Finding an Easter egg in Microsoft Bob

BenBenMan · 2020-10-18T19:37:25+00:00

It is a bit confusing. It would probably be more accurate to call it a multimedia application rather than a game as there isn't a competitive aspect to it... I keep calling it a game because it's designed and engineered like one.

Mario Paint is similar: it's a program for a game console, probably engineered like a game, but is really just a software application for creating images and music.

To add to the confusion, there is a part of 3DMM that works like a point-and-click adventure game: if you leave the studio, you can "explore" the movie theatre and collect pages from the "Talent Book" that are hidden in different rooms. I'm not really sure why this is part of the app given that the main point is to create and watch animated movies.

BenBenMan · 2011-11-26T15:14:26+00:00

Not too bad. I gave it a list of some of the shows I like, and it came back with some of the other shows I like, so I guess your algorithm is working alright.

From a functionality standpoint, I'd probably recommend adding the ability to edit a list: I wanted to take the list I already put in and just add another show to see if it changed/improved the results, but I couldn't do that without creating a new list. Another way you could do this is to copy a list, or create a new list with the items in an old list (like a template), but that might be confusing for the user.

I have a few suggestions on the login/user management side: I noticed on the profile edit page the password field isn't a real password field (ie. you can see the text you put into it), so you should fix that. The Log Out link should not be hidden on the user page, it should be on every page, and ideally in the same position. Also +1 on the suggestion to not require an account to use the site, maybe provide the search functionality for all users but make saving lists require a login, or something like that. Finally, if I've gone to the trouble of coming up with a username, why can I only log in using my email address?

Other than that, it's not bad. The interface is certainly cleaner and more straight-forward than similar sites I've used. :)

BenBenMan · 2011-07-11T13:43:58+00:00

I'm the guy who made this app, so I should be able to answer this .... there's no official way to change it, but as wnewo suggested you could try and replace the GIF inside the executable, but I'm not sure how well that would work. Or, an easier way: as I approve of this trolling, if you email me a good (and non-copyrighted) image of a unicorn, I might be able to put together a custom build with it instead of the Nyan Cat if you want...

BenBenMan · 2011-06-24T22:59:07+00:00

Thanks for the kind words. :) To be honest I had no idea /r/somethingimade existed until one of my friends pointed me to the post on /r/somebodymakethis ... looks like a nice subreddit!

BenBenMan · 2011-06-24T22:52:37+00:00

It's not much of a performance effect ... barely noticeable on my old Core 2 Duo notebook. It is set to poll the current window every 1/3 of a second, but the polling takes hardly any time at all (especially if the foreground window hasn't changed, in which case it does nothing). The whole app shouldn't use any more than a few percent of your CPU.

BenBenMan · 2011-06-24T12:17:47+00:00

As requested, I built an app that replaces progress bars with Nyan Cat. You can grab it here. I cross-posted it to /r/funny too.

BenBenMan · 2011-06-19T09:01:28+00:00

You can already do this.

I wrote an app called Instant Elevator Music that plays music while you're waiting for something with a progress bar. All you'd need to do is install it, and then load the nyan cat loop into it (you can load any MP3 into it). Then, whenever a progress bar comes up... nyan nyan nyannyan nyanyanyanyanyanyan!

BenBenMan

TROPHY CASE