Microsoft open-sourced the code for 1995’s 3D Movie Maker because someone asked

You, too, can make PS1-caliber 3D movies using nothing but 3D Movie Maker and your Windows 95 PC. (credit: Microsoft)

Back in 1995, the Microsoft Kids division of the company} released a program called Microsoft 3D Movie Maker . The same year that the original Toy Story proved that feature-length 3D computer animation was feasible, people could install software on their home computers that could spit out crude-but-creative 3D animated movies at 6 to 8 frames per second.

Aside from releasing Doraemon and Nickelodeon-specific versions of Film Maker later on, Microsoft never really returned to this software… until now. Microsoft Developer Division Community Manager Scott Hanselman announced yesterday that Microsoft was open-sourcing the code for 3D Movie Maker , posting it to Github in a read-only repository under an MIT license.

The code|code calculatordecoder} was released not because Ms has grand plans for 3D Movie Maker but because someone asked . Self-described “hardware/software necromancer” Foone Turing asked Microsoft to release the particular 3D Movie Maker source program code|code calculatordecoder} back in April because they wanted “to expand and extend it. ” Hanselman and Microsof company Open Source Programs Office Manager Jeff Wilcox then worked with Microsoft’s legal department to create it happen.