Bill Gates Kills on Youtube

So I'm reading this book called Masters of Doom. It's basically about the rise and fall of the creative partnership between John Carmack and John Romero, the guys behind such computer game hits as Doom and Quake. It's pretty entertaining. I'll write a post about it later, of course, but for now I bring it up only because it pointed me in the direction of an awesome video. And I only bring the video up here and now because I know I won't have space for it later when I write my post on Masters of Doom.

The video in question (click here to watch it) is a short advertisement which was created for and screened at a Halloween party at Microsoft in 1995. As is detailed in the aforementioned book, Microsoft saw how much money computer games were raking in and wanted to grab a piece of the gaming pie. This video was created in an attempt to brand Microsoft as a viable and attractive platform for gaming.

That's the explanation as to why this vid exists. To watch it now though, on Youtube, makes for some true hilarity. From the video's corny Tron-like premise (Bill Gates running through the world of Doom...inside the game) to the terrible, wooden line delivery, this ancient piece of advertising should be unwatchable to modern eyes. But instead it's pretty awesome. How can you not love the pure surreality of Bill Gates selling his company whilst clutching a shotgun? How about the wonderfully gruesome title that starts off the video ("Microsoft: Who Do You Want to Execute Today?") And of course you can't forget about Bill exacting sweet vengeance on the video game character who dares to interrupt his speech!

Videos like this are the reason I love Youtube. I see the site as an awesomely expansive museum filled with the audio and video of our culture's past and present. And the weird, forgotten, or simply strange cultural images are the ones I gravitate toward the most.