3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet dropped in 1995 alongside Windows 95 Plus! Pack and instantly became the “I’ll just play one round” time trap for an entire generation. It was this slick, fully 3D pinball table with ramps, missions, and that classic arcade sound design that somehow made you forget you were on a beige desktop. Microsoft kept it alive through Windows 98, ME, and even XP, but it quietly disappeared in Vista because the code wouldn’t play nice with 64‑bit systems. For a lot of us, this wasn’t just filler software—it was the first game we ever got hooked on without buying anything, and it turned killing five minutes into losing an entire afternoon.