OldWeb.today features old version of Macromedia Shockwave in MacOS browsers, Flash player 9 in IE5 and IE6, and the new Ruffle emulator running in your own browser.ĭoes this cover all Flash works? Not yet, but advancements in emulation technology will continue to ensure that Flash remains accessible. Thanks to easily accessibleĮmulation, Flash can continue to be made accessible in a variety of emulation environments. Much has been said about Flash ‘no longer being available’, but in reality, the end of Flash is not really the end.
Support for multiple web archive sources, similar to the original, is planned for a future update.
All emulated browsers also support sound output.Ĭurrently, this version focus on Mac, Windows browsers and Flash, but Linux based browsers could certainly be added as well. This version includes IE 5, IE 6 and additional 68K Mac based browsers.
More details on the architecture and deployment can be found on GitHub.Ĭompared to classic oldweb.today, this version includes only browsers that can be run in a JS-based emulator. Unlike the original, the entire system can be deployed as a static site, and easily integrated with existing web archives, if desired. The final emulator included is Ruffle, an open-source Flash emulator that is used to replay any web page with Flash enabled. The stack allows connections from thee emulators to be handled in your current browser, and directed to either a web archive or to the live web. These emulators were modified to support a custom in-browser network stack (ethernet, tcp/ip) implementation, developed by the bwFla Emulation as a Service team. The v86 emulator is used to run Windows 98, and is presented with a version of Netscape and IE 5 and IE 6. The Basilisk II emulator is used for running MacOS upto System 7 and is used to run several early browsers, including early versions of MacLynx, Mosaic, Netscape, IE. This version supports three different emulators, all running entirely in the browser, limited only by your own CPU! Sound should fully work in this version as well. Today, thanks to the work of numerous emulator developers and advances in Javascript and related technologies, I am excited to announce a fully Javascript/WebAssembly, browser-based OldWeb.today. I imagined that this would be a temporary solution, and that eventually emulators will run fully in the browser. (The old version of OWT is still available as ) This system used Docker to run emulated versions of browsers in the cloud, and required significant resources to maintain and could only supportĪ fixed number of users at a time. Just over five years ago, at the beginning of December 2015, I released the initial version of OldWeb.today, which demonstrated running emulated browsers connected to web archives.