People Should Give The Windows 95 Sampler and Entertainment Packs More Credit

... So I'm jonesing to get back into PC gaming. (And create a killer tech set up in general... Someday.)  While I'd honestly like to return to my pupal stage of "coreness" I'm not there and won't be for a long time. And free to play games (with some notable exceptions) have not been able to scratch that itch.  To be fair most of the free to play games I've tried have been browser or mobile based because right now I just can't afford the type of hardware it would take to play anything more but all the same it's just not happening for me. Most of what I play has basically been skinner box stuff while waiting to eventually have fun.

And the combination of that and the brokeness has been causing me to reevaluate free or cheap games I liked and played before I became "a hardcore gamer"

The games that came on the demo disk for Windows 95, as well as Microsoft's Entertainment Packs, don't get nearly enough credit as they deserve in the history of PC gaming.

I love consoles. Can't afford them right now but I love and always had loved the general set up of a big screen and a controller to relax with that they afford. But again they're essentially expensive toys and always have been. I'm not calling anybody who loves games juvenile, god no.  Just acknowledging that console gaming is expensive and on the list of financial priorities is pretty low as a fun luxury for most people and always has been.

But computers have always been a more justifiable expense with many people needing if not a desktop, some form of a computing device for work and daily life. And especially in the early days, those games set the standard for what casual and even occasionally hardcore PC gaming would look like for those people.