WIN32.DLL

Like SM Word before it, WIN32.DLL is an explicit stab at some of the perceived interface failings and, here, security frailties of the at press-time industry standard operating environment for personal computers, the many flavours, all lacking, of Microsoft's Windows operating system.

It simulates a never-ending deluge of pop-up windows cascading in an endless parade of ridiculous system error messages. To take care of them, the user need only click on the offending window; unfortunately, like the regenerating heads of the mythical Hydra, more will return to take its place. Worse, if a warning window is allowed to remain on the screen for too long, it permits a piece of bloatware to sneak through a security hole (doubtless in Internet Explorer or Outlook Express) and install itself, reflected along the bottom of the in-game desktop task bar.

The faster a player dismisses a warning window by clicking on it, the higher score it returns, but ultimately regardless of how long the player can keep up this juggling act of GUI Whac-a-mole, the simulated environment's resources are eventually sufficiently depleted by the nuisance programs to lock up in a fatal exception "blue screen of death". The only solution really is to change operating systems, but even that leaves users vulnerable to new and unexpected threats.