# Original artifact record

The original applet was recovered from the Internet Archive on August 2, 2026. Files under `original/` are preserved without modification.

## Recovered artifacts

| File | Wayback capture | Bytes | SHA-256 |
| --- | --- | ---: | --- |
| `original/jcombjack.jar` | 2006-03-19 12:06:18 UTC | 71,900 | `ae20d46b94c2ff67abddf3e75229bd58eeca1973d6b762dbcfcb650cce7104e5` |
| `original/index-19990508.html` | 1999-05-08 00:25:34 UTC | 5,581 | `5b2bb3df2a15cc432b6433cabfa152e96fe178d166c4f717d65f6fd4f4944bc0` |
| `original/bj_scapt.gif` | 1999-05-08 00:25:34 UTC | 6,881 | `bfe832219118897017139b7b8b3505afd8b6bf6c72341f49010935ef30b3c0df` |

Sources:

- `https://web.archive.org/web/20060319120618/http://www.jafar.com/java/bjack/jcombjack.jar`
- `https://web.archive.org/web/19990508002534/http://www.jafar.com/java/bjack/index.html`
- `https://web.archive.org/web/19990508002534/http://www.jafar.com/img/bjack/bj_scapt.gif`

## What the recovered files establish

- The recovered 1999 HTML's `<META NAME="Author">` tag credits **Ravi K. Damarla**, who maintained the site by that point. Per Jafar, the game was originally written by **Jafar Shameem**, with Damarla taking over maintenance later.
- Official page title: **BlackJack for Java - Version 2**.
- Display name: **Black Jack v2.0**.
- Java version: 1.1, with a link to an older browser-compatible edition.
- Applet class: `com.jafar.games.bjack.jcom.BlackJack.class`.
- Applet dimensions: 450 × 300.
- Opening bank: $500 in the 1999 Version 2 page and screenshot.
- The JAR contains nine compiled classes, 52 face-card GIFs, a card back, result messages, controls, and branding assets.

The loose `.class` URL captured in 2016 resolves to a captured 404 page; it is not valid bytecode. The valid classes are inside the recovered JAR.

## Internal build timestamps

`unzip -l original/jcombjack.jar` exposes each entry's original per-file modification timestamp, independently confirmed on 2026-08-03:

| Files | Timestamp |
| --- | --- |
| Card-face GIFs (`bjackres/images/0-1.gif` … `3-13.gif`) | 1996-01-10 16:11–16:13 |
| Table/button art (`bankrupt.gif`, `bjtable.gif`, `blakjack.gif`, `dealerw.gif`) | 1997-04-11 |
| `deal.gif`, `double.gif` and similar controls | 1999-01-24 |
| Most remaining button-state art | 1999-05-06 |
| Compiled classes (`BlackJack.class`, `BJControls.class`, etc.) | 1999-05-07 |

The January 1996 date on the card artwork predates Java 1.0's public release (1996-01-23) by about two weeks, and is consistent with the 1999 page's reference to an older Java-1.0-era version (`bjack10.html`) alongside this "Version 2" rebuild. These are the authoring machine's clock values embedded in the ZIP structure, not independently timestamped by a third party — real evidence of a multi-year build history, but not cryptographic proof of the date.

## Recognition

The recovered 1999 page displays a badge linking to `http://www.jars.com/` — JARS (Java Applet Rating Service), a prominent directory and quality-rating service for Java applets in the late 1990s. JARS's own site does not have Wayback coverage from that era, so the specific listing or rating could not be independently recovered; the badge on the preserved original page is the primary evidence of the listing.

## Inspection safety

The JAR was listed and extracted for static inspection only; the applet was not executed. The original is kept separately because current browsers do not support Java applets. `original-assets/` at the project root contains working copies of its GIF artwork used by the modern reconstruction.