John

B. Purcaru

Games vs. Hardware

The History of PC gaming
The 80’s

Contents

Preface
Introduction
Why this book?
The hardware steps before IBM PC
The first generation Vacuum tubes based computers
Transistors and their huge importance in computers evolution
The second generation, transistor based computers
The third generation of computers based on integrated circuits (1965-early 80’s). Miniaturizing the
 computer
The fourth and the last generation of microprocessor based computers: 1971 - nowadays
The gaming steps before IBM PC
The early years for electronic gaming
The first generation consoles and some of their games
Second generation consoles (1977–1983)
Golden age of arcade video games (1978–1983)
Gaming on the personal computers prior the IBM PC
The early years for IBM PC, 1981 and 1982
The roots of IBM PC and the initial hardware design
The software choice for the x86 IBM PC, MS-DOS
The three musketeers, PC games in 1981
Games vs. Hardware in 1982
Trailing behind competition 1983-1986
Games vs. Hardware in 1983
Games vs. Hardware in 1984
Games vs. Hardware in 1985
Games vs. Hardware in 1986
The greatest of 80’s for PC gaming, 1987-1989
Games vs. Hardware in 1987
Games vs. Hardware in 1988
Games vs. Hardware in 1989
So, what are the best platforms for gaming in the 80’s?

(No) Preface
The preface waits for my preferred game designer. While I admire and esteem a very large number of
game designers such as Will Wright, Richard Garriott, Warren Spector, Alexey Pajitnov, Brian Fargo,
David Perry, John Carmack, Brian Reynolds and many others and I would love if any of them would write
the smallest preface, I hold my greatest admiration for Sidney K. “Sid” Meier, my favorite game designer
of all times, a prodigal game designer representative for 80’s, 90’s and the 2000’s. I haven’t succeeded in
contacting him and talking about this book but I have the greatest hopes that he will be the one to write the
preface for this book in the future.

Introduction
The history behind this book. My two biggest passions concerning computers are hardware and
gaming. Since I received my first computer back in 1997 from my parents I have avidly read many
magazines about hardware and games, and with the launch of internet I read almost all hardware articles
on sites such as Anandtech, TomsHardware and many others. On the other hand I played a lot of PC
games, sometimes losing nights and days and even months with amazing classic releases such as Heroes 3
and Alpha Centauri. If I were to count my overall gaming hours there are probably a few full years
accounted in them, and I don’t regret a single one. My only regret is the fact that my career didn’t progress
in becoming a game designer, but it’s not that late since I’m 30 years old now. I may still have a shot.

Amazingly I had plans for this book about 7-8 year ago, but swallowed with work in a
telecommunication company I forgot about this book yet traces of the desire to write the book remained in
my subconscious. After some failed plans I finally decided to begin writing it about two years ago but the
text did progress very slowly because of my job, my family duties and some health problems. Sometime
in the middle of 2013 I discussed with my father about the book and he suggested me to separate it in three
parts, the 80’s, the 90’s and the 2000’s as it was just too much content to write about. This splitting was
for me a winning decision since I had a smaller goal to fulfill with the 80’s content. From that moment on
the possibility to finally write this book, even if only the first part concerning 80’s became tangible.

Even so the writing progressed slowly mostly due to my work hours until the “lucky” moment that
allowed me to finally finish the book came unexpected. I have fractured my right arm in an unfortunate
event related to my washing machine, which happened to lose some water. The 40 days of “house arrest”
helped me a lot with this book, despite the fact that I was only writing with my left hand and almost
ensured me to complete it.

There was a time when I knew nothing about the 80’s. When I first began to write this book my
mind was set on the 90’s and the 2000’s regarding both hardware and gaming as a lot has happened in
those decades. I have severely neglected the 80’s believing the period to be the too simple and too
uninteresting to be researched and to write about. After a while, when I did some research and played
some games from the 80’s I’ve decided to create a full large chapter and later a book, as it was too much
interesting content for just one big chapter. While I am quite fond of that period and I do appreciate both
hardware and games launched in that period I do favor the next book about the 90’s even more and I am
extremely motivated to finish it. The book about the 2000-2013 timeframe will be the last one to be
released.

My English problem/s. My biggest concern now as the book is ready is the grammar as I wrote this
book by myself and as a different nationality, as I am Romanian my English skills are not so great. While
they did improve in time, I still didn’t consider them good enough to be capable of writing an English
book. My biggest concern for now comes from the absence of a final and professional grammar correction
of the book, and readers may encounter for now some weird expressions that may seem quite correct to
me and also some incorrect syntactic expressions. I do apologize for them and I have the desire that soon I
will have the finances to give the book the last correcting touches.

Not so literate. While it’s easier to write a book in the native language, to write it in any other, even
if it’s Shakespeare’s language is not that easy because I know only few of the most common artistic
expressions and sayings. That’s why the book may seem quite technical and stony. After all the book
content is less literate and more about technology, computers and video games and for me this is an
advantage. If I were to write a literature book, such as a novel or a story, I would fail miserably. With this
book I have a chance to make it interesting because all the exciting descriptions and events relating games
and hardware happened for real.





Why this book?

The main question is of course: Why this book? I don’t want that important pieces of history regarding
computer hardware, games and, in a smaller amount the 80’s operating systems to be forgotten and lost. I
want everyone to appreciate the hardware and software industry and especially the people behind them as
they worked many days and nights to deliver us fast and advanced computers and entertaining and
complex games.

Why so much late? Another big question is this one: Why writing about such a distant period, the
80’s? There are many of us, the gamers, especially the young gamers that haven’t played games from the
90’s, so what can I say about games from the 80’s. There are also are many ex gamers, now at age 40-50
with families, obligations and lack the time to play games in the present. They played games in the 80’s
but for a reason stopped on the time course. There are also the lucky 30-50 years gamers that still have
time to play modern games but forgot much about gaming in the 80’s. This first book can be interesting for
all gamers the old ones that want to remember and complete their knowledge about the gaming in the 80’s
and the new gamers that want to know the history of x86 PC gaming and want to understand how
everything begun, and why today games such as GTA 5 are so complex and great. Perhaps few of them
knew that the first GTA was launched in 1997, and there are very few common elements now, except of
course the name.
A long time passed, almost 30 years and gaming changed immensely from then as I will show in the
book with many gains but also some losses. I want this book to show and remind us the gamers, the legacy
and the gaming elements that evolved so much over time, as now we have so many complex games, games
that wouldn’t exist today if the game designers would not create the much simpler games from the 80’s.

Expectation from 80’s. While it can be very interesting from a historic standpoint it is very hard for
the newest gamers 12-24 years to play games from the 80’s. They look extremely modest by today
standards, most of them have low resolution and old graphic quality and on top they won’t run on the
newest Windows. Still most of them can run under a DOS BOX, with good reproduction of atmosphere
but the gameplay is not always as good. Therefore I recommend watching videos on the internet about
these games, as most of them have many gameplay and wall-trough videos that are great to introduce the
game. For the older gamers 40-50 years it would be easier to replay the game, once you played and liked
it once is easier to replay it and like it again but many don’t have the time to replay it again, DOS BOX is
not always an elegant solution and therefore again internet videos are the best for recalling memories. For
the ones that have the time and will to play the games on a very old computer or DOS BOX please take
notice that many of these games are dinosaurs regarding graphics compared to the present games and it
will be hard to adapt. If some will succeed to adapt they will have pleasant surprises regarding the
gameplay and innovations brought to us by the 80’s games. The quality of graphics is understandable
considering the old computers are thousand/million time slower in both CPU and computer graphics
compared to present computers and we all must praise and congratulate our older programmers (game
designer is more a 90’s designation) considering the hardware limitation in the past. And speaking about
hardware almost all games in the 80’s will run on an 8088/8086 microprocessor and on CGA/MDA
graphics, very limited hardware even for the 80’s.

While weak on graphics these games for the 80’s had good gameplay and many individual innovations
including 3d graphics rendered in software and many concept innovations that lead to a golden period in
PC gaming, my beloved 90’s. Regarding difficulty the games in the 80’s can be categorized in two: those
easy to learn and master (action, platformers and arcade based games) and those very hard to learn,
master and finish (RPG’s, graphic adventures and text adventures). There is no middle ground in the 80’s,
the games are too easy or too hard and perhaps this is the only “flaw”. In the 90’s the mouse
revolutionized PC gameplay and many concept elements were mixed so good, cleaver and efficient that
made me prefer many games from 90’s over the present ones (2013).

PC gaming is more than games, is a complex ecosystem

For me the concept of PC gaming is very complex environment now in 2013. It was much simpler at
the beginning of PC games in the 80’s but with every year and decade the PC gaming becomes even more
complex therefore the games are much difficult to implement it is required more time and designers to
develop a complex game. The reason is the very complex nature of x86 PC platforms gaming system: the
variety of configurations, components, Windows versions and drivers, difference in performance of the
various components and different controllers and many more others elements. The extremely high sheer
performance available in the x86 components is another element because the game designers had to do a
lot of work to keep up. The main elements required by a PC game are first the software components OS,
API, drivers and the game of course as the most important component, second the hardware components:
processor (APU), video card (APU, GPU), internal volatile memory (RAM), sound card, the internal data
storage drives (HDD, SSD) and the third elements the input devices such as mouse keyboard, joysticks
and the output devices such as monitors (or many monitors) and speakers. No matter how good a game it
is, it cannot be played at full potential and playability if just one of these previous elements don’t work or
can’t perform good enough to sustain the game. All these elements help the game to function and to be
played at the full potential of the game. Even if a game can be played without sound or with a small
diagonal, small resolution screen, these negative elements will affect or perhaps ruin the game-play of the
game and the pleasure to play it. Opposite to PC the consoles have all the same performance, the same
base controllers and so everybody play the same, the only notable differences could be in the different TV
set that display the console’s content.
Therefore I wanted to present not only the evolution of the games and hardware but also the evolution
of all the ecosystem containing software components/hardware and controllers that had a connection with
the PC gaming and the way they evolved with the games or helped at the evolution of games so we can see
what role had each of them in the evolution of PC games.


Gaming on PC is a complex environment that immensely evolved from 80’s until nowadays


Hardware and electronic gaming history before the launch of IBM PC platforms and
compatibles

While this book addresses especially to IBM personal computers, compatibles and x86 based
Windows platforms as we know them today I wanted to have an introduction that credits the elements
whose evolution lead to the creation of personal computer systems and personal computer based gaming.
These elements are initially the basic electronic components and later hardware, the first super-sized
computers, the first electronic games based on computers and the first specialized devices to run only
electronic games such as arcades and consoles. Without these extremely important innovations found in
all computing electronic domains, we wouldn’t have today processors and graphic card with billions of
transistors, personal computers so small, so fast and cheap who can perform almost everything, software
so advanced with huge multipurpose and games so complex, entertaining and fun with graphics close to
reality and with imagination well beyond it.


As seen in this graphic this introduction chapter will describe only briefly the elements that lead to the
creation of hardware and gaming elements on the IBM PC platform and MS-DOS based gaming starting
from 1981.
All these early technological advancements in all domains were essential in inspiring engineers to
create the first IBM personal computer systems and compatibles based on MS-DOS and later from early
90’s on Windows based personal computers.

 The hardware steps before IBM PC

I will start this book by presenting the main hardware elements, the most important technological
advancements, the computers and personal computers before the x86 IBM personal computers as they
were extremely important for the evolution of future computers and personal computers and the IBM PC
was inspired by many of them with a lot of different elements such as design, modularity, microprocessors
and cost effective internal architecture. Since this chapter is only indirectly connected with the purpose of
the book I will make a very brief introduction of all hardware and gaming elements that lead to the
creation of the IBM personal computers and compatibles driven by the x86 architecture as we know it
today.

Concerning the building technology the computers can be separated in four main categories. The first
generation of computers depended upon the invention of vacuum tubes sometimes mixed with
mechanical elements; the second generation had the transistor as a stepping stone; the third generation
was based on the integrated circuits with a relative small number of transistors; and the fourth
generation of computers came about after the invention of the microprocessor. While the first generation
of vacuum tubes based computers were by far the most imposing as we will later see (they were very
large but also slower and unreliable), the second and third generation are very similar as they depend on
the newly discovered and extremely important transistor that had only a modest technological evolution
(in miniaturization) at the time; we all use today the fourth generation of computers, based on
microprocessors.

While many technological advancement occurred before the fourth generation microprocessor based
computers, regarding processing speed and software availability the microprocessor based personal
computers had by far the greatest increase in both computing performance and available software/ games
library as they are more than 1000 times faster at integer calculations than a powerful supercomputer
without microprocessor in the 70’s and more than 10000 faster at the same integer calculations than the
first personal IBM personal computer with a 8088 microprocessor launched in 1981. Regarding floating
point unit (FPU) performance, 3D graphics and special calculations the differences are even more
significant, as older computers can’t perform newer optimized instructions and tasks.

Regarding software, now more than 99% of software and games are made for a microprocessor based
electronic device, while 1% is old software predating the middle 70’s or even older punched cards used
as a input method in the 50’s and 60’s.

The first generation Vacuum tubes based computers

The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were often
enormous, taking up entire rooms or even a stadium. They were very expensive to build and to operate
and in addition they were using a great deal of electricity, and because they generated a lot of heat, this
was a common cause of malfunction.



Vacuum tubes used in an early IBM 603 (1946)

In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube (in North America), thermionic valve, thermionic triode,
tube, or valve is a device controlling electric current through vacuum in a sealed container. The container is
often a thin transparent glass in a roughly cylindrical shape. The simplest vacuum tube, the diode, is
essentially an incandescent light bulb with an added electrode inside. By controlling the electric current,
vacuum tubes can be used for rectification, amplification, switching, or similar processing or the creation
of electrical signals and therefore it was the first electronic device that was suitable for computing; there
were also some mechanical only computers at the time but they were very limited in calculation tasks and
also had very limited programmability.

While the vacuum tubes made electronic computing achievable for the first time, the cost, size, power
consumption and relatively short mean time to failure of tubes were extremely limiting factors. “The common
wisdom was that valves which, like light bulbs, contained a hot glowing filament that could never be used
satisfactorily in large numbers, for they were unreliable, and in a large installation too many would fail in
too short a time” - engineer Tommy Flowers, who later designed Colossus. For example, the 1946 ENIAC,
with over 17,000 tubes, had a tube failure on average every two days which took 15 minutes to locate.
The first generation of computers relied on machine language, the lowest-level programming language
understood by computers, to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time. Input
was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was displayed on printouts.

For me, the first generations of vacuum tube computers are the most interesting of all computers due to
their huge size. I can see a resemblance with the prehistoric dinosaurs, not so bright at least compared to
us (or present computers), but immensely large and very different than today’s creatures and therefore
very interesting for us. In some cases these computers occupied more than 0.5 acres (2,000 m2) in the
case of the super-sized computer SAGE AN/FSQ-7; the immense power required to run was over 3
megawatts because of the high energy requirements of the 60,000 vacuum tubes used while their
production and maintenance costs were also immense. Therefore they were designed especially for
governmental use and large business companies that had the finances and required immense processing
power at the time. Today even the most basic and slow ARM processor has much more processing power
than a super-sized vacuum tube based dinosaur but the mankind needs for fast processing are ever-
changing upwards.

The most important computers without transistors (most of them using vacuum tubes)

What I would like to note is the fact that most of these vacuum tubes based computers were unique.
Therefore many of them were produced as a single unit compared to the transistor and microprocessor
based computers that were most of them produced in large numbers, sometimes even millions for some
successful microprocessor based personal computers.


Timeline for transistor based computers:

1936


Z1 Computer - designed by Konrad Zuse. It was the first freely programmable computer. This is
mechanical only and had no electronic or vacuum tubes.

1942

ABC Computer - designed by John Atanasoff & Clifford Berry. This was one of the first electronic
digital computing devices. Conceived in 1937, the machine was not programmable, being designed only
to solve linear equation systems. It was successfully tested in 1942.


1943

Colossus - designed by engineer Tommy Flowers.Colossus was the world’s first electronic digital
computer that was all programmable. It was also used to break the German Lorenz cipher.

1944

Harvard Mark I Computer designed by Howard Aiken & Grace Hopper. The Harvard Mark 1
computer was an electro-mechanical computer. It was the first operating machine that could execute long
computations automatically.

1946

ENIAC 1 Computer - designed by John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly. ENIAC was the first
electronic general-purpose computer. It contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, 7,200 crystal diodes, 1,500
relays, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors and around 5 million hand-soldered joints. It weighed more
than 27 tons, was roughly 8 by 3 by 100 feet (2.4m × 0.9m × 30m), took up 1800 square feet (167m2), and
consumed 150kW of power.


Eniac 1


1948

Manchester Baby Computer & The Williams Tube - designed by Frederic Williams & Tom
Kilburn. This was the world’s first stored-program computer. Although considered “small and primitive”
by the standards of its time, it was the first working machine to contain all of the elements essential to a
modern electronic computer.

IBM SSEC was the first operational machine able to treat its instructions as data, but it was not
fully electronic. It had many of the features of a stored-program computer.

1949

Manchester Mark 1 - developed at the Victoria University of Manchester. This is historically
significant because of its pioneering inclusion of index registers, an innovation which made it easier for a
program to read sequentially through an array of words in memory.


CSIRAC - developed by Trevor Pearcey and Maston Beard. This was Australia’s first digital
computer, and the fourth stored program computer in the world. It is the oldest surviving first-generation
electronic computer and was the first in the world to play digital music.


EDSAC - designed by Maurice Wilkes and his team. This was the first to provide a computing
service for users. A working replica is currently being built at Bletchley Park and is scheduled to go live
in 2015. In 1952, A.S. Douglas created the first graphical computer game - a version of Tic-Tac-Toe
based on the EDSAC computer.

Esdac computer

BINAC - designed by Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation.This was the first stored-program
computer in the US, and the world’s first commercial digital computer. It used approximately 700 vacuum
tubes.

1950

SWAC. The machine used 2,300 vacuum tubes. It had 256 words of memory, using Williams tubes,
with each word being 37 bits. It had only seven basic operations: add, subtract and multiply (single
precision and double precision versions), comparison, data extraction, input and output. Several years later
a drum memory was added. In July 1950, it was the fastest computer in the world.


Harvard Mark III - designed by Howard Aiken at Harvard University. This computer was partially
electronic and partially electromechanical. It used 5,000 vacuum tubes and 1,500 crystal diodes. It used
magnetic drum memory of 4,350 words. It also had 256 words of memory, using Williams tubes, with
each word being 37 bits.

1951

Ferranti Mark 1. Second oldest recorded music on a computer. It included a hoot command, which
enabled the machine to give auditory feedback to its operators such as “God Save the King”, “Baa Baa
Black Sheep”, and “In the Mood”

EDVAC - designed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert. The computer was huge and had almost
6,000 vacuum tubes and 12,000 diodes, while it consumed 56kW of power. It covered 490ft² (45.5m²) of
floor space and weighed 17,300lb (7,850kg).


Whirlwind - designed by John von Neumann
This is the first computer that operated in real-time, used video displays for output, and the first that was
not simply an electronic replacement of an older semi-mechanical system.

Whirlwind computer, video output and a ‘modern design’

ORDVAC. This supercomputer was based on the IAS architecture developed by John von Neumann.
The ORDVAC used 2178 vacuum tubes and was the first computer to have a compiler.

LEO I. This was the first computer used for commercial applications. It was built by J. Lyons and
Co. restaurant and bakery chain and was based on EDSAC design.


UNIVAC Computer - designed by John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly. The UNIVAC I was the
first American computer designed at the outset for business and administrative use. It was used by CBS to
predict the result of the 1952 presidential election.

The Univac computer


1952

Harvard Mark IV. The Mark IV was the first Mark fully electronic. The Mark IV used magnetic
drum and had 200 registers of ferrite magnetic core memory (one of the first computers to do so)

BESM-1, BESM-2. These were some of the first electronic computers produced in the Soviet space.

1953
UNIVAC 1103 - built by the Remington Rand. This was the first computer for which Seymour Cray
was credited with design work. It employed vacuum tube logic, magnetic core memory, and hardware
floating point.

Stela computer. This was the first mainframe computer manufactured serially in the Soviet Union.
This first-generation computer had 6,200 vacuum tubes and 60,000 semiconductor diodes.


IBM 701 - designed by International Business Machines. With the 701 model IBM enters into ‘The
History of Computers’. It was IBM’s first commercial scientific computer.

IBM 701

 1954

IBM 650. This is the world’s first mass-produced computer. Almost 2000 systems were produced,
the last in 1962.

IBM 650


IBM 704. This was the first mass produced computer with floating point arithmetic hardware so
much used in today’s games. 123 systems were sold between 1955 and 1960.The programming languages
FORTRAN and LISP were first developed for the 704. MUSIC, the first computer music program, was
developed on the IBM 704 by Max Mathews

IBM 704

BESK - developed by the Swedish Board for Computing Machinery. During a short time it was the
fastest computer in the world.



IBM Naval Ordnance Research Calculator (NORC). This was also one of the fastest computers at
the time. At the presentation ceremony, it calculated the π (pi) number to 3089 digits, which was a new
record. The calculation took only 13 minutes.
1956

FUJIC. This one was the first operational electronic digital computer in Japan and was built almost
entirely by a single person – Dr. Okazaki Bunji.



FUJIC computer


IBM 305 RAMAC. It was the first commercial computer that used a moving head hard disk drive
(magnetic disk storage) for secondary storage.

1957

IBM 610 was the first single person operated computer, in the sense of a computer to be used by one
person and was controlled by a keyboard.

1958

EDSAC 2. Was the first computer to have a micro programmed control unit and a bit slice hardware
architecture.


IBM AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Central. It is the largest vacuum tube computer ever built. 52
were built for Project SAGE. The largest computer system ever built, each of the 24 installed machines,
weighed 250 tons and had two computers. The AN/FSQ-7 used a total of 60,000 vacuum tubes (49,000 in
the computers) and up to 3 megawatts of electricity

1961
Sumlock ANITA calculator. It is world’s first all-electronic desktop calculators they used vacuum
tubes and cold-cathode switching tubes in their logic circuits and nixie tubes for their numerical displays.

This is only a part of the most important vacuum tubes based computers as many others were built until
early 60’s when the advantages of transistor started to make a huge difference in the world of computers
and supercomputers design.

While extremely inefficient regarding power, performance and concerning size the evolution of
computing and electronic logic present in the first generation of vacuum tubes based computer is extremely
important for the foundation of the future computers based on transistors as they retained most of the
architectural design and computing principles found in those super-sized dinosaur computers, then super-
computers and implemented them on a much smaller scale.

Summary of advantages/disadvantages for transistor based computers:

Advantages
Vacuum tube technology made possible for the first time the creation of electronic digital
computers
Many of these computers could calculate data in millisecond.


Disadvantages
The computers were very large in size and were usually non-portable.
They consumed a very large amount of energy.
They heated often due to thousands of hot vacuum tubes.
They were not very reliable; vacuum tubes had a limited lifespan.
Constant maintenance and air conditioning was required.
Costly commercial production and limited commercial use.
Very slow speed compared to more modern computers.
Limited programming capabilities as they used machine language only.
Used magnetic drums which provide very low data storage.
Used punch cards for input.
Not versatile and very faulty.

Transistors and their huge importance in computers evolution

A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify/reduce and switch electronic signals and
electrical power, just as a vacuum tube does. It is composed of semiconductor material with at least three
terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor’s
terminals changes the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can
be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal.

The need for transistors. While the most advanced computers based on vacuum tubes had all the
main elements found in the today computers: logic, storage, input and output that sometimes included a
monitor they were very large and consumed a huge amount of energy because of the vacuum tubes
limitation regarding power, size, fragility and reliability. Therefore a solution had to be found to create
smaller, cheaper and more reliable computers.

Brief History. There are many books and articles concerning the creation of the first transistors and so I
will be as short as possible. The main “fault” for designing one of the greatest inventions from the 20th century,
falls over the shoulders of John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley. John Bardeen and Walter
Brattain working at the time at Bell Telephone Laboratories were trying to understand the nature of the
electrons at the interface between a metal and a semiconductor. They realized that by making two point contacts
very close to one another, they could make a three terminal device - the first “point contact” transistor. Solid
State Physics Group leader William Shockley saw the potential in this, and over the next few months worked to
greatly expand the knowledge of semiconductors.

A replica of the first transistor


This invention was the spark that ignited a huge research effort in solid state electronics. Bardeen and
Brattain received the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1956, together with William Shockley, “for their researches
on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect.” Shockley developed soon a so-called
junction transistor, which was built on thin slices of different types of semiconductor material pressed
together. The junction transistor was easier to understand theoretically, and could be manufactured more
reliably.


Shortly after the invention starting from early 60’s transistors made of semiconductors replaced the
unreliable vacuum tubes in the construction of computers, transformed the world of electronics and had a
huge impact on computer design. For many years, transistors were made as individual electronic
components and were connected to other electronic components (resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes,
etc.) on boards to make an electronic circuit. As they were much smaller than vacuum tubes and consumed
remarkable less power the electronic circuits could be made now more complex, with smaller transistors
that were switching faster than tubes. By replacing bulky and unreliable vacuum tubes with transistors,
computers could now perform the same functions, using less power and space while being more reliable.


In the present transistors are the fundamental building blocks of a computer, just as cells are the building
blocks of any living organism. It is rare to find any individual transistors in a modern computer but every
integrated circuit contains a vast number of them. For example, every memory location will have a pair of
transistors, so there are 16 of them for each byte, so 16 million of them for each megabyte of memory. The
central processor which carries out all the calculations and other processes also contains millions and even
billion transistors in the newer processors from both CPU technological leaders Intel and AMD.


This graphic shows how impressively evolved over time the number of transistors to be found on a
small package, following closely the Moore’s Law, especially after the 60’s.

The second generation, transistor based computers (1953-1965)

Many of the initial vacuum tubes based computers presented before, replaced over time the internal
unreliable vacuum tubes with the smaller, more reliable and less power consuming transistors. Some of
them were also redesigned because now the size required to build a computer was considerably smaller
and a new lighter design was possible. Yet the electronic connections, memory and other parts of the
computers were still large and so the sizes didn’t lowered so dramatically overnight. The transistors in
the end allowed the building of newer generations of computers with more modern look, smaller size and
power consumption and better reliability and performance and I will name just a small part them as they
are not as imposing as their vacuum tube based predecessors. What I would like to remind is the fact that
many of the vacuum based computers were unique, or build/sold in a very limited number. In contrast
while the transistors based computers also had some unique members most of them sold in a significant
number, from 10 to more than 10000 in the case of some successful business IBM computers, designed for
smaller companies.

Some important early transistorized computers:

1953


University of Manchester Transistor computer. It is widely agreed to be the first transistor
computer to come into operation anywhere in the world.

The first computer based on transistors, made in Manchester

 1954

IBM 608. This was the first IBM product to use transistor circuits without any vacuum tubes and is
believed to be the world’s first all-transistorized calculator to be manufactured for the commercial market.

1955

Harwell CADET was the first fully transistorized computer designed in Europe.
1956

MIT TX-0. The computer used the world’s first high frequency surface-barrier transistor, which was
also the first transistor that was suitable for high speed computers.

MIT TX-0

1957

Univac TRANSTEC and Univac ATHENA were created for US Navy and US Air Force missile
guidance (ground control)

1957

Philco Transac S-1000 and Philco Transac S-2000 were the first commercially produced large-scale
fully transistor based computers. It used discrete surface barrier transistors instead of vacuum tubes (as
the integrated circuit had not yet been invented)

1957 …1970

More than 80 transistor based models of computers and supercomputers models were built on 1957-
1970 time-frame, many of them commercialized in a significant number.

The transistor based computer are much more numerous in both overall models and selling numbers
than the vacuum tube based computers as they were cheaper and easier to build and so this graphic only
includes very few of them. There will be launched over time more than 80 different models of computers
based on transistors.
The transistor based computers were constantly improved and miniaturized and coexisted from the
middle 60’s with the third generation of computers, based on the newly discovered integrated circuits.
Both the second and the third generation shared the market until the middle 70’s when they will be
gradually replaced by the fourth generation of computers, the one based on microprocessors, the
integrated circuits with logical “brains”.


Advantages of transistors based computers.

Smaller in size as compared to the first generation computers.
The 2nd generation Computers were more reliable
Used less energy and were not heated.
Wider commercial use due to lower prices.
Better portability as compared to the first generation computers.
Better speed as they could calculate data in microseconds.
Used faster peripherals like tape drives, magnetic disks, printer etc.
Some used Assembly language instead of Machine language.
Accuracy was also improved.


Disadvantages

Cooling system was still required many times
Constant maintenance was required
Commercial production was difficult
Only used for specific purposes
Costly and not versatile
Punch cards were mostly used for input.

The third generation of computers based on integrated circuits 1965-

early 80’s. Miniaturizing the computer
This third generation is very close to the second generation in many ways, as they are somehow
complementary and can they be easily be confusable. They had at first similar looks, size, power
consumption and most of the components The only real difference is the fact that this third generation
included besides standalone transistors several transistors soldered together at one piece, called IC or
integrated circuits. While transistors alone as an individual component were a tremendous breakthrough for
computers technology no one could predict initially that thousands not to mention now billions of transistors
and circuits could be compacted in such a small space.


The first integrated circuit, or as it is sometimes referred to as semiconductor chip had initially 2
transistors soldered together and quite a chunky size. Robert Noyce of Fairchild Corporation and Jack
Kilby of Texas Instruments independently discovered the amazing attributes of integrated circuits. The first
IC with only two transistors had a higher price and was tougher to produce therefore was less
commercially viable but by the end of 60’s and early 70’s special integrated circuits were developed,
called TTL or transistor-transistor-logic. These chips included up to several hundreds of transistors and
many logic functions in one integrated circuit therefore allowed much higher performance in a much
smaller device. Placing such large numbers of transistors on a single chip vastly decreased the power
consumption of a single computer and also lowered its cost.

Jack Kilby‘s original integrated circuit

Since the invention of integrated circuits, the number of transistors that can be placed on a single chip had
almost doubled every two years, shrinking both the size and cost of computers even further while enhancing
its performance and power consumption– this is what many of us know as Moore’s law.

Moore’s law, courtesy of Intel

Moore’s law is the observation that, over the history of computing hardware, the number of transistors
on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. The period often quoted as “18 months” was
initiated by Intel executive David House, who predicted that period for a doubling in chip performance (a
combination of the effect of more transistors, with faster electronic switch and better architecture). The law
is named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore, who described the trend in his 1965 paper. The paper
noted that the number of components in integrated circuits had doubled every year from the invention of the
integrated circuit in 1958 until 1965 and predicted that the trend would continue “for at least ten years”. His
prediction has proven to be uncannily accurate, in part because the law is now used in the semiconductor
industry to guide long-term planning and to set targets for research and development.

 The first desktop size computers based on TTL chips (transistor-transistor logic)/integrated
circuits
The continuous reduction in transistors, memory and the creation on smaller and smaller integrated circuits
also called microchips allowed computer designer to create smaller and smaller computers, from apartment
size computers to a cabinet size while maintaining the same level of performance. Furthermore at the
early 70’s the advances in all electronic domains allowed the creation of the first desktop sized transistor
based computers.
The first desktop sized computer without microprocessor
The Kenbak-1 is considered by the Computer History Museum and the American Computer Museum to be
the world’s first “personal computer”. Only 40 machines were ever built and sold. It was designed and
invented by John Blankenbaker of Kenbak Corporation in 1970, and was first sold in early 1971. The system
first sold for US$750. In 1973, production of the Kenbak-1 stopped as Kenbak Corporation folded.

Since the Kenbak-1 was invented before the first microprocessor, the machine didn’t have a one-chip
CPU but instead was based purely on discrete TTL chips same with the first consoles. The 8-bit machine
offered 256 bytes of memory (=1/4096 megabyte). The instruction cycle time was 1 microsecond
(equivalent to an instruction clock speed of 1 MHz), but actual execution speed averaged below 1000
instructions per second due to architectural constraints such as slow access to serial memory.
To use the machine, one had to program it with a series of buttons and switches, using pure machine
code. Output consisted of a series of lights. Only around 10 machines are now known to exist worldwide,
with various collectors. This system is historically significant mainly for its small size and weight
comparable to the present desktop computers.

The second desktop sized without microprocessor and the one computer to inspire the x86
architecture
Datapoint 2200 is a computer shipped in 1971 and was also made of TTL/Transistor–transistor logic a
class of digital circuits built from bipolar junction transistors (BJT) and resistors and was the main
inspiration for Intel 8008 microprocessor as Intel had a nearly 100% compatible in the microprocessor’s
circuit implementation. Datapoint 2200 is also the earliest known device that bears some significant
resemblance to the modern personal computer, with a desktop small size, screen, keyboard, and program
storage.
It was designed by CTC (now known as Datapoint) in 1970 and was a complete system in a small
case bearing the approximate footprint of an IBM Selectric typewriter. The system’s CPU was constructed
from a variety of discrete components, although the company had commissioned Intel to develop a single-
chip processing unit; there was a falling out between CTC and Intel, and the chip Intel had developed
wasn’t used. Intel soon released a modified version of that chip as the Intel 8008, the world’s first 8-bit
microprocessor.


Datapoint 2200 and the Intel 8008, the microprocessor it inspired

The needs and requirements of the Datapoint 2200 inspired the architectural design for the Intel 8008
microprocessor who evolved later in 8086, upon which all following processors used in IBM-compatible
PC’s were based. Additionally, the design of the Datapoint 2200’s multi-chip CPU and the final design of
the Intel 8008 were so similar that the two are largely software-compatible; therefore, the Datapoint
2200, from a practical perspective, can be regarded as if it was indeed powered by an 8008, which
makes it a strong candidate for the title of “first microcomputer” and can be regarded as the x86
microprocessors first ancestor.


“The document company” that knew to made computers but unfortunately didn’t acknowledge this

Xerox. I would also like to pay my respects to one of the most technological innovative company in the
70’s and early 80’s regarding computers and especially graphic display technologies, the Xerox
Corporation ltd, company that launched very advanced computers at the time and was a source of
inspiration for many future personal computers such as Apple’s Lisa and Macintosh.

The Xerox Alto was one of the first microcomputers designed for individual use (though not as a home
computer), making it arguably what is now called a personal computer. It was developed at Xerox PARC in
1973. It was the first computer to use the desktop metaphor and mouse-driven graphical user interface (GUI).
The Alto had a bit-slice arithmetic logic unit (ALU) based on the 4bit Texas Instruments’ 74181 TTL
microprocessor chip, a ROM control store with a writable control store extension and had 128
(expandable to 512) KB of main memory organized in 16-bit words.

First desktop sized computer with graphical user interface and mouse


The Xerox Alto was so advanced at the time that Xerox itself was slow to realize the value of the
technology that had been developed at PARC. When Xerox itself entered the PC market in 1980 with the
Xerox 820, they pointedly rejected the Alto design and opted instead for a very conventional model, a CP/M-
based machine with the then-standard 80 by 24 character-only monitor and no mouse.

And so this technological sensation passed almost unnoticed until December 1979, Apple Computer’s
co-founder Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC, where he was shown the Smalltalk-80 object-oriented
programming environment, networking, and most importantly the WYSIWYG, mouse-driven graphical user
interface provided by the Alto. He reportedly was not impressed by the first, but was excited by the last
one, and promptly integrated it, first into the Lisa and then in the Macintosh, attracting several key
researchers to work in his company.

Xerox only realized their mistake in the middle 80’s, after Apple’s Macintosh revolutionized the PC
market via its bitmap display and the mouse-centered interface both copied from the Alto. While their
graphical driven computers Xerox Star based on Alto series was a relative commercial success, it came
too late. The expensive Xerox workstations could not compete against the cheaper GUI-based
workstations that appeared in the wake of the first Macintosh, and Xerox eventually quit the workstation
market for good.

The most advanced TTL computer (TTL only in the first generation)
Xerox 8010 Information System/ Xerox Star. The Xerox’s 8010 Information System (better known
as the Star) is the computer that commercialized many of the breakthroughs invented in the company’s
legendary PARC research labs and first seen in the Alto computer (which was never sold as a commercial
product).

Announced in 1981 and shipped in 1982, the Star had a graphical user interface with what-you-see-is-
what-you-get graphics and a desktop metaphor (which, as documented at the DigiBarn computing museum,
still look impressive today). It used a mouse, a device that was so unfamiliar that Xerox’s documentation
also called it a “hand-held pointer.” It had built-in Ethernet networking, and could work with “a 12-ppm
laser printer that was three-fourths the size of a washing machine,” sayd Dave Curbow, who joined the
Star team as a software engineer in 1983 and also mentioned as final conclusion that “there were way too
many firsts to enumerate.”

Impressive graphical environment for 1981/1982


The first of these machines was the Dolphin, built with TTL technology. The complexity of the
software eventually overwhelmed its limited configuration; at one point in Star’s development, it would
take more than half an hour to reboot the system. It also had a hefty price tag $16,500 per unit still a very
decent price for small companies, since the whole idea was that a business would outfit itself with
multiple networked workstations, servers, and peripherals. “You couldn’t buy one machine and do
anything,” Curbow explains.
The next Star workstation hardware was known as a Dandelion (often shortened to “Dlion”).
Compared to the older TTL it had now a microprogrammed CPU, based on the AMD Am2900 bits-lice
microprocessor technology, which implemented a virtual machine for the Mesa programming language.
An enhanced version of the Dandelion (with more microcode space) was dubbed the “Dandetiger”.The
base Dandelion system had 384 KB memory (expandable to 1.5MB), a 10 MB, 29 MB or 40 MB 8” hard
drive, an 8” floppy drive, mouse and an Ethernet connection. The use of micro-programmed CPU did
payoff as now the performance of this machine, which sold for $20,000, was about 850 in the Dhrystone
benchmark — comparable to that of a VAX-11/750, which cost five times as much. The 17 in CRT
display (black and white, 1024×809 pixels with 38.7 Hz refresh was good and large by all standards at
the time. It was meant to be able to display two 8.5×11 in pages side by side in actual size. An interesting
feature of the display was that the overscan area (the borders) of it could be programmed with a 16×16
pattern. This was used to extend the root window pattern to all the edges of the monitor, a feature that is
not available even today on most video cards.
Given that the notion of buying even a single small computer was so new at the time, it’s not startling
that Xerox had trouble selling companies on the Star. A couple of years later, Apple’s far cheaper, Xerox-
influenced $2495 Macintosh found more success. And over time, virtually every one of Xerox’s out-there
ideas became a core part of the everyday computing experience.

Another examples of third generation computers are IBM 370, IBM System/360, UNIVAC 1108 and
UNIVAC AC 9000 and more others.
These third generation computers could also carry out instructions in billionths of a second while the
size of these machines dropped to the size of small file cabinets. Yet, the single biggest advancement in
the computer era the microprocessor was yet to be discovered but will talk about this later.

Conclusion for integrated circuits/TTL based computers. This third generation of computers was the
last step before the biggest jump of all, the microprocessor based computers. Nonetheless it is a very
important step in the evolution of computers and especially in the future creation of personal computers
including the IBM PC. By further improving the miniaturization in design, the system layout and the
performance this third generation of computers inspired the creation of the x86 architecture that is
implemented today in 99% of all personal computers, Windows, Linux or Mac OS based. The Datapoint
2200 computer is the most relevant and exponential computer in this category.

Advantages

Much smaller in size as compared to previous generations.
These computers were even more reliable.
Used considerably less energy
Produced less heat as compared to the previous two generations of computers.
Better speed and could calculate data in nanoseconds.
Used fan for heat discharge to prevent damage.
Maintenance cost was low because hardware failure was very rare.
Extremely high general purpose, could calculate almost anything.
Could be used for high-level languages.
 Good storage for the time.
Versatile to an extent
Less expensive
Better accuracy
Commercial production increased.
Some used advanced devices such as mouse and keyboard for input.

Disadvantages

Air conditioning/good ventilation was sometimes required.
Highly sophisticated technology was required for the manufacturing of IC chips with many
transistors.
Still not cheap enough for home use.

The fourth and the last generation of microprocessor based

computers: 1971 - nowadays
This generation is the most impressive especially regarding computing performance and can be easily
categorized as it appeared with the invention of the microprocessor; a single chip that could do all the
processing of a full-scale computer based until then of TTL or advanced bit-slice integrated circuits. By
putting thousands and later millions or even billion transistors (nowadays) into a single chip with logic –the
microprocessor, more calculation and faster speeds could be reached by computers. Because electricity
travels about a foot in a billionth of a second, the smaller the distance the greater the speed that computers can
achieve.

The microprocessor is the amazing invention that triggered the tremendous growth of personal
computers and their significant impact on our lives. With the help of the microprocessor the computers
could be finally enough small and cheap to be used by home users. Ted Hoff, employed by Intel (Robert
Noyce’s new company) invented a chip the size of a pencil eraser that could do all the computing and
logic work of a computer. The first microprocessor was initially made to be used in small calculators, not
computers. It led, however with future faster versions, to the invention of personal computers, or
microcomputers.
The Microprocessors. Their importance for cost and size reduction and the creation of PC’s
Definition. The microprocessor is the Central processing unit (CPU) on a single transistor based
silicon chip (called microchip) that can be ‘soft wired’ by using different programming instructions. When
coupled with memory and input-output devices, a microprocessor becomes a microcomputer.
The first minicomputers, ancestors of the modern personal computer used early integrated circuit
(microchip) technology, which reduced size and cost, but they contained no microprocessor for logic
operations. Therefore the arithmetic, logic, and control functions were occupied by several quite large and
costly circuit boards. This meant that they were still expensive and quite difficult to manufacture, and while
the size did decrease they could not have high performance and were many times slower compared to the
large mainframe predecessors. With the launch of the microprocessor all these costly separate integrated
circuits and TTL were now available in one integrated circuit, making it possible to produce them in high
volume. After the microprocessors “computer-on-a-chip” based computers were commercialized the cost
to manufacture a computer system dropped dramatically. The invention of microprocessors allowed the
creation of the first personal computers and home consoles therefore starting the computer revolution in
both hardware and gaming.

While the transition from vacuum tubes to transistors allowed a huge reduction in size and power
consumption, with a decent performance increase in performance the transition from transistor/ microchip
to microprocessor allowed the final short term small reduction in both size and power consumption and a
significant short term increase in performance. In time the advantages in power consumption and
especially performance will be huge as the calculation power in today computers in immense while
regarding power consumption the personal computers are quite efficient considering they can include
more than 10 billion of transistors taken only from the CPU and a high end graphic card. Imagine how
much power should consume several billion individual commercial transistor binned together to create a
powerful computer without microprocessor and this without mention the immense graphic power and
compute performance the GPU/ graphic processing unit has today.
While the first Intel microprocessors had only 2000-3000 transistors and consumed 2-3 Watt, the
advances in today Intel’s 22nm production technology allow 1.4 billion transistors used for logic and
cache to consume 45-77Watt while including decent graphics and memory controller. I would also like to
mention the fastest single GPU in the world for now, the NVIDIA Titan that includes 7100M or 7.1 billion
transistors and a power consumption ranging from 10Watt idle and 240Watt max in games. I think I better
word than “amazing “should be invented.

If transistor is one of the most important discoveries of the 20’Th century, the microprocessor is the
best and most wonderful appliance of transistors. I can compare the transistor with a small particle of
water or oxygen from air, they are wonderful, more essential for us than any other chemical element from
air composition, they are essential for life but we need a lot of them taken together at the same time and
mixed with other chemical elements, therefore I imagine the combination of all that giving life particles
like the creation of the first microprocessor, the simple wonderfultransistors giving life to an even more
wonderful creation the microprocessor.
The first microprocessor
TMS 1000. The Smithsonian Institution states that TI engineers Gary Boone and Michael Cochran are
the first to create the first microcontroller (also called a microcomputer) and the first lone-chipped CPU
in 1971. The result of their work was the TMS 1000, which went commercial in 1974.

TMS 1000 in the commercial package

TI stressed the 4-bit TMS 1000 for use in pre-programmed embedded applications, introducing a
version called the TMS1802NC on September 17, 1971 that implemented a calculator on a chip. In 1971
and again in 1976, Intel and TI entered into broad patent cross-licensing agreements, with Intel paying
royalties to TI for the microprocessor patent. A history of these events is contained in court documentation
from a legal dispute between Cyrix and Intel, with TI as creator and owner of the microprocessor patent.

Intel 4004 the first Intel 4-bit, the 8008 and 8080 Microprocessors, the forefathers of x86
architecture
The Intel 4004 is a 4-bit central processing unit (CPU) released by Intel Corporation in 1971. It was
the second complete CPU on one chip (only preceded by the TMS 1000), and also the first commercially
available microprocessor. Such a feat of integration was made possible by the use of then-new silicon gate
technology allowing a higher number of transistors and a faster speed than was possible before

After the “computer-on-a-chip” was commercialized and especially after the 1972 introduction of the
Intel 4004, microprocessor costs and therefore the cost to manufacture a computer system dropped
dramatically. The arithmetic, logic, and control functions that previously occupied several costly circuit
TTL boards were now available in one integrated circuit, making it possible to produce them in high
volume. The 4004 was built of approximately 2,300 transistors and was followed the next year by the
first ever 8-bit microprocessor; the 3,500 transistor 8008 inspired by 1971 Datapoint 2200
microcomputer system. Intel also launched the 4040, a revised 4004.

“I was trying to solve a production problem. I wasn’t trying to make an integrated circuit.” -
Robert Noyce talking about the Intel 4004 microprocessor and the advantages it had over transistor based
computers.

