There's something deeply satisfying about watching someone rebuild the past with modern tools. Evan Poliquin's portfolio drops you into a Windows 98 desktop, complete with draggable windows, chunky icons, and that unmistakable beige energy. But look past the nostalgia bait. The architecture is layered: a three.js scene renders the computer and background, a CSS3D object holds the React UI, and then certain desktop apps spawn their own 3D contexts. It's a portfolio inside a simulation inside a shader. Turtles all the way down.

The clever bit is how interaction works. Evan raycasts against the monitor mesh to detect clicks, then converts those 3D coordinates into 2D positions to trigger events on the React layer beneath. Getting that nested screen to look right, both visually and interactively, requires some serious effort. There's also a pragmatic streak here: the site ships in two versions. One renders the background in WebGL with those hungry metaballs floating on the right, the other swaps in a looping video for machines that would otherwise choke. He originally had a full BIOS sequence too, but cut it when casual visitors found it confusing. Sometimes the best feature is the one you remove.

Evan built this as a tribute to the era that first got him hooked on technology and design. Poke around the desktop, open some windows, take your time. It should feel like your first day on the family PC.