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PaperclipPerfector  10d ago (text post)   35667 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 20, 2025

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Their 'innovations' were things like a fucking talking paperclip which would try to distract you in word.

MS pushing Microsoft Bob and then the cartoon assistants in Office makes a lot more sense once you know that the future Melinda Gates was a marketing manager on Bob and later Office and thought that the assistant technology was an amazing step forward. Bill Gates came away from those meetings thinking he heard some amazing ideas. Eventually he realized what was up and started dating her.

Microsoft was on some weird stuff in the tail end of the 90's. They were publishing some killer PC games (Midtown Madness, MechWarrior 3), they launched their own version of the then-newly-commercially-viable optical mouse (the IntelliEye), they had the legendary Sidewinder Force Feedback joystick, and software like Bob was also paried with less-well-remembered oddities like Microsoft Chat.

I just checked because it was a childhood favorite, apparently hasbro published MechWarrior 3. I can never remember the big licensing crossover thing with fasa, hasbro, and grand wizards of the coast. Remember the latter had a battle tech cockpit sim arcade at their HQ back in the day (...I think?)

(Edit: oh, but fasa itself belonged to Microsoft Game Studios at the time, I never knew! But they didn't develop 3 either: that was zipper. Microsoft published two Mech Assault games and then seems to have totally abandoned the franchise)

Fascinatingly, FASA's ultimate goal with the Battletech/Mechwarrior franchise was to build the Battletech centers. It was an amazing experience to be able to sit in a Battletech pod for some good old fashioned lance vs. lance combat in 1991, incredibly advanced tech for its time.

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