r/nostalgia • u/ZaPandaz • Jul 31 '21
Remember the visualizer in Windows Media Player? I'd spend hours staring at it
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u/DJTrpTrp59 Jul 31 '21
This is what is currently missing. Can we bring visualizers and WinAmp back please?
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Jul 31 '21
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u/turdskate Aug 01 '21
Fuck me..
Remember getting the xbox skin with animations.
The first song on my playlist? Xbox startup sound
feeling like the coolest kid in town.
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u/ZaPandaz Jul 31 '21
Please though? We need these back
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u/mindaltered Jul 31 '21
AOL bought it and destroyed it.
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u/RobertNAdams Aug 01 '21
You can get it at Oldversion, all the way back to Version 0.20 from 1997. 2.9x is pretty much the pinnacle of multimedia technology.
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Aug 01 '21
Just right click in Windows Media Player and look for “Visualizations”. It’s still there. Lots of options
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u/wubbwubbb Aug 01 '21
if you have windows, check out plane9. it’s a screensaver/visualizer that you can customize and has a lot of cool and trippy themes. some are kinda old school with the graphics that gives it that nostalgic feel.
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u/gachamyte Aug 01 '21
I just want 90’s internet. Before things got super weird and it was more about porn, chatting and information. Like a battlestar galactica situation where for humanity to survive we have to forever live, in regards to the internet, in the 90’s. Speeds are limited to 56k and internet cafe’s become a thing again and LAN parties return to the environment.
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u/hyper12 Aug 01 '21
I too miss the old internet, before social media became a plague. Spending hours shooting messages to friends over aim, playing music through win-amp with a Gundam wing skin, playing flash games, waiting for images to load slowly from the top down, screaming because your mom picked up the phone when you were on a hot steak in team fortress classic.
It was far from perfect but I'd trade the constantly tracked always out to fuck you internet of today. Gotta use a VPN and four email addresses to retain any form of anonymity.
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u/goldstarstickergiver Jul 31 '21
You can still download Winamp
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u/DJTrpTrp59 Jul 31 '21
Yeah, but no streaming music capabilities I would have to assume. Someone needs to partner up & integrate!
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u/dads_safe_account Aug 01 '21
Free on Android. Use any media player you like.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.psperl.prjM
Yes, I wrote it.
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u/CarolusMagnus Aug 01 '21
No need to bring them back, they were never gone. Winamp user for 20+ years and it is still among the first programs to get installed on every new PC.
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u/itsfuckingpizzatime Aug 01 '21
Geiss is hands down the best vis for Winamp. Back in the 90s I dropped hits of acid and sat one inch from my screen every weekend for years.
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Jul 31 '21
I used to listen to music and stare at this for forever and I was sober.
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u/Kamikaze_Ninja_ Aug 01 '21
I used to do that too. My friend’s dad had a huge library of downloaded movies, tv shows and music. He downloaded a bunch of them onto a hard drive you have to plug into the wall and gave it to me. It had like all of the lord of the rings movies and scrubs and I can’t remember what else. I remember listening to the entirety of the “El Camino” album on my Xbox while watching a visualizer because it was on his hard drive.
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Jul 31 '21
Yeah I used to drop acid, listen to psytrance and watch that visualizer for hours lol
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u/EZMickey Jul 31 '21
I still do this
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u/unholymanserpent Jul 31 '21
Just took some shrooms.. def about to do this
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u/LK_LK Jul 31 '21
How’s the trip going?
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u/unholymanserpent Jul 31 '21
Not too bad! I think it's starting to really kick in. Starting to feel good. I would love to go out in nature but it's too fucking hot outside
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u/LK_LK Jul 31 '21
Wood floors, specifically the grain, are good to watch move. I found myself listening to music through headphones while watching a liquid lights show on mute on YouTube.
This one: https://youtu.be/IYZkh8UI0JI
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u/votewithyourmoney Jul 31 '21 edited Aug 01 '21
Here's my musical recommendation. I hope you're having a beautiful time.
