I remember reading about this one in a magazine. Never got to play it. *shrugs* Sounded intriguing at the time, maybe will give it a spin for the sake of it. Your mention of how computer store racks have changed over the time speak of a place where the line between the 'gamer' and 'general computer user' wasn't as blurred. Where someone would give a sim* game a try, today these people are happy enough playing simple flash games.

Thinking about that, there's a fun and somewhat evil game you might have heard of: http://www.crazymonkeygames.com/Pandemic-2.html (ads ahoy, sorry)
Pandemic 2, where you develop a disease with the goal of wiping out the human race.