Encarta is super nostalgic, and I was surprised it wasn't available to use online. So I embarked on the difficult task of making it so.

The way this works is the most convoluted, nonsense and brittle system ever... but it works as a statically hosted gh-pages site!

Please note: All the material on this site is freely available through the internet archive (see github readme)

Github repo -> https://github.com/benwinding/encarta_95_web

Yes! The interactive demo of simple orbital mechanics is there and works, just like I remember it. The last time I saw this... was actually 1995.

You goto the article for "Orbit" and under "Laws of Motion", click "Orbit Interactivity" and then click the large graphic that appears to launch the interactive applet.

As a young person I sat and went through every article looking for these little interactive applets. This was my favorite for some reason.

Another fun tidbit is, in the '95 version, if you send the moon into the Earth, it just bounces off. In, I believe, the 1996 version, they updated it- to I think a generic red colored planet and gray moon (if my memory after 30 years is correct) and if you send the moon into the planet, it would explode!

Yeah. I spent a lot of time with these CD-rom's.

CD ROM encyclopedias were only really viable when dial up speeds limited the amount of multimedia content on the internet. Both Microsoft and Britannica were victims of internet encyclopedias. And now static internet based encyclopedias are themselves under threat of personalised AI content as well. The pursuit of knowledge keeps changing what knowledge itself looks like.

I got carried away and started playing the Age of Empires Demo from the desktop after I exited Encarta

The cursor on mobile is unreliable. It tries to act like a touchpad on a touch screen but then reverts to a direct “point” when you try to click your virtual touchpad.

I still have my boxed copy of Encarta 2001. The interactive world atlas was the best feature! Miles ahead of everything at the time. Multiple layers of stats from population to weather to languages etc https://youtu.be/zsbShjlh6xk?si=4U47LILUmKPfXgPY&t=320

I don't know what it is that creates this feeling, but I am so drawn to read the text when I click into the site. Much more so than on Wikipedia or other online sources. Is it just nostalgia? I don't have any concrete memories of Encarta, other than a general awareness. Is it written better? Maybe slightly, if at all - I wouldn't say that Wikipedia content is not written well, on average.

So what is it? I genuinely wonder. Maybe just the style of the visuals, a throwback to when a written piece of content online "mattered" more, as it represented something more, too.

It may not matter, but distinguishing what captivates and what naturally glosses seems like it may matter greatly in a space suffused by content.

What a throwback. Right back to writing "book reports" in middle school.

The text looks very weird on my PC, see: https://imgur.com/a/vAMVHc7

Immediately jumped straight to MindMaze.

Just checked, the Soundgarden clip is in its proper place on the Rock Music article. Fantastic work.

Encarta 99 was awesome back in the day. Groliers. World Book. Britannica. They were amazing.

All that rich interactive reference material at your fingertips, offline, was an absolute joy.

The mouse hijack feels really weird

Wait, it even features a windows 95? nice easter egg

Oh God I remember running this on my dad's computer which had the first CD-ROM drive I had seen. I felt like I was in a spaceship

The very first program I ever used on my father's PC, and would constantly get stuck playing Mind Maze for hours.

Ahh AoK is such an amazing game! I kind of want to download it now. I was never very good at it as a kid, spent _way_ too much time building my own campaigns with triggers (this was in the early days before I had discovered programming languages) - obviously no-one ever actually played these.

I shortened it for convinient access

- https://k.libl.in/encarta-web

- https://k.libl.in/ew

this makes me long for the past. why does this feel so safe and cozy? gents?

Was actually thinking about rebuilding this but good job. The cursor is acting weird though

This makes me raise the question whether it's possible to view wikipedia as per ...? I know i can go back per article - but can I browse wikipidea as it was in 2005?

Does anyone else remember the encarta CDs that came with boxed Kellogg's cereals?

the problem i have is the mouse control is weird.

wow blast from the past. I do beleive this exact version prob in exactly 95 was the first CD I ever inserted into a CD rom. lots of fun!

I wish there were an option to keep the native cursor, the captured cursor doesn't work with my browser.

Start menu > Run > sol.exe for solitaire :)

Complete with MIND MAZE!

did civilisation peak with encarta

Oh, that's very nostalgic, even though I only got acquainted with Encarta in the 2000s

Mind Maze yesssssssssssss

Holy memories of the family computer in the living room batman!

I love how old school it looks, even the old Windows desktop!

Straight to Mind Maze for me!

(Mouse is VERY touchy though)

Didn’t this have a splash screen with a load of sound clips playing? (“I have a dream…”) - was disappointed that didn’t happen! (Or was that ‘98?)

NICE - thank u