Robert Noyce, chemist left, Gordon E. Moore, physicist right- the Intel founders and one of their
creations the Intel 4004. I admire the noetic looks

It was not until the development of the 40-pin 8080 in 1974 that the address and data buses would be
separated, giving faster and simpler access to memory. Intel 8080 was an extended and enhanced variant of
the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibility. The initial specified clock frequency limit
was 2 MHz, and with common instructions having execution times of 4, 5, 7, 10, or 11 cycles this meant that
it operated at an effective speed of a few hundred thousand instructions per second. The 8080 has
sometimes been labeled “the first truly usable microprocessor”, although earlier microprocessors were
used for calculators and other applications. The architecture of the 8080 strongly influenced Intel’s 8086
16-bit CPU architecture, which spawned the x 86 families of processors.

Other important 8-bit microprocessors

 T h e Motorola 6800 (“sixty-eight-hundred”) was an 8-bit microprocessor designed and first
manufactured by Motorola in 1974. The MC6800 microprocessor was part of the M6800 Microcomputer
System that also included serial and parallel interface ICs, RAM, ROM and other support chips.

The MOS Technology 6502 (pronounced “sixty-five-oh-two”) is an 8-bit microprocessor that was
designed by Chuck Peddle and Bill Mensch for MOS Technology in 1975. When it was introduced, the
6502 was by a considerable margin, the least expensive full-featured microprocessor on the market,
selling for less than one-sixth the cost of competing designs from larger companies, such as Motorola’s
and Intel’s microprocessors. It was nevertheless fully comparable with them and, along with the also
cheap Zilog Z80, sparked a series of computer projects that would eventually result in the home computer
revolution of the 1980s.
The most popular home computer game consoles and computers, such as Atari, Apple II, Commodore
64, Atari 2600 and more others, used the 6502 or variations of the basic design making this one the best-
selling microprocessor ever, probably the leader only when counting the total number of C64, Apple II
and Atari 8-bit consoles and computers sold.

MOS 6502, the most used microprocessor in the 80’s

Soon after the 6502’s introduction, MOS Technology was purchased outright by Commodore
International, who continued to sell the microprocessor and licenses to other manufacturers and it ensured
a huge advantage for Commodore in the price wars. It was used in: Commodore 64, Atari 2600, Atari 8-
bit computers/5200, Apple II, NES/Famicom, Atari Lynx, PC Engine/ TurboGrafx 16/ Duo/Express and
some others.

The Zilog Z80 (“zee-eighty”) is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog and sold from July 1976
onwards. It was widely used both in desktop and embedded computer designs as well as for military
purposes. The Z80 came about when Federico Faggin, after working on the 8080, left Intel at the end of
1974 to found Zilog with Ralph Ungermann, and by July 1976 they had the Z80 on the market.

The Z80’s original DIL40 chip package pinout

 The Z80 and its derivatives and clones made up one of the most commonly used CPU families of all
time, and, along with the MOS Technology 6502 family, dominated the 8-bit microcomputer market from
the late 70s to the middle 80s. It was used in: Adam/ColecoVision, Sega SG-1000, ZX Spectrum family,
Amstrad CPC family, Sega Master System, MSX, most early arcade games, Game Boy, Game Gear,
Astrocade and others.

Other notable 8 bit microprocessors were Signetics 2650, Fairchild F8, RCA 1802, Intel 8085, Zilog
Z8 and many other followed.
Early 16-bit microprocessors

Texas Instruments TMS9900. Introduced in June 1976, the TMS9900 was one of the first
commercially available, single-chip 16-bit microprocessors. The TMS9900 found its most widespread
use in the TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A home computers.

The IMP-16, designed by National Semiconductor, was the first multi-chip 16-bit microprocessor. It
consisted of five PMOS integrated circuits: four four-bit RALU chips (Register and ALU) providing the
data path, and one CROM (Control and ROM) providing control sequencing and microcode storage.
The IMP-16 provided four 16-bit accumulators, two of which could be used as index registers. The
instruction set architecture was similar to that of the Data General Nova. The IMP-16 was later
superseded by National Semiconductor’s PACE and INS8900 single-chip 16-bit microprocessors, which
had a similar architecture but were not binary compatible.

National Semiconductor’s IPC-16A/520 PACE, short for “Processing and Control Element”, was
the first commercial single-chip 16-bit microprocessor. PACE had four general-purpose accumulators,
with an instruction set architecture loosely based on the earlier IMP-16 architecture, which in turn had
been inspired by the Data General Nova minicomputer.

The MCP-1600 was a multi-chip microprocessor made by Western Digital in the late 1970s through
the early 1980s. Used in the Pascal MicroEngine, the original Alpha Microsystems AM-100, and the DEC
LSI-11 microcomputer, a cost-reduced and compact implementation of the DEC PDP-11.

The Intel 8086 (also called iAPX 86) is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between
early 1976 and mid-1978, when it was released. The 8086 established the x86 architecture, immensely
improved and expanded by future Intel microprocessor. The Intel 8088 variation, released in 1979, was a
slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus (allowing the use of cheaper and fewer supporting
logic chips), and is notable as the processor used in the original IBM PC, the 5150.

Other notable 16-bit processors preceding IBM PC include the WDC 65C816, Zilog Z8000, HP BPC
and a few others.

The only 16/32-bit microprocessor preceding the IBM PC

The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit microprocessor based on CISC architecture designed and
marketed by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector (now Freescale Semiconductor). It was
commercially launched in 1989.
The Motorola 68000 is sometimes called 16-bit because its internal and external data buses were 16
bits wide, however it could be considered a 32-bit processor in that the general purpose registers were 32
bits wide and most arithmetic instructions supported 32-bit arithmetic. The MC68000 was a micro-coded
processor with three internal 16-bit ALU units. Only 24-bits of the Program Counter were available on
original DIP packages, with up to 16 megabytes of addressable RAM. MC68000 software is 32-bit in
nature, and forwards-compatible with other 32-bit processors. Several Apple Inc. Macintosh models; for
example LC series, used 32-bit MC68020 and MC68030 processors on a 16-bit data bus to save cost just
as IBM did with Intel 8088, used a 16 bit processor on an 8-bit data bus and the Intel 80386SX, a 32-bit
microprocessor on a 16-bit data bus.

The initial performance was extremely high, it was remarkably faster than all contemporary 8-bit
microprocessor but soon Intel will match its performance with the launch of the 80286 in 1982 and will
clearly outmatch the Motorola 68000 with the launch of the Intel 80386 in 1985. Other faster Motorola
microprocessor were also developed (68020 in 1984) but were too expensive for the home PC market.

The Motorola will decrease the prices in early 80’s to sell the microprocessor for high end home
computers market and therefore several personal computer builders will implement the Motorola 68000.
The most notable examples are the Apple Macintosh line, the Commodore’s Amiga line, the Atari ST, the
Sharp X68000 and it also started the fourth generation of home consoles with its use in the SEGA
MegaDrive/ Genesis home console.

Other advances in miniaturization. Concurrently with the development and microprocessors
improvements, occurred some essential technological advances in the development of solid state memory
eliminated the bulky, costly, and power-hungry magnetic core memory used in prior generations of
computers. These technological advances allowed an even greater miniaturization for the 70’s computing
systems leading to the first desktop sized computers, based on microprocessor.

The first desktop sized microprocessor based computers

From mainframe to home computers. Before the introduction of the microprocessor in the middle
60’s and early 1970s, computers were generally large, costly systems owned by large corporations,
universities, government agencies, and similar-sized institutions. In a time-sharing system, multiple
computer terminals let many people share the use of one mainframe computer processor. This was
common in business applications and in science and engineering. End users generally did not directly
interact with the machine, but instead would prepare tasks for the computer on off-line equipment, such as
card punches. A number of assignments for the computer would be gathered up and processed in batch
mode. After the job had completed, users could collect the results. In some cases it could take hours or
days between submitting a job to the computing center and receiving the output.

A different model of computer interaction was foreshadowed regarding pre-
commercial/experimental/advanced computers use, more similar to the present. This was a model where
one user had direct and exclusive use of a such computer. In places such as MIT, students with access to
some of the first computers experimented with applications that would today be typical of a personal
computer; for example, computer aided drafting was foreshadowed by T-square, a program written in 1961,
and an ancestor of today’s computer games was found in Spacewar! in 1962. Some of the first computers
that might be called “personal” were early minicomputers such as the LINC and PDP-8, and later on VAX
and larger minicomputers from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Data General, Prime Computer, and
others. By today’s standards they were very large (about the size of a refrigerator) and cost prohibitive
(typically tens of thousands of US dollars). However, they were much smaller, less expensive, and
generally simpler to operate than many of the mainframe computers of the time. Therefore, they were
accessible for individual laboratories and research projects. Minicomputers largely freed these
organizations from the batch processing and bureaucracy of a commercial or university computing center.
With the launch of microprocessor, the computer designers finally had the chance to create a computer
with a relatively small price without the help or support of a large business orientated company or in the
scholastic environment of an important technological and educational center with important financial
government support. Computer design could finally be executed with a decent amount of
technological/electronic/computer knowledge in the personal home, garage or in a cellar and the resulted
computer could be light enough to be easily carried by just only one person. And so the microprocessor
inspired the creation of first desktop sized computers; I will present only the most important and earliest
of them, before the launch of the IBM PC in 1981.
From France with Intel. The first desktop sized computer based on microprocessor
Micral N was the earliest commercial, non-kit personal microcomputer based on a microprocessor
(in this case, the Intel 8008). The computer was to be delivered in December 1972, and the system
builders Gernelle, Lacombe, Benchetrit and Beckmann had to work in a cellar in Châtenay-Malabry for
18 hours a day in order to deliver the computer in time.

The original Micral-N


The computer was based on an early Intel 8008 microprocessor clocked at 500 kHz. It had a back-
plane bus, called the Pluribus with 74-pin connector. 14 boards could be plugged in a Pluribus. With two
Pluribus, the Micral N could support up to 24 boards. The computer used MOS memory instead of core
memory. The Micral N could support parallel and serial input/output. It had 8 levels of interrupt and a
stack.

The software, the ROM-based MIC 01 monitor and the ASMIC 01 assembler, was written on an
Intertechnique Multi-8 minicomputer using a cross assembler. The computer was programmed with
punched tape, and used a teleprinter or modem for I/O. The front panel console was optional, offering
customers the option of designing their own console to match a particular application.

In time R2E, the company which got under way the Micral-N, developed a whole series of computers
based on the most powerful processors of the time: 8080, Z80, 8088, constantly adding improvements like
monitor-keyboard in 1974, hard disk in 1975, etc. Every machine was managed by the SYSMIC monitor,
which became PROLOGUE in 1978, a multitasking system also created in France. The last of this system
was the Micral 20. After that, Bull, who had become the owner of R2E, joined the more and more common
MSDOS standard.


The first desktop sized computer with portable designation

The IBM 5100 Portable Computer was a portable computer introduced in September 1975, six
years before the IBM PC. It was the evolution of a prototype called the SCAMP (Special Computer APL
Machine Portable) that was developed at the IBM Palo Alto Scientific Center in 1973.
When the IBM PC was introduced in 1981, it was originally designated as the IBM 5150, putting it in the
“5100” series, though its architecture was not directly descended from the IBM 5100. The IBM 5100 is
based on a 16-bit processor module called PALM (Put All Logic in Microcode) and could directly address
64 KB of memory. A single integrated unit provided the keyboard, five-inch CRT display, tape drive,
processor, several hundred kilobytes of read only memory containing system software, and up to 64 KB of
random access memory. It was the size of a small suitcase, weighed about 55 lb (25 kg), and could be
transported in an optional carrying case, hence the “portable” designation.

IBM 5100, a technical masterpiece


The 5100 sold for between $8,975 and $19,975 a very high price for the time but it was very
advanced and useful as it was available with APL, BASIC, or both programming languages. At the time of
introduction, APL was generally available only on mainframe computers, and most desktop sized
computers such as the Wang 2200 or HP 9830 offered only BASIC. When the engineers at IBM asked one
beta tester, Donald Polonis, do a system analysis, he commented that if folks had to learn APL to use it,
the IBM 5100 would not make it as a personal computer. He tried to impress the fact that a personal
computer had to be easy to use to be accepted.

While it not designed for personal use this was one of the best computer systems of the 70’s, not as
innovative as the Xerox Alto but clearly much more powerful due to its internal 16-bit CPU, and was
better put to use.

This modular microcomputer that started the Silicon Valley based microcomputer revolution
The MITS Altair 8800 is a microcomputer designed in 1975 by Ed Roberts and Forrest M. Mims III
and was based on the Intel 8080 CPU. The microcomputer industry really took off when Intel introduced
the 8080 CPU in April of 1974. The newer 8080 processor was capable of addressing up to 64KB of
RAM and was powerful enough to build a real computer. Following the line of several improved models
of calculator kits and test equipment, Roberts decided to design an Intel 8080 based computer, and quite
in a short time, the first prototype was ready in October 1974. At the same time he was contacted by one
of the editors of the magazine Popular Electronics, who knew MITS was working on an Intel 8080 based
computer project and thought Roberts could provide the project for the always popular January issue.
Thus the Altair 8800 (the name Altair was suggested by the editors, not by Roberts) was born.

MITS Altair 8800, the spark that led to the microcomputer revolution


The software choice. The January 1975 article for Altair excited a Harvard University undergraduate
named Bill Gates, and his good friend Paul Allen, and the duo contacted Roberts to write a BASIC language
interpreter for the machine. Roberts show his interest, but… in fact Gates and Allen had no BASIC yet to
offer. When they called Roberts to follow up on the letter he expressed his interest, the two started work on
their BASIC interpreter, using a self-made simulator for the 8080 on a PDP-10 minicomputer. They figured
they had only several weeks before someone else beat them to the punch, and once they had a version
working on the simulator, Allen flew to MITS in Albuquerque to deliver the program, Altair BASIC, on a
paper tape. The first time it was run, it displayed Altair Basic, and after crashed, but that was enough for
them to join. The next day, they brought in a new paper tape and it ran without crash this time. The first
program ever typed in was “10 print 2+2” and after typing “run” it typed back the correct answer: “4”.
Allan was offered a position by Roberts as the Director of Software and the only member of the software
department. Gates, who was then still a student, started working for MITS part-time after he left school.
Later, Gates and Allen would leave MITS to begin a company called Micro-Soft.

The magazine to ignite the spark. Interest grew quickly after it was featured on the cover of the
January, 1975, issue of Popular Electronics magazine, and was sold by mail order through advertisements
there, in Radio-Electronics and other hobbyist magazines. The designers hoped to sell a few hundred
build-it-yourself kits to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold thousands in the first month. Today
the Altair is widely recognized as the spark that led to the microcomputer revolution of the next few
years: the computer bus designed for the Altair was to become a de facto standard in the form of the S-
100 bus, and the first programming language for the machine was Microsoft’s founding product, Altair
BASIC. Initially the programming the Altair was an extremely tedious process, as a keyboard wasn’t
provided. The user must toggle the switches to positions corresponding to an 8080 microprocessor
instruction or op-code in binary, then to use the enter switch to load the code into the machine’s memory,
and then to repeat this step until all the op-codes of a presumably complete and correct program were in
place.

Homebrew Computer Club

The January 1975 article of Popular Electronics magazine, would also inspire the creation of the
Homebrew Computer Club by a group of Altair 8800 enthusiasts, and from this club emerged twenty-three
computer companies, including Apple.
Although the Altair spawned an entire computer business, another side effect was to demonstrate that
the microprocessor had so reduced the cost and complexity of building a microcomputer that anyone with
an interest could build their own micro-computer. Many such hobbyists met and traded notes at the
meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club (HCC) in Silicon Valley. Although the HCC was relatively
short-lived, its influence on the development of the modern PC was enormous.

Members of the group complained that microcomputers would never become commonplace if they
still had to be built up, from parts like the original Altair, or even in terms of assembling the various add-
ons that turned the machine into a useful system. What they felt was needed was an all-in-one system. Out
of this desire came the Sol-20 computer, which placed an entire S-100 system – QWERTY keyboard,
CPU, display card, memory and ports – into an attractive single box. The systems were packaged with a
cassette tape interface for storage and a 12” monochrome monitor. Complete with a copy of BASIC, the
system sold for US$2,100. About 10,000 Sol-20 systems were sold.

Sol-20 and early commercial computer

Although the Sol-20 was the first all-in-one system that we would recognize today, the basic concept
was already rippling through other members of the group, and interested external companies. Other 1977
machines that were important within the hobbyist community at the time included the Exidy Sorcerer, the
NorthStar Horizon, the Cromemco Z-2, and the Heathkit H8.

The American Trinity of the first home computers

 By 1976 there were several firms racing to introduce the first truly successful commercial personal
computers. Three machines, the Apple II, PET 2001 and TRS-80 were all released in 1977, eventually
selling millions of machines. Byte magazine later referred to their launch as the “1977 Trinity”.

A personal computer pet

Commodore PET. Chuck Peddle designed the Commodore PET (short for Personal Electronic
Transactor) around his MOS 6502 processor. It was essentially a single-board computer with a new
display chip (the MOS 6545) driving a small built-in monochrome monitor with 40×25 character
graphics. The processor card, keyboard, monitor and cassette drive were all mounted in a single metal
case. In 1982, Byte referred to the PET design as “the world’s first personal computer”.

The PET shipped in two models; the 2001-4 with 4 KB of RAM, or the 2001-8 with 8 KB. The
machine also included a built-in Datassette for data storage located on the front of the case, which left
little room for the keyboard. The 2001 was announced in June 1977 and the first 100 units were shipped
in mid-October 1977. However they remained back-ordered for months, and to ease deliveries they
eventually canceled the 4 KB version early the next year.

A white Darth Vader head with a computerized body
Although the machine was fairly successful, there were frequent complaints about the tiny calculator-
like keyboard, often referred to as a “Chiclet keyboard” due to the keys’ resemblance to the popular gum
candy. This was addressed in the upgraded “dash N” and “dash B” versions of the 2001, which put the
cassette outside the case, and included a much larger keyboard with a full stroke non-click motion.
Internally a newer and simpler motherboard was used, along with an upgrade in memory to 8, 16, or 32
KB, known as the 2001-N-8, 2001-N-16 or 2001-N-32, respectively. The PET was the least successful of
the 1977 Trinity machines; with fewer than 1 million sales still we all must acknowledge the importance
of this system for the evolution of personal computers.

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the
Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people
you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” Steve Jobs

Apple I and Apple II computers. Steve Wozniak (known as “Woz”), a regular visitor to Homebrew
Computer Club meetings, designed the single-board Apple I computer and first demonstrated it there.
With specifications in hand and an order for 100 machines at only $500.00 US Dollars each from the Byte
Shop, Woz and his friend Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer. About 200 Apple I machines were sold
before the company announced the Apple II as a complete computer. The original retail price of the new
Apple II computer was US$1298(with 4 KB of RAM) and US$2638 (with the maximum 48 KB of RAM)
quite an “upgrade” compared to the original Apple I.



Apple II personal computer

The Apple II was an innovative piece of equipment, designed by Steve Wozniak to be both inexpensive and
technical innovative and was built around the same common and cheap MOS 6502 microprocessor, used by the
PET. The original Apple II operating system was only the built-in BASIC interpreter contained in ROM.

Its higher price and lack of floating point BASIC, along with a lack of retail distribution sites, caused
it to lag in sales behind the other Trinity machines until 1979, when it surpassed the PET. It was again
pushed into 4th place when Atari introduced its popular Atari 8-bit systems.

Despite slower initial sales, the Apple II’s lifetime was about eight years longer than other machines
as a small family update the Apple IIe model was sold up until late 1993; and so the Apple II family
accumulated the highest total sales of all Trinity computers. By 1985 2.1 million units were sold and
more than 4 million Apple II’s were shipped by the end of its production in 1993.

Tandy followed the trend

TRS-80. Tandy Corporation introduced the TRS-80, retroactively known as the Model I as improved
models were introduced later. The Model I combined the motherboard and keyboard into one unit with a
separate monitor and power supply. Although the PET and the Apple II offered certain features that were
more advanced in comparison, Tandy’s 3000 and Radio Shack storefronts ensured that it would have
widespread distribution that neither Apple nor Commodore could touch.

The Model I used an 8-bit Zilog Z80 processor clocked at 1.77 MHz (the later models were shipped with
a Z80A processor). The basic model originally shipped with 4 KB of RAM, and later upgraded to 16 KB. Its
other strong features were its full stroke QWERTY keyboard, small size, well written Floating BASIC and
inclusion of a monitor and tape deck for approximately half the cost of the Apple II.

The Model I ran into some trouble meeting FCC regulations on radio interference due to its plastic
case and exterior cables. Apple had resolved this issue on Apple II with an interior metallic foil but this
patch wouldn’t work on the Model I. Since the Model II and Model III were already in production Tandy
decided to stop manufacturing the Model I. Radio Shack had sold 1.5 million Model I personal computers
by the cancellation in 1981, quite a decent number considering the short timeframe.

The second wave on Home Computers

Although they were desired and had decent sales, the overall success of the first personal computers
the Trinity machines was relatively limited in overall terms and was enough room for even more
competition. As component prices continued to fall, many other stronger companies such as Atari and T.I.
entered the home computer business while the first builders of the Trinity computers were also forced to
improve their initial offerings. This will led eventually to an explosion of low-cost machines known as
home computers that sold an impressive number of units when the market imploded in a price war in the
early 1980s.
Designed as consoles, released as personal computer
Atari 400/800. Atari was already a well-known brand in the late 1970s, both due to their hit arcade
games like Pong, as well as the hugely successful Atari VCS/2600 game console. Realizing that the VCS
would have a limited lifetime in the market before a technically advanced competitor came along, Atari
decided they would be that competitor, and started work on a new console design that was much more
advanced. While these designs were being developed, the Trinity machines hit the market with
considerable fanfare. Atari’s management decided to change their work to a home computer system
instead of a newer console. Their knowledge of the home market through the VCS resulted in machines
that were almost indestructible and just as easy to use as a games machine – simply plug in a cartridge
and go. The new machines were first introduced as the 400 and 800 in 1978, but production problems
meant widespread sales did not start until the next year.

Atari 400 a membrane keyboard and single-width cartridge slot and Atari 800 with standard
keyboard and two cartridge slots

And so was born the Atari 8-bit family, a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to
1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with
custom coprocessor chips, chips that helped especially regarding graphics and sound. Over the following
decade several versions of the same basic design were released, including the original Atari 400 and 800
and their successors, the XL and XE series of computers.

The names originally referred to the amount of memory, 4 KB RAM in the 400 and 8 KB in the 800.
However by the time they were released the prices on RAM had started to fall, so the machines were
instead both released with 8 KB. As memory prices continued to fall Atari eventually supplied the 800
fully expanded up to 48 KB, using all internal memory slots. The Atari 400, despite its membrane
keyboard and single internal ROM cartridge slot, outsold the full keyboard and RAM expandable Atari
800 by a 2-to-1 margin.

At the time, the Atari 8-bit machines offered what was then much higher performance than
contemporary designs and had a large number of graphics and sound features that no other microcomputer
could match. They became very popular as a result, quickly eclipsing the Trinity machines in sales. In
spite of a promising start with about 600,000 sold by 1981, the looming price war introduced by
Commodore left Atari in a bad position. They were unable to compete effectively with Commodore, and
the total number of units sales were well behind expectations by the end of their production run. Still
overall, the Atari 8-bit computer line was a commercial success, selling through its major production run
between late 1979 and mid-1985, a total of around 4 million units. The Atari 8-bit family will return to its
console roots in 1987 with the launch of the Atari XE Gaming System, a unsuccessful console based on
the older 8-bit Atari computers.

Good enough and very cheap, a winning recipe

Commodore’s VIC-20. Realizing that the PET could not easily compete with color machines like the
Apple II and Atari, Commodore introduced the VIC-20 to address the home market. The VIC-20 was
announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore’s first personal computer, the PET.
The system main limitations: the tiny 5 KB memory and its relatively limited display resolution in
comparison to contemporary computer machines launched by the competition were saved by a very low
production cost and ever falling price and so millions of VIC-20s were sold. In 1982 the VIC-20 was the
best-selling computer of the year, with 800,000 machines sold. One million had been sold by the end of the
year and at one point, 9000 units a day were being produced. That summer, Commodore unveiled the
Commodore 64, a more advanced machine with 64 KB of RAM and considerably improved sound and
graphics capabilities. The C64 sales were slow at first due to reliability problems and lack of software, but
by the middle of 1983, the latter had turned into a flood and VIC-20 sales abruptly plunged. It was quietly
discontinued in January 1985 but the Commodore VIC-20 continues to have a loyal following today.

Commodore VIC-20. The C64 looks almost the same

Programmers continue even today to write demo, utility, and game programs for the machine (most
often shared through the Denial community), and also through commercial retro-software developers such
as Psytronik.
A fruitless mix of inspired and uninspired hardware
TI-99 computer family. Texas Instruments (TI), at the time the world’s largest chip manufacturer,
decided to enter the home computer market with the Texas Instruments TI-99/4 in late 1979 followed by the
slightly more successful TI-99/4A in June 1981. Announced long before its arrival, most industry observers
expected the machine to wipe out all competition – on paper its performance due to its 16-bit microprocessor
TMS9900 CPU running at 3.0 MHz was untouchable, and TI had enormous cash reserves and development
capability.

TI-99/4A had great looks and was very compact for a 16-bit computer but unfortunately the small
incomplete keyboard was one weak point.

When it was released in late 1979, TI took a somewhat slow approach to introducing it, initially
focusing on schools. While the TI-99/4 was technologically a more advanced computer than the VIC-20,
offering more processing power and more advanced graphics capabilities that in many respects rivaled
the Commodore 64 a number of elements of its design attracted criticism: all peripherals plugged directly
into the right-hand side of the unit (unless the user purchased the expensive and heavy Peripheral
Expansion Box), which caused the computer to not fit well on top of a desk if a user added many
peripherals besides a tape drive and a printer. In addition, the 48-key keyboard layout didn’t match that of
a typewriter very closely, and there was (at the time) no option for an 80-column display. The keyboard
and display limitations made it unpopular for word processing.
Therefore contrary to earlier predictions, the TI-99’s limitations meant it was not the giant-killer
everyone expected as a number of its design features were highly controversial and not so desired in a
home computer. A large total of 2.8 million units were shipped before the TI-99/4A was discontinued in
March 1984, many of them being sold by Texas Instruments at a loss to compete with the extreme price
reductions of the VIC-20 and C64. Therefore TI lost $100 million in the second quarter of 1983 and $330
million in the third quarter and soon later in October 1983, TI announced it was exiting the home
computer business. The 99/4A became the first in a series of home computers to be “orphaned” by their
manufacturer over the next few years, along with the Coleco Adam, Mattel Aquarius, Timex Sinclair 1000
and somehow IBM PCjr. The TI-99/4 series also holds this time a positive distinction of being the first
16-bit personal computer.

Good hardware, limited support from the builder

TRS-80 CoCo. As one of the first Trinity computers builders the Tandy Corporation had its
monochrome TRS-80 to compete with a significant number of color capable computers, increasing in
numbers every year. Consequently the Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer (also marketed as the Tandy
Color Computer and affectionately nicknamed CoCo) was launched in 1980 by the company as a color
capable computer.

Despite bearing the TRS-80 name, the “Color Computer” was a radical departure from the earlier
TRS-80; in particular it had a Motorola 6809E processor, rather than the TRS-80’s Zilog Z80. Thus,
despite the similar name, the new machine was absolutely not compatible with software made for the old
TRS-80.The Motorola 6809E was a very advanced 8-bit processor with some 16-bit features, but was
correspondingly more expensive than other more popular microprocessors. Competing machines such as
the Apple II, Commodore VIC-20, the Commodore 64, the Atari 400, and the Atari 800 were designed
around the much cheaper MOS 6502, itself essentially an enhanced clone of the Motorola 6800 and this
allowed them to have a smaller price.

The original CoCo

While the TRS-80 CoCo will receive two significant cheap updates, the CoCo2 (1983-1985) and
CoCo3 (1986-1991) in October 26, 1990, Ed Juge of Tandy announced that the CoCo 3 would be
dropped from its computer line. With no apparent successor mentioned, the announcement was
disheartening to many loyal CoCo fans. Even today, current and former CoCo owners agree that Tandy did
not take the CoCo very seriously, despite it having been their best-selling computer for several years.
Tandy failed to market the CoCo as the powerful and useful machine that it was, and offered customers no
hint about the large number of third party software and hardware products available for it usually
promoting their more expensive Tandy computer line based on x86 microprocessors and produced from
1984 till 1993.

The forefather of ARM architecture

BBC Micro (Acorn Proton). The BBC became interested in running a computer literacy series, and
sent out a tender for a standardized small computer to be used with the show. After examining several
entrants, they selected what was then known as the Acorn Proton and made a number of minor changes to
produce the BBC Micro. Designed with an emphasis on education, it was notable for its ruggedness,
expandability and the quality of its operating system.

BBC Microcomputer System, forefather for the ARM architecture

The Micro was relatively expensive, which limited its commercial appeal, but with widespread
marketing, BBC support and wide variety of programs, the system eventually sold as many as 1.5 million
units. Acorn was rescued from obscurity, and went on to develop the ARM processor (Acorn RISC
Machine) to power follow-on designs.

We can see that ARM architecture is more and more loved and popular day by day, powering a wide
variety of products with the most powerful of them: smartphones and tablets and very soon I think they will
be used in laptops and smaller laptops derivatives. Globally as of 2013 ARM it is the most widely used
32-bit instruction set architecture in terms of quantity produced. While in the past the ARM architecture
was relatively slow and was designed with energy efficiency in mind today performance isn’t any more a
concern for the ARM architecture, as their performance matched or even exceeded lower performance/
lower power requirement x86 processors from AMD and Intel such as Brazos and the older Atom while
they maintain a much lower power requirement, an advantage essential for smartphones and tablets. The
only thing that stands against the ARM success and further expansion is the immense software advantage
that x86 platforms still has over ARM platforms and perhaps in time the very creation of these personal
systems may lead in time over years to the end of supremacy of the x86 architecture in the desktop
computers market. For now it forced Intel to seriously consider for the first time ARM as a competitor and
finally act in consequence with the launch of special versions of x86 Atom processors to compete in the
middle end specter of ARM market in both smartphones and tablets devices but for now with limited
success.

The non-competing Japanese personal computers

From the late 1970s to the middle 1990s, Japan’s personal computer market was largely dominated by
domestic computer products. NEC’s PC-88 and PC-98 was the market leader, though with some competition
from the Sharp X1 and X68000, the FM-7 and FM Towns, and the MSX and MSX2, the latter also gaining
some popularity in Europe. A key difference between Western and Japanese systems at the time was the latter’s
higher display resolutions (640x400) in order to accommodate Japanese text. Many Japanese computers also
employed Yamaha FM synthesis sound boards since the early 1980s, allowing the production of higher quality
chip-tune music. Japanese computers were widely used to produce video games, though only a small portion of
Japanese PC games were released outside of the country as the Japanese computers didn’t competed with the
rest of the world as they were usually sold in the Nippon territory. While the Japanese computers didn’t
compete outside Japan there was a personal computer, the Microsoft’s MSX computer family, designed by
Microsoft Japan in 1983 to work globally as an attempt to unify standards amongst hardware makers. The MSX
computer will compete both Japanese computers and the rest of the world. The MSX will be extremely
successful selling 9 million units in Japan alone. The most successful Japanese personal computer will be
NEC’s PC-98 computer family, which sold more than 18 million units by 1999.

The 8-bit Japanese Trinity. Just as America had its first 8-bit personal computer trinity in 1977 with
the release of the Commodore PET, the Apple II, and the Tandy TRS-80, by 1982 a trinity of personal
computers had emerged in Japan: the NEC PC-8801, the Fujitsu FM-7, and the Sharp X1. They were also
followed soon in 1982 by a 16-bit 8086 based computer, the NEC PC-9801, just as the IBM 5150 that
was launched in U.S IN 1981.

NEC PC-8801. Released in 1981 as the successor to the PC-8001 (1979) and hobbyist variant PC-
6001 (1981), the PC-8801 saw several upgrades and became Japan’s number one 8-bit computer, helping
NEC to become the dominant force in the Japanese computer industry for most of the 80s and 90s.
Originally intended for business use, the PC-8801 was capable of a high-resolution 640x400 monochrome
display mode. It was repositioned as an entry-level home machine after the release of the 16-bit PC-9801.

The PC-8801 series was also great for gaming due to its adventure games and RPGs, and birthed
many hits such as Hydlide, Thexder, Xanadu, Ys, Sorcerian, Silpheed, Jesus, and Snatcher. Hudson also
released several conversions of Nintendo games, including a few awesome originals using Mario!

Sharp X1. Originating from Sharp’s television division, the 1982 X1 was a surprise product that
upset Sharp’s earlier MZ-80 series. Featuring a sleek design with a funky color and various TV
integration features, the X1 earned a small but loyal following, especially among shmup fans.

Sharp X1, Funky design, not for everyone

Facing tough competition from NEC’s PC8801 that was quickly becoming popular in the Japanese
market Sharp released in 1984 the X1 turbo series with high resolution graphics (640x400, while X1 had
640x200). It had a lot of improvements, only the clock speed was still at 4 MHz. In 1986, Sharp released
the X1 turbo Z series with a 4096 color analog RGB monitor. An X1 twin, which had a PC-Engine in the
cabinet, was finally released as the last machine of the X1 series in 1987. Then this series was succeeded
by the mighty Sharp X68000, my favorite personal computer in the 80’s.

Although unsuccessful to compete against the PC-8801, the X1 was generally the better gaming
machine and had interesting exclusives, plus several conversions. Often when a game appeared on both,
like the original Thunder Force, the X1 version was superior. Collectors should keep an eye out for the
X1 Twin, which came with an integrated PC Engine and HuCard slot.

Fujitsu FM-7. Originally named the FM-8Jr., the 1982 FM-7 was planned as a budget successor to
Fujitsu’s business-oriented FM-8 (1981). Despite being sold as a cheaper home computer, it could do almost
everything an FM-8 could and was technically superior. Although it is known as a lower cost model, most
notably removing its (expensive) bubble memory technology, the FM-7 was given a more advanced sound
synthesizer, leading to a strong uptake among the hobbyist computer market in Japan and making it a more
dominant system than the FM-8.

While unable to shake NEC’s PC-8801 from the top of the market, the FM-7 hit a sweet spot of
price/performance, and helped broaden the base of computer users. Its successor the FM-77 was
backwards-compatible and sported two external disk drives. Later, two further successors were released,
the AV (with over 4000 colours and FM sound) and the even more powerful 40SX all of them great
systems in the 80’s.

The FM-7 is based on the Motorola 6809 microprocessor, similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer by
Radio Shack; therefore some software, including games are compatible with both systems.
The first 16-bit Japanese personal computer, Intel’s partner in Japan
NEC PC-9801. Launched in 1982 the NEC PC-9801 was specifically designed to handle Japanese
text at high resolution, and became an overwhelmingly popular business machine. Initially its game
library was sparse, often consisting of PC-8801 ports such as Laplace no Ma and Record of Lodoss War.
However, major updates meant that from 1986 there was a massive jump in quality and greater
divergence between the two systems, and over the years the PC-9801 game library would swell to over
4000 commercial titles, not to mention an uncountable number of doujin/manga games.

NEC PC-9801, a very popular business machine

It first appeared in 1982, and employed an Intel 8086 CPU. It ran at a clock speed of 5 MHz, with two
µPD7220 display controllers (one for text, the other for video graphics), and shipped with 128 KB of
RAM, expandable to 640 KB. Its 8-color display had a maximum resolution of 640×400 pixels. Its
successor, the PC-9801E, which appeared in 1983, employed an 8086-2 CPU, which could selectively
run at a speed of either 5 or 8 MHz.
As the dominant computer architecture in Japan, the PC-9801 was even cloned by Seiko Epson, and
NEC would remain the market leader until Japanese computers merged with Western standards in the
mid-90s. Later PC-9801 models and the upgraded PC-9821 series ran various versions of Windows,
making them the best to import.
The NEC’s PC platforms had an immense success and in the 80’s and early 1990s, NEC dominated
the Japan domestic PC market with more than 60% of the PCs sold as PC-9801 or PC8801.

This display of personal computers demonstrate the fact that Japan was in the time one of the most
advanced country in computer hardware, robotics and electronic technologies and the powerful inland
computers showed and proved the technological advance Japan already had in the personal computers,
beating in many computer domains and I will mention for now graphics and sound capabilities most other
countries including United States. From early 90’s as software gained more and more importance due to
complex graphical based Operating Systems such as Windows, and hardware became more advanced,
only then U.S.A gained the leadership in computer technologies over Japan.

Conclusion for the microprocessor based computers. This concludes my presentation of the fourth
generation of computers, the one based on the microprocessors just before the launch of the IBM personal
computer system in 1981. We are now in 2014 and perhaps in 10, 20 or even more years the silicon based
transistors miniaturization will hit its limit and then something amazing like nanotubes, graphene or even
organic based logic circuits will replace the silicon transistor and create a fifth generation of computers
with significant advances in both power consumption and compute performance. Nontheless we will
always remember the amazing advances in computing performance, power consumption and miniaturization
that transistors based microprocessors brought to us. We had mechanical/vacuum tubes based computers,
we had transistors, more transistors under integrated circuits and TTL and finally the most impressive
babies of the transistors, the microprocessors and GPU’s, and I can hardly wait what the future will bring
us regarding infinitely small components to create amazing electronics with equally impressive logic.

Advantages regarding the fourth generation of computers:

Much more powerful and more reliable than previous generations.
Very small size, only domains that remained now to be conquered are smartphones and
tablets platforms.
Fast processing power with less power consumption and still best performance per watt,
even better than most ARM microprocessors. The new IPhone 5s has a best CPU in this
regard.
Small fan/radiators instead of large air conditioning for heat discharging
Totally general purpose, they can be programmed to perform just about anything today.
Commercial production and therefore much lower price.
Very reliable, usually software is now the problem.
Cheapest among all generations, due to much higher integration.
All types of High level languages can be used in this type of computers

Disadvantages
The latest technology (lithography) is required for manufacturing of Microprocessors and
licensing is also a problem for x86 therefore severely limiting the number of CPU makers.

 The gaming steps before IBM PC

A brief introduction to computer, arcade, personal computer and consoles based gaming prior
the IBM PC
I won’t start to describe the IBM PC gaming without briefly present the electronic gaming elements
found in computers, personal computers, consoles and arcades preceding the IBM PC. From the launch
and even many years after the IBM personal computer was a lot of deal behind most other electronic
gaming devices and especially arcades regarding gaming capabilities.
Long before IBM personal computers games were born many electronic and computer engineers and
programmers (only much later game designers) brought their gift and legacy to computer and later
consoles gaming. Without competition and inspiration from arcades, consoles and other personal
computers, x86 based gaming won’t be as good, as rich and as rewarding and many games from the 80’s
are based on these legacies and so we all must acknowledge their very important role in computer
gaming.
I will later prove in the book that the first IBM PC’s based games from the 80’s have the most to thank
to very advanced early electronic arcades and consoles and their games as they inspired many of the
MSDOS games in the 80’s. With their inspiration at the beginning and later an important touch of originality
from games launched initially on IBM PC or from exclusive x86 games launched especially from late 80’s,
the IBM and x86 compatibles personal computers will become over the time the leaders in electronic
gaming, if not always by sales at least regarding graphic quality and complexity of games. It seems that next
generation consoles from Microsoft with XBOX and Sony with PlayStation will are also be based on x86
architecture. For this I must praise AMD for the creation of such a great chip on all fronts: 8 very small
Jaguar cores with decent CPU performance, great GPU performance, good power consumption, outstanding
integration and probably decent price that convinced both Microsoft and Sony to make the jump to x86
computing. Intel already did their part and convinced Apple to use x86 chips on their desktop and laptops
platforms.

The early years for electronic gaming

And so chronologically the most important innovations in electronic and computer gaming before the
launch of IBM PC are:


Tic-Tac-Toe. In 1952, A.S. Douglas wrote his PhD degree at the University of Cambridge on Human-
Computer interaction. Douglas created the first graphical computer game a version of the very popular
Tic-Tac-Toe. The game was programmed on an EDSAC vacuum-tube based computer, which had a
cathode ray tube display. His ingenious idea was the use of the tank display CRT as 35 x 16 pixel screen
for displaying his game.


In the image the dim/lightened pixels are quite visible and also countable

Tennis for Two. William Higinbotham created the second video game ever in 1958, a game called
“Tennis for Two”. Higinbotham created “Tennis for Two “to cure the boredom of visitors to Brookhaven
National Laboratory, where he worked. He learned that one of Brookhaven’s computers could calculate
ballistic missile trajectories and he used this ability to form the game’s foundation. The game was created
on a Donner Model 30 analog computer. The game uses an oscilloscope as the graphical display to
display the path of a simulated ball on a tennis court. The designed circuit displayed the path of the ball
and reversed its path when it hit the ground. The circuit also sensed if the ball hit the net and simulated
velocity with drag. The game was first shown on October 18, 1958. Hundreds of visitors lined up to play
the new game during its debut.

Due to the game’s popularity, an upgraded version was shown the following year, with enhancements
including a larger screen and different levels of simulated gravity.

Spacewar. It was in 1962 when a young computer programmer from MIT, Steve Russell fueled with
inspiration from the writings of E. E. “Doc” Smith*, led the team that created the first popular computer
game called Spacewar. It is a two-player game, with each player taking control of a spaceship and
attempting to destroy the other.
It took the team about 200 man-hours to write the first version of Spacewar. Steve Russell wrote
Spacewar on a PDP-1, an early DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) interactive minicomputer which
used a cathode-ray tube type display and keyboard input.

Spacewar

 The computer was a donation to MIT from DEC, who hoped MIT’s think tank would be able to do
something remarkable with their product. A computer game called Spacewar was the last thing DEC expected
who later provided the game as a diagnostic program for their customers. Steve Russell never profited from
Spacewars.

Chase. In 1967, Ralph Baer wrote the first video game played on a television set, a game called
Chase. Ralph Baer was then part of Sanders Associates, a military electronics firm. Ralph Baer first
conceived of his idea in 1951 while working for Loral, a television company. The game was a simple
two-player video game that could be displayed on a standard television set, where two dots chased each
other around the screen.

Chase idea led to the creation of the Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s first video game system(console).

Galaxy Game is the earliest known coin-operated computer or video game. It was installed at the
Tresidder Union at Stanford University in September, 1971, two months before the release of Computer
Space, the first mass-produced video game. Only one unit was built initially, although the game later
included several consoles allowing users to play against each other.

The game was programmed by Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck. Like Computer Space, it was a version of the
existing Spacewar!, which had been created in the early 1960s on the PDP-1 and had since been ported to
a variety of platforms. The unit was restored in 1997 and is now in the collection of the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California while in August 2010, the museum loaned the console to Google
for display and gameplay at the Googleplex, their headquarters campus.

Computer Space is the first commercial video arcade game released in November 1971 by Nutting
Associates based on Steve Russell’s earlier game of Spacewar!. It was created by Nolan Bushnell and
Ted Dabney, who would both later found Atari, Inc.

Computer Space performed modestly in the arcade, due to its hard learning curve. While the game
racked up initial orders of 1,000 units through the efforts of Nutting’s sales director, soon after he was
fired, sales collapsed.

It is generally accepted that it was the world’s first commercially sold coin-operated video game and
indeed, the first commercially sold video game of any kind, predating the Magnavox Odyssey’s release by
six months, and Atari’s Pong by one year. Though not commercially sold, the coin operated minicomputer-
driven Galaxy Game preceded it by two months, located solely at Stanford University.

Computer space

Hunt the Wumpus is an early video game launched in 1972, based on a simple hide and seek format
featuring a mysterious monster (the Wumpus) that lurks deep inside a network of rooms. It was originally
a text-based game written in BASIC. It has since been ported to various programming languages and
platforms including graphical versions.

Hunt the Wumpus, care to play another game?

Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games launched in 1972; it is a tennis sports game featuring
simple two-dimensional graphics. While Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first
video games to reach mainstream popularity. The arcade game Pong was created by Nolan Bushnell
(with help from Al Alcorn). Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney started Atari Computers that same year. In
1975, Atari re-released Pong as a home video game.



For me Pong is the most fun electronic game in the 70’s

Night Driver is an arcade game developed and published by Atari Inc released in the United States in
the October of 1976. It is considered one of the earliest first-person racing games, and is commonly
believed to be one of the first published games to display real-time first-person graphics, although the
very similar German game Nurburgring/1 by Dr. Ing. Reiner Foerst was actually invented first.

Night Driver, the arcade and a screen close-up

Larry Kerecman was one of the first operators of video arcade games, including Computer Space. He
writes that, “The brilliance of these machines was that Nolan Bushnell and company took what was
computer programming (in Space War) and translated it into a simpler version of the game (no gravity)
using hard-wired logic circuits. The printed circuit boards that comprise electronics of these games use
integrated circuits called small-scale integrated circuits. They consist of discrete logic chips and gates or
gates, 4-line to 16-line decoders, etc. straight out of the Texas Instruments catalog. The shape of the rocket
ship and flying saucer even are visible in a pattern of diodes on the PC board.”


Other significant gaming arcades launched in U.S. before the Golden Age of video arcade games
(1978-1983) were Gun Fight (1975), Sprint 2 (1976), Sea Wolf (1976), Death Race (1976), Drag Race
(1977) and Triple Hunt (1977).

The first generation consoles and some of their games

It is difficult to make a short description of the consoles launched before the launch of the IBM PC in
1981 as they are more than 30 consoles produced in that period, some more successful than other and so I
will try to stick only with the most representative of them.

Although the first video games appeared in the 1950s, they were played on vector displays connected
to massive computers, not on cheap and common analog televisions. Ralph H. Baer also known as “The
Father of Video Games” conceived the idea of a home video game in 1951. In the 1960’s he created a
working video game console at Sanders Associates, but struggled for years to find a television
manufacturer willing to produce the console. The first video game console built by him (working
prototype) debuted as a bulky rectangular brown wooden box with two attached controllers, and thus the
name “Brown Box”. He developed the brown video game console such that it can be hooked up with any
ordinary TV sets. There were only six simple games for the console, namely ping-pong, tennis, handball,
volleyball, chase games and a light-gun game.

