1990-1996 PC gaming

[Anonymous No.7761058]

At start:
-VGA becomes massive and standard, making PC into multimedia machines with a lot of colors.
-A lot of sound card options, with great music and sound capabilities.
-More fast and cheap hard drives meant that there might be more big games, with easier for user save-load systems.
-Mouse become standard input device, as well as joysticks and other accessories.
-PC system becomes dominant home computer-electronics device, making gaming market for it bigger every year

During this era:
-Faster CPUs and hardware in general. 486 replaced, 386, Pentiums replaced 486 later.
-Introduction of mass CD-Rom. With bigger hard drives it was possible from the early 90s to make big games with full voice acting, or 3+ hour soundtracks with MIDI music or add cutscenes, FMV, etc.
-with faster machines, and newer and newer SVGA cards it becomes possible to play with 3d - not just flat shaded, but detailed smooth polygon scenes, 3d and 2,5d environment, even with textured 3d in resolutions 640x480 and above.
-Multiplayer in games over LAN or even over a modem becomes a major part of gaming. Deathmatch in shooters, MMO in RPGs.

At the end of this era:
-3d Accelerated cards make full textured 3d even easier tasks, same as 3d post-effects.
-Windows 95 and mass Internet open PCs for normie masses, making the PC home market even bigger.
-Synthesised music slowly replaced with CD audio or even MP3 files later.

What I love about all of this is how fast CPUs allowed to experiment and make awesome things via software, without dedicated hardware like it was usually on consoles and a lot of 8-16bit micros before. It was years, basically next generations of consoles when it was possible for them to catch 3d capabilities on hardware which were made by software rendering on PC just because of the amount of CPU and memory power they had. And how hard drives pushed traditional PC genres - simulators, RPGs, strategy, adventure games to be so big and detailed, voice acted with a lot of music.

[Anonymous No.7761098]

Strike Commander probably had the best graphics of all games in 1993 (well maybe not count some expensive arcade cabinets)
Textured 3d polygons and ground with smoothing. Effects from sun and shadow in the cockpit, dynamic music with the support of Roland MIDI devices.
And this is not just a simulator, the game has a big branching plot, management of your mercenary flying group, wingman system, and other stuff from Wing Commander 1-2 which was expanded here. Especially if you have a speech pack or even a CD version with full voice acting, in plot scenes, and in combat.

[Anonymous No.7761163]

NASCAR Racing 1994 for its time had very cool visuals and a very detailed 3d damage, model. Also, support for 640x480 SVGA, and all of it done via software. There were versions with support for some early 3d accelerators as promotion, but those accelerators were garbage and not much changed the picture.

[Anonymous No.7761213]

For 1992 Ultima Underworld 1 is probably the winner for the most advanced game. I think it might be a turning point for PC gaming history on many fronts. Technologically it is a full 3d render first-person semi-open-world immersive sim RPG game. Nothing close could be done on other mainstream console platforms on many levels: even tho bitmap 2d images were used for most of objects and enemies, it had true 3d render with look up and down and 3d environment and other elements, dithering effects for 3d elements, different levels of light, physics for objects. On side of RPG - an interconnected underworld with many characters, great level and game designs, quite heavy main quest and side quests making it an enjoyable adventure. On the immersive side - detailed level of interaction with NPCs and objects (every fucking rat has its mood, food becomes worse with time, actual barter instead of a gold system), a lot of puzzles, and actually interesting dialogue quests where you, for example, learning an unknown language. Dynamic music, character development system, ability to inspect, thrown, destroy, pick and plant items out and inside an inventory. This was top of a line product on technological, gamedesign, and art-presentation perspectives and a clear example of the most powerful sides of PC gaming of the time.

[Anonymous No.7761257]

While Origin was on the technological edge in the early 90s, with Ultima 6 and Wing Commander 1 being advanced VGA games in 1990, I think it is 1991 when everyone picked it up as something standard. Eye of the Beholder 1-2 from Westwood studios was one of these games. Great Dungeon Master clones set in the DnD's "Forgotten realms", these games offered great visuals and animations, together with the gameplay.

