Edward Franks wrote: > > From a game developer's viewpoint, when or what things made the IBM PC > the platform of choice over the Apple IIs, C64s, etc.? I know that on > the business side of programming the common wisdom is that 640K RAM was > the key (VisiCalc vs. Lotus 1-2-3). Was it the ubiquity of the PC > clones? VGA graphics? Reaching the limitations of 8-bit platform or an > intersection of all three?
I think the intersection of all three. Color depth in the 320x200x256 MCGA mode (supported on MCGA and VGA) outclassed all platforms released until that time, even Amiga -- HAM was too slow for gaming, so that left up to 64 simultaneous onscreen colors in practical application (32 for most games). This was at a time when PC clones were cheap and 25MHz machines were the norm; combine all three, and what the PC lacked in graphics and sound hardware assistance it could make up for in CPU power/speed. But another way to look at it was the game designs themselves. For example, Apple II, C64, etc. could not do the kinds of things game designers wanted to do. Games with heavy memory AND CPU requirements like Wing Commander (for storing all those sprites, AND rotating/scaling them on the fly) or Falcon 3.0 (heavy 3D flight/world/etc. calculations, not just 3D rendering) just couldn't be done on any other platform. Some games even had to wait until their time had come -- for example, Strike Commander. The victim of bad timing, SC's game's engine was so advanced that even the current machines of the day couldn't run it properly (and this is NOT the fault of bad programming -- designed in 1992, it supported 3D textures, gouraud shading, distance fog, and other innovations that took two more years for other companies to produce). > In a way the PC seemed to be a step backward for games in the mid '80s > to about '90 because of the lack of decent sound. Though, for example, > Sierra pushed the various sound cards and external units, most of the > people I knew didn't buy sound cards until the time of Wing Commander > or Doom. I originally bought my sound cards for better music, both composing and in games (my first PC soundcard was only supported by the program it came with, Bank Street Music Writer). I bought an Adlib in 1989 because I had received a cool record (an actual, cereal-box-style floppy record) in the mail that demonstrated what it could do, and wanted to see how some of my favorite single-voice PC speaker music sounded with better hardware. What a surprise I got when Indy 500 had actual decent sound effects -- the cars sounded incredibly authentic. (They still do -- run Indy 500 on an Adlib and you'll see what I mean.) So, my experience was atypical -- I was always in it for the music. -- http://www.MobyGames.com/ The world's most comprehensive gaming database project. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
