# Your favorite obsolete computer program/utility. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 4, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717 "2010-02-04T21:09:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/81 "2010-02-10T23:10:06Z")
There was some game involving Grover… in space? … that had a soft cover that fitted over your keyboard to turn it into the game controls. How’s that for specific? 😃 This would have probably been in the mid to late '80s. I miss Winamp when it was good. I haven’t looked at it since they released v3, I downloaded it, and I then deleted it about fifteen minutes later in disgust and went back to using whatever 2.x I’d previously had. Even that I finally gave up on when I got an iPod. > [@Rafe\_Hollister](#): > > In college I had to program in FORTRAN77. Hell, \*I \*had to program in FORTRAN77 in college… only about five years ago. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/82 "2010-02-11T00:05:30Z")
There used to be a lot of games that would have something like that. Normally they just went over the function keys and showed the function on paper in the little space between the numbers and the function row. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/83 "2010-02-11T00:33:29Z")
I didn’t have an IBM clone computer until 1998 or 99. My childhood computer memories are all Commodore 64 related. There was a non-commercial SID chip (the C64 sound chip) editor that I entered from a magazine (remember those? Computer magazines that had code you entered by hand?) the name of which I do not remember. But I spent HOURS inputting individual notes from sheet music into that program and had a whole lot of floppies filled with the songs. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/84 "2010-02-11T02:07:32Z")
> [@Livardo](#): > > VBScript is the Visual Basic equivalent of Javascript nowadays. I think IE understands it so you can do DOM on a webpage with it. It’s also used for system maintenance scripts. Some Antivirus programs will bitch when you try to run them though. I actually knew about that. But I needed some sort of transition phase between the two. And you also mentioned why I’m not bothering to learn it now. Javascript’s not that bad. I’ve got avatars working on the Dope already. > [@Nobody](#): > > [How about this?](http://www.qb64.net/) That probably would have been a good transition. But it seems the project is more focused on compatibility with old programs, rather than taking the old syntax and moving it into the Windows paradigm. I’m not sure what I would have jumped to after it. Also, I don’t get the need to stick with the old DOS-looking interface. They do realize that Qbasic was mimicking Windows, right? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/85 "2010-02-11T02:29:46Z")
The original Sims game. I just have too much cool stuff downloaded from back in the day to give it up. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/86 "2010-02-11T03:11:25Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > There was a non-commercial SID chip (the C64 sound chip) editor that I entered from a magazine (remember those? Computer magazines that had code you entered by hand?) the name of which I do not remember. But I spent HOURS inputting individual notes from sheet music into that program and had a whole lot of floppies filled with the songs. The biggest name was the SID Editor, later the Enhanced SID Editor, from _Compute!_ ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/87 "2010-02-11T03:24:23Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Also, I don’t get the need to stick with the old DOS-looking interface. They do realize that Qbasic was mimicking Windows, right? They obviously did it for nostalgia. I don’t see anything wrong with that. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/88 "2010-02-11T03:47:30Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > The biggest name was the SID Editor, later the Enhanced SID Editor, from _Compute!_ Was that one basically like a really primitive version of Noteworthy Composer, with a staff graphic that you basically arrowed up and down to enter notes? I had thought it was called something more original than “SID Editor” but my memory has proven faulty before. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/89 "2010-02-11T05:28:08Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Was that one basically like a really primitive version of Noteworthy Composer, with a staff graphic that you basically arrowed up and down to enter notes? That’s the main screen, yes. The staff graphic’s not much wider than the note icon and the bottom of the screen consisted of a text representation of each note, and anything else that was entered. The latter consisted primarily of the attack, sustain, decay, release, and waveform for that particular voice, entered on a separate screen. Glissandos, playback colors, and other stuff could also be entered on that screen. The Enhanced SID Editor added the capability for triplets, among other things. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/90 "2010-02-11T13:21:04Z")
