by kandruszkow on 2/23/22, 11:55 AM with 261 comments
List for whatever reason.. the most obscure, interesting design, the worst design, etc.
I'm waiting to see some exciting findings.
by moh_maya on 2/23/22, 1:13 PM
The website of the Nintendo founder's family office. It..is just beautifully designed, and a homage to the original game consoles and the entire art form of PC gaming when it started.
Earlier thread on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26803201
by marginalia_nu on 2/23/22, 1:06 PM
by lastofthemojito on 2/23/22, 2:43 PM
Basically, it's so bad, it's charmingly good.
by tejohnso on 2/23/22, 2:59 PM
A private artistic project by Russian artist Oleg Paschenko. Very strange, creepy, interesting, and years ago, it was interactive (flash). Now it's just a walkthrough video that doesn't provide the same mystique. And it seems some of the creepier skeletal sections aren't shown. I think it might be a different version from the original.
Back when I first stumbled upon the site (90s), it was like a curiosity amplification engine for my young mind. What is it? Why would someone spend time on something like this? And why wouldn't they provide information about what it is or who they are? Am I using it right? Are there easter eggs I'm missing out on?
It was depressing, creepy, and intriguing. I wasn't able to find any writeup on it when I first found it (pre-google) and I was just so drawn in. I'd click in one place, and something weird would show up on the screen, then I'd click again and nothing would happen. I'd see random flashes of skeletal structures or a small child that appeared to be crying. And the sounds were just as disturbing as the visuals. I never forgot it.
Here's a writeup in eyemagazine https://eyemagazine.com/feature/article/conclave-obscurum
Here it is in the Web Design Museum https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/flash-websites/conclave-obsc...
by fao_ on 2/23/22, 12:52 PM
by 0xedb on 2/23/22, 12:47 PM
by oeieog on 2/23/22, 12:01 PM
by H1Supreme on 2/23/22, 3:51 PM
Sadly, I don't really know of anything like that anymore. I'll run across a random Tumblr from time to time. Or, strike gold with a random Pintrest list. But, it's nothing like it used to be, in regards to out-of-the-box web design.
by huitzitziltzin on 2/23/22, 2:12 PM
For 'answers' to these deep questions, see:
by enriquto on 2/23/22, 1:19 PM
by BongoMcCat on 2/23/22, 3:10 PM
In Sweden, we use week-number quite often, but it is nowhere to be found in our calendar software, so, there is a webpage that just displays what week it is now, nothing else..
also: vecka = week
nu = now
by hannyaharamita on 2/23/22, 2:30 PM
Map-based internet radio tuner.
by pmuw on 2/23/22, 4:30 PM
Its a family tree of zoo-born red pandas with almost 30,000 pictures (hand-tagged and searchable) and over 1300 animals.
I'm proud of making it for many reasons, but this is the biggest one: if you pick an animal and swipe through a few dozen photos, you start seeing a little life, growing and changing, and eventually ending. It's a precious lens on the world.
by gnicholas on 2/23/22, 2:55 PM
by elamje on 2/23/22, 3:47 PM
A fun way to make a shareable board of notes, links, and content
by carapace on 2/23/22, 5:01 PM
It's a huge compilation of weird technologies and inventions. Most of them are crackpot, of course, but some of them are legit and truly fascinating. Rex Research predates the Internet, you used to have to order from little ads in the back of Popular Mechanics. Back then this was pretty much the only way you could learn about this stuff. Nowadays some of the less crackpot tech is more widely known, and some of the inventions even have their own Wikipedia pages, e.g.:
Rolamite "the only elementary machine discovered in the twentieth century" http://www.rexresearch.com/wilkes/1wilkes.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolamite
Aerosol Electrical Generator aka Vaneless ion wind generator "a device that generates electrical energy by using the wind to move charged particles across an electric field" http://www.rexresearch.com/marks/marks.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaneless_ion_wind_generator
Hilsch-Ranque vortex tube "a mechanical device that separates a compressed gas into hot and cold streams. The gas emerging from the hot end can reach temperatures of 200 °C (392 °F), and the gas emerging from the cold end can reach −50 °C (−58 °F).[1] It has no moving parts." http://www.rexresearch.com/ranque/ranque.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube Maxwell's Demon! Although it does not violate thermodynamics.
