Ever yearn for the Windows 95 shutdown sound? TADA! There's an Electron app for that

The JavaScript incarnation of Windows 95 received a version bump last week, giving those trapped in the snow or stuck in the office a lunchtime of delight listening to the bleeps and bloops of yesteryear. We took a brief look at an earlier version back in August 2018 and the big news this time around is that sound works (yes, …

[Steven Raith]

Painfully slow

....just like the real thing.

I won't pretend I didn't grin like a loon at the old sounds though.

Ah, nostalgia is a helluva drug.

Steven "I remember when the internet was for the elite....now...." R

[RyokuMas]

Re: Painfully slow

At least it's not got an UGLY FLATTY MCFLATFACE FLATSO LOTSA-CAPSO user interface...!

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Painfully slow

Oi. One Bob is quite enough.

[bombastic bob]

Re: Painfully slow

I remember getting acceptable performance from Windows '95 on a 486 DX2 66Mhz with about 4Mb of RAM, a simple SVGA adaptor (with a VLB adaptor, though) and a reasonable IDE hard drive.

When I compare the *PERCEIVED* performance of THAT system, with respect to "responsiveness" (how fast does an application load) and the overall "UI Experience" and things of THAT nature, it

TOTALLY KICKS WIN-10-NIC's ASS!!!

/me points out that if effort towards a Java-script version of Win '95 were INSTEAD re-directed at projects like ReactOS, the world would be better off

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Painfully slow

>TOTALLY KICKS WIN-10-NIC's ASS!!!

The Law Of Middle Aged Software, waistlines expand to bust trousers.

[JJKing]

Re: Painfully slow

Did you sing along with the bootup song of the floppy drives making their noise and what about the dial-up modems making a connection. Then too?

[STOP_FORTH]

Tada!

This should make Brian Eno happy. Or was he dum-dum-dum-dum?

[WallMeerkat]

Re: Tada!

No he was dun-doodle-dee-dee-dingdingdingggg

[Anonymous Coward]

Most win95 shutdowns I experienced involved a blue screen, some hexidecimal numbers and no sound.

[Doctor Syntax]

That's probably the next thing to be added.

[adam payne]

Don't need it still got my old Windows 95 VM.

[Solarflare]

Unfortunately I couldn't get mine to work on Ryzen. I always had a soft spot for Win 95 so it's a shame :(

[adam payne]

As well as my MS-DOS 6.22 VM.

[Anonymous Coward]

"The download, clocking in at nearly 280MB"

A remainder why Javascript sucks... it would have taken more than half of the 512MB disk I run Windows 95 from....

[ThomH]

640x480 "for that proper old-school DOS feel"?

640x480 is 480% as many pixels as Doom had in DOS!

[bombastic bob]

Re: 640x480 "for that proper old-school DOS feel"?

I rarely used 640x480 - the lowest I'd run was 800x600

[Pascal Monett]

"getting the thing to talk to the internet was challenging"

Sounds like the implementation was spot-on then.

Makes me feel like getting an XP VM to run my old Transport Tycoon and Settlers Xth Anniversary once again.

[phuzz]

Re: "getting the thing to talk to the internet was challenging"

For what it's worth, you can still download the installer for XP Mode, officially, from Microsoft here. If you open it as a .cab file, you can find the VHD, which can be imported into Virtualbox. Assuming you're running a Microsoft OS and are fully licensed of course.

[Captain Scarlet]

Re: "getting the thing to talk to the internet was challenging"

Ah a fan of Transport Tycoon, ever used OpenTTD or OpenRCT (I think both are brilliant, simply because you can be a nerd in multiplayer and then complain in OpenRCT's case when you run out of money)

[Groaning Ninny]

Doomed

Sad that I went straight for that first green armour without thinking....

[Boris the Cockroach]

It can be

done in virtual box, so long as you have the original install disc and code.

Dont expect it to be able to figure out howto connect to the network(I got lost and killed several snapshots).... but it does run a heck of a lot faster.

As for doom etc..... I never even tried... it was just an achievement to see a win 95 desktop again long after the original PC it lived on went to the scrapheap eternal.(due to a dodgey PSU frying the m/b a few years ago)

[Captain Scarlet]

Re: It can be

Although yes Virtualbox and other VM products are brilliant, some games and applications just don't work as well (Direct X 5 games I find run slow, which if I am honest also ran slow on Windows XP machine as well, also not sure if the Glide API is supported by most VM's).

[Do Not Fold Spindle Mutilate]

Always changed the sound to ...

The shutdown sound was almost always changed to Daffy Duck saying "No, No, No. Not the wed wone. Don't ever press the wed wone." On occasion it was changed to Porky Pig "That, that, that's all folks."

I'm sure I have proper id. It must be in my coat.

[bombastic bob]

Re: Always changed the sound to ...

I had an edited up Warner Brother's ending theme with Porky doing the 'th-dya th-dya th-that's all, folks!" stuck in the middle. First sound edit I did with the windows sound recorder, as I recall.

[Da Weezil]

Re: Always changed the sound to ...

Sonic the Hedgehog on mine - "level complete" as shutdown.wav and the "dropped coins" wav for error is about all I can remember now plus of course the short opening anthem for startup

I think somewhere out in the mancave/workshop I still have a box of floppys with several Themes, and possibly the zip file for desktopthemes.exe... who needs plus?

[Crazy Operations Guy]

Kinda brilliant using JavaScript

In any other programming language, it'd take quite a lot of effort to get a modern machine to perform as badly as something from the mid-1990s...

[bombastic bob]

Re: Kinda brilliant using JavaScript

"In any other programming language, it'd take quite a lot of effort to get a modern machine to perform as badly as something from the mid-1990s"

How about C-pound (or anything ".Not")? It seems to have ruined windows performance quite nicely!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Kinda brilliant using JavaScript

C-sharp

[The Oncoming Scorn]

My First Thought

On seeing the headline was for the Acorn Electron.

[bettername]

That Laptop

I still have the same laptop, and it still WORKS perfectly.

I even retrieved it from living in a shed for 10+ years in 2012 expecting the battery to have exploded and it be a total mess. Booted fine, and - whoa - there's all my old GCSE coursework and a copy of Commander Keen on it. Happy Days.

[onebignerd]

Always found the start up sound annoying. Same with all the GUI interface noises available. Disabled!!