Antivirus Survivors 2003 Pro (PC) Demo Preview

Do you enjoy games in the Vampire Survivors-like genre? Are you nostalgic for the good old days of Windows XP, long before artificial “intelligence” involuntarily infested just about every aspect of our daily lives? Did you, like me, have basically unrestricted and unsupervised Internet access as a kid? If you answered “yes” to all of those questions, then I’ve found a demo of a game I think you’ll want to keep an eye on. What we’ve got here is Antivirus Survivors 2003 Professional, developed and published by Shaun Hammond Business Solutions Limited. I’m playing the demo version available in February 2026, for reference.

If you’re anything like me, simply reading the title Antivirus Survivors 2003 Professional probably told you basically everything you need to know about what kind of game this is, and likely also got a chuckle out of you. You play as a faceless user of a desktop computer running an operating system that’s, shall we say, “heavily inspired” by Windows XP. The problem is that the computer you’re using has been infested with all sorts of period-appropriate viruses. As the title suggests, the aspect of the computer you directly control is a piece of antivirus software that you can upgrade over time.

With just your mouse cursor and an allotment of up to four weapons, you’ll have to survive long enough to clear out as many of those viruses as you can without experiencing a fatal system error (i.e., a “blue screen of death”). The viruses besieging your computer are all represented as Windows XP-era icons, many of which you’ll likely know all too well if you remember that bygone decade as clearly as I do. During each stage of gameplay, you’ll encounter tongue-in-cheek references to famous (and infamous) computer programs that can help you if you double-click on their icons.

These include legally distinct versions of LimeWire, BitTorrent, Steam, WinRAR, and the Windows Disk Defragmenter. Double-clicking on these program icons to run them can have a number of beneficial effects, like downloading upgrades for your cursor and weapons, destroying all enemies currently on-screen, and instantly collecting all loose data (i.e., experience points) you hadn’t yet grabbed. The more viruses you exterminate, the more loose data you can pick up. In turn, the more you level up from collecting enough loose data, the more powerful your cursor and your chosen weapons become. You get to choose a new weapon every eight levels.

Weapons are also period-appropriate and have wildly differing effects. Your options (at least in the current demo version) include such things as a firewall, the Cut tool, a legally distinct version of the bouncing DVD logo, a cheeky reference to 3D Pinball, and several other potential contenders. Each stage of gameplay is divided into five levels. During each level, you’ll be expected to survive for five minutes and then navigate your mouse cursor to a so-called “safe folder” somewhere in the level within a short amount of time. You must reach that safe folder and double-click on it before time expires.

If you fail to do so within that time, or if you take fatal damage during those first five minutes, you’ll fail the current run. That’ll take you back to the legally distinct Start menu, where you can spend a currency called “Beanz” to unlock permanent upgrades that strengthen you during future runs. Antivirus Survivors 2003 Professional is a game that fellow PG team member Mike and I both feel was created entirely to appeal to us, specifically. I’m eagerly awaiting a more concrete release date than the current, vague “Q2 2026.”