Did you know Prince was the star of his very own (sort of) video game?

Prince Interactive surfaced in 1994, right when the introduction of CD-ROMs was changing the world for PC users. It launched after Myst and The 7th Guest, along with a flood of other "Myst-alike" puzzle game knockoffs.

Of course, this one starred Prince, meaning it was inherently weirder than any of its contemporaries.

After his unexpected passing on Friday, I went looking for Prince Interactive. Even at a time when game streaming has turned "Let's Play" videos into a big business, there's almost nothing to be found online. So I did what any other bereft Prince fan might have done: I ordered Prince Interactive on Amazon.

It was a secondhand purchase, since the game isn't produced anymore. What's more, the 22-year-old CD-ROM is ancient enough that it can't run on any Windows version more recent than XP.

If you have a registration key for any of the earlier Windows versions, it's possible to set up a virtual drive using software like DOSBox and install Old Windows from there. That wasn't an option for me. Instead, I pulled a 14-year-old Sony VAIO out of my closet. It still ran, and it had Windows XP.

Perfect.

Popping the CD-ROM in the drive — which spun as loudly as you'd expect — I loaded the setup executable and was greeted by this image:

Image: Adam Rosenberg/Mashable

For reference, "0+>" is the ASCII representation of the unpronounceable symbol that became Prince's name in 1993.

A dizzying gauntlet of "OK" prompts followed as the setup process copied the files to their destination and advised me about editing my autoexec.bat(!!).

Before it finished, the installation app warned me — in two consecutive pop-up messages — to reboot my computer.

Image: Adam Rosenberg/Mashable Image: Adam Rosenberg/Mashable

The whole thing was a welcome reminder that, nowadays, computers work for us (most of the time) and not the other way around.

Finally finished with the installation, I fired up Prince Interactive and immediately found myself chilling out in a dark, woodsy setting with a large building — a fantasy reimagining of Paisley Park — in the distance.

WTF.

As you can see, the going gets weird right away. The "game" controls much like Myst as you click mostly static landscapes to move around and interact with any objects that allow it.

Also like Myst, there's not much in Prince Interactive to point your way. You watch for the cursor to change when you hover it over a point of interest, then click to do... something. It always varies.

For example, you can listen to music clips by inspecting and then clicking on records that line the game's entry hallway.

Paintings hung in the same hallway also produce music, with trippy results.

The hallway ends in a significant-looking door that opens onto a walkway suspended in total darkness. Naturally(???), a holographic woman is waiting there to deliver you a message.

There may be someone, somewhere that understands how one thing leads to another in Prince Interactive, but I am not that person. The whole experience is extremely disjointed; even this hallway isn't necessarily the first thing someone might find as they explore.

Some more poking around leads me to a winding stairway that ends in golden double doors with a scantily clad woman embossed on each one. As I approach, the two women come to life, one at a time, asking me to "touch" them.

My first time out, I touch the wrong one and end up back downstairs. So I hike back up and touch the other one, at which point the doors swing open to reveal... Prince's bedroom.

I've stopped trying to make sense of anything.

Poking around Prince's bedroom produces all manner of surprises. At one point, I click a seemingly innocent painting hung over a couch and discover a not-at-all-innocent wall safe...

Hmmmm. Those are definitely handcuffs on the top right. And... is that an assault rifle? You can't actually pick up anything in the safe, but seeing it is an experience unto itself.

Next, I turn to a nearby closet and start creepily poking through Prince's wardrobe. This is fun. You can take close-up looks at a bunch of different zany Prince outfits.

I eventually figure out that there actually is a game in Prince Interactive. As you wander around, you come across puzzles and random interactive objects that yield scraps of the "Love Symbol" that Prince took as his name.

I haven't finished piecing the symbol together, though that's not to say the puzzles are hard. Finding each piece isn't simple, but you can't really "fail" at any puzzles one you do find them.

Not every puzzle unlocks a piece of the Love Symbol. In one set of rooms — accessible from a space that looks like a knock-off of Star Trek: The Next Generation's HoloDeck — lining up six numbered cards in order reveals music videos.

Overt puzzles are a rarity as you wander around in Prince Interactive. Many of the coolest interactive objects are right there in the open for you to play with.

You can visit Prince's personal library and thumb through books, for notable quotes and even a history lesson.

Then there are "puzzles" like this, where you click a very obvious thing to trigger an action. In this case, clicking the one unlit candle gets you the intro to "Let's Go Crazy."

If you're looking for a complete journey through Prince Interactive, this isn't it. I haven't even finished exploring it yet; there's so much more weirdness waiting to be discovered.

Still, as you can plainly see: this relic from 1994 is perfectly vintage Prince. It's unapologetically weird, aggressively sexual and steeped in psychedelic future funk vibe that defined the Purple One's '90s heyday.

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