The Brown Box eventually convinced Magnavox to build a commercial version.

The first commercial console

Magnavox Odyssey. The demonstration of the “Brown Box” led to the licensing of the technology by
Magnavox in 1972, resulting in the release of the first official home video game console – Magnavox
Odyssey. It is the machine that started the home videogame industry. Others may have popularized it
beyond measure, such as the Atari 2600 and NES, but the Odyssey series is truly the genesis. The game
machine was originally designed while Ralph Baer was still at Sanders Associates in 1966; Baer
managed to gain his legal rights to the machine after Sanders Associates rejected it.
The Odyssey came programmed with twelve games. Sales of the console were hurt by poor marketing
by Magnavox retail stores, in addition to many consumers being led to believe that the Odyssey would
work only on Magnavox televisions and so the general sales were in 330,000 units range.

Magnavox Odyssey the first console for home use.

Odyssey games. The games for the Odyssey consisted of straightforward, single-function titles like
Baseball, Basketball, Ski, and more. The Odyssey also launched the very first home light gun ever
produced commercially called the Shooting Gallery. Due to the simplicity of the console, there weren’t
any third-party games designed for it. But the precedent established by the Odyssey paved the way for
subsequent systems a legacy that has secured the console a place in the Smithsonian National Museum of
American History in Washington, D.C.

The first microprocessor based console
Fairchild Channel F. In 1976, Fairchild released the first programmable home game console called
the Fairchild Video Entertainment System, and later renamed Channel F. Channel F was one of the first
electronic systems to use the newly invented microchip invented by Robert Noyce for the Fairchild
Semiconductor Corporation called Fairchild F8 an 8-bit microprocessor that allowed video games to not
be limited by the number of TTL switches. Fairchild F8 was “the world’s leading microprocessor in
terms of CPU sales” in 1977. As for the console by 1977, the Fairchild Channel F had sold 250,000 units
and was second-place behind the Atari VCS/2600 clearly showing the advantages to be driven by a
microprocessor.

Games on the Channel F. The console contained two built-in games, Tennis and Hockey, which were
both advanced Pong clones. In Hockey the reflecting bar could be changed to diagonals by twisting the
controller, and could move all over the playing field. Tennis was much like the original Pong.

Twenty-seven cartridges, termed ‘Videocarts’, were officially released to consumers during the
ownership of Fairchild and Zircon, the first twenty-one of which were released by Fairchild. Several of
these cartridges were capable of playing more than one game and were typically priced at $19.95. There
were some good games launched for the Channel F such as Alien Invasion and Video Whizball and a few
more others but the overall quality of the games will be lower compared to the much more popular Atari
2600.

The great father of more than 500 games, some great, some not so great
Atari 2600. The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in September 1977 by Atari, Inc. The
console was originally sold as the Atari VCS, for Video Computer System. Following the release of the
Atari 5200, in 1982, the VCS was renamed “Atari 2600”.
It was the second console based on a microprocessor, the MOS 6507 also with an 8-bit architecture.
The Atari 2600 also received credit for making the plug-in concept popular among the game-playing
public. Nine games were originally designed and released for the holiday season. While the console had a
slow start, its later port of the arcade game Space Invaders would become the first “killer app” and
quadruple the console’s sales. Soon after, the Atari 2600 would quickly become the most popular of all
the early consoles prior to the North American video game crash of 1983. Notably, the VCS did this with
only an 8-bit 6507 CPU, only 128 bytes of RAM, and at most 4 KB of ROM in each “Game Program”(tm)
cartridge.
 The Atari VCS/2600. I find the retro design very inspiring


Games for Atari 2600. This console is extremely important for the gaming market with about 30
million total systems sold, and had received around 550 total games designed by both Atari and third
party game designers, a huge number of games for the 80’s, and it was probably only late in the 80’s when
total games available for IBM PC and compatibles equaled the number of Atari 2600 based games. Many
of MSDOS based games will be inspired from Atari 2600 based games. For now I will name few of the
best Atari 2600 games such as: Pitfall, H.E.R.O., Stargate, Asteroids, Ms. PAC-MAN, Bump ‘n’ Jump,
Frostbite, Q-BERT, Seaquest, Enduro, River Raid but I will yearly compare the best Atari 2600 games
with the best PC games.

The Atari 2600 was wildly successful, and during late 70’s and early 80’s, “Atari” was a synonym for
this model in mainstream media and by extension, for video games in general. In 2009, the Atari 2600
was named the second greatest video game console of all time by IGN, who cited its remarkable role as
the console behind both the first video game boom and the video game crash of 1983, and called it “the
console that our entire industry is built upon.” The Atari 2600 is a truly remarkable and symbolic
electronic device; it is the stepping stone for the electronic gaming industry; the foundation for future much
better games.

Video games crash of 1977

Alongside the consoles presented before there was also a significant number of other consoles
launched, most of them having significant disadvantages to prevent them from taking a large market share
in the late 70’s. The crash was largely caused by the important number of Pong clones that flooded both
the arcade and home markets. In 1977, manufacturers of older, outdated consoles and Pong clones sold
their systems at a loss to clear stock, creating a glut in the market and causing Fairchild and RCA to
abandon their gaming consoles. Only Atari and Magnavox remained in the home console market, despite
suffering losses in 1977 and 1978.
The crash eventually came to an end with the success of Taito’s Space Invaders arcade, released in
1978, sparking a renaissance for the video game industry and paving the way for the golden age of arcade
video games. Soon after its arcade launch Space Invaders was licensed for the Atari VCS (later known as
Atari 2600) becoming the first big hit for the console and quadrupling the Atari 2600 sales. This helped
Atari recover from their earlier losses. The success of the Atari 2600 in turn revived the home video
game market, up until the second video game crush North American video game crash of 1983.

Second generation consoles (1977–1983), 1977-1981 presented

Three machines dominated the second generation of consoles in North America, far outselling their
rivals (about 30 of them) and these consoles were Atari 2600, Magnavox Odyssey², and the Intellivision
produced by Mattel, consoles that spawned many lovers and an important number of games, unfortunately
not all of them so successful and liked.

The Magnavox Odyssey². The Magnavox Odyssey² is a video game console released in 1978 by
Magnavox, the manufacturer of the first console ever, the original Odyssey.
The first Odyssey was quite technologically limited and didn’t include a microprocessor therefore it
received few games and had overall low market sales but Magnavox, the manufacturer of the console,
pressed forward with the more advanced Odyssey 2 home console.

It mirrored the blockbuster Atari 2600 its chief rival in 1978 in many ways, such as using the then-
traditional one-button joystick and interchangeable cartridges. While the Odyssey² graphical resolution
was lower compared to the 2600, the console surpassed Atari’s in a handful of technical areas such as the
out-of-the-box inclusion of a full keyboard for easy programming and edutainment software and the
availability of an optional speech synthesizer.

Games for Odyssey². The Odyssey² originally hosted more games that the Odyssey too as only
Magnavox produced just over 50 titles for the machine, including the Pac-Man clone KC Munchkin, one
of the system’s top-sellers. Far more intriguing, though, are the Master Strategy games which shipped with
board game accessories that were actually quite decorative.
Despite the improvements, the Odyssey 2 never quite caught on like the Atari 2600. Even so, the
brand did enable Magnavox to move approximately one million systems in North America with
approximately one million more sold overseas in markets like Europe and South America.
Although the Odyssey 2 has neither the influence cachet of the original Odyssey nor the runaway
popularity of the Atari 2600, it remains an important machine because of its general legacy. Without
Baer’s original invention, it is likely that an entire industry would never have happened, at least not so
early, some years before the personal computers launch.

Intellivision. The Intellivision was introduced by Mattel in 1979. Though chronologically part of
what is called the “8-bit era”, the Intellivision had a unique processor with instructions that were 10 bits
wide (allowing more instruction variety and potential speed), and registers 16 bits wide.
Intellivision, the mashing of the words “intelligent” and “television,” hit the market as one of the Atari
2600’s major competitor 2 year after Atari’s console offering landed on shelves. It didn’t reach full
market saturation until 1980, as the initial 1979 release was only in select markets and only had four
games available.

Hardware. The hardware was undeniably more advanced than the Atari 2600, with the ability to
display higher resolution graphics and a more versatile color palette. The gamepads also showed how
more advanced the system was over the “simple” Atari: these controllers featured a unique disc input
system that predates the Nintendo thumb pad innovation, and offered a versatile telephone-like keypad as
well as four action buttons, two on each side. Games made for the Intellivision featured specific overlays
with artwork that slipped right on top of these 12 buttons to make it easy to understand which button does
what.

Games for Intellivision. The four titles available for the Intellivoice system, in order of their release,
were: Space Spartans, Bomb Squad, B-17 Bomber, Tron: Solar Sailer and in time around 150 games
were developed for the Intellivision, some of them better than the ones found in the competing Atari 2600
platform.

Though the Intellivision never managed to dethrone the Atari 2600 as the top system of its era, the
console brought forth many considerable innovations: along with the advanced graphics, the system
offered an add-on that brought speech to games, and it also introduced the concept of downloadable
games with its ahead-of-its-time, test-marketed PlayCable that offered Intellivision games distributed
over television cable. The system, which featured graphics superior to the older Atari 2600, had only a
moderate success compared to Atari 2600 and sold about 3 million systems.

Golden age of arcade video games (1978–1983), 1978-1981 presented

Trying to keep the book layout as chronologically as possible I will describe now only the 1978-1981
golden age period of arcades while the rest of the golden years will be described annually in contrast
with the IBM PC and compatibles based gaming.
After a moderate success in the 1971-1977 timeframe, with some successful arcades such as Sprint 2,
Breakout and especially Pong and more others not as successful, the glory years for the arcades are finally
coming. The arcade that started the golden age of arcades and set the tone for insanely huge profits will be
Taito’s Space Invaders.

Space Invaders. The arcade game industry entered its golden age in 1978 with the release of the very
popular Space Invaders by Taito, a success that inspired dozens of manufacturers to enter the arcade
gaming market.


Taito’s Space Invaders

The game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls,
traditional storefronts, restaurants and convenience stores during the golden age. The game also became the
subject of numerous articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines, establishing video
gaming as a rapidly growing mainstream hobby. Space Invaders would go on to sell over 360,000 arcade
cabinets worldwide, and by 1982, generate revenue of $2 billion in quarters, equivalent to $4.70 billion in
2013.

Asteroids is an arcade multi-directional shooter released in November 1979 by Atari Inc. It was one
of the most popular and influential games of the golden age of arcade games, selling 70,000 arcade
cabinets and generating more than 1.3 billion US$ gross revenue.

Lunar Lander arcade machine will be released by Atari, Inc. in 1979. It used a vector monitor to
display vector graphics. Although not particularly successful with about 4,830 systems produced, the
vector-graphics generator of the arcade game was also the impetus for Atari’s most successful coin-
operated game: Asteroid which sold over 70,000 cabinets. Atari’s “Asteroids” and “Lunar Lander” were
the first two video games to ever be registered in the Copyright Office on June 17, 1980.

Galaxian is an arcade game developed by Namco in October 1979. It was published by Namco in
Japan and imported to North America by Midway that December. Galaxian sold over 40,000 cabinets in
the United States, a very large number.

Missile Command is a 1980 arcade game by Atari, Inc. that was also licensed to Sega for European
release. It is considered one of the most notable games from the Golden Age of Video Arcade Games.

Battle Zone is another arcade game coming from Atari released in November 1980. It displays a
wireframe on a horizontal black and white (with green and red sectioned color overlay) vector monitor.
Due to its novel gameplay and look, this game was very popular for many years. Because of its use of
first-person pseudo 3D graphics combined with an actual “viewing goggle” that the player puts his face
into, Battlezone is widely considered the first virtual reality arcade game.

Pac-Man is an arcade game developed by Namco and first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. It was
licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway and released in October 1980. Immensely
popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the
medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 80’s popular culture.


The Pac-Man character has appeared in more than 30 officially licensed game spin-offs as well as in
numerous unauthorized clones and unwanted reproductions. Pac-Man sold more than 400.000 cabinets up
to 1982 and generated more than $3.5 billion gross revenue (up to 1999), closing to $7.8 billion dollars
(today in 2013, with inflation). Pac-Man is one of the longest running video game franchises from the
golden age of video arcade games. It is part of the collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington,
D.C. and of New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Breaking records after records in profits. The total sales of arcade video game machines in North
America increased significantly during this period, from $50 million in 1978 to $900 million by 1981,
with the arcade video game industry’s revenue in North America reaching nearly $1 billion in quarters by
the end of the 70’s, a figure that would triple to $2.8 billion by 1980. Color arcade games also became
more popular in 1979 and 1980 with the arrival of titles such as Pac-Man, which would go on to sell over
350,000 cabinets, and within a year, generate a revenue of more than $1 billion in quarters.
By 1981, the arcade video game industry was generating annual revenue of $5 billion in North
America, equivalent to $12.44 billion in 2012. In 1982, the arcade video game industry reached its peak,
generating $8 billion in quarters, equivalent to over $18.74 billion in 2012, surpassing the annual gross
revenue of both pop music ($4 billion) and Hollywood films ($3 billion) combined at that time. This was
also nearly twice as much revenue as the $3.8 billion generated by the home video game industry that
same year; both the arcade and home markets combined add up to a total revenue of $11.8 billion for the
video game industry in 1982, equivalent to over $27.63 billion in 2012.
The arcade industry will have later several very successful releases such as Street Fighter series
(from 1987) and Mortal Kombat series (from 1992) with the gross revenue well exceeding the billion
mark but the large number of great video arcade games launched in 1978-1983 and the huge profits
generated by them will never be equaled.

Gaming on the personal computers prior the IBM PC

These profits numbers coming from home consoles and arcade were and still are huge and while
personal computers were at the time very successful from a sales standpoint, the revenue generated from
PC gaming is insignificant compared to revenue coming from the home consoles and especially video
game arcades. While some computers such as Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64 had ROM cartridge support
they also had other data input connection making easier for the gamers to copy and reproduce games many
times without any costs. These elements will immensely reduce profits coming from personal computers,
a movement that will be clearly visible from 1983/1984 when Commodore 64 will start to be extremely
successful while the gaming industry will start to fall. As we will later see, the success of computers will
be misfortune of the video game industry starting with 1983.


Personal computers as educational devices. Many computer builders such as Apple with its Apple
II, Texas Instruments with TI-99/4, Commodore with the PET, BBC with its BBC Micro and more others
focused first to compete on the educational market, and while some had important success many of them
severely neglected the video games, therefore having a difficult start on the home market. The TI-99/4
family is perhaps the best example, while Apple II competed nicely on both educational and home
markets.


Early personal computers as gaming devices. The Atari 400 and 800 were the first home
computers, particularly designed for gaming. The initial console designation proved to be an important
advantage having advanced graphic and sound chips with capabilities superior to any contemporary
personal computer. Most Atari 400 and 800 games were launched on cartridges, making them harder to be
copied and therefore bringing an important income to the video game industry. Therefore the Atari 8-bit
computers will be quite successful on the home market until the launch of the C64 in 1982 that was
advertised as an personal computer to be used for gaming and that promotion coupled with a good
hardware, and an immense number of cheaper games made him an unmatched success.

While few of the early personal computers were designed for games, programmers did an awesome
job, launching many great games on many times limited hardware. I will try present slightly
chronological, the computer platforms with their games and hardware capabilities to drive them.

Gaming on the Commodore PET

Launched early in 1977 the PET had the disadvantage of inferior hardware, especially regarding
graphics with monochrome monitor and with a very small resolution 40×25 character display.
Commodore later released a High Resolution Graphic board for the PET using the Thomson EF936x
graphics chip with a resolution of 512×512 pixels. Still without the board, the PET’s graphics
capabilities were limited to a character set hardwired in ROM. Somewhat offsetting this drawback, the
PET’s ROM contained an restricted character set, an ASCII-1963 deviation known as PETSCII that was
one of the most varied and flexible of the era, allowing PET games with rudimentary graphics to be
created, exemplified by clones of video games such as Space Invaders.

This flexibility was achieved by the use of two switchable character sets, allowing the choice of
either mixed-case characters, or uppercase with graphics; either could also be displayed as a reverse
field, negative image. Also, this was a period in which many popular text games did not need graphics at
all so the Pet was clearly desired by ASCII based games players.



Space Invaders in the Pet’s version

Regarding sound other than a basic PC speaker-class beeper, PETs did not have sound hardware
(except for the 8000 models), but it was possible to rig a circuit up to the IEEE-488 port that could be
used to output square wave tones to an external amplifier, and some few games supported this feature.
Because it was the first full-featured launched personal computers the PET received a small number
of official games, but the sheer large number of games designed by individual programmers and fans more
than compensated.

Gaming on Apple II

Apple II will be a great platform for games because of the initial advantages over most other platforms
in graphics capabilities. While the CGA card on the competing IBM PC launched in august 1981 allowed
the user to select one of two color sets when creating 320×200 graphics, only four colors (background
color and three drawing colors) were available at a time. By contrast, in the Apple II High Resolution at
280×192 pixels Apple offered eight colors for high-resolution graphics (actually six, since black and white
were both repeated in the scheme). I personally believe that the slightly smaller resolution with the more
than double number of colors was easily a better take for early PC gaming and while the advantage wasn’t
so big in all games in some it made a huge difference. The Apple II Hi-Res graphics mode did have another
crucial advantage over IBM’s CGA. It supported two graphic pages at one time compared to one page
supported by the IBM CGA and this simplified animation on the Apple II games, a programmer could
display one page while altering the other (hidden) page. Only when the EGA video card was released the
IBM based PC platforms could support multiple pages of graphics simultaneously. Considering the fact that
there are more than 4 years difference between the launch of the Apple II on June 10, 1977 and the inferior
IBM 5150 launched on august 1981 I must praise the technical achievements made by the Apple founder
Steve Wozniak that made a great graphic mode, with a decent number of colors, good resolution and very
cost effective, using a smaller amount of memory.
 Regarding sound Apple II was also slightly more advanced than some of personal systems including
the first IBM PC. Rather than having an expensive dedicated sound-synthesis chip, the Apple II had a
toggle circuit that could only emit a click through a built-in speaker or a line out jack; all other sounds
(including two, three and, eventually, four-voice music and playback of audio samples and speech
synthesis) were generated entirely by software that clicked the speaker at just the right times still since the
Apple II mainboard had no interrupts, it was impossible to use the speaker without taking CPU time and
so most games based on the first generation Apple II had few sound.

Frogger for Apple II, had great graphics


Gaming library and the best games. As for the games, Apple II and later Apple II updates such as
Plus, Iie, Iic, received a lot of games, about 900. Some of the games were available on other platforms
more than 100 were Apple II exclusives a very large number. Therefore I think that Apple II is a better
platform for gaming than IBM PC most of the 80’s, at least until 87-88, when IBM PC number of games
greatly increased and the quality of the EGA based games surpassed most Apple II based games. Some of
the best Apple II games are Ultima I, Castle Wolfenstein, Choplifter, Lode Runner, Impossible Mission,
The Oregon Trail, The Bard’s Tale, Elite, Might and Magic, Pirates!, California Games, Maniac Mansion,
Wasteland (Interplay), Prince of Persia again just to name a few as they were so many. Some of the Apple
II games were so good that were also launched for many platforms including the IBM PC therefore will
be included in this book.

TRS-80 (Model I) based gaming

Designed early from 1977 by Tandy Corporation TRS-80 was hardly designed for gaming as it had
monochrome graphics but will be a decent personal system for gaming in late 70’s. As an advantage
blackjack and backgammon came with the TRS-80 for free when purchased.

Limited monochrome graphics. The TRS-80 was accompanied by a white-on-black display, which
was a modified RCA XL-100 black and white television. The color of the screen text was light bluish.
Green and amber filters, or replacement tubes to make the display easier on the eyes, were common
aftermarket items. Later models came with a green-on-black display. Because of bandwidth problems in
the interface card that replaced the TV’s tuner, the display would lose horizontal sync if large areas of
white were displayed but a simple hardware fix could correct this. Another disadvantage was the fact that
the video hardware could only display text at 64 or 32 characters wide by 16 lines of resolution because
the video memory system used a single kilobyte of video memory.

Frogger for TRS-80, simple monochrome graphics


Gaming on TRS-80. Many leading developers, and independent software companies such as Big
Five, produced unlicensed versions of popular arcade hits like Namco’s Pac-Man and Galaxian, Atari’s
Centipede, Exidy’s Targ and Stern Electronics’ Berzerk. There were also many games unique to the TRS-
80, including shooters like Cosmic Fighter and Defence Command.
TR-80 CoCo gaming
Despite bearing the same TRS-80 name, the 1980 “Color Computer” was a radical departure from the
earlier TRS-80; in particular it had a faster Motorola 6809E processor, rather than the TRS-80’s Zilog
Z80. Thus, despite the similar name, the new machine was absolutely not compatible with software made
for the old TRS-80. The integrated Motorola video display MC6847 was a relatively simple display
generator compared to other display chips of the time. It was capable of displaying text and graphics
contained within a roughly square display matrix 256 pixels wide by 192 lines high. It is capable of
displaying nine colors: black, green, yellow, blue, red, buff (almost-but-not-quite white), cyan, magenta,
and orange.

Frogger version for TRS-80 CoCo, decent enough release

As important disadvantages it was the fact that any access to the screen memory caused “flicker” on
the screen. The bus arbitration logic would block video display while access was given to the CPU,
causing a short black line. This had little effect on normal BASIC programs, but fast programs made in
assembly language could be affected.

Gaming library. The TRS models (including the model 2 and 3) will receive about 140-1500 games
over the years, and a decent amount of them will be good games, such as Color Baseball, Color Space
Invaders, Polaris, Frogger, Dungeons of Daggorath, Trapfall, The King (aka Donkey King), Zaxxon
(Tandy/Sega), Time Bandit (MichTron), Speed Racer (MichTron), Pitfall II (Tandy/Activison).While the
platform received a decent number of good games it will be substantialy behind its main competitors such
as Apple II, Atari 8-bit computers and the VIC-20, surpassing only the TI-99/4 regarding games.


Amazingly capable for 1979

Atari 400/800 as gaming platforms

The 8-bit Atari personal systems were designed in a time when everything was great for Atari, both
financial and technological. Considering the immense success and not to mention experience Atari had
with games in both consoles and arcade domains we would expect that Atari would develop a great
personal computer and it did in most parts, especially gaming.
Both Atari 400 and Atari 800 have multiple special purpose co-processors for sound and graphics to
take the load off of the 6502 CPU called ANTIC, CTIA(later GTIA) and POKEY.
ANTIC is a microprocessor which processes display instructions and allowed many important
features such smooth background scrolling while the programmers to create displays made up of mixed
graphics and text, as well as different graphics modes on one screen without using CPU intervention.
The CTIA (Color Television Interface Adaptor) is the graphics chip used in early Atari 400/800 home
computers. It is the successor to the TIA chip used in the Atari 2600. The CTIA/GTIA receives Playfield
graphics information from ANTIC and applies colors to the pixels from a 128 or 256 color palette
depending on the color interpretation mode in effect. CTIA/GTIA also controls Player/Missile Graphics
(aka sprites) functionality including collision detection between displayed objects (Players, Missiles, and
ANTIC’s Playfield), display priority control over objects, and color/luminance control of all displayed
objects. CTIA/GTIA outputs separate digital luminance and chrominance signals, which are mixed to
form an analogue composite video signal.
Due to the 8-bit Atari’s flexibility and these special co-processors, it was possible (with clever
programming) to create a number of software-driven pseudo-“modes” beyond those directly supported in
hardware. These included pseudo-256-color graphic modes therefore Atari systems were the most
advanced personal systems regarding graphics in the early and middle 80’s.

Advanced sound capabilities. This statement was also true for the sound capabilities. The third
internal custom chip called POKEY was responsible for reading the keyboard, generating sound and serial
communications. POKEY has four semi-independent audio channels, each with its own frequency, noise
and volume control. Each 8-bit channel has its own audio control register which select the noise content
and volume. For higher sound frequency resolution (quality), two of the audio channels can be combined
for more accurate sound. This was the most chipset with the best sound quality found in personal computers
systems for a large time period and the only disadvantage was the fact it could only produce square-waves.
By means of some very clever programming, it was also possible to play short speech patterns digitized
sound, albeit barely legible. The sound capabilities of the Atari 8-bit family will be surpassed later in 1982
with the launch of the C64. In comparison the Commodore’s music chip called SID is a true analog
synthesizer, capable of producing multiple types of wave forms, and it also has oscillators and all the other
regular synth features. The POKEY chip is digital and produces only square waves. However, the POKEY
can produce both 8-bit and 16-bit sounds and can have up to four channels, whereas the SID only has three.
While both sound chips were capable to produce great music in games, C64 is in a different class.

The same Frogger for Atari 400/800/XE, grahics even better than Apple II


Game library on Atari 8-bit computers. The killer game for the Atari 8-bit platforms was Star
Raiders a cartridge based video game originally launched for Atari 8-bit computers in 1979 and
programmed by Doug Neubauer, an Atari employee. Star Raiders was distinctive for its impressive
sounds and graphics, which (under most conditions) represented an out-the-cockpit, first-person view
from a fictional combat spaceship traveling through a streaming 3D starfield in pursuit of enemy
spacecraft. The game’s attract mode, a simple streaming star field, was a common sight in computer stores
of the early-1980s to show off the Atari computers’ graphics capabilities. In 2007, it was included as #2
in a list of the 10 most important video games of all time, as compiled by Stanford University’s History of
Science and Technology Collections.

Star Raiders. Starbase and repair droid (left) and Galactic Chart(right)

More than 400 games were launched for Atari systems, with a decent number of exclusive games, a
very large number that represent the importance the system had for personal computer gaming. Besides
Star Raiders some of the best Atari 8-bit games were: Caverns of Mars, Eastern Front (1941), Star
Raiders II and Dandy all published by Atari while from third party developers came Miner 2049er (Big
Five Software), Jumpman (Epyx), M.U.L.E. (Ozark Softscape), Archon: The Light and Dark (Free Fall
Associates),Bruce Lee (Datasoft), International Karate (System 3) three from Synapse: Shamus, Blue
Max, Alley Cat and finally four games from Lucasfilm: Ballblazer, Rescue of Fractalus!, Koronis Rift and
The Eidolon; just to name a few of the best games.

From the launch until 1985/1986 the Atari 8-bit computers were better platforms for gaming
compared to the IBM PC and compatibles, not to mention the sound that was way better up until 1988
when the Adlib sound card was launched, finally giving the MS-DOS games the chance to have great
sound. And so the Atari 8-bit had 8-9 years of better sound vs IBM PC’s and most compatibles, quite a
large period I would say.
VIC-20 as a gaming platform
The VIC-20 was launched in 1980 (Japan) and 1981 in U.S., roughly three years after Commodore’s
first personal computer, the PET and Commodore’s engineers did a decent job at the time, considering the
fact the IBM 5150 with monochrome graphics at the base model wasn’t even launched.

In its internal graphical chipset the MOS Technology 6560 (NTSC version) / 6561 (PAL version) 16
colors were supported (the upper 8 can only be used in the global background and auxiliary colors) while
the maximum video resolution depended on the time television system (176 × 184 is the standard for the
VIC-20 firmware, although at least 224 × 256 is possible on the PAL machine). But the VIC-20 had a big
disadvantage as it didn’t support high resolution graphics directly; the still hi-res graphics were
implemented by “painting” the display with characters, and “redefining” the character bitmaps on the fly.
This was a complex and long-winded process; implementing it in a BASIC program was virtually useless
due to the execution time required to draw anything.

VIC-1211/Super Expander was a cartridge launched by Commodore Business Machines (CBM) in 1981
that solved some of the graphic problems. It allowed the programmer to draw points, lines, ellipses and arcs,
and to paint enclosed regions, with one-line statements. All the VIC-20’s 16 colours could be used, although
with restrictions due to limitations of the 6560 chip. Display resolution was 160×160 pixels, throttled down
from the higher resolutions allowed by the 6560 chip, in order to permit per-pixel addressability. Multicolor
hi-res was supported (with a resolution of 80×160) and could be mixed with normal hi-res.
For sound output the VIC had three rectangular-wave sound generators. Each had a range of three
octaves, and the generators were located on the scale about an octave apart, giving a total range of about
five octaves. In addition, there was a white noise generator. There was only one volume control, and the
output was in mono. Overall the sound capabilities were decent for the time.



Frogger for VIC-20 was launched in 1983 and looks nice. Vic-20 received at least one other port of
the game.

Games for VIC-20. More than 200 games were launched for the platform but only few of them will
be good releases. Most of them were launched in the 1981-1983 timeframe and I will yearly present them
in comparison with the IBM PC. While the system was discontinued in 1985 games were continuously
made for the VIC-20. Recent software releases such as Frogger ‘07 (2007 release) and Berzerk MMX
(2010 release) have gameplay, graphics, and sound (including voice synthesis in Berzerk) that rival the
original arcade machines. Even a port of Doom, a 1993 game popularized on much more powerful
platforms, was launched the VIC-20 in 2013.
Compared to Apple II, TI-99/4A and Atari’s personal 8-bit personal computers the VIC-20 was
clearly limited in hardware and Commodore had to launch something even better than and as cost
effective as the VIC-20 and it did in 1982 with the C64 the top selling personal computer ever.

When RAM matters more than a 16-bit microprocessor

Gaming on TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A

Texas Instruments was at the time the largest chipset designer and retailer and many analysts expected
they would create such a technically advanced computer that would easily surpass competition and
become market leader due to its technical leadership. Some of the expectations were true as T.I. did
release the first ever 16-bit CPU designed for personal computers, its own 16-bit TMS9900 CPU running
at 3.0 MHz. Although the CPU was a full 16-bit processor, only the system ROMs and the main memory
consisting on small 256 bytes of scratchpad RAM were available on the 16-bit bus. All other memory and
peripherals were connected to the CPU through a 16-to-8-bit multiplexer, requiring twice the cycles for
any access and introducing an additional 4-cycle wait state, just as IBM later exhibited with the Intel
8088.A popular user modification in later years involved “piggybacking” static RAM chips onto the
console’s 16-bit ROM chips, allowing a standard 32K RAM expansion without the wait state and
approximately a 30% speed increase for many applications.
The video display processor in the 99/4 was a TMS9918. It lacked a bitmap mode, which was added
in the 99/4A. The VDP in the American 99/4A was the TMS9918A with 16 KB RAM (which gives the
machine the A in its name), and a version of this chip was also implemented in the ColecoVision, the most
powerful console at the time. In the European PAL consoles this was replaced with the TMS9929A which
also powered MSX machines. Overall the graphic capabilities were good and surpassed many personal
computers at the time.
While until now the design decisions were good, T.I. did a significant mistake. Because static RAM
was also very expensive in the late 70’s, TI only gave the machines 256 bytes/0.25KB of fast “scratch
pad” RAM where register workspaces could be stored. The competition had slower but much more RAM
for example Apple II and Commodore Pet had minimum 4KB, Atari 400 and 800 had initially 8 KB the
Vic-20 had 20KB, the first IBM PC the 5150 had 16KB upgradeable up to 256 KB while the C64 will
have from the launch 64KB, all impressive numbers when compared to the TI-99/4 family. Sure more
RAM was possible as the sidecar and PE box expansion systems made possible an official 32K RAM
expansion and there also was a mini Memory plug-in module also contained 4K of RAM that could be
used as a persistent RAM disk (it contained a button cell) or to load a machine code program. Still the
external memory had additional costs and slower speed due to the 16-to-8-bit multiplexer bus. Due to
very low memory this computer was unable to run most software as it came out from the factory and also
limited game developers.

Frogger on TI-99/4A, great graphics


Games for TI-99/4 family. From the launch Texas Instruments actively promoted the TI-99/4 and
TI99/4A in educational use (as opposed to Atari and Commodore’s emphasis on arcade game action) and
learning programs for children comprised a large portion of its software library. But as the Apple II
already had a major foothold in schools and was an open architecture that anyone could easily develop
for, TI failed to make an significant impact there and later tried to promote the TI-99/4 and TI/99/4A as
gaming machines. Still due to some technical limitations (low RAM), programming difficulties and
especially because TI demanded royalties many game developers ignored the TI-99/4 family and Texas
Instruments was forced to develop many games by itself, becoming even more involved than Atari to
create games for its own platform. Good games developed by TI for its platform were: Video Games 1,
Football, Indoor Soccer, Hunt The Wumpus, TI Invaders, Car Wars, A-Maze-Ing, Munch Man, Parsec,
Chisholm, Alpiner, Tunnels of Doom, Moon Mine and Hopper, games developed in quite a short period
1879-1983.Overall about 70 games will be developed in time for the 16-bit TI platform. As a direct
comparison IBM didn’t developed a single great game for its personal computers, only few decent ones
but did commissioned third party companies for some important releases.
Opposed to all competition from third party developers came very few good games fewer even than
T.I. designed and this is an amazing fact. Such games were Pac-Man (Atarisoft/Namco),Space Bandits
(Milton Bradley), Donkey Kong (Atarisoft/Nintendo),Super Demon Attack (Imagic),Q*Bert (Parker
Brothers).
While it ultimately failed in PC market due to a wrong philosophy and the price wars introduced by
Commodore, TI created a nice computer and a good gaming machine, making some of the best games
developed by a hardware chip/computer builder.


Gaming on the BBC Micro

Launched in United Kingdom in 1981 this British system was designed with an emphasis on education,
it was also notable for its ruggedness, expandability and the quality of its operating system.

BBC micro connected to a standard analog TV

The graphics were based on the very common Motorola 6845 graphics controller and supported a
large number of resolutions including 640 × 256 /2 colors, 320 × 256/4 colors, 160 × 256/ 8 colors and
many other less used graphic modes. To generate sound the computer used a Texas Instruments SN76489,
4 channels (3 voice+ noise), mono also used by the TI-99/4 family and later by the IBM PCjr. Phoneme-
based speech synthesis using the Texas Instruments TMS5220 with a custom Acorn ROM (the “PHROM”,
a TMS6100) of Kenneth Kendall’s voice was also optional.

Games for the BBC Micro. The BBC Micro platform amassed a large software base of both games
and educational programs for its two main uses as a home and educational computer and the total number of
available games for the BBC Micro exceeded 200, but the games are in general not as successful as the
ones available Commodore 64, Apple II and Atari personal computer systems.

 Hopper(left) for BBC Micro, a nice Frogger clone. The official port of Frogger for the BBC Micro
(right) was one of the most unsuccessful ports



Concluding thoughts for prior to IBM gaming. The BBC Micro concludes my short presentation of
the hardware and gaming advancements prior the IBM personal computer and while these pages are only
indirectly connected to the book and I’ve added them so we can see that the hardware and gaming history
didn’t start with IBM PC and its x86 platform architecture. Nonetheless I think that overall, in the
commercial electronic gaming history 1972-2013 the x86 personal computers are the most important,
prolific and the best gaming devices. I also wanted to present the whole computing ecosystem that lead to
the creation of the IBM personal computer platform and games, the ancestor of the present Windows
based systems, now the most successful computer platform with a huge number of games available about
more than 5000 commercial releases (and many more other freeware) from which at least 1000 worth
played and many of them will be included in this book.

 The early years for IBM PC, 1981 and 1982

“Next to people, information is a company’s greatest asset, but its value can’t be realized if
it’s not effectively managed and delivered to the right people, business applications and
processes.”
Steve Mills, IBM

The roots of IBM PC and the initial hardware design

First of all a business company. When it begun developing the IBM PC back in 1980, International
Business Machines (IBM) was one of the world’s largest companies and clearly the biggest in computer and
IT technology dominating the computer industry with its business approach. Perhaps troubled by a long-
running antitrust lawsuit that lasted until 1982, it completely missed or perhaps ignored the fast-growing
personal minicomputer market during the 70’s. Therefore in late 70’s and 1980 the personal (home
computers) computer market was controlled by the Commodore PET, Atari 8-bit family, Apple II, Tandy
Corporation’s TRS-80s, and various CP/M machines. Still at that time, the most powerful computers were
still very expensive and were mainly used by corporations and large companies, the most preferred market
that had the financial resources to buy the computers from IBM. The prices for the business computers were
in a wide range starting from 6000/7000 to several thousand USD and even more at large supercomputers
with prices up to millions of USD while personal computers had a much lower price 400-3000USD. As
personal computers gained momentum and the sales increased steadily year by year it was finally the time for
IBM to design and launch its own personal system and while 1981 can be seen as a very late year for
launching the IBM personal computer system, considering the huge future potential market for personal
computers, the power and financial resources gained from business computing, for IBM it clearly wasn’t late
just a little tardy.


Early small IBM computers, yet not so personal. Back in the 70’s in the business computers market
there was an increasing competition for IBM and one the most important competitor was Hewlett
Packard. Desktop sized programmable calculators by Hewlett Packard had evolved into very interesting
options such as HP 9830 computer with BASIC language designed in 1972 and other computers designers
were also miniaturizing computer design. Therefore IBM was compelled to improve and adapt and so in
1973 the IBM Los Gatos Scientific Center developed a portable computer prototype called SCAMP
(Special Computer APL Machine Portable) based on the IBM PALM processor with a Philips compact
cassette drive, small CRT and full function keyboard. SCAMP emulated an IBM 1130 minicomputer in
order to run APL\1130. In 1973 APL was generally available only on mainframe computers, and most
desktop sized microcomputers such as the Wang 2200 or HP 9800 offered only BASIC. Because SCAMP
was the first to emulate APL\1130 performance on a portable, single user computer, PC Magazine in 1983
designated SCAMP a “revolutionary concept” and “the world’s first personal computer”. This
seminal, single use portable computer now resides in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.


IBM’s SCAMP prototype


Successful demonstrations of the 1973 SCAMP prototype led to the IBM 5100 portable microcomputer
launched in 1975. In the late 1960s such a machine would have been nearly as large as two desks and
would have weighed about half a ton. The IBM 5100 was a complete computer system programmable in
BASIC or APL, with a small built-in CRT monitor, keyboard, and tape drive for data storage. It was also
very expensive costing up to $20,000 USD. It was specifically designed for professional and scientific
problem-solvers, not business users or hobbyists. When the PC was introduced in 1981, it was designated
as the IBM 5150, putting it in the “5100” series, though its architecture was not directly descended from the
IBM 5100. Later models followed in the trend: for example, the PC/XT, IBM Portable Personal Computer,
and PC AT are IBM machine types 5160, 5155, and 5170, respectively.


The 1980 beginning. The project to conceive the IBM personal computers started as the outgrowth of
a presentation that William C. “Bill” Lowe, laboratory director of IBM’s Entry Level Systems (ELS) unit
in Boca Raton, made before IBM’s Corporate Management Committee, including IBM President John
Opel and Chairman Frank Cary, in July 1980. By this point, there were a significant number of popular
personal computers on the market, including the Apple II, Atari 400, Atari 800, Commodore Pet, the
newly launched VIC-20, the Texas Instruments TI-99/4 and TI99-4A and a good deal of machines running
the CP/M operating system while by this time the IBM personal system wasn’t even designed, or even
better conceived as a prototype.

Cary had apparently liked the idea of a personal computer for years, but IBM’s famous bureaucracy
couldn’t be convinced at least until now. Instead, it created products that were simply too big, too
expensive, or too corporate-focused to reach a mass market, notably the Datamaster and the IBM 5100.

William c. “Bill” Lowe, the first “father “of IBM PC


 Luckily Bill Lowe convinced the committee that a small group, focused on putting together pieces
from the outside industry rather than creating something new within IBM, could indeed create a new
computer within a year. He got permission and recruited a group of 12 engineers as part of what would
become known as Project Chess.

“The further simplification of our technology is important to reach those market segments.” Steve
Mills from IBM, discussing a strategy required to enter the home computer market.


Swift concept, prototype and execution. In the next month, Lowe’s task force had a number of
meetings with other players in the young home computers industry and made a number of key decisions.
One was the decision to sell IBM’s personal computer through ComputerLand and Sears, Roebuck retail
stores in addition to offering it through IBM’s own commissioned sales staff. Jack Sams, who would head
software development, was out contacting software companies, including Microsoft. The group chose to
use an “open architecture”, licensing the central processing unit (CPU) and most of the other hardware
components from outside of IBM as the company had more expensive computer components designed for
business.

The team apparently pulled together very quickly, and on August 8, 1980 when Lowe and two
engineers, Bill Sydnes and Lew Eggebrecht, demonstrated a prototype to the Corporate Management
Committee, which approved the basic plan and gave Project Chess the go-ahead to create a personal
computer, code-named Acorn.

The man behind the plan. Usually new products at IBM typically required about four years for
development. The company recognized that in order to compete with other personal computers that were
launched faster and faster it needed to develop its computers much more quickly. In summer 1980 IBM
assigned Don Estridge the task of designing an IBM personal computer. Lowe, who would shortly leave
Entry Systems Division to run IBM’s larger facility in Rochester, Minnesota picked Philip D. “Don”
Estridge, another longtime IBM employee who worked at the Boca Raton labs to run the project, and
Estridge would go on with the task and did a great job from many points of view, that’s why in time it will
be called the “father of the PC”.

Estridge recruited a “special” team that included Sydnes, who headed engineering, Dan Wilkie, who
was in charge of manufacturing, and H.L. “Sparky” Sparks, who headed sales and marketing. The next
few months apparently saw a whirlwind of activity, including signing Microsoft to provide the languages
and the operating system. Rather than going through the usual IBM design process, Estridge special team
was assembled with authorization to bypass normal company restrictions and get something to market
rapidly and with this advantage the team developed the PC in about a year, quite a remarkable
achievement for the time.


The Hardware choice. Initially Estridge’s team considered using the IBM 801 processor (an early
RISC CPU) and its operating system that had been developed at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in
Yorktown Heights, New York. The 801 processor was more than an order of magnitude more powerful
than the Intel 8088 (approximately 15 MIPS), and the operating system was more advanced than the DOS
1.0 operating system developed Microsoft, but the microprocessor was just released by the summer of
1980 and wasn’t tested and experienced enough. Ruling out an untested/experimental in-house solution
made the team’s job much easier and may have avoided a delay in the schedule, but the ultimate
consequences of this decision for IBM were far-reaching. IBM had recently developed the Datamaster
business microcomputer, which used an Intel 8085 processor and peripheral ICs; familiarity with these
chips and the availability of the relatively cheap Intel 8088 processor was a deciding factor in the choice
of this microprocessor for the new product. Even the 62-pin expansion bus slots were designed to be
similar to the Datamaster slots. Possible delays due to in-house development of the Datamaster software
also influenced the design team to a fast-track development process for the PC, with publicly available
technical information to encourage third-party developers.

Instead of proprietary components, the team decided to build the machine with “off-the-shelf” parts
from a variety of different original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and countries and this was another
great idea due to modularity and multiple sources for internal components. Previously IBM had always
developed its own components. Secondly for scheduling and cost reasons, rather than developing unique
IBM PC monitor and printer designs, project management decided to utilize an existing “off-the-shelf”
IBM monitor developed earlier in IBM Japan as well as an existing Epson printer model. Consequently,
the unique IBM PC industrial design elements were relegated to the system unit and keyboard. They also
decided for an open architecture, so that other manufacturers could produce and sell peripheral
components and compatible software without purchasing licenses. IBM also sold an IBM PC Technical
Reference Manual that included complete and fully accurate circuit schematics, a listing of the ROM
BIOS source code, and other engineering and programming information. Because IBM’s design used off-
the-shelf parts, the IBM copyright only appeared in the ROM BIOS and on the company logo.

Philip D. “Don” Estridge. The second “father” of IBM PC


Estridge decisions were extremely important and dramatically different compared to the rest of the
computer industry that opted for a smaller/cheaper but less modular and less future proof design based on
8-bit microprocessors, while the main advantage of open-architecture did lead in time to a vast increase
in the number of 3’rd party system builders thus creating an entire industry of x86 hardware manufacturers
of x86 PC’s besides IBM, computers called IBM PC compatibles, computers that were many times better
or faster than the original IBM PC’s.

We believed we could build a machine that would be something special — so special that
people who hadn’t used IBM equipment before would use it. Also, our own employees would have
access to a personal computer; it would give an outlet to the programming creativity that was
inherent in the IBM population.


Philip Donald Estridge – PCMAG interview 1982

After the success of the IBM PC, IBM eventually will bring the PC division back into an IBM more
direct control. Estridge was moved into a corporate vice president’s role within IBM while William C.
“Bill” Lowe, who had left the PC project soon after its founding, returned as head of Entry Systems
Division. Estridge unfortunately died in a plane crash in August 1985. By that point, the PC architecture
the Boca Raton “special” team created in 1980/1981 had already become an industry standard, resulting
in thousands of applications, a huge variety of add-in boards, and PC-compatible machines from dozens
of vendors.

As closing thoughts I’ve placed another Estridge answer from the interview taken by PC Magazine in
April 1982, three years before its unfortunate death.

PC Magazine: Are you surprised by the response to the IBM PC? Estridge: We wanted to fit into
what we believed was the existing infrastructure of software houses, authors, hardware vendors, and
retail distribution channels that had arisen. We were very anxious to get people to understand that we
really did want to fit in and that we weren’t trying to set rules for others to live by. We are very
surprised that this view seems to be getting across well.

The original PC hardware, launched in 1981

The IBM Personal Computer or IBM 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version
of the IBM PC and compatibles hardware platforms. As presented before it was created by a team of
engineers and designers under the direction of Don Estridge of the IBM Entry Systems Division in Boca
Raton, Florida.

