🌐 geocities-boilerplate
Scaffold a complete 1990s Geocities-themed static website in seconds.
██████╗ ███████╗ ██████╗ ██████╗██╗████████╗██╗███████╗███████╗
██╔════╝ ██╔════╝██╔═══██╗██╔════╝██║╚══██╔══╝██║██╔════╝██╔════╝
██║ ███╗█████╗ ██║ ██║██║ ██║ ██║ ██║█████╗ ███████╗
██║ ██║██╔══╝ ██║ ██║██║ ██║ ██║ ██║██╔══╝ ╚════██║
╚██████╔╝███████╗╚██████╔╝╚██████╗██║ ██║ ██║███████╗███████║
╚═════╝ ╚══════╝ ╚═════╝ ╚═════╝╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝╚══════╝╚══════╝
geocities-boilerplate ✨ Welcome to 1996 ✨
What is this?
geocities-boilerplate is a CLI tool that generates a fully self-contained, retro 1990s Geocities-style personal website. Think neon colors, blinking text, animated star trails, marquee banners, visitor counters, and guestbooks — all of it, generated instantly with a single command.
The generated site is pure static HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript. No build tools, no frameworks, no dependencies. Just open index.html in any browser and relive the golden age of the web.
Quick Start
gem install create-geocities-app
create-geocities-app my-site
Then open my-site/index.html in your browser. That's it!
Every Way to Run It
Pick your language or runtime — all produce the same site.
Ruby / RubyGems
gem install create-geocities-app
create-geocities-app my-site
Node.js / npm
# one-shot, no install
npx create-geocities-app my-site
# or install globally
npm install -g create-geocities-app
create-geocities-app my-site
Python / PyPI
# one-shot with pipx (recommended)
pipx run create-geocities-app my-site
# or install permanently
pip install create-geocities-app
create-geocities-app my-site
Rust / Cargo
cargo install create-geocities-app
create-geocities-app my-site
PHP / Composer
# global install
composer global require geocities-app/create-geocities-app
create-geocities-app my-site
# or as a project scaffold
composer create-project geocities-app/create-geocities-app my-site
Deno / JSR
# run without installing
deno run --allow-read --allow-write jsr:@geocities/create-app my-site
# or compile to a native binary first
deno compile --allow-read --allow-write --output create-geocities-app jsr:@geocities/create-app
./create-geocities-app my-site
Go
# run without installing
go run github.com/sugardaddyapp/geocities-boilerplate/go@latest my-site
# or install the binary
go install github.com/sugardaddyapp/geocities-boilerplate/go@latest
create-geocities-app my-site
All variants accept the same flags:
| Flag | Meaning |
|---|---|
my-site |
Output directory name (default: my-geocities-site) |
-y / --yes |
Skip all prompts and use defaults |
Demo
Live demo: https://sugardaddyapp.github.io/geocities-boilerplate/
The demo is generated with all options enabled (neon theme, sparkle cursor, falling stars, all 5 pages). It is automatically rebuilt and deployed to GitHub Pages on every push to main.
Interactive Setup
When you run create-geocities-app my-site, you'll be walked through a series of prompts:
| # | Prompt | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Site name | text | Your homepage title, e.g. CoolDude's Homepage |
| 2 | Your name | text | Displayed in headers, footers, and contact sections |
| 3 | Color theme | select | Choose from 5 retro color palettes (see below) |
| 4 | Extra pages | multi | About, Gallery, Guestbook, Cool Links |
| 5 | Cursor effect | select | Sparkle, Star Trail, Comet, Rainbow, or None |
| 6 | Falling effect | select | Stars, Snow, or None |
| 7 | Welcome alert | yes/no | Show a alert() greeting when the page loads |
| 8 | Auto-play music | yes/no | Play a Web Audio API 8-bit jingle on load |
| 9 | Fake high count | yes/no | Start visitor counter at ~10,000 (looks popular!) |
Skip prompts (use all defaults)
create-geocities-app my-site --yes
Generated Output
my-site/
├── index.html ← Homepage
├── about.html ← About Me (if selected)
├── gallery.html ← Photo Gallery with lightbox (if selected)
├── guestbook.html ← Guestbook (if selected)
├── links.html ← Cool Links (if selected)
├── css/
│ └── style.css ← Full retro stylesheet (theme-specific)
└── js/
└── main.js ← All JS effects (counter, cursor, music, etc.)
Zero runtime dependencies in the generated output. Every file is self-contained and works offline.
