You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
It's funny how that message encapsulates a very short "in-between" moment in consumer PCs
Because in Windows 3 you didn't "shut down", you just quit to DOS and then manually switched off your PC
And by the time computers preloaded with Windows 9x came along, computers could power down by themselves after you'd click "Shut Down"
So that message only appeared if you were running Windows 9x but had an older computer that needed to be manually switched off
Which we must have done, i guess. It's so long ago and at the time i was completely oblivious to that kind of thing, which makes remembering this stuff feel odd.
i remember being very annoyed by all the aesthetic changes in subsequent Windows operating systems and later versions of programs like Word. i even kept using an outdated version of Word for a while (despite having a newer version installed) because i wanted the familiar layout and aesthetic.
It's funny how that message encapsulates a very short "in-between" moment in consumer PCs
Because in Windows 3 you didn't "shut down", you just quit to DOS and then manually switched off your PC
And by the time computers preloaded with Windows 9x came along, computers could power down by themselves after you'd click "Shut Down"
So that message only appeared if you were running Windows 9x but had an older computer that needed to be manually switched off
It was similar in the Mac world, too, where you only saw that screen if you had a 68000 Mac, an LC, or one of the, like, 2 or 3 68030 models that used the classic toaster form factor (the SE/30, the Classic II, and the II's Performa version). Every other Mac had soft-off, and that'd been a thing since the Mac II in 1987.
It's funny how that message encapsulates a very short "in-between" moment in consumer PCs
Because in Windows 3 you didn't "shut down", you just quit to DOS and then manually switched off your PC
And by the time computers preloaded with Windows 9x came along, computers could power down by themselves after you'd click "Shut Down"
So that message only appeared if you were running Windows 9x but had an older computer that needed to be manually switched off
My family's first computer ran Windows 3.1, then Windows 3.11, and later Windows 95. After the last upgrade it got really slow, and I kinda resented that. I also tried playing EcoQuest 1 on it and it even had a brand new CD-ROM drive for that purpose but I couldn't get it to run, and for years EcoQuest was That One Game That I Couldn't Play. I also had Mega Man X for PC, which was similarly on CD-ROM (and came in a HUGE box), which I also couldn't play for some reason. Well, MMX barely ran at all, as opposed to EcoQuest which I think just refused to run.
I still don't know why I couldn't play them. I think I attributed it to drive speed at the time, but I'm not sure that's the actual reason.
But yeah, that computer reassured me when it was okay for me to press the big button.
Comments
BFG-9000
This is very nostalgic for me
i love how reassuring this message was at the time, and how, with hindsight, the implications were needlessly alarming.
Because in Windows 3 you didn't "shut down", you just quit to DOS and then manually switched off your PC
And by the time computers preloaded with Windows 9x came along, computers could power down by themselves after you'd click "Shut Down"
So that message only appeared if you were running Windows 9x but had an older computer that needed to be manually switched off
i remember being very annoyed by all the aesthetic changes in subsequent Windows operating systems and later versions of programs like Word. i even kept using an outdated version of Word for a while (despite having a newer version installed) because i wanted the familiar layout and aesthetic.
I still don't know why I couldn't play them. I think I attributed it to drive speed at the time, but I'm not sure that's the actual reason.
But yeah, that computer reassured me when it was okay for me to press the big button.
It also smelled nice.