Games - Bad command or file name

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"Bad command or file name" was an infamous error message in early versions of Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system, which is based on a command line interface (in contrast with, for example, Windows, which is GUI-based).

The dreaded "Bad command or file name" message represented basically the same as the "Syntax error"* message from BASIC interpreters of the 1980s, and both resulted from mistyping a command to be executed or file name to be loaded or saved. Novices, in general, and quite a few experienced users as well, had trouble understanding the message, so in later versions it was changed to " is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or batch file".

When both PC-DOS and MS-DOS were translated to Spanish, IBM and Microsoft took a different approach for the word "command". IBM used the translation "mandato" while Microsoft used "comando" that in Spanish means Commando. Jokes originated from this error message; when MS-DOS says "Comando o archivo no encontrado" (as Microsoft translated "Bad command or file name" but which really means "Commando or file not found") one would ask himself "¿y dónde están mis soldados?" ("and where are my soldiers?")

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