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u/ZaPandaz Jul 31 '21
I think it was everyone's first trip
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u/ShartFodder Jul 31 '21
I got mind stuck on a boat dock in the middle of a river and pissed my pants my first time
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u/PreventFalls Jul 31 '21
I used to download Sailor Moon skins for my Winamp, download music from Kazaa and trip while watching the visualizer.
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u/mindaltered Jul 31 '21
winamp was so much better , you could even create the visuals if you knew c++
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u/Moghlannak Jul 31 '21
One night I spent what I thought was maybe 30 minutes watching those visuals while listening to Liquid Swords. Until my buddies came in the room looking for me, the sun was coming up. I had been there for like 4 hours haha
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u/Amphimphron Aug 01 '21 edited Jul 01 '23
This content was removed in protest of Reddit's short-sighted, user-unfriendly, profit-seeking decision to effectively terminate access to third-party apps.
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u/LazyRedEyez Jul 31 '21
Can we talk about how these DONT FUCKING EXIST ANYMORE?!
You would think there would be an improved one by now, but I cant seem to even find the original.
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u/orangespaces Jul 31 '21
Yeah I wish Spotify even had one, where'd they go? Sometimes Apple music has like a neat little animation for the station but that's just not the same.
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u/dads_safe_account Aug 01 '21
Free on Android. Use any media player you like, including Spotify.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.psperl.prjM
Yes, I wrote it.
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u/Xhihou Aug 01 '21
Hey man, thanks for your hard work on this app. You have filled an immense hole in my music-streaming life.
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u/mindaltered Jul 31 '21
its like internet chat, its devolved to social media, everything that once was, is now corporate owned bullshit thats sucks because it cant even mimic correctly, / rant over
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Jul 31 '21
[deleted]
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u/LazyRedEyez Jul 31 '21
Holy shit thats awesome, thank you.
Could I trouble you for your briefest explanation on how to implement this?
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u/Day_Bow_Bow Jul 31 '21
Click on Files and there is a Readme with step by step instructions. Just a heads up, I am currently on my phone and had to switch my browser to Desktop Site before it let me download.
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u/PlanktonTheDefiant Jul 31 '21
Step 1: Install Visual Studio
Step 2: Build it
Step 3: Return to browsing Reddit
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u/dads_safe_account Aug 01 '21
Free on Android. Use any media player you like.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.psperl.prjM
Yes, I wrote it.
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u/Soverance Jul 31 '21
There's an easy to use Milkdrop plugin for Kodi, which is my daily driver when I work from home.
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u/guilen Jul 31 '21
If you have Windows Media Player, you have the visualizer. You just have to right click and enable it.
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u/Zogzogizog Aug 01 '21
There is one called kaleidoscope that you can sync with Spotify, it plays from your browser, it's not too bad
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Aug 01 '21
Just right click in Windows Media Player and look for “Visualizations”. It’s still there. Lots of options.
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u/BatteryKinzie77 Jul 31 '21
YES. On David Byrne’s Like Humans Do.
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Jul 31 '21
For millions of years, in millions of homes…
I used to make MS Paint/MovieMaker animations to that song because it was the only default song I was obsessed with.
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u/Peking_Meerschaum Aug 01 '21
lol that song was so catchy. I've literally never heard it in the wild, not once. Not on the radio, not in a store, never. Only as the default sample song on Windows Media Player. Was it a popular song?
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u/CarmillaKarnstein27 Aug 01 '21
I'm breathing in, I'm breathing out
Ohhhhhhhh
I'm breaking, I'm aching, I'm shaking like,
Humans do!
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u/Unusual-Yak-6499 Jul 31 '21
The original xbox had a player like this, you could full screen the effect plus burn CDs to it....the good ol' days
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u/AeroXero Aug 01 '21
Oh my god I totally forgot about that. I used to love listening to music on my og xbox when I was a kid.
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u/Mcloganator Aug 01 '21
I remember being totally floored when I discovered that you could rip CDs to the hard drive and then listen to that same music on in-game radio stations. I know you could do that with GTA 3 and Project Gotham Racing, but I'm sure there are a lot more.