by DanHulton on 2/23/22, 3:06 PM
(Disclaimer: I'm also the author of said site, but it answers the question really well.)
by vidarh on 2/23/22, 1:26 PM
Though it's a pretty faithful rendition of their old paper catalogue...
by fgkramer on 2/23/22, 12:54 PM
by viewfinderjs on 2/23/22, 2:34 PM
from his news section:
I should update this website more often, but no one visits art websites so much these days. I think in 2010 I'd average 200 visits a day, and I think it's about 30 these days. So if you're here, thanks visiting my website.
-- Not after HN meets you, mate.
Ahahaha :P ;) xx;p
by WesSouza on 2/23/22, 2:08 PM
The same flan since 2000: https://web.archive.org/web/20001206203700/http://www.pudim....
by BLKNSLVR on 2/23/22, 1:17 PM
Sadly it no longer exists.
It appeared to be some kind of augmented reality game leaving trails of (very) difficult clues to follow. The website itself used hand-written pages that appeared to have been scanned in and posted as images (some as image maps that linked to other pages depending on which hand-written words you click on).
Some of it was very funny, some of it was quite spooky, and none of it made any kind of sense to me. It was great.
"There is no terror but freedom from the illusion"
There's a wiki that documents the various pages here: https://hat-shoe.fandom.com/wiki/Hatshoe_Wiki
And here's the homepage from the 25th of August, 2011: https://web.archive.org/web/20110825015858/http://www.hatsho...
by Der_Einzige on 2/23/22, 6:50 PM
by jdauriemma on 2/23/22, 4:10 PM
by jrwr on 2/23/22, 12:48 PM
by fsflover on 2/23/22, 12:25 PM
Web search for pages which are "simple in design. Simple HTML, non-commerical sites are preferred. Pages should not use much scripts/css for cosmetic effect."
by cobbal on 2/23/22, 2:25 PM
by tyingq on 2/23/22, 3:58 PM
by ryannevius on 2/23/22, 1:05 PM
by disease on 2/23/22, 4:58 PM
Off the top of my head, I remember visiting the website for the movie Donnie Darko back when the film was originally released and being blown away at the strangeness and creativity of it.
by Zhyl on 2/23/22, 2:21 PM
Clicking on the header launches a (simple) WebGL music video
by HeckFeck on 2/23/22, 5:21 PM
This is a website I've built cataloguing high-effort and unique websites, if you don't mind the shameless self-promotion.
One of the most distinctive websites I've found on my journeys is http://www.deuceofclubs.com/ . I've visited many times and it is still impossible to categorise.
Neocities also offers much of what you seek.
by tzs on 2/23/22, 4:10 PM
[1] https://yvettesbridalformal.p1r8.net/
[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20110718150425/http://yvettesbri...
by michalu on 2/23/22, 2:12 PM
They used to have different website, weird and entertaining at the same time. This one somewhat follows on the tradition.
by lubujackson on 2/23/22, 4:19 PM
A little confusing, but it allows advanced searching across multiple image search sites - set your filters then it shows you all the sites you can search with those settings and deep links to the search results for each one.
by ggerules on 2/23/22, 8:48 PM
A collective fiction website, kind of like X-Files, meets the internet.
by pjmorris on 2/23/22, 3:53 PM
by mailarchis on 2/23/22, 5:15 PM
by vvoid on 2/23/22, 5:23 PM
taxi1010.com. A veteran taxi driver (?) organizes his thoughts around "verbal self defense," creating a highly crosslinked database of adversarial conversational openers, and possible ways to deflect them. Reasonable starting point: http://www.taxi1010.com/stargate01.htm#sitemap
everything2.com: another free-form database mixing facts, fiction and personal notes written by an unusually literate subcommunity. Adjacent to slashdot and h2g2, even documents some early reactions to wikipedia. https://everything2.com/
My Boyfriend Came Back From The War: net artist Olia Lialina crafts a poem in the browser by exploiting properties of the medium. Remixed dozens of times by other net artists. Archived by Rhizome with a simulated slow load over Netscape. https://sites.rhizome.org/anthology/lialina.html
by alanbernstein on 2/23/22, 4:32 PM
by davidlicause on 2/23/22, 8:54 PM
One of the top quantitative hedge funds in the world, 90s era website.