IBM 5150 and the 16 colors palette of the CGA adapter

Alongside “microcomputer” and “home computer”, the term “personal computer” was already in use
before 1981. It was used as early as 1972 to characterize Xerox PARC’s Alto, yet a very expensive
computer and designed in a limited number. However, because of the success of the IBM Personal
Computer, the term PC came to mean more specifically a microcomputer compatible with IBM’s PC
products. IBM introduced its first PC the IBM 5150 on August 12, 1981. This was quite a late response to
the success of the Apple II, Commodore PET, TRS-80, Atari 8-bit and more other home computers, but
several great design ideas such as modularity, use of a relative fast and extremely future-proof 16-bit CPU
on a cost effective 8-bit bus, good external peripherals, hardware, software support and especially the
open platform ensured the x86 platform success.Six weeks later at COMDEX Fall, the U.S. besed
hardware manufacturer Tecmar had 20 x86 PC products available for sale. These products included
memory expansion, IEEE-488, data acquisition, and PC Expansion chassis. Like the Apple II and S-
100/Altair 8800 systems, it was based on an open, card-based architecture, which allowed third parties
to develop for it.

It used the Intel 8088 CPU running at 4.77 MHz, containing 29,000 transistors. The first model used
an audio cassette for external storage, though there was an expensive floppy disk option. The cassette
option was never popular and was removed in the PC XT of 1983. The XT added a 10MB hard drive in
place of one of the two floppy disks and increased the number of expansion slots from 5 to 8. The PC
came equipped with 16 kilobytes of memory and could accommodate only up to 64k on the main board.
Later revisions of the design increased the limit to 256K on the main board.

Pricing for the IBM PC started at $1,565, which would be about $4,500 today for a bare-bones
configuration without disk drives. Another way the PC differed from previous IBM projects was its
marketing. The company used Charlie Chaplin’s The Little Tramp character as its mascot in a series of
popular advertisements. In addition to its existing corporate sales force, IBM opened its own stores and
also sold the PC through ComputerLand and other resellers.

“You can see the competitive reaction quite honestly as an endorsement of the IBM strategy.”
Sam Palmisano IBM

The x86 clones/compatibles. Other manufacturers soon reverse engineered the BIOS to produce their
own non-infringing functional copies. Columbia Data Products introduced the first IBM-PC compatible
computer in June 1982. In November 1982, Compaq Computer Corporation announced the Compaq
Portable, the first portable IBM PC compatible. The first models were shipped in March 1983.
The success of the IBM computer led other companies to develop IBM Compatibles, which in turn led to
branding like diskettes being advertised as “IBM format”. An IBM PC clone could be built with off-the-shelf
parts, but the BIOS required some reverse-engineering. Companies like Phoenix Software Associates,
American Megatrends, Award, and others achieved workable versions of the BIOS, allowing companies like
DELL, Compaq, and HP to manufacture PCs that worked like IBM’s product. In time the IBM PC will
become the industry standard.


The processor choice for IBM PC, reasons for x86

Intel 8088. One of the big decisions IBM made in creating the original IBM PC was IBM’s decision
to use the Intel 8088 processor as its central processing unit (CPU). This turned out to be hugely
influential in establishing the Intel architecture - often called the x86 architecture - as the standard for the
vast majority of the personal computer industry, but there are many stories around how the decision that
was made.

Up to that point, with the exception of TI-99/4 family, all popular personal computers run on 8-bit
processors. This included the Intel 8080 that was inside the MITS Altair 8800 (the machine that led to
Bill Gates and Paul Allen creating the first PC BASIC and then to the founding of Microsoft); the Zilog Z-
80, a chip that had compatibility with the 8080 but also offered a variety of improvements and was used
in the Osborne 1, Kaypro II and many other CP/M-based machines; and the main was the MOS
Technologies 6502, which was used in the Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore’s PET, VIC-20 and also in
many other consoles. Intel followed its 8080 with the 8-bit 8085; and introduced the 16-bit 8086 in 1978,
followed by the 8088, which had the same 16-bit internal architecture, but was connected to an 8-bit data
bus, in 1979. Meanwhile, there were some other more advanced chips coming to market such as the
Motorola 68000 with 16/ 32-bit instructions, which was introduced in 1979 and would later be the
processor in the Apple Lisa and Macintosh, Commodore Amiga, and a number of UNIX-based
workstations.


The technology at the leading edge changes so rapidly that you have to keep current after you get out
of school. I think probably the most important thing is having good fundamentals - Gordon Moore-Intel
Founder with a speech from the 80’s when technology evolved even slower than the 90’s and the 2000.

Intel 8088, the microprocessor used in the first IBM PC- the 5150

The original IBM PC was the most influential microcomputer to use the 8088. Some of IBM’s
engineers and other employees wanted to use the IBM 801 processor; some would prefer the new
Motorola 68000 while others argued for a small and simple microprocessor, such as the MOS
Technology 6502 or Zilog Z80, which had been used in earlier personal computers. In the end they chose
Intel and their 8088 microprocessor and this is not without logic as the main reasons to use the Intel
processor were:

16 bit design. They wanted a 16 bit processor “; it had to be a 16-bit chip that overcame the very
small 64K memory limit of the 8-bit processors”

Availability. The processor and its peripheral chips had to be immediately available in quantity. And
to ensure this IBM also selected and licensed( with Intel agreement) other chipset manufacturers such as
AMD, NEC, Fujitsu, Harris (Intersil), OKI, Siemens AG, Texas Instruments, Mitsubishi to ensure that the
8088/8086 CPU was available in significant number.

Familiar design. The Intel x86 technology was already familiarly to IBM it was used in IBM
Datamaster business computer and IBM already had a history of using Intel chips in its products and had
also acquired the rights to manufacture the 8086/8088 family.

The compatibility. Another important factor was that the 8088 allowed the computer to be based on a
modified 8085 design, as it could easily interface with most nMOS chips with 8-bit databuses, as they
were existing and were also mature, and therefore economical, components. This included ICs originally
intended for support and peripheral functions around the 8085 and similar processors (not exclusively
Intels) which were already well known by many engineers, further reducing cost.

Decent software support. The 8088 had to work with some of the available languages and operating
systems or the software and it did. Software was also relatively easy to be developed on the x86
architecture and Intel did create in time great tools and Compilers to support the software developers. In
present the x86 software library is by far the greatest and has an significance advantage in both quality
and diversity over the competitors.

 Perhaps Microsoft. Both Bill Gates and Paul Allen say Microsoft talked IBM out of using an 8-bit
processor, and instead moving to the 16-bit 8088. In an interview for PCMag’s 15th Anniversary Bill
Gates described this fact: “...And the key engineer on the project, Lou Eggebrecht, was fast-moving.
Once we convinced IBM to go 16-bit (and we looked at 68000 which unfortunately wasn’t debugged at
the time so decided to go 8086), he cranked out that motherboard in about 40 days.” Paul Allen sayd
about this in his autobiography: “After we talked them out of an 8-bit machine and won them over to the
Intel 8086 (or as it turned out, the cheaper but virtually identical except the external bus 8088), they
wanted everything in our 16-bit cupboard.”

The 8088 performance?! The processors performance generally depends on many factors, the
internal architecture and bus/ the frequency and the type of software to run as generally software can be
more or less optimized for different CPU architectures. The 8088 had a multiplexed bus that limited
performance as transfers of 16-bit data was done in a four-clock memory access cycle. The 8086 with its
16-bit memory bus didn’t have this penalty but the 8088 was slower at data transfers when compared to
typical contemporary “8-bit” CPU’s. Compared to other processors the 8088 was quite slow on a
performance per MHz basis but 8088 had a higher frequency and therefore compensated in a large degree
the not so efficient 16-bit CPU over the 8-bit bus architecture. Dhrystone MIPS is just software and is not
the best measure of different CPU’s performance, but it’s a lot better than MHz for comparison. For
example Motorola 68000 (Not Dhrystone ) had 0.700 MIPS at 8 MHz, Zilog Z80 at 6.0Mhz had 1 MIPS
while 8088 at 4.77 had only 0.22 MIPS. The very popular MOS Technology 6502 had 0.500 MIPS (Not
Dhrystone) at 1 MHz. The narrow owners of the 8086 were more fortunate as higher frequency and
memory bus did improve performance: 8066 at 8 MHz had 0.66 MIPS. Things change when Intel launch
the 80286 as the performance increase greatly and was one of the fastest processor available in personal
computers. A 80286 at 12.5MHz had 2.66 MIPS, quite an performer.

When comparing the 8088 with the 8-bit processors found at competitors the main advantage was not
the performance (as it was slower sometimes) but the fact it was internally an 16-bit processor that has
16-bit registers, 16-bit internal data bus and 20-bit address bus thus allowing the processor to address up
to 1 MB of memory compared to the limited 64k of RAM addressed by the 8-bit CPU’s. This was a major
advantage as 64k was a small amount of RAM for many software programs including games and memory
price was falling rapidly in the early 80’s.

In any case, the decision to use the 8088 would set the stage for industry standard computing that
continues to this day. Many other companies created IBM compatible machines that ran the on the 8088 or
even the faster 8086; and this trend also continued when Intel introduced the 80286 (which IBM used in
its PC AT in 1984) and it did the same with later CPU designs.
The reserve x86 manufacturer
AMD was originally contracted by IBM to be a second source manufacturer for 8086 and 8088
processors, since in the early days of the industry IBM wanted multiple CPU suppliers and managed later
(after much litigation) to create its own x86-compatible architecture.

 The beginning of a troublesome relationship

Together, from the 90’s AMD and Intel companies dominated microprocessor sales for the x86 PC
market. By the middle 90’s other dominant non x86 computers (based on Motorola microprocessors) such
as Atari ST line and Commodore Amiga line will be overrun by x86 PC’s with the notable exception of
Apple, that switched from Motorola architecture to IBM-Motorola PowerPC architecture until finally in
2005 they’ve also decided to use Intel CPU’s. Today, every laptop and desktop sold is x86 therefore is
theoretically capable of running software designed for the original 8088/86 architecture, and thus for the
original IBM PC.


Monochrome by default

The original MDA graphics for the IBM PC. The IBM 5150 designed by IBM was successful
especially as a personal computer to use at home but mainly for work and not as a gaming tool and the
limited integrated MDA (monochrome display adapter) launched with the IBM PC showed that tendency.

Pixel graphics were a no-go for the MDA


The MDA was especially useful for text/ASCII based software such as Lotus 1-2-3 a spreadsheet
software program and had almost nothing to do with gaming. The MDA adapter had 4 KB video RAM and
it supported text mode only. Introduced in 1981 it was IBM’s standard video display card and computer
display standard for the PC. The MDA did not have any pixel-addressable graphics modes hence it has no
real graphics mode of any kind. It had only a single monochrome text mode (PC video mode 7), which
could display 80 columns by 25 lines of high resolution text characters or symbols.

While it lacked support for pixel-addressable graphics this didn’t stop programmers to create text
only games, first was Chess in 1981 with usable ASCII graphics, there were a decent number of text
based RPG’s including 1981 Wizard’s Castle, some strategy games based on older mainframes computes
such as Andromeda Conquest and Star Trek and an impressive number of text adventures over 50, genre
launched up to 1988 and I believe the most famous games of the genre are the Zork series.

 A (modest) hope for x86 gaming is born
The IBM CGA expansion card. The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), originally also called the
Color/Graphics Adapter or IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter, introduced in 1981, was IBM’s first
color graphic card for personal computers, and the first color computer display standard for the IBM PC.
The CGA adapter was offered as an external expansion card and could be connected internally to the first
IBM PC the 5150.

The original CGA expansion card. Quite an advanced design, considering that most competitors had
better graphics


The standard IBM CGA graphics card was equipped with 16 kilobytes of video memory, four time
more compared to MDA, and could be connected either to a NTSC compatible monitor or television via
an RCA connector for composite video, or to a dedicated 4-bit “RGBI” interface CRT monitor, such as
the IBM 5153 color display that was launched later. Built around the Motorola MC6845 display
controller, the CGA card featured several graphics and text modes. The highest display resolution of any
mode was 640×200 (monochrome), and the highest color depth or palette supported was 4-bit (16 colors)
but of course the maximum resolution and color depth were not usable at the same time, there was always
a balance and the 320x200/4 color mode was the most used for games.
Important CGA graphic modes and their use in games
CGA Text Mode. Whether 80-column or 40-column, text mode allowed all 16 colors to be
displayed. Foreground and background color could be set individually for each character. The
background color could only be dark, if a bright color was chosen, the character would blink instead. The
flag color is applied to the overscan only, which is black by default.

The text mode has little relevance for gaming and could be used successfully only to display the text
based games with more colors.
This mode was preferred by individual game designers as they could create colored games based on
programing without the need to create pixel based graphics that required more time and artistic resources.

640×200 monochrome graphic mode. This mode allowed addressing each pixel of the screen
individually, in monochrome only. The background color is always black; the foreground color is the flag
color, by default white. Jon Shemitz allowed the players of his Othello to set the foreground color
themselves. For games with many graphical objects, the 640x200 graphic mode can be useful because
many characters can fill the large available space.

This mode was rarely used in MS-DOS games at first. Space Commanders II and The Black
Cauldron are some of the few examples. On some later adapters, it usually doesn’t work correctly, the
background color is wrong.

One of the earliest implementation. High resolution but only simple black and white pixel graphics in
Space Commanders II. While the internal resolution in the one on top, it was overstretched on the
common 4x3 monitors and TV’s


A misused palette. The CGA palette consisted on 16 colors, the ones presented in the image bellow
and the different range of variety colors can make us think that CGA compatible games will look quite
nice regarding colors but unfortunately due to various reasons they didn’t.

The 4-bit/16 colors CGA color palette

320×200/4 colors, the standard graphic mode. This is where it gets strange and really unpleasant for
IBM PC gamers in the 80’s. On the RGB (digital) monitors the CGA allows only two palettes in this 320x200
graphic mode, or four, since the two could be done in low and high intensity, the Palette 1 and Palette 0. For
some unknown reason, the designers of the CGA graphics adapter choose 4 undesirable colors in the default
CGA palette also called Palette 1.

One of the best CGA Palette 1 implementations: David Wolf: Secret Agent

The weird Palette 1 included black, cyan, magenta, light gray or in high intensity black, light cyan,
light magenta, white. This mode was used in more than 70% (as the rest was used by Palette 0 ) of the
MSDOS games from the 80’s and is responsible for many of the negative reviews the IBM PC graphics
received at the time. Many of them were well-founded as competition in the early 80’s supported more
colors up to 128(with software help) in Atari 400 and 800 computes and the colors used were more
appropriate for games.

Elite used the Palette 0 with great result, quite impressive for 4 colors

The second palette named Palette 0 included black, green, red, brown, or in high intensity black, light
red, light green, yellow. It was also used in a decent number of games where green, red and yellow/brown
were more appropriate to create graphics than cyan/magenta/gray combination and while used less it
delivered more as games using Palette 0 were usually better looking.
The fourth (background) color is the flag color, it is black by default. Note that the background color
does not have to be of the same intensity as the palette itself. If chosen well, a custom background color
could make a lot of difference, as in Bob Winner video game. It could also be used to flash the screen for
special effects when direct access to registers was used.

A decent number of the games from the 80’s implemented both Palette 1 and Palette 0, therefore
having quite different graphics despite the fact that used the same number of colors while other games
implemented both palettes in the gameplay changing them on different gameplay screens.


Palette 1 and Palette 0 used in the same game at different screens

Making graphics look good using these colors is almost impossible therefore 4 colors CGA games look
worse than most other personal systems from the 80’s.

The best choice for CGA gaming in most games

CGA Composite mode (16 artifact colors). The original IBM Color Graphics Adapter was capable
of displaying 160x200 in 16 colors using “composite color mode”, which was set by enabling the “color
burst” bit while in 640x200 mode. When doing this the analog composite monitor would produce a color
artifacting effect (aka color smearing) that would result in the creation of completely new colors. These
colors were known as artifact colors (or composite colors) and could be produced when two different
colors immediately neighbored each other. Due to 4x4 possible combinations this video mode will
display 160x200 graphics in 16 colors out to a regular composite television set or VCR.

Ultima III: Exodus, CGA Composite vs. CGA Palette 0. The actual resolution was lover on the left
image


As seen in Ultima III (1985), just by using the CGA Composite on a composite monitor the graphics
dramatically improve when compared to the plain 4 color Palette 0, and Ultima is a game where the
Palette 0 does look nice. Another game that clearly benefited from the CGA Composite mode was the first
Leisure Suit Larry (1987). While the Sierra programmers used a lot of tricks with the CGA Palette 0,
using blue instead of black as default color and mixing colors for dithering and to give a nice neon look, it
doesn’t stood a chance against the impressive use of the CGA Composite in the game ,despite it had a
lover resolution

 Leisure Suit Larry 1: CGA Composite left vs. Palette 0

CGA Composite mode was used by a significant number of games in the 80’s, almost 110 as it
allowed a larger number of colors compared to the very limited 3+1 normal CGA just by exploiting the
Chroma color leakage of the composite monitors. I personally like this mode, 16 colors are more
important for most games than a larger resolution and Chroma color leakage gives a sense of basic color
anti-aliasing and improves in some way the small resolution although it affects in a small part the graphics
clarity.

CGA (Tweaked). The IBM Color Graphics Adapter was capable of being controlled directly through
registers instead of the BIOS. This enabled many interesting effects, like “shaking” the screen, displaying
up to 8 colors in 320x200 through fast palette switching, or creating a rarely-used 160x100x16-color
mode. Any game marked with this attribute “tweaks” CGA in some way to produce special effects, and
may not display properly on modern VGA cards.

Digger, CGA Tweaked mode and great graphics

Palette Changes/switching was probably the most used effect from the CGA (Tweaked) mode. This
effect is extremely dependent on processor speed and therefore usually only works on 4.77MHz 8088
microprocessor. By changing the palette while the screen is drawn, it was possible to display more colors
on screen but they were not displayed at the time. The most famous example is probably California
Games. Frogger did it with the background color: black for the road, blue for the river.
This graphic mode was used especially in the early 80’s before the launch of the EGA graphic adapter
as EGA was clearly capable to beat the CGA, even in its tweaked form. Best games to use tweaked CGA
are: Frogger, Digger, PC-Man, Moon Bugs, Digger, 3-Demon, Defender of the Crown, California Games
and several others, There were less than 45 games to use this mode quite a few. While the tweaked CGA
was used in a limited number of MS-DOS games it allowed significantly better graphics compared to the
standard 4 colors CGA 320x200 graphic mode and made some MS-DOS games to look quite decently,
more fit to compete other personal computers at the time.
Third Palette. With a little trick (disabling the composite color burst bit while in graphics mode) a
third palette could be achieved. It was mostly identical with palette 0, but had red instead of magenta.



Life & Death, red instead of magenta, Palette 3 is a good choice in this game

This graphic mode was used in a few commercial MS-DOS games perhaps less than 10, such as
Prohibition or Life & Death. This mode can be useful when red is a better color than magenta in the game
graphics context.

CGA Conclusion. I don’t think there are more than 15 IBM PC games with graphics from the 80’s to
not support CGA and while not so technically evolved CGA is by far the most used graphic standard for
x86 games in the 80’s. The CGA resolution is small even by today standard low end phones and things are
even worse when we compare the number of colors nonetheless it was used in almost all non-text based PC
games from the 80’s and was also common at the beginning of 90’s because the use of advanced graphic
modes for PC games evolved slowly in the 80’s and there was also another reason, the compatibility, so
old computers could run newer games. Strange enough, CGA did survive far into the EGA and even on the
VGA era. There are some all-time classics among these CGA only games, while many great EGA/VGA
great games from the 80’s and many in the first decade of the 90’s will also support this CGA graphic
mode.

The software choice for the x86 IBM PC, MS-DOS

While I plan to write as little as possible about x86 software (operating system) and the connection
with gaming as is too much to say and will require an entire book, I think is very important for us to know
how x86 platform was launched from the operating system perspective. This will also be the only
somehow detailed paragraph regarding x86 software from the book excepting of course the games, as
games are software programs.

The beginning of the long IBM& Microsoft history. There is so much to write about Microsoft and
IBM history as they had a lot of agreements and even more disagreements over the time but this is how
everything started and because of this agreement Microsoft is one of the biggest software companies and
is still the most prolific in the personal computers (desktops and laptops) operating system market, but it
is struggling in the more and more important mobile market (smartphones and tablets).

A troubled and long history together

 In July 1980, IBM representatives met for the first time with Microsoft’s Bill Gates to talk about
writing an operating system for IBM’s new hush-hush “personal” computer. IBM had been observing the
growing personal computer market for some time but did almost nothing until now. At one point, there
were rumors that IBM considered buying the fledgling game company Atari to commandeer Atari’s early
line of personal computers. However in the end IBM decided in is cheaper to stick with making their
personal computer line and developed a brand new operating system to go with. If IBM would buy Atari
at that time I’m sure that x86 PC’s would be quite different today- without Windows, without Intel,
NVidia, AMD and with a less modular PC architecture. There is much to speculate about but is clear that
this meeting changed the computing forever.

When IBM first approached Bill Gates from Microsoft in July 1980, to discuss the state of home
computers and what Microsoft products could do for IBM, Gates gave IBM a few ideas on what would
make a great home computer, among them to have Basic written directly into the ROM chip. Microsoft had
already produced several versions of Basic for different computer system beginning with the Altair, so
Gates was more than happy to write a version for IBM. As for an operating system (OS) for the first IBM
computer, since Microsoft had never written an operating system before, Gates had suggested that IBM
investigate an OS called CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers), written by Gary Kildall of Digital
Research. Kildall had his Ph.D. in computers and had written the most successful operating system of the
time, selling over 600,000 copies of CP/M; his operating system set the standard at that time.
The Secret Birth of MS-DOS 1.0. IBM tried to contact Gary Kildall for a meeting, executives met
with Mrs Kildall who refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement. IBM soon returned to Bill Gates and
gave Microsoft the contract to write a new operating system, one that would eventually wipe Gary
Kildall’s CP/M out of common use.The “Microsoft Disk Operating System” or MS-DOS was based on
Microsoft’s purchase of QDOS, the “Quick and Dirty Operating System” written by Tim Paterson of
Seattle Computer Products, for their prototype Intel 8086 based computer. Microsoft first licensed and
later purchased 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products (SCP), which was modified for the IBM PC by
Microsoft employee Bob O’Rear with assistance from SCP (later Microsoft) employee Tim Paterson.

Tim Paterson the lead programmer of QDOS/first MSDOS in 1986

O’Rear got 86-DOS to run on the prototype PC in February 1981. 86-DOS had to be converted from
8-inch to 5.25-inch floppy disks and integrated with the BIOS, which Microsoft was helping IBM to
write. IBM had more people on writing requirements for the computer than Microsoft had for writing the
code. O’Rear often felt overwhelmed by the number of people he had to deal with at the ESD (Entry
Systems Division) facility in Boca Raton. 86-DOS was rebranded IBM PC DOS 1.0 for its August 1981
release with the IBM PC. The initial version of DOS was largely based on CP/M and many of its function
calls as well as the file system were copied directly from the older OS. Unlike all later DOS versions, the
DATE and TIME commands were separate executable rather than part of COMMAND.COM. Single-
sided 160 kilobyte (KB) 5.25” floppies were the only disk format supported.

Toward the end of 1981, Paterson went to work on an upgrade, which was called PC DOS 1.10. It
debuted in May 1982 along with the Revision B IBM PC. Support for the new double-sided drives was
added, allowing 320 KB per disk. A number of bugs were fixed, and error messages and prompts were
made less cryptic. The DEBUG machine language monitor utility was now able to load files greater than
64k in size.

“Life begins with a disk drive.” - Tim Paterson.
Intellectual property dispute. Several historians feel that QDOS was based on Gary Kildall’s CP/M.
Some say that Tim Paterson had bought a CP/M manual and used it as the basis to write his operating
system in six weeks. When Digital Research founder Gary Kildall examined PC DOS and found that it
duplicated CP/M’s programming interface, he wanted to sue IBM, which at the time claimed that PC DOS
was its own product. However, Digital Research’s attorney did not believe that the relevant law was clear
enough to sue. Nonetheless, Kildall confronted IBM and persuaded them to offer CP/M-86 with the PC in
exchange for a release of liability. Controversy has continued to surround the similarity between the two
systems. Perhaps the most sensational claim comes from Jerry Pournelle, who claims that Kildall
personally demonstrated to him that DOS contained CP/M code by entering a command in DOS that
displayed Kildall’s name but as of 2006 Pournelle has not revealed the command and nobody has come
forward to corroborate his story. Paterson insists that the 86-DOS software was his original work, and has
denied referring to or otherwise using CP/M code while writing it.
In any case QDOS was different enough from CP/M to be considered legally a different product. IBM
had deep enough pockets in any case to probably have won an infringement case, if they had needed to
protect their product. Microsoft bought the rights to QDOS for $50,000, keeping the IBM & Microsoft
deal a secret from Tim Paterson and his company, Seattle Computer Products. A good investment it seem
as Microsoft gained countless more from MSDOS overall sales and allowed them to develop Windows in
time, with even more financial success.

I personally believe that QDOS coding is Tim Paterson’s work and I also believe that in the 80’s
everyone had to inspire and learn from each other to make the personal computer industry to evolve and
improve. Even if I didn’t believe in the QDOS originality I would still respect Tim Paterson for its work
in the evolution of software for the personal computers. This is why I credit Tim Paterson as the main
element in the creation of the operating system for the first IBM PC and while Philip Don Estridge is
credited as the father of IBM PC platform I will call Tim Paterson the mother as he is the lead
programmer that made the most of the first operating system for the IBM PC.

Deal of the Century. Bill Gates talked IBM into letting Microsoft retain the rights to market MS-
DOS separate from the IBM PC project, and from that point Gates and Microsoft proceeded to make a
fortune from the licensing of MS-DOS. In 1981, Tim Paterson quit Seattle Computer Products and found
employment at Microsoft. This move made by Microsoft was essential for Microsoft success, if they
would settle to develop and sell only policy to IBM I’m 100% sure that Microsoft would not be as big
today.
 Unfortunately for them, IBM at the time was a hardware company and greatly overlooked the
importance of O.S. in a personal computer, until only later in the late 80’s when it will be too indecisive
and late. If IBM would make the deal with Gary Kildall’s to use CP/M as the x86 operating system or if
they would develop the O.S. by themselves the software market would be slightly different today, Microsoft
wouldn’t probably be so huge and I even doubt that today the most common operating system would be
called Windows.


A small introduction to x86 games
The “Game vs. Hardware” title, unfortunately no so fit for the 80’s
When I’ve started to write this book in March/February 2012, my mind was set on the “Game vs.
Hardware” or “Hardware vs. Games” titles, as I was so accustomed with extreme hardware evolution
from the 90’s and 2000’s evolution that also dragged the visual quality of games to unseen levels of
quality and 3d details. Well I’ve started to expand my ides, and write loosely about 90’s and 2000’s while
observing how much games and hardware evolved in the two decades. The 80’s were a complete nebula
for me and were neglected for a while but finally when time came and I’ve started to document and write
about the 80’s I realized how unpractical the title “Games vs. Hardware” was. In the 80’s games didn’t
pushed the hardware to its limits, they just usually cohabited with the weakest of the hardware. While
faster microprocessors were launched, such as the 80286, 80386, 100% of the 80’s games worked with
the older 8088/8086 microprocessors, while 99% of the games worked with the old CGA adapter
although higher quality graphic modes such EGA or VGA were launched.
Elements to review about the gaming ecosystem in the 80’s
As I stated in the introduction notes the x86 gaming is a very complex machine (less so in the 80’s)
and not everything in the PC gaming is about the game; there are interesting connections between the
game, the hardware, the O.S. and the input and output controllers. All these elements make the pleasure
for gaming even greater or opposed the game too slow/unresponsive to be played. For these reasons x86
PC gaming will become in time the most complex and versatile of all gaming platforms due to all
improvements that Software and Hardware designers brought to x86 PC market and the very large support
for external input/output devices. Elements like Surround Gaming with up to six monitors, 3d Glasses and
3d monitors, 5.1 or 7.1 sound systems, professional sound cards, gaming mice and keyboards and hugely
scalable graphics are mostly PC domains and also increase the pleasure for gaming that is why I try to
include in this book as much of the gaming ecosystem with emphasis on both games and hardware.
Regarding 80’s there is little to say about “game vs. hardware” at least compared to 90’s, 2000’s and
the present. The MSDOS had little to do to help or impede the game designers and the games as it offered
direct hardware access compared to Windows and DirectX/OPENGL API, the hardware such as
microprocessors, video cards and memory evolved slowly on the 80’s, while mice and sound cards were
used only in the late 80’s and only in a limited number of games. Therefore in the 80’s the games are the
main element to be reviewed and many of them are so simple that is hard to write more than a few
phrases. Still for the sake of the book title and because I want to have a similar style in all three books I
will include the whole gaming system idea, but remember that the game is by a large lead the most
important element to review in the general gaming ecosystem in the 80’s.

 General structure of x86 gaming ecosystem in the 80’s

This connections graphic could be even more complex but I only try to show how many connections
are between the game, hardware, O.S. and peripherals.

- The red arrows show a necessary element, as the game can’t run without.
- The blue arrow represents the fact that a game will not run at its full potential if that component
is slow or in small amount (RAM for example)
- The green arrows shows elements that are not needed sometimes or not needed at all (sound
card), but their lack will affect the gaming pleasure.

The games will be the main element to review in the 80’s.

Operating System. Regarding O.S. I will only mention the newest yearly MSDOS versions and the
main improvements, while the first two Windows versions 1.0 and 2.x launched in the 80’s will not be
relevant for gaming.

Hardware – There is lesser to say about hardware in the 80’s when compared to 90’s-2003 period
but while hardware was underused in the 80’s games there were some important hardware evolutions
such as the Intel microprocessors, some video technologies and some important complete systems but I
will try to be as complex as possible.
RAM is important for gaming in the 80’s and the need for RAM at MS-DOS games ranged from 64KB
up to 768KB toward late 80’s. The /Tandy/PCjr/EGA/VGA use will many times the need for more RAM
compared to the standard requirements for the CGA graphic mode.

Graphic capabilities. IBM PC will be launched with the limited MDA/CGA upgrade and while
better graphic cards will be launched such as PCjr/Tandy/EGA (1984) and VGA (1987) the CGA will be
the unfortunately the main choice for gamers for most 80’s.
Sound is not the x86 gaming strength in the 80’s, the first IBM PC had only one channel for basic
beeps, later was added 3 sound channels but again with simple beeps. It was only late when with the
launch of Adlib sound card in 1988 (and some few others), when sound will start to improve. Almost all
competition had better sound capabilities for most of the 80’s.

Regarding storage, audio cassette had a very small lifespan in early 80’s, FDD (floppy disk drive)
was very important as will become very cheap in time, and was used for both storage and transporting
data. All games were launched on FDD in the 80’s. HDD was also important as the main storage device
for most IBM PC’s and compatibles.

Input and output devices had limited importance in games except of course the keyboard and
monitors that had limited evolution in the 80’s. Mouse will be used only in few games in late 80’s while
the small internal mono PC speaker will be the most used speaker in the 80’s. I will mention them
scarcely.

Monitors. The monitors are amazingly one of the main elements to affect the visual quality of games
in the 80’s because there were two main categories of monitors in the 80’s the older analog/ composite
monitor(NTSC,PAL or SECAM) and the newer launch from 1983 RGBI (Red, Green, Blue, Intensity)/
digital monitor.

Lack of RGBI (digital) monitor availability

When the CGA was introduced in 1981, IBM did not offer a digital/RGBI monitor produced in house.
Instead, customers were supposed to use the RCA output with an RF modulator (that they obtained
separately, from a third party) to connect the CGA to their analog television set. The IBM 5153 Personal
Computer Color Display would not be introduced until 1983. Resulting from the lack of available RGBI
monitors in 1981 and 1982, many users would use simpler RGB monitors (without provisions for the
“intensifier” bit), reducing the number of available colors to eight, and displaying both colors 6 and 14 as
yellow. This is relevant so far as if an application or game programmer used either one of these
configurations; they will have expected color 6 to look dark yellow instead of brown.
Different monitors, different graphics
Just by using an analog Composite Monitor, the graphic quality dramatically increased in many games
with the CGA Composite mode, presented before at the CGA graphics. The game designers had the option
to implement in the game the Composite mode support and IBM PC gamers could play on 16 colors just
by using a composite monitor.

King’s Quest in composite mode, left: with RGB monitor, right: with composite monitor at 200x160
/16 colors graphic mode.



King’s Quest in RGB (digital) mode, left: with RGB monitor, right: with composite monitor, both
giving 4 colors in the same 200x160 resolution.


Selecting ‘RGB mode’ at the title screen would instead result in the usual CGA 200x160 graphics
mode limited to 4 colors. In this mode, dithering was employed to simulate extra colors. While CGA was
capable to show a higher 320x200/4 color resolution, the King’s quest graphic engine, later renamed as
AGI engine didn’t implement the higher resolution graphic mode.

King’s Quest with true 16 colors at 200x160 EGA/PCjr graphic mode

King’s Quest was also innovative in its use of true RGB 16-color graphics on the PCjr and Tandy
1000, and added later support for EGA.

DOS/ x86 games by graphical consideration

PC 3d (three dimensional) graphics are different in every decade. Before reading the book I think
it is important to clarify how the games are displayed on the monitor and are perceived by the eye by a
technical consideration, There are many games that were named 3d in 80’s and 90’s and at the time most
of the games were labeled correctly as weren’t available other superior 3d display technologies at the
time. Nonetheless writing this book now in 2012/2013 I must adapt those games to the present graphical
standards and for this reason I must resign some of 80’s 3d games in a 2.5D game and all 3d games from
the 80’s until 1996 from a real 3d game in a 3d software game or 3d software game mixed with 2d
elements.

The usable 3d hardware for PC was launched in 1996 with the launch of Voodoo graphic cards and
today it still is most important graphic mode used in PC games, but many upgrades were made over time
over the 3d hardware capabilities. However not even the present 3d hardware it is real 3d, because it is
displayed on a 2d LCD screen. Even the anaglyph devices that makes us see 3d elements with depth in the
3d anaglyph games aren’t real 3d devices, they do this by “lying” our eyes and brain with technologies
that use glasses + 3D screen or only a special 3d screen called parallax (used until now only in small
devices such as phones and Nintendo 3DS).

Graphic modes used in the 80’s x86 video games

Before I will start to present the very few games from 1981 I will briefly present the graphic modes
used in the 80’s x86 PC games because it is important to see how the games can be separated by graphical
considerations in the 80’s.

 2D Games. The 2d games are the games displayed on a 2d plane, with two dimensions X, Y forming
a common resolution such as 320x200, 640x480 and many others. 2d games have no hidden surfaces to
display, everything that is to be seen is available and shown when you look. They are defined today by the
pixel, but in early 80’s some 2d games vector were made, as they occupied very limited memory. The 2d
games can be also categorized depending on how they display the pixel based images on the screen in
pure 2d games and 2.5 d games:
Pure 2d games are games that look plain 2d, just as an old cartoon, they are not drawn to look or to
feel 3d and the style is common for older platformer and action games but we can still find this style in
newer games such as Braid, Rayman Origins and more other independent games.

Digger and Jumpman, two pure 2d games

2.5d games are pixels in a 2d space drawn/processed to simulate a 3d environment. There are a very
large number of techniques to simulate 3d based on pixels but I will present for now only the following
four categories were commonly used in the 80’s x86 PC games:


- 2.5d Isometric games are games drawn with an axonometric (oblique) in which the three coordinate
axes appear equally foreshortened and the angles between any two of them are 120 degrees. While the
technique was lightly used in the 80’s, it will be extremely popular in the 90’s, many of the most popular
games in the 90’s, including the 2000’s Sims are based on the isometric projection.

Novatron and Q-bert, two isometric games from the 80’s

- Pseudo 3d games with third person view are games that at first sight resemble 2d but the gameplay
allow the use of many layers from the screen, simulating 3d and depth. Technologically, the King’s Quest
series pioneered the use of animation and pseudo-3D environments in graphic adventure games, so that
the main character could, for example, walk behind objects on-screen. Most Sierra adventure games from
the 80’s and early 90’s used this graphics mode, making quite a large library.


King’s Quest and a layered gameplay

- Pseudo 3d games with first person view are games with a fixed first person perspective, used
especially in early RPG games from 80’s and early 90’s. The first person perspective allowed easier
drawing of 2d images that resembled 3d quite attractively. Many games from the 80’s such as Ultima
series mixed this first person pseudo 3d graphic mode with a different pure 2d graphic mode, used mainly
for exploration.

Ultima III: Exodus and Dungeon Master, two games to use this perspective

-2.5d Parallax games. Parallax scrolling is a special scrolling technique in computer graphics,
wherein background images move by the camera slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of
depth in a 2D video game and adding to the immersion. The technique grew out of the multi-plane camera
technique used in traditional animation since the 1930s, and was popularized among video games in the
1982 arcade game Moon Patrol.

Moon Patrol, has a limited parallax effect

I will talk more about the 2.5d games in the 90’s, when more other interesting techniques to simulate
3d such as claymation, prerendering, FMV, voxel and many other interesting display technologies will be
launched.

3D games are games that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data and support
multiple angles of view, the object/characters and the areas are defined in all three coordinates x, y, z
therefore allowing the in-game objects to be tridimensional. The two 3d graphic modes from the 80’s
were based on 3d vector (based on vectors) and later on 3d software (based on pixels) while later 1996
it was launched 3d hardware.
- 3d vector games were launched in the early 80’s and some games from middle 80’s mixed vector
graphics with some colored elements, sometimes pixels and sometimes color filled vectors.

Battlezone and MS Flight Simulator (v 2.0) two early 3d vector games


- 3d software games. 3D software games are 3d games based on pixels that are rendered by the CPU.
The 3d software term become more common in late 90’s when the 3d hardware graphic accelerators such
as the first 3dfx Voodoo card were launched. By that time all prior games were renamed 3d software as
they were based on pixels while the new 3d hardware games were based on wireframe/texturing. As a
final idea, the 3d software games were all driven by 2d graphic cards.
3d software games will start to erupt on the market in the late 80’s and that boom is usually associated
with the increase in performance of x86 CPU’s and the implementation on PC graphics of the Gouraud
shading, named after Henri Gouraud, an interpolation method used in computer graphics to produce
continuous shading of surfaces represented by polygon meshes.

Gouraud shading was most often used in early 3d software games to achieve continuous lighting on
triangle surfaces by computing the lighting at the corners of each triangle and linearly interpolating the
resulting colors for each pixel covered by the triangle.
The 3d software games and the Gouraud shading will be one of the most important reason to use the
80286/80386 in the late 80’s and early 90’s because the older 8088/8086 microprocessors were not fast
enough to drive 3d software video games at a higher than 320x200 CGA resolution. 3d software games will
be continuously perfected until late 90’s when the serious advantages found in the 3d hardware graphic cards
will overrun the 3d software capabilities. One of the last and most advanced 3d software games will be
Outcast video game, launched in 1999.

 MS Flight Simulator 3.0 and Starglider 2, two games with 3d software graphics


The 3d hardware graphics for games will appear only later in 1995/1996 with the launch of the
graphic cards/accelerators capable of texturing such as the unimpressive NV1 and S3 Virge and the
impressive Voodoo video cards.
The final category of 3d games, not available in the 80’s are the 3d anaglyph games for PC will be
launched in late 90’s; finally giving the depth perspective in the PC based video games. The 2d anaglyph
games are based on 3d hardware graphic although theoretically 2d graphics can also be used to display
3d anaglyph games; movies only use 2d images.
The complete description of 3d hardware and 3d anaglyph games will be present in the next book
about the 90’s.
Mixed graphics (2d with 2.5d and 2d with 3d software elements) in the 80’s games
Mixing 2d with 2.5d. To increase the diversity of gameplay and graphics many game designers mixed
different types of 2d graphic modes, displaying extremely different visuals in the same game.

Mars Saga/Mines of Titan, a game that mixed graphic styles


Mines of Titan for example will offer 2d top down gameplay mixed with 1’st person quasi 3d
graphics, and both were implemented nicely.

Mixing 2d and 3d software. All 3d software games from the 80’s are mixed games because most 3d
games from the 80’s used a small 3d software gameplay area with a 2d cockpit. Almost all plane, driving,
space combat or tank based games worked on the same system but there were some exceptions, few
games that had gameplay modes to use only pure 3d software graphics, such as M1 Tank Platoon,
JetFighter: The Adventure, F-19 Stealth Fighter and Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Simulator.



M1 Tank Platoon, a complex graphical game

M1 Tank Platoon for example mixed 2d gameplay (top left), mixed 2d and 3d gameplay (right column)
and pure 3d gameplay (down left). Other games such as Space Rogue offered a pure top down 2d
gameplay mode combined with a mixed (2d+3d software) graphic mode.
Mixed game will continue to remarkably evolve in the early and middle 90’s as many 2.5 older and
newer techniques will be blended with 2d, 3d software and later 3d hardware graphics to create as rich
as possible graphics many times overcoming the technical possibilities at that time.

The three musketeers, PC games in 1981

The beginning of x86 PG gaming. What to expect. It is hard to develop games in about 5 months
left of 1981, after the first IBM PC computer was launched in 12 August same year and so we can agree
there is little to expect about IBM PC based games in 1981. Still considering the IBM resources and
financial power and the already established important gaming environment on other personal computers
even on weaker hardware I would expect more games to be launched on 1981, except the few modest
ones presented right after this small introduction. Things are much changed today as with the launch of the
newest platforms and gaming consoles such as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One there are also launched a
significant number of complex new games, ready even before the platform is commercially launched.
While interesting for the history of x86 PC’s the beginning years of the IBM PC has too little to do
with gaming, perhaps too little to even worth mention but I will try to create a connection between the
games and hardware even in the beginning years of the IBM PC, as this is the scope of the book. The first
games were limited by the default MDA display type of the PC monitors, a monochrome and with textual
graphics only and so the one of the first games that were ever launched for MS-DOS in 1981 called
Wizard’s Castle was a game with textual graphics.
Are you prepared to be bewitched?
Wizard’s Castle is an early video game originally released in 1979 for TRS-80 but it was also
launched in 1981 on MSDOS.

Genre innovation. The Wizard’s Castle is a text-based adventure/role-playing game and is actually
the first DOS RPG/adventure and the first text based command game for MS-DOS. While for other
platforms there were already launched other resounding RPG’s that even had graphics such as Akalabeth:
World of Doom later known as Ultima 0 this game is the first RPG game launched for IBM PC platform.


The first RPG for DOS, first text based game for DOS


Gameplay. The player creates a character, choosing between the races of elf, human, dwarf, and
hobbit, distinguished by their personal statistics (strength, intelligence, and dexterity) and can also choose
the initial weapons, armor, and items to take on the quest. Gameplay is in some ways similar to a text
adventure, with text descriptions replacing graphics. Simple commands are used to move from room to
room, consult a map, or look around. However, many times the player only needs to choose from several
options for the current situation, such as during battles. There are vendors the protagonist can trade with,
mystical pools which can give or take away power, warps to far parts of the castle, numerous monsters to
fight and assorted treasures to find.
Wizard’s Castle it’s a decent game and I’m sure that inspired other future great RPG’s; clearly not a
classic but an interesting choice back in 1981.

Come play chess with me (the PC)

Chess (1981 International PC Owners). It was designed by M.C.Rakaska, in Ideas of March 1980
magazine and adapted for IBM PC by S.W.Huggins in December 1981. It is the first chess for DOS, but
also one of the first games ever to appear for IBM PC.

Probably many of us played once or seen a game of chess, and many of us are quite fond and love to
play this game. While the game can be played in reality, many of us don’t have a great opponent: the 5
year child, the soap-opera addicted wife or TV-sports addicted husband or the friends with other
interests. This is when the computer can become a great chess opponent.

In this early Chess there is no multiplayer mode as you can play only against the computer. As usual,
in this kind of game, you can select the A.I.‘s skill level, not particularly strong back in 1981.


Chess 1981, graphics made out of text/ ASCII characters

While the game doesn’t look great now, although it used text graphics, it created legible and detailed
chess board and units perfect for a play. There are few options where graphics made from ASCII can be
used in a game and this is one of them.

The CGA donkey of Bill Gates. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of
learning”. – Bill Gates

Donkey has the merit of being the first exclusive and CGA MSDOS game and it’s arguably the
predecessor of all IBM PC based CGA games, a title that doesn’t make it better that it was.

Donkey, the first CGA game


This game was developed in 1981 by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. He created this game to
demonstrate the IBM PC and the BASIC programming language’s capability to produce interactive
programs with color graphics and sound. He most probably did this to exhibit the capabilities of the x86
system probably to impress the programmers (the game designer is not an appropriate term for that time)
to create more games for the IBM PC and MS-DOS. While this is the first graphical/CGA game for
MSDOS the graphics were quite simple, even for 1981 using only 3 colors (white and grey are two of
them).


Simple gameplay. The main “fault” of the game was its gameplay as it was very simple: on a two
sides road your car must avoid very fast the approaching donkey by strafe left or right. Because the car
slowly evolves on the screen top it gets harder to avoid it because is less time to react. And if by mistake
you hit the donkey it seems that it was tougher than the car as he gets the point. To improve the gameplay
the car could start much lower on the screen and there should be and some obstacles, and more donkeys.
The game is perhaps a very basic version of Frogger, an arcade game introduced in 1981 designed by
Konami that was ported later in 1983 for IBM PC. For two games that appeared in the same year the
difference is striking, but this is forgivable considering this only a demonstrative game. Still this game
remains the granddaddy of IBM PC games with graphics and the first IBM exclusive game at the time
(probably nobody wanted to port it). The game remained exclusive for a large period of time, around 30
years until was ported recently on Apple’s IOS.
While this is more a tech demo than a game, it still remain the first CGA game and it is also one of the
few games designed by the extraordinary Bill Gates who as we all know today that he is not a game
designer. I also love the jokes around the game such as “Rumor has it that Bill Gates used the Donkey
source code as a platform for Windows Vista.” and as a note I liked Vista. On a serious side, as the first
CGA, the first (basic) action game and the first designed by the prodigious Bill Gates, a first for many
game to grace IBM PC’s therefore I find it quite relevant for x86 PC gaming.

