The jefehz.org retro arcade site had accumulated a debug script that spawned duplicate minigame panels, filler sections with zero backend wiring, and 22 orphaned files from abandoned modularization attempts. One session, 30 files touched, 18,185 lines deleted, 614 added. The site is now focused, functional, and about 145KB lighter.
The Duplicate Panel Bug
A debug script at the bottom of index.html was calling initializeMinigameSystem(1000) after a 3-second delay, force-unlocking all games and themes, then calling createMinigameUI() a second time. This created a blank panel stacked on top of the real one. The normal init path via clickable-effects.js already handles everything correctly — the debug script was just overriding it. Deleted the whole block.
Content Cleanup
Removed 9 non-functional sections: a fake visitor counter, a "Coming Soon" nature blog, a discovery panel calling functions that don't exist, daily challenges with no backend, easter egg hunt and community cards wired to nothing, and social sharing buttons that were purely decorative. Tightened all remaining copy from marketing-speak to concise descriptions. The About section went from three paragraphs of buzzwords to one sentence and four bullet points.
Sparkle Toggle
Added a toggle switch in the header that enables/disables the floating emoji sparkles. State persists via localStorage. All 8 theme-specific sparkle functions (createSparkle, createNatureSparkle, createGawdySparkle, etc.) now early-return when disabled. Also added a gameplay hint banner so visitors actually know clicking emojis does something.
Dead Code Purge
Three parallel analysis agents found the real damage. Key findings:
| Issue | Impact |
|---|---|
entertainment-features.js (479 lines) | Every function dead — deleted the file |
| Duplicate game files (Q*bert, Defenders) | JS hoisting meant placeholders overrode real loaders |
| Pac-Pets loader | Referenced pac-man-pets.js / PacManPets, file is pac-pets.js / PacPets |
| 22 orphaned files | Backups, dev copies, 3 unused loader systems, 5 abandoned modules |
| 327 lines dead CSS | Styles for removed elements, duplicate keyframes, duplicate selectors |
What's Next
- The analysis report (
CODE_ANALYSIS_REPORT.md) documents P2/P3 items: standardizing game registration to one pattern, breaking up the 3,083-lineminigames.js, and integrating shared engines into the 36 games that don't use them - PR branch
site-overhaul-cleanupis pushed and ready for review