32-bit Windows Games

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32-bit Windows development did not start with Windows 95. The first 32-bit Windows was Windows NT 3.1, which was released in July 1993. But the SDK was released nearly a year earlier, so there are actually 32-bit Windows games dating back to 1992. The finest among them is probably Klotz. These games usually do not run on the newer Windows versions (XP and later) any more, they usually do run on Win32s.

At first, the difference between 16-bit and 32-bit was purely technical. In the years 1995/96, many developers supplied versions for both. The 32-bit executables might run a bit faster or more stable on NT or 95, but they looked exactly the same. That higher color depths became more common around the same time Windows 95 conquered the desktops is a pure coincidence. For some chipsets, there are Windows 3.1 drivers for 1600×1200, TrueColor. For most chipsets, there are at least TrueColor drivers for lower resolutions, usually up to 1024×768.

DirectX

What really changed the character of Windows games was DirectX. With this collection of APIs, which became relevant in mid-1996 (Windows 95 OSR2 and NT 4.0), Windows games could get the full access to the hardware the DOS games had, but the programmers didn't have to worry about sound cards and video chipsets, Windows would still take care of that. Most important, the games could run fullscreen, at the resolution the designers wanted, which till the end of the century was usually 640×480, 256 colors for 2D games. The first really important DirectX game was Diablo.

Shareware authors and hobby programmers soon followed suit. From 1997 on, lots of freeware and shareware Windows games would run fullscreen. At the same time, DirectX allowed faster animation and faster action than had previously been possible under Windows. Windows no longer was the realm of board games and puzzles. Windows games no longer had a specific character of their own. Windows had become just another platform.