IBM PC gaming competition in 1981

As gaming in almost nonexistent on IBM PC in 1981 I would like to mention the other gaming
platforms of the year such as other personal computers that performed nicely and the electronic arcades
and home consoles that performed amazingly this year.

The decision to include PC’s competition. After some internal debates I decided to make an yearly
comparison of the IBM PC gaming competition, because I wanted to show how each gaming platform
evolved each year compared to the IBM PC and to pinpoint the technical differences between them that
brought many advantages but also some disadvantages. Unfortunately sound capabilities are harder to
describe in a book therefore I recommend to visualize video clips of interesting games, easy to find since
I will present yearly only the most representative and best games for each platform. Trying to differentiate
the graphical capabilities between platforms I’ve included graphic samples from Donkey Kong although
the game was only launch for arcade this year, the other platforms ports were available from 1982.

The leaders in visual and audio capabilities

Video Arcades had a huge success at the time and 1981 is a year included in the Golden Age of video
arcades. Back then, the video arcades brought impressive revenues for both manufacturers and retailers as
they were placed virtually everywhere (except in homes) and were extremely popular due to their
superior technical capabilities regarding internal components and external joysticks.
The most successful video arcade games from 1981 were Donkey Kong and Defender while the rest
had lower but still significant attainment and sales. The remaining important arcade games from 1981 are
Centripede, Bosconian, Frogger, Galaga, Scramble, Gorf, Ms. Pac-Man, Tempest, Stargate and few
others. We must also acknowledge that older arcade games such as Space Invaders (1978), Asteroids
(1979), Pac-Man (1980) and other older than 1981 arcade games still brought huge profits this year.


Donkey Kong for arcade, impressive graphics and immense revenue back in 1981

Defender, a very successful arcade, passing $1.2 billion gross revenue

Playing at the home comfort

Atari 2600 was also extremely successful at the time. While some gamers preferred the top gameplay
graphics and sound capabilities found in video arcades, the others preferred to play games at the comfort
found at home; some preferred both. This is why the Atari 2600 was so popular: it was cheap, had enough
good games and decent graphics. Some of the top Atari 2600 games launched in 1981 are: Yars’ Revenge,
Missile Command, Defender, Ice Hockey and Kaboom!.

The Atari 2600 version of Donkey Kong, created in 1982

Intellivision did a great job as a home console and will successfully compete Atari 2600 in 1981
launching many top games such as: Astrosmash, Ice Hockey, Tron Deadly Discs, Star Strike, Space
Armada and I hope I didn’t forget one very important.

Better Donkey Kong graphics (also made in 1982) compared to Atari 2600

The competing personal computers did a significant showing this year regarding games, launching
several interesting original games.

Amazingly so many games for a computer also launched in 1981

VIC-20 was one of the most affordable newer PC platforms at the time and brought other several
advantages including a decent number of games. These games were: Pac-Man, Asteroids, Adventurel and
other good games such as Sargon II Chess, Blitz and Radar Rat Race were developed by Commodore
itself, showing a pronounced gaming support from the platform builder.

Donkey Kong for VIC-20 was launched quite later in 1983

For a platform launched several months before the first IBM PC the VIC-20 received an amazingly
high number of good games, with decent graphics.

Atari 8’ bit computers such as Atari 400 and Atari 800 were available on the market from late 1989,
roughly one year and half before the IBM PC and while launched earlier they were much more advanced
systems for gaming.



Good graphics with less pixels for Atari 8’bit version of Donkey Kong launched later in 1983

While 1980 was quite short on Atari 8-bit games the family did a better job this year launching
several top games such as: Asteroids, Centipede, Caverns of Mars and Eastern Front. About 50 games
were launched for Atari 8-bit computers this year, a decently large number.

Apple II top games from 1981 were quite few but these games are quintessential for future PC
gaming. The classic Apple II games in 1981 are: Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, Ultima
I and Castle Wolfenstein. All three of them spawn a large number of sequels and fans and inspired many
future games.

Even more tardy (1984), the Apple II version for Donkey Kong was also good.

TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A. While the T.I. platform was only lightly supported by third party game
developers T.I. did compensate and programmed themselves some great games in 1981 such as TI
Invaders, Car Wars, A-Maze-Ing, Tombstone City: 21st Century. These were not the only games for the
platform as it was launched from 1979 and others were available and so the platform was quite decent for
gaming.

Regarding graphics, the TI-99/4A version of Donkey Kong
 launched in 1983 was amongst the best

TRS-80 CoCo received several great games in 1981 such as: Color Space Invaders, Polaris (made
by Tandy itself) and Frogger.

Color Space Invaders for TRS-80 CoCo

TRS-80 CoCo didn’t unfortunately received a port of the successful Donkey Kong but amazingly the
third generation of Tandy’s Color Computer aka CoCo 3 (launched in 1986) received a port of the game
quite very late in 2007 with graphics almost identical to the original 1981 arcade.

Donkey Kong for TRS-80 CoCo3


I would also like to note that these are only the best games launched for the competing platforms at
they were many others games, many of them better than those only three presented for the IBM PC
platform. I would also like to excuse fact I used the same game for compassion as it was launched in
different years for these platforms but I wanted to display the graphical capabilities of each one of the
competing platforms.

Conclusion for 1981 IBM PC Gaming. The beginning of the x86 PC games is held back by the main
graphic card launched with the first IBM PC computer the IBM PC 5150, the MDA adapter driven by a
monochrome screen and therefore having only textual/ASCII graphics therefore limiting the type of games
to play to text based only. Because of the MDA limitations many of the first games are monochrome
textual games; even those appeared later from 1982. Another limiting factor was the pricey CGA
available initially as a quite costly expansion card (launched at $300) and IBM did not offer until 1983 an
RGBI monitor of their own and so customers were supposed to use the RCA output with an RF modulator
(which they obtained separately, from a third party) to connect the CGA to their analog television set
increasing even more the total computer cost. Therefore 1981 is almost irrelevant for IBM PC gaming, the
games are just a drop in the ocean compared to the rest of electronic gaming industry as there are only
these two ASCII based games and the Donkey tech demo game from Microsoft. And so Bill Gates was the
only one that had at the time, the inspiration and especially interest to produce a colored game in 1981,
another first from Bill. Also with good reasons the IBM strategy for its personal computers was still
small/home business orientated, and it will be so in the following years. Gaming will not be IBM main
concern except some minor notable examples leaving the gaming “problem” to Microsoft, who will try in
time to gain support from programmers and will also launch some games under its own Microsoft brand
as a developer and/or publisher company.

Games vs. Hardware in 1982

General computer industry ideas

This is an important year concerning both computers and technology. In 1982 there were founded
many future important companies such as Electronic Arts, Compaq, Sun, Hercules, Symantec, Maxtor,
Autodesk and also many more others. Apple Computer will be the first personal computer manufacturer to
hit the $1 billion mark for annual sales. The first CD player is sold in Japan. Lucas Arts is founded and
Disney releases the Tron movie on July 9, 1982, the first movie to use computer generated special effects,
a movie that I personally love.
And as a special note Times magazine gave the man of the year distinction to “The Computers”
showing the immense attention driven towards personal computer and the recognition of personal
computers importance in all domains and I’m not talking only about the IBM PC’s as IBM was not so
relevant for PC’s at the time.

New x86 Hardware launched in 1982 (used much later)

With engineering, I view this year’s failure as next year’s opportunity to try it again. Failures are
not something to be avoided. You want to have them happen as quickly as you can so you can make
progress rapidly. Gordon Moore-Intel founder.

The logical choice to replace the 8088/8086 will be unused

Intel 80186 is a microprocessor and micro-controller introduced by Intel in 1982. It was based on the
Intel 8086 and, like it, had a 16-bit external data bus multiplexed with a 20-bit address bus. It was also
available as the 80188, with an 8-bit external data bus. In personal computers The 80186 would have
been a natural successor to the 8086 in personal computers. However, because its integrated hardware
was incompatible with the hardware used in the original IBM PC, the 80286 was used as the successor
instead in the IBM PC/AT and therefore I will extend my discussion in the 80286 presentation.

The overused. A processor for 8-10 years

Intel 80286 (also called iAPX 286), launched on 1 February 1982, is a 16-bit x86 microprocessor
with 134,000 transistors. Like its contemporary simpler cousin, the 80186, it could correctly execute most
software written for the earlier Intel 8086 and 8088. While it was commercially launched in 1982 it was
first employed in the IBM PC/AT, introduced later in 1984, and then widely used in most PC/AT
compatible computers until the early 1990’s.


Internal die of 80286. I find it more exciting than the external package design


Performance and architecture. The 80286’s performance per clock cycle was more than two times
faster that of its predecessors, the Intel 8086 even higher compared to the 8088 due to its limited 8-bit
bus. Combining a roughly double clock speed and more than double processing power this ensured more
than 4x performance increase vs. 8086 and 8088 and finally brought the CPU speed advantage over most
of the personal computers competitors. In fact, the performance increase per clock cycle of the 80286
over its immediate predecessor is the largest among the generations of x86 processors, even greater than
Pentium 4 transition to Core architecture as Core had much lower frequency at the beginning so the
difference wasn’t quite as high. The 80286 is the first member of an advanced microprocessors family
with memory management and wide protection abilities. The 80286 was designed for multi-user systems
with multitasking applications, including communications (such as automated PBXs) and real-time
process control.

It had 134,000 transistors and consisted of four independent units: address unit, bus unit, instruction
unit and execution unit, which formed a pipeline significantly increasing the performance. Calculation of
the more complex addressing modes (such as base+ index) had less clock penalty because it was
performed by a special circuit in the 286; the 8086/8088 its predecessors, had to perform effective
address calculation in the general ALU, taking many cycles. Also, complex mathematical operations (such
as MUL/DIV) took fewer clock cycles compared to the 8086.

Reasons for longevity. The 80286 was a very powerful processor for the 80’s, even after the launch
of the 80386. Virtually no x86 based software from the 80’s needed something more than a 80286 to run
efficiently. It was also very fast compared to many of the other non x86 computer platforms based on 8 bit
microprocessors such as the very popular Commodore’s C64 and just about all consoles from the 80’s
that were based only on 8 bit microprocessors.
If it was not for the Windows platform and the increasing competitiveness from AMD, Cyrix and other
early CPU makers in the early 90’s the 80286 would had lasted even more years in the x86 era.

Reason for demise in the early/middle 90’s.The problems came with the Bill Gates famously
“advertising” to the 80286 as a “brain dead chip”, since it was clear that the new Microsoft Windows
environment would not be able to run multiple MS-DOS applications with the 286. Also the processor
was considerably responsible for the split between Microsoft and IBM, since IBM insisted that OS/2,
originally a joint venture between IBM and Microsoft, would run on a 286 (and initially in text mode)
while Microsoft promoted its Windows platform and the 386 CPU.
While this processor was clearly not designed with future Windows in mind it was clearly good
enough for all MSDOS games launched in the 80’s and also for most games launched in the early 90’s. I
can’t really say what was the main reason: the good enough performance or the abysmal evolution in the
system requirements needs for the games in the 80’s and beginning of 90’s but is clear that this is the
processor with the highest life span for PC gaming running most games until 1993/1994 at 11-12 years
after the product design and 9-10 years after its market release. Sure an Athlon 64 X2 from 2005 can run
most of the games available today with a good graphic card but this processor is available from 2005 –
about 8 years.

Best early choice for monochrome graphics

Hercules Graphics Card. The first non-IBM graphic card called Hercules Graphics Card (HGC)
was introduced this year as the first third-party video card to be made for the IBM PC. It was developed
in 1982 by Van Suwannukul in his garage in the small town of Hercules, California, therefore the name.
Suwannukul developed the system because he wanted to release his doctoral thesis on PC equipment
using his native Thai alphabet. It was compatible with the text-only MDA adapter, but allowed addressing
each pixel separately.

Impressively loved for a product developed in a garage

In addition to an MDA-compatible text mode, it offered a monochrome graphics mode. With a
resolution of 720×348 pixels, it had significantly higher graphic capabilities regarding resolution
compared to the CGA adapter. The Hercules’ combination of sharp monochrome text and graphics
capabilities made it ideal for running extremely important business software such as Lotus 123
spreadsheet and more others. The fact that IBM-PC’s and compatibles were so centered on home/small
business software clearly helped even more the Hercules Graphic Card to become a main graphic
standard in the 80’s.

HGC games support. While the card was mainly designed for text based business software use there
are many notable games that allowed over the years the MS-DOS games to run (besides MDA, CGA and
EGA ) IN Hercules graphics mode and such games are: Karateka, The Ancient Art of War, Space Quest 1
& 2 and 3, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, Simcity, Pipe Mania, Moonbase, Ultima VI, Budokan and many
more others, as they more than 300 HGC compatible games. The most interesting fact about this mode was
its very late usage in games from 1986 until 1993, just as MCGA because it had similar resolution to the
newer VGA/SVGA and allowed compatibility easier to implement with older computers.




Hercules graphics In Space Quest: Chapter I - The Sarien Encounter

vs CGA(left ) and EGA(right) graphics

While the resolution used in games is noticeably bigger than CGA, EGA and even some VGA video
modes most gamers would prefer CGA over this, me included. What is clear is the fact that all software
business user (spreadsheet, accountancy) preferred HGC over CGA.
X86 Games in 1982. The beginning of a modest gaming platform
Since this is the first somehow relevant year for MS-DOS gaming I will begin by admitting that I
didn’t know too much about 80’s gaming before I started to write this book. My PC gaming started much
later in 1996-1997 first rarely at friends and very often from 1998 when by parents bought me my first
x86 PC based on a Cyrix 6x86 CPU. In 1982 I was only conceived as a human being and my “adventure”
in this world begun. And while adventure is not my only favorite genre this book is one big adventure, the
adventure to present the PC games evolution in relation with hardware and the competition, and I
deliberately excluded to detail the software because it would increase the book even more but all of us
must acknowledge that the software is almost as important as hardware in the evolution of x86 Gaming,
especially from the 90’s.

To write about 80’s I had to document, read, play on emulator/ DOSBOX, watch videos and read
other opinion but in the end I am proud to say that I have studied more than 95% of the games from the
80’s, a statement that I cannot say about the games preceding 90’s where I had to rely on annual top game
awards or on a significant number of reviews, mostly positive to include them in the book as they were
too many.

And with this small introduction I will describe the first decent CGA based video games, because the
1981 Donkey wasn’t quite the greatest choice as the CGA game to play back on early 80’s.

The first good CGA game, an action shooter

Paratrooper is a 1982 computer game, written by Greg Kuperberg and published by Orion Software.
Paratrooper is one of the three games written by Mr. Kuperberg when the IBM PC platform was still very
new, but unlike the other two, J-Bird and PC-Man, which were recreations of well-known coin-op games,
this one was based on a 1981 Apple II game called Sabotage which was developed by Mark Allen and
published by On-Line Systems. This game was an MSDOS exclusive and was not available on other
platforms but it wasn’t a great loss since this type of game was already found on video arcade or Apple
II. Nonetheless this is one of the best versions of all similar games and clearly the most popular.

Elegant, funny gameplay

Genre. The game is an action shooter and is one of the first good action shooters for IBM PC, the
game gameplay is simple but so entertaining that it can be easily played today in 2013.
While this game idea was not so original the implementation was great as its designer had time to
improve form predecessors. It had good CGA graphics as 4 colors are enough for this game; I also had
fast action with different enemies and different ways to lose. It was preferable to be played with a
joystick because it required very high accuracy to destroy incoming bombs. A true classic, very important
for the evolution of x86 gaming one of those games you simply have to experience.

3D vector graphics that don’t resemble 3D. “Expectations are a form of first-class truth: If people
believe it, it’s true” - Bill Gates

Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0 is a 1982 video game that made a lot of IBM PC users and hard-
workers gamers. Microsoft Flight Simulator inspiration is dated from middle 70’s as a set of articles on
computer graphics, written by Bruce Artwick in 1976, about flight simulation using 3-D graphics. When the
editor of the magazine told Artwick that subscribers were interested in purchasing such a program, Artwick
founded subLOGIC Corporation to commercialize his ideas. At first the new company sold flight simulators
through mail order, but that changed in January 1980 with the release of Flight Simulator (FS) for the Apple
II. Sometime during 1981/82, Microsoft also obtained the license to port the simulator to IBM compatibles
PCs. This version was released in November 1982 as Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0 and featured
compared to the original an improved graphics engine, variable weather and time of day, and a new
coordinate system. Legend states that Bill Gates, who was captivated by the book “Night Flight” and its
metaphors of the feeling of flying a small aircraft at night, personally wanted to bring the product under the
Microsoft umbrella.

CGA composite mode, the best looking version of the game

 Genre innovation. This is the first flight simulator launched for MSDOS and also paved the way to
the creation of many other great flight simulators and flight combat simulator, a great genre in the 80’s
Platform availability, legality test tool. While MSFS it was not the first flight simulator for personal
computers it was the first for IBM PC’s, and was exclusive for MSDOS. For one thing it kicked off a
genre as we still refer to an entire class of games as “flight simulators”. The original Flight Simulator
also had another role. In the early ’80s, companies had discovered that it was legal to clone the
functionality of the IBM personal computer. Lots of personal computers came out that were partially
compatible with the IBM PC spec. The acid test to determine if a PC was a “real” PC was beside the
very popular Lotus 1-2-3 software the Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0. It was the game that you loaded to
prove that your PC was a genuine x86 IBM PC compatible.
Graphics are not so great and were probably modest back in 1982, only weird graphics with 4 CGA
colors but they fit in the game scope to create a modest but visual flight experience. Still I would not dare
say a simulator just a basic and tern flight experience. The CGA composite mode did help the game to
look slightly better. While this is the first game to simulate 3d graphics for IBM PC (based on vectors) is
hard for me to acknowledge this and call it a 3D vector game due to low graphic quality with many buggy
weird misplaced lines.
While the original Flight Simulator for the PC, with its uninspired CGA graphics, probably doesn’t
hold up as well as some of the other games from 1982 when it comes to graphics and the “fun” factor it is
nonetheless one of the most influential games to come out of the ’80s. More importantly, a whole
generation of people who brought their PCs for home business discovered Flight Simulator and realized
that these amazing little machines could be also used for gaming. Many PC owners became PC gamers
thanks to this one title. As I specified before Microsoft did tried to enrich the number of games available
for the MSDOS platform and this is their first decent success.

Sports on PC, the laziest kind of sport

Microsoft Decathlon was a game adapted by Microsoft to IBM PC in 1982, being initially available
under other names on the competing platforms Olympic Decathlon (1980 for TRS-80) and Olympic
Decathlon (1981 for Apple II). This is the first sports game available for MSDOS and while this genre is
very uncommon today, in the 80’s there were many sports games.

One of the first games to support CGA composite (right) mode and the Palette 0 (left) with blue instead
of the default black

Graphics. The game is very technical advanced for 1982 because it implemented both the CGA
Composite mode and used the Palette 0 on a digital RGB monitor, changing the default black color with
blue, a good choice for this game. While the game graphics had nothing artistic about them they served its
purpose to create a serviceable fun game.

The high score board actually had some scores that real-life athletes got at Olympics in the decathlon.
This was more motivation to keep playing, as the highest score was incredibly hard to beat, and only in
one or perhaps two years by training and by luck it was possible to beat the top scores. The game was fun
enough and it if it wasn’t Microsoft policy to create games for IBM PC in a not so large 1982 list, this
game would not be in this book today.
The first PC burger
Burger time is a video game published by Mattel Electronics and developed by Data East
Corporation. While the game was launched in 1982, including the DOS version, it was released over
years on many other platforms such as: Arcade, Atari 2600, Apple II, Commodore 64, ColecoVision,
Intellivision, Mattel Aquarius, MSX, NES, PC Booter, TI-99/4A and finally the much more recent Wii.
Genre. This is an action/arcade game, based on a Coin-Op Conversion, a game that originally
appeared in stand-up, coin-operated, arcade game form (or pinball form) and later converted to a
personal computer version.
Graphics. The game use the 3+1 colors available for CGA display mode but as always colors in
CGA are less enjoyable compared to other platforms. It also supported the CGA composite mode with
more colors and smaller resolution and CGA Composite graphics were quite nice. The game looked
better on most other platforms especially on electronic arcade with more colors and more vivid graphics
but nonetheless the game was a welcomed addition for IBM PC gamers, quite few at the time.

The arcade (up)version, as always has better graphics vs CGA(down left)while the CGA composite
graphics were nicer(down right)

An excellent arcade game, Burger Time is an old classic (but not necessarily for the MS-DOS
version). The charming, addictive gameplay shadows the simplistic graphics and sound effects. The
gameplay is often intensive, often challenging and always fun!
Tron on the new IBM PC
Novatron is a video game developed in 1982 by VeriSoft Works. This is a DOS exclusive video
game; probably it wasn’t good enough to worth the trouble of porting on other platforms. It is an action
game, and the gameplay is very similar to Snake or the original Tron video arcade lightcycle duel.
Innovations. One innovation for the time was its basic isometric perspective that made the game
graphics to look somehow spatial, a basic 3d. Another novelty the artificial intelligence or A.I. that was
pretty good and hard to compete against.


CGA isometric graphics

It had decent graphics for that time considering the fact it used the limited CGA Palette 1 and the basic
isometric 2.5d graphics were interesting since they contained only lines to simulate 3d. It had also decent
sound theme inspired by the Tron movie. While the game was very difficult to play it was also fun and if
the gamers were fans of the first TRON movie the game was definitely for them.
Inspired by arcades
Space Strike is a 1982 computer game for the IBM PC family, created by Michael Abrash and
published by Datamost. Space Strike is essentially a clone of the popular Space Invaders arcade video
game of the late 1970s and was also inspired from the great 1981 game arcade game Galaga. This game
was launched exclusively for IBM PC.

Space Strike a nice PC clone of Space Invaders

The game was good for a clone, and is representing the large number of MSDOS games based on
popular arcade systems a trend that will continue in the next 2-3 years.
Text adventure with graphics

Wizard and the Princess, also known as Adventure in Serenia for IBM PC (1982), is a 1980
computer game by On-Line Systems for the Apple II, Apple II Plus, and Commodore 64. It was the first
adventure game to have full color graphics and sold over 60,000 copies. Wizard and the Princess was
ported to the IBM PC in 1982, and was Sierra’s first game for the PC platform. For unknown reasons, this
MS-DOS version was retitled Adventure in Serenia and was designed by Roberta and Ken Williams the
well-known designers of the much more known series King’s Quest.
Genre innovation. This game is an interactive fiction/ or text adventure with some basic graphic, the
first for MSDOS.

CGA Composite (right) doesn’t save the uninspired graphic design

The game didn’t look so great on 4 color CGA and even Roberta Williams reputedly referred to the
colors on the IBM PC as “atrocious” upon seeing the completed game running for the first time. CGA
Composite again helped the IBM PC version to look better regarding colors but the graphics had no
artistry in them. The game remains in history as a decent text adventure that also included for the first time
color graphics, a great achievement for the time.

Text/ ASCII games from 1982

Text/ ASCII games based on MDA adapter were also launched in 1982 but in a very small number
considering the fact that only few computers had the CGA adapter at the time and basically every
available IBM PC could play these text games.
Explaining the text parser. Before further writing about text adventures I would like to clarify the
main element of the text adventures, the input command prompt also known as text parser. In adventure
games, a text parser takes typed input (a command) from the player and simplifies it to something the game
can understand. Usually, in a good parser words with the same meaning are turned into the same word (e.g.
“take” and “get”) and certain filler words are also dropped (e.g. articles, or the “at” in “look at picture”).
The parser makes it easier for the game’s author to react on input and have a less frustrating game. The
author does not have to write special code to process the commands “get the gem”, “take the gem”, “get
gem”, “take gem”, “take the precious gem”, etc. For the player, the game is more flexible, as the game has a
larger vocabulary, and there are fewer guess-the-verb and guess-the-noun problems and the player has the
choice to input more equivalent words to start some action.
Innovating text adventure/interactive fiction games

Zork 1. The Great Underground Empire Part I, later known as Zork I, is an interactive fiction/text
adventure video game written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels and Tim Anderson and
published by Infocom in 1980. It was the first game in the popular Zork trilogy and was released for a
wide range of computer systems including MS-DOS in 1982.
Genre innovation and availability. The game is one of the first interactive fiction / text adventure.
The text adventures uses few resources and are the easiest game to be ported and so the game will be
available in time on a very large number of platforms: Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari
ST, Browser, Commodore 16, Plus/4, Commodore 64, Macintosh, PC-98, TRS-80, TRS-80 and CoCo.
Gameplay. You cross the game, resolve puzzle or answer question by entering text commands; to
simplify the input commands the developers designed the text parser presented before.



Enjoy Zork’s sense of humor, unique for the time


Zork I: The Great Underground Empire (or Zork: The Great Underground Empire) is the original Zork
game that starts some of the best interactive fiction ever. Back in the era of interactive fiction, everybody
was writing games that try to compare to it but only few succeeded and merely as individual releases.
Since then, this game has risen to become the poster child of text adventure, with great text puzzles, a
inspiring and thought-provoking story with a large dose of sense of humor.
Dying countless times to destroy Apple Headquarters
Attack is a 1982 video game designed and published by IBM, therefore exclusive for their IBM PC
which has the amazing and revelatory goal of destroying the Apple Headquarters. The game description
clarifies why it wasn’t available on the very successful Apple II systems ☺.

Genre innovation. This game is an action game with Side-Scrolling gameplay, and is probably the
first side-scroller game available for MSDOS.

Description. In a show of corporate pettiness, your target in this game is Apple Computers’
manufacturing base. Steve Jobs was prepared for this seemingly-unlikely occurrence, and has a fleet of
fighters out to shoot you down. Be careful to stay within the earth’s atmosphere, and use your 35 bombs
and 60 lasers wisely, dropping bombs on the structures and shooting down the enemy fleet. After the plant
is destroyed the game loops. It was written in BASIC, and all graphics in the game are ASCII characters
but driven in 4 colors supported by the CGA text mode.

When ASCII is used to create graphics, there are few chances to be amazed, and now I am not

 Looking back at the time Apple was a better gaming platform in 1982 with better sales, graphics, sound
and already a decent number of available games and IBM clearly had some grudge that was sarcastically
integrated in the game. Considering how many times you die in the game to complete your goal on an
amusing approach regarded to gaming I think it doesn’t work the risk. In reality, in time the IBM PC/x86
platforms did beat on many fronts the Apple computers and personal gaming is one of them. I would also
like to criticize IBM for the small interest it gave to gaming in the 80’s as most other system builders such
as Atari, Tandy, Commodore and T.I. were much more involved to develop by themselves great games,
much more in numbers and also better than Attack for example.

The “Andromeda Strain” arrived on IBM PC bringing a 4X load

Andromeda Conquest is a 1982 strategy game designed and published by The Avalon Hill Game
Company. The game was available on most platforms form 1982: Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64,
Commodore PET/CBM, DOS, FM-7 and TRS-80.
Genre innovation. This is the first turn based game for IBM PC. It is a ASCII (text) turn based
strategy, with many elements to be found in the future 4X turn based games and takes place in space.
Gameplay. Andromeda Conquest is a strategy / conquest game in which one to four players build
galactic empires by establishing and defending space colonies, managing resources, and battling other
players for control of star systems. Before every turn, players receive resources from all their colonies.
Those have to be used up during the turn or they are lost.
Multiplayer innovation. This is the first MS-DOS game to support more than one player, up to 4 of
them. It is a turn based game that allows gaming on turns, at the same computers the gamers could play one
after one. Depending on the numbers of players from 1 to 4 the galaxy consists of 12 to 48 star systems.
The layout is grid-based, and the package includes a pad of graph paper for keeping track of ship and
colony locations. The game code (written in BASICA)

takes up only about 13K of the 150K disk!

I love 4x /turn based space games, even with ASCII

The game is especially notable for its influence on the 4X game genre and second because it had
multiplayer. Grandfather of turn-based strategy games from space, Andromeda Conquest is a relic that
should be respected and I strongly recommend it to 4X fans such as me mainly because of its great
historical importance. And if you are not a 4X fan, well, that is because you probably haven’t tasted the
first two Master of Orion or the new FreeOrion games that should give a proper introduction to 4X space
genre.
Other decent text based games
Following the trend of textual games there were also some other decent games of the genre in 1982,
such as Starcross, Deadline, Snooper Troops and The Case of the Disappearing Dolphin not as great as
Zork 1 but at least the first two of them deserve a review.

Starcross is another text adventure launched by Infocom from 1982 on many platforms, including the
IBM-PC.

Description. In Starcross you are a miner of black holes, scouring the asteroid belt in your one-man
survey ship. Finding and harnessing a single black hole can make a person’s fortune. It’s a lonely
business, fraught with the known and unknown hazards of space.

Booting a computer. Let’s hope it will not give us the Windows BSOD (blue screen of death). For
those who don’t know/forgot BSOD I shall include an example of the beloved screen (as it comes in
many forms, but same color).

While the game had interesting story and good writing, its parser was limited, the non-playable
characters (NPC’s) to interact with were few and uninteresting and the gameplay was extremely hard. If
you ever want a game that requires more thinking than computer memory, and if graphics aren’t all that
important to you, then give Starcross a try.

Do you want to be a detective?!

 Deadline is a detective text adventure/interacted fiction video game released by Infocom for many
platforms including a 1982 MS-DOS booter version.
Description. You have 12 hours to solve the murder of Mr. Marshall Robner. If it was a murder as Mr
Robner was found locked in his library, dead from a lethal dosage of anti-depressants. Friends and family
are calling this a suicide of depressed wealthy industrialist. As Chief of Detectives, you find something
just doesn’t smell right about this case. You go out on a quest to find a suspect, his motive, method, and
opportunity using the same common and trusty deputy, the parser.

My detective adventure begins right now

As many Infocom games it has an intriguing mystery story and the writing is also good. The NPCs are
a key element in the game’s success, as they not only prove to be interesting characters, but move around
the game area according their own schedules and respond to player actions. The game’s puzzles are
logical and the player has a clear objective throughout the game.
If you’re a fan of the detective genre, you can give this game a try. Text descriptions and parser
gameplay by nature can be unforgiving creatures, but the freedom and sense of accomplishment they
provide when you finish the game far outweigh any limitations.

Games vs hardware conclusion in 1982. There is no competition between games and hardware in
1982, there is just one processor to run just about all games the 8088, and the only difference between
games was made by the presence or the lack of the CGA adapter. Some few games did use the CGA
composite mode with reasonable success therefore increasing the appalling graphic quality found in the
CGA 320x200/4 colors graphic mode.

The IBM PC gaming competition in 1982

IBM PC shivers

New competing hardware platforms. In almost all year from the 80’s there will be launched several
new important platforms to compete the IBM PC’s and later compatibles regarding gaming while for
others platforms starting with 1983 will be the end as they were discontinued or the system builder exited
the market. I will try to keep up and show every new important personal computers and consoles that had
they share in giving IBM headaches because they increased the competition on the more and more
overcrowded PC and console market.


 “By ancestry, I was born to rule” –Nelson Mandela

Commodore 64. The C64 began its design life in January of 1981 when MOS Technology engineers
decided they needed a new chip project. MOS’ Albert Charpentier had been responsible for several of
the highly successful VIC-20 chips. “We were fresh out of ideas for whatever chips the rest of the world
might want us to do. So we decided to produce a state-of-the-art video and sound chip for the world’s
next great video game”. By November of 1981, the chips were completed but Commodores president
Jack Tramiel decided against using them in the faltering arcade game market. Instead he tasked the
engineers with developing a 64 kilobyte home computer for show at the Winter Consumer Electronics
Show (CES) the second week of January 1982; just 6 weeks away. Two days after Jacks request, the
basic design was completed and by the end of December 1981 the hardware for five VIC-30 (the C64′s
development name) prototypes was assembled. In the remaining two weeks, the VIC-20 operating system
was stretched onto the C64.

The best-selling personal computer of all time was released by Commodore International in August
1982 and sold a staggering number of over 17 million units before its end. The C64 name derived from its
64KB of RAM and it also came with a side mount ROM cartridge slot. It used MOS Technology 6510 is a
8-bit microprocessor designed by MOS Technology, Inc.
For a substantial period (1983–1986), the C64 dominated the market with between 30% and 40%
share and 2 million units sold per year, outselling by far the IBM PC and compatibles, Apple Inc.
computers, and the Atari 8-bit family of computers. Sam Tramiel, a later Atari president and the son of
Commodore’s founder, said in a 1989 interview “When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000
C64s a month for a couple of years.”

Impressive graphics. Commodore 64 used for graphics the newer graphic chip, the VIC-II (Video
Interface Chip II), specifically known as the MOS Technology 6567/8562/8564 (NTSC versions),
6569/8565/8566 (PAL). Adding an all-points-addressable bitmap mode was one of the Commodore
design team’s primary goals as the VIC-I lacked such a useful feature, the new chip also incorporated
sprites in either 24x21 monochrome or 12x21 multicolor and a scrolling mode, relatively complicated
and CPU intensive task.

The VIC-II chip has a useful fixed 16-color palette, only missing vivid colors

 Frogger for C64, used all 16 colors from the palette

Graphics were also improved with higher resolution up to 320*200 pixels/up to 16 color but the most
used mode by C64 games was the multicolor bitmap mode (160×200 pixels/up to 16 colors). The reason
was simple, the screen was divided internally into 40*25 attribute cells/regions and while the 320*200
graphic mode supported only 2 different colors for region the 160×200 graphic mode supported 4 colors
for region and so programmers could create richer graphics on smaller regions of screen although the total
number of total used colors was equal.

Amazing sound. The sound chip designed for the C64 was also very advanced, called SID (Sound
Interface Device) and based on MOS Technology 6581/8580 is a programmable Sound Generator chip.
The SID is a mixed-signal integrated circuit, featuring both digital and analog circuitry. All control ports
are digital, while the output ports are analog. The SID features three-voice synthesis, where each voice
may use one of at least five different waveforms: square wave (with variable duty cycle), triangle wave,
sawtooth wave, pseudo-random (but not white) noise, and certain complex/combined waveforms when
multiple waveforms are selected simultaneously. It had been developed in an almost impossibly short
period of time by Bob Yannes, who later co-founded the famous synthesizer company Ensoniq. In a 1986
interview he commented on the other sound chips used at the time:
“I thought the sound chips on the market (including those in the Atari computers) were primitive and
obviously had been designed by people who knew nothing about music. As I said previously, I was
attempting to create a synthesizer chip which could be used in professional synthesizers.”- Bob Yannes

The SID featured three voices that could be used independently or in conjunction to create complex
sounds. Each voice could be programmed to generate either a triangle, sawtooth, variable pulse or noise
waveform. Pitch was controlled through a 16-bit register in 65,536 steps, allowing for tone-sweeps from
note to note (portamento) without any discernible frequency steps. When triggered, an envelope generator
could create an amplitude envelope with variable rates of attack, decay, sustain and release. An
additional programmable filter was provided that could be used to generate complex, dynamic tone
colors. Also, it was possible to process external audio signals, allowing multiple SID chips to be daisy-
chained or mixed in complex polyphonic systems.
With a hardware glitch and by adjusting the amplifiers gain it could be created a “virtual” fourth
channel allowing 4-bit digital sample playback. The glitch was known and used from an early point on,
first by Electronic Speech Systems to produce sampled speech in games such as Impossible Mission
(1983, Epyx) and Ghostbusters (1984, Activision).
Together with the VIC-II graphics chip, the SID sound chip was instrumental in making the C64 the
best-selling computer in history and one of the most prolific personal computers in the 80’s.

Gaming on C64. The Commodore has the largest number of personal computer games from the 80’s
outnumbering both Apple II and IBM PC’s and compatibles with more than 3500 total available games
created until early 90’s and also with a large number of original games. While for the rest of the platforms
I’ve noted some of the top games I won’t do for now the same with the C64 as they were just too many of
them, but I will annually create a comparison of the IBM PC and compatibles with the other platforms and
then I will mention the best yearly C64 games.
While towards the end of the 80’s there were some MS-DOS games that had better graphics and
sometimes better sounds/music compared to the C64, due to advanced EGA and VGA graphics and the
launch of sound cards, I can clearly say that the C64 was overall the best device for electronic gaming in
the 80’s beating all other computer, consoles and video arcades.
A spectrum of popularity in United Kigdom
ZX Spectrum. The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom
in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd. The machine was named ZX Spectrum to highlight the machine’s color
display, compared with the black-and-white found of its predecessor, the ZX81.The Spectrum was
released as eight different models, ranging from the entry level model with 16 KB RAM released in 1982
to the ZX Spectrum +3 with 128 KB RAM and built in floppy disk drive in 1987; together they sold in
excess of 5 million units worldwide. The Spectrum was among the first mainstream audience home
computers in the UK, similar in significance to the Commodore 64 in the USA, launched at an amazingly
low price of £175.

The ZX spectrum, great design and workmanship on a compact package

Hardware. The Spectrum is based on powerful 8-bit Zilog Z80A CPU running at 3.5 MHz. The
original model Spectrum has 16 KB (16×1024 bytes) of ROM and either 16 KB or 48 KB of RAM.
Hardware design was conceived by Richard Altwasser of Sinclair Research, and the machine’s outward
appearance was designed by Sinclair’s industrial designer Rick Dickinson. The image resolution for
graphics is 256×192 and had a palette of 15 shades: seven colors at two levels of brightness each, plus
black. To conserve memory, a color is stored separate from the pixel bitmap in a low resolution, 32×24
grid overlay, corresponding to the character cells. In practice this means that all pixels of an 8x8
character block share one foreground color and one background color. Altwasser received a patent for
this design. While the main ZX Spectrum resolution at 256×192 is slightly lower compared to 4 colors
VGA (320x240) and also Apple II (280×192) the 15 shades palette made a lot of difference in many
games and surpassed the 4 color CGA by a large margin.


 The vivid palette will be the cause for the vibrant and colorful design of the most ZX Spectrum games

Sound output is generated through a beeper on the machine itself which is capable of producing one
channel with 10 octaves. Later will be launched software and games that could play two-channel sound.
The introduction of the ZX Spectrum led to a boom in companies producing software and hardware
for the machine in the United Kingdom. This is one the most supported PC platform ever. Over 24,000
software titles have been released since the Spectrum’s launch and new titles continue to be released,
with over 100 new ones in 2012 and a large chunk of that software are electronic games as more than
2000 games were developed for the platform, most of them designed in the 1983 – 1993 timeframe.
There are even some good ZX Spectrum games launched with the platform in 1982 such as Horace
Goes Skiing, Football Manager and The Hobbit.

Horace Goes Skiing, an 1982 ZX Spectrum video game

New advanced 8-bit consoles, with unsuccessful sales
Unfortunately for the console industrialists Atari and Coleco the new generation of 8-bit consoles
updates such as Atari 5200 SuperSystem and the ColecoVision were not as successful as the older Atari
2600 and Intellivision as many cheap consoles clones flooded the marked, market that was also saturated
by the older consoles while game programmers will start to release many games with poorer quality. The
personal computers were also growing faster in the early 80’s, the Commodore’s VIC-20 will sell
particularly well in 1982 while the Commodore 64 also known as C64 launched in January 1982 being
one of the main factor of the future weaker sales of the consoles, starting with 1983. The C64 was a
personal computer with many advantages as it was very cheap for the time, almost as cheap as some
consoles, had a built-in RF modulator and thus could be plugged into a television set and it was also
advertised as gaming system.
Launched too late with an inappropriate joystick
The Atari 5200 SuperSystem, commonly known as the Atari 5200, is a video game console that was
introduced in 1982 by Atari Inc. as a higher end complementary console for the popular Atari 2600.The
5200 was created to compete with the Intellivision, but wound up more directly competing with the
ColecoVision shortly after its release.
 The Atari 5200, not as successful as the 2600

The 5200 had some notable feature variations over its competitors, however, such as its analog
joystick, four controller ports, and start, pause, and reset buttons. Similar to the Atari 400/800 home
computer systems, the Atari 5200 came with a 1.79 MHz processor, 16KB of RAM, and was capable of
producing an image with a maximum resolution of 320x192 pixels. While that may not sound like a lot
now with consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 boasting high-end processors and video output of
1920x1080 resolution, but at the time it blew away the Intellivision’s sub-1MHz processor.

Games for Atari 5200. There were a total of 69 games officially released for the system, and some
other 14-15 unofficial. Super Breakout, Galaxian and Space Invaders were the system’s launch titles. A
port of Asteroids was advertised as a launch title, but was never released. Gremlins, released in 1986,
was the last game officially released for the system.
Inevitably, the Atari 5200 was crushed beneath the technological weight of the ColecoVision, which
boasted a jaw-dropping 3.58MHz processor, but when it went the way of the dinosaur, the Atari 5200 left
behind the its legacy of four controller ports console design and, of course, the analog joystick.

The 5200 received considerable disapproval for the “sloppy” design of its non-centering analog
controllers and its high initial asking price. In August 2009, video game website IGN placed the 5200
23rd out of the 25 greatest video game consoles of all time, behind its predecessor (the 2600, ranked 2nd
greatest), its successor (the 7800, 17th), and both its main competitors the Intellivision and ColecoVision,
14th and 12th respectively.

A great console unfortunately launched at the end of a beneficial period

The ColecoVision is Coleco Industries’ second generation home video game console, which was
released in August 1982. The ColecoVision had a powerful 8-bit microprocessor, the Zilog Z80A at
impressive 3.58MHz frequency, and a very powerful for that time video processor the Texas Instruments
TMS9928A that supported: 256×192 resolution, 32 Sprites and 16 colors, therefore it offered near-
arcade-quality graphics and gaming style along with the means to expand the system’s basic hardware.
Sales quickly passed 1 million in early 1983, before the North American video game crash of 1983-
1885 but by the beginning of 1984, quarterly sales of the ColecoVision had dramatically decreased. Over
the next 18 months, Coleco ramped down its video game division, ultimately withdrawing from the video
game market by the end of the summer of 1985, and was officially discontinued in October. Total sales of
the ColecoVision are uncertain but were ultimately in excess of 2 million units.
Games. The console was released with a catalog of 12 launch titles, with an additional 10 games
announced for 1982, and approximately 145 titles in total were published as ROM cartridges for the system
between 1982 and 1984, in only three years. With its great port of arcade game Donkey Kong included as a
pack-in, sales for this console also took off. Other good ColecoVision games were Venture, Zaxxon, Donkey
Kong Jr., Pepper II,, Mr. Do!, Q*Bert, Galaxian, War Games, Star Wars: The Arcade Game and Antarctic
Adventures just to name few of them.
While the console had a short life due to mostly unfavorable market at the time the console remains as
one of the most innovative consoles ever for the time-frame with hardware better than most personal
computers at the time, and a large number of good games.

The older gaming competition

While I refer to arcades as older competition, all these arcades launched in 1982 had newer gameplay
and hardware, but as a platform were launched on the market on the previous years, hence their inclusion to
the older competition.

Video Arcades.1982 is the best year ever the arcades regarding the number of games launched.
Arcades already had a large number of electronic games, games that were much better compared to other
platform due to better and faster hardware with great graphics and sound and also specialized controls.

Extremely crisp graphics in the video arcade Popeye

While many gamers still played heavily older arcade games such as Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pac-
Man and the newer Frogger, Galaga, Donkey Kong from 1981 the market still wanted more and the
designers delivered launching games such as Dig Dug, Mr. Do!, Pole Position, Popeye, Donkey Kong Jr.,
Joust, Xevious, Q*bert, Robotron: 2084, BurgerTime and many more others, about 18 total video arcades.
While the 1982 arcades had good overall sales, they failed to match the sales of the previous year’s top
played arcades.

Atari 2600. This was also the best year for the very popular Atari 2600 home console as there were
launched many top games for the console such as: Pitfall!, Chopper Command, River Raid, Demon
Attack, Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel’s Castle, Cosmic Ark, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Ms. Pac-
Man, Centipede and many more others.

Pitfall! Was favored by many 2600 gamers in 1982

Atari 5200. As a newly launched home console the Atari 5200 did quite good in 1982 with some top
games such as: Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Q-bert and Super Breakout.

Space invaders for Atari 5200. Really great graphics

Intellivision did lose some ground over Atari 2600 console in 1982 but the platform still held quite
well due to Mattel involvement to develop great games such as World Series Major League Baseball,
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Shark! Shark, BurgerTime! (Mattel/Data East), while third party
developers launched Pitfall!, Atlantis and Donkey Kong.

Pitfall! version for Intellivision has similar graphics to Atari 2600

ColecoVision. The newly launched ColecoVision did considerably better in gaming compared to the
also new Atari 5200 with more top games launched: Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel’s Castle, Venture,
Donkey Kong, Lady Bug, Zaxxon and again Pitfall!. Well done Coleco Industries !

 Pitfall! clearly shows the ColecoVision hardware advantages over Atari 2600 and Intellivision

Atari 8’ bit. Atari 400 and Atari 800 were the top platforms for gaming regarding both graphics and
sounds in 1982 and received many top games such as: Pac-Man, Frogger, Galaxian, Defender, Aztec
Challenge, Miner 2049er, Shamus and some few others.

Galaxian for Atari 8-bit PC’s, one of the most impressive, non-arcade graphics for 1982

VIC-20 had another good year regarding gaming, with important games released such as Omega Race,
Choplifter, Gridrunner, Gorf, Alphabet Zoo, Wacky Waiters and few more others.