[Anonymous No.7761285]

When people ask about beautiful VGA 256 color games, my first thought is Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos, an heir of Eye of the Beholder 1-2 made by Westwood when they abandoned SSI publisher. Beautiful, hand-drawn merge of DM-like crawler and adventure game shines in the CD version, with all characters, including your own party ones fully voiced by professional artists, including Patric Stweart. Great high-quality music from Frank Klepacki, great animation and art and more or less friendly gameplay will be a good introduction for novice into retro-CRPGs.

[Anonymous No.7761312]

Hexen was a Raven's game in 1995. It quite late for a 2,5D Doom engine, but it squeezed a lot of it. And I really love Raven's hand-drawn art style of the time. While Heretic was more or less a Doom clone, this game has elements of their previous attempts to make action games with some RPG elements, like Shadowcaster. This game has system of classes you pick, hub-level system and other things people nowadays call "metrodivania". There were far more technologically advanced games in 1995 on PC, but this is a solid quality commercial product that might be enjoyable even today.

[Anonymous No.7761320]

>>7761312
why don't you just make a simple single-page hobby website with a rolling list of all your little reviews instead of posting them all here like a retarded faggot

[Anonymous No.7761345]

>>7761320
I have great hope that this board may contain something better than single-word shitpost threads with no meaning or just straight fat-posting or garbage. You know, on imageboard you can write some text, using a keyboard, and attach images to this text. New and very complex concept, I know.
This day there were threads about old CRPG recommendations, same as the "computer gaming was shit before X date" thread. Maybe people who made these threads might see this and read some information they seek, instead of just one-line insults from a lowercase letter.

Maybe someone come and share his memories, about, for example, great-looking 3d games before age of 3d acceleration.

[Anonymous No.7761384]

[Anonymous No.7761416]

>>7761384
this one is great

[Anonymous No.7761425]

>>7761320
Shush, he's talking about retro games.

[Anonymous No.7761437]

>>7761416
Yea, shame it has no SVGA resolutions and multiplayer at the start, only with the addon, but for 1995 it a super-advanced game. Full 3d render, 3d textured polygon enemies, semi-open giant levels with a lot of external 3d models and geometry, destructible environment, 3d drivable vehicles - jeeps and flying things. Detailed interiors, segmented damage enemies (you can destroy turrets on tanks, towers, generators, etc), exterior-interior system. Also, default mouselook and ability to keybind everything!
I also love how this game looks because all textures are hand-drawn. Best game of old Bethesda and for me very underrated more "modern" FPS before "modern" FPS. And probably the nicest graphics for FPS before 3d accelerator age. The only thing it lost for the original Quake which came out in the middle of 1996 is particles and light, probably. Well, gameplay from the arcade point of view was maybe weak, but I liked it.

[Anonymous No.7761449]

>>7761437
>>7761384
I loved how in this game were a lot of little details. Like in this famous gun from Terminator 1 future this scope actually works, it renders the picture of what you aiming at in real-time. Was some sort of rocket science for its time.

[Anonymous No.7761459]

>>7761449
System Shock had an implant that gave you a real time rear camera.

[Anonymous No.7761464]

>>7761345
yea, that's cool and all, but you're literally posting reviews that you wrote, that nobody asked for, back to back. that's fucking retarded you should feel embarrassed.

[Anonymous No.7761484]

>>7761384
First game I played with mouse look and keyboard movement

[Anonymous No.7761487]

>>7761464
>that nobody asked for
I did not ask you to make these posts either. I just pass posts I don't interested in, not trying to post how I'm not interested in them. This will be embarrassing, not making related posts on related boards.

[Anonymous No.7761489]

>>7761464
Shut the fuck up.

[Anonymous No.7761503]

>>7761484
It is interesting how some not very smart people back in the day did not understand what the mouse look and strafing is, claiming that game is shit because it did not control like doom or wolf3d from the keyboard.

[Anonymous No.7761524]

>>7761459
Oh yea, you are right.

>>7761163
Played a little bit of it. Fun thing and all but maybe because I'm not from the USA I don't get the concept of always turning left. There a lot of tracks and all of them are oval circles! And then they started to make new games every year up until 2003.

[Anonymous No.7761552]

>>7761503
using keybaord only is poorfag cope

[Anonymous No.7761593]

>>7761552
This. Same as not having a CD drive in 1995 and complaining about why did Dark Forces or Future Shock not come out on 9000 flippies.