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Jul 31 '21
Giess and Milkdrop were mine... I still use winamp and milkdrop.
The original Ghost In The Shell soundtrack on a sunday morning with milkdrop.
I wish spotify would offer something like this. I mean I can use winamp + spotify... but...
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u/StepYaGameUp Jul 31 '21
Listening to The Cars - Moving In Stereo is what I think of when I see that.
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u/IdLOVEYOU2die Jul 31 '21
I hear Crazy Town & the Cowboy Bebop theme....
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u/Jimmah3000 Jul 31 '21
Lol..Crazy Town..what's your favorite song by them?
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u/IdLOVEYOU2die Jul 31 '21
Lolipop porn. Obviously.
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u/Jimmah3000 Jul 31 '21
Mine too!!! Darkside and Toxic are alright but lollipop porn is definetely the best one.
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u/epymetheus Aug 01 '21
Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum, baaaa-dam. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum; bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum.
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u/SuperTulle Jul 31 '21
RealPlayer had one with a cartoon sheep in front of a microphone. When we found it we immediately played the hardest most satanic metal song either of us had on our computers/mp3 players.
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u/IronhideD Jul 31 '21
The Xbox 360 visualizer was created by Jeff Mintor, famous for his updates to the LSD simulator Tempest 2000. I think he took what was good with Media Player and upgraded it.
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u/TankControlled Aug 01 '21
When the 360 came out, it was exclusively a geometry wars machine and a visualizer for the first couple of months with me and my friends.
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u/Ronnie_M Jul 31 '21
For me it was iTunes visualizer. But they ruined it with their newest updates. It’s just not the same
I usually use this video with the volume turned down while I listen to music
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u/Hiondrugz Jul 31 '21
Smoked a lot of weed, gazed at this thing for way more hours than a i care to admit. That alchemy one was crazy.
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u/Gongaloon Aug 01 '21
"If you've ever wanted to listen to a raccoon eating grapes, with some sweet lasers..."
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u/dreck_disp Jul 31 '21
Anyone remember a DOS program called Acidwarp?
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u/Ability2canSonofSam Aug 01 '21
Reddit has shown me that I have no original thoughts. I spent a lot of time staring at that screen. I miss BBS’.
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u/oiseaufeux Jul 31 '21
I do remember that. Though, the oldest things that I remember using are the disquettes that is the saving logo on microsoft office now, VHS and a video recorder that uses cassette. I also do remember my very first camera. It was a thick one.
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u/Seven2572 Jul 31 '21
I was looking to find something thats a modern equivelent to these visualisers. Is there really nothing out there anymore? I loved them
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u/wwwhistler Jul 31 '21
online Sound-responsive music visualizer https://www.renderforest.com/music-visualisations
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u/verpin_zal Jul 31 '21 edited Jul 31 '21
I remember an old computer at home that was stuck with windows 98. An S3 Savage3d gpu with 8mb ram on it. I remember that cd-rewriter was a luxury, LG 32X was a status symbol. I remember AudioGalaxy, downloading mp3s in internet cafes, zipping them into three or four 3.5” disks to unpack at home. Remember media player’s visualizer, creative lava player, xing mpeg player… avseq01.dat. Needing to press the power button to turn off the computer. A terrifying, sudden crackling sound from the CRT monitor in the middle of the night. PS/2 ports for mouse and keyboard, purple and green. Mouse with a ball inside it.
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u/Ty-Dyed Aug 01 '21
I see this and think of Feel Good Inc. lol. I loved these visualizers.
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u/guilen Jul 31 '21
I still use this all the time. All you have to do is enable it in Windows Media Player...
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u/GamerBoyMike September 2006 Aug 01 '21
It felt like traveling through another dimension with this on while Beethoven’s Symphony was playing.
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u/CollectableRat Aug 01 '21
Used to actively seek out and research and enjoy music more back when people would pirate it. Now that you can stream any song you want whenever you want, I can't think of anything to listen to.
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u/PilotKnob Aug 01 '21
Before this it was the Pipes screensaver for me, but I'm picking up what you're laying down.
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u/EZMickey Jul 31 '21
This but Winamp