Gorf for Vic-20 had nice sounds, decent colors but a small gameplay area

A modest beginning

C64. The most successful PC computer ever was released in January 1982 and the new and the new
advanced graphic abilities were more studied than implemented in games because the Commodore 64
will receive very few top games in 1982. The best C64 games launched in 1982 are Wizard of Wor and
Fort Apocalypse and some few other decent releases. C64 fans don’t be sad as C64 will rule almost all
years left from the 80’s concerning video gaming.

Wizard of Wor for C64 had decent graphics,good details but little artistry.

When the hardware builder knows something about gaming

TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A. Texas instruments worked hard this year to promote their computers as gaming
platform because all great games launched in 1982 for TI-99/4 family were designed by the company itself.
These games were: Munch Man, Parsec, Chisholm Trail, Alpiner, Tunnels of Doom and Moon Mine.

“Tunnels of Doom” for example was a technical masterpiece including first person 3d like graphics;
the combat was played on a top down 2d image. These were amazing feat for the time and shows just how
talented were the T.I. software engineers were and how capable the Texas Instruments personal
computers was, despite the very low base RAM memory.

Tunnels of Doom, left 3d like exploration, right the fighting 2d screen.

Apple II received fewer top games than most platforms in 1982. Apple II best games were Ultima II,
Beneath Apple Manor, Miner 2049er and Choplifter while Aztec and Bilestoad were also decent enough.
Nonetheless due to much better graphic quality of games and also having a greater number Apple II still was a
much better platform for gaming in 1982 than IBM PC. The total number of games received this year was also
impressive with about 90 titles.

Choplifter for Apple II, many colors, good resolution little artistry

 TRS-80 CoCo. The best games for this platform were in 1982 Ghost Gobbler (Pac-Mac clone) and
Dungeons of Daggorath, quite few releases.

Dungeons of Daggorath an early 3d vector RPG.

The IBM PC Competition in 1982 is incomparable better for gaming, with much more and better
games, with better graphics, sounds and cheaper platforms. I can’t see even one element of advantage for
gaming regarding the IBM PC platform.
Best platforms for games in 1982 are without a doubt the arcades followed by the home consoles such
as Atari 2600, Intellivision, and ColecoVision while the newer Atari 5200 received fewer games. There
were also launched a large number of good games for the popular home computers at the time, showing an
important increase regarding personal computers use for gaming. Consoles be afraid, be very afraid.

The 1982 Conclusion concerning x86 gaming. Less than 15 decent MS-DOS games were launched
in 1982 with two coming from Microsoft and one from IBM. About 6-7 of them had CGA based color
graphics while the rest of them had text/ASCII based graphics, quite a modest achievement and therefore
engrossing the idea that IBM PC was not a gaming device, just a useful business tool for just about any
other kind of interaction except serious gaming. For now the others players in computer, consoles and
electronic gaming had nothing to fear and laugh at IBM.


 Trailing behind competition 1983-1986

We will see in this period how MS-DOS will become a feasible but still modest gaming platform,
struggling behind other PC platforms with many ported games and few original games clearly affected by
the immense success of the C64 and by the North American video game crash from 1983-1985.

Games vs. hardware graphic 1983-1986

- The red arrows show a necessary element, as the game can’t run without.
- The blue arrow represents the fact that a game will not run at its full potential if that component
is slow or in small amount (RAM for example.
- The green arrows shows elements that are not needed sometimes or not needed at all (sound
card), but their lack will affect the gaming pleasure.

Regarding “game vs. hardware” overall idea there are some few changes compared to the overall
80’s graphic. The audio cassette disappears from the picture while the mouse and sound cards still
weren’t launched yet.
Because the RAM prices lowered reasonably back in the 80’s, the RAM quantity will increase in
most IBM PC’s and Compatibles to 128/256 KB, having a significant advantage over 8-bit platforms.
While the faster microprocessors 80286 and 80386 will be launched in the x86 computers in 1984
and 1986 respectively, the amazingly powerful CPU’s will be unused by the MS-DOS games in this
period.
The biggest gain will arise regarding graphics hardware as there will be launched several better
graphic cards for x86 computers such as the similar Tandy/PCjr graphics with reasonable use in games
and also the EGA graphics with unfortunately limited use in games in the 1983-1986 timeframe.

Games vs. Hardware in 1983

General computer industry ideas from 1983, a crash begins
This in another interesting year regarding personal computing and technology as many interesting
events occurred in 1983: ARPANET officially changes to use the TCP/IP Internet Protocol, officially
creating the Internet; the most popular text editors Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Word are released, therefore
greatly increasing the IBM PC popularity as a cheap home business tool; again a large number of
important companies are founded still not as resounding as the ones launched in 1982; Apple released the
very expensive Lisa computer, the first commercial home computer with a GUI and also the much more
popular Apple IIe; Paul Allen leaves Microsoft; Tandy, Epson and NEC all will sell non x86 notebook
computers however only the Tandy’s model 100 becomes popular because of its low price at $499 and
back in 1983 more than 10 million computers were already in use in the United States showing how
popular the PC’s already were in the American lives.

There are also some negative events that started this year such as the North American video game
crash that was a massive recession of the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985.
Revenues brought by electronic games that had peaked at around $3.2 billion in 1983, fell to around $100
million by 1985 (a huge unprecedented drop of almost 97 percent). The crash was a serious event that
brought an abrupt end to what is considered the second generation of console based video gaming in
North America and also seriously affected the video arcade based gaming.
The main reasons for the crash were a large mix of different elements such as the console market
saturation; the release of many poor gaming titles from hastily financed start-up companies or weak or
rushed high-profile video games for Atari 2600 such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Pac-Man; the loss
of exclusive control of their platforms’ supply of games (Atari) and as a consequence the court litigation
between Atari and ex Atari programmers who founded Activison. I must also criticize the lack of credit
for game programmers/designers as both Atari and Mattel “protected” the identities of their game
designers, therefore not allowing them to be recognized, and “artists” above all deserve recognition.
Perhaps the greatest reason for the crash was the increasing competition that was brought by
personal computers. Personal computers became cheaper and cheaper and allowed home user do
something else with their computers besides games compared to the consoles that were designed only for
games. The home computers could also be used for tasks such as word processing and home accounting
and I could mention here the best example: IBM PC and the extremely popular Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet
program. The home computers generally had more memory available, usually better graphic and sound
capabilities than a console. Starting from 1982 there was a clear connection between the extreme
decrease in console sales and the significant increase for personal computer sales due to a unprecedented
low price of most personal computers. The overall personal computer sales were booming as the TI
99/4A and the Atari 400 were both priced at $349 while Radio Shack’s Color Computer was sold at
$379. These low prices were great for consumers but clearly unwanted by the previous platform builders
and were set by Commodore that reduced the price of their Commodore VIC-20 to only $199 while the
new Commodore 64 was sold for $499 (without rebates). In a strategy that directly affected its home
computer arch-rival Atari, Commodore explicitly targeted video game players in the advertising by
offering trade-ins toward the purchase of a Commodore 64 and suggesting that college-bound children
would need to own computers, not video games. And as a last final blow, many games for personal
computers were cheaper, easier to obtain and even free sometimes compared to the relatively expensive
cartridge based games in consoles than contained electronics besides software.
Commodore also had a huge advantage in overall platform costs due their recent acquisition of a
very important chip fab, MOS Technologies. Because they could manufacture integrated circuits in-house
including microprocessors and graphic chips, it allowed the VIC-20 and C64 to sell for much lower
prices than competing home computers while maintaining profitability. The result was a ruinous price war
that destroyed the then-fledgling console industry and led to the bankruptcy or market retirement of
several companies that produced home computers and video game consoles from North America such as
Coleco (console market) and Texas Instruments (PC market) and almost destroyed Atari Inc. (both PC and
console market). With huge losses Warner sold on July 1, 1984 the Atari’s home computing and game
console divisions to Jack Tramiel for $50 cash and $240 million in promissory notes and stocks, giving
Warner a 20% stake in new Atari Corporation. Warner retained the arcade division, continuing it under
the name Atari Games, but sold it to Namco in 1985. Radio Shack was not seriously affected due to
having their own distribution chain, but they quickly embraced the IBM PC standard with the launch of the
Tandy 1000 and 3000 lines. The only IBM PC computer launched for home entertainment, the PCjr was
also seriously affected by the price wars. Overall sales for Apple personal computers will also severely
decrease.
The crash lasted about two years, and many business analysts of the time expressed doubts about the
long-term viability of video game consoles. In addition, most European and all Japanese computer and
console manufacturers chose to avoid the US market due to the unfavorable conditions created by
Commodore. Only late 1985/1986 with release of Nintendo Entertaining System and Sega Master System
non-US competition will again consider the North American console market. The North American video-
game industry will be revitalized mostly due to the widespread success of the same Nintendo
Entertainment System (NES) that will become extremely popular by 1987/1988.
New x86 Hardware launched in 1983
The essential launch of IBM PC Compatibles. While no important individual hardware was
launched in 1983, this year is extremely relevant for x86 PC history and evolution because of the IBM PC
Compatibles launch, computers also based on x86 microprocessor and MS-DOS operating systems as the
original IBM PC, computers that will create an impressive technological and psychological pressure over
IBM with cheaper prices while innovating with many new hardware elements the grey and dull until then
IBM PC market. Without IBM PC compatibles the x86 PC market would had never evolved as much and
be as innovative today.
Great choice for home business
The IBM Personal Computer XT, often shortened to the IBM XT, PC XT, or simply XT, was IBM’s
successor to the original IBM PC, and was factory equipped with a hard drive. It was released as IBM
Machine Type number 5160 on March 8, 1983, and essentially is the same as the original PC, with only
incremental improvements.

Good design, decent hardware except the graphics

Hardware. The XT originally came with 128 KB of RAM, therefore doubling the maximum memory
size supported by 8-bit based systems but the basic specification was soon upgraded to have 256 KB of
RAM as standard. It also had a 360 KB double-sided 5.25 inch full-height floppy disk drive, a 10 MB
Seagate ST-412 hard drive with Xebec 1210 MFM controller, an Asynchronous Adapter (serial card with
8250 UART) and a 130 watt power supply. The motherboard had eight 8-bit ISA expansion slots, and an
Intel 8088 microprocessor running at 4.77 MHz (with a socket for an 8087 math coprocessor); the
operating system usually sold with it was PC DOS 2.0 and above.

The system was extremely used for business software, and was upgraded many times with the
Hercules graphic card, making it even better for office use. Regarding games the use of CGA was clearly
a visual limitation but the system would run most games in the 80’s as it supported up to 640 KB of RAM,
the maximum required for games in late 80’s. The system is one of the top selling IBM personal systems
over the 80’s and therefore will be one of the main x86 gaming systems from the 80’s.

The first PC Compatible. A different definition of portable (compared with today) but the right
definition of compatibility (compared to IBM PC’s)

The Compaq Portable was the first product in the Compaq portable series to be commercially
available under the Compaq Computer Corporation brand. It was the also the first IBM PC compatible
portable computer. Compaq derived their company name from the phrase “Compatibility and Quality”.
Announced in November 1982 and first shipped in January 1983 at a high price of US$3,590, this
“luggable” suitcase-sized computer was an early all-in-one computer, becoming available two years after
the CP/M-based Osborne 1 and Kaypro II, in the same year as the MS-DOS-based (but not entirely IBM
PC compatible) Dynalo-gic Hyperion and a year before the Commodore SX-64.

A portable compatible, the Compaq Portable

Its design was influenced by that of the Xerox NoteTaker, a prototype computer developed at Xerox
PARC in 1976. Compaq’s efforts to launch a x86 compatible computer were possible because IBM had
used mostly open architecture for their PC’s, and because Microsoft had kept the right to license MS-DOS
to other computer manufacturers. The only part which had to be copied was the BIOS, which Compaq did
legally by reverse engineering through clean room design at a cost of $1 million. Although numerous other
companies soon followed its lead into the market for PC compatibles, few matched Compaq’s remarkable
achievement of essentially-complete software compatibility with the original IBM PC (typically reaching
“95% compatibility” at best) until Phoenix Technologies and others began selling similarly reverse-
engineered BIOS on the open market. IBM initially attempted to sue Compaq for copyright infringement,
but the upstart company was prepared for this and the lawsuit was soon dismissed. Thus, the way was
paved for any company to produce its own PC clone and in just one decade Compaq became the leader in
PC manufacturing.
Compaq PC share grew steadily in the 80’s and reached its apogee in the middle 90’s from third place
in 1993, Compaq had overtaken Apple Computer and even surpassed IBM as the top PC manufacturer in
1994, as both IBM and Apple were struggling considerably during that time on home PC market. While
this early Compaq system was not as relevant for gaming in nonetheless important as it launched the
Compatible PC movement, very important in the evolution of x86 computers.
 The best IBM PC compatible (also better than IBM PC’s) with higher performance than all
IBM PC models at the time

The Olivetti M24 was a computer designed and commercialized by the Italian manufacturer Olivetti
from 1983 using the Intel 8086 CPU and was the first computer from Olivetti compatible with MSDOS.

Olivetti M24, the most successful early PC Compatible

Huge success in U.S. Olivetti did not directly sell the system in the United States however both
AT&T and Xerox bought rights to rebadge the system as the AT&T 6300 and the lesser-known Xerox
6060. Contrary to other PC clones of that era, the M24 was highly compatible with IBM PC. One of its
characteristics was the use of the much more powerful 8MHz 16bit/16bit bus Intel 8086 CPU rather than
the 4.77MHz Intel 8088 16bit/8bit bus used in IBM’s own 5150 and PC XT. It also allowed the
installation of the 8087 math co-processor. The Olivetti M24 used a 640x400 pixel graphic mode in both
monochrome and color. This was much better than MDA/CGA devices available on the IBM PC, where
the maximum resolution in color graphics was only 320x240 pixels while in monochrome was 640x200.
While unfortunately the 640x400 graphic mode was unused in games it made a huge difference in
spreadsheet, text and graphic based software such as Word, paint programs, Lotus 1-2-3 and even early
Windows environments. Just to see how advanced the system really was, search YouTube videos about
the PC under the name “AT&T PC 6300: A Retrospective”.

Olivetti M24 and gaming. With enough RAM the system was fast enough to run all games from the
80’s and was between 2 and 3 times faster in games than 8088 with 4.77 MHz based IBM PC’s and
compatibles. The Intel 80286 and Intel 80386 while clearly faster than the 8086 will be not as used in
80’s computers, making the M24 one of the best common early gaming PC’s.




IBM PC/XT vs. Olivetti M24 (AT&T PC 6300). Courtesy of Jim Leonard

The success and quality of this particular computer and the commercial alliance made with AT&T
allowed Olivetti to become in 1985 one of the world’s largest x86 PC builder after IBM and the best
personal computers builder in Europe and it is a stepping stone in the history of Italy’s personal
computers and technological innovations. Xerox and especially AT&T will also greatly gain by this
partnership with the innovating Italian company Olivetti.

New x86 O.S. launched in 1983

PC DOS 2.x. After the launch of DOS 1.x version, a small group of Microsoft programmers
(primarily Paul Allen, Mark Zbikowski and Aaron Reynolds) began to work on Microsoft’s DOS 2.0.
Completely rewritten from the ground up, DOS 2.0 added subdirectories and hard disk support for the
new IBM XT, which debuted in March 1983. A new 9-sector format bumped the capacity of floppy disks
to 360 KB. The Unix-inspired kernel featured file handles in place of the CP/M-derivative file control
blocks and loadable device drivers could now be used for adding hardware beyond what the IBM PC
BIOS supported. BASIC and most of the utilities provided with DOS were substantially upgraded as
well. A major undertaking that took almost 10 months of work; DOS 2.0 was more than twice as big as
DOS 1.x, occupying around 28KB of RAM compared to the 12KB of its predecessor. It would form the
basis for all Microsoft consumer-oriented operating systems until 2001, when Windows XP (based on
Windows NT) was released.
The following October, DOS 2.1 debuted. Predictably a minor upgrade, it fixed some bugs and added
support for half height floppy drives and the new IBM PCjr.
In 1983, newly-founded Compaq (1982) released the first 100% IBM PC compatible clone and
licensed their own OEM version of DOS 1.10 (quickly replaced by DOS 2.00) from Microsoft. Other PC
clones followed suit, most of which included hardware-specific DOS features, but some were completely
generic.
Games in 1983. The year of Arcade based games
When I look back in the 80’s and especially 1983 I realize how much IBM PC gained in gaming
because it had inspirations from other platforms and especially from arcade based electronic games.
While original games for IBM PC did appeared they were too few this year and is clear that gaming
industry as today will be lighter if not all that competition between platforms in the 80’s. As already seen
I will also include in this book many comparison elements available on the other personal computer
systems and consoles that have appeared, evolved, combated and improved trough competing the IBM
PC’s and x86 compatibles while many of them died on the evolution course. They deserve our greatest
respect.
What I like about the 80’s is the multitude of gaming systems that run the same game, considering there
were different CPU architectures, different video displays and operating systems. While many games
were created in similar programing languages thus helping to develop the games for many platforms it is
not easy to launch a game for 8-15 different platforms.
The PC games launched from 1983 while not so many can be separated in 2x2 main categories with
graphic or text/ASCII based and ported/multi-platform or original/exclusive IBM PC releases. Well, I
did clarify the difference between graphic and text/ASCII therefore I will clarify the second category.
While the ported/ multi-platform games are more representative for all electronic gaming industry I tried
to include in this book as many games originally released for IBM PC as they are much more
representative for x86 gaming. Unfortunately they are few in 1983.

IBM PC exclusive/original or first appeared on PC games. Each platform has on its lifespan several
representative games, games that brought prestige and respect, sometimes exclusive and sometimes
launched only later on the other platforms. While it is low on such games in the early 80’s the IBM PC
based gaming starts to offer from 1983 such games and I will name the most important two King’s Quest:
Quest for the Crown and somehow Digger.

Ported/ multi-platform games were initially available on other computer platforms, consoles or
Arcade systems. At that time x86 PC’s were not the main gaming systems on the market and so the
designers needed some inspiration from other platforms, licensing and designing games similar to those
already on market and sometimes unofficially porting them on MS-DOS.
PC booter definition. Since many games in 80’s come in a booter version I must clarify what a PC
booter game is so everyone must know when I specify about it. A PC booter, or simply booter, is a type of
software for early home computer era (1980s to early 1990s) of personal computers that was loaded and
executed then the computer booted from a bootable floppy disk, rather than as a regular program installed
on the MS-DOS operating system. In this way, by bypassing the operating system that was installed on the
hard disk of the computer it was easier to port/ develop a game as it required only direct hardware access
without the need to program and work on operating system Video games were the type of software most
commonly distributed as booter.
The first graphic adventure ever

King’s Quest (King’s Quest: Quest for the Crown” the 1987 re-release title) is a 1983/1984 graphic
adventure game, originally published for the IBM PCjr. It was actually launched because IBM asked
Sierra to produce an adventure game to showcase the technological capabilities of their new multimedia
PC (the PCjr). While the game was finished in 1983 it had to wait few months because the PCjr was
commercially launched in March 1984. It has the merit to be an IBM PC specific game at launch, for the
IBM PCjr and will be only later ported only later on other platforms such as Amiga (1987), Apple II
(1984), Apple IIgs (1987), Atari ST (1986), Macintosh (1987) and SEGA Master System (1989). The
story and the general design of the game were developed by Roberta Williams.
Genre innovation. The game is one of the first adventure games with graphics and the first adventure
game with graphical interaction, there were some text adventures with graphics but the text usually
occupied more than half the screen and the graphics were only for presentation sake, they weren’t
interactive and didn’t had any real value for clues and for gameplay inspiration.

My definition of an adventure game is an interactive story set with puzzles and obstacles to solve
and worlds to explore. -Roberta Williams

Description. King’s Quest featured interactive graphics that were an enormous leap over the mostly
un-animated ‘rooms’ of previous graphical interactive fiction. Prior to King’s Quest, the typical adventure
game presented the player a basic pre-drawn scene, accompanied by a large text description. The
player’s interaction with the game consisted entirely of typing commands into the game’s parser, then
reading the parser’s response, as the on-screen graphics rarely changed (except when the player moved to
a new location.) As the first adventure game to integrate graphical animation into the player’s view of
game world, King’s Quest shifted the focus away from the static scenery, to the player’s character, which
was now animated on-screen. As the player used the keyboard to explore the game world, the on-screen
character, Graham, was animated walking to the chosen destination. There were animation sequences for
most player-world interactions reachable through the normal course of exploration. For example, there
were different animation sequences showing Graham picking up objects from the ground, opening doors,
and wading through water. Depth perspective was simulated as well; Graham could walk behind objects,
causing his character to be ‘hidden’ from view, or walk in front of them, obscuring the object.
Graphic innovations. This attention to graphical animation, while commonplace in arcade-action
games, earned King’s Quest the distinction as the first “3D-animated” adventure game but as I’ve
mentioned before 3d seems to be different with every decade so now in the 2000’s we can only call this a
Pseudo 3d game with third person view, graphic style presented before. Even so for that time the
graphics were amazing.

PCjr/Tandy 1000 graphics on the left and 4 colors CGA graphics right

King’s Quest was also graphical advanced with its use of 16-color graphics on the PC, PCjr and
Tandy 1000; even CGA owners could enjoy the 16-color graphics by using a composite color monitor or
television, thanks to programmers exploiting the inaccuracies of composite NTSC Chroma decoding.
Selecting ‘RGB mode’ at the title screen would instead result in the usual CGA graphics mode limited to
4 colors. The CGA mode used the Palette 0 (red, yellow, green and blue instead of black as default
color). In this mode, basic dithering was employed to simulate extra colors.

Dithering, two colors, in large number close and small enough will simulate the third color. In this
case red and blue will create purple.

Like previous static-screen Sierra adventures, King’s Quest used vector based graphics rather than
pre-rendered bitmaps which would take far too much disk space considering the small amount of storage
available in 1983/1984. Each screen is drawn line-by-line and painted in when played. This technique
was used on all Sierra adventure games up to King’s Quest V.

Freshness is important. If a game is fresh, new, intriguing, challenging, and enchanting, it will
sell, and sell well. - Roberta Williams

Development and versions. Developed throughout and released 1983 by IBM as a demonstration
product for their IBM PCjr, King’s Quest was the first Sierra Entertainment game to use the Adventure
Game Interpreter (AGI) engine, however, the AGI engine wasn’t known as such until King’s Quest II. To
improve the game and to support newer graphic technologies the game received several updates and
newer releases over time:

 The original version (1983, IBM PCjr) - The original IBM-branded release for the PCjr. Came
with a full keyboard overlay template.
The second release (1984, IBM PCjr) - A minor update to the original packaging and include a
smaller function key template.
The third release (1984, Tandy) - A version for the Tandy 1000, quite similar regarding
graphics with the original PCjr.
The fourth release (1984) was a version for the standard IBM PC and had expanded backstory.
The fifth release (1987, PC) – This was a full re-release adding support for the Enhanced
Graphics Adapter (EGA) and Hercules Graphics Adapter (HGC). It ran under DOS, unlike the
1984 releases, which booted directly at startup. It was with this release that the sub-title Quest
for the Crown was used on the box for the first time.
The remake (1990). King’s Quest I: Quest for the Crown will be a 1990 remake of King’s
Quest; this release is based on the “Enhanced” version of King’s Quest and had an expanded
story. It uses the Sierra’s Creative Interpreter (SCI) engine, the same engine used in titles such as
King’s Quest IV; while it still used 16-color graphics, it featured twice the resolution as well as
sound card support for better music instead the original sound the PC speaker.



Every single element in this game was a breakthrough in its time: from the graphics innovations
presented before, to the genre and the new on screen graphics that helped the graphical interaction and
improved gameplay pleasure. While the game may look seriously limited in every possible element
compared with games from 90’s or 2000’s we must look at the game from the eyes of year 1983 and to
appreciate all the innovation and the impact it had on future PC gaming and especially adventure gaming.
The IBM PC exclusive inspired by arcades

Digger is a Canadian computer game released by Windmill Software in 1983 for the IBM PC only.
Digger has the merit to be a IBM PC exclusive game. It was not found or ported later on other platforms
because the original version of Digger is notably incompatible with anything except an IBM PC/XT with
a CGA video adapter as it relies on the CPU for timing and will run too fast on anything more than a 3.54
MHz 8088. This was one of the first games to use the CGA Tweaked mode that modified the video
registers directly thus cannot run on any other PC video hardware.

Genre. The game genre is action/arcade due to its short levels, simple and intuitive control schemes,
and rapidly increasing difficulty.



CGA graphics can look nice

Due to the game use of the CGA Tweaked mode it managed to get more than 4 colors out of 320x200
CGA mode trough palette switching (therefore displaying 8 colors) and without resorting on lowering
resolution as the CGA Composite mode did. The game looked great for the time, it had very vivid
graphics and the overall level design and enemies were pretty and interesting, a notable improvement in
graphics over most other DOS games at that time. While King Quest supported 16 colors this game was
prettier.
The sound was also tweaked. It had inspiring beeps and generally simple but enjoyable music,
another plus over most other MS-DOS games that year.
Digger is just incredible for a 1983 game. It did almost everything right as graphics were state of the
art, music was pseudo multi-channel, and gameplay was so addictive. The best gameplay elements of Dig
Dug and Mr. Do: the sound and music, the gameplay speed; even the cute little graphics are completely
appropriate. It’s obvious that Digger’s ideas were borrowed from existing games, but Windmill managed
to improve them greatly and made a true classic and one of the best 80’s MS-DOS games.
The end of originality. And so with these two first games ends the IBM PC gaming exclusivity from
1983 because most of the games further presented were arcade ports while fewer releases were initially
available on other personal computers platforms, now ported on IBM PC such as Ultima II and Lode
Runner.
First graphical RPG for IBM PC, inspired by Apple II
Ultima II - Revenge of the Enchantress was developed by Richard Garriott one of the fathers of
RPG’s. The original Apple II version was launched in 1982 while MSDOS version was launched in
1983. It was one of the first game to be officially ported to platforms other than the Apple II as it will be
ported later on Atari 8-bit (1983), Atari ST (1985), Commodore 64 (1983), FM-7 (1985), Macintosh
(1985), MSX (1989), PC-88 (1985) and PC-98 (1985). His predecessor the Ultima I: The First Age of
Darkness was released for MS-DOS very late in 1987, 6 years after its official launch.

Technical novelties. Ultima II was the first game of the series to be coded completely in assembly
language rather than in interpreted BASIC. Playing speed and reaction time were vastly improved over
the original release of Ultima I. Since Richard Garriott was attending college at the time, it took him
almost two years to create Ultima II. It used a tile-based graphics system, the first game in the genre to do
so.

Description and gameplay. The gameplay is very similar to the previous game in the series, Ultima.
The scope of the game is bigger while the game world is a couple of times the size of the original Ultima.
You don’t only travel through different kingdoms anymore, you also travel through time. Not only do you
once more venture into outer space, but now you can even land on other planets of our solar system, and
explore them. Towns are now themselves multi-screen environments, each with a unique structure. And
there are many other peaceful inhabitants wandering around, although they don’t have much to say yet.
Along with dungeons, there are also towers, and both of them have over a dozen uniquely designed levels
each, with improved monster graphics. Ultima II was the first game in the series to include a cloth map
inside the box, which would become a staple of the franchise. This map, which illustrated how the time
doors were linked, was inspired by the one seen in the film Time Bandits. Two versions of this map were
produced. The first version is of a heavier and thicker material.
Graphics. Regarding graphics both CGA and CGA Composite were greatly implemented for the IBM
PC version. Comparing to other games the 1983 competition in this game was not so overwhelmingly
superior; C64 and Atari 8’bit graphics were similar, while Apple II had better colors but smaller
resolution.


Impressive CGA composite mode use; the standard CGA was also nice despite only 4 colors

The C64 version of this game

For those who are die hard Ultima fanatics, the game is a must play. For the rest of us gamers is more
complicated; while the game had many good and innovative elements at the time, these elements lose their
importance in time as games are improved yearly while the many flaws in the gameplay and the very high
difficulty of the game are still present. Today we regard this game as an important piece of history for
computer gaming, one of the first graphical RPG’s to grace PC owners, a very great game at the time.
Multiplatformer with brains
Lode Runner is a 1983 puzzle game, first published by Broderbund software. The original
microcomputer versions included the Apple II series, the Atari 8-bit family, the VIC-20, the Commodore
64, the IBM PC, and a Konami version licensed for the MSX computer named King’s Valley. A port for
the original 128k Macintosh followed in 1984 and the game received about 20 different ports.
Gameplay. The player controls a small humanoid that must collect all the gold in a level while
avoiding guards who try to catch the player. After collecting all the gold, the player must travel to the top
of the screen to reach the next level.

CGA colors don’t ruin this game

The game used only the CGA Palette 1 (4 colors) and while the resolution is good and the level
design was quite impressive at that time, the graphics were a little better on the other platforms. The
limited number of uninspired colors is the main reason as most other platform had a better range of
colors.
Innovation. It is one of the first games to include a level editor, a feature that allows players to create
their own levels for the game. This feature bolstered the game’s popularity, as magazines such as
Computer Gaming World held contests to see who could build the best level.

BBC Micro(left) had good graphics while on Apple were even better

A.I. Innovation. The guards do not simply walk into the player by taking always the shortest path,
they move in seemingly counter-intuitive ways according to a strange algorithm. This is a key factor in
game logic, especially in the advanced levels, where exploiting the behavior of the guards is essential
toward attaining the solution. In general, depending on the exact positioning relative to Lode Runner, the
guards sometimes appear to be repelled. The behavior is far from random, however. A big part of
mastering the game involves developing the intuition to predict the movement of the guards.
The game had very fast action, it was pretty funny, the enemies were also speedy and persistent, and
you did have to think fast. An addictive rush of treasure grabbing, puzzle solving and fast action combined
in an early game with lots of polish make this a rightfully classic from the 80’s.

The year of arcade like action based games. Except the King’s Quest adventure, an original IBM
PC title, and the Ultima II - Revenge of the Enchantress an RPG the other IBM PC games with graphic
launched this year are action games with arcade like gameplay. Many of them were also inspired by
arcades, a statement that shows the success that arcade gaming had in the middle 80’s. Even Digger an
IBM PC exclusive and quite a great game is based on an arcade video game Dig Dug.
The arcade inspiration of Digger

Dig Dug is an action/arcade game developed and published by Namco in Japan in 1982 for Namco
Galaga hardware. It was later published outside of Japan by Atari for its consoles and PC platforms. The
last version of this game was launched in 2008 for the Wii and by that year it amassed almost 30 different
releases (including handheld gaming devices), quite an achievement. The DOS version came as a Booter
in 1983. This game was a source of inspiration for the better previously presented Digger PC game and
because it is the original it clearly deserves consideration.

 Graphics are good and have tricks but Digger did use the CGA even better

Tricky graphics. This is one of the first MS-DOS games to support both CGA Palette 1 (left) and
Palette 0 (right) and also to include the simple but cool dithering trick to simulate a larger number of
colors. As you can see better on the right image from top to bottom there is the brown color, after is
brown with small dots of green and we can see yellow, then placed small dots of red over brown forming
orange and the last one has small dots of black over brown forming a darken brown. Therefore besides
the 4 colors of the Palette 0 (black, green, red, brown) we can also see yellow, orange and dark brown;
quite neat.

While Dig Dug was based on a simple concept it was an absolute hoot in the arcades and the MS-
DOS port retains the all-important gameplay of the classic game and did a good job with graphics(unlike
other ports) to deliver a very pleasant gaming experience.
Arcade based centripede
Centipede is a vertically-oriented shoot ‘em up arcade game produced by Atari, Inc. in 1981. The
game was designed by Ed Logg along with Dona Bailey; one of the few female game programmers in the
industry at this time. The PC version was launched in 1983 as a PC Booter and over time the game was
ported on more than 15 platforms. It was also one of the first arcade coin-operated games to have a
significant female player base, after Pac-Man.
Gameplay. In Centipede, the player is trapped in the Enchanted Forest. The player is armed only with
a magic wand to ward off the forest’s insect denizens all of which apparently are attacking in the player in
continuous waves. The player defends against swarms of insects, completing a round after eliminating the
centipede that winds down the playing field.
Graphics. This is one of the few games when the number of colors is not so important and the
resolution really matters. Using the preferable CGA palette 0 and a good resolution the game graphics are
comparable with the other computer platforms at the time.

Good CGA use

Some of the competition the TI-99/4A (left) and the ZX Spectrum right

Centipede puts your pulse rate through a series of hills and valleys as the creature gets lower on each
level. As a game with actual graphics, Centipede was a big surprise for the IBM PC. The gameplay is
smooth and challenging, with the same rising difficulty level as the arcade version and the graphics are
also good.
An early arcade classic makes its way on PC
Frogger is an arcade game introduced in 1981. It was developed by Konami, and licensed for
worldwide distribution by Sega/Gremlin. This classic arcade game was brought to DOS in 1983 in a PC
Booter version and later in 1984 was launched for IBM PCjr. It was so popular that received more than
30 ports for all major platforms sometimes receiving more than one port for some of them.
Gameplay. The game is simple: make it across the street without becoming road kill across the river
onto one of five openings. Once all five spots are filled, you move on to the next level.

Frogger on MS-DOS is great looking, glad they use Palette 0.

Launched in 1983 the MSX computer received a great looking version (left) while the arcade version
(right) is also spectacular (for 1981)
Regarding graphics the MSDOS version was great, it was one of the best looking CGA games and it
had higher resolution graphics than most rivals and did use the CGA Tweaked mode to increase the
number of colors trough palette switching to 8. While programmers did a great job for MS-DOS, they
also did their best for the other platforms therefore most Frogger ports had even more impressive
graphics.

Just about everything about this game was great back in 1983! It was a fun (not to mention perfect)
arcade-conversion, with terrific graphics, good sounds and music and way to cool gameplay therefore
Frogger is a true classic.
Beer for everyone!
Tapper, also known as Root Beer Tapper, is a 1983 arcade game released by Bally Midway. It was
released for about 10 different platforms including a Booter release for MS-DOS in 1983.
Tapper is an action arcade game where you’re a beer tapper (barman) and have to serve beer to
demanding customers. There are four customers; each has its own lane lengthier than the previous one,
whom you have to keep at bay. If they reach the end of the lane without receiving their beer, you’re a
goner; if you miss one and accidentally spill beer needlessly you lose a life and should one of them throw
you back the mug and you fail to catch it, you lose a life as well.
Graphics. The game used only both CGA 4 colors RGB palette and the 16 colors CGA composite
mode available only with composite monitors. While the 4 color RGB was bland and unimpressive, the
CGA Composite greatly improved the visual appeal of the IBM PC version.

CGA left while the CGA composite right, saved the day

BBC Micro (1985), ZX Spectrum (1985), Amstad CPC (1986)

The game will also be very popular in U.K. and all major PC personal computers from the island will
receive later a port of this game.

The very fast action, good sound, funny design made an interesting game back in the 80’s and was
quite popular especially in U.K. Imagine if the Tapper would have served tea instead of beer.
2.5D Isometric game for IBM PC

J-Bird (4 colors used) is a 1983 PC clone of Gottlieb’s 1982 arcade hit Q*Bert, and was written by
Greg Kuperberg for Orion Software. The object is to change all tiles of the pyramid to a certain color by
hopping onto them, and while avoiding various hazard characters such as red orbs, black cats and King-
Bo the snake. The game follows the original arcade Q*Bert formula pretty closely and is great fun to play.
While the graphics are pretty simple and use CGA 4 colors they are pleasant and the isometric spacial
design of the pyramid gives you a solid sensation of 3d. This is one of the first isometric games available
for IBM PC, quite an early achievement and while its inspiration source Q*Bert was an earlier isometric
game, launched in 1982, it only appeared only later on MSDOS in 1984, one year after J-Bird.

Nice 2.5d isometric graphics

 This was a good MS-DOS game at the time as it had good gameplay, decent isometric graphics and a
very appropriate name, J-Bird.
Better on arcade

Defender is an arcade video game developed and released by Williams Electronics in 1980. The MS-
DOS CGA version of the game was launched in 1983.
As a shooting game featuring two-dimensional (2D) graphics, the game is set on a fictional planet
where the player must defeat waves of invading aliens while protecting astronauts.
The MS-DOS version graphics were based on the CGA palette 0 and were good enough, comparable
to the other gaming systems at the time but the MS-DOS sound was bad. Compared with the original
arcade sound and even other personal computers such as Atari 8-bit and the C64 the MS-DOS port had
awful beeps that just offended the ears.

Good CGA, graphics were similar on all gaming platforms

The original arcade Defender was a fast entertaining and graphically rich game with superb gameplay,
sound and controls. Unfortunately the MS-DOS version was nowhere near. While the graphics are good
they are not as rich and vivid and the game is more unresponsive even with a joystick. The worse part of
all is the sound, always a problem on most early x86 games.
Another multiplatform game, originally an arcade
Miner 2049er is an action/ platform video game created by Bill Hogue that was released in 1982 as
arcade by Big Five Software. The game was licensed in conjunction with International Computer Group
(ICG). At the time only of its release, Miner 2049er was notable for having ten different screens, and the
number grew in time including a PC Booter for IBM PC from 1983. The game was also very popular in
Japan and was launched on several important Japanese computers the FM-7 and NEC PC88 with higher
resolution and better graphics.
The IBM PC version graphics are inferior compared to all other versions because the CGA with the few
colors from Palette 1 didn’t help the visuals.


 Miner 2049er for MS-DOS

Atari 8-bit left and C64 right were preferable

This game has it all. It was tireless, entertaining with a darn good sense of humor and had consistent
game play. While the IBM PC version is troubled by the lower graphics and sound effects quality the
game was still a nice addition for MS-DOS gamers.

Early parallax scrolling game

Moon Patrol is an arcade game by Irem that was first released in 1982.The x86 version was
launched in a Booter release, one year later in 1983. Moon Patrol was one of the earliest side-scrolling
shooters and is often credited for the introduction of parallax scrolling in side-scrolling video games
although Jump Bug featured it first.
Gameplay. The player controls a moon buggy, viewing it from the side that travels over the moon’s
surface. While driving it, obstacles such as craters and mines must be avoided. The buggy is also attacked
by UFOs from above and tanks on the ground.

Moon Patrol had a modest port on the CGA. TI-99/4A

received better graphics

.
Moon Patrol graphics used the CGA Palette 0 with unimpressive results, and was clearly behind all
other platforms regarding graphics. The parallax scrolling effect was also less visible when compared to
other platforms.
While the CGA graphics were uninspired the PC port was quite nice, with very good sounds and
gameplay, making an enjoyable experience.

Other two decent CGA based games from 1983 were: Moon Bugs and Seadragon.

Moon Bugs developed by Windmill Software is notable for the use of CGA Tweaked mode and was
one of the few games to use the 160x100x16-color mode. This was the only CGA mode to offer 16 true
colors on RGB monitors. The resolution was very small, even smaller than CGA Composite at 160x200
which offered the same 16 colors but they were artefacted colors and the mode worked only on
Composite monitors.


Extremely small resolution but true 16 colors

Sea Dragon is a side-scrolling game for the TRS-80 computer, written by Wayne Westmoreland and
Terry Gilman, and released in 1982 by Adventure International. It was one of the most popular games for
the monochrome TRS-80. Its success on the TRS-80 led to it being ported to the Apple II, Atari 400/800,
TRS-80 Color Computer and IBM PC.

TRS-80 monochrome graphics left, MS-DOS CGA right.

In this game all other platforms except the monochrome TRS-80 had better graphics than CGA; the
game wasn’t very successful on the IBM PC platform.

3D graphics in 1983, how is this possible ?!

This is the first year in MS-DOS history that will give us decent 3d graphics in two very important
games: 3-Demon an exclusive IBM PC release and Battlezone, a successful port of the arcade based
Battlezone. While the graphics were simple and were based on vector both games were considerably
better than Microsoft Flight Simulator while the games were much more enjoyable.
3D wire-frame graphics/vector graphics, no filled colors but still 3d
Battlezone is an arcade game from Atari released in November 1980. It displays a wireframe view
(using vector graphics rather than raster graphics) on a horizontal black and white (with green and red
sectioned color overlay) vector monitor. Due to its original gameplay and look, this game was very
popular for many years. The IBM PC version was also made also by Atari but later in 1983. While the
graphics were 3d they are quite simple. Because of its use of first-person vector 3D graphics combined
with an actual “viewing goggle” that the player puts his face into, Battlezone is widely considered the
first virtual reality arcade game.

IBM PC 3d like vector graphics (left) were slightly better than all PC’s at the time including the
Apple II version (right)

Atari programmers did wonders with this game, one of the best looking Atari 2600 games ever

3d vector graphics. Battlezone for the PC was released during a time when the only PC title to have
vector 3D graphics was Flight Simulator, and the graphics in Flight Simulator are so modest that I have a
problem to consider them 3d. For a 3d vector game not only that it run well, but it was a nearly perfect
conversion and it ran just as fast as it did in the arcade.
This is one of the few games where the slightly higher resolution of CGA 320x240 over Apple II
280x192 is more important that the number of colors displayed 3+1 vs 6+2 in Apple, as 8 colors were not
needed in this game. 3d vector graphics don’t require many colors to look decent and this is one of the
examples. On a decent CGA resolution, the black environment plus three colors were enough to create a
pleasant graphic experience. All other PC’s at the time except the ZX Spectrum port (1984) had worse
graphics when compared to CGA, C64 included.
While the IBM PC lacks the dual joystick the porting was good, faithful to the original and very fun to
play. You don’t have to be familiar with the arcade to enjoy the game; it’s a great shooter that really ups
the “nervous” factor and forces you to keep one eye on the radar at all times. Fans of the original arcade
game won’t be disappointed by the gameplay, and modern arcade emulation programmers will be
impressed by the conversion made for the IBM PC, as this is the first 3d vector game with good graphics
for IBM PC.
Pac-Man clone in 3D
3-Demon (also known as Monster Maze) is a 3D vector 1983 exclusive DOS computer game based on
Pac-Man. While the game was exclusive for IBM PC but the 1982 Monster Maze video game launched for
Atari 400/800 and VIC-20 was almost the same game under a different name.
Description. The player wanders through a 3-D wireframe maze, eating pellets and avoiding red
ghosts. Eating a power pellet turns the ghosts green and gives the player the ability to eat them for extra
points. Similar to Pac-Man, the game had an increasing difficulty for each level completed. However,
unlike Pac-Man, the player wasn’t required to eat all the pellets, but an increasing percentage for every
level completed.

Nice CGA graphics; Red is bad, stay away from it

Graphic innovations. The game developer PC Research Inc. did a good research over the CGA
capabilities as they used the CGA Tweaked mode while changing the default black color with blue on the
preferable Palette 0 CGA standard. The line based vector graphics were still simple but the first person
perspective and the color filled maze monsters were nice.

Monster maze (1982). Atari 8-bit and Vic-20 had both a lower resolution.

3-Demon is a notable example of an early video game told from a first-person perspective. While the
gaming value of this game has been deflated because of old age the historical value is huge due to its
technical innovations. Without a tiny bit of nostalgia you will probably not enjoy this game.

Text based games in 1983. There are some quality ASCII MS-DOS based games in 1983 including
some of the best interactive fiction games in the 80’s, games that complemented nicely the overall x86
games portfolio in 1983.

Large, tough to beat, worthy of the Zork name

Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz is an interactive fiction video game published by Infocom in 1981.
It was written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels and Tim Anderson.


Inside the Bank of Zork – a very difficult puzzle.
It was the second game in the popular Zork trilogy and was released for a wide range of computer
systems. It begins where Zork I left off and leads into Zork III. It is the second game released by Infocom.

Zork 2 is a very worthy challenge for anyone who has cut their teeth on a few text adventures. The
game’s most attractive quality is perhaps the Wizard himself; his random appearances make the game less
static than other Infocom titles, and contribute to the uniquely sculpted atmosphere that the game presents.
This is a large, tough, excellent sequel.

Weirder, darker, almost as good as Zork II

Zork III: The Dungeon Master is an interactive textual fiction video game written by Marc Blank,
Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels and Tim Anderson and published by Infocom in 1982. It was the third game
in the popular Zork trilogy and was released for a wide range of computer systems. It is Infocom’s fourth
game.

Who said you cannot fight in a text fiction games?!

This is the most mature all Zork games, and the one that tries to break the usual treasure crawl
routine in a very refreshing and challenging way. It also has a wonderful, dark and intense atmosphere that
made it easier to get into the game; the typical Zorkian humor is far more subtle here.

Zork with spells

Enchanter (a.k.a. Zork IV) is a text adventure set in the Zork universe, following the original Zork
trilogy. It also was a very successful game and will be launched for 10 diffrent platforms.

Talking frogs, not so uncommon in video games

As in the previous games, the player interacts with the environment by typing in text commands,
usually combinations of verbs and objects. A new feature in the game is the player character’s ability to
cast spells. These spells must be memorized before the protagonist is able to cast them, and are learned
during the course of the game. The text parses understands the names of the spells as verbs, and the player
only needs to type in the spell name and the name of an object he/she wishes to cast that particular spell
on.
While the first three Zork games are great this one is even better. The plot is rather nice, but the best
part is the puzzles, many based on the spells. You have to find and use quite a few spells and make others
do things for you and although the game is difficult it is also very rewarding making this a classic.

Witty, atmospheric and emotional SF text adventure

Planetfall is a science fiction interactive fiction computer game written by Steve Meretzky, and the
eighth title published by Infocom in 1983. Planetfall utilizes the Z-machine originally developed for the
Zork franchise and was added as a bonus to the “Zork Anthology”.