[Anonymous No.7761612]

>>7761552
Joysticks and gamepads were never popular on PC.

[Anonymous No.7761642]

>>7761612
Wut the fuck
On the platform, where at the time 3d flying sims were one of the most popular genres joystick were not popular?
On a contrary, I not seen many consoles with proper joysticks included by default after ugly atari ones from the early 80s

[Anonymous No.7761656]

>>7761642
Flight sims are such a blatantly obvious exception that I didn't even think to mention them.

[Anonymous No.7761664]

>>7761656
Mention in what? That since the late 80s most of the PC games had those? Funny that goy who don't know what strafe it actually mentioned joystick, not a mouse in the picture above. A lot of people actually played racing games and even FPS games with those until mid90s.

[Anonymous No.7761671]

>>7761656
you'd use joysticks for shooters and racing games as well. even if you didn't use it much, there'd be a cheapo one collecting dust somewhere. there were pages of joystick reviews in game mags every month.

[Anonymous No.7761681]

>>7761671
I never said joysticks weren't used, I said they weren't popular. PC gaming was overwhelmingly keyboard and mouse.

[Anonymous No.7761698]

>>7761681
>I said they weren't popular.
they were
>PC gaming was overwhelmingly keyboard and mouse.
joysticks were popular more than mice up until the early 90s. You or had some flat-shaded 3d sims which used joysticks, or played keyboard only. Only point and click adventures really used mouse really, and mouse was in gaming far more popular even on amiga.

[Anonymous No.7761707]

>>7761698
See >>7761656

>joysticks were popular more than mice up until the early 90s.
On computers that were meant for business use and weren't good at action games?

>Only point and click adventures really used mouse really
Strategy games and RPGs used mice.

[Anonymous No.7761718]

>>7761681
joysticks were more popular than mice for a while, most people were playing quake keyboard only at first, mouse-based games were almost exclusively adventures and rts

[Anonymous No.7761728]

>>7761718
Someone playing Quake with a keyboard doesn't mean that they owned a joystick.

[Anonymous No.7761740]

>>7761728
it's an example of the lack of adoption when it comes to mice for gaming
you have to remember that ball mice in general were pretty shit too, along with early opticals

[Anonymous No.7761748]

>>7761740
Someone playing Quake with a keyboard also doesn't mean he wasn't using a mouse for gaming.

>you have to remember that ball mice in general were pretty shit too, along with early opticals
Mice were in common use. This is like claiming people didn't have sound cards because they weren't as good as the sound cards we have now.

[Anonymous No.7761752]

>>7761707
>On computers that were meant for business use and weren't good at action games?
Meant for business in 1981? Yes, even back then the mouse was an option and it was not often seen until later times.
>weren't good at action games?
What kind of games?

>Strategy games and RPGs used mice.
You lost in times.
IBM PC super business machine with primary text or CGA is like 1981-85
With EGA and then VGA and soundcards in the late 80s, as well as its high CPU powers PC clones slowly become bigger and bigger market even for home - in this age you more see joysticks than mice as a gaming device. At this time PCs usually sucked at color before the popularity of VGA, but 3d flat-shaded games were most of its dominant market when PC was better at it than other machines because without special 3d hardware such games required a fast CPU, and no other machines like consoles had special 3d hardware.
And then, since 1990 is basically what written in OP.

What RPGs? The first properly mouse-driven dungeon crawler was Dungeon Master, it was in 1987 and it was for Atari ST and Amiga - graphical computers where mice were used a lot. Ultima games, Might and Magic 1-2, Gold box games, I don't know, wasteland, all pre 90s stuff - 95% of those were keyboard only.
What strategies? A lot of building and turn-based games like King's bounty or SimCity played primary with a keyboard on PC and was more or less designed for it (King's bounty had the support of mouse only on Amiga)

Have you seen early RTS like "Dune 2" or "warcraft 1" which are already from 1992-93? Mouse here used only for basic selection, 99% commands - keyboard shortcuts, dune 2 even has no mouse unit selection frame.

[Anonymous No.7761765]

>>7761748
>>7761740
>>7761728
In the original Quake demo and then the original DOS release mouselook was not enabled even. IIRC you need to type console command to activate it.

[Anonymous No.7761772]

>>7761752
The fact that someone wasn't using a mouse didn't mean they were using a joystick.

