Microshaft Winblows 98

Microshaft Winblows 98
Cover art
Developer(s) Parroty Interactive
Publisher(s) Palladium Interactive[1]
Platform(s) Windows, Macintosh
Release January 5, 1998
Mode(s) Single-player

Microshaft Winblows 98 is a 1998 interactive comedy video game developed by Parroty Interactive and released by Palladium Interactive. It parodies the then-popular Windows 95 operating system, as well as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.[2][3] Released during the United States v. Microsoft Corp. case and at a time when Microsoft, Windows, and Gates were easy targets for jokes, the game offers a satirical take on this ripe subject matter. The game was released for Windows as well as the Classic Mac OS. The game received a generally positive reception.

Development

Conception

Despite Microsoft being the target of jokes for a considerable period of its then 23-year history,[4] Microshaft Winblows 98 was released at a specific point in time when Microsoft and Bill Gates were in the news for controversial reasons. In particular, Gates was in legal trouble with the Justice Department in terms of the court case United States v. Microsoft Corp surrounding the company's alleged unfair leveraging of its market dominance. The Buffalo News noted that the CEO had been embroiled in issues with "competitors, the feds and industry pundits".[5] Microshaft Winblows 98 came into existence as a response to this and a way to "mock [Gates'] entire existence" in a humorous and intelligent way,[6] serving as a parody of the "company, the software and the man".[4] Palladium officials noted that the game was influenced by the "public's fascination with this cultural phenomenon",[7] although claimed that the timing of the game was "dumb luck".[4]

Design

Developed by Parroty Interactive, the self-professed National Lampoon of the interactive media industry, Microshaft Winblows 98 became the company's fourth interactive comedy video game, after Pyst which is a clone of adventure video game Myst, Star Warped which is a satire of science-fiction film series Star Wars, and The X-Fools, a spoof of supernatural TV series The X Files, respectively.[4] Ed Bernstein, founder and CEO of Palladium Interactive had long-wanted to create works that emulated the parody found in Mad Magazine, and felt this game could be his "piece de resistance", further commenting that his company would have been able to "sell the empty boxes" due to the game cover humour alone.[4] Elizabeth Wasserman of Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News cited various examples of this including the tagline "Who does he want to own today?", a parody of Microsoft's own "Where do you want to go to today?", and the version, listed as "98 or 99 or 00 or 01".[4] The game was written by Tony Camin, Ian Deitchman, J. P. Manoux and Kristin Rusk.[8] In addition to containing a series of minigames for the player to explore, the software also offered enhancements to Windows 95, while additional content was available via the game's official website.[9] Microshaft Winblows 98's animation and programming were outsourced to WayForward Technologies while Chronic Music handled the music and sound effects.[10] The product was also released in the French language.[11]

Release

The game's publication took place in Spencer, Indiana,[12] and upon its release was shipped to retail chains such as Fry's Electronics, Egghead Software and CompUSA.[4] The design of the game cover closely mimicked that of the Windows 95 packaging.[4] During development, Parroty Interactive had planned to promote the game at the COMDEX computer expo by Fall in 1997.[13] The presentation was to include a Bill Gates lookalike. However the staff were expelled by security from the convention and the distribution plan was shut down.[14] Despite this setback, the company presented their product at the Macworld expo in Silicon Valley,[15] San Francisco next January, receiving praise from Macintosh users.[16] At the event they demoed the CEO-themed Tamagotchi spoof "Billagotchi", and "Windows Exploder" game where players blows away error messages.[17] CD copies of the game were sold in a booth for $20 each.[8] Microsoft also debuted some new products at Macworld such as Office 98 and Internet Explorer 4.0.[4] While noting that he was yet to examine the Palladium Interactive title, Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray commented that "ours are probably a little more serious" than Microshaft Winblows 98, and that the corporation "tr[ies] to have a sense of humor about this sort of thing".[4]

Gameplay

Describing itself as "rated for teenagers" due to its "comic mischief" and "suggestive themes",[18] the game opens with the fictitious Microsoft janitor Graham and Bill Gates' personal assistant Meg (played by J. P. Manoux and Tamara Bick respectively) with a dialogue on the program. When started, the game presents a bootsplash much like the one on the Windows 9x operating systems before presenting the user with a desktop from which various "applications" can be launched; these include spoofs of computer games (such as Doom), Microsoft software (such as Internet Explorer), and even sometimes popular fads of the time (such as a "Billagotchi" that spoofs the Tamagotchi and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates[19][20]). The game also has a storyline, where the player starts out as a tech support employee and must work his or her way up to a meeting with Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.

Reception

Reception
Review score
PublicationScore
MacAddict2/4[21]

The game received a generally positive response from critics.

