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I failed to recreate the 1996 Space Jam website with Claude

(j0nah.com)
549 points thecr0w | 4 comments | 07 Dec 25 17:18 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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wilsmex ◴[07 Dec 25 23:02 UTC] No.46186253[source]▶
Well this was interesting. As someone who was actually building similar website in the late 90's I threw this into the Opus 4.5. Note the original author is wrong about the original site however:

"The Space Jam website is simple: a single HTML page, absolute positioning for every element, and a tiling starfield GIF background.".

This is not true, the site is built using tables, not positioning at all, CSS wasn't a thing back then...

Here was its one-shot attempt at building the same type of layout (table based) with a screenshot and assets as input: https://i.imgur.com/fhdOLwP.png

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thecr0w ◴[07 Dec 25 23:31 UTC] No.46186513[source]▶
Thanks, my friend. I added a strike through of the error, a correction, and credited you.

I'm keeping it in for now because people have made some good jokes about the mistake in the comments and I want to keep that context.

replies(1): >>46188686 #
1. wilsmex ◴[08 Dec 25 05:23 UTC] No.46188686[source]▶
You bet, Fun post and writeup, took me a bit down memory lane. I built several sites with nested table-based layouts, 1x1 transparent gif files set to strange widths to get layouts to force certain sizes. Little tricks with repeating gradient backgrounds for fancy 'beveled' effects. Under construction GIFs, page counters, GUESTBOOKS!, Photoshop drop-shadows on everything. All the things, fond-times. One or two I haven't touched in 20 years, but keep online for my own time-capsule memory :)
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2. testbjjl ◴[08 Dec 25 06:07 UTC] No.46188932[source]▶
“Photoshop drop-shadows on everything.” I just time traveled for a few second there. Thank you for this comment.
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3. therealpygon ◴[08 Dec 25 14:37 UTC] No.46192696[source]▶
Don’t forget to slice it for a 3x3. (And to recreate it all if you want to change your background color…)
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4. docmars ◴[08 Dec 25 16:17 UTC] No.46194098{3}[source]▶
Good old 9-slice scaling, I don't miss it for one bit.