>You lost in times.
Strategy games and RPGs were huge on PCs.

>>7761765
And?

[Anonymous No.7761773]

>>7761748
yes they were using them for adventures and rts
everything else was keyboard or joystick

[Anonymous No.7761776]

>>7761656
I played racing games with a joystick. Would recommend.

[Anonymous No.7761779]

Jesus Christ a decent thread on vr for the first time in months and it immediately devolves into meaningless pedantry about mouses and joysticks and shit. What is it with you people? Is talking about old video games that hard? Nobody gives a shit you semantic fuckups.
>>7761213
Love Ultima, in a similar vein the Wizardry games although a fair bit less graphically advanced are really fun and have crazy ass twisted plots and do that really rare thing where a game is both Sci-Fi and Fantasy by way of a hidden future world ruling over a medieval fantasy land, such a unique setting that I think really needs to be seen more outside of obscure adventure games.

[Anonymous No.7761780]

>>7761773
i forgot about mouse-driven rpgs too but most of the time when i think retro pc rpg i think of older shit like wizardry

[Anonymous No.7761782]

>>7761773
Adventure games, strategy games, RPGs, puzzle games, and other games like System Shock used mice. They were in common use.

[Anonymous No.7761787]

>>7761772
>Strategy games and RPGs were huge on PCs.
Yes, and before the early 90s, they were all keyboard-driven. Not to count a lot of them were primary for Apple II-C64-Amiga in 80s, and later ported for PC

[Anonymous No.7761791]

>>7761787
I never said anywhere that they were always mouse-driven.

[Anonymous No.7761795]

>>7761320
kys worthless poster

[Anonymous No.7761796]

>>7761779
Well, you can't really compare the Underworld series to Wizardry 6-7. Underworld is what later inspired early TES predecessors of System Shock and stuff.

Yea, I like D.W.Bradley wizardry games. I think, Wizardry 6 looks pretty for an EGA game. If only it had something different than just a grey wall set for everything or a decent Amiga port, not a copy of PC one lol. But I guess they had a limited budget.

[Anonymous No.7761813]

>>7761791
Well, but aren't this arguing about how popular were mouse and joysticks on PC? For 80s, Keyboard was the default device and some people had joysticks for gaming. Mouse - much less. Since the early 90s mouse become much more popular and almost default to the mid-90s.

[Anonymous No.7761816]

>>7761813
A lot more people had mice than joysticks. PCs weren't gaming machines, they were business machines that could also play games.

[Anonymous No.7761829]

It's so weird seeing modern PC Master Race retards completely failing to realise what computers were like in the 80s and early 90s. To be honest I still think it's weird people play games with mice. Except Lemmings. That shit blew my mind. Computer games with a mouse? What will they think of next?

[Anonymous No.7761836]

>>7761829
I'm older than you, and an absence of a mouse does not mean the presence of a joystick.

[Anonymous No.7761838]

>>7761816
And most of the business not used mouse very often, since PC was "100% business machine" when it was the early 80s, and the computer market was like Apple II, C64, and ZX spectrum. And most of the PCs were with default MDA cards that had not graphics. At all. Only symbols in 80 columns.

[Anonymous No.7761841]

>>7761838
Yet you think people commonly owned joysticks for these machines.

[Anonymous No.7761853]

>>7761836
I never made such a claim and no you're not. I've got underpants stains older than you.

[Anonymous No.7761859]

>>7761853
I am older than you.

[Anonymous No.7761860]

>>7761841
For those? No. NOBODY gamed on PCs before 1984-5 except bored office workers. In the late 80s PC clones after Tandy? Yes. And even those who had a mouse, early 2 or 1 button mice were garbage with steel and then rubber ball. Not to say about separate cards for mice connectors and different connectors format. While everyone had a joystick port in one card or another because often sound cards had joystick ports in them.

[Anonymous No.7761863]

>>7761841
Your dad never bought you that joystick for Christmas, did he?

[Anonymous No.7761874]

>>7761859
You seem awfully sure of yourself for someone so repeatedly wrong.

[Anonymous No.7761878]

>>7761860
The fact that mice were not as good as then as they are now does not mean anything. Nothing was as good as it is now. The presence of a joystick port did not mean that people owned joysticks.

