Games - Microsoft Bob

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	Games - Microsoft Bob

Microsoft Bob is a product released by Microsoft in March 1995 as an adventure game-like interface for performing tasks on one's computer.

Origins

Microsoft Bob was designed to be a user friendly interface for Microsoft Windows version 3.1, replacing the Program Manager
. The project was at one point managed by Melinda French, Bill Gates' girlfriend at the time. The two later married. At the time she left Microsoft she was Product Unit Manager for a group which included Bob and three other Microsoft titles.

Features

Bob includes various office suite programs such as a calendar, a finance application, and a word processor. Despite its ambitious nature and its wide variety of features, it failed to penetrate the market and is widely considered one of Microsoft's least successful products.

Despite its poor market showing and notwithstanding its condescending tone or dumbed-down interface, Bob's yellow smiley face logo became widely associated with the product and Microsoft in general.

The cartoon helper agents of Bob (version 1.0)

Bob features a diverse selection of "guides". Each guide posesses its own unique "personality" and has its own array of animations. Although they were meant to be cute, many people found the guides to be simply annoying.

Rover, the yellow dog
Blythe, a firefly from New York City
Chaos, a fluffy cat from France
Digger, an Irish earthworm
Hopper, a blue bunny rabbit
Java, a coffee-drinking dragon from Guatemala
Ruby, a parrot
Shelly, a turtle that wears a backpack and carries a walking stick
Scuzz, a guitar-playing rat
Spearker, a black computer speaker
Will, a cartoon of William Shakespeare
The Dot, a red ball

Other cartoon helper agents

Some designs of the Bob cartoons are still used in other Microsoft products:

Bob's face was used in MSN Messenger
as a "Nerd Smiley"
Will and The Dot are now Office Assistant
s
The yellow dog "Rover" can be found in the search function of Windows XP
Rover's animations (like typing on a computer) inspired the Office Assistant "Rex"

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Microsoft Bob ]

Games - Microsoft Bob

Origins

Features

The cartoon helper agents of Bob (version 1.0)

Other cartoon helper agents

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