What Exactly Are PC Games?
A personal computer game is a video game played on a personal computer. This term gained popularity in the 1990s, initially referring to games running on ‘Wintel’ systems. But did you know that mainframe and minicomputer games were actually precursors to this? Let’s dive into the fascinating history of PC gaming.
Mainframes and Minicomputers
Imagine a time when computers weren’t just for crunching numbers but also for playing games. One of the first game-playing machines was Bertie the Brain, built in 1950 by Josef Kates. But it wasn’t until the development of microprocessors that personal computers became popular. Before that, computer gaming on mainframes and minicomputers had already existed.
OXO, an adaptation of tic-tac-toe for the EDSAC, debuted in 1952. Another early pioneer was Spacewar! developed by MIT students Martin Graetz, Alan Kotok, and Steve Russell in 1961. These games were often text-based adventures or interactive fiction, where players communicated with computers through commands entered via a keyboard.
One of the earliest text-adventure games was Adventure, created for the PDP-11 minicomputer by Will Crowther in 1976 and expanded by Don Woods in 1977. By the 1980s, personal computers had become powerful enough to run more complex games with graphics.
Early Personal Computer Games
The late 1970s and early 1980s saw a surge in PC gaming as hobbyist groups and magazines like Creative Computing and later Computer Gaming World provided game code that could be typed into computers. Microchess was one of the first games for microcomputers, sold to the public starting in 1977.
Early home computer game companies capitalized on successful arcade games by porting or cloning them. For instance, Frogger and Centipede were top-selling games for Atari 8-bit computers in 1982, while TI Invaders was a Space Invaders clone for the TI-99/4A.
However, as the American video game market became flooded with poor-quality cartridge games, interest shifted to personal computers. The effects of this crash were largely limited to the console market, but the home computer market boomed, especially in Europe where the NES was not as successful despite its dominance elsewhere.
Growth and Evolution
The 16-bit era saw popular platforms like the Amiga and Atari ST in Europe, while the Macintosh and IBM PC compatibles were dominant in North America. The PC market surpassed other platforms by 1987, with more than a third of games sold being for the PC.
By 1992, DOS was a dominant platform for gaming, accounting for 65% of the market share. Id Software produced early first-person shooters like Hovertank 3D and Wolfenstein 3D, which helped popularize the genre. By 1993, Doom marked a breakthrough in 3D graphics.
PC games required more memory than other software, making configuration files cumbersome for players. However, by 1996, Microsoft Windows simplified device driver and memory management, leading to the growth of affordable products with 3D graphics accelerators like ATI Rage and Matrox Mystique.
Digital Distribution
Valve released Steam in 2003 as a platform for distributing video games. It later saw release on Mac OS X in 2010 and Linux in 2012. Digital distribution services slashed the cost of circulation, eliminated stock shortages, allowed worldwide releases at no additional cost, and reached niche audiences with ease.
PC games are sold predominantly through the Internet, allowing smaller independent developers to compete with large publisher-backed games. However, most digital distribution systems create ownership and customer rights issues by storing access rights on distributor-owned computers.
Modern PC Gaming
Modern computer games place great demand on hardware, often requiring a fast central processing unit (CPU) and GPUs for complex graphics in 3D games. Sound cards provide improved audio, while physics processing units like Nvidia PhysX accelerate physics simulations.
Virtual all personal computers use keyboards and mice for user input, but other peripherals such as trackballs, joysticks, headsets, and gamepads are also used for specific types of gaming. Emulation software allows running legacy video games without original hardware using operating system emulators like DOSBox or console emulators like Nestopia.
PC games have been a source of controversy due to violence and objectionable content, with criticism stemming from lack of regulation. The debate surrounds the influence on social development of minors, video game addiction, health risks, and education.
As we look back at the history of personal computer games, it’s clear that they’ve evolved significantly. From early text-based adventures to modern 3D graphics and digital distribution, PC gaming has come a long way. Whether you’re a nostalgic gamer or just curious about the evolution of this medium, there’s always something new to discover in the world of PC games.
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This page is based on the article PC game published in Wikipedia (retrieved on December 22, 2024) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
