Updated 2 years ago
It all started with a CD-ROM in 1996! And here is how you can see this vintage 90s tech in action, right on your PC! Truly a piece of pop culture history.
This vintage electronica masterpiece is not available anywhere anymore – I had to buy it off Ebay. Blender was launched in 1994, by Dennis Publishing, which would then go on to launch Maxim in 1995 and then Stuff in 1996.
How to Install
- Go to this link and download Blender 2.6. You will have to sign in to Dropbox, or create an account if you don’t have one.
- Right-click “LNCHR_32.exe”, go to the Compatibility tab, and set the file’s compatibility mode to “Windows 95”
- Open “LNCHR_32.exe”
- It will ask you where “OPENING.DIR” is. Just navigate to Blender 2.6/FILES.
- Click “OPENING.DIR”
- The CD-ROM will launch, but if you don’t have Quicktime installed (and who does?) it will immediately rape your ears with glitchcore while a popup says “Script Error: Handler not defined.”
Ignore all that. Just click “Continue.” - You’re in! The Evolution of Dance Music Guide is in Features!
Funnily enough, you have to click the red words “Goa Trance” in the Trance page to get to the secret Goa Trance page.
Talk about an Easter Egg!
It comes with very low bitrate sound effects and mov’s, but here are some of the pages:
Back in 1996, “The tranciest trance of them all” were all the words I needed to dive in. The fact that it was “no longer the trend it once was” did not deter me, as music styles back then had a one-year life cycle. And keep coming back, and back, and back.
Ishkur replicated this much better – first in (now deprecated) Flash form, and then in Javascript:
Elsewhere on the disk, you’ll find dozens of articles and bits, reviews, interviews with Danny Tenaglia and other 90s celebs, games, and just plain weird shit.
Note: If you need to quit, and you’re not in the main menu, you can’y just Alt F4….. you’ll have to Ctrl-Alt-Delete, the program to end is strangely called “Contro Skeleton.”
Enjoy!
