: Included thousands of photos, illustrations, music clips, videos, and interactive animations.

Microsoft Encarta was a digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft from . While it was primarily a paid commercial product, limited free versions existed through the Encarta Concise Encyclopedia online and ad-supported web articles before its eventual discontinuation. Today, the software is considered abandonware and is often found for free on archival sites like Internet Archive . Historical Overview and Development

: It originally debuted at $395 , though this price quickly dropped to $99 as it became frequently bundled with new multimedia PCs.

Microsoft announced the discontinuation of Encarta in March 2009, citing shifts in how people consume information. Microsoft Encarta Retrospective

: Famous for the MindMaze trivia game, where players explored a medieval castle by answering encyclopedia-based questions.