>>7761863
I never said or implied anything about anything like that. You are projecting.

>>7761874
I am older than you.

[Anonymous No.7761880]

>>7761878
Ok zoomer.

[Anonymous No.7761885]

>>7761880
I am older than you. You are a zoomer and you are projecting.

[Anonymous No.7761887]

>>7761885
Mate, you're trying way too hard. No one cares how old you are. Sure, maybe you were born in the 60s. But you're acting like a fucking child.

[Anonymous No.7761890]

>>7761887
You care because you brought up this topic. Stop acting like a child.

[Anonymous No.7761893]

>>7761890
I didn't bring up this topic. Believe it or not, more than one person here thinks you're an idiot, old man.

[Anonymous No.7761897]

>>7761893
You brought it up right here, idiot zoomer:
>It's so weird seeing modern PC Master Race retards completely failing to realise what computers were like in the 80s and early 90s.

[Anonymous No.7761934]

>>7761897
>Modern PC Master Race retards
Bit strange for an elder statesman of the board like yourself to be triggered by a comment like that.

[Anonymous No.7761937]

>PC Master race
There are no PC nowadays. It is all PC clones. IBM themself ended the PC series a long time ago. Their consumer low-end electronics divisions and rights like ThinkPad were sold to Lenovo.

[Anonymous No.7761951]

>>7761934
Bit strange for a zoomer like you to go around larping as an oldfag and claiming that actual oldfags are younger than you.

[Anonymous No.7761960]

>>7761951
Oh dear.

[Anonymous No.7761975]

>>7761437
Terminal Velocity was also from 1995. Also had 3d textured everything and was on a software render. It required Pentium and SVGA way before Quake did it, bet who had it at the release date played it in 320x200 on their 486s.

[Anonymous No.7762007]

>>7761718
I don't know about that. I never had a joystick for my PC. Didn't know anyone else who did, either. (I had a Gravis Gamepad though, which I didn't use very much.) Everyone had a mouse.

[Anonymous No.7762228]

>>7762007
>I had a Gravis Gamepad
You poor sod

[Anonymous No.7762258]

>>7762228
It was fine to play some Jazz Jackrabbit I guess
*other anon*

[Anonymous No.7762279]

>>7762258
>*other anon*
?

[Anonymous No.7762697]

>>7761320
>>7761464

[Anonymous No.7762705]

>>7761796
it's not the amiga but you're in luck with your other requests
http://www.romhacking.net/translations/939/

[Anonymous No.7762817]

>>7762705
>http://www.romhacking.net/translations/939/
Or somebody translated SNES version? Cool! Yes, wanted to try it for a long time. Even tho I really adore the original wacky game art style I need to try this one. Probably the last western wizardry port in japan that had enhanced graphics, since IIRC Wizardy7 ports were garbage looking.

[Anonymous No.7762886]

>>7762817
It's comfy as fuck on the SNES. If you're a wizardry fan you'll absolutely appreciate the new experience

[Anonymous No.7762912]

>>7762886
Okay I'll try
Tho on consoles usually for me CRPGs are not that fan experience because of limited controls. These old games sure loved to use keyboard shortcuts which makes gameplay much faster. This why I never completed the NES version of Might and Magic 1.

[Anonymous No.7762973]

>>7761681
joysticks were really a common thing back then
i had a couple

[Anonymous No.7762995]

>>7761885
Cringe

[Anonymous No.7763661]

>>7761320
>>7761464
>complaining when someone puts effort into their posts

[Anonymous No.7763876]

>>7761464
>>7761320
go back

[Anonymous No.7764320]

Speaking about the discussion above, one of the games that introduced mouse-driven interface as the must-have feature was Might and Magic 3 from 1991, which came out somewhere between two Eye of the Beholders. The difference between MM2 and MM3 is a clear example of how much changed PC landscape from 1988 to 1991:
-MM2 had only a PC speaker intro tune, MM3 has a full game ost with music everywhere, supporting even Roland devices.
-MM2 on PC has no mouse support, it was a keyboard-based game while MM3's mouse-driven user-friendly interface, graphical dynamic interface elements is one of the main features of the game.
-Without an encounter system, MM3 is a much less cryptic experience for common user. To achieve such a goal in an open-world game MM3 had a longer development cycle and a bigger dev team.
-While MM2 had an assortment of ports and the PC version was on the inferior side compare to the Amiga visually or to Macintosh version because Mac had a mouse-driven interface in MM series from the start, or even console versions, while they had cut combat they had full music and better art, MM3 technically the best version is PC one. Common soundcards and common 256 colors VGA in this new era made it possible for PC to have the best version of the game. The same goes for mouse support.

