My old Windows software

After moving to Windows PC from Atari ST I discovered Visual Basic and my mind was blown by the possibilities of laying out a graphical user interface using the mouse and adding code to make it do stuff. I jumped in and made a whole bunch of Windows software, including some world-first features like hot-corners to invoke the screen saver and being able to quickly select favourite folders whilst in the file selector of any application.

I also made fun stuff like screensavers and videogames, as well as more utilitarian software “apps”. In addition, I played around with a really cool and very fast interpreted language called Euphoria!—whose claim to fame was that it had a reference-counting garbage collector—and I’m surprised to read that it is still around over 30 years later!

Archived web page: gingerbeardman.com/archive/tektonix/

• Tektonix Menu 2 — DOS launcher, 1995
• Light! — trailing-beam screen saver, 1996
• MsgBoxer — Visual Basic MsgBox code generator, 1996
• Messages — notes for other users of the same PC, 1996
• Ghost — hide and show windows, 1996
• Day — alarms and reminders, 1996
• Stars! — starfield screen saver, 1997
• WINotes — sticky desktop notes, 1998
• Wobble! — jelly screen saver, 1998
• SaveAble! — hot corners for the screen saver, 1998
• Quick Paths — favourite folders in any file selector, 1998