Color Themes
Choose a theme during setup. Each theme controls background, text, link, and accent colors throughout the entire site.
| Theme | Background | Primary Text | Headings | Links | Feel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
neon |
#000000 |
#00FF00 |
#FFFF00 |
#FF00FF |
Hacker/Matrix vibes |
space |
#000033 |
#CCCCFF |
#FFDD00 |
#00FFFF |
Deep space explorer |
candy |
#FF69B4 |
#FFFFFF |
#FFFF00 |
#00FFFF |
Sweet and electric |
forest |
#003300 |
#CCFFCC |
#FFDD00 |
#99FF99 |
Dark enchanted forest |
windows |
#008080 |
#000000 |
#000080 |
#000080 |
Classic Windows 95 |
Pages
🏠 index.html — Homepage
Every generated site includes a homepage with:
- Marquee banner — scrolling welcome text (CSS animation, no deprecated
<marquee>tag) - Rainbow animated site title — CSS
hue-rotateanimation cycles through all colors - Neon-pulsing headings —
text-shadowbreathes in and out - "What's New" section — with blinking NEW badges
- Under Construction section — animated yellow/black caution tape
- Sidebar — navigation, live clock, spinning globe, visitor counter, web ring
- Web ring widget — retro navigation to prev/home/next sites
- Footer — "Best viewed in Netscape Navigator" badge, copyright
👤 about.html — About Me
- Fun Facts list — blinking star bullet points
- Interests grid — styled badge chips for hobbies
- Favorites table — a retro-styled table of favorite things (music, movies, games, etc.)
- Contact section — email and guestbook links
🖼️ gallery.html — Photo Gallery
- Photo of the Month spotlight at the top
- 3-column image grid — each item has thick beveled Windows-95-style borders
- Captions in Comic Sans below each image
- Lightbox viewer — click any photo to open it full-size in an overlay; press ESC or click outside to close
- Placeholder images pre-filled — replace with your own
📖 guestbook.html — Guestbook
- Sign form — fields for name, email, website, location, and message
- Fake previous entries — pre-populated with period-authentic guestbook posts (fully editable)
- Client-side submit — shows a thank-you alert and resets the form
- Note explaining how to add a real backend (Formspree, Netlify Forms, etc.)
🔗 links.html — Cool Links
- Links organized into categories: Friends, Games, Web & Tech, Art, News
- Blinking animated bullets before each link
- Description text below each link
- "Request Link Exchange" email button
Effects Reference
Cursor Effects
| Effect | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sparkle ✨ | Random glitter glyphs (✦, ✧, ★, ·) spawn at your cursor and float upward |
| Star Trail ★ | Yellow ★ characters follow the cursor and fade out with a scale-down animation |
| Comet ☄️ | An orange-to-white horizontal streak trails behind cursor movement |
| Rainbow 🌈 | Colored dots cycle through the full hue spectrum as you move the cursor |
| None | No cursor effect |
Falling Background Effects
| Effect | What it does |
|---|---|
| Stars ⭐ | 60 colored star characters (★) fall from top of screen with random sizes, speeds, and drift |
| Snow ❄️ | 40 white circular snowflakes drift downward with random horizontal drift |
| None | No falling effect |
Other Effects
| Effect | Details |
|---|---|
| Visitor counter | Odometer-style LCD digit boxes, animates on load, persists via localStorage |
| Live clock | HH:MM:SS display in the sidebar, updated every second |
| Marquee banner | CSS @keyframes scroll animation — pauses on hover |
| Blinking text | CSS @keyframes blink — used on NEW badges, bullet points, and decorations |
| Rainbow headings | CSS filter: hue-rotate() animation cycles through all colors |
| Neon glow pulse | text-shadow breathes in/out on all major headings |
| Spinning globe | 🌍 emoji spins continuously via CSS rotate animation |
| Under construction | Yellow/black diagonal-stripe caution tape with a spinning 🚧 icon |
| Page entry animation | Content fades and slides up on load |
| 8-bit music jingle | Square-wave melody via Web Audio API — plays on first interaction; toggle with the PLAY/STOP button |
| Matrix rain | Press M on any page to toggle a green Matrix-style canvas rain effect |
| Custom scrollbar | Themed scrollbar matching the color palette (Chrome/Edge/Safari) |
| Gallery lightbox | Click-to-expand image viewer with caption, close button, and ESC key support |
GitHub Pages Setup (for your generated site)
To host your generated site on GitHub Pages:
- Create a new GitHub repository
- Copy the contents of your generated folder into it
- Push to
main - Go to Settings → Pages → Source → Deploy from a branch → main → / (root)
- Your site is live at
https://<username>.github.io/<repo-name>/
Requirements
Ruby 2.7+
License
MIT © Jamey Baldwin
Acknowledgements
- Inspired by the preserved GeoCities archive and GifCities
- Color palette ideas from the original GeoCities neighborhood aesthetics
- Built with ❤️ and an unhealthy amount of nostalgia for 1996
Also checkout my other projects: Best Sugar Daddy Apps Best Sugar Daddy Apps 2026 Best Sugar Daddy Apps NPM Best Sugar Daddy Apps Socket
Best viewed in Netscape Navigator 4.0 at 800×600 resolution.