Don’t Click on the Llama

WE HAVE ONE SIMPLE REQUEST…. DO NOT CLICK ON THE LLAMA.

Clicking on the Llama will release Webamp, a javascript-based player that mimics, down to individual strangeness and bugs, the operations of the once dominant Winamp, a media player considered to be one of the classic software creations of the 1990s.

To help you avoid this llama, we’ll tell you it’s in the upper right corner of any Internet Archive item that has a music player in it. This means the Grateful Dead recordings, radio airchecks, network record labels like monotonik, and all manner of podcasts now have the capability to be turned into a Winamp-like player that becomes your new default.

(If, by mistake, you click on the Llama, clicking on it again will turn off the Webamp player and restore the default player.)

This all got started because of the skins.

As part of our celebration of all things Internet, the Archive now has a large collection of Winamp Skins, which were artistic re-imaginings of the Winamp interface, that allowed all sorts of neat creative works on what could have been a basic media player. These “skins” were contributed to over the years (and new ones are still created!) and now number in the thousands. In the collection you’ll see examples of superheroes, video games, surreal images and a pretty wide array of pop stars and celebrities.

We have added over 5,000 skins (with many more coming), and then someone had the bright idea to make the Webamp player work within the Internet Archive to show off these skins, and here we are.

Thanks to Jordan Eldredge and the Webamp programming community for this new and strange periscope into the 1990s internet past.

 

7 thoughts on “Don’t Click on the Llama

  1. Nick

    This is awesome. I love my Winamp skin from 1999 and I’ve been using it ever since. However, I notice it’s missing from the archive! How should I upload it so that it’s recognized as a Winamp skin and works with Webamp and any other project sourcing skins?

    1. db48x

      Nick: When you upload your .wsz file, make sure you select the “software” mediatype. Everything else should happen automatically.

  2. Katana-DK

    I just had a small heart attack! For *years* I have been searching to revive a childhood memory, a WinAmp skin called “Kryogen X”. I was hoping my redemption had come, however what I seek was nowhere to be found (for now).

    It would be amazing if someone could provide a link or submit the skin to the archive, if you have it. The color theme is base grey with buttons and framing in black, and the display areas having a yellow-orange base. When minimized the leftmost part of the player says “K-GEN/X”. The primary reason I never switched after I came upon it, is that the interface when minimized (which was how I used it 95% of the time) was pretty, non-flashy and easy to read, unlike the vast majority of skins which failed in this regard.

    Thank you, Internet Archive, for doing cool things!

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