alt Hacker NewsShow HN: Encarta 95 Web
Encarta is super nostalgic, and I was surprised it wasn't available to use online. So I embarked on the difficult task of making it so.
The way this works is the most convoluted, nonsense and brittle system ever... but it works as a statically hosted gh-pages site!
Please note: All the material on this site is freely available through the internet archive (see github readme)
Github repo -> https://github.com/benwinding/encarta_95_web
Comments
CD ROM encyclopedias were only really viable when dial up speeds limited the amount of multimedia content on the internet. Both Microsoft and Britannica were victims of internet encyclopedias. And now static internet based encyclopedias are themselves under threat of personalised AI content as well. The pursuit of knowledge keeps changing what knowledge itself looks like.
I got carried away and started playing the Age of Empires Demo from the desktop after I exited Encarta
I don't know what it is that creates this feeling, but I am so drawn to read the text when I click into the site. Much more so than on Wikipedia or other online sources. Is it just nostalgia? I don't have any concrete memories of Encarta, other than a general awareness. Is it written better? Maybe slightly, if at all - I wouldn't say that Wikipedia content is not written well, on average.
So what is it? I genuinely wonder. Maybe just the style of the visuals, a throwback to when a written piece of content online "mattered" more, as it represented something more, too.
It may not matter, but distinguishing what captivates and what naturally glosses seems like it may matter greatly in a space suffused by content.
The cursor on mobile is unreliable. It tries to act like a touchpad on a touch screen but then reverts to a direct “point” when you try to click your virtual touchpad.
I still have my boxed copy of Encarta 2001. The interactive world atlas was the best feature! Miles ahead of everything at the time. Multiple layers of stats from population to weather to languages etc https://youtu.be/zsbShjlh6xk?si=4U47LILUmKPfXgPY&t=320
The text looks very weird on my PC, see: https://imgur.com/a/vAMVHc7
Does anyone else remember the encarta CDs that came with boxed Kellogg's cereals?
Just checked, the Soundgarden clip is in its proper place on the Rock Music article. Fantastic work.
What a throwback. Right back to writing "book reports" in middle school.
Ahh AoK is such an amazing game! I kind of want to download it now. I was never very good at it as a kid, spent _way_ too much time building my own campaigns with triggers (this was in the early days before I had discovered programming languages) - obviously no-one ever actually played these.
The very first program I ever used on my father's PC, and would constantly get stuck playing Mind Maze for hours.
Oh God I remember running this on my dad's computer which had the first CD-ROM drive I had seen. I felt like I was in a spaceship
Complete with MIND MAZE!
This makes me raise the question whether it's possible to view wikipedia as per ...? I know i can go back per article - but can I browse wikipidea as it was in 2005?
wow blast from the past. I do beleive this exact version prob in exactly 95 was the first CD I ever inserted into a CD rom. lots of fun!
I wish there were an option to keep the native cursor, the captured cursor doesn't work with my browser.
did civilisation peak with encarta
Oh, that's very nostalgic, even though I only got acquainted with Encarta in the 2000s
Holy memories of the family computer in the living room batman!
Mind Maze yesssssssssssss
Straight to Mind Maze for me!
(Mouse is VERY touchy though)
NICE - thank u
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Start menu > Run > sol.exe for solitaire :)