First post, by Retroplayer
I am really not certain where to put this, but I wanted to discuss the various desktop enhancement "experiments" that was a short lived rage in the 90s.
Computer manufacturers appeared to be in a competition to create new desktop shells to simplify the experience for new users. I am only familiar with a few and hope to learn about some others from you guys.
1. Packard Bell/Reveal Navigator desktop. This was my first introduction to these and the theme was an office. There were bookshelves, and other analogous items throughout the room. When you opened files, I seem to recall that folders would show up on the desk. My memory could be skewed, but I seem to recall there being other rooms such as a media room for listening to music and watching videos.
2. Microsoft Bob. I knew of its existence, yet I never actually tried it myself.
(The above two are at WinWorldPC if anyone wants to try them out)
3. Of course; Active Desktop. I actually created an Active Desktop for my mother back then based loosely around the CATZ theme to help her learn her computer.
What else is out there?
For desktop enhancements/toys, I never really got into them back in the day, but a friend was really into the Deskmates (Thani specifically) and I had made great strides in reverse engineering the files in an effort to create new characters and animation. Somewhere I have my code to pack and unpack the files. Anyway, since this area was not all that interesting to me at the time, I missed out on a lot of probably cool enhancements. Stuff I would love to see today (I can probably be persuaded to re-launch the Deskmates efforts if I can't locate my old code...)
