I remember when digital audio first became available and downloading a supercut (which we didn't have a word for then) of Homer Simpson saying "d'oh". We probably had to wait at least half an hour, and then we didn't have a program on the computer that could play audio files (or at least not one we could find) so we had to search around and wait even longer to download some shareware program (Goldwave)
my first computer didn't come with Internet Explorer. yes there was a time when Microsot didn't automatically pack in their browser. Instead I had Netscape.
the problem was I wanted to play X-Wing vs Tie Fighter online faster than having to directly ask people to play and asking for their IP address. For that I needed Microsofts Internet Gaming Zone. The problem was it didn't work on Netscape and only worked on Internet Explorer.
It took me 8+ hours to download IE and I had to pray to whatever god was out there that A. no one called and B. no one needed to make a call....for 8+ hours.
I still use Goldwave to this day, so about 20 years. Been using the free version the entire time. I just edit some file every so often to reset my clicks. I need to just buy it, but for some reason I remember intentionally not buying it, maybe was subscription or something.
Assuming Windows, I think Sound Recorder should have worked. I remember wasting many hours just playing with it by reversing, speeding up, or slowing down my voice that I recorded on the old, beige Bob Barker-like standing microphone.
Well, yeah, but it was the player software itself that sucked so bad. It could've easily been less bloated but for years they added more and more bloat. Even an old slow computer shouldn't be struggling hard just to open a damned audio player.