It was all so simple back then: you made a debatably cool screen name, clicked on an online friend and chatted away without much distraction. Social media platforms killed AIM with direct-messaging services built into large online communities, but I missed when one-to-one, virtual conversations weren’t attached to buzzy platforms filled with look-at-me statuses and attention-seeking content. While many still gush about “You’ve got mail,” nothing stimulates nostalgic warm fuzzies more than hearing AIM’s iconic creaky door sound - an indication that a friend, also a fellow AOL subscriber, is now online and you can dispel loneliness with a social-life reviving online chat. Back in the late '90s, there was Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger, but AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) - launched in 1997 - caught everyone’s eye. Late '90s Instant Messagingīring on the obnoxious '90s screen names à la XxObsidian_HeartxX and HairyMole_89.Īh, the glorious days of buddy lists and away messages. Screensavers might be “so 1998,” but I wouldn’t mind if Windows reintroduced screensavers in future operating system updates. Screensaver Subterfuge and Cornell University’s Maze in a Box). Now that most of us use LCD monitors, we no longer need moving pictures to save our screens.Īlthough the 3D maze got thrown by the wayside in 2000, it gained nostalgic popularity as many creatives made the screensaver playable (i.e. The twists and turns of the brick-wall maze, the colorful pipes spontaneously appearing on your screen and the spooky haunted house - old-school Windows screensavers, though unpolished and rudimentary, were hypnotizing and mesmerizing.Īs '90s computers remained idle in schools and offices, the dizzying labyrinth of the popular 3D brick maze screensaver was a welcomed escape as teachers prattled on with tedious lectures and office meetings droned on.īack in the day, Windows’ quirky screensavers weren’t just hypnotic animations for our visual pleasure - they were used to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT (cathode ray tube) and plasma monitors after hours of displaying the same image. An Office assistant revival - juiced up with 2020 technology and AI - would work wonders. That being said, I’d love to see a Clippy resurgence in Word. And among the world’s digital assistants, Cortana only secures 19% of the market share. Only 150 million use Cortana, which is a fraction of the 700-plus million who use Windows 10. Unfortunately for Microsoft, Cortana doesn’t have the “oomph” to leave behind an impactful, Clippy-like legacy. Cortana - Microsoft’s current virtual assistant - could never fill the shoes that the world’s favorite paper clip left behind, even though the Halo-based bot is smarter, sleeker and sassier.Ĭlippy made himself at home in Office and he was an unforgettable presence in Word. I don’t know about you, but I miss that pesky paperclip. As time passed, Clippy’s absence has weighed heavily on our nostalgic hearts. Would you like help?" questions enraged letter writers around the world the moment the word “Dear” hit the page.Īfter being introduced to the world in Office 97, Clippy got the boot nearly a decade later. Atteberry was cognizant of how much Clippy’s incessant "It looks like you're writing a letter. Even its designer, Kevan Atteberry, was ashamed of Clippy at one point - he refused to claim the poor paperclip as his creation on his resumes. In 2010, Time dubbed Clippy as one of the worst inventions of all time. You can download it for free for Windows, macOS, and Linux from his website, or if playing a game sounds like too much work, you can always watch videos of the old screensaver on a loop.Clippy wasn’t always loved. Screensaver Subterfuge was designed by Cahoots Malone as part of the PROCJAM 2017 generative software showcase. There are also lots of giant rats in this version of the screensaver. Finding a giant smiley face takes you to level two, and finding the briefcase icon ends the game. The gameplay is pretty simple: Use the arrow keys to navigate the halls and press Q and click the mouse to change their design. You play as a kid hacker who’s been charged with retrieving sensitive data hidden in the screensaver of Windows 95 before devious infomancers can get to it first. Instead of watching passively as your computer weaves through the maze, you’re leading the journey this time around. As Motherboard reports, the animation has been re-imagined into a video game called Screensaver Subterfuge. The screensaver has since become iconic, and now nostalgic Microsoft fans can relive it in a whole new way. In the '90s, a significant amount of computing power was devoted to generating endless brick mazes on Windows 95.
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