Joe Kilsheimer of The Buffalo News deemed Microshaft Winblows 98 a "software equivalent of an atomic wedgie", and thought it would appeal to aficianados of Macintosh, Netscape, and Sun Microsystems, and well as anyone who has a "bone to pick" with Microsoft.[5] Kilsheimer highly praised the game for its "satirical", "biting", "clever", "edgy", "skewer[ing]", "ironic", and "relentlessly ... lampoon[ing]" humor.[5] Commenting on the success of the project on the Macworld expo floor, the Post-Tribune commented that it would be worth comparing the net worth of Microsoft and Palladium Interactive at the end of the first quarter.[17]

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News reviewer Elizabeth Wasserman joked that the game offered something that the Microsoft Corporation, despite its pre-eminence in the technology industry, was not able to purchase: "a sense of humor".[4][22] The publication's Peter Cook and Scott Manning described the title as both "twisted" and "offen[sive]", though acceptable for parents to let their children play, and deemed it perfect for "time-wasting".[18] The pair thought the game's humour "pulls no punches" and was reminiscent to, and on par with, that of the comedy group Monty Python.[18]

The Washington Times reviewer Joe Szadkowski gave the game a glowing review, describing it as "devastatingly witty", "delightfully cruel", the "coolest parody ever created", while hoping that Jobs would find the title funny.[6] Szadkowski thought Billagotchi was a "wicked takeoff" of the Tamagotchi, thought the Bill Gates' eyeroll response in the pinball minigame was a "visual highlight", and wrote that Gates TV became his favourite part of the program due to its "great character voices and hilarious artwork".[6] Business Week wrote that the game, designed by "gagsters", spoofed Microsoft Windows using "hilarious ... high-tech humor".[23][24]

David Duberman of Spectrum thought the game was Palladium Interactive's best work, praising its "fun ... surprises" and "clever, if not side-splitting, wordplay".[8] Peter Fagan of SFGate thought game was a "timely jab" that would placate power users until the release of the then-upcoming Windows 98 operating system.[9] MacLedge's Michael Dixon deemed the software a "winner", noting that the minigames were both "enjoyable" and "quite replayable", while the humour was "first-rate".[25]

In a particularly negative review, Richard Cobbett of PC Gamer described it as being "not really a game, although it has a few of them in it, but more of an interactive comedy CD-ROM", although conceding that even the parody sketches are "stuck mining geek humour" which Cobbett felt "smacks of non-technical people desperately trying to write jokes in what may as well be a foreign language".[26] Meanwhile, David Reynolds of MacAddict deemed the program "predictably tepid", "mildly entertaining", and only slightly amusing, noting how unforgiving parody can be.[27][21] ThemeWorld thought the program wasn't comprehensive enough to be considered a complete theme package.[28]

References

  1. ↑ "Parroty Interactive Humor". Archived from the original on March 3, 2000. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Breaking Windows Article". January 26, 1998. Archived from the original on February 22, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  3. ↑ Edward Rothstein, "TECHNOLOGY: CONNECTIONS; A time for sympathy, yes, sympathy for Microsoft in its lonely stand." The New York Times, Published: January 12, 1998.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Company's Spoof of Microsoft: Microshaft Winblows.(Originated from San Jose Mercury News, Calif.)". 1998-01-05.
  5. 1 2 3 "TAKE A BREAK FROM LIFE'S GRIMMER SIDE". 1998-02-24.
  6. 1 2 3 "Advice Etc.;roming the Galaxy". 1998-02-09.
  7. ↑ "Parroty Interactive Ships "Microshaft Winblows 98"; CD-ROM Parodies Microsoft, Bill Gates and Windows. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  8. 1 2 "An Easy Target, But a Moving One: Palladium's Timely "Winblows 98"". SFGate. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  9. ↑ "Microshaft Winblows 98 (1998) Windows credits - MobyGames". MobyGames. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
  10. ↑ "Microshaft Winblows 98: Jusqu ou Iront Ils Jeu PC". Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Microshaft Winblows 98 - Computer History Museum". Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  12. ↑ "Parroty Interactive Unveils Upcoming Title At COMDEX/Fall '97". November 16, 1997. Archived from the original on December 3, 1998. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  13. ↑ "Promoters of Microsoft® Parody ejected from COMDEX show floor". November 19, 1997. Archived from the original on December 5, 1998. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  14. ↑ "Booted At Comdex, Company Turns To Macworld". December 18, 1997. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  15. ↑ "Publisher of "Microshaft Winblows™ 98" laughs along with Bill Gates and COMDEX attendees as Windows® 98 crashes". April 21, 1998. Archived from the original on December 7, 1998. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  16. 1 2 "TODAY'S QUIZ". 1998-01-07.
  17. 1 2 3 "The Philadelphia Inquirer CompuDudes Column". 1998-01-22.
  18. ↑ "Microsoft bashers aren't welcome inside electronics show", Associated Press in The Augusta Chronicle, September 27, 1997.
  19. ↑ Michael Marriott, "As Big as Microsoft: Ribbing Gates", The New York Times, March 19, 1998.
  20. 1 2 DR (May 1998). "Microshaft Winblow - MacAddict" (21). MacAddict: 52. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  21. ↑ "Microsoft Spoof: Microshaft Winblows 98 Bill Gates' Empire Is The Target Of Latest Parody By Cd-Rom Maker Palladium Interactive". Spokesman.com. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  22. ↑ "Sending Up The Lords Of Software". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  23. ↑ "Guess The Check Is In The E Mail". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  24. ↑ "Microshaft Winblows '98-Mac Review". 2000-06-16. Archived from the original on 2000-06-16. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  25. ↑ "Saturday Crapshoot: Microshaft Winblows 98 | Crap Shoot, Features". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2013-02-01.
  26. ↑ "MacAddict: Microshaft Winblows98". 2004-11-01. Archived from the original on 2004-11-01. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  27. ↑ "ThemeDoctor.com: Theme Review - Microshaft Winblows 98". www.themeworld.com. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
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