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Windows 93: Net Art Throwback To Glory Days Is Awesome


October 28, 2014 | Rhett Jones

The mainstream is catching up with what net artists have always known, that early net aesthetics are great and beautiful. Windows 93 is a perfect example. It blends a nostalgic Windows 95-style interface with a bunch of glitchy little programs all in your browser. And unlike some Windows, this one has a Start button!

Among the various fun little abstract applications that riff on the disk defragmenter, solitaire and a virus scanner, here are our five favorite apps. Make sure to double-click them:

piskel_icon93

 

 

Piskel is a fully functional pixel editor/mini-Photoshop. It’s actually helpful if you want to do little 8-bit graphics, so it gets top marks.

starwarsIcon93

 

 

This is ASCII Star Wars. For all we know, it might be the whole movie.

hydraIcon_93

 

 

Shout out to old viruses that just won’t give up. Back when viruses had guts they just sat there messing with you.

glitchgirlzIcon93

 

 

This is the closest one to a straight art piece. Let it run for a bit and there’s lots of beautiful gameboy-cam glitch-pics.

oldestGif-icon93

 

 

 

Windows 93 peeps know their roots and give a nod to original net artist Olia Lialina’s My Boyfriend Came Back From The War. A stone-cold classic.