Mastodawn

Who remembers MS Paint, Floppy Disks and Cassettes? Here’s a UI mockup I made in 1994 for a Windows 3.1 media player my friend and I built in Visual Basic.

I wasn’t thinking about UX or design, I just wanted it to look cool on a CRT. Designing around 16 colors, tiny resolutions, and no layers forced a kind of visual clarity I still appreciate.

#MSPaint #Windows31 #UI #Retro #Pixelart

Mike McCaffrey Dec 11

Oh geez, I'd forgotten about Hot Dog Stand in #Windows31. I guess there are only so many color schemes you can create with 16 colors before things get garish.

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/windows/windows-3-1-included-a-red-and-yellow-hot-dog-stand-color-scheme-so-garish-it-was-long-assumed-to-be-a-joke-so-i-tracked-down-the-original-designer-to-get-the-true-story/

Windows 3.1 included a red and yellow 'Hot Dog Stand' color scheme so garish it was long assumed to be a joke, so I tracked down Microsoft's original UI designer to get the true story

Setting the record straight, 33 years later.

PC Gamer

Phil M0OFX Dec 3

Any Windows for Workgroups 3.11 experts in the audience?

If my network cable is unplugged I get "EMM386 has detected error #06 in an application at memory address 00B8:1460" and Windows won't start. Ethernet card is a Realtek NE2000-type PnP ISA card.

Anyone know of a fix? Other than keeping a second system.ini with networking turned off?

#retrocomputing #msdos #Windows311 #Windows31

vga256 Nov 28

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGnaSyQsq1P/

th... that's pretty good

#windows31 #retroGaming #gameboy #nintendo

Ruben Retro on Instagram: "🔵💾 #MSDOS had to be part of my little tribute. It's always had a special place in my heart. ❤️ Boot sequence, some #ASMR vibes, and just like that, GBS #Windows comes to life on a #GameBoy! 🖥️✨ #GBStudio #indiedev"

49 likes, 2 comments - _rubenretro_ on February 28, 2025: "🔵💾 #MSDOS had to be part of my little tribute. It's always had a special place in my heart. ❤️ Boot sequence, some #ASMR vibes, and just like that, GBS #Windows comes to life on a #GameBoy! 🖥️✨ #GBStudio #indiedev".

Instagram

SetSideB Nov 5

The “Officialist” SkiFree Homepage
SkiFree was part of one of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack releases for Windows 3.1, part of their limited gaming output before the went in on Xbox. Who knows, at the rate they're going, maybe they won't be doing Xbox much longer.

It's a simple game where you guide a skier down through a scrolling course, avoiding o
https://setsideb.com/the-authors-skifree-homepage/
#niche #ChrisPirih #indie #microsoftentertainmentpack #niche #skifree #Windows31

The "Officialist" SkiFree Homepage

SkiFree was part of one of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack releases for Windows 3.1, part of their limited gaming output before the went in on Xbox. Who knows,

Set Side B

Crystal 💾💽📼🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇺🇦Sep 22

Fun stuff: Windows 3.x allowed using bitmaps as menu items.

I think it's not possible to do in Visual Basic but available to native apps written in C/C++.

Image source: Programming Windows 3.1 (Third edition) by Charles Petzold, pages 375-376.

#retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #windows31 #uidesign

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Johnny

Sep 13

I see Castle of the Winds on there. A fantastic old Rogue-like game that you should absolutely play. The author later gave the game away completely for free, though their website no longer exists, but it's still available via the Wayback Machine.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080702123202/https://exmsft.com/~ricks/

(As for playing it, Archive.org does have it set up in an emulator to play in-browser: https://archive.org/details/CastleoftheWinds_1020)

#Rougelike #RetroGaming #Windows31