Microsoft Chat 2.0 dropped in 1998 as part of the Windows 98 era, and if you remember the wild west of early internet days, this was one of those weird but cool experiments. Built on top of IRC (Internet Relay Chat), it added a twist—people didn’t just type messages, they showed up as cartoon avatars in a comic-strip-style interface. Yeah, it was Microsoft trying to make chatrooms fun and visual before emojis were even a thing. It supported characters, scenes, and customizable settings, kind of like The Sims meets AIM but way jankier. Version 2.5 came later with bug fixes and a bit more polish, but the whole thing fizzled out once people moved on to faster, simpler tools. Still, for a minute there, it felt like the future.