Quick, it's the boss!

Back in the day, when every game was a full-screen exclusive
application, they all had a boss key. Hit the appropriate key, the
game would instantly pause and pull up an image of.... well, it
varied. Sometimes it was the DOS prompt; other times it was a DOS-era
spreadsheet. Occasionally it was a page full of text representing a
word processor. Whichever it was, it looked like something PRODUCTIVE
rather than a video game. None of these 'boss screens' were ever
interactive; the most you could do with them is return to the game,
but the aim was to look like you weren't goofin' off at work.

     [But not one of them ever faked a programming IDE or a
      'compiling' screen, which might have been more useful ;-]

Boss screens quickly fell out of favor once multi-tasking windowed
operating systems came into vogue; no need to fake it after that. Just
quickly alt-tab to your productivity program whenever your supervisor
walked into the room.

But here's the question: for those of you old enough to remember them,
did you _ever_ use a boss-key the way it was meant to be used? That
is, to hide the evidence of your gaming from somebody who didn't want
you to be playing? Or did you only use them like to many of us did, by
accidentally hitting the wrong button and wondering why you were
suddenly starting at a black screen with naught but "A:\" in the
corner and wondering how to get back to the game?

I mean, I never did. Partly because I was never ashamed of my
video-gaming, and if the boss came around I'd cheerfully explain the
reason WHY I wasn't working on the Simpsons Report and instead
neck-deep in orc blood in Ultima III* was because I'd actually
/finished/ the Simpson Report and was just waiting for some new task.
(Also because I generally didn't work for dickheads who penny-pinched
my every second so long as my work got done). But mostly it was
because I never really was the sort to goof off at work anyway,
whether because I was conscientious or just because I didn't want to
get caught at it I'll leave up to you to decide. ;-)

So I've never hit the boss-key to hide my video games.

Did you?







* Not that Ultima III had a boss key anyway. Not /every/ game offered
that feature.