u/klotzbrocken

I really miss what the internet felt like around 2001. The chunky browser chrome, the dial-up patience, sites that looked like someone actually built them by hand.

So I built Reframe, a browser that wraps the modern web in period-correct skins. You can browse in IE5, Netscape, early Safari or Firefox chrome, and there's a Wayback Machine built in, so you can jump straight to how a site actually looked back then instead of just faking it. There's also an optional CRT look on top for the full 15-inch-monitor feeling.

It started as a personal thing, but the more old sites I loaded, the more I remembered stuff I'd completely forgotten about the early web.

Two questions for this crowd:

1. Which website do you most want to see in its 2001 form again?
2. Which browser did you actually use back then: IE, Netscape, or Opera?

(The browser is open source, free, and built on Chromium and for Mac / Windows (cant test windows but i heared it works))

Hey 👋

I grew up on Platinum and Aqua, and I kept missing that feeling on my modern Mac, so I started rebuilding it piece by piece.

Right now I can flip my desktop over to a classic look: the old platinum dock, period-correct wallpaper and desktop icons, a matching boot screen, and screensavers like Flying Toasters, 3D Pipes and Flurry. There's also an optional CRT shader on top, so the whole thing gets scanlines and a bit of glass curvature instead of that too-clean Retina sharpness.

The part I'm most unsure about is accuracy. I keep going back and forth on tiny things like the exact dock shading, window chrome, and the boot sequence. The classic OS looks are Mac OS 9, Snow Leopard and a few others, and you can turn it all on or just take one piece (e.g. only the dock).

Two questions for the people here who actually remember these machines:

1. Which classic Mac OS deserves the most faithful recreation: System 7, Mac OS 8/9, or Snow Leopard?
2. What small detail do people always get wrong when they try to recreate the classic Mac look?

Happy to post more screenshots of specific eras if there's interest.

Best, maik

Hey ◡̈

I built RetroMac, a small macOS menu bar app that applies live CRT effects (glow, scanlines, curvature, noise) and classic UI themes (Mac OS 9, Windows 98, beOS) over your modern Mac. It's purely cosmetic, no emulation, just a shader-based visual layer inspired by the machines we grew up with.

No subscriptions; everything runs locally. I'm the developer and happy to answer questions about the shaders or implementation. Would love to hear what you think.

And I made Reframe to, a chromium based Browser with all the old Designs like Netscape etc.

Hi,

Made with Retromac for macOS. An open source and free software for theming your mac (old mac themes, beOS, Win98 etc). Additionally, the Reframe-Browser (a Chromium-based browser but with the old skins like Netscape, etc.) Maybe you like it..

Transparency: I am the developer of Retromac... ◡̈

Been messing with my macOS setup and somehow ended up with a full Doom shrine on my desktop.

The Doom Slayer runs along the bottom of the screen by the Dock, weapons and all, ready to rip and tear while I "work." Optionally you can run the whole screen through a CRT shader on top of that, so it looks less like a clean modern Mac and more like a demon-infested UAC terminal. It's just one of several looks though and you can dial it back or switch to a totally different theme.

The retro part is done with a little menu bar app called RetroMac (open source, full disclosure: I wrote it). There's a whole pile of classic themes to switch between with one click, Mac OS 9, Windows 98, Game Boy, and a bunch more. So the Doom thing is really just one setup of many

Bit of context

90s kid here: Doom never really left. ◡̈

Hey 👋,

I have been messing with my macOS setup and somehow ended up with a full Doom shrine on my desktop.

The dock is fully animated (magnification + genie/scale effects) ...and the Doom Slayer runs along the bottom of the screen by the dock, weapons and all, ready to rip and tear while I "work." Optionally, you can run the whole screen through a CRT shader on top of that, so it looks less like a clean modern Mac and more like a demon-infested UAC terminal.

How I did it

The retro part is done with a little menu bar app called RetroMac (open source, full disclosure: I wrote it). It paints a live CRT/classic-OS look over the screen and lets you switch themes... Mac OS 9, Windows 98, Game Boy, etc... AND the "Maiks Favourite II" which is an homage to doom. It runs locally and replaces the Dock with its own retro version rather than just sitting on top of the macOS one.

Rough steps:

1. Install RetroMac (completely free themes etc) and launch it from the menu bar.
2. Pick the Maiks Favourite II Theme, then choose a shader if you like.
3. Optionally switch the whole UI to another classic OS theme.

Doom Slayer can use different weapons, and you can set the size and speed.

GitHub: https://github.com/klotzbrocken/RetroMac
Website: https://myretromac.app/

90s kid here: Doom, then Quake, then UT was my gateway drug, and Doom never really left. So when I started building my own apps I figured: why not make the desktop look like it belongs in the same universe?

