Your percentage of legal games was probably still higher than average 😉

good old times. those “starter animations” are called “intros”. this one has my favorite SID music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j069Eve63iY

I beg to differ. They just asked for a book that explains “how to do pretty much anything” (admittedly pretty vague). i’m assuming they mean things like browsing the internet, composing simple music, editing photos etc. You can do that without knowing any of the things you mentioned - they are part of most operating systems today, so the book would just need to go to that level.And when it comes to programming, the book could just explain how to code simple stuff for example in JavaScript in the browser’s “developers tools” (or equivalent).

…and a high percentage of those were copied illegally. I’m not judging, just stating a fact

you’re right. nowadays a beginner would have to sift through a bunch of websites to figure out how to do it.

interesting theory. i’m afraid we’ll never find out if it’s true

and all the great Winamp skins…

great question. i think it would be super difficult to predict the future of gaming technology at this point