A Little History
It all began sometime in the '60s, when the first mainframe computers came to be.
Now, don't quote me on this, but one of the first computer games ever played was
Core Wars on Unix machines. When the '70s rolled around, there were quite a number
of text-based and crude graphic adventures running on mainframe computers and
minicomputers all around the world.
The funny thing is, back then most games were networked! I mean, 90% of the
game programs were MUDs (multiuser dungeons) or similar simulations, like Star
Trek and war simulations. However, the masses never got a taste of computer games
until the quintessential Pong came out. Designed by Nolan Bushnell, this single game
really started the whole video game arcade business overnight, and Atari was born.
Then, around 1976?978, the TRS-80, Apple, and Atari 800 all hit the market.
They were the first computers that a consumer could buy. Of course, before then you
could buy kits like the Altair 8000, but who wanted to put them together? In any case,
these computers all had their pros and cons. The Atari 800 was by far the most
powerful (I'm convinced I could write a version of Wolfenstein that would work on it),
the TRS-80 was the most businesslike, and the Apple had the best marketing.
Slowly, games started to hit the market for these systems, and many teenage
millionaires were made overnight. A good lunar lander or Pong-type game was all
you needed to strike it rich! In those days, computer games looked like computer
games, and only a handful of people knew how to make them. There were absolutely
no books on the topic. Every now and then someone would publish a 50?00-page,
semi-underground booklet that had a few pieces of the puzzle, and maybe there'd be a
magazine article in Byte, but for the most part you were on your own.
The '80s are when things started to heat up. The first 16-bit computers were
available, like the IBM PC (and compatibles), Mac, Atari ST, Amiga 500, and so on.
This was the time when games started to look good. There were even some 3D games
on the market such as Wing Commander and Flight Simulator, but the PC was
definitely at the back of the line of game machines. By 1985, the Amiga 500 and Atari
ST reigned supreme as the ultimate game-playing computers. However, the PC slowly
gained popularity due to its low price and usefulness in the business sector. And the
bottom line is that the computer with the largest market base, regardless of its
technology or quality, will rule the world in the end.
By the early 1990s, the IBM PC-compatible was the leader. With the release of
Microsoft Windows 3.0, it was all over for the Apple Macintosh. The PC was the
"working person's computer." You could actually play with it, write programs for it,
and open it up and connect stuff to it. I think that those are the reasons why so many
hobbyists stuck to PCs rather than the sexier Mac stuff. Bottom line you couldn't have
fun with Macs!