(Higher resolution Macintosh version came out later. And while technically inferior, I love how the SNES version was re-drawn. It also supports SNES mouse, but it is slow as fuck and has Nintendo censorship.)

[Anonymous No.7764997]

In addition to the discussion of the Terminator Future Shock above, want to point out to interesting "transitional" PC game. In the late 80s, flat-shaded 3d simulators and racing games with EGA colors were the primary dominant exclusive games for the PC. In the 1990s with VGA graphics it started to change, but here is an interesting example of similar concept visuals from 1991. While the game uses VGA, its 3d part is mostly EGA-ish simple 3d in the style of the 80s. Developers, Bethesda, used the new power of newer PC for their hyper ambition. This game, "The Terminator" is where all lines of old Bethesda's Terminator and early TES games started. 60sq mil LA in an open-world map, with ridable 3d cars, pedestrian and police, gas stations, etc. You can play as Terminator or Kyle, your goal to find and kill Sarah Conor or save her depending on who you playing. Game have interesting mechanics like shops, banks you can rob or take loans, all have their close and open time. So here is almost your 3D GTA game more than 10 years before the actual 3d GTA game. And this is the only Terminator game that doesn't set in the "dark future or something near it" I know about.

[Anonymous No.7765010]

>>7761320
>goes to retro game board
>gets angry people are discussing retro games

I don't understand the internet

[Anonymous No.7765068]

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and its sequel are two of the most enjoyable games I’ve ever played.

[Anonymous No.7765082]

>>7765068
A Final Unity? One of the greatest point and click adventures ever made.

[Anonymous No.7765436]

>>7765068
Great game, want to properly play it once ScummVM will support it

[Anonymous No.7765908]

>>7765082
No, there was a 25th anniversary sequel called Star Trek: Judgment Rites. It is also very fun, with great stories.

I love A Final Unity, truly a masterpiece game from back when games had soul. I spent so many hours playing that. Only the ship combat sucked.

[Anonymous No.7765912]

>>7765436
I had the floppy disk version for macOS 6/7. Good times, but it had no voiceovers and the last mission was shortened to save space, I guess.

[Anonymous No.7767825]

For 1995 there was also another interesting game, SU-27 flanker. Unlike mentioned above games which even back at the software render times moved towards full texture mapping in 1995, this game remained falt/gourand shaded. This helped to add more detail and complexity on the map and other things needed for a serious simulator. This game evolved into now popular Digital Combat Simulator. Mission editor, SVGA graphics, full Crime map in the box, everything you need.

[Anonymous No.7767897]

>>7764320
people say doom was when PCs became better than consoles i think it started with might and magic 3 and yes all 3 of the 16 bit consoles have ports of that game but they all look like shit compared to the PC version. It was one of those games that was so good it was put on everything at the time.

[Anonymous No.7768036]

I played under a killing moon on a 486, it used visual tricks to make you think it was photo realistic 3d. From 1991 until 3dfx was a good era artistically.

>>7767825
A10 cuba was similar, you could actually fly through a tunnel and there were cars driving on the roads that you could shoot.

[Anonymous No.7768627]

>>7767897
>people say doom was when PCs became better than consoles
Well, PCs always almost were better at RAW CPU power, but with multimedia hardware, it becomes more advanced and on the visual side. I'd say 1990 Wing Commander was the first half-arcade space game that had the best version on PC because of the combination of its CPU power and now available VGA graphics and soundcards. And yea, Ultima 6, MM3, EoB1-2 sort of fixed PC place as a multimedia machine. And with games like Ultima Underworld 1 in 1992 - >>7761213 it was the case of a game that was impossible to port on any console before PS1. And all of this was not "boring simulators", it is all colorful games with story, characters, etc.

[Anonymous No.7768634]

>>7768036
Yea, A-10 Cuba was even later, in 1996 IIRC. Probably one of the last non-textured games.