Mainframes and minicomputers '', developed for the
PDP-1 in 1961, is often credited as being the second ever computer game. The game consisted of two player-controlled spaceships maneuvering around a central star, each attempting to destroy the other.
Bertie the Brain was one of the first game playing machines developed. It was built in 1950 by
Josef Kates. It measured more than four meters tall, and was displayed at the
Canadian National Exhibition that year. Although personal computers only became popular with the development of the
microprocessor and
microcomputer, computer gaming on
mainframes and
minicomputers had previously already existed.
OXO, an adaptation of
tic-tac-toe for the
EDSAC, debuted in 1952. Another pioneer computer game was developed in 1961, when
MIT students Martin Graetz and
Alan Kotok, with
MIT student
Steve Russell, developed
Spacewar! on a
PDP-1 mainframe computer used for statistical calculations. The first generation of computer games were often
text-based adventures or
interactive fiction, in which the player communicated with the computer by entering commands through a keyboard. An early text-adventure,
Adventure, was developed 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 games like
Adventure, but by this time, graphics were beginning to become an important factor in games. Later games combined textual commands with basic graphics, as seen in the SSI
Gold Box games such as
Pool of Radiance, or ''
The Bard's Tale'', for example.
Early personal computer games '' (1980,
Apple II), a text-based
adventure game By the late 1970s to early 1980s, games were developed and distributed through
hobbyist groups and gaming magazines, such as
Creative Computing and later
Computer Gaming World. These publications provided
game code that could be typed into a computer and played, encouraging readers to submit their own software to competitions. Players could modify the
BASIC source code of even commercial games.
Microchess was one of the first games for
microcomputers which was sold to the public. First sold in 1977, Microchess eventually sold over 50,000 copies on
cassette tape. As with
second-generation video game consoles at the time, early home computer game companies capitalized on
successful arcade games at the time with
ports or
clones of popular
arcade video games. In late 1981,
Atari, Inc. attempted to take legal action against unauthorized
Pac-Man clones, despite some of these predating Atari's exclusive rights to the home versions of
Namco's game. Thousands of children attended the 1982
West Coast Computer Faire to see computer games there, despite organizers warning that the convention "is designed for mature individuals".
Industry crash and aftermath As the American video game market became flooded with poor-quality cartridge games created by numerous companies attempting to enter the market, and overproduction of high-profile releases such as the
Atari 2600 adaptations of
Pac-Man and
E.T. grossly underperformed, the popularity of personal computers for education rose dramatically. In 1983, American consumer interest in console video games dwindled to historical lows, as interest in games on personal computers rose. The effects of the crash were largely limited to the console market, as established companies such as
Atari posted record losses over subsequent years. Conversely, the home computer market boomed, as sales of low-cost color computers such as the
Commodore 64 rose to record highs and developers such as
Electronic Arts benefited from increasing interest in the platform. Meanwhile, in Japan, both consoles and computers became major industries, with the console market dominated by
Nintendo and the computer market dominated by
NEC's
PC-88 (1981) and
PC-98 (1982). A key difference between Western and Japanese computers at the time was the
display resolution, with Japanese systems using a higher resolution of 640x400 to accommodate
Japanese text, which in turn affected
video game design and allowed more detailed graphics. Japanese computers were also using
Yamaha's
FM synth sound boards from the early 1980s. To enhance the
immersive experience with their unrealistic graphics and electronic sound, early PC games included extras such as the peril-sensitive sunglasses that shipped with ''
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or the science fiction novella included with Elite''. These extras gradually became less common, but many games were still sold in the traditional oversized boxes that used to hold the extra "
feelies". Today, such extras are usually found only in Special Edition versions of games, such as Battle chests from
Blizzard. During the
16-bit era, the
Amiga and
Atari ST became popular in Europe, the
Macintosh and
IBM PC compatibles became popular in North America, while the PC-98,
X68000, and
FM Towns became popular in Japan. The
Amiga,
X68000 and
FM Towns were capable of producing near
arcade-quality hardware
sprite graphics and sound quality when they first released in the mid-to-late 1980s.
