A Boss Button (also known as a Boss Key) is a feature present in some older computer games activated by a command to fool superiors and coworkers into thinking that the player is doing work instead of playing a game. In some cases, the boss key hides the game completely and returns the user to the desktop, the DOS prompt or whatever, with the option of quickly resuming where the player left. More elaborately, some games will instead display a generic office-work picture (e.g. a spreadsheet, an important-looking graph, a screenshot of a text processor). Of course, such screens don't necessarily hold up to close scrutiny.
Has been rendered pretty much obsolete with multitasking operating systems that allow the user to quickly switch active windows (such as the ALT-TAB command in Windows and the CMD-TAB command in macOS), but the feature is still used on a few websites.
A specific way for a Professional Slacker who is aiming at Looking Busy. Not a button or key that allows you to summon, encounter or defeat a boss character.
Examples
open/close all folders
Video Games
- An Apple Macintosh version of Arkanoid has a "Boss" feature that brings up some fake correspondence that refers at one point to "Arkaholics Anonymous."
- Bezare for the Apple ][ is the Ur-Example, from 1981 - pressing Ctrl-B would bring up a fake spreadsheet.
- The Friendlyware set of software for the IBM Personal Computer from 1983 is one of the earliest well-known examples - pressing F10 would bring up a fake bar chart, and pressing F10 again would return to the program.
- Leisure Suit Larry 1: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards would bring up a fake bar chart on command. However, upon closer inspection, the bar chart was not so innocent-looking (the bar labels were for different types of condoms), and when the player attempted to return to the game, they would have to restore from their last save, because, as the game puts it, "when you panic, I forget everything!"
- Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon has a Boss Button available from one of the menus. However, upon selecting it, the screen cuts to black and says that the player's boss wouldn't be happy if they knew how long the player has been playing the game, showing the total time the player has been playing up to that point.
- Hugo's House of Horrors has one, activated by pressing F9.
- The Chessmaster 2000 game has a key that puts up a fake screen of a "real estate investment analysis".
- Moorhuhn 2 displays a Microsoft Word screenshot (in German) when the boss key is pressed.
- The original version of Quarterstaff: The Tomb of Setmoth has a "boss is coming" command which opened an "Excel folder" window, though considering that the game was still visible behind the window, and the folder included a file damningly named "Resume", it wasn't very effective.
- Powball has a boss key, but it instead puts a message in the middle of the screen saying not to play games at work.
- Rogue has one. It brings up a fake DOS prompt.
- Minecraft's 2019 April Fools' update
, which contains many references to 90s gaming trends, includes a boss key which displays a humorous spreadsheet◊.
- The Spectrum HoloByte DOS release of Tetris had a boss key which would bring up a fake spreadsheet. At least one fanmade version (Nyet) did the same.
- Solitaire for Windows had a boss key before release, according to this interview, but it didn't get past management.
- Gal*Gun has a variation: there's a panic button/"mom arrived screen" which changes the game from an Ecchi-themed shooter to a Retraux RPG via a Heart Symbol-shaped Fight Woosh, which is much less embarrassing to be caught "playing". The Cute Slime Mooks can't actually be fought, but still, better than the lustful, moaning schoolgirls that the game normally has.
- Martin Gardner, in the addendums to his articles about Conway's Game of Life, mentions a computer expert who put a switch under his table in case one of the bosses walked in (the original articles are from 1970, the book with the addendums is 1983).
- The Breakout game WinBrick has an optional boss key (Ctrl+B) which not only minimizes the window, but changes its icon and window name to that of Microsoft Word.
Non Video Game Examples
- CBS Sports' website has a button on their NCAA basketball tournament streams that brings up a fake spreadsheet to hide the video from passers-by.
- A page on Cartoon Network's website promoting their then-upcoming series Codename: Kids Next Door had a button that brought up a fake "School is Cool!" page for kids to hide the page from their parents, keeping with the show's theme.
- The open-source VLC media player has a "Boss Key" that pauses currently playing audio or video and minimizes the window to the tray, hiding it from the taskbar. By default, the hotkey combination is Ctrl-Shift-B.
- A variant occurs with sites dedicated to helping those who have been abused. In some cases, the victim may have a computer, but risks incurring their abuser's wrath if caught looking at something the abuser dislikes. To counter this, some sites offer a button that, when clicked, brings the user to a nondescript and unassuming page (a weather site, for instance) while also deleting the tab they were previously on.
- The PHD website features an "emergency button" that replaces the page with a scientific-looking paper.
- The web version of the dating app Tinder features a "work mode" button, which, upon clicking, displays a Google Docs-like interface with fake "meeting notes", a serious-looking plot, and a "meeting recap". Better hope your boss doesn't look too closely, however, or he'll see that all the information in the doc is related to dating.
Fictional Examples
Comic Strips
- Foxtrot has Jason talking to Peter about his new Prince of Persia game, which their mother doesn't know about. Just as he's saying that it's a game where you need to be fast, their mother drops in... and sees Jason typing up his book report.
Peter: And fast you are.
- One arc where Jason tries to develop his own game for iFruit systems sees him implement this as a feature. In this case, the idea isn't to hide that he's playing a game at all, but to make the presumably mature-rated game look more family-friendly than it actually is so that kids don't get in trouble for playing it.
Films — Live-Action
- In Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Benji spends his work time playing a first-person shooter when not helping Ethan. When Director Hunley shows up to interrogate him about the ongoing search for Ethan, he's rather quick to hit a key on his computer that automatically pulls work-related files up.
