Nobody stayed with DOS

Having been born in the late 80s, PCs, which are a standard commodity today, were a pretty big deal when I was growing up.  My first computer was a boxy-looking Apple Macintosh:

Later (by which I mean '95 ish), it was an IBM that belonged to my sister, and then a few years later, a Compaq Presario that ran on Windows '95.  At the time we purchased them, none of them were exactly the forerunners of the machines available, but they were still pretty impressive.  It didn't matter to me.  I was like 8-years-old.  They could have run on gasoline for all I knew.  I was really only interested in two things - MS Paint (or, Corel Draw on the Mac) and any free pre-loaded games that came with the software bundle.

And I'm not talking Solitaire or Free Cell.  I mean proper games.  The Mac came with Spectre and Scrabble (both of which, I was admittedly awful at), the IBM had some child's game that escapes my memory, but the best of all was (and I can't believe I'm saying this, but) the Compaq because it came with this for free:

I can hear that sweet intro tune now...

This program was amazing.  It had short sound clips of world instruments, interactive articles, thousands of beautiful pictures.  Most importantly, it also came with this:

AKA - Guilt-Free time wasting

For those not familiar with the premise (you poor souls, you), you're a modern day man magically whisked back in time to a cursed castle.  In each room, a subject of the realm is held captive, unable to escape unless they solved what they thought was a riddle, but was in reality a question based in either the sciences, literature, history, etc., etc.  Your job was the navigate and free as many subjects as possible, eventually freeing the whole castle from the curse.

I actually didn't find this until a year or so after I first got the computer.  Even after I opened it for the first time, I didn't understand it at all.  I kept trying to hit different rooms, but I just kept getting all these nonsensical questions (I was only in 2nd or 3rd grade and wasn't really familiar with the idea of trivia-type games yet) that led me nowhere.  I kept burning out matches and hitting buttons to random answers.

I eventually figured out what was going on, and when I did, I ran with it.  My strongest categories were physical and life sciences (big surprise), and I breezed through the simpler riddles with ease.  Even on the harder mode, I managed to maintain a respectable score.  Questions I didn't know the answers to frustrated me, but they taught me new things, which was addicting.

Then one day, after I finished solving one question, I anxiously awaited the next room, only to find myself confronted with all the subjects I had saved.  I blinked.  What was this?  Where was my question?  I clicked around, but I didn't get anything akin to a question about the taxonomy of butterflies or the father of immunization.

I had beaten the game.  And I was not happy.

I backed out of the game and went back in.  Ah-hah!  A question!  Perfect.

But when that was solved, I was back the throne room again.  The game was over.

Of course, it was as simple as creating a new player and starting from scratch, but somehow it wasn't the same.  I would have been satisfied - nay - I wanted to be lost in that castle forever, being challenged by the curse for all eternity.

I replayed the game a few more times after, but it soon got old.  Maybe I wasn't as keen to answer trivia as I thought.  I saw questions repeating more often, which didn't help matters.  But maybe, in the back of my head, I knew what my "reward" was going to be, and it did not tempt me one bit.

The Compaq trucked on for years (and as far as I know, it's still in perfect condition), but the operating system eventually became too antiquated for our needs, so we bought a Sony Vaio that ran on XP.  One day, on a whim, I tried to load the Encarta CD into the Vaio.  No dice.  Nothing ran.  I probably could have easily just booted up the old computer, but by that time, the Internet existed in my life, and with it, all the free flash games I could find.

Several years ago, my friends and I were having a discussion about the merits of playing the field or staying with one significant other, and one fellow tried to equate it back to computers:

MK:  "OK - what was your favorite Windows operating system?"
DD:  "…XP…" [***This was well before W7 came out, mind you.]
M:  "Exactly!  There are so many upgrades after XP, but you always go back!"
D:  "Yeah, but there were at least four before that.  '95, '98, ME.  …NO ONE STAYED WITH DOS!"

It's true.  No one stayed with DOS.  No one stayed with '95.  But today, I am a little nostalgic for that dreary old castle and that cheesy ye olde music that quietly accompanied you as you saved the day.

Until the next.