Happy to share more if people are into this kind of thing.

Hey r/macOS 👋

I'm Maik, the dev. RetroMac is a macOS app that lays the look and feel of classic computers on top of your normal Mac. You get real-time CRT shaders (scanlines, curvature, phosphor glow, many more) over your whole screen, plus themed docks and desktops for Mac OS 9, Mac OS X (Cheetah to Mountain Lion), Windows XP/98/3.1, and BeOS. Flip it on for the vibe, off when you need to actually work. Your real apps and files never move and are untouched.

This is the second release, and it's grown a lot since the first:

• Dock Mode + quick launcher (and a draggable floating button) to switch themes and toggle the shader/camera in one click
• "Dock only" mode: just the retro dock, wallpaper and shader untouched
• Virtual webcam with the CRT look, now with iPhone Continuity Camera and any USB cam, shows up as "RetroMac" in Zoom/Meet/Teams/, with lower-third name overlays for streamers
• Shaders on every display (multi-monitor)
• New "Retro" NTSC shaders and softer phosphor masks, so it looks like a real tube now, not a fly-screen
• Authentic Windows taskbar (one button per window, click to minimize/restore), Setup Assistant, redesigned settings, custom Metal shader import

Also in there: classic widgets (clock, CPU monitor, notepad), flying-toasters screensaver, built-in retro web apps (Paint, Minesweeper, Solitaire, Pinball), and one-click source-port games (DOOM, Quake, Heretic…) rendered through the CRT.

On pricing, to be upfront: it's freemium. The free version gives you the full retro layer (more than 15 shaders, themes, docks, widgets, games). A one-time "buy a pizza" unlock adds all 30+ premium shader presets and Webcam Mode. No subscriptions, no ads, no tracking, no accounts, runs entirely on your machine. But most will be happy with the current set. The upgrade is definitely just an add-on.

macOS 14+, universal (Apple Silicon + Intel), signed and notarized, distributed outside the App Store (it needs low-level display/dock APIs the store doesn't allow).

Two things I'd love from you:

1. Which classic OS should I theme next? NeXTSTEP? Windows 95? System 7? RISC OS?
2. Any rough edges, drop them here; I read everything and try to ship fast.

Now go boot into 1999. 👾

Website: https://myretromac.app
GitHub: https://github.com/klotzbrocken/RetroMac

What is it?

RetroMac transforms your entire Mac into a retro machine. Not just with shaders, but with full OS themes. Pick Windows 98, XP, Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, BeOS or Snow Leopard and your Dock, Menu Bar, window frames, system icons... everything instantly looks like that era. Add CRT glow, VHS flicker or Game Boy filters on top. Apply it to the whole screen, a specific display, or a single window. Even your webcam.

Why RetroMac and not the alternatives?

Other retro apps are either shader-only or feel like shallow gimmicks. RetroMac is the only macOS app that does full theme swaps, era-accurate Docks, Taskbars, Menu Bars and original icon packs combined with authentic CRT and VHS effects. Lightweight, zero account needed, works on all windowed apps.

Pricing

Free: 15+ shaders and all full OS themes (Windows 98, XP, Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, BeOS, Snow Leopard): free.

Realy Free? Okay there is a Lifetime Unlock: €8.88 one-time for extra shader presets and the webcam shader. No subscription.

Links:

Website: myretromac.app
GitHub: github.com/klotzbrocken/RetroMac

I'm the developer behind RetroMac. Built it because I missed the feel of 90s monitors and childhood OS UIs on my modern Mac. Happy to answer any questions! 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maikklotz/ 

Hey everyone ◡̈

As a side project, I built Reframe: a retro desktop browser for macOS that looks like Netscape / early IE / Safari 1.0 or the first Firefox, but runs on a modern Chromium engine underneath.

It’s an open-source Electron app with pixel-accurate classic toolbars, status bar and animated throbber, plus a small Wayback-style mode to jump to old versions of sites. It’s not meant as a daily driver, more as a “surf like it’s 1999” (or any year) companion to my retro Mac setup.

Screenshots + download: https://myretromac.app/reframe
Github: https://github.com/klotzbrocken/reframe

I’d love feedback on missing browser eras/details you’d want to see.

I've been spending way too much time lately inside classic systems on my modern Mac. Mac OS 9, early Windows, BeOS setups and various other emulated OSes. But something always bugged me: running these beautifully imperfect vintage worlds behind a razor‑sharp, perfectly color‑accurate modern LCD just felt wrong.

So I built RetroMac, a small native macOS menu bar app that drops a live CRT/retro overlay over your screen while you're running emulators or virtual machines in windows. It's "host‑side", so you can combine it with whatever you use: QEMU, DOSBox, Basilisk II, SheepShaver, Mini vMac, VirtualBox, UTM, etc.

