![]() In 1999, Compaq announced that it would no longer support Windows on the Alpha AXP, which left a lot of Windows team members with cumbersome paperweights on their desks. On the other hand, the Windows team did have access to a lot of copies of another 64-bit processor: The Alpha AXP. Clearly not the development environment you wanted when porting millions of lines of code. Booting Windows on an Itanium simulator took forever. ![]() The only way you could run any Itanium code was to run it in a simulator. When the 64-bit Windows project started, there was no Itanium hardware yet. I was amazed at the level of thoroughness (and the fortitude it required to get those Itanium systems up and running, much less debug them), but there’s one version of 64-bit Windows that NCommander didn’t try out, and that’s the one that’s relevant to the story. Retrocomputing enthusiast NCommander even undertook a Zapruder-level analysis of all of the 64-bit versions of Windows he could find to prove or disprove my story. One point of contention is over my claim that I removed Pinball from Windows because I couldn’t get the 64-bit version to work. ![]() People keep asking if it can be brought back. My proudest achievement of Windows XP was fixing the game so it didn’t consume 100% CPU. A customer used their support contract to ask how to change among the three levels of play in Space Cadet Pinball. Space Cadet Pinball has a special place in the hearts of many Windows enthusiasts. ![]()
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