---
title: "Netscape Meteors"
date: 2023-08-01T18:23:33-07:00
description: I went on a hunt to find the "Meteors" loading animation from Netscape back in the 90s, and wrote up my adventure.
resources:
    - name: netscape60
      title: Netscape Meteor Loading Animation
      src: netscape-meteors.gif
    - name: netscape-modified60
      title: Modified Netscape Meteor Loading Animation, Small
      src: netscape-meteors-modified-60.gif
    - name: netscape-modified240
      title: Modified Netscape Meteor Loading Animation, Large
      src: netscape-meteors-modified-240.gif
    - name: rectangular-pixels
      title: Rectangular Pixels
      src: rectangular-pixels.png
      alt: "A zoomed in screenshot of an animation frame with pixel grid enabled,
            showing rectangular pixels"
categories: Tech
tags: ["Netscape", "History", "Web Browsers", "Web"]
---

I went on a small journey the last couple days to find the original Netscape
Navigator "meteors" animation. This one has a special place in my head and
heart because it is so clearly connected to my memories of discovering the
web as a kid. Here it is in its original 60×60 px glory:

{{< figures/image name=netscape60 shouldShowTitle=false size=small >}}

I started out doing some web searches that turned up several versions. One was
promising but far too big: 400&times;400 px. Worse, after some shoddy resize
attempts, the "pixels" had become rectangular.

{{< figures/image name=rectangular-pixels shouldShowTitle=false size=small >}}

This would not do.

I continued searching, hoping to find the original animations. I found someone's
[mirror of Netscape 5.0 on Github][gh-netscape]. Then I found some [very old
versions of Mozilla][moz-netscape] on a Mozilla FTP server. Sadly, the
animations had been stripped out of these archives. :(

Frustrated with hitting several deadends, I complained to {{< tess >}} and
wondered aloud if anyone might have the original images stashed away somewhere.
She quipped that if anyone did, it would be Jamie Zawinski.

A little later, I posted about it on Mastodon.

<iframe
    src="https://mastodon.social/@erynofwales/110817133916254596/embed"
    class="mastodon-embed"
    style="max-width: 100%; border: 0"
    width="400"
    allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">
</iframe>

And wouldn't you know it, a friend tagged [`@jwz`][masto-jwz] asking if he had
it, and a few moments later I got a reply from [Jamie][jwz] himself.

<iframe
    src="https://mastodon.social/@jwz/110817331045294426/embed"
    class="mastodon-embed"
    style="max-width: 100%; border: 0"
    width="400"
    allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">
</iframe>

If you don't know, Jamie Zawinski is well-know for working on several important
software projects in the '90s. He worked on Netscape Navigator, built and
maintains [Xscreensaver][xscreensaver], and several other things. Nowadays, he
owns and runs [DNA Lounge][dna] in San Francisco.

There are a lot of neat bits of web browser history on the page he linked --
totally worth a quick look over -- but most important to the quest at hand, it
had that Netscape meteors loading animation.

The original one has some small artifacts on the left side of frame 10 that
render as red and orange pixels. These bothered me enough that I made a version
that replaces those pixels with ones that match the surrounding pixels. Here's
the modified 60&times;60 one and a bigger 240&times;240 px one, for good
measure:

{{< content-grid columns=2 >}}
  {{< figures/image name="netscape-modified60" shouldShowTitle=false shouldResize=false size=small >}}
  {{< figures/image name="netscape-modified240" shouldShowTitle=false shouldResize=false size=small >}}
{{< /content-grid >}}

<script src="https://mastodon.social/embed.js" async="async"></script>

[gh-netscape]: https://github.com/zii/netscape
[moz-netscape]: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/source/
[masto-jwz]: https://mastodon.social/@jwz
[jwz]: https://www.jwz.org
[xscreensaver]: https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/
[dna]: https://www.jwz.org
[about-jwz]: https://www.jwz.org/doc/about-jwz.html