Microsoft recently open sourced Microsoft 3D Movie Maker (1995) after an appeal on Twitter. Microsoft states on the GitHub repo: “This project is unlikely to build successfully under modern hardware/software”.

@Foone on Twitter has taken the source code and indeed compiled it to work on Windows 10! Adafruit’s Anne Barela, a MS-DOS and Windows user since 1984, takes a look:

I gave it a spin. I don’t recall why I didn’t use it much in the later 90s until I had it running today. The cut scenes, the dark, awkward interface. It makes me crave for the original Microsoft Movie Makers that were good at cutting and manipulating video you had. But to make a 3D movie of your own, this tool is quite sophisticated given the era in which it was created. And my 4K monitor, GTC 2080 Super and Threadripper 3960X had no problem rendering things buttery smooth, albeit in a small window (I couldn’t find a maximize button).

It’s a fun romp but there’s enough for me to get frustrated about unless I rode the learning curve.

I love resurrecting old software as much as I do old hardware. It is a key to what we did before, to get to where we are today. Fabulous work! Anne

You can try this for yourself by checking out the compiled binary (v0.1) and source on GitHub.