> [@sich\_hinaufwinden](#): > > MS Photoeditor. > > Did everything I needed (easily) for simple image manipulation and nothing else. The big things for me are the nothing else part and adjustable jpeg compression. This. Last fall my new work computer came with Office 2003, and “Microsoft Office Picture Manager.” It’s shyte. I still had Office XP at home, and discovered that I could take the PhotoEditor app folder from that machine and bring it to work, where it runs fine without a formal installation that ties it to the registry. Whew. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/91 "2010-02-11T13:38:42Z")
By the same token, Microsoft Photodraw V2…it was a FANATASTIC resolution independent editor…used it almost exclusively for web stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/92 "2010-02-11T13:49:01Z")
Been a long time since I saw Conan the Librarian. Program ran in the background on a Mac. It listened to the microphone, and whenever there was a blip of noise significantly above the ambient noise level in the room, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s voice would pipe up and say “QUIET.” If the noise in the room continued, Arnold would repeat himself with increasing intensity, eventually graduating to a very assertive “SHUT UP”; the final reminder was a protracted scream of “SHUUUUUUTUUUUUUUUP” with a fanfare of music to back it up. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/93 "2010-02-11T14:07:59Z")
I’m very much an old school geek, I long suspected most Dopers are too, glad to see this thread confirms it. If I can help it, I prefer to have the old school version of programs on my computer rather than newer ones. My preferred email client (well, only one, really) is Pegasus Mail (I refuse to use Outlook at home (forced to here at work though)) - though it gets me blank stares when I mention it to folks (and I’m even more reluctant to change as my wife is a computer luddite, had to train her on Pegasus, and I’ll be damned if I have to train her on anything else). My preferred program for viewing .gifs (just .gifs, I have other programs for other files (can’t recall the name of it but the one I use for viewing jpegs has a roadkill cat for its icon) is WinGIF. Old as the hills, but I’m so used to it for opening up the .gif files in my emails (of coruse when I edit or create .gif or .jpegs, I use a more civilized program like Photoshop or PaintShop Pro). Of course I also have IE 3.1 (not my default browser, of course), I say purely for the nostalgia factor (same for Netscape. If I could find a copy of NSCA Mosaic, the nostalgia factor would be complete.) > [@gonzoron](#): > > Back in the “the internet is only for government scientists and grad students” days, I spent an inordinate amount of time on [BBS](http://en.wikipedia.org/Bulletin_board_system)’s This. It was only a few years ago (which was a few years after the last board left that I called went to the great modem in the sky to meet his Sysop) that I realized that people don’t call BBSes any more and most don’t even know what they are now. _sniff_ God, I miss those. 😢 (I also miss laughing at the n00bs who would say “I know the sysop of the Internet!” when the get laughed off the 'net for their n00bery. Those noobs who tried to have us call their bluffs are now considered 'net oldtimers!) > [@gonzoron](#): > > Ah… those were the days… collecting thousands of “taglines” (what we’d call sigs now, I guess) into a huge file and using a separate tagline-adding program to randomly insert one in each outgoing message. (can’t recall the name of the tagline program I used, but whatever it was, it belongs on this list too.) Stop! You’re making me misty-eyed! Next you’ll probably start talking about Usenet (see my comments about BBSes above. Didnt’ know that Usenet is dead until recently either.) > [@gonzoron](#): > > I also wasted a lot of time programming in BASIC. I suppose some of it was useful to apply to real languages later, but for some reason, I was fascinated with the music and drawing functions. So I would spend hours inputting sheet music like this: > 10 PLAY “AC2GF#\>C.B-A8\ and drawing boxes like this: > 20 LINE “100,20-50,40”,BF > > And in the end I’d have a program that would (slowly) draw a picture of the Enterprise while it played the Star Trek theme. Whoo… Oh man, you have no idea how warm and fuzzy this made me feel. This is like if I was raised in a foreign country speaking a foreign language, but moved to N. America at a young age. 25 years later, you don’t speak the language any more but you suddenly hear a snippet of it and, although you haven’t spoken the langauge in a quarter of a century, you still understand the jist of it and it instantly makes you homesick. I just felt that way now. Haven’t programmed in BASIC for about that long, but that sure takes me back! > [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > One I remember is Neko, a little cat that would chase your mouse pointer around the screen. I first saw it on IBM