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From: candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: Quick, it's the boss!
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2024 21:30:04 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: the-candyden-of-code
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Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 23:48 this Saturday (GMT):
>
> Back in the day, when every game was a full-screen exclusive
> application, they all had a boss key. Hit the appropriate key, the
> game would instantly pause and pull up an image of.... well, it
> varied. Sometimes it was the DOS prompt; other times it was a DOS-era
> spreadsheet. Occasionally it was a page full of text representing a
> word processor. Whichever it was, it looked like something PRODUCTIVE
> rather than a video game. None of these 'boss screens' were ever
> interactive; the most you could do with them is return to the game,
> but the aim was to look like you weren't goofin' off at work.
>
>      [But not one of them ever faked a programming IDE or a 
>       'compiling' screen, which might have been more useful ;-]
>
> Boss screens quickly fell out of favor once multi-tasking windowed
> operating systems came into vogue; no need to fake it after that. Just
> quickly alt-tab to your productivity program whenever your supervisor
> walked into the room.
>
> But here's the question: for those of you old enough to remember them,
> did you _ever_ use a boss-key the way it was meant to be used? That
> is, to hide the evidence of your gaming from somebody who didn't want
> you to be playing? Or did you only use them like to many of us did, by
> accidentally hitting the wrong button and wondering why you were
> suddenly starting at a black screen with naught but "A:\" in the
> corner and wondering how to get back to the game?
>
> I mean, I never did. Partly because I was never ashamed of my
> video-gaming, and if the boss came around I'd cheerfully explain the
> reason WHY I wasn't working on the Simpsons Report and instead
> neck-deep in orc blood in Ultima III* was because I'd actually
> /finished/ the Simpson Report and was just waiting for some new task.
> (Also because I generally didn't work for dickheads who penny-pinched
> my every second so long as my work got done). But mostly it was
> because I never really was the sort to goof off at work anyway,
> whether because I was conscientious or just because I didn't want to
> get caught at it I'll leave up to you to decide. ;-)
>
> So I've never hit the boss-key to hide my video games.
>
> Did you?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> * Not that Ultima III had a boss key anyway. Not /every/ game offered
> that feature.


Boss keys were wayy past my time, but I find the idea funny. 
-- 
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom