Operating system based on Quake III engine.
Imagine the scene -- you've just booted up .. and you're in a long corridor. You can wander into different rooms (directorys). On the walls in each of these rooms are a load of cool looking, but currently blank TV screens.
Files are positioned in these rooms. A crate with the word 'CV.doc' on it. A Barrel with the word 'Family Photo' scrawled into it.
You can pick up any of the objects in the room -- and shove them in a slot underneath any of the TV screens on the wall. The screen flickers. Inside that screen you see MS Word displaying your CV. Clicking on that window allows you to edit your CV. When finished -- the TV screen on the wall dies - the file clunks out of the slot under the graphical TV and on to the floor.
You can pick the barrel (file) up and take it to a different room. Rename it using a 'virtual welder'. Or grab a shotgun and blow the £%^% out of the file -- in which case it gets deleted (after exploding satisfyingly).
The complex tasks we're used to -- such as wrestling with network connection settings so the bugger will work is now replaced with an 'end of level baddie'. A swarming mass of RJ45 leads and modems which you must dispose of using rail guns, plasma cannons and the like as he screams manically words at you such as 'DLL error' and 'Unable to establish connection'.
Virus attack? You see the virus as a morphing green 'blob monster' you can choose to take out yourself, or send in 'Norton' .. represented on screen as a crack-commando unit armed with AK47s and grenades -- just watch the fireworks!
System messages, rather then being relayed to you in a boring old 2D window .. an old clever looking professor runs up to you in the corridor and proceeds to tell you about them in a wild, erratic voice before running away down a corridor laughing like a mad fool.
Hours of fun, and you ain't even booted a game yet!-- britboy, Feb 23 2004 psDoom http://www.happypenguin.org/show?psDoomPerhaps you were referring to this krelnik? [hoopdy, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004] It would be a hell of a load on the CPU, but it would be fun. Also, it would be impossible for your boss to tell if you were working or playing games.-- GenYus, Feb 23 2004 A while back I saw a total conversion of Quake that turned it into a system process manager. Each process was represented by a monster, kill the monster to kill the process. (Tried to dig up a link, but there's too much Quake on the web to find it).-- krelnik, Feb 23 2004 Custom maps? Jump pads? Definitely a more interesting way to de'frag' your box ...-- Letsbuildafort, Feb 23 2004 As available memory wanes, your character loses more and more "hit points" and gets slower and older. If the computer freezes, your character dissolves into a heap of bones, like in the old video game Gauntlet.-- phundug, Feb 23 2004 Baked, but with Doom, so maybe not baked....[link]-- hoopdy, Feb 23 2004 Thanks hoopdy, no wonder I couldn't find it, I was searching for Quake instead of Doom.-- krelnik, Feb 23 2004 I can see the attraction of having to play a 2-hour game of Quake before starting work every morning, but I doubt my employers would be so keen.-- kropotkin, Feb 24 2004 I'm actually a fan of 2D for the asthetics of it... also, people with TFT monitors would probably need to upgrade to one with a higher refresh rate to avoid ghosting... which would become a real problem... (or maybe we could all just go right back to CRT)...
On another note... the term Wallpaper would actually make sense? --- Ossalisc, Feb 26 2004 Bob: "I can't get to my files ... there are just too many of the bastards"
Sally: "Ok I'm calling the Quake PC Doctor"
... A hour later a nerdy looking guy shows up... jumps in front of the machine presses keys you didn't know even existed. 5 minutes later the room is littered with dead monsters.
Quake PC Doctor: "That will be $60"-- ixnaum, Aug 26 2005 "Medic" maps-to undelete-- Dub, Aug 27 2005 random, halfbakery