InstallShield Wizard. If you’ve ever installed or removed a game from your Windows XP, Vista, or 7 computer, you’ve probably heard this name at least once in your life. I will not elaborate.
Yeah, things were different before everyone had fast internet at home and PC video game distribution was dominated by Steam, Epic Games Store, and so many others. The standard back then was to buy our games on CDs and DVDs that came ready to install and run, with no additional downloads required. Can you believe it?
The peaceful life of a PC gamer was just a sequence of “next, next, install, finish” occasionally interrupted by prompts to accept the terms that you didn’t read and enter the CD key (plus the optical drive screaming louder than a Kawasaki revving in the background)…
Surely it can be more than that, right?
Go on, ask Gabe Newell if his online store can do this.
Of course, not everything was created equally. Each installer had its own identity, and to our delight, there were developers who didn’t want to settle and went the extra mile to create awesome experiences featuring music, sound effects, art, and super-elaborate animations (or even minigames) that have aged well and still holds up to this day:
Different from what we’re used to seeing these days, huh? It’s a bit nostalgic, even…
But let’s be fair: there are still stores like GOG that offer offline installers (rocking a very basic look and built-in ads, unfortunately), which is great! But that’s not what we’re talking about. The point is that today’s games no longer make us feel like we’re inside them before they’re even ready to be played, and I miss that.
Perhaps the closest thing to this that’s still within our reach are pirated game installers with their creative keygens and activators (long live the resistance!), but that’s a conversation for another day.