For many of us, our first gaming experience was playing the edu-tainment titles like Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego in the school computer lab. Others might have started gaming on the computer in their parents' home office. Or maybe you had to learn the Boss Key to hide your gaming at work. The history of PC gaming has always been closely tied to, but certainly distinct from, console gaming.
Whaterver your background, we'll try recreate the early computer gaming experience in our computer lab. We'll feature some of the most influential home computers from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
The Apple II was the first of three microcomputers (along with TRS-80 and Commodore PET 2001) released in 1977 which are credited with launching the home computer industry. Steve Wozniak's clever, cost-saving circuitry design made the system attainable for the home consumer. Steve Jobs' vision for a futuristic, molded-plastic case made the system approachable and allowed Apple to market the system as a home-appliance, rather than a business-machine or a hobbyist-kit. Together, these factors made the Apple II one of the first computers to be successfully marketed to consumers.
The third iteration in the series, the Apple //e, was launched in 1983 and remains Apple’s longest-lived computer, having sold for nearly 11 years.
The //e was quite successful in the education market. For many of us, it was the first computer we used — playing Oregon Trail in the school computer lab.
The Atari 8-bit home computer series was launched in 1979 with the 800 and 400 models.
Even as the Atari 2600 game console was in development, Atari engineers were already dreaming of a full-fledged computer. The Atari 8-bit family was intended to overcome some of the limitations of the 2600 and to compete against early home computers such as the Commodore PET, TRS-80, and Apple II. The Atari systems were designed to be more user friendly and provide better gaming performance than their competitors.
The Atari 8-bit computers used the same MOS-6502 processor as the 2600, along with custom graphics (ANTIC) and sound (POKEY) chips.
Released by Commodore Business Machines in 1980, the VIC-20 became the first computer to sell over 1 million units.
By 1980, the home computer market was shifting toward low-cost, user-friendly systems. As such, the VIC-20 was marketed as "The Friendly Computer." It was designed to be more approachable to novice computer users, rather than professionals or skilled hobbyists. It shared an architecture with Commodore's PET but with a reduced cost, and it included consumer focused features, such as ROM cartridges for software, and a joystick interface compatible with Atari 2600 controllers.
In 1980, Tandy-RadioShack launched the Color Computer line. While it retained the TRS-80 name, the CoCo was a substantial departure from Tandy's earlier computers. Notably, the Zilog-Z80 processor (for which the TRS-80 was named) was replaced with the Motorola 6809 processor.
The CoCo was aimed at the new low-cost home computer segment featuring color graphics and connecting to a TV rather than a dedicated monitor. Compared to its competitors, the CoCo had a very advanced CPU. However, to offset the CPU cost, dedicated sound- and graphics-hardware we're omitted. This made it difficult for the CoCo to compete in
the gaming market.
By the 1980s, Texas Instruments already had a long history in the electronics industry and were supplying microchips to many other electronics manufactures. They entered the home computer market in 1979 with the TI-99/4 and its successor, the TI-99/4A, in 1981.
The TI-99/4 was the first home computer to utilize a 16-bit CPU. One of the stand-out features of the TI-99 was the speech synthesizer peripheral, based on the same technology as TI’s Speak & Spell toys, which enabled realistic human voices.
The TI-99 ultimately lost the home computer price war. After dropping the price from $525 to under $100, TI was taking a loss on every unit sold, and they left the home computer market in 1983.
Released in 1982, the Commodore 64 was a substantial upgrade to its predecessor, the VIC-20. With 64 kilobytes of RAM and custom video and audio hardware, the C64 had superior capabilities compared to its rivals, which included the Apple II and the Atari 800.
With distribution in several department stores, toy stores, and campus bookstores, the C64 soon came to dominate the low-cost home computer market.
The C64 remained on the market for over 11 years and sold at leas 12.5 million units. This remained the world record for sales of a single model of computer until 2017, when it was outsold but the Raspberry Pi.
The IBM PC had long dominated in the business sector. However, their first entry in the home computer market (1984’s Pcjr) was a spectacular failure, and they made a quick exit from the home computer sector.
In 1990, they returned with the Personal System/1, or PS/1 for short. The name is derived from IBM’s previuse (but more powerful) business-oriented line, Personal System/2. However the architecture is closer to that of the older IBM PC/AT. The PS/1 launched with an Intel 286 CPU and PC DOS 4.01, IBM’s branded version of MS-DOS.
We have a later model PS/1 Advisor, with a 25MHz 486SX CPU and 16Mb RAM running Windows 3.11.
This era was the golden age for the Apogee model of shareware distribution, with titles ranging from side-scrollers such as Commander Keen and Duke Nukem to early first-person-shooters including Wolfenstein 3D and Doom.
The Aptiva was introduced in 1994 as a successor to the PS/1; it served as IBM’s primary home computer product line until 2001. The earliest models included Intel 486 processors and Windows 3.1. Later models shipped with Windows 95 or 98 and processors up through the Pentium III.
Our Aptiva features a 550MHz Pentium III processor and 256Mb of RAM; it is running Windows 98.
This era of PC gaming saw the rise of 3D games with series such as Quake and Tomb Raider. It also featured early networked multiplayer games including WarCraft and the EverQuest series.