It comes with 30+ live themes inspired by old Macs, DOS PCs, handhelds and TVs: scanlines, curvature, bloom, slight convergence errors, VHS fuzz and more. You can tweak parameters and save your own presets.

And even More.. you can transform your mac and dock with in retro inspired themes (Windows XP, BeOS, Mac Classic)

I'd love feedback from people who actually used these machines back in the day:

– What does it get right?
– What looks "wrong" or too clean?
– Any specific displays or systems you'd like to see as presets?

Free to use, optional one‑time Pro upgrade (10 USD) for Webcam Shupport and more Shader to the free 20 Shaders. No account required: myretromac.app

GitHub: github.com/klotzbrocken/RetroMac

Hey,

🤘 In 1995 I spent three days in a different universe: Dynamo Open Air at Eindhoven airport. 140,000 metalheads, three stages and a line‑up that reads like the ultimate 90s fever dream: Machine Head, Type O Negative, Biohazard, Fear Factory, Life of Agony, Paradise Lost, Dog Eat Dog, Madball, Nailbomb, Cradle of Filth, My Dying Bride, Tiamat, Grip Inc. and a ton of bands that might be forgotten today but absolutely destroyed the place back then.

For me it was my second Dynamo, and just getting there from Germany felt like a rite of passage: 17 hours stuck in traffic with thousands of other metalheads, inching our way towards Eindhoven. By the time we finally arrived, we were done and at the same time completely wired for whatever those three days would throw at us.

Dynamo wasn’t just a “big festival”, it was total overload: main stage, skate stage, camping stage, music from midday until deep into the night, and every few steps you stumbled into another insane show. Friday kicked off with bands like Undeclinable Ambuscade, Earth Crisis, Snapcase, Schweisser, Hate Squad, Rich Kids On LSD and Mary Beats Jane, later turning dark and hypnotic with My Dying Bride and Tiamat. Saturday rolled out Nevermore, Motorpsycho, Madball, Nailbomb, Fear Factory, Grip Inc. and Dog Eat Dog, then peaked for me with Type O Negative and Paradise Lost before things drifted into full-on psychedelic chaos with 35007 and Crash Worship.

Sunday felt like a last big exhale: No Fun At All, downset., Dub War, Trouble, Life of Agony, Machine Head and then Biohazard to finish the whole thing off. The legendary story that still gives me chills: No Fun At All playing at noon on the skate stage in front of maybe ten people on day three… and then, as folks wandered past on the way to the main stage, this melodic, NOFX‑ish punk energy sucked everyone in until the place was absolutely exploding. By the last songs the crowd was going crazy, crowdsurfers everywhere, the stage shaking – the singer sitting on the edge afterwards, in tears and completely overwhelmed. Pure festival magic.

Officially they said “80,000 people” because the city wouldn’t allow more, in reality it turned into 140,000, tents stretching all the way to a motorway exit 10 km away. The whole region around Eindhoven was overrun, but instead of chaos it felt like one huge temporary family: drinking, laughing, moshing and talking with people from Japan, Brazil, Australia, Norway as if we’d known each other for years.

And then there was that last night: following the sound of some tribal drumming to one of the orientation towers made of stacked shipping containers, finding hundreds of people hammering on the steel with tent poles, sticks, tools, stones. Everyone in their own rhythm, but together like one gigantic heartbeat. It went on for something like four hours, the ground vibrating, the air electric, the containers completely dented by the end. Totally pointless and at the same time absolutely perfect.

Dynamo ’95 wasn’t “just a festival”. It was a feeling, a parallel reality made of noise, sweat, dust, beer and raw energy, three days where the outside world was on pause. If I ever get my hands on a DeLorean, I know exactly which weekend I’m dialing in. And because I recently stumbled across my old stuff and got hit by a massive nostalgia wave, I dug out the official 10‑year Dynamo anniversary magazine, scanned it and turned it into a PDF. Here’s the original magazine as a digital time machine: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1okNDzNIdVAGtPFYvMtsDmfqS96-aOpxK/view?usp=sharing

After missing the old classic PC UIs for years, I finally managed to bring the BeOS look back to my macOS desktop. Logs, Tracker-style windows, and that iconic aesthetic. Pure nostalgia.

Hey 👋,

Finally I got my Retro-Vibe-Desktop up and running!

My Setup:

• M4 Mac Mini
• M4 Macbook Air
• Awkward Eizo Office Monitor 23" (need something new)
• 8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse
• RK ROYAL KLUDGE RK68
• Some hidden USB-Hubs
• Inkypie Frame with dynamic wallpaper
• Retromac App for macOS desktop modding

◡̈

Hey 👋🤘,

In 1995 I spent three days in a different universe: Dynamo Open Air at Eindhoven (Netherlands) airport. Around 140,000 metalheads, three stages, and a line-up straight out of a 90s fever dream: Machine Head, Type O Negative, Biohazard, Fear Factory, Life of Agony, Paradise Lost, Dog Eat Dog, Madball, Nailbomb and many more.