Like most Infocom games, thanks to the portable Z-machine, it was released for several platforms
simultaneously. The original release included versions for the PC (both as a booter and DOS release) and
Apple II. Although Planetfall was Meretzky’s first title, it proved one of his most popular works and a
best-seller for Infocom; it was one of five top-selling titles to be re-released in Solid Gold versions
including in-game hints. A review in Computer Gaming World considered the game a good place to start
for those new to interactive fiction. It has been described as “still lovingly remembered”.

Abandoning the spaceship

This is a really great introductory IF adventure, especially for fans of humorous science fiction. It has
everything: a dramatic plot, a big, logical, realistic world to explore, and, best of all the loveable NPC
robot Floyd and one of the most memorable and emotional scenes in computing history.

Innovative turn-based ASCII

Rogue is a dungeon crawling video game first developed by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman around
1980. It was a favorite on college Unix systems in the early to middle 80’s, in part due to the procedural
generation of game content. Rogue popularized dungeon crawling as a video game trope, leading others to
develop a class of derivatives known collectively as “roguelikes”. For example, it directly inspired
Hack, which in turn led to NetHack.

Rogue, graphics made of ASCII, very enjoyable

The game uses ASCII characters to represent locations, items, monsters, and the protagonist himself.
There are twenty-six different types of monsters, symbolized by their initial letters (e.g. L for
Leprechaun). Monsters have different abilities and modes of attack. The dungeon and the items in it are
randomly generated each time the player begins a new game. Each dungeon level contains a grid of three
by three rooms and dead ends.
I find it really hard to describe thinks that I find perfect. I guess most people will feel frustrated
when playing this. You have to be in a certain frame of mind; you should not be playing to win, but you
should just play to play. It’s some kind of Zen – player review.

A must be played
Suspended: A Cryogenic Nightmare is an interactive fiction video game written by Michael Berlyn
and published by Infocom in 1982. Like most Infocom titles, it was available on most popular personal
computers of the day; the MS-DOS was released in 1983. It was Infocom’s sixth game.
Gameplay is not the common text adventure single person navigation. Instead of navigating the main
character, a suspended human called the Central Mentality the player indirectly controls six robots that do his
bidding, exploring the environment and interacting with it. Each robot has different functions and has its own
way of seeing reality and reacting to events around it. Iris is the only robot that can see and therefore visually
describe locations and objects; Whiz can provide technical information obtained from computers; the sonar-
powered Waldo is good at holding items; Auda is an expert in sounds; the cryptically speaking Poet senses
the flow of electric currents; finally, Sensa can detect magnetic and photon emissions. The player advances in
the game by using the different abilities of the robots and solving puzzles. The game is also slightly
“replayable”.

The game introduction, a planet in dangers and the five robots you have to get in one room

What are text adventures best at, that graphic adventures cannot do? They relate everything via text, so
if you are simulating a sense like smell or thought patterns based in Shakespeare, you can only do it in
interactive fictions. That is the point of this game, where you try to save the world by assuming the role of
5 different robots, who each perceive the world in different ways. Thus, only by getting them all in the
same room can you truly understand what is happening there. This one of best (and most abstract) text
adventure games of our time that also has one of the most innovative stories ever; is one of the few
interactive fictions that you just have to try, is that amazing.

Games vs. hardware conclusion in 1983. Again there is little to be said as all games run on the 8088
and the CGA/ MDA adapters. Nonetheless I do appreciate the fact that game programmers at the time
learned some tricks with the limited CGA standard: they used the CGA Composite mode with good
quality in some games and they’ve also implemented the CGA Tweaked with great results including 8
colors in others and combined small dots to fake more colors trough dithering technique in the standard 4
color 320x200 CGA mode.
Sound quality was quite limited compared to most other systems, with the C64 and Atari 8-bit
computers the best platforms regarding sound quality.
The gaming competition for x86 in 1983.
The other electronic gaming platforms from 1983 are again much better for gaming than IMB PC,
with more and better games, with better graphics, much better sounds and overall cheaper platforms.
Special CGA modes such as Composite mode or Tweaked mode did help some MSDOS games to look
decent even good in some cases such as Digger and Frogger while the high resolution helped to compete
in some CGA games and the 3d vector games such as 3-Demon and Battlezone. Even so overall graphic
and especially sound capabilities were still way behind most other platforms.

While this was still a good year for video arcades and consoles, we have this year the first signs of
concern regarding them signaling the beginning of the North American video game crash (1983-1985).
Games were not as successful as the previous years on arcades and were some bad games released on
Atari 2600 such Custer’s Revenge, Pac-Man and especially E.T.
New competing gaming platforms launched in 1983
 Enhanced Apple

Apple IIe. The Apple IIe is the third model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by
Apple Computer. The e in the name stands for enhanced, referring to the fact that several popular features
were now built-in that were only available as upgrades and add-ons in earlier models. It also improved
upon expandability and added a few new features, which, all combined, made it very attractive to first-
time computer shoppers as a general-purpose machine. The Apple IIe has the distinction of being the
longest-lived computer in Apple’s history, having been manufactured and sold for nearly 11 years with
relatively few changes.

Apple IIe, a successful update

While it offered a new graphic mode compared to the original Apple II called Double-High-
Resolution: 560×192 (15 colors) this new graphic mode was effectively used in games under a smaller
resolution 140×192/15 color, due to pixel placement restrictions. Therefore the most used graphic mode
was the one also used in the older Apple II computer 280×192 (6 colors). This is the reason why all
Apple II and Apple IIe games have identical graphics.
Made for the world, particularly used and loved in Japan

MSX is the name of a standardized home computer architecture, first announced by Microsoft on June
16, 1983. It was conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at
ASCII Corporation. It is said that Microsoft led the project as an attempt to create unified standards
among hardware makers. As Microsoft learned much later, a good operating system such as Windows
3.1x and especially Windows 95 can be much better catalyzer than a personal computer to create a unified
hardware market.


Despite Microsoft’s involvement, the MSX-based machines were seldom seen in the United States,
but were popular mostly in Japan, the Middle East, Brazil, and in several European countries. It is
challenging to estimate how many MSX computers were sold worldwide, but eventually 5 million MSX-
based units were sold in Japan alone, quite a significant and large number.
Hardware. The main hardware for the first MSX model, both the microprocessor and the Video
Display Processor are similar to the 1982 ZX Spectrum, using an Zilog Z80A microprocessor running at
3.58 MHz and the Texas Instruments TMS9918 video display controller for graphics with the same strong
points and weaknesses. The difference came in the sound capabilities as the MSX was more capable with a
dedicated 3-voice Programmable Sound Generator (PSG) designed by General Instrument while ZX
Spectrum had a basic beeper capable of producing one channel with 10 octaves.
MSX and gaming. Before the appearance and great success of Nintendo’s Family Computer, MSX
was the first platform for which major Japanese game studios, such as Konami and Hudson Soft,
produced video game titles. The Metal Gear series, for example, was originally written for MSX
hardware.
The MSX family of computers (including future and more powerful members such as MSX2 AND
MSX2+) will be a great platform for gaming with almost 1000 games created for the family, including
several true gems.

Gaming on the older competition in 1983

Video arcades received a large number of games such as: Star Wars, Mario Bros, Dragon’s Lair,
Tapper and many others, more than 15 arcade games.

The first ever Mario sight, was in the arcade

There were also some unexpected arcade failures such as the 1982 Jack the Giantkiller and the 1983
I Robot, the first video game to use 3-D polygon graphics (including polygon shading), clearly showing
the fact that innovations plus arcade don’t necessarily result in market success.

I robot had innovative polygon graphics; only 750–1500 arcades were built

While the number of newer arcade games launched in 1983 was quite impressive, the newer arcade
failed to sell well, the major profits coming from older and more successful arcades launched in the
1978-1982 timeframe and even those successful older arcades had lower sales in 1983.

A mix of good games and bad games, with the later weighing more

Atari 2600. While troubled by some uninspired newly released games this will be the last good year for
Atari 2600 with many good games such as: Battlezone, Frogger, Enduro, Dig Dug, Keystone Kapers, Jungle
Hunt and Pole Position.

Keistone Kapers for Atari 2600

Unfortunately the appreciation and success of Atari 2600 will be seriously shaken in 1983 with the
launch of some uninspired flops games such as Custer’s Revenge, Pac-Man and especially E.T. These
games clearly failed to meet the quality standards of gamers that will start to consider more and more the
personal computers as gaming platforms, with the C64 as the first choice.

Intellivision also received its share of good games in 1983, most of them arcade remakes such as:
Pac-Man, Frogger, Bump’n’Jump, Donkey Kong Junior, Popeye, Q*Bert and one console only game:
Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man!

Popeye for Intellivision

ColecoVision had a great year in 1983, at least as good as Atari 2600 with many top games such as:
Donkey Kong, Junior Frenzy (aka Berzerk II), Space Panic, Pepper II, Mr. Do!, Q*Bert, B.C.‘s Quest for
Tires, SubRoc, Jungle Hunt and Galaxian.



Galaxian for ColecoVision had great graphics.

The ColecoVision was the most technical advanced console back in early 80’s and the high graphic
quality, mixed with a good gaming support from the platform builders and third party game developers
ensured decent sales and good quality in many games.

Atari 5200. Launched in 1982, the newer Atari console succeeded to make an impressive presence
on the console market in 1983 received more top games than all other main players on the console market,
including the direct competitor, the powerful ColecoVision. Some of the best games launched for Atari
5200 in 1983 are Pengo, Space Dungeon, Miner 2049er, Realsports Baseball, Ms. Pac-Man, Jungle Hunt,
Vanguard, Super Cobra and Decathlon.

Realsports Baseball, good colors and details for a console game

Almost two thirds of the games launched for Atari 5200 were developed or co-developed by Atari,
clearly showing the company interest in the home console market.

Gaming on personal computers. What is interesting about this year is the fact that home computers
surpassed the consoles regarding the total number of games and most of them also had better graphics than
home consoles except perhaps the ColecoVision.

Vic-20 had the best year for gaming in 1983 receiving a large number of good games. While fewer
games will also be launched from 1984, this is the last year I will talk about the VIC-20 as C64 will take its
place on the market. Some of the best games launched for the VIC-20 in 1983 are Shamus, Lode Runner,
Q*Bert, Frogger, Jetpac, Galaxian, Donkey Kong, Pole Position and Ms. Pac-Man.



Jetpac for VIC-20. Some of the best graphics found in VIC-20 games

C64. While the C64 launch year the 1982 was not so great for gaming from 1983 the C64 will take
the lead in U.S. regarding the total number of top games available for an electronic gaming platform, an
advantage it kept until late 80’s. Graphics were also good but C64 wasn’t always the best regarding
visuals. C64 good games from 1983 were quite many: Lode Runner, Ultima II: The Revenge of the
Enchantress, M.U.L.E., Defender, Styx, Jumpman, Wizard of Wor and Blue Max.

Wizard of Wor, good graphics and high resolution for 1983

While I presented only the best games launched for the C64 we must acknowledge that more than 300
games were launched for the Commodore 64 in 1983, compared with little over 40 in 1982 clearly
showing how successful the computer platform really was at only one year after its market release.

Apple II received only several great games in 1983: Pac-Man, Ultima III: Exodus, Lode Runner,
Zaxxon, Cavern Creatures and more others not as great, an unimpressive showing compared to the
successful C64. Apple II received about 110 games in 1983, a good performance but clearly behind C64.

Pac-Man for Apple II, good port with good graphics

Atari 8’bit. For Atari 8-bit computers 1983 is one of the most productive years with a significant
number of good games such as: Alley Cat, Rainbow Walker, Donkey Kong, Dandy, Blue Max, Jumpman,
M.U.L.E., Archon: The Light and Dark and some others, losing only to C64 and ZX Spectrum concerning
top games. About 180 games were launched in 1983 for the Atari 8-bit computers, a very large number.

A rainbow of colors in Rainbow Walker, the C64 (1984) version of this game was not so beautiful
While the newer C64 had slightly better sound the Atari 8-bit computers had a slightly advantage on
graphic capabilities over the newer Commodore with better color palette and more vivid colors.
Nonetheless the price wars and huge advertisements for the C64 will severely reduce Atari 8-bit computer
sales.
TRS-80 CoCo. This is perhaps the best year for TRS-80 CoCo gaming with several good games such
as: Trapfall (aka Cuthbert in the Jungle), The King (aka Donkey King), Zaxxon and Time Bandit. The TRS
Co-Co will receive about 40 games this year.

Zaxxon for TRS-80, decent isometric graphics, few colors

TI-99/4A. 1983 is another good year for TI-99/4A gaming because this is the first year when Texas
Instruments convinced a decent number of game designers to create top games for its platform. Such games
were Pac-Man (Atarisoft/Namco), Space Bandits (Milton Bradley), Donkey Kong (Atarisoft/Nintendo),
Super Demon Attack (Imagic) while Texas Instruments released Moon Mine and Hopper. The overall number
of games received was still very low, with less than 30 games launched.




Super Demon Attack for TI-99/4A; very nice graphics

BBC Micro received Starship Command (Acornsoft), Centripede, Chuckie Egg (A&F) and few
other more modest games. In general BBC Micro games are not as known or popular as the games
launched for the U.S. based personal computers. Almost 40 games were launched in 1983 for the Micro.

Few BBC Micro games looked as good as Chuckie Egg

ZX Spectrum. I saved the best British system for the last presentation. I clearly specified that C64
received the most games on the U.S. market as it was another computer system, in United Kingdom to
have an even larger number of good games and even better overall graphics compared to C64. The ZX
Spectrum lost the battle with C64 concerning the total number of games received this year about 170 for
ZX Spectrum and more than 300 for C64. ZX Spectrum is just amazing for a platform that was launched
only a year after IBM PC and already was a much better gaming platform with many top games such as:
Atic Atac, Manic Miner, Jetpac, Pac-Man, Ant Atack, Fighter Pilot, Hall of Things, Stop the Express,
Doomsday Castle, Valhalla, Chequerded Flag, perhaps even others. Hats down.





Atic Atac, an exclusive game for ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro (1985)

While the ZX games used a relatively small 256x192 resolution, the palette of 15 shades: seven
colors at two levels of brightness each, plus black made quite graphically rich graphics, very vivid, many
times beating the more capable C64 regarding graphics appeal while costing less than half at launch.

1983 Conclusion concerning IBM PC gaming. As a final conclusion year 1983 is quite a modest
gaming year for IBM PC but is nonetheless interesting for the evolution of x86 gaming. While there are
more games and also had better graphics compared to 1982 there is only one completely original and also
great IBM PC game the first King Quest. Other two great exclusive games Digger and 3-Demon were also
inspired from other platforms, while the rest of the games were ported games initially launched on
arcades and other non x86 personal computers.
The ASCII based games were particularly good this year, appearing in large numbers and with top
quality, increasing to a decent level the limited number of good games available for IBM PC.
The relative new platform excuse (1981 release) wasn’t viable anymore as two computers launched
in 1982, the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum already dominated the electronic gaming market while
all other personal computers and consoles were also clearly better for gaming. The one word conclusion
for 1983 MS-DOS gaming is feeble but overall acceptable.
As an overall yearly ranking the PC did slightly defeated BBC Micro, TI-99/4A and TRS-80 CoCo
regarding overall gaming but was clearly inferior to all other remaining gaming platforms: arcades,
consoles and home computers.

Games vs. Hardware in 1984

General computer industry in 1984
1984 is again an interesting year for computer industry and I will name some of the most important
computer related events of the year:

An impressive number of future important companies are founded this year but I will name only
the most important Dell founded May 3, 1984 in Austin, Texas a future leader in home computer
sales.

Amiga is purchased by Commodore Business Machines on August 15th. A great move since the
Amiga computer family will be one of the greatest multimedia computers in the 80’s.

This year took place two important technological discoveries, both coming from Japan such as the
flash memory (both NOR and NAND types) invented by Dr. Fujio Masuoka while Hitachi
 announces it has developed the first memory chip capable of holding 1MB on January 5th.

On January 24, 1984 the first commercial computer with a graphical O.S. the Apple Macintosh
was introduced.

The 3.5-inch floppy diskette is introduced and later becomes an industry standard and Microsoft
creates a new hardware and peripheral division.

More attention is also diverted towards networking and internet and so ASN.1 is defined, Apple
AppleTalk networking protocol is launched; Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel also introduce DNS
and Microsoft launch MS-DOS 3.1 which included network support.

Regarding personalities Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are awarded the National Medal of
Technology, Bill Gates is featured on the cover of TIME magazine and May is a great month to
give birth to tenchno-socials as two of Facebook co-founder were born this month: Mark
Zuckerberg was born May 14, 1984 while Dustin Moskovitz was born May 22, 1984

New x86 Hardware, launched in 1984

When speaking about hardware in the 80’s we must consider the fact that almost all computers with
CGA graphics, even those launched from 1981/1982 could run 99% of the games from all 80’s only with
a RAM update therefore while I will yearly present the new x86 hardware launched we must
acknowledge that most of the previous year’s computers could also perform the newer games.

The first x86 portable PC designed by IBM

The IBM Portable Personal Computer 5155 model 68 was an x86 portable computer developed by
IBM that followed the success of Compaq’s suitcase-size portable computer, the Compaq Portable. It was
released in February, 1984, and was later replaced by the IBM Convertible.

The Portable is mainly a PC/XT motherboard, transplanted into a Compaq-style luggable case. The
system featured 256 KB of memory (expandable to 512 KB on the motherboard), included a CGA card
connected to an internal monochrome (amber) composite monitor, and one or two half-height 5.25” 360K
floppy disk drives. Unlike the Compaq Portable, which used a dual-mode monitor and special display card,
IBM used a stock CGA board and a 5” amber monochrome composite monitor, which had lower resolution. It
could however, display color if connected to an external monitor or television. While it was a bit less
sophisticated than the Compaq Portable, IBM’s machine had the advantage of a lower price tag and was
100% compatible with the original IBM PC and software.

While the small internal monitor wasn’t suitable for gaming, the fact that it could be connected to an
external monitor and the large amount of RAM made this an efficient system to play CGA based games.

 Another good compatible

Compaq DeskPro Model I. On June 28, 1984 Compaq released the Compaq Deskpro, a 16-bit
desktop computer using a 16- bit Intel 8086 microprocessor on a 16-bit bus compared to the 8088, a 16-bit
processor on a 8-bit bus.
The original Compaq Deskpro, was available in several disk configurations, was an XT-class PC
equipped with an 8 MHz 8086 CPU and Compaq’s unique display hardware that combined Color Graphics
Adapter graphics with high resolution Monochrome Display Adapter text. As a result, it was both
considerably faster than the any IBM PC except for the 80286 based IBM 5170 and had a much better quality
text display compared to an IBM PC equipped with graphics.

Joining the Compatibles, a winning move for Tandy

Tandy 1000. Tandy 1000 was the first PC that Tandy actually put their name on. Until then they named
their personal computers with TRS designations such as the TRS-80 which stood for Tandy Radio Shack.
Released in November 1984, the Tandy 1000 was designed as an IBM PC compatible with many other
enhancements. The hardware was comparable and even better compared to its direct x86 competitor, the
IBM PCjr.

The top selling computer x86 computer in 1985


Hardware. The original CPU used in Tandy 1000 was the slow Intel 8088 but the line was later
extended with faster microprocessors such as 8086, 80286 and toward the end of the line with the RSX,
80386SX processors. All Tandy 1000 computers featured built-in Tandy video hardware with 16 color
graphics (CGA compatible with enhancements), enhanced 3 voice sound (based on one of several variants
of the Texas Instruments SN76496 sound generator), game ports compatible with those on the TRS-80
Color Computer, an IBM-standard floppy disk controller supporting two drives, and a parallel printer port,
all integrated into the motherboard. The rear featured a RGB monitor connector (a standard 9-pin female D-
shell compatible with CGA/EGA monitors), an RCA-style composite video-out connector, a single RCA-
style monophonic line-level audio connector, a light pen port and an edge-card connector used to attach a
parallel printer.

Graphics for all 80’s. The Tandy 1000 featured on-board “extended CGA” video hardware that
extended video RAM beyond 16 KB, thus allowing 16 colors at 320×200 resolution and four colors at
640×200 resolution (later Tandy’s also had a 640×200 mode with 16 colors). Therefore the graphics
modes available on a Tandy 1000 were greatly improved over CGA and were similar to the IBM’s PCjr.
Other less common video modes were 160x100x16 and 160x200x16. The Tandy RL/SL/TL series also
added a 640x200x16 mode.
The earlier models of the Tandy 1000 had a composite video output, and could be used with a color
or monochrome composite monitor, or a TV with an RF modulator. The original 1000 and SX had a light-
pen port. Unlike most PC clones, several Tandy 1000 computers had MS-DOS built into ROM and could
boot in a few seconds. These innovations in both hardware and software made the Tandy 1000 very
desirable and the sells skyrocketed and so it becomes the best-selling IBM-compatible computer of the
year.
Games like King’s Quest series, The Black Cauldron, Space Quest series, and many others had
improved graphics just because they used the Tandy video card. More than 700 x86 games supported the
Tandy/PCjr graphics mode, with the bulk of them released between 1985 and 1994.

The first IBM x86 designed for entertaining with unentertaining sales

IBM PCjr was IBM’s first serious attempt to enter the home entertaining computer market as the
previous IBM personal computers were more business friendly than home friendly. The PCjr, IBM model
number 4860, retained the IBM PC’s 8088 CPU and BIOS interface for compatibility, but the price,
various design and implementation decisions led the PCjr to be a commercial failure.
Announced November 1, 1983, and first shipped in late January 1984, the PCjr nicknamed “Peanut”
before its debut came in two models: the 4860-004, with 64 KB of memory, priced at US$669; and the
4860-067, with 128 KB of memory and a 360 KB 5.25-inch floppy disk drive, priced at US$1269.

IBM PCjr, a junior in sales

It was manufactured for IBM in Lewisburg, Tennessee by Teledyne. The PCjr promised a high
degree of compatibility with the IBM PC, which was already a popular business computer, in addition to
offering built-in color graphics and 3 voice sound that were better than the standard PC speaker sound and
color graphics of the standard IBM PC and compatibles of the day. Roughly 500,000 units were shipped,
a very small number considering the booming industry and the high overall PC sales.

Display, a non-VGA VGA. The graphics were displayed by a graphics chip known as the VGA which
stood for “Video Gate Array”. This was an extension of CGA and should not be confused with the later
and better Video Graphics Array standard that IBM released with the PS/2 line in 1987. The PCjr
supported newer graphic modes which included 160x100x16, 160x200x16, 320x200x16, and 640x200x4.
The PCjr video used 16K of RAM as shared graphics memory, which prevented using additional memory
from the built-in 64/128KB of RAM still there was a workaround to use the additional memory as a
RamDisk. PCjr was also the first PC compatible machine that supported page flipping for graphics
operation. Since the PCjr used system RAM to store video content and the location of this storage area
could be changed, the PCjr could perform flicker-free animation and other effects that were either
difficult or impossible to produce on contemporary PC clones.

The home friendly approach. The 16 colors graphics at a good (for the time) 320x200 resolution
and 3 the voice plus noise sound were still not the best on the market but were better than most
competition. Two joystick ports were built into the PCjr, an evidence of IBM’s goal for marketing the
PCjr as a home-friendly machine. Further reinforcing the “home-friendly” goal, the PCjr also introduced
two ROM cartridge slots on the front of the unit, meant to load software quickly and easily. The
cartridge(s) would be plugged in from the front, prompting the computer to automatically reboot and run
the software. Being stored in ROM, the BASIC would load very quickly, not needing access to the floppy
disk or other storage.

Premature death. While graphical advanced and powerful enough the system had some serious
disadvantages. The biggest of all was the high price starting at $800 and up, the PCjr cost more than twice
as much as the Commodore 64 and the Atari 8-bit family. It also had a smaller and limited keyboard,
which had only 62 keys versus the original IBM PC’s 83 and was, as one reviewer said, “not suitable for
serious long-term typing. The insufficient memory (64KB at base model) and the limited keyboard made
the PCjr incompatible with about 60% of PC applications including WordStar and two programs often
used to test PC clones’ compatibility, Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Flight Simulator. More RAM and a
replacement keyboard helped to increase the compatibility to 100% levels but they also increased the
PCjr costs even more. Other reasons for its limited success were the limited hardware extension and IBM
PC-specific copy-protection.

Finally good graphics for x86 computers

Tandy / PCjr graphic mode. As seen before both Tandy 1000 and the PCjr had similar graphic
capabilities with the same number of colors and graphical resolution modes. While initially there were
few games marketed as PCjr exclusives such as King Quest and M.U.L.E. the much higher market success
of Tandy 1000 computers convinced gaming companies to develop games that supported Tandy graphics
while all future games will support both PCjr and Tandy 1000 graphics under a combined Tandy / PCjr
label. While the PCjr launched this standard earlier in January 1984 compared to Tandy 1000 launched in
November same year the system had a limited success and if it was not for the successful Tandy computer
to promote this graphic standard we would not have so much PCjr/Tandy games therefore I think the name
is fit, one computer launched the standard and the other promoted it.

PCjr/Tandy vs CGA graphics in The Ancient Art of War


Sixteen colors were in 1984 essential to make sufficiently decent looking graphics (to compete with
other platforms), even good looking sometimes. Compared to the limited CGA this new combined standard
was almost adequate to create good looking IBM PC games. While the IBM PCjr didn’t sell too well and the
EGA graphic card was very expensive at the time the Tandy 1000 computer was the top selling x86 based
personal computer in 1985 and therefore helped to increase the overall graphics quality of MSDOS based
games as programmers could use now 16 colors instead of 4 available before. Later Tandy systems will also
be excellent devices for MSDOS based gaming in the 80’s. There were two main PCjr/ Tandy graphic modes
used in in the 80’s: the very common 320x200/16 and the less common used 200x160/16 similar to the CGA
Composite and with the lowest EGA graphic mode. I won’t detail these graphic modes as they are identical
with the EGA’s graphics modes at the same resolution.
Besides CGA, the Tandy / PCjr graphic mode is the most important video mode of the middle 80’s
and was also lightly used in the early 90’s as more than 700 games supported this mode. EGA surpassed
Tandy/PCjr only in late 80’s.

The first computer to use 80286 and the first to use EGA


The IBM Personal Computer AT, also known as the IBM AT was IBM’s second generation PC,
designed around the faster 6 MHz Intel 80286 microprocessor and released in 1984 as machine type
5170. The AT name stood for “Advanced Technology”, and was chosen because the AT offered various
technologies that were then new in personal computers; one such advancement

was that the 80286 processor supported protected mode. IBM also later released a version of the AT
with a faster an 8 MHz microprocessors.


IBM 5170-339 / IBM Monitor 5154, tech prowess

The impressive internals consisted on an Intel 80286 microprocessor running at 6 MHz with 1 wait
state, 256KB or 512KB RAM on the motherboard, a 16 bit bus which later known as the ISA bus, Seven
DMA channels/Sixteen levels of IRQ, 84 key keyboard with indicator lights synchronized with the
machine, one 1.2MB high density 5.25” diskette drive and others. 20MB hard drive was supplied only in
model 099 only. The system was offered with modest MDA/CGA graphics but supported add-on cards
such as the EGA adapter and even the professional PGA, an expensive video card created for computer-
aided design.

Besides the internal improvements and new functions in present in the 80286, the 80286 also features
a full 16 bit data path to the system. To take advantage of the improved data path the PC bus was
extended. The original 62 pin card-edge socket for the PC bus is present in all slots, allowing many cards
designed for the IBM PC 5150 to be reused. Six of the slots also feature an 36 pin card-edge socket which
provides the additional data and control signals required for the enhanced bus. Other options at launch
included: standard double density floppy drives, 128KB Memory Expansion Option and 512KB Memory
Expansion Option.

 This PC remained in the x86 PC history as the first IBM model to support 80286 and EGA, very
important technological advancements on both fronts processing power and display capabilities that were
used extensively 9-10 years after their launch and even more in limited use, making this 1984 system an
important system for gaming, capable to run efficiently most games from 1984 until early 90’s.

More capable but used just as the Tandy/Pcjr in most 80’s games

EGA (enhanced graphics adapter). Introduced in September 1984 by IBM shortly after (but not
exclusively for) its new PC/AT, was an important evolutionary step compared to CGA, as it was capable
to display 16 simultaneous colors from a palette of 64 at a high resolution of up to 640×350 pixels. The
EGA card includes a 16 KB ROM to extend the system BIOS for additional graphics functions, and
includes the Motorola MC6845 video address generator also used in the CGA. With EGA for a short
while, the PC had the pole position as far as graphics were concerned.

IBM EGA card 64KB version

Graphics. Each of the 16 colors can be
assigned a unique RGB color code via a
palette mechanism in the 640×350 high-
resolution mode; the 64 palette colors are a
balanced RGB color set comprising all
possible combinations of two bits per pixel
for red, green and blue. EGA 4-bit (16 colors) graphic modes are also notable for a sophisticated use of
bit planes and mask registers together with CPU bitwise operations, which constitute an early graphics
accelerator inherited by VGA and by the compatible hardware. EGA also includes full 16-color versions
of the CGA 640×200 and 320×200 graphics mode but only the 16 initial CGA/RGBI colors are available
in these modes.
EGA graphic modes and the card use in 80’s games

640x350/16 graphic mode (also later available on VGA). With the very high resolution advantage
and enough number of 16 colors we would expect this mode to rule amongst EGA’s graphics modes
implemented in 80’s games but it didn’t. It was very late implemented in video games in flight games such
as EA’s Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Simulator launched in 1989 and by Microsoft in its own Flight
Simulator v3.0 launched in 1988. Another important use was in Sim City (1988) and was also
considerably used in more games after 1990 due to the fact that it was also available on VGA. There are
two main reasons for its very limited use from 1984 until the 90’s: first it was very different resolution
compared to the 320x200 CGA that required a lot of supplementary development time and the second
reason was related to CPU performance required to drive such a high resolution. It required the fast
filling of 224000 pixels compared to 64000 at the standard CGA, more than three times. The 80286 was
always needed as the EGA’s companion for fast frame-rate in games and it wasn’t such a common and
cheap microprocessor to be found in the 80’s computers while the 8088 was.



Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Trainer 2.0, and its high EGA 640x350/16 resolution. Impressive high
resolution graphics for the 80’s

640x200/16 colors (CGA, Tandy/PCjr compatible). This mode offered compatibility with the CGA
using the same resolution as the monochrome CGA and the CGA colors but was almost unused in games,
just as the CGA monochrome mode. Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Trainer was one of the few games
to support this graphic mode.

The same game with a very wide 640x200 resolution that was vertically overstretched on the standard
4x3 monitors at the time.

320x200/16 colors (CGA, Tandy/PCjr compatible). While well below the top EGA’s capabilities
especially regarding resolution this was the favorite EGA mode to be used in the MS-DOS 80’s games by
a large lead. The reason was simple; the 320x200 resolution was available on all graphic modes of the
80’s: CGA at 4 colors, EGA and Tandy/PCjr with 16 colors, MCGA and VGA with 256 colors. Therefore
it was very easy for programmers to create a game with the same resolution for all platforms. The EGA’s
16 colors were enough to make good looking games, similar and even better than older competition.
Another reason to use this graphic mode was the limited processing power of the 8088 based computers
that were to slow to display the higher resolution 600x350 and 600x200 graphics modes.

 Commander Keen CGA vs EGA graphics at the same 320x200 resolution MSDOS games can finally
look color good
200x160/16 colors graphic mode (CGA, Tandy/PCjr compatible).This graphics mode was used
especially by Sierra in a large number of adventures, such as the Space Quest and King Quest series and
more others (about 14 games). The reason for its use was the layered Quasi 3d game engine, called
Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) that was quite resource hungry due to its layers based graphics and
complex scripting and was quite slow on the 4.77 MHz 8088 microprocessor if a higher than 200x160
resolution such as the 320x200 was used. With the more core common use of faster microprocessor such as
the 8086 and especially the 80286, Sierra will launch in 1988 the scripting game engine called Sierra’s
Creative Interpreter (SCI) that will implement the more common 320x200 resolution and support for sound
cards.

 Space Quest: Chapter I - The Sarien Encounter,
200x160/ 16 colors

While EGA was introduced in 1984 along with the 80286 it was adopted by relatively few
programmers and only later in 1985/86, with slow or modest adoption at least until later in 1987/1988
when the EGA use in games will greatly increase. Still with all this slow initial start EGA will evolve
significantly faster than would be the case with the future VGA standard. By the time the EGA was
sufficiently used in games, the Atari ST and the Amiga had emerged in 1985 both supporting better
graphics. Still there is something special about EGA and its crisp, clear colors. Not all designers could
handle it well, but those that did produced true works of art for the time, often better than the VGA
successors.
More than 1600 EGA compatible games will be launched between 1984 and 1998/1999 clearly
showing the importance the EGA had for x86 PC gaming.
New x86 Software launched in 1984
DOS 2.1 was introduced in March 1984 to support the new PCjr.

DOS 2.11 was introduced in 1984. It supported non-English languages and alternate date formats.


DOS 3.0. In August 1984, IBM introduced the IBM PC/AT based on the powerful Intel 80286, its
next-generation machine and the most powerful x86 personal computer at the time. Along with the PC/AT
was also launched DOS 3.00 after a stressful year and a half of struggling with problems of software
incompatibility, remote file management, and logical device independence at the network level. In laying
the foundation for networking, the core team of five people led by Zbikowski and Reynolds redesigned
and rewrote the DOS kernel. Redirector and sharer interfaces for IBM’s network adapter card were
added, but the redirector itself, which interacts with the transport layer of the network, wasn’t ready
therefore DOS 3.0 was launched without network support.

Despite jumping a whole version number, dos 3.0 proved to be a just a little incremental upgrade,
adding nothing more substantial than support for the AT’s new 1.2 megabyte (MB) floppy disks. Planned
networking capabilities in DOS 3.00 were judged too buggy to be usable and Microsoft disabled them
prior to the OS’s release. In any case, the IBM’s original plans for the AT to equip it with a proper next-
generation OS that would use its extended features didn’t materialize with the DOS 3.0 release.

Regarding gaming the MS-DOS 3.0 brought nothing new without any tangible improvement therefore
many game developers will simple ignore in 1984 MS-DOS launching many games as PC booter
releases, booting directly from floppy and without using in any way MS-DOS. This year were launched
less than 80 MS-DOS games and almost 60 PC Booter releases showing how significantly ignored was
MS-DOS by game designers.


Importing from arcades and especially personal computers


New x86 Games, launched in 1984

 Expectation from 1984. After watching all this impressing showing of new hardware especially
regarding better graphic capabilities with the PCjr, Tandy 1000 and the EGA launch we would naturally
expect that many games in 1984 had great graphics. Let’s see how they performed and everyone is
allowed to make some wagers.

Too few IBM PC exclusive games. While I will save my comments regarding graphic for the 1984
conclusion I will express some thoughts about x86 gaming originality from this year. Unfortunately there is
little to be said because The Ancient Art of War was one of the few original x86 games and was also
launched for Apple II while Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.0 was similar to the first version. Another DOS
exclusive game Janitor Joe had a gameplay similar with many other games found on the competing
platforms. Therefore there is no 100% original game for IBM PC, quite a disappointing conclusion and
let’s hope that at least graphics will have a better year.

The grandfather of real time strategy and real time tactics

The Ancient Art of War (1984) is a computer game developed by Evryware and published by
Broderbund in 1984. In retrospect, it is generally recognized as one of the first real-time strategy and
real-time tactics games. The game’s DOS and Apple II versions were the first versions to be launched and
because of its success it was launched later on Macintosh (1985), PC-88 (1986) and PC-98 (1987),
Amstrad CPC (1990), Atari ST (1990).
Genre innovation. The Ancient Art of War is a real-time strategy game based on the very basic
elements of war: unit types, formation, and strength. It is the first real time strategy game available for
MSDOS.
Description. This was one of the first real-time strategy games, many years ahead of its time offering
complexity and innovative gameplay. It had selectable classes to start with, very large map, many gameplay
features, had great on screen battles including in castles and decent graphics for the time. This game clearly
help in the evolution of Pc Gaming with its scissor rock paper gameplay (Barbarians kill Archers, Archers
kill Knights, Knights kill Barbarians) so often used in a more complex form in many of the most successful
strategy games today.
Graphics. The game supported all major standards at the time CGA, Hercules, Tandy / PCjr while the
versions that supported EGA and VGA graphics were implemented later in 1985 and 1987. CGA,
Tandy/PCjr and EGA used the same 320x200 resolution while the VGA used the higher 640x480
resolution. As in many games from the 80’s, the Tandy/ PCjr and EGA graphics were implemented by the
game designers identical despite the fact that EGA was capable to produce better graphics.

CGA left vs Tandy/PCjr/EGA on the right.


Warcraft, Age of Empires, Command and Conquer and many other RTS games were inspired by this
game as their main gameplay is also based on scissor rock paper gameplay on a more complex form. The
game has paved the way for one of the most important game genres today the genre of real time war-based
strategy games or simply RTS when kids that play today modern 3D RTS games such as the very
successful Starcraft 2 weren’t even born yet!

Just fly in the 3d vector sky version 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.0. In 1984, Microsoft released their second flight simulator, again
exclusive for IBM PC’s. It was a very sophisticated simulator for its time. Major added features included
more hardware support, more simulation variables, and many overall tweaks. The new simulator
expanded the scenery coverage to include a model of the entire United States, although the airports were
limited to the same areas as in MSFS1.

PCjr graphics 320x200/16 colors and basic 3d vector graphics

The graphics were improved, as well as a feel of more precise simulation had been created with this
second release. While the first Flight Simulator used the CGA Composite to display 16 colors at the lower
200x160 resolution, this release will be one of the first games to support the new PCjr graphics, capable to
display 16 colors at the higher 320x200 resolution. While the graphics weren’t artistic the overall quality
was severely improved over the first Flight Simulator.

Game vs Hardware. This is one of the few games from the 80’s to use the most of the available x86
hardware. Flight Simulator 2.0 added support for the PCjr graphics modes, and also added support for
one of several PCjr memory “sidecar” expansions to increase the operating speed of the simulator to
match that of PCjr bigger brother (the original PC). This is because the PCjr way of handling memory (no
DMA, so the video controller was used to refresh memory) was extremely slow, and running the game
from the memory in the sidecar (which had its own refresh controller) made the game run at regular PC
speeds. Microsoft also launched a special Flight Simulator edition 2.12 for Tandy 1000/1200 computers.
The only graphic mode that will remain unimplemented will be EGA.

While not so overly engaging the game was very technical advanced for its time and allowed low cost
riskless flights all over the continents. Quite a bargain I would say.

Exclusive in 5 days

Janitor Joe is an exclusive MS-DOS game, designed in 1984 by Kevin Bales in which the player
must gather keys and escape from a NASA station.
Janitor Joe is an action/platform game where you control Joe and need to climb and jump around the
various platforms to reach all of the keys. On each screen there are several mad robots wandering about
which should be avoided (or you lose a life). You also need to make sure you don’t fall too great a
distance or run out of oxygen!

Janitor Joe had simple but enjoyable graphics.

It was written in only five days by Kevin Bales in basic, then compiled and released as freeware on a
BBS. It is also known as Jump Joe. The game was widely distributed and played when it spread out on
other BBSs. For a game Kevin Bales didn’t intend to sell, Janitor Joe is surprisingly complete and fun to
play. Bales later said, “I only spent five days on the programming part. I didn’t write it to sell. I was
only experimenting.” Nonetheless, the game was widely distributed and played a great achievement from
a lonely teenager game designer.

Games inspired from other platforms. While the x86 original games were extremely few, the
number of games ported from other platforms and especially personal computers are quite significant and
helped the x86 platform to have a significant number of total games. I will start with Archon: The Light
and the Dark and Below the Root my favorite ported games from 1984, both coming from other more
successful personal computer systems.

Side scrolling adventure masterpiece

Below the Root is a video game released in 1984 for IBM PC (DOS), Commodore 64, and Apple II
designed by Windham Classics, a division of Spinnaker Software. It is titled after Below the Root, the first of
the Green Sky Trilogy of novels, written by Zilpha Keatley Snyder and published between 1975 and 1977.
The game is an adventure game with a fantasy theme based on the previous novels.
Gameplay. This game is very similar to the 1985 Alice in Wonderland, except that you have to deal
with rest and hunger and spirit stats. If any of those stats fall below 0, you go right back to your home,
recovering from whatever failure you endured. So, you have to gather some things, like Roast Lapan and
all that other stuff, and if you are extremely tired, you’d better hope that someone offers you a nap.

C64 version, had amazing graphics and colors

 Graphics. While the gameplay was great even on MS-DOS, the graphics were much better on the C64
and Apple II with more and better used or more appropriate colors. The character had more pixels and
the landmarks were also better designed. If compared to the plain CGA, the GGA Composite mode did
helped the PC graphics with its increased number of better colors.

Left, the CGA port was dramatically less impressive while CGA composite mode helped MS-DOS
graphics to look more decent



Unlike other text/graphics adventures, this game has an arcade element into it, in which you jump from
branch to branch on the grounds, talk to people to get some wisdom and gain skills. This game really
made you think your way through, while providing a great background fantasy/myth world within which
you could feed, rest evolve and grow. This was an amazing game, even for MS-DOS, and with modern
graphics this will a great platformer game even today and I would play it with immense joy.

Mixing chess with maze combat, first on Atari 8-bit

Archon: The Light and the Dark is a video game developed by Free Fall Associates and distributed
by Electronic Arts. It was originally developed for Atari 8-bit computers in 1983, but was later ported to
several other systems of the day, including the Apple II, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum,
Amiga, IBM PC, Apple Macintosh, PC-88 and NES. It was designed by Paul Reiche III (also created the
graphics for the game) and Jon Freeman, and programmed by Anne Westfall.

Genre innovation. Archon: The Light and the Dark is also one of the first games to mix two main
genres: real time action and turn based strategy, a very innovative concept at that time.

Gameplay. At first glance, the game was almost identical to chess, although it featured mythical creatures
in place of knights, pawns, rooks and their ilk. However, once you started playing the game, it was quickly
apparent that this wasn’t your grandfather’s chess game. Every time one piece would attack another, players
would be launched into a combat screen, where their two chosen pieces would do battle. This lead to much
different strategies than in a normal game of chess, as they were a large a number of different variables into
account. If the real-time combat takes place on a dark square, the dark monster gets a health bonus (longer life
bar). On a light square the light side gains an advantage. There are also some squares whose color changes
over time (from afternoon, to dusk, to night, to dawn etc.), which adds an extra layer of strategy to the game.
The units were also different with allegiance to either the light or the dark side. They had different
movements, abilities and spells.

Graphics. The MS-DOS version used the uninspired CGA Palette 1 with a basic form of dithering but
also luckily implemented the CGA Composite mode with slightly better graphics. Unfortunately both versions
had no chance to compete with the graphic quality found in all other competing platforms.


CGA version of Archon: The Light and the Dark. CGA composite looks better with more colors.

Atari 8’bit version of the game (1983) left and Amstrad CPC version right (1985) had both much better
graphics

Unfortunately the MSDOS version is such a pale shadow of the game on the Atari or the C64. Not just
the colors and the sound, but the fluidity of the character movements and attacks also. If your strategy
skills stands somewhere between chess and simple action games then give Archon a try. It’s a great
unique classic game.

The forefather of stealth games, first on Apple II

Castle Wolfenstein is an early stealth-based action-adventure shooter arcade game developed by
Muse Software for the Apple II. It was first released in 1981 and later ported to MS-DOS, the Atari 8-bit
family and the Commodore 64.
Genre innovation. It is considered to be one of the first stealth-based action-adventure shooter game
set in World War II, and besides the stealth innovation it does mix the action and adventure genres.
Stealth gameplay. The player navigates the hero through the top-down corridors and rooms of the
castle. The main gameplay challenge lies in dealing with the guards who patrol the castle and will be
alerted to any noise made by the player. It is possible to shoot the guards, but the ammunition in the game
is scarce, and some guards are very hard to kill, so the preferred course of action is moving without being
noticed.
Graphics. The MS-DOS graphics were simple but quite nice because the game used the Palette 0 and
the high 320x200 resolution. This is one of the few games in the 80’s to be satisfied with only 4 colors.
The dark black locations plus other 3 colors were implemented nicely in the game.

 CGA Palette 0 works for this game and 3 color + black are enough


Innovative sounds. This was one of the first games that use digitized speech (Tweaked Sound)
available on some IBM compatibles such as Tandy personal computers and newer models launched by
IBM such as the PCjr.
While is difficult to play now this game due to difficult controls and obsolete graphics this games is
an absolute classic because it is the forefather of stealth games and also spawn a large number of great
sequels that include Wolfenstein in their name.

Finally on MSDOS

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is the first game in the Wizardry series of role-
playing video games. It was developed by Andrew Greenberg and Robert Woodhead. In 1980, Norman
Sirotek formed Sir-tech Software, Inc. and launched a Beta version of the product at the 1980 Boston
Computer Convention. The final version of the game was released in 1981 for Apple II while the x86
version was launched only much later as a PC Booter in 1984. The original Apple II release was one of
the first Dungeons & Dragons-style role-playing games to be written for computer play, and the first of
such genre to offer color graphics.

Genre innovation. While the game was available quite later for MSDOS this is the first true party-
based role-playing video game.

A time when graphics were 15% and text was 85%


Simple CGA graphics. While CGA graphics were used in the game their implementation was
extremely limited and so the graphics were extremely simple; most of the screen is occupied by text, with
a small portion dedicated to a first-person view of the dungeon maze using high-resolution line graphics.
However, the graphics were a step forward from the text-only RPG games and the available graphics did
help the gameplay. When monsters are encountered, the dungeon maze disappears, replaced by a picture
of one of the monsters. Combat is against one up to four groups of monsters.

