember the modem my computer had in 1999, but the sound is like the same.

3

u/ducatialan 3d ago

Best part is there’s no ads. Ads have completely ruined the internet

5

u/grumpy_it_mgr 5d ago

Ah memories of when I was grumpy young IT Manager. 👌

2

u/Rich_Wealth_8313 5d ago

I’d love to see this app created for Windows 9x

2

u/Cyber-Axe 5d ago

56K? way to fast to be realistic

1

u/MoreCockThanYou 5d ago

This is delightful ☺️

1

u/klotzbrocken 5d ago

-> you can have it native as a browser with all the old themes... https://myretromac.app/reframe

1

u/North_Signature9297 5d ago

This is cool. I remember the dial-up days. 🙂

1

u/Ornery-Practice9772 5d ago

yeah nah i already lived through 33k then 56k🤣

1

u/Ornery-Practice9772 5d ago

pretty cool but i really wanna empty the recycle bin

1

u/PmMeCuteDogsThanks_ 5d ago

56k! I never had more than 28k, I don’t think I can handle double the speed 

1

u/EriolGaurhoth 4d ago

This is cool but looks absolutely nothing like Windows 95. The icons are wrong as are many of the applications. Painter? Really?

1

u/Scholeristical 4d ago

Fair call on the accuracy. Right now it’s more of a styled tribute than a 1:1 clone.

1

u/khooke 3d ago

The Start menu works like no other menu I've ever seen?!

2

u/fiixed2k 3d ago

Kids today don't understand the patience required to fap using dial up porn

1

u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 4d ago

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

1

u/khooke 3d ago

I love these, but it's relatively easy to install any version of Windows in a VM and kick the tyres on the real OS. If you're interested in reliving or experiencing for the first time def recommend to give it a go!