OS/2, but it was originally from the NEC PC clone in Japan. > > Now there are versions available for lots of machines, including a html web one at [http://webneko.net/](http://webneko.net/). I also have a version of that on my computer (as old school a version as I could find). Interestingly enough, to my immense pride, with all the neato games on my computer, with GUIs and finely rendered graphics and sound, and multimedia experiences, plus a Wii system, our kid’s favourite computer game? “The cat game!” (aka Neko) They love it, can’t get enough of it. And it makes me so proud. > [@Scarlett67](#): > > Forgot to mention: whenever I see a license plate with the letter combination “LFN,” I think of Long File Names, a handy utility I used on my first computer, bought in 1993, on which 8.3 filenames were still standard. It put a file with the extension .lfn in every folder, containing the pointers from my long file names to the “real” ones. I _still_ have a fear of LFNs, when I make websites now, I still try to keep my file names, if at all possible, in 8.3 format (which means almost all my pages, except index.html, end in .htm). ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/94 "2010-02-11T15:53:15Z")
Aha! The game was [Astro-Grover](http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Astro-Grover), released in '87. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/95 "2010-02-11T17:11:53Z")
Well, my first computer was an Apple IIe back in about '84 or so, so there’s lots of old programs that I fondly remember. But what about obsolete software you actually still use today? There are a couple I use because I’m not one to upgrade for the sake of upgrading. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I still use Winamp 2.9 everyday. It plays MP3’s, can save different playlists, and it has a shuffle mode. That’s all I want so I’ve never found a need to upgrade. Paint Shop Pro 5 is my default image editor. It’s copyright date is from '99, but it’s fast loading and low on resources by today’s standards. I do have the latest version of PSP also, but for most basic editing PSP5 good enough. I had been using Netscape Messenger 4.7 for my email up until last summer. Again, it can send email, recieve email, and it had an address book. That’s all I wanted so never bothered to change over to something else. It’s obsolescence was an advantage at times. It was immune to a lot of malware because it didn’t support the scripting being exploited. I finally moved to Thunderbird for email because I had long abandoned the Netscape browser, and Messenger didn’t recognize Opera. I had gotten tired of having to copy-paste links from emails that I wanted to open. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/96 "2010-02-11T17:30:29Z")
> [@Jet\_Jaguar](#): > > But what about obsolete software you actually still use today? There are a couple I use because I’m not one to upgrade for the sake of upgrading. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. > > I still use Winamp 2.9 everyday. It plays MP3’s, can save different playlists, and it has a shuffle mode. That’s all I want so I’ve never found a need to upgrade. Not as old as yours, but I still use [Sonique 1.96](http://download.cnet.com/Sonique/3000-2139_4-10023086.html), released in 2002. It works under XP, but I haven’t tried it under Vista or 7. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/97 "2010-02-11T18:37:48Z")
> [@Jet\_Jaguar](#): > > But what about obsolete software you actually still use today? There are a couple I use because I’m not one to upgrade for the sake of upgrading. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I realized yesterday that I’m still using Quicken 2006. ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/98 "2010-02-11T18:46:33Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > IEBPTPCH . It was a generic copy utility on OS/360 designed mostly for duplicating parts of decks of cards or doing simple dump to print operations. Back in the 70s I moved a lot of cards with that thing. Wiki has a real stroll down memory lane here [Support programs for OS/360 and successors - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_mainframe_utility_programs#IEBPTPCH) > > For all I know, z/OS still has that utility for backwards compatiblity. Oh it does, and all it’s brothers IEBGENER, IEBCOPY, IDCAMS, and the rest. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/99 "2010-02-11T18:59:32Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > Not as old as yours, but I still use [Sonique 1.96](http://download.cnet.com/Sonique/3000-2139_4-10023086.html), released in 2002. It works under XP, but I haven’t tried it under Vista or 7. I still use that. I love the “Rabbit Hole” animation when run full screen. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717/100 "2010-02-11T20:01:57Z")
I just noticed I’m still using MS Office 2000. It does what I need it to do so I have no compelling reason to upgrade. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-obsolete-computer-program-utility/527717.md?page=6)