Extreme difficulty. The game’s lack of an automap feature, which had not been invented at the time of
its release; this practically forced the player to draw the map for each level on a piece of graph paper as he
walks through the dungeon maze, step by step - failing to do this often results in becoming permanently lost,
as there are many locations in the maze that have a permanent “Darkness” spell upon the square or a
“Teleport” spell sending the player to a new location.
The game has unforgiving difficulty as players cannot save their progress within the dungeon and must
navigate their way back outside to the castle first. If the entire party is killed or teleports into stone, play
also resumes there and your party must go back through the dungeon starting with Level 1. Later Wizardry
games made it easier by restarting at the point in the dungeon where the player died. It can take hundreds
of hours to finish the game and tell me what RPG or other game today has hundreds of gameplay hours.

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was a fantastic game, and the series has succeeded
all the way to an eighth installment. Give it a chance and you’ll be hooked. While technology has
produced games that eventually came to outgrow the simplicity of Wizardry, I have to admit that for its
time 1981 on Apple II this game was truly remarkable but the IBM PC version was a step back. Now the
game is a classic, influential game only burdened by unforgiving difficulty and by the passing of time.
Launched on Atari 8-bit but loved on IBM PC

Alley Cat is an action game created by Bill Williams and published by Synapse Software for the
Atari 8-bit family in 1983 and was later ported for MS-DOS in 1984 by IBM. Alley Cat wasn’t
completely Bill Williams’s creation, but in fact a game started and abandoned by another programmer at
Synapse Software that he completed. Originally produced for the Atari 8-bit family, Williams then ported
it to the IBM PC. The latter was one of the most popular games for the PC at the time and became more
famous than its technically superior Atari counterpart.

Gameplay. The player controls Freddy the Cat, an alley cat whose object is to perform different tasks
within the homes of people in order to reach to his love Felicia. There were several mini-games included,
and you accessed these by sneaking your way into open windows. I also found the game comical. It didn’t
take itself too seriously and I replay it constantly for the sheer entertainment value of it all.

The MS-DOS game had different screens that used both Palette 0 and Palette 1 with decent
implementations.
Atari 8-bit version of Alley cat had much better graphics.

Graphics. The MS-DOS graphics were quite nice for the time, and the CGA version of the game
implemented both the Palette 1 and Palette 0 on the several mini-games available switching graphics
during the gameplay. The game also received a PCjr version with up to 16 colors used but not at the same
time, again inferior to the Atari 8-bit graphics.


Alley cat for PCjr

Gamer review. “This was one of the first games to have Tweaked Pc Speaker sound effects. It really
amazed me. When you “die” you can hear a real “Me-oooow” out of your Pc speaker, I loved it! Just
like the music. It was very cool and it gave the game more life. Also I like the different scenes of the
game. It was a very small game but you could do a lot of different things and at the time was
challenging, humorously drawn, it had funny sounds and it was very cute”

Watch out for your head

Boulder Dash, originally released in 1984 for Atari 8-bit computers, is a series of computer games
released for a very large number of platforms including IBM PC. Boulder Dash inherits numerous
gameplay similarities from the earlier 1982 arcade game The Pit, designed by Japanese developer Taito. It
is an action game with arcade and puzzle gameplay.

Gameplay. You are Rockford exploring a 2-dimensional field called a cave. You objectives are to
pick up a required number of diamonds and find the exit which opens when you have collected enough
diamonds. This is not always an easy job! There are falling boulders, chasing fireflies and butterflies
which can be deadly for Rockford. There are in total 12 different elements each with their own properties
and special rules. Therefore you need logic and strategic reasoning to solve BD caves.

CGA graphics left and Tandy/PCjr graphics right. A very small difference

Regarding graphics the game also supported a Tandy / PCjr graphic mode therefore improving the
graphics in some degree, clearly not dramatically. As many other games first available on other platforms
the CGA graphics of the IBM PC were seriously behind competitors but the PCjr graphic mode did
improve the graphics quality at a decent level.
The game had everything gamers want: action, strategic thinking, puzzles, and a construction kit to
create our own level so it’s one of the best games in the 80’s so it deserves a high recommendation for
1984.

Early isometric game inspired by arcades

Zaxxon is a 1982 isometric shooter arcade game developed and released by Sega. Some sources
claim that Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki also worked on the development of Zaxxon.
The PC version was launched in 1984 as a Booter version. The game gives the player the experience of
flying a fighter craft through a fortress while shooting at enemy entities.

Zaxxon MS-DOS version. The isometric graphics and models were nice the 4 uninspired colors of
the CGA graphics were not so nice

ColecoVision (left) and Atari 5200 (right). Consoles still have their benefits

While lacking in graphics compared to most other platforms the 4 colors are implemented nicely for a
CGA game. The game designers implemented 2.5d isometric graphics simulating successfully a 3d-like
gameplay. The best looking version was the arcade game with by far with the most impressive graphics.
For the MSDOS version the controls are nicely implemented and the game was really fun. And these
goodies were packed in just 20KB size, just amazing.

Finally graphics at the competition levels

Jumpman is a platform game written by Randy Glover and released by Epyx in 1983. Originally
developed for the Atari 400/800, versions were also released for the Commodore 64, Apple II, IBM PC,
and ColecoVision.
The object of the game is to defuse all bombs in a platform-filled screen. Jumpman defuses a bomb by
touching it. According to the story, these are placed on Jupiter by terrorists.
Graphics as good as competition. This was one of the games from 1984 to support the new
PCjr/Tandy graphic mode, and one of few to implement them nicely therefore offering similar quality with
all other competing platforms. The older CGA and CGA Composite were also implemented.




Great PCjr/Tandy graphics, as good as the competition

Jumpman for Atari 8-bit (left) and C64 (right)

The game had lots of action for a typical “ladder” game of that era. The character moved and
animated at a fast rate, which resulted in a game more interesting than slow-mo Big Top which was also
released in about the same time. It was funny to see it flow on your screen with its arms and legs moving
in a cartoonish manner.

The decent games from 1984. Because good games were not so easy to find in the early 80’s early I
will present other decent games released this year, in my opinion not as good as the previous already
presented but nonetheless good enough to be worthy of mentioning.

Ported from Arcade

Q*bert is an arcade video game developed and published by Gottlieb in 1982 and has been ported by
a large number of platforms including MS-DOS in 1984. It is a platform game that features 2.5d graphics.
The game was conceived by Warren Davis and Jeff Lee. Lee designed the titular character based on
childhood influences and gave Q*bert a large nose that shoots projectiles. His original idea involved
traversing a pyramid to shoot enemies, but Davis removed the shooting game mechanic to simplify
gameplay. The object is to change the color of every cube in a pyramid by making the on-screen character
jump on top of the cube while avoiding obstacles and enemies.

Graphics. The MS-DOS version was nicely implemented for a CGA only game using the preferred
palette 0 and dithering to simulate more colors. This was also one of the earliest games to implement 2.5d
isometric graphics and the resulting pyramid was quite nicely depicted as 3d-like. While the game
displayed a good CGA implementation the game lacked support for newer PCjr, Tandy and EGA graphic
modes and consequently all the competing platforms had better graphics compared to the DOS port.

 CGA Palette 0 in high intensity with some dithering tricks

Q*bert was well received in arcades even by critics, who praised the graphics, gameplay and main
character. The success resulted in sequels and use of the character’s likeness in merchandising, such as
appearances on lunch boxes, toys, an animated television show and the DOS port that unfortunately was
not as inspiring but nonetheless helped to increase the relatively small x86 gaming library launched in
1984.

Design started by a 16 years old boy

Montezuma’s Revenge was conceived in 1983, when Robert Jaeger’s friend Mark Sunshine
suggested Jaeger make a game with a Meso-American theme and call it Montezuma’s Revenge. Jaeger,
who was only 16 at the time, exhibited the still-unfinished game with his father at a consumer electronics
convention. Parker Brothers officials expressed interest and quickly convinced Jaeger to sign the rights
over to them.

CGA only game. Palette 0 was used quite nicely

Montezuma’s Revenge is rarely credited for being as innovative a game as it was. A platform/
adventure, there has obvious Mario-esque elements first tried out in this game. The levels were sprawling
and fun to explore and the CGA graphics were very good for the time.

Pursuing Donkey Kong success but unfortunately failing.

Congo Bongo was developed and published by SEGA Corporation from 1983 is an arcade platform
game that has come to be seen as Sega’s unsuccessful answer to the highly successful Donkey Kong game
that was released two years earlier. The x86 version was launched as a PC booter in 1984.


 Congo Bongo: Palette 1 on the left and Palette 0 on the right

Congo Bongo’s gameplay is similar to other popular arcade games of the time, most notably Frogger
and Donkey Kong, but is viewed in an isometric perspective, or oblique perspective in some PC or
console versions. Most other ports including the 1983 Sega version launched for SEGA’s SG-1000 were
better looking when compared cu the CGA Palette 1 version launched for the IBM PC’s. The version based
on Palette 0 was much nicer, using a lot of dithering to simulate a larger number of color and the resolution
was also decent.
This game remains of the first games with 2.5d isometric view to simulate 3d, not so common in the
80’s but due to several uninspired design decisions regarding control, high difficulty and repetitive
gameplay was not as loved and successful as Frogger or Donkey Kong.

B.C.‘s Quest for Tires is a 1983 video game

developed by Sydney Development Corp. and
published by Sierra On-Line. It was released for the
Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, ColecoVision, ZX
Spectrum, MSX, and Apple II and also as a PC
Booter in 1984. The game is based on the comic strip
B.C. by Johnny Hart. The name of the game is a play
on the title of the contemporaneous film, Quest for
Fire.

CGA Composite again impressed me

For two platforms with the same CPU and similarly graphic capabilities the differences are quite
striking’s Spectrum (left, 1984) and MSX (right, 1985)

BC’s Quest offered decent arcade fun in a well-

designed cartoon world with very nice graphics but
the game was too simple, clearly designed for the
youngsters.

When pushing requires brains and 4 colors equals 16

Soko-Ban was created in 1981 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, and published in 1982 by Thinking Rabbit, a
software house based in Takarazuka, Japan. The MSDOS version was launched in 1984. Sokoban is an
early transport puzzle, in which the player pushes boxes or crates around in a warehouse, trying to get
them to storage locations.

Regarding graphics this game is notable for its use top down view and the fact that supported besides
CGA the newer PCjr/Tandy graphic mode. The graphic design of this game worked nice with the 4-color
CGA and 16 colors were not really essential in this game, an opinion also shared the game designers that
released similar graphics on the PCjr/Tandy, not using efficiently the advantages of 16 colors except in
the game menus.

When CGA(right) and Pcjr/Tandy(left) are identical

While not a classic it was a great game that put your mind to test and offered many hours of gameplay.
The game was also launched on several PC platforms such as Apple II, Commodore 64, MSX and TRS-
80 but was the most loved in many of the mobile platforms launched over the time as it had many similar
ports that were launched in Java and could be played on just about any Java compatible mobile phone.

“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.”

 Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee is a video game designed by Ron J. Fortier, with graphics by Kelly Day and music by
John A. Fitzpatrick. It was published from 1984 on a very large number of platforms including x86 as a
PC Booter.

The Booter version was quite advanced concerning graphics as it supported CGA Composite and
Tandy/PCjr besides the standard CGA. It also featured the Tweaked speakers sound compatible with
Tandy/PCjr personal computers. Graphics were very nice, similar to and even better than other compared
platforms.

Nice PCjr graphics, using all 16 colors

Running around collecting lanterns and torches and escaping a ninja and a green fat monster doesn’t
have too much to do with Bruce Lee’s movies, but it makes for a fun game with decent graphics. It’s
simple but very fun for anyone who liked platform games.

Murder on the Zinderneuf is a computer game developed by Jon Freeman and Paul Reiche III
(design) and released by video game developer Free Fall Associates in 1983. It was developed for a
number of popular home computer platforms, including the Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 400/800 and
the PC as a booter in 1984.

PCjr (left) is more pixelated than Atari 8-bit (right)

Regarding graphic capabilities the game was quite capable supporting CGA, CGA Composite and
PCjr but the game had very little or no artistry.
The game was fun enough and also very re-playable as it can be played with eight different detectives
and each time you play, the killer, its motive, and the various clues will be different.

The not so popular/played PCjr exclusive games. After the launch of its multimedia home
computer, the PCjr, IBM’s impressive influence in the PC business convinced Activision to launch
several ports of some successful older arcade games exclusively for PCjr, as they were launched for the
PCjr Cartridge port and not on common floppy disks compared with the rest of the x86 PC games.
Because the PCjr had very low sales, mixed with the higher price of the cartridges and incompatibility
with other x86 computers ensured a very limited success for these games despite their graphical
advantages. It is also interesting to know that these were some of the few 1% games in the 80’s to not
support CGA graphics as only very few other games from late 80’s shared these traits.

Cartridge based PCjr exclusive.

Pitfall II: Lost Caverns is a platformer video game originally released for the Atari 2600 video
game console in 1984 but also launched for many other platforms including IBM PCjr. It is the sequel to
the popular Pitfall!. Both games were designed and written by David Crane and published by Activision.
The star of the games is Pitfall Harry, an 8-bit jungle explorer.

Supported the newly launched PCjr systems with up to 16 colors

This was one of the few games this year to be released on x86 platforms exclusively for the PCjr, due
to its PCjr Cartridge only release. The CGA was not implemented as PCjr graphics were much better.

Gamer’s review. “The triumph of this game is really two-fold. Not only did it give you an “end”: a
real achievement to celebrate. But in presenting you options in how you reached your goal, and by
scattering treasures throughout to tempt you towards a higher score, it provided something that any
game with an “end” needs: Replay value”. While the game was immensely loved on other platforms,
especially consoles the PCjr version had little success.

PCjr exclusive, unplayable on other IBM PC’s

River Raid is a scrolling shooter videogame and was released in 1982 by Activision for the Atari
2600, and later the Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit, C64, ColecoVision, Intellivision, ZX Spectrum, MSX and the
IBM PCjr later in 1984. The PCjr version was available only as a PCjr Cartridge and therefore was
incompatible with older PC’s while CGA wasn’t even implemented.
Designed by Carol Shaw, the first female game programmer for home consoles, River Raid is an early
vertically scrolling shooter in which players guide a jet fighter above a river while shooting helicopters,
battleships, hot air balloons, land tanks, jets and bridges. The fighter in this overhead view game can
accelerate and decelerate, and is equipped with unlimited ammo. However, it must refuel frequently by
flying over fuel depots. There are no levels as such, but bridges act as save points.




A PCjr only game for x86 computers, CGA was not available


As one of the best games for the Atari VCS, River Raid had tight controls, a constantly changing
landscape, strategic flying action, adequate sound effects and crisp, detailed graphics. The PCjr version
was also good with simple but colorful graphics and good gameplay supporting even a Joystick but game
was much more popular on consoles as PCjr wasn’t such a successful platform and few MS-DOS gamers
enjoyed this game.

Text-based games in 1984

This was not a great year for ASCII based games as it received only two good enough games,
worthy to be mentioned. Quite a disappointing showing compared to the previous 1983, a fruitful year for
graphic-less video games.

A great book inspired this great text adventure.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is an interactive fiction video game based on the comedic
science fiction series of the same name. It was designed by series creator Douglas Adams and Infocom’s
Steve Meretzky, and was first released in 1984 for the Apple II, Macintosh, Commodore 64, DOS,
Amiga, Atari 8-bit and Atari ST. It is Infocom’s fourteenth game.
Gameplay. This game was highly ambitious and had many subtle and clever details woven into its
universe. First of all were the social norms of Green-Sky. Theft and violence were alien concepts to most
of the books’ characters. Therefore, one could not (as is common with adventure games) simply walk into
a room and pocket an unattended object. One had to find the owner of the object and ask permission, buy
the object with money (called tokens) in a shop, or locate the object in a public area.


 You can’t even die in an ordinary way in this game.



Gamer review. “The writing is some of Infocom’s very best, which is fortunate because the game
itself is a little too short. The atmosphere produced is almost exactly like that of the book, even if
specific details of the plot are often changed. The puzzles (including the legendary Babel Fish puzzle)
are based on a brand of “consistent illogic” that is rather reminiscent of Lewis Carroll, and make the
game one of those few that many will someday play again even after having solved it once. This is an
interactive fiction classic, one of the best examples of this genre and I do hope some will have the
courage to play this game, now in 2013.They will be rewarded. If not please read the book or at least
see the movie to see what this SF is about.”

The absolute first RPG comes on IBM PC

DND is an ASCII/text based DOS game launched in 1984. It is a PC conversion of the seminal
mainframe classic with the same name of Daniel Lawrence’s DND from 1972, probably the first computer
role playing game which started the beloved genre of role-playing games. The original ran on the PDP-10
mainframe computer.
The name of the game clearly comes from the Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) pen and paper role
playing systems, and it also uses D&D rules. The game itself is a classic dungeon crawl. It could be
counted as a “rogue-like” but hasn’t got random dungeons.
 Found a throne! Finally, a proper place to rest

We all must acknowledge the importance of this game for the evolution of electronic based games.
This was a true masterpiece in 1972 and a very good game in 1984.

Games vs Hardware 1984 conclusion. This year we saw for the first time good hardware
implemented on x86 computers as the powerful Intel’s 80286 microprocessor was used for the first time
in an PC while the capable graphic chipsets: PCjr, Tandy and EGA were also launched. While the
PCjr/Tandy graphic mode was capable of quality graphics comparable with the most powerful
competition and was supported a significant number of good games about 8-9 games only few of the
implementations matched the competition. Some of the PCjr implementation was design in 4 colors
instead of the 16 capable probably to release the game sooner. No game designer will implement EGA in
1984 and regarding processing power the 80286 will be exclusively required by games only from early
90’s. Nonetheless the happy owners of a 80286 computer were probably impressed by its very high speed
in many games compared to the much weaker 8088 especially when the 3d software games will be
launched in late 80’s.

The gaming competition for x86 in 1984

As in the previous year competition is better than IBM based PC and compatibles, with more and
better games that had better graphics and much better sounds.

The older competition

Arcades. With 1984 ends the golden age of video arcade gaming.

Amazing isometric graphics, best arcade game in 1984

The arcades were extremely popular in the 1978-1983 timeframe and brought extreme revenues in
the previous years, 1983 included. The huge success of personal computers and the innovative PC only
games caught the arcade builder off-guard launching games with gameplay that was many times less
complex than the one found in the home-based gaming. While they still had better graphics and sounds, the
arcades launched in 1983 will sell extremely poorly with less than 20 million USD per unit revenue
compared to hundreds of millions and even billions USD revenue brought by the older arcades. This year
will be an unexpectedly negative year concerning video arcade gaming, affecting all arcade builders.
Speaking in numbers there were launched about 4-5 good arcade games such as 1942, Paperboy, Punch-
Out!! and Space Ace. The only one truly innovative and entertaining arcade was Marble Madness, even so
failed to have substantial revenues.

Atari 2600. For the Atari 2600, 1984 was a much more subdued year and the price of the system
had now dropped to an impressively low $40-$50. Many were saying that the video game industry was
dead. However, Atari surprised everyone by announcing the release of the 7800, and also promising more
2600 games with improved graphics and sound. Unfortunately, neither of these things happened in 1984
because Atari sold their home video game division to Jack Tramiel who believed that home computers
would replace video game systems. No further mention of the 2600 or 7800 was made that year, and it
appeared that those systems might be dead. Few good games were launched in 1984 for the Atari 2600,
games such as Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, H.E.R.O., Frogger II: ThreeeDeep! and Tapper.

Tapper for Atari 2600

About 40 games were launched this year for the Atari 2600 compared to more than 180 games
launched in 1983, an immense over the year decline.

The end of their journey

Intellivision and ColecoVision. Intellivision is no longer representative for electronic gaming except
for the older games as Mattel discontinued the console in January 1984. Mattel will also discontinue the
ColecoVision in 1985 renouncing to produce consoles in a very crowded electronic gaming market by
now ruled by personal computers, with the C64 as the pack leader. Still ColecoVision will go down in
style as several good games were launched in 1984 for the console. Such games are: Jumpman Jr., War
Games, Fortune Builder, Star Wars: The Arcade Game and Antarctic Adventures.

 Antarctic Adventures, best ColecoVision graphics in 1984


Discontinued after only two years

Atari 5200. Similar to the Intellivision the Atari 5200 will also be discontinued this year. On May
21, 1984, during a press conference at which the Atari 7800 was announced, company executives
revealed that the 5200 had been discontinued after just two years on the market. Probably very few game
designers expected this announcement as the Atari 5200 received a significant number of good games such
as: H.E.R.O., Mr. Do!‘s Castle, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, Montezuma’s Revenge, Zaxxon and Rescue on
Fractalus!.

Rescue on Fractalus!, a great game for the Atari 5200

Total sales of the 5200 were reportedly in excess of 1 million units, only half compared to the more
powerful ColecoVision and 30 times less than its older brother the Atari 2600 that sold over 30 million
units. These numbers really show us how unsuccessful really was the Atari 5200 console.

Uneven sales on this year’s personal computers market. As seen both electronic arcades and
home consoles had extremely difficult times, with Mattel even renouncing at the home console market.
While by now home computers ruled the electronic gaming market, the largest chunk of the personal
computer sales in United States was in Commodore’s courtyard with its extremely successful Commodore
64. The rest of the personal computers builders from U.S. struggled to compete with Commodore, some
successfully and some without triumph leaving the personal computer market for good.

Still great for gaming

Apple II. Despite the heavy competition from C64

and Atari 8-bit and weaker sales for its Apple II
family compared to the previous years, the platform
will receive enough sales to be profitable in 1984
probably helped by the Apple IIe update launched in
1983. The Apple II platform will be quite interesting
for gaming in 1984 as it received a reasonably large
number of good games such as: Karateka, Archon:
The Light and the Dark, Below the Root, Boulder
Dash, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, King Quest, Beyond
Castle Wolfenstein, Ancient Art of War, Conan - Hall
of Volta and Impossible Mission and some more
others. About 120 games were launched for Apple II
this year.

Karateka was for many gamers the best Apple II game in 1984


Holding nicely

Atari 8’bit (Atari 400, 800, XL). The severely problems concerning Atari regarding both arcades and
home consoles didn’t stop developers to create a lot of good games for Atari 8-bit computers. These games
are: Boulder Dash, Seven Cities of Gold, Zaxxon, Dropzone, Pitfall! II - Lost Caverns, Bruce Lee, Bounty
Bob Strikes Back!, Rescue of Fractalus!, Ghostbusters Conan and some more others. The overall number of
games launched for Atari 8-bit was around 140.



Bruce Lee for Atari 8-bit

Regarding overall graphics the Atari 8-bit was still one of the best platform but starting with 1984
C64 will be slightly better in a large number games as it implemented a higher resolution and always 16
colors. Atari 8-bit computers still had the better palette (128 or 256 color) and consequently a better
selection of colors in games.

Beating everything else combined in U.S.

C64. From 1984 the C64 will start to rule the electronic gaming. Due to good hardware, aggressive
pricing and clever marketing campaigns that positioned the C64 as a computer for gaming, the C64 will
be clearly ahead all other electronic gaming platforms, selling more than all other personal computers
combined in North America

Impossible Mission for the C64, a very popular game

More than 500 games will be launched for the C64 in 1984, an immense number and between them
were many top releases such as Ultima III: Exodus, Spy vs Spy, H.E.R.O., Below the Root, Boulder Dash,
Space Taxi, Archon: The Light and the Dark, Impossible Mission, Summer Games, Seven Cities of Gold,
Raid on Bungeling Bay, Montezuma’s Revenge, Pitstop II, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and many
more other decent games.
Regarding overall graphic quality the C64
platform will surpass Atari 8-bit systems for the first
time while the U.K. based competitor, the ZX
Spectrum had more vivid and colored games, but a
smaller resolution and less detailed graphics.
Regarding sound quality, total number of games,
great games and overall sells the C64 will have no
competition, making of 1984, the first 198C64 year.

A giant leaves the personal computers market

TI-99/4A. In October 1983, Texas Instruments announced it was exiting the home computer business,
a consequence of the extreme competition in the home PC market, while the TI-99/4A was discontinued in
March 1984. The price war led by Commodore against T.I. was seen as a personal battle for Commodore
president Jack Tramiel. The TI’s subsequent demise in the home computer industry in October 1983 was
seen as revenge for TI’s tactics in the electronic calculator market in the mid-1970s, when Commodore
was almost bankrupted by TI. Therefore the gaming support for this system will completely end this year.
The TI-99/4A will receive less than 20 games this year while the top games released this year for the
platform are Q-bert, Burger Time, Frogger and Moon Patrol.

Q-bert for TI-99/4A, amazing graphics for a dead platform…

Luckily, focusing on x86 PC market

TRS-80CoCo. TRS-80CoCo was another computer that was at the end of life concerning electronic
gaming. Under heavy competition and replaced only with a slightly upgraded and cheaper version 2 in
1983 that failed to bring many novelties the Tandy Corporation repositioned the TRS computers as entry
level and moved on designing the newer, innovative and faster Tandy 1000 computer based on Intel x86
microprocessors. Few decent TRS-80CoCo games were launched on 1984 and I can mention Speed
Racer and some interactive fiction games from Infocom. As Tandy entered the x86 PC market in
November 1984 with its Tandy 1000, a very successful x86 computer in the future, Tandy will transform
from an x86 feeble competitor in an x86 heavy supporter.

Personal computers in UK. Back in 1983, the C64 debuted in U.K. at £399, while the Spectrum cost
£175 at launch. Due to its very low price and good graphic capabilities the Spectrum quickly became the
market leader in U.K and Commodore had an uphill struggle against the Spectrum. The C64 will rival the
Spectrum popularity in U.K. only in the latter half of the 1980s. The U.K. based game designers will also
extensively support the homeland home computers with the ZX Spectrum coming on the second place
regarding total number of good games, after the C64, making an impressive showing for such as small
price.

BBC Micro had one of its best years regarding gaming in the 80’s receiving many top original games
such as: Elite (Acornsoft), Podd (Acornsoft/ASK), Sabre Wulf (Ashby Computers and Graphics Ltd.),
Overdrive (Superior), Labyrinth (Acornsoft), Football Manager (Addictive) and Revs (Acornsoft). As we
can see Acornsoft the software division of Acorn Computers, the platform builder, had the merit to produce
most of these top games.

Revs, my favorite racing game from 1984, an amazing game for this year


A full spectrum of great games

ZX Spectrum was an impressive personal computer platform for gaming back in 1984. While the C64
had more great games that were also more notorious the ZX Spectrum was the second choice for gaming this
year with a very large number of great games such as: Starstrike, Deus Ex Machina, Ghostbusters, Chuckie
Egg, T.L.L. (Tornada Low Level), Boulder Dash, Thrashman, Knight Lore, Sabre Wulf, Avalon, Jet Set Willy,
Pyjamarama, Underwulde, Bomberman and some few others. The ZX spectrum received about 200 games in
1984, beating all other platforms in overall number except for the C64, the clear leader this year.


Sabre Wulf, I love the vivid graphic style very common for the ZX Spectrum

I also like the graphic style of the ZX Spectrum with a lot of contrast made by black and a lot of bright
colors while the C64 was more conservative using many times grey and less vivid colors due to its
limited 16 colors fixed palette.

Amazingly popular in Japan

MSX. Launched in 1983 the MSX will have a great year for gaming in 1984 with many good games
launched: Mappy, Moon Patrol, Sky Jaguar Antarctic Adventure, Comic Bakery, Magical Tree, H.E.R.O.,
Circus Charlie and Hyper Sports 2 while Bomber Man was launched in 1983.

Bomberman for MSX. The ZX Spectrum had similar graphics while the NES version from 1985 will be
the most popular and best looking port


While it received a world-wide release as a standardized home computer architecture the MSX will
become extremely popular in Japan and will have noteworthy success in Middle East, Brazil, the Soviet
Union, Spain and to a lesser extent, several other European countries.
New competing platforms launched this year
The Amstrad CPC (Colour Personal Computer) is a family of 8-bit home computers designed and
manufactured by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the middle 80’s and late
80’s the crowded home computer market dominated in U.K. by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair’s ZX
Spectrum. The platform will become in time successful on several European countries such as United
Kingdom, France, Spain, and the German-speaking parts of Europe. The main units were only sold
bundled with a color or monochrome monitor that doubles as the main unit’s power supply.

The series spawned a total of six distinct models: The CPC464, CPC664, and CPC6128 were all
highly successful competitors in the European home computer market. The later plus models, 464plus and
6128plus, efforts to prolong the system’s lifecycle with hardware updates, were considerably less
successful, as was the attempt to repackage the plus hardware into a game console named GX4000.

The Amstrad CPC, a personal computer platform designed to be cheap


Hardware. The CPC models’ hardware is based on the Zilog Z80A CPU, complemented with either
64 or 128 KB of memory. Their computer-in-a-keyboard design also features an integrated storage
device, either a compact cassette deck or 3” floppy disk drive. Amstrad’s Video RAM was shared with
the system RAM and was also used by the microprocessor. This was a cheap concept with fewer custom
chips that could turn it into a sluggish snail if badly programmed. Regarding graphics the CPC was
somehow similar to the IBM PC’s because the Mode 1: 320×200 pixels with 4 colors and the Mode 2:
640×200 pixels with 2 colors were identical to the CGA while the Mode 0: 160×200 pixels with 16
colors was similar to the CGA Composite and was also used in some EGA and PCjr/Tandy games. The
color use was also better when compared to CGA. The original Amstrad CPC palette features 27 colors
but unfortunately lacked color attributes.

Harrier Attack (1984) for Amstrad CPC, good resolution but simple graphics

Gaming and software on Amstrad CPC. The CPC series was pitched against other home computers
primarily used to play video games and enjoyed a strong supply of game software including many games.
The comparatively low price for a complete computer system with dedicated monitor, its high resolution
monochrome text and good graphic capabilities and the possibility to run CP/M software also rendered
the system attractive for business users, which was reflected by a wide selection of business ready
software.
CPC Gaming in 1984. Good games for Amstrad CPC were amazingly launched from the first year of
the system life, and such games are: Roland in the Caves (aka Bugaboo the Flea), Harrier Attack, Roland
on the Ropes (aka Fred), Boulder Dash and some few others as were almost 50 games launched in this
first year for the platform.

The first commercial PC with graphical O.S.

Macintosh 128K. The Macintosh 128K, originally released as the “Apple Macintosh”, is the first
Apple Macintosh personal computer ever to be released. It had a selling price of US$2,495. The
Macintosh was introduced by the now famous $900,000 television commercial by Ridley Scott, “1984”,
that most notably aired on CBS during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. The
sales of the Macintosh were strong from its initial release and reached 70,000 units on May 3, 1984. After
its successor, the Macintosh 512K, was introduced, it was rebadged as the Macintosh 128K.

Apple Macintosh, and its early graphical O.S.

The original Macintosh was the first successful enough personal computer to use a graphical user
interface devoid of a command line. It used a desktop metaphor, depicting real-world objects like
documents and a trashcan as icons onscreen and the mouse was quite necessary to be effective. The
earlier Apple computer Lisa launched in January 1983 also featured a graphical O.S. but failed to sell
were due to the high launch price of almost 10000 US$.

Hardware. As stated before in the book introduction the Macintosh was inspired by the early 1972
Xerox Alto innovative computer concept and the graphics environment and the mouse were two of the main
elements to be imported. The CPU was much more powerful compared to the original bit-slice processor
found in the Also as the new Macintosh used an Motorola 68000, a 16/32-bit (32-bit internal) CISC
microprocessor that ran at 8 MHz, and was one of the most powerful microprocessors available for
personal computers, similar in performance with the Intel’s 80286. The Motorola 68000 microprocessor
was connected to 128 KB DRAM by a 16-bit data bus. Lack of RAM proved to be a constraint to much
multimedia software as the RAM could not be upgraded. A 64 kB ROM chip boosted the effective memory
to 192 kB, but this was offset by the display’s 22 KB frame-buffer, which is shared with the DMA video
controller. Unfortunately the shared RAM also reduced the overall performance of the CPU as much as
35% for most software because the fast Motorola CPU had to wait for the video controller to access the
shared RAM at every four CPU cycles.
The Macintosh case contained a 9 inch (23 cm) monochrome monitor and came with a keyboard and
mouse. The graphic mode was a fixed resolution of 512×342 pixels, establishing the desktop publishing
standard of 72 PPI and was displayed on a built-it monitor a black-and-white CRT. A handle in the top of
the case made it easier for the computer to be lifted and carried.
Gaming on Macintosh. Macintosh games will be very few in the first years of the platform but from
1987 the number of games will slightly increase. While some blamed Macintosh for the lack of colors I
personally like the graphic as it allowed the creation of very detailed games, and black and white drawings
can be very artistic. Grey shades could be also easily obtained by dithering, by combining a different
number of black and white pixels in a small zone from the game, a technique more often used from 1987 on
Macintosh games.

Airbone for Macintosh, very high resolution but no colors

Macintosh games in 1984. Two of the first good original Macintosh games from 1984 were:
Through the Looking Glass (aka Alice) one of the few good games made by Apple and Airborne
developed by Silicon Beach Software. Other two successful games Lode Runner and Frogger will be
ported this year for Macintosh while Infocom will launch an amazing number of its top interactive fiction
games. The Macintosh platform will receive about 30 games this year, a decent number considering the
platform was barely launched.

Frogger port for Macintosh, I do enjoy the graphics

While in the 80’s the Macintosh family failed to reach Apple II success failing especially as a gaming
device I do appreciate the different graphical approach, monochrome and high resolution of this computer
compared with just about all other computer market including its own Apple II family with color graphics
and much smaller resolutions.

 PC-DOS gaming conclusion for 1984. Despite the launch of better hardware for graphics now with
up to 16 real colors (EGA, PCjr/Tandy) 1984 is again a very modest year for MSDOS gaming because
there are no original games except for Flight Simulator 2.0 and The Ancient Art of War shared with
Apple II. Most x86 games were ports or inspired from Atari 8-bit, C64 and Apple II computers platforms.
Older arcades also inspired several games while Activision launched several older console rereleases
exclusively for the new IBM PCjr. Without these inspirations, gaming on IBM PC in 1984 would be
inexistent and I personally prefer the 1983 MS-DOS gaming over 1984.
As a positive note the x86 computers had now as disposition great hardware and still survived in a
U.S. market that made many victims this year: all consoles and the TI-99/4A while the gaming on TRS-
80CoCo and video arcades suffered.

Games vs. Hardware in 1985

General computer industry ideas

This is another interesting and innovative year regarding both computers and technology. Many
companies were founded this year and again I will name only the most important of them: Westwood
Studios, Alliance Semiconductor, Gravis (sound), NeXT, ATI, Corel and many more others. The biggest in
time will become ATI founded by Lee Ka Lau, Francis Lau, Benny Lau, and Kwok Yuen Ho. ATI still lives
now under AMD technological innovation, and together with NVIDIA they have designed the most
powerful systems for gaming on x86 PC’s.
Two new important devices were launched this year by Commodore, the C128, a complex 8-bit
computer with two microprocessors and the Amiga aka A1000 as a very advanced personal computer
line. The Atari ST personal computer was also launched in June 1985 by the newly restructured Atari
Corporation while Nintendo released their very successful gaming system the Nintendo Entertainment
System (NES) in North America October 18, 1985.
There are also some innovations regarding Internet as IBM develops NetBEUI and the first Internet
domain name symbolics.com is registered by Symbolics.
My final thought is concerning both Apple and IBM losses of Steve Jobs and Philip Estridge as Steve
Jobs quits Apple September 16, 1985 founding NeXT while Philip Estridge passes away August 2, 1985
(Age: 48) in a plane crash. May both rest in peace; computer industry today will not be as rich without
their early innovations, big decisions and overall involvement.
New x86 Hardware launched in 1985
The Intel 80386 processor, also known as the i386, or just 386, was an advanced 32-bit
microprocessor introduced by Intel in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors and due to the very
high performance the first generation of 80386 microprocessors was used as the central processing unit
(CPU) of many workstations and high-end personal computers of the time. It was renamed i386DX in 1988
when Intel introduced the i386SX, a low cost version of the 80386 with a 16-bit data bus.

Architecture. At launch the processor was a significant evolution concerning the x86 architecture and
extended a long line of processors that stretched back to the Intel 8008. The predecessor of the 80386 was
the Intel 80286, a 16-bit processor with a segment-based memory management and protection system. The
80386 added a 32-bit architecture and a paging translation unit, which made it much easier to implement
operating systems that used virtual memory and therefore the 80386 will be the preferred processor for
early Windows versions. It also had support for hardware debugging.
 The 80386 featured three operating modes: real mode, protected mode and virtual mode. The
protected mode which debuted in the 286 was extended to allow the 386 to address up to 4 GB of
memory. The all new virtual 8086 mode (or VM86) made it possible to run one or more real mode
programs in a protected environment, although some programs were not compatible.

The Intel 80386. Too fast for the 80’s home PC market and video games, the internal die (left)and
the external package (right)

The 32-bit flat memory model of the 386 would arguably be the most important feature change for the
x86 processors family until AMD released x86-64 architecture much later in 2003, also licensed by Intel
as IA-64. Chief architect in the development of the 80386 was John H. Crawford. He was responsible for
extending the 80286 architecture and instruction set to 32-bit, and then led the microprogram development
for the 80386 chip. Both the 80486 and P5 Pentium line of processors were direct descendants of the
80386 design.


Gaming on 80386. While launched in 1985 the Intel 80386 was not a common processor to be used
for gaming at least until early 90’s because of its very high price. Regarding future games support the
80386 will not be relevant for the 80’s video games but from the early 90’s until 1994-1995 the 80386
family and its compatibles were the most used processors for gaming. Therefore, while launched in 1985
this processor will be irrelevant for 80’s PC gaming and there is not a single x86 video game from the
80’s to specifically require this microprocessor. With its high performance the 80386 will be used in x86
PC’s for a large period of time until middle 90’s. In 1995 for example more than half of the top games
launched for x86 platforms would run great on a 386/DX/SX while the rest required an 80486 for the best
game-play.

Extremely future proof. The 80386 microprocessor was extremely advanced and because of its high
architectural advantages and performance will be included in the minimum system requirement for the
very successful Windows 95 graphical O.S. launched in 24 August 1995. Considering how long the
Windows 95 was used, at least until late 90’s we can acknowledge how much the 80386 was used on the
PC market.

Demise. The 80386 demise in gaming is tightly connected with the 80486 as both were replaced as
recommended system requirements in games from 1995/1996 by the new Intel Pentium CPU, a processor
with severely improved floating-point capabilities, extremely used by the new advanced 3d software and
3d hardware accelerated games at that period. The official demise for the 80386/80386DX will be the
launch of Windows 98, on May 15, 1998 that required Intel 80486DX2/66 MHz or a compatible CPU
with a math coprocessor as minimum requirements while the Pentium processor was recommended.

Legacy. All modern x86 microprocessors, are based on the IA-32 architecture launched by the 80386.
While the architecture was superseded in 2003 by the AMD x86-64 and by Intel IA-64 architecture, the
32 bit architecture still remains the most popular architecture to date, and many modern x86 programs are
still released without 64-bit support.

New x86 operating systems launched in 1985

DOS 3.1 released March 1985 fixed the bugs in DOS 3.00 and supported IBM’s Network Adapter
card on the IBM PC Network. PC DOS 3.2 added support for 3½-inch double-density 720 KB floppy
disk drives, supporting the IBM PC Convertible, IBM’s first computer to use 3½-inch floppy disks,
released April 1986. Gaming in 1985 on x86 PC’s was done mostly on older DOS versions, prior this
year.
This year the x86 platform will receive about 75 MS-DOS games and about 25 PC Booter games,
showing a noteworthy decrease in the number of Booter games compared to the previous year.

No importance for x86 gaming

Windows 1.0 is a 16-bit graphical environment made for the IBM PC’s and Compatibles. It was
developed by Microsoft Corporation and released on November 20, 1985. It was Microsoft’s first attempt
to implement a multi-tasking graphical user interface-based operating environment on the x86 PC platform.
Because Windows 1.0 is essentially an MS-DOS program or extension is often regarded as a “front-end to
the MS-DOS operating system”, a description which has also been applied to later versions of Windows.
While it is a graphical operating system it has no relevance whatsoever for x86 PC gaming due to many
important reasons. The biggest of all was the incompatibility with a large number MS-DOS software and
especially games. While the Windows apps such as Calculator, Paint, Clock or Calendar were nice,
returning back to DOS was required to play the preferred x86 games.

The root of one major future important conflict of interests

The second great deal for Microsoft. I would like to mention an important event that took place that
year, concerning IBM and Microsoft. In June 1985, IBM and Microsoft signed a long-term Joint
Development Agreement to share specified DOS code and create a new operating system from scratch,
known at the time under many names such as Advanced DOS/CP-DOS/286-DOS/BigDOS and others.
Sometime in late 1986 or early 1987, the project was officially renamed to OS/2 to coincide with the
release of the PS/2 line of systems but I also like my sensible revelation for the name “Operating System
developed by two”, therefore OS/2.This collaboration will lead to the April 1987 announcement of OS/2
the first product shaped under this agreement.

While Microsoft and IBM begun vigorously collaboration on the next-generation operating system
(OS/2) this cooperation that eventually lead to a conflict of interests on the Microsoft side as IBM
decided later that OS/2 will be a graphical environment just as the Windows operating system designed
by Microsoft. Therefore Microsoft will be placed in an exceptional position to develop two operating
systems that will compete on the same x86 market and eventually they did. I will describe this in a
simpler assumption. Let’s suppose that I have a fruit stand on the market and my wealthier neighbor
requests me due to my experience that we opened together another better fruit store, right next to
mine. Shall I refuse the opportunity?! What if the neighbor will make alone a better store with more
customers and drive me out of business? Of course I will help my neighbor. But now, once the store is
opened what stand do I prefer to have better sales, my own stand or the store in the joint-possession?
The answer is simple and Microsoft will realize this quite soon, making huge efforts in late 80’s to make
Windows a better and cheaper and more appealing choice than OS/2 despite its important investments in
OS/2.
The OS/2 was launched in December 1987 at the same time with IBM’s next generation of personal
computers, the IBM Personal System/2 (PS/2) family. While it was desired to be a graphical operating
system the original release OS/2 was text mode-only and remarkably lacked the GUI, which was added
with OS/2 1.1 about a year later close to 1989 leaving enough time to Microsoft to improve the graphical
Windows 2.x operating systems. Microsoft will launch in May 1990 the very successful Windows 3.0
sealing the faith of the long-term Joint Development and later of the OS/2 operating system.

Crisis apogee
X86 gaming in 1985
This is the last year of the North American video game crash and unfortunately the negative effects
were clearly visible on the x86 computers. After a disappointing previous year for IBM PC and
compatibles based gaming and accounting all those exciting new graphic standards launched in 1984 I had
hopes for a better year regarding gaming for the x86 computers. While I will save the games vs hardware
comparison for later I must say that x86 gaming was troubled by both very few games and the lack of
originality. Potentially good/great graphics could be the saving element for x86 games this year.

The original games. The list of top games exclusive for x86 or initially launched for x86 is
unfortunately and amazingly empty in 1985. Even King’s Quest II: Romancing the Throne the King’s
Quest successor that was an exclusive IBM PCjr game had a common release in 1985 for Apple II, MS-
DOS and the most promoted version was the one launched for the new Atari ST. On a slightly brighter
note there were some decent x86 games that were launched in the same year as the versions launched for
other major competing platforms. Late ports also occurred such as Mule and Ultima III originally
launched in 1983 and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein launched in 1984.

The (im)ported games. Arcades and consoles lose a lot of their importance as main gaming devices,
most of the consoles disappearing in 1984/1985 and this trend will also be observed in the MS-DOS
games launched this year as they will no longer be inspired by older arcades or consoles. All ported
games will be taken from other important personal computers such as Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64 and
Apple II and in these ports the graphic quality for x86 computers will be most of the time neglected.

First for IBM days are gone.

King’s Quest II: Romancing the Throne is the second installment in the King’s Quest series created
by Sierra Entertainment (formerly Sierra On-Line). It uses the same AGI game engine as King’s Quest I:
Quest for the Crown and features King Graham as the player character. The game is another graphic
adventure, in a fantasy theme with many puzzle solving quests.
Development. While the limited floppy space would have restricted the game design, Sierra did
increase for a while the available space compressing the pictures by drawing them as lines and fill colors
a technique also used in this game. This sequel to the original King’s Quest provided not just a second
look at the life of King (formerly Sir) Graham of Daventry; it also began a tradition of using King’s Quest
as a training ground for future designers. Future Space Quest series designers Scott Murphy and Mark
Crowe joined the development team. They helped to make the game an even bigger hit than the original.



Small 200x160 AGI resolution but I do like the graphics

Graphics. King’s Quest II resembles King’s Quest I in appearance and interface and was one of the
first games to support all major video modes at the time such CGA, CGA Composite (16 colors),
Hercules, Tandy / PCjr and was also one of the first games to support EGA. The only unimpressive
element regarding graphics is the small 200x160 AGI resolution, with half the pixels of a standard
320x200 resolution.
Sounds. This is one of the few games to use the slightly advanced sound capabilities of Tandy/PCjr
computers. The music for the game was produced by Al Lowe, who was an accomplished jazz musician.
King’s Quest II contains fourteen musical selections, including Tchaikovsky’s love theme from Romeo and
Juliet. Other songs include Greensleeves on the title screen, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor in
Dracula’s castle, and Michael Jackson’s Thriller when encountering the ghosts outside the castle entrance.
The game does not support sound cards or mice, as they will be launched only later in 1987/1988.
The game was well received in the press, for its innovations. Compute! Magazine said the game was
like playing an animated cartoon and overall KQ2 is a nice adventure game where you have to search for
three keys that will unlock the doors that lead to the girl you must rescue. Like Quest for the Crown, you
have to know your fairy tales to solve some puzzles. The graphics are good for a 1985 game, and the
music is easy to listen to. There are some good animations, and since there are multiple ways