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Reviews for "Windows Infinity"
Buggie.
Nice!
good game the only problem is i get too much BSoDs
While it seems I am reviewing my own old game, I'll mostly tell you the story of it.
This is a game I made when I was 13 years old, and I am now 18. I learnt about Newgrounds quite early as a kid, at the time when Macromedia Shockwave & Flash was all the rage (damn I'm old). I fondly remember making hundreds of Flash minigames, apps and other crazy stuff as a kid. In retrospective, I am saddened that the majority of them are lost now, as I never uploaded them to the Internet nor made a backup of my grandpa's old WinXP hard drive.
With what I'm happy is that I did upload this Windows spoof just at the right time. It's certainly among my favorite projects from the "Flash era", and a late one too, as I quickly left Flash (and hence Actionscript) behind in favor of HTML5 and newer web technologies.
Millenials are quite familiar with the Windows fad of the 2000s. From error makers and soundboards to music remixes and Flash parodies. The later one, in particular, was very popular here at Newgrounds. So, I tried to homage all of this with an extense polished spoof, much in the style of Windows Doors, Windows ABC and Windows 50p, my all-time favorites.
If you play Windows Infinity for a while, though, you will notice there is not much to do and perhaps some sections look rushed/incomplete. That's because they are. In fact, I estimate the final product to be only 15-20% of what I originally planned. I even put down all the ideas on a notebook, which I luckily still own. At first, Windows Infinity had a double purpose; being the ultimate Windows spoof, and being my Flash swan song.
This game was meant to have a plot (yes, a damn Windows parody with a plot) involving Linux's Pengun and Apple's trademark Apple logo, both teaming up to destroy your computer, and in order to advance the game, the player had to find clues hidden through the many programs. It was possible, however, to visit any program at any time. I thought of it as mixture of a Windows parody, and open ended RPG and a "find the clues" style game. A seriously strange hybrid, I know. Among other scrapped material, there was this idea to implement a fully working CMD, with the endless possibilities it could have brought to the table, also the complete "Office" suite, of which only "World" and "XL" appear in the final product, literal enemies and bosses in the form of wacky viruses you fight with the mouse/keyboard. My favorite addition, Gugol Chroma, was originally meant to have thousands of websites. Some time after I made a standalone Gugol Chroma. It's also here on Newgrounds. It has more content than the Windows Infinity version, but it's still lacking.
In short, the Windows Infinity you play here is a seriously cut down version of the game I originally had in mind. Most of the ambition was taken away. I took the conventional approach of errors, restarts and a small collection of programs.
It was the sum of time constraints, personal problems with depression, inexperience (because I was 13 at the time and it was far beyond my capabilities) and consequent loss of interest, that Windows Infinity ended the way it is. However, I simply cannot say I am unhappy with it. In fact, I am so happy that it exists, because I made the game during a particularly grim time of my life and I still managed to develop a thing I had in my mind for so long. Maybe not as great or ambitious, not even half of its potential, but at least, it exists. I am also glad that it enjoyed a modest fame and that people enjoyed it for what it is.
Perhaps in the future somebody with talent and ingenuity will turn all these scrapped ideas into something amazing. Not necessarily another strict Windows spoof, because I humbly believe it's an antiquated fad. But I think a great RPG could come from it. If somebody ever makes such game, please contact me, I'll gladly play it.