Newgrounds was the epicenter of web video. Now you can travel back in time to experience its heyday.

There aren’t too many active websites that are over 30 years old, but Newgrounds is one of them. First launched in 1995, the video hub founded by Tom Fulp housed many of the Flash animations that broke into the mainstream around the turn of the millennium.

If you’re not old enough to have experienced the peak of the Flash animation community, or if you’re just nostalgic for a bygone era of internet culture, the Newgrounds Roulette is worth a few minutes of your time. That’s the name of a website developed by Mike Wing, and as its name suggests, it offers a randomized selection of Newgrounds videos from the late nineties and early aughts.

Flash animators used obsolete Adobe technology to create colorful videos that were small enough to load (slowly but surely) on dial-up connections. “Newgrounds was THE spot for Flash animation back in the day,” reads the pop-up that greets Newgrounds Roulette visitors. “Hundreds were uploaded every month. This site compiles them and serves you a random one each time.”

Wing’s message also reminds viewers that they are experiencing the “2000s internet,” a world full of nudity, profanity, drug use, and other adult topics. So if you take the Newgrounds Roulette for a spin, keep in mind you are likely to encounter NSFW content.

Beyond the shock value, however, Newgrounds Roulette provides a perfectly measured dose of nostalgia. Every detail of Wing’s website, from the chunky desktop frame to the contemporaneous sound effects to the Linkin Park poster, transports visitors to an era when Millennials were as young and weird as Gen Alpha is now

That’s the most fascinating part of Newgrounds Roulette. All of the outdated culture it delivers is new again — and I’m not just talking about the return of LimeWire, Digg, and the Numa Numa guy.

In 2026, major social media platforms are in love with the old-school concept of curated discovery.  Before the advent of recommendation algorithms, internet users had no choice but to click around until they stumbled upon something that held their attention. Now that we have siloed, hypertargeted feeds, spontaneity feels freeing, which is why TikTok and YouTube are both embracing curiosity-driven browsing.

Newgrounds Roulette heightens the randomness of the era it showcases. My first spin of the wheel showed me a Flash animation in which Yoda gets really high and sings Christmas carols. My second spin was full of Legend of Zelda poop jokes. The Newgrounds archive is full of low-rent comedy, but it’s also surprising and unexpected.

By understanding these crude clips, we can also comprehend what Gen Alpha is watching on YouTube Shorts. Today’s kids love pop culture references and colorful animations and memes that make no sense, just like the Newgrounds denizens of yesteryear. Gen Alpha would have loved the Flash era, so if Homestar Runner and his pals become the next big brainrot stars, don’t say I didn’t warn you.