In early 1995, I was working at Microsoft as an intern software engineer on the Windows 95 team, and was approached to write the music for the hidden Windows 95 Easter Egg.<\/p>\n
This ‘Easter Egg’ was tricky to find (see the instructions below), but once found it opened up a window with all the names of who worked on Windows 95, with my music as the theme.<\/p>\n
The only instructions I was given was that the music should invoke images of ‘clouds’ and feel ‘floating’ and ‘peaceful’ – this is how Windows 95 was going to be marketed. Well, and that it had to play well on all sound cards at the time. For 99.9% of computers, this meant through the Adlib synthesizer emulation of the Creative Labs Sound Blaster card (or equivalent clone). In other words – no sampled instruments, no effects – just simple FM synthesis. General MIDI at its finest.<\/p>\n
So with that said, I really couldn’t do too much in terms of interesting instrumentation or sounds; and yes…it’s pretty funny to listen to the tune now. I’ve rendered it out using a GM sound module (which is better) but still doesn’t come close to the realism you’d expect from most computer music today.<\/p>\n
Feel free to post comments or send me any questions. Here’s the tune:<\/p>\n