Wikipedia page for RT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Technologies
by auslegung on 2/23/22, 12:45 PM
The site map is a map of the campsite :D
by monkey_monkey on 2/23/22, 2:35 PM
HN discussion about the site: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27084995
by nemanjaboric on 2/23/22, 5:24 PM
by ramesh31 on 2/23/22, 2:19 PM
Absolutely legendary.
by nonbirithm on 2/23/22, 3:49 PM
Art project based around several hacked copies of Re-Volt and a flight simulator.
The artist also has some more recent work.
https://www.retroyou.org/archive_2015-1994.html
https://www.retroyou.org/sr_blue-planet-bulkdown.html
https://www.retroyou.org/sr_beta-renders-01_beta-interpretat...
by 8bitsrule on 2/23/22, 11:17 PM
by yodon on 2/23/22, 1:28 PM
by jdkee on 2/23/22, 5:51 PM
Seafaring nomads that code up their own software tools.
Quite a story here.
by sixbrx on 2/23/22, 8:22 PM
by acomjean on 2/24/22, 3:10 AM
is a 20 year old web art thing.
you have to click around. still works for the most part: I like the lotus page
https://www.superbad.com/1/lotus/index.html
the old memepool.com site was great. https://web.archive.org/web/20050531235511/http://www.memepo...
by RhysU on 2/23/22, 1:24 PM
The result is beautiful and the creator's love spillingly apparent.
Workable on mobile but better on the desktop.
by nycdatasci on 2/23/22, 1:08 PM
by fumblebee on 2/23/22, 3:41 PM
Sadly, the original website was taken down last year, but thanks to the Wayback Machine this masterpiece is still available to marvel at.
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20210330113905/http://www.peters...
by mikey_p on 2/23/22, 4:58 PM
Met the the guy who started this (now deceased) many years ago at a concert while I was in college. He owned the company that provided the PA and lighting, and was wondering around wearing the the most ridiculous motcross boots I had ever seen, struck up a conversation and he told me about this site, and I still think about it from time to time.
I think that was about 20 years ago.
by fnordian_slip on 2/23/22, 5:02 PM
Rather simple design, just a couple of images and text.
But the text is German dadaist poetry, and I'm not really sure if parts of it or the pictures aren't computer-generated, based on the sheer amount of content, supposedly created by a single person for fun.
On the other hand, the creator is kind of a genius, so maybe he really did write it all himself
by FourHand451 on 2/23/22, 3:25 PM
It's a comical March Madness bracket tournament. The winner gets a candy bar, and everyone gets some lovely funny email updates as the month goes on. In addition to human competitors, you compete against a 1000 chimpanzee army and their own predictions. Each page on the website has a velociraptor button.
by justusthane on 2/23/22, 4:48 PM
One just picked at random: https://paul-daunais.info/
by baby-yoda on 2/23/22, 2:40 PM
however upon visiting just now it appears there has been an upgrade to poolsuite.net
by blueprint on 2/23/22, 12:52 PM
by Ivoah on 2/23/22, 4:06 PM
by 2bitencryption on 2/23/22, 5:18 PM
Iniital thought: "eh, might be a cool free version of Ancestry, with some huge limitations because 'free' means 'bad'".
An hour later, I became convinced it was the most interesting website I've ever seen, both in what it provides and the technology behind it. It basically gameifies building your family tree.
Plug in a name of your grandparent. The site goes: "Hey, here are three documents you might want to attach." The documents are indexed by all the information they provide: age, sex, birth location, etc. Adding one document gives the site higher confidence in finding other documents. It results in a cascading effect where the more info you add, the more family members it finds, all in real time as you continue building out the tree.
