Remember the early days of the internet? Back when personal homepages were as unique as the individuals behind them, often hosted on quirky Geocities sites, adorned with neon text, wild GIFs, and a sense of true personal flair? Dhrumilkumar's Retro 90s Web Corner is a nostalgic love letter to those times, infused with modern twists like AI-driven chatbots and interactive web features—yet presented through that classic, playful lens of the bygone web era.
As someone who grew up browsing these old-school pages, I wanted to create something that felt both personal and authentic. Inspired by my own journey as a Computer Science student at Georgia Southwestern State University and my ongoing ventures into AI, web dev, and hacking competitions, I fused my personal story with the charming aesthetics and chaotic creativity of the 90s web.
This site is my personal digital hideout. It includes:
- Personal Home Page: Meet me, Dhrumilkumar, through a text-and-GIF-filled introduction featuring clashing neon colors, marquee texts, and retro line dividers.
- Guestbook: Just like the old days, visitors can leave a short note, say hi, and immortalize their presence in my personal corner of the web.
- About Me Section: A deep dive into my background—education, skills, work experience, fun facts, honors, and a playful method of revealing details with retro progress bars and GIF animations.
- Mini Game: A "Whack-a-Runner" styled game for a fun break—because who didn’t love random minigames on 90s personal sites?
- Easter Egg (Konami Code): True to retro culture, hidden surprises lurk in the code, rewarding curious visitors who remember the famous Konami cheat code.
- AI-Driven Chatbot: While old sites might not have had AI chatbots, imagine if they did. The chatbot, styled in a retro window, can answer questions about me and my experience based on a backend knowledge store. It's a fusion of old and new—a "90s look" with "2020s smarts."
Aesthetics:
- Neon Colors & Comic Sans: The font choices and color palette scream early web design. Neon green text on black backgrounds, magenta links, pixelated backgrounds, and marquee-scrolling text are all there to revive that authentic feel.
- Animated GIFs: Spinning globes, dancing Pokémons, bouncing construction icons, and spinning e-mail GIFs—every page is peppered with the kind of low-resolution animations that defined the era.
- ASCII Dividers: Beautiful ASCII borders and dividers pay homage to how we once separated content. The layout uses HTML tables, embracing a time before CSS Grid or Flexbox dominated.
- Inline and Table Layouts: Instead of modern frameworks, the site leans into
<table>tags, inline styling elements, and simple HTML/CSS to reflect design constraints of the past.
Personalization:
- The site highlights my educational journey (Associate's and Bachelor's), my skill sets (programming languages, frameworks, cloud services, AI/ML tooling), previous internship experiences, and personal accolades.
- Guestbook entries connect me with my audience—just like personal homepages did in the 90s, encouraging community interaction.
- A custom-coded chatbot trained with my own resume and project details invites visitors to ask questions and learn about me in real-time. This is a personal narrative delivered through a conversation, bridging my personal story and cutting-edge technology.
- Guestbook: Visitors can post their name and a message, instantly seeing their words added to the page. It’s fun and interactive, just like the old message boards.
- 90s-Style Game (Whack-a-Runner): A silly but addictive mini-game implemented right in the browser. Hit as many moving “runners” as you can before time’s up!
- Easter Egg (Konami Code): Input the legendary Konami code and unlock a hidden easter egg. Such secrets were a hallmark of personal pages in the era.
- Frontend: Pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for a truly authentic retro feel. While the CSS includes modern responsive tweaks, the design aesthetic and code structure harken back to when
<marquee>and<blink>ruled. - Backend: A Python Flask server (if submitted and hosted) for chatbot queries and guestbook entries, connected to MongoDB for storing guestbook messages and personal resume data. It merges old-school visuals with a modern backend architecture.
- Chatbot (AI Integration): A GPT-like model from Google Gemini is integrated, responding to user prompts about my personal info. This blends personal narrative with modern tech, just hidden under a veneer of retro design.
- Hosting: GitHub Pages for frontend (if static-only) and a simple Python backend on a service like Render/Heroku (if dynamic content and chatbot queries are needed).
Fun & Engagement:
- Gamification via the mini-game.
- Interactivity and community building through the guestbook.
- Surprise and delight through the Konami code Easter egg.
- Personalized AI interactions that make learning about me more engaging.