Using Claude Code to Restore Old Websites from 1999-2003

Tuesday. November 11, 2025 - 4 mins

1999-2003 Web Development Archive Restored!

An archive of all my web development antics and experiments with digital art from 1999-2003 is finally restored and available for viewing. A time when the web was simple and just pure HTML. I was learning the ropes of ASP and Java for backend. Even though I have lost all the original source code, I was able to revive some of the final products. It was an interesting journey trying to retrieve the information from my old tripod.com account. Some of the digital art seems to have been corrupted for good, with no way to retrieve it.

You can access the archive at: https://varunmehta.github.io/1999-2003/

I used Claude Code to help me perform the restoration. All I did was provide prompts and Claude Code did the rest.

Claude Journey and Changes Performed

Prompts and Actions

Initial Prompt

The folder has old websites I had created back in 1999-2003, some of them are in flash. I want you to make them accessible as pop-up websites via my blog varunmehta.github.io, which is based off github pages and Jekyll.

Do the following:

1. Make a new git branch and make all the changes there, so if things go wrong, I don’t have to revert the whole thing.
2. For all the flash based sites, I want you to transform them to use ruffle instead of flash and make them accessible via regular browser.
3. Make a simple markdown page, which has links to each website and opens it up as a pop-up in a new window. Fix all broken links and make it accessible as a website as-is it would be in 1999-2003

Claude did the changes, and then we ran into some issues.

Jekyll Rendering Issue

When i access the urls via 1999-2003-archive.md, it renders the source code of the files and not the rendered pages

Follow-up decisions:

• Hosting choice: “Separate GitHub Pages site”
• Blog repo availability: “Yes, I have it locally”
• Use it off the current branch, and not via the main branch

Ruffle Errors

Ruffle error: "Failed to fetch https://varunmehta.github.io/1999-2003/acres/main.swf"

None of the flash files work, all show an error: "Failed to fetch https://varunmehta.github.io/1999-2003/flash/bobby.swf"

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Summary of Changes Performed

High-Level Overview: Restored a collection of 1999-2003 websites with Flash content, making them accessible in modern browsers through Ruffle emulation and GitHub Pages hosting.

Detailed Change List

1. Git Repository Management

• Created new branch: restore-1999-2003-sites
• Made 3 commits with all changes
• Pushed branch to GitHub origin
• Configured for GitHub Pages deployment from branch

2. Ruffle Flash Emulator Integration

• Added Ruffle script (https://unpkg.com/@ruffle-rs/ruffle) to 44+ HTML files
• Files modified across directories:
  • acres/ - 10 files
  • flash/ - 18 files (acpce, etco, matchfixing, optivity, whatman, ads, cards)
  • mme/ - 4 files
  • varuninfo/ver4/ - 4 files
  • varunmehta/ - 6 files

3. Created Index/Landing Pages

• index.md (renamed from 1999-2003-archive.md) - Main landing page with organized links to all sites
• softwares/index.htm - Software section landing page
• varuninfo/ver5/index.htm - Redirect to default.htm
• varunmehta/index.htm - Redirect to ver3

4. Fixed Broken Links and Missing Files

• Acres website: Redirected index.htm and Acres.html to home.htm (main.swf was lost)
• VarunInfo: Fixed main redirect from old tripod.com URL to ver7/index.htm
• Verified all 60 SWF file references are valid

5. Jekyll Configuration (_config.yml)

• Critical fix: Removed *.swf from exclude list (was causing 404s)
• Added explicit include directives for all asset types:
  • *.htm, *.html, *.swf, *.gif, *.jpg, *.png, *.css, *.js
• Added keep_files directive to preserve assets during builds
• Configured baseurl: /1999-2003
• Set theme: minima

Files Changed Statistics

• 62 files modified in total
• 17 new files created
• 340 insertions, 48 deletions
• 3 commits made

Technical Solutions Implemented

Problem 1: Flash Content Not Working in Modern Browsers
Solution: Integrated Ruffle Flash emulator via CDN script tag

Problem 2: HTM Files Showing Source Code
Solution: Configured Jekyll to serve static HTML files without processing

Problem 3: SWF Files Returning 404 Errors
Solution: Removed *.swf from Jekyll’s exclude list in _config.yml

Problem 4: Missing Flash Files (main.swf)
Solution: Redirected pages to alternate entry points with existing Flash files

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Result

All 1999-2003 websites are now accessible at: https://varunmehta.github.io/1999-2003/

VARUN MEHTA

engineer | coder | tinkerer | cook | photographer | tryathlete

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