The MindMaze Witch is the perfect specter: green pallor, black hair, long brown robes.
She says, “You’re trying to break the curse on the castle, aren’t you? So public spirited! Or maybe you’re just hoping that once the curse is broken, I’ll send you back to your own time! No! Hee hee. The fire pit on which the cauldron rests sits in the center of a rather nice carpet, with no ventilation to speak of. Her hands curl, claw-like, above a cauldron bubbling over with green liquid. More immediately, I recognize her: she’s Madam Mim from The Sword in the Stone and she’s the witch in Encarta MindMaze.Īs you travel through Encarta’s castle, a witch appears occasionally. I’m not especially wise yet, but I hope to be, at some point. She’s the crone aspect of the Triple Goddess, the waning moon, the wise woman. Over this past month, I’ve also thought a lot about these representations of the hag in popular culture – the green-skinned, warty witch – an image of which I’m personally very fond. I’ve decided.” That same year, I wore a black-hatted, broomstick-toting witch costume to school on Halloween. I’ve been a practicing witch, with lapses in practice and in varying degrees of diligence, since the second grade, after writing in my Lisa Frank diary, “I’m a witch. As the veil thinned throughout October – and pop culture witches appeared more and more in store windows, my Twitter timeline and on Netflix – I’ve thought a lot about my personal relationship to witchcraft. I may not have mentioned that at age seven I realized that I was a witch. Have I mentioned my youthful dragon obsession? Yes? Okay. MindMaze’s intro screen not only showed the beckoning jester but also a dragon peeking out of a window. Now, I was primarily interested in this because I liked castles and could be tricked into playing educational games if they had even the slightest whiff of magic. MindMaze was trivia ensconced in fantasy: the player has been transported back in time to a medieval castle and must answer questions to defeat the labyrinth, break a curse and be returned to their own time. I’ve never met anyone IRL who played Encarta MindMaze, but according to a Reddit thread and a few YouTube videos, the game did exist. A jester stood on a castle drawbridge, beckoning me inside, while calligraphic text announced that I was entering “MindMaze.” One weekend, while researching ermines in Encarta’s digital encyclopedia, I accidentally hit CTRL+Z and stumbled upon something. Every Purple Moon game, Freddi Fish, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, Myst and – wait for it – Microsoft Encarta ’95. I didn’t get it, but I did understand that they allowed me to play games. My mom once tried to explain how they worked. If you like what you see, grab the magazine for less than ten dollars, or subscribe and get all future magazines for half price. This column is reprinted from Unwinnable Monthly #109.
0 kommentar(er)
