Pixel Art Series #3 - Homage to Windows Wallpapers (1990-1995)

in pixelart •  7 years ago  (edited)

We celebrate Windows backgrounds during a time period when they were hand-drawn pixel for pixel and mostly arranged in a repeating pattern. The earliest system to support an image as a wallpaper was in the X Window System in 1985, but operating systems didn't come with bitmapped wallpapers until 1990 with the release of Windows 3.0. We'll be looking at textured wallpapers that defined these operating systems up to Windows 95.

All images were rendered on a glorious 640x480 pixel canvas. Enjoy!

Please be warned, that the earliest backgrounds had pretty strongly contrasted patterns. I might imagine that they may cause nausea or possibly even induce epileptic seizures. Continue on at your discretion. :)


Windows 3.0 (1990)

Windows 3.0 didn't really come with many backgrounds due to space constraints, but the ones included were not exactly works of art :


PAPER.BMP



PYRAMID.BMP



WEAVE.BMP


Windows 3.1x (1992)

Windows 3.1 was the first version of Windows with more pleasant background images. It was also the first to include 256 color backgrounds.


ARCADE.BMP



ARCHES.BMP



BUBBLES.BMP



FLOCK.BMP



HONEY.BMP



LEAVES.BMP



MARBLE.BMP



WINLOGO.BMP


Some OEM manufacturers included their own backgrounds. This one is from a Compaq LTE 5100 shipped with Windows 3.11:

COMPAQ.BMP


The only 256 color background shipped with Windows 3.1 was probably included just for testing purposes and was quite aptly named 256COLOR.BMP. It was also an early example of computer raytracing.

256COLOR.BMP


Stepping up the game with Windows 95:

Everyone who lived and saw Windows 95 knows the clouds. It was probably the most overused background before Windows XP came along with their Bliss background.

CLOUDS.BMP



Forest.bmp



Gold Weave.bmp



Tiles.bmp


That's it for now! Please be sure to upvote and follow my posts if you like what I'm doing. I'd love to hear comments for ideas, suggestions, or just general feedback. I will be posting more pixel art in different styles in the near future.

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