DEV CommunityThursday · July 23, 2026FREE

Inertia and API responses living together in harmony

The article details a CSS-only styling system for a retro-themed challenge on DEV Community, targeting elements with the class `articletag-418challenge`. It applies distinct visual themes based on the user's dark or light mode preference. In light mode, it emulates Windows 95 aesthetics with a teal background (`#008080`), gray dialog boxes (`#c0c0c0`), red headers with yellow shadows, and blue underlined links. In dark mode, it adopts a 1999 hacker/GeoCities vibe with a black background overlaid with a scrolling neon green grid and CRT scanlines, using terminal green text, magenta headers with cyan shadows, and cyan links. The CSS includes animations like `retro-slide` for the main title, `retro-spin` for avatars, and `retro-pan` for the background. It also applies brutalist design choices such as removing border-radius, adding outset borders, and rotating tags alternately by ±3 degrees. The styling is purely cosmetic and does not affect the article's content or functionality.