Remember back in the heady days of the mid-1990s, when playing computer games felt like running around in a endless maze of cardboard walls? Relive it today in Payroll, a game that simulates both the excitement of working in an office building, and the thrill of running Windows 95, complete with 640x480 pixel resolution and sound effects ripped from an Adlib sound card.
You play as a diligent employee working in an office that also seems trapped in the '90s, complete with noisy fax machines and X-Files posters on the walls. You have a computer, and its screens will tell you what you need to do.
"The office has never been more Windows 95," promises the game's developer, Astrojone.
Payroll is only about 20 minutes long, and available for $1 on itch.io. Naturally, it's Windows only.
The Offworld Collection, presenting the very best features and essays from Offworld, is finally available to buy directly from Campo Santo for $40. I had the pleasure of designing and illustrating this splendid 250-page hardcover volume, but it’s the excellent writing, edited by Leigh Alexander and Laura Hudson, that makes it an essential buy. You […]
Zoya Street, curator of Critical Distance, offers slow reflections on the fast-paced world of digital play…
This week, our partnership with Critical Distance brings us reading on parenting via Tomb Raider, the utility of the word ‘gameplay’, and experiences from Nintendo ‘play counselors’ from the 1980s and 90s.
Nearly 30 years after it started its run as the most dominant productivity software ever created, the Microsoft Office suite of programs are now virtually synonymous with personal computing. From its days bundled with Windows to its current life as Office 365 cloud-based apps, there’s no reason to think perennial hits like Word, Excel and […]
Photography isn’t just about lighting and composition anymore, especially when you’re shooting with your smartphone. While a wealth of expertise can absolutely help you grab better images, sometimes it’s just about having a great light or an amazing smoothing gimbal to instantly elevate your Instagram pics and other social videos from meh to standout. To […]
As the summer surges forward, grilling and evenings in the backyard may be the only serious outdoor excursions many of us take this season. Yet even with all of our current problems, there’s one group who doesn’t care a bit about COVID-19 and will still look to make any trip you make outside into an […]