BYTE that year stated that the computer's speed and sophistication made it "an excellent gaming device", and IBM and others sold games like
Microsoft Flight Simulator. The PC's
CGA graphics and
speaker sound were poor, however, and most customers bought the powerful but expensive computer for business. One
ComputerLand owner estimated in 1983 that a quarter of corporate executives with computers "have a game hidden somewhere in their drawers", and
InfoWorld in 1984 reported that "in offices all over America (more than anyone realizes) executives and managers are playing games on their computers", but software companies found selling games for the PC difficult; an observer said that year that
Flight Simulator had sold hundreds of thousands of copies because customers with corporate PCs could claim that it was a "simulation". From mid-1985, however, what
Compute! described as a "wave" of inexpensive
IBM PC clones from American and Asian companies, such as the
Tandy 1000 and the
Leading Edge Model D, caused prices to decline; by the end of 1986, the equivalent to a $1600 real IBM PC with 256K RAM and two disk drives cost as little as $600, lower than the price of the
Apple IIc. Consumers began purchasing DOS computers for the home in large numbers. While often purchased to do work on evenings and weekends, clones' popularity caused consumer-software companies to increase the number of IBM-compatible products, including those developed specifically for the PC as opposed to
porting from other computers.
Bing Gordon of
Electronic Arts reported that customers used computers for games more than one fifth of the time whether purchased for work or a hobby, with many who purchased computers for other reasons finding PC games "a pretty satisfying experience". PC game sales rose by 198% year over year in the first half of 1987, compared to 57% for the market overall. The formerly business-only computer had become the largest and fastest-growing, and most important platform for computer game companies. More than a third of games sold in North America were for the PC, twice as many as those for the Apple II and even outselling those for the Commodore 64. By 1988
Computer Gaming World agreed with
Joel Billings of
Strategic Simulations that an inexpensive clone with
EGA graphics was superior for games. The Tandy 1000's
enhanced graphics, sound, and built-in joystick ports made it the best platform for IBM PC-compatible games before the VGA era. By 1988, the enormous popularity of the
Nintendo Entertainment System had greatly affected the computer-game industry. A
Koei executive claimed that "Nintendo's success has destroyed the [computer] software entertainment market". A
Mindscape executive agreed, saying that "Unfortunately, its effect has been extremely negative. Without question, Nintendo's success has eroded software sales. There's been a much greater falling off of disk sales than anyone anticipated." A third attributed the end of growth in sales of the
Commodore 64 to the console, and
Trip Hawkins called Nintendo "the last hurrah of the 8-bit world". Experts were unsure whether it affected 16-bit computer games, but games lost shelf space at computer software stores, and many of the hundreds of computer-game companies went out of business. Hawkins said that while foreign videogame competition increased, "there's an increase in product supply without an increase in demand". He in 1990 had to deny rumors that Electronic Arts would withdraw from computers and only produce console games. By 1993,
ASCII Entertainment reported at a
Software Publishers Association conference that the market for console games ($5.9 billion in revenue) was 12 times that of the computer-game market ($430 million). However, computer games did not disappear. The industry hoped that the
CD-ROM and other
optical storage technology would increase computers'
user friendliness and allow for more sophisticated games. By 1989,
Computer Gaming World reported that "the industry is moving toward heavy use of
VGA graphics". While some games were advertised with
VGA support at the start of the year, they usually supported EGA graphics through VGA cards. By the end of 1989, however, most publishers moved to supporting at least 320x200
MCGA, a subset of VGA. VGA gave the PC graphics that outmatched the Amiga. Increasing adoption of the
computer mouse, driven partially by the success of
adventure games such as the highly successful ''
King's Quest'' series, and high resolution
bitmap displays allowed the industry to include increasingly high-quality
graphical interfaces in new releases. Further improvements to game artwork and audio were made possible with the introduction of
FM synthesis sound.
