this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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Memes

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[–] [email protected] 126 points 10 months ago (12 children)

yes they are, actually. Backwards compatibility is a huge thing in Windows, it's why you can't name files certain names such as CON, and why you can find things from 3.1 etc. still.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 10 months ago (8 children)

Fun Fact: Every single Exe today still checks prior to running whether it is Barbie Riding Club (1998) or can it run normally?

Because when you update your OS and your game breaks - you don't blame Hasbro, you blame Windows every time. You can't just call up Sierra Games and ask them to update - they don't exist anymore and so you must carry everything forward - bugs included.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (6 children)

That fact does seem really fun and interesting. Why barbie? Got any links so I can read up on it?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I googled a bit, and perhaps this statement comes from this old Reddit thread here in the first comments.

There it's mainly used as a joke to describe how Windows is just very backwards compatible in general. The story might have stuck and warped a bit as like it really had a reference to that Barbie game.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I couldn't find a reference to Barbie in your link, or am I missing something?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

No, I’m just saying that compatibility databases do seem to exist, and the existence of “custom” ones implies that there is a built-in one. It wouldn’t be surprising to find out that Barbie and about a million other widespread legacy executables are in there.

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