Large wallpapers can be used three possible ways in Petz games. First, of course, they can be used as desktop wallpapers. They can also be used as playpen wallpapers. This use gave petz in the early games "areas" and "rooms" to visit. Finally the wallpapers can be used as background images for scenes created with a hex editor for Petz 3 or with the Playscene Editors in Petz 4 and Petz 5.

I was right when I bet that Minibyte would make playscenes out of wallpapers. She has already started! Working with graphic images is pretty tricky though. Computer settings, moniors and video cards can be very different from each other. Combine that with requirements of specific programs and you can get a real headache! Hopefully the following suggestions will help you to use these wallpapers in your Petz games.

Many wallpapers were created several years ago when computers weren't capable of the high resolutions we get on computer monitors today. As a result, the older wallpapers are usually too small. They must be enlarged in order to be used on modern computers. Unfortunately, enlarging the bitmaps also blurs them a bit. With a good paint program and patience, it is possible to sharpen the images enough to make them useable. Here are some tips on how to best use large wallpaper bitmaps:

1. The older, original wallpapers are not likely to work well for you unless you have an older computer. Minibyte has enlarged and/or adjusted all of the wallpapers to be 1024x768 bitmap images in 256 colors. These should work well as playscene background images on most computers.

2. Some wallpapers have color gradients which do not translate well when an image is enlarged or the number of colors is reduced. If you want to use such an image with the Petz 4 or Petz 5 Playscene Editor, try this. Increase the number of colors to 16 million. If it is available, it is best to download the older, original, wallpaper, change it to 16 million colors and THEN resize it to 1024x768. If you are using Petz 4, save it as a jpg image. Petz 5 images must be saved as bmp images. This will not work for Petz 3 because Petz 3 playscenes require 256 color images.

3. The 1024x768 wallpapers should work in the Petz 4 playpen on most computers. If you wish to use a large wallpaper in Petz 3 or Petz II playpens, reduce the size to 800x600. Graphics in Dogz and in Catz, the first games, are very different and Minibyte didn't even try to adjust the wallpapers to work for those two games. If you try to adjust them and all your attempts fail, but you still want to use one of these wallpapers with Dogz or Catz, use the 1024x768 wallpaper as a desktop wallpaper, open the game and go to Full Screen mode. Voila! Petz scampering about a new scene!

Here is a list of wallpapers that we have found for you. Click on a listing that looks interesting and you will be taken to the Site Archive where it is stored. Use the menu at the bottom of Archive pages to find the item you want.