Silly Saturday: Old Computer Games!

What can one do when the law says you have to self-isolate at home with a mild dose of Covid? Well, if you're a nerd like me you can fiddle around on the computer and try to get Windows 10 to run a DOS game from 1993, by the name of "Elite". I know it's quite a silly way to waste time but it does keep the brain active, trying to suss out how to do it - that's my excuse anyway!

(Warning: If you're not a nerd stop reading now.)

Problem #1: The game is on an old floppy disc and my current PC doesn't have a floppy drive.
Answer: Dig out the USB floppy disc drive you bought a few years ago for just this eventuality.
Problem #2: The game refuses to run in Windows 10 (No surprise there!)
Answer: Try it in compatibility mode.
Problem #3: It still won't run whatever settings I use, it doesn't like 64-bit Windows
Answer: Start Googling, download a program called "DOSBox" and check it for viruses before installing it (it came up clean)
Problem #4: I don't know how to use DOSBox and I've forgotten most of the DOS commands with which I was reasonably familiar in the 1990s
Answer: Back to Google...got it running!
Problem #5: It needs a codeword from a page in the manual to prove you've bought it and I don't know where the manual is
Answer: Guess the codeword - it's "Elite"!!
Problem #6: I don't know the necessary keystrokes
Answer: Google it
Problem #7: I promised to cook our evening meal and it's time to do so now
Answer: Do the blip quickly and see if there's time tomorrow to continue the saga!

Of course, Elite on the PC is not the original version - we had it on the BBC Micro in the 1980s. I still have that computer but the disc drives are very unreliable so my copy of Elite for the BBC is unlikely to work any more.

Has Covid affected my brain? I don't think so, I've always been a bit mad - after all, it is Saturday, the day to be silly.