Eventually, you add an ancestor that is the common ancestor of someone else, who already build out THEIR tree, and that tree becomes instantly available to you, and suddenly you see hundreds of relatives.
by ThePhysicist on 2/23/22, 3:09 PM
by defterade_ on 2/23/22, 2:17 PM
by rsync on 2/23/22, 4:36 PM
"No court order has ever been served; any order served will be published here -- or elsewhere if gagged by order. Bluffs will be published if comical but otherwise ignored."
by seanman on 2/23/22, 3:29 PM
by 11001100 on 2/23/22, 9:57 PM
It is the "first" interactive music video of a german rap crew. I was stunned when I saw it many years ago. A wonderful piece of work.
by kgran on 2/23/22, 12:55 PM
by Brajeshwar on 2/23/22, 3:00 PM
by ergonaught on 2/23/22, 12:55 PM
by adamredwoods on 2/24/22, 1:25 AM
by bhargav on 2/23/22, 3:33 PM
by pmoriarty on 2/23/22, 6:57 PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Unusual_articles
It's a giant rabbit hole.
by retzkek on 2/23/22, 7:54 PM
A wonderful series of riddles, the answer of each being the filename of the next riddle.
by kmt-lnh on 2/23/22, 1:15 PM
by turkishlurker on 2/25/22, 4:23 AM
by _nn25 on 2/23/22, 4:45 PM
It is an endless journey of investigation, parody, mystery, and intrigue. Try to click around for at least 10 minutes and see where you end up.
by ratg13 on 2/23/22, 4:40 PM
The teacher had some sort of a Russian name, I believe but the site was in English.
by deephdave on 2/27/22, 2:56 PM
It helps to read the articles/blogs clutter-free. Tracks the % of reading, you can share your thoughts only after finishing reading at 90%.
by TradingPlaces on 2/23/22, 3:32 PM
by pluc on 2/23/22, 1:05 PM
by neoglow on 2/23/22, 1:20 PM
by HatchedLake721 on 2/23/22, 3:43 PM
Video only, since browsers can't easily run Flash these days.
by tony-allan on 2/23/22, 2:42 PM
by faeyanpiraat on 2/23/22, 12:42 PM
by foofoo4u on 2/24/22, 4:54 PM
by ktjalve on 2/25/22, 11:37 AM
Which are my favourite 500+ unique websites hidden in a google spreadsheet looking like a pokemon map.
by newacc9 on 2/23/22, 5:03 PM
by eightturn on 2/24/22, 10:54 PM
because I love domain names, and I appreciate things on sale.
by plants on 2/23/22, 2:54 PM
by temp0826 on 2/23/22, 2:16 PM
by eklitzke on 2/23/22, 3:31 PM
by kilroy123 on 2/23/22, 1:12 PM
by harryvederci on 2/23/22, 6:21 PM
(not suitable for people with epilepsy)
by jslakro on 2/23/22, 4:33 PM
by typest on 2/23/22, 12:50 PM
by nmpennypacker on 2/23/22, 6:02 PM
by co1nm4ster on 2/23/22, 3:26 PM
A forum where you up and downvote with satoshi (BTC).
by moviewise on 2/23/22, 12:02 PM
by spacechild1 on 2/23/22, 3:03 PM
by aghilmort on 2/24/22, 4:28 PM
cross-ref - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30456611
especially rn while the world is on fire
by moneycantbuy on 2/23/22, 7:09 PM
Just magical
by le-hu on 2/28/22, 5:21 AM
by MPSimmons on 2/23/22, 6:57 PM
by h0p3 on 2/23/22, 3:17 PM
by marksimi on 2/24/22, 5:14 AM
by dorianmariefr on 2/23/22, 2:04 PM
by G4E on 2/23/22, 1:01 PM
by denton-scratch on 2/23/22, 2:31 PM
by Thooms on 2/23/22, 12:51 PM
by facorreia on 2/23/22, 10:39 PM
by snicky on 2/23/22, 9:26 PM
by jablongo on 2/23/22, 5:23 PM
Almanac of human made EM signals. The diversity of signals and how they sound and look on a spectrograph is engaging and informative.
by digitalsushi on 2/23/22, 3:50 PM
by BaudouinVH on 2/25/22, 11:56 AM
by Iwan-Zotow on 2/23/22, 8:06 PM
by marczellm on 2/23/22, 1:24 PM
by amisure on 2/23/22, 3:04 PM
by fsloth on 2/23/22, 12:59 PM
For the reasons we come here year after year.
by porbelm on 2/23/22, 12:24 PM