Yamaha began manufacturing FM synth boards for computers in the early-mid-1980s, and by 1985, the NEC and
FM-7 computers had built-in FM sound. By 1990,
DOS was 65% of the computer-game market, with the Amiga at 10%; all other computers, including the
Apple Macintosh, were below 10% and declining. Although both Apple and IBM tried to avoid customers associating their products with "game machines", the latter acknowledged that VGA, audio, and joystick options for its
PS/1 computer were popular. In 1991,
id Software produced an early
first-person shooter,
Hovertank 3D, which was the company's first in their line of highly influential games in the genre. There were also several other companies that produced early
first-person shooters, such as
Arsys Software's
Star Cruiser, which featured fully
3D polygonal graphics in 1988, and
Accolade's
Day of the Viper in 1989. Id Software went on to develop
Wolfenstein 3D in 1992, which helped to popularize the genre, kick-starting a genre that would become one of the highest-selling in modern times. The game was originally distributed through the
shareware distribution model, allowing players to try a limited part of the game for free but requiring payment to play the rest, and represented one of the first uses of
texture mapping graphics in a popular game, along with
Ultima Underworld. In December 1992,
Computer Gaming World reported that DOS accounted for 82% of computer-game sales in 1991, compared to Macintosh's 8% and Amiga's 5%. In response to a reader's challenge to find a DOS game that played better than the Amiga version the magazine cited
Wing Commander and
Civilization, and added that "The heavy MS-DOS emphasis in
CGW merely reflects the realities of the market". A self-reported
Computer Gaming World survey in April 1993 similarly found that 91% of readers primarily used IBM PCs and compatibles for gaming, compared to 6% for Amiga, 3% for Macintosh, and 1% for Atari ST, while a
Software Publishers Association study found that 74% of personal computers were IBMs or compatible, 10% Macintosh, 7% Apple II, and 8% other. 51% of IBM or compatible had 386 or faster CPUs. While leading
Sega and
Nintendo console systems kept their CPU speed at 3–7
MHz, the
486 PC processor ran much faster, allowing it to perform many more calculations per second. The 1993 release of
Doom on the PC was a breakthrough in 3D graphics, and was soon ported to various game consoles in a general shift toward greater realism.
Computer Gaming World reiterated in 1994, "we have to advise readers who want a machine that will play most of the games to purchase high-end MS-DOS machines". By 1993, PC
floppy disk games had a sales volume equivalent to about one-quarter that of
console game ROM cartridge sales. A hit PC game typically sold about 250,000 disks at the time, while a hit console game typically sold about cartridges. By spring 1994, an estimated 24 million US homes (27% of households) had a personal computer. 48% played games on their computer; 40% had the 486 CPU or higher; 35% had CD-ROM drives; and 20% had a sound card. By 1993, PC games required much more memory than other software, often consuming all of
conventional memory, while device drivers could go into
upper memory with
DOS memory managers. Players found modifying
CONFIG.SYS and
AUTOEXEC.BAT files for memory management cumbersome and confusing, and each game needed a different configuration. (The game
Les Manley in: Lost in L.A. satirizes this by depicting two beautiful women exhaust the hero in bed, by requesting that he again explain the difference between
extended and
expanded memory.)
Computer Gaming World provided technical assistance to its writers to help install games for review, and published sample configuration files. The magazine advised non-technical gamers to purchase commercial memory managers like
QEMM and
386MAX and criticized nonstandard software like
Origin Systems's "infamous late and unlamented Voodoo Memory Manager", which used
unreal mode.
Contemporary PC gaming format format By 1996, the growing popularity of
Microsoft Windows simplified device driver and memory management. The success of 3D console titles such as
Super Mario 64 and
Tomb Raider increased interest in
hardware accelerated 3D graphics on PCs, and soon resulted in attempts to produce affordable products with the
ATI Rage,
Matrox Mystique,
S3 ViRGE, and
Rendition Vérité. As 3D graphics libraries such as
DirectX and
OpenGL matured and knocked proprietary interfaces out of the market, these platforms gained greater acceptance in the market, particularly with their demonstrated benefits in games such as
Unreal. However, major changes to the
Microsoft Windows operating system, by then the market leader, made many older DOS-based games unplayable on
Windows NT, and later,
Windows XP (without using an
emulator, such as
DOSBox). The faster graphics accelerators and improving
CPU technology resulted in increasing levels of realism in computer games. During this time, the improvements introduced with products such as ATI's
Radeon R300 and
NVidia's
GeForce 6 series have allowed developers to increase the complexity of modern
game engines. PC gaming currently tends strongly toward improvements in 3D graphics. Unlike the generally accepted push for improved graphical performance, the use of
physics engines in computer games has become a matter of debate since announcement and 2005 release of the
nVidia PhysX PPU, ostensibly competing with
middleware such as the
Havok physics engine. Issues such as difficulty in ensuring consistent experiences for all players, and the uncertain benefit of first generation PhysX cards in games such as ''
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and City of Villains'', prompted arguments over the value of such technology. Similarly, many game publishers began to experiment with new forms of marketing. Chief among these alternative strategies is
episodic gaming, an adaptation of the older concept of
expansion packs, in which game content is provided in smaller quantities but for a proportionally lower price. Titles such as
Half-Life 2: Episode One and
Episode Two took advantage of the idea, with mixed results rising from concerns for the amount of content provided for the price. == Platform characteristics ==