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Virtualization Helped Me Unlock a 1994 Monty Python CD-ROM
Ancient CD-ROMs and digital artifacts from the ’90s returned to life on my first virtual machine
My basement is a living illustration of the frailty of our favorite hardware and software. It’s full of gadgets from the last 30 years. There are computers without media, media without drives, peripherals without ports, and software without operating system support.
Among all that is my collection of mid-1990s CD-ROMs. Unlike music CDs (also a relic), CD-ROMs were the proto apps of the late 20th century. There were games, history, information, and — my favorite made-up word — edutainment. The latter mostly described titles that mixed education with fun and were designed for children. (Pajama Sam was a perfect example.)
I amassed my formidable collection when I oversaw PC Magazine’s popular Top 100 CD-ROMs features. For a time, my young children and I used quite a few of these discs. Eventually, they grew out of them, and my Windows systems essentially did the same.
Over the years, Microsoft’s done an impressive job of grandfathering old software, but there are limits. Today, most of my CD-ROMs no longer run on Windows 10, even in compatibility mode.