Backintosh 1999

About Backintosh 1999

This was originally created as an Easter egg for RevU.co. I'm sharing here for other folks to enjoy and remix.

Backintosh turns your site into a desktop computer from 1999. Visitors watch it boot up, then explore your content by opening windows on a pixel-art desktop. It works for portfolios, personal sites, launch pages, or anything that would be more fun as an operating system.

Each icon on the desktop opens a window you can drag by its title bar. Webscape Navigator holds a GeoCities-style homepage with a scrolling marquee, an under-construction sign, a visitor counter and a guestbook button. Rewrite it as your own home page. The Oregonian Trail is a click-through mini-game. About This Backintosh, Note Pad, Read Me and Trash round out the desktop.

Small details make it convincing. There are custom arrow and hand cursors, an image that loads line by line like it’s coming over a dial-up modem, a menu bar with a clock, and a Shut Down command that says goodbye before restarting.

It’s all built with regular Framer layers, so you edit text, icons and windows right on the canvas. Duplicate an icon to add a new app and its window comes with it. The boot screen and shutdown screen have simple settings for text, images and timing. The built-in Read Me explains everything.

Features:

  • Animated boot sequence, skippable with a click

  • Draggable windows that open from desktop icons

  • 90s browser window with a GeoCities-style homepage

  • Click-through Oregonian Trail mini-game

  • Note Pad, Read Me, Trash and About This Backintosh windows

  • Custom pixel-art cursors

  • Dial-up-style progressive image loading

  • Shut Down screen with a customisable destination

  • Responsive layouts for desktop, tablet and phone