If you were an early Internet kid you’ll recall a little app called WinAmp that was, in short, the best MP3 player ever made ever. The little program looked like skeuomorphic stereo receiver with a full range of equalizer sliders and included an important MP3 that explained WinAmp’s primary mission: whipping the llama’s ass.
A programmer named Jordan Eldredge has created an homage to WinAmp in JavaScript. The widget allows you to create a standalone music player on any web page and it can be styled with themes straight out of WinAmp history. You can try it out here and download the code here.
“The original inspiration was a realization that Winamp skins were implemented in a very similar way to CSS sprites,” said Eldredge. “I spent many hours as a teenager playing with Winamp skins. In fact, it was the first constructive creative work I did on a computer.”
The emulator uses the Web Audio API to simulate almost everything WinAmp could do in its original incarnation.
“I’m just a nerd to had a silly idea three years ago, and never had the good sense to ask: ‘should I stop?’” he said. “I’ve also found the constraint of having to build all of these features within the confines of a web browser to be very creatively inspiring. I think this constraint inspired creativity mirrors the creativity that Winamp skins inspired. Creating a compelling user interface without being able to move buttons or resize the window is a great challenge, but it also helps free you from the paralysis of choice.”
In addition to the code, Eldredge released a bot that tweets WinAmp skins for those who want to make their MP3 player look like a bowling alley.
The best thing? Now TC reporter Devin Coldewey has something to manage his audio files on.