On April 1st, many organizations around the world took the opportunity to have a little fun, coming up with a number of unique projects. Of these, Microsoft’s “MS-DOS for Mobile” app was certainly among the more unusual, not least for the amount of effort that clearly went into its design.
This was never intended to be a simple one note joke, contained within the app is a fully functional (albeit nostalgic) experience. Upon being greeted with the home screen, having launched the app, users are prompted to enter command lines, as was once necessary in DOS, here are a few of the better options:
Rock, Paper, Scissors: Type “cd games”, followed by “cd rps” and then “rps.exe” to enjoy a little retro gaming.
Internet: Type “internet” to access the web browser, accompanied by the lovingly re-created squeals and squawks of a 56k modem attempting to connect.
Windows 3.1: Bored of the same old MS-DOS shell? Type “win” to be whisked into the wonderful Windows 3.1 GUI, through which a number of other functions can be accessed.
Camera: Lastly, if you type “camera”, you will be taken to a custom version of the camera app, which allows photos to be taken in ASCII, CGA, and black-and-white modes.
In addition to this, there is a whole host of other functions which can be executed: “cls”, “color attr”, “phone select”, “date”, “time”, “dir”, “email”, “sms”, “phone”, “help”, “maps”, “search”, “market” and “ver”. And if you get bored of these, “exit” will close the app.
Whether born of a genuine nostalgia for the DOS era, or as a simple rib-tickle, this app quite perfectly replicates the old days, even if in a very binary sense. If you owned a PC in the late 80’s/early 90’s and are currently toting a Windows Phone, this app is for you.
Are you using MS-DOS for Mobile? What is your favorite feature? Let us know in the comments below.
Further reading: Lumia, Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows Phone
