Things that Computer Games No Longer Have: The Boss Key (a.k.a. The Supervisor Key)

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, people wanted to play games on their computers. But computers were really expensive and a good portion of the time, you only had access to one at work. (Or at least your work computer was better than your home computer.) So people would put games on their work computer, but then ran into the problem of what to do if your boss caught you playing games on the job.

Enter the Boss Key. One of the keys on the keyboard, typically a function key, would open either a fake DOS prompt or a fake spreadsheet or presentation or something that looked job-like. If you suspected your boss was coming, you'd slam the Boss Key and look like you were actually doing work.

This is because your job doesn't let you slack off after you've done all your work in the queue. Managers expect you to always be working on something when you're on the clock.

Forget that.

Play games in the clock

Power to the Boss key.