Been off the blogroll for awhile…the reason being I’m getting a new computer set up with my old files and programs, and it takes awhile. I “upgraded” to Windows Vista from Windows XP.  Enough of a difference to make me flounder a little bit while I juggle files, folders, and directories.

I remember when I first got into the computer game.  Windows 95 was the latest and greatest.  Many legacy programs ran in DOS.  Okay, you remember DOS, don’t you?

cd\

cd\c:

c:\

c:\dir /w

And so forth…

If you have no idea what DOS is, that’s okay, because it’s not that relevant in today’s computing environment.  DOS was the real deal back-in-the-day, though.

I had a freeware game that only ran in DOS, called “SkyRoads”.  It was the precursor to many of today’s simple handheld game styles (such as cell phone games).  Simple, with good graphics, and a killer music score.  Did I say it was free?  That was the best part.  Download it, open it up in DOS, and away you went.

SkyRoads was notable in that while simple and fun, it was also unbeatable when played by mere mortals.  I never did master it.  Invariably I would “go off the edge” at the critical stage of one of the upper levels.

Well, I kept SkyRoads on the hard drive through Windows 95 and 98, since running the game in DOS was okay with those operating systems, even in the DOS shell (okay, now I really think I’m losing most of you).  The game ran at the command prompt in Windows 2000 and XP, but had no sound.  Alas, the music score made the game, and it wasn’t quite as fun.

Which brings me back to the present (the future?) and Windows Vista.  I had almost forgotten about SkyRoads.  I was digging around the Net for some operating system emulators, when I ran into an open source program called DOSBox.  DOSBox is a DOS shell emulator which allows one to run old-timey DOS programs in the Windows Vista environment.  The best part is, since DOSBox is open source, it’s also free!

You guessed it…I relocated my original copy of SkyRoads deep in the bowels of my third hard drive.  I got it running, sound and all, in Vista.  Still can’t beat the game. 

Another search of the Net determined that SkyRoads is still available for FREE download here.  Go get it.  If any one of you beats it, let me know.

I’d like to see someone squeeze Skyroads into a cell phone game format.  Now that would be something.  Back to the future…