And now for something completely different.
Back in the 90s, when the unimaginable capacity of the CD-ROM was finally at the hands of the consumers, the developers were wondering what they could actually provide for the content-hungry populace. The whopping 650 megabytes at their disposal made many turn towards multimedia, the interactive constructions made of images, video, sound and text. I reckon this primordial soup was from where the idea of capitalizing on proven products like Monty Python came from. After all, developers had begun using licensed IP already back in the 80s, so why not go back to the same well now, when there was actually huge amounts of space to use for providing people with amusement.
Complete Waste of Time is very much what you'd expect from a multimedia extravaganza based on the works of one of the best-known comedy groups. So basically, an interactive time waster filled with sound- and movie clips and small minigames. As it was made for Windows 3.11, it also includes tonne stuff you can use to decorate your own desktop. Wallpapers, screensavers, icons and whatnot, all the usual bells and whistles any self-respecting, Windows owning Python fan could have asked for in 1994.
The main menu of the game is formed into a brain with six sections. Each of the sections does try to offer something a bit different, but what you do in most of them is to hunt hotspots in order to trigger all kinds of events, like animations or minigames.
The Exploding TV room is the place, where you can, surprisingly enough, click the presented TV for clips from the show. The room has several hotspots you can click in your own leisure as well. The Portrait Gallery is a bit similar, but with the exception that it has three portraits on the wall, you can click for clips. If you search enough, you can uncover a hidden slot machine mini-game.
The Loonaturium is another hotspot hunt, where you click for sound clips and animations. The not so hidden minigame offers a possibility to Spot the Looney. The Corridor is something similar, but if you look enough, you can turn the corridor into a pinball machine.
The Pythoniser is the section where you can alter the desktop settings of your Windows 3.11. It is built so, that wallpapers, screensavers and icons can be changed directly from the application. And it has plenty of options to choose from. The final section is Try You Skill, which is a collection of three minigames. In the Chicken Game, you have to fly a strange Python bird from the right edge to the left, avoiding death at the same time. Gopher Game is a whac-a-mole variant, in where you whack Python characters that pop up from holes and in the Pig Game you shoot flying pigs.
All content aside, Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time is probably pretty aptly named. It's little more than a collection of stuff meant to waste your time for a minute or two, not something that keeps you entertained hours on end. In other words, it is fun for what it is, if you aren't expecting anything mindblowing of it.
Besides Windows, Complete Waste of Time was released for Mac as well. Both versions of the application were well received, both critically and commercially. And I do see why that was, as the multimedia avalanche the advent of CD-ROM caused brought out far worse products than what this is.
As you might suspect, Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time is not sold anywhere anymore. One reason for this is, while it was originally made for Windows, the Windows it was made for isn't supported by modern 64-bit systems. So the only way to actually make it run is to use DOSBox with an installation of Windows 3.11. And that might be, commercially speaking, an impossible task, unless Microsoft doesn't surprise us all by allowing its use beyond unofficial sources. The Mac version probably fares even worse.
And then there probably is the question of licensing and someone willing to shell out the money to renew the Python license. I don't see that happening for a product like this.
So that was, just like this article, Complete Waste of Time.
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