Re: Did EGA Save PC Gaming?

On Mon, 22 Jul 2024 14:27:56 -0400, Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com>
wrote:

On Mon, 22 Jul 2024 10:09:42 -0500, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:
>

Fair. Here's the argument that made me arrive at that conclusion. I was
giving it more of a long view...
>
Being an action group, I was thinking of stuff like Wolf3d or anything
side-scrolling. Commander Keen, where Carmack finally figured out how to
hack a PC into smooth sidescrolling is 1990 (EGA). SNES had 256 colors a
year later in the US (2 years later for you). Jazz Jackrabbit (1994),
OTOH, was finally comparable to the SNES at the time. In the 90's we
finally got _parity_, which I was narrowly considering the real standard
for PC gaming. It's the start of the hobby afaic. Compared to those
systems, an EGA PC with a Gameblaster is totally inadequate. It is less
than, and playing catchup with, an NES. Then the same with an SNES in the
early 90's, and literally can't do what those systems can do. A PC can do
Sierra games, which an NES could not. Did those "save" PC gaming? Nope.
The real saving grace for PC gaming was the death of IBM dominance.

>
Ok, thank you for the second post. I *think* I understand your point
of view now. Maybe.
>
If someone were to ask me what game saved pc gaming...I think I would
say it was Doom.

I don't know if "Doom" /saved/ PC gaming, but it definitely gave it a
huge boost. It almost certainly was the nail in the coffin for gaming
on any other non-IBM/PC compatible computer. After "Doom", Commodore
(Amiga) and Apple (Macintosh/Apple II) were pretty much dead in the
water, as far as games were concerned.

While it didn't quite compare to consoles, PC gaming was quite strong
in the early to mid 90s. There were a lot of excellent titles, many of
which were ported to consoles. But a lot of those games were also
fairly similar to games /already/ on console. And those that weren't
tended to be fairly niche (strategy, high-end flight sims) that lacked
mass appeal. I love me some "Falcon 3.0" but I totally understand why
it didn't have the same attraction as Sega's "Afterburner".

But "Doom" was different. Not only was it immediately accessible
(everyone gets the idea of a first-person shooter right away), it was
bombastic and exciting... and most of all, it was the sort of game you
really could only do on PC. It elevated the PC from what most people
thought of as a stodgy business machine with beeps and boops for sound
and ugly four-color graphics into a viable gaming platform. Until
"Doom" (or maybe "Wolfenstein 3D") I think a lot of people would have
just as likely bet on the Amiga as being the computer being the PC of
the future. Less because of either platform's actualy capabilities and
more because of the PERCEIVED capabilities of the platforms.

Until "Doom", as far as outsiders were concerned, there was nothing
exciting about the PC platform, even if it actually did have a vibrant
gaming scene. Did "Doom" save PC gaming? No; I think the platform
would have been going strong for years afterwards. But it gave it an
exclusive it never had before that made it less of a laughing stock
wannabe reputation amongst console gamers.

That said, it still took the PC almost two decades before it really
started to be seen as a primary gaming platform by gamers and
publishers. It took a long time before the PC platform was no longer
playing second fiddle to its console cousins. Arguably it still hasn't
shed that reputation.