Musician turns Windows 95 into a chiptune album on an actual Sega Genesis cart

Don't be fooled: Mikeyeldey95 may look a lot like Windows 95, but it is not actually the complete Microsoft operating system reprogrammed to run on a Sega Genesis (aka Mega Drive) cartridge. As technically impressive as that would be, it's something much more fun: a game-meets-concept-album of 22 chiptune songs programmed to run on real Genesis hardware, presented in a deeply faithful recreation of the Windows 95 UI packed with minigames and easter eggs. Even Clippy makes an appearance.

Mikeyeldey95 immediately launches into a summery bop called 'Plug and Play' over a fake Windows startup screen and desktop, where you can choose from a faux web browser (with a helpful Hamster Dance bookmark), a music player, and an email inbox containing novel digital letter correspondence. Since the theme here pulls directly from Windows 95, though, the real action is in the Start menu. There are minigames adapted from classic bits of Windows history like the 3D Maze screensaver and music visualizers that recreate other iconic bits of design like the bouncing cards from Solitaire.

The upbeat chiptune music makes messing around with Mikeyeldey95 worthwhile, and more than just a bit of fun nostalgia. Every track feels like it could've come from a rad '90s platformer or beat-em-up, and I think a few of them, like the funky "Labradump" and melancholy "Five Digit Years," would've fit right into arguments over whether the Genesis or Super Nintendo had the superior sound chip.

I'm mighty tempted to buy one of these physical carts for my Sega Genesis, but you can still experience Mikeyeldey95 even if you don't have an old console lying around. A ROM is available for download on Itch.io and is easy to boot up in an emulator. Or you can stream the album on Bandcamp, minus the cool Windows skin.

Thanks, RetroRGB.

MikeyEldey95 for Genesis — (Image credit: Michael Elder)

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).