It was my second Dynamo, and just getting there felt like a rite of passage: 17 hours in traffic with thousands of others, slowly crawling towards Eindhoven. Exhausted when we arrived, but completely wired for what was ahead.

Dynamo wasn’t just big, it was total overload: multiple stages, nonstop music, and chaos everywhere you turned. Friday started hardcore-heavy and drifted into dark atmospheres with My Dying Bride and Tiamat. Saturday escalated with Madball, Fear Factory and Nailbomb, peaking for me with Type O Negative and Paradise Lost. Sunday felt like one long exhale, ending with Machine Head and Biohazard.

One moment still stands out: No Fun At All playing Sunday noon in front of maybe ten people, until passersby got pulled in, and within minutes the place exploded. By the end: crowdsurfers everywhere, total chaos, and a singer in tears. Pure festival magic.

Officially capped at 80,000, it became 140,000. Tents stretching for kilometers. Yet instead of chaos, it felt like a temporary global family. One of those very 90s touches: the famous aerial photo was later handed out as a giant poster if you brought two full trash bags.

The final night captured it perfectly: hundreds of people gathered around container towers, hammering rhythms into steel for hours: chaotic, loud, pointless, and somehow completely perfect.

Dynamo ’95 wasn’t just a festival. It was a parallel reality made of noise, sweat and energy. And if I ever get my hands on a DeLorean, I know exactly where I’m going.

Out of pure nostalgia, I also scanned my official 10-year Dynamo anniversary magazine and turned it into a PDF. You can download it here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1okNDzNIdVAGtPFYvMtsDmfqS96-aOpxK/view?usp=sharing

If anyone here was there too, or has other 90s festival memories ,I’d love to read your stories in the comments.

Hello! 👋

I wanted to introduce my little App RetroMac ◡̈

As someone who grew up in the 80s and 90s, I always felt a bit nostalgic for the warm, humming glow of old tube monitors and the classic operating systems of my childhood. And hey... sometimes you want that feeling back. I want it back.

So, I built RetroMac. It's a native macOS app that transforms your modern screen into a classic display live, with just one click.

What it does:

• 30+ Shader Presets: Includes classic CRT Royal, Sony Trinitron, amber terminals, Game Boy screen, VHS tapes, and retro LCDs.
• Classic Docks & Themes: You can swap your modern Dock for the look of Mac OS 9, Windows 98, or Windows XP (complete with a fully working classic start bar and control strip).
• Game Mode: It comes with pre-installed shareware classics like DOOM... all running with the matching CRT filter out of the box.
• Flexible Application: You can apply the retro shader to your entire screen, a second display, or just a single window. And if you like, just use the viewport...
• Webcam Shaders: You can even apply the CRT or VHS effect to your webcam during video calls.

A quick note on distribution:
Since the app modifies screen rendering and customizes system elements deeply, it is distributed directly via my website rather than the Mac App Store. It is fully notarized by Apple, safe, and highly optimized (with eco-modes so it won't drain your battery). And its available at Github too.

Pricing: RetroMac is completely free to download and use. It includes 12 classic shaders and all themes etc. for free. If you want to unlock all 30+ presets and the webcam feature, there is a simple one-time payment of €8.88 (no subscriptions, no account required).

I'd love to hear what you think! Which retro era do you miss the most?

Website: https://myretromac.app
Github: https://github.com/klotzbrocken/RetroMac

(I am the Developer)

Hello 👋

I've been building RetroMac. A macOS app that turns our modern Macs into a retro-style desktop inspired by classic Mac, BeOS and early Windows interfaces.

The key feature: real GPU shaders. Not just a color filter: actual CRT, scanline and phosphor shaders that you can apply system-wide as a theme or per individual app. So your terminal looks like a green-screen monitor, your browser gets a warm CRT glow, or your whole desktop goes full retro-OS.

What's working right now:

• Shader engine: apply themes globally or per app
• Retro desktop environment with era-specific Dock, Wallpaper
• Game Area (in development): a curated launcher for games with native shader support. Doom (Shareware) is already in – runs natively with shaders applied, looks incredible
  • More games coming as I verify native shader compatibility

The Game Area will only include games with proper native shader support. No half-measures. Doom is the first, and I'm working through a list of classics next.

Would love to hear from you:

• What games would you want to see in the Game Area?
• Which retro era or system should I prioritize as a shader theme?

You can download and use it free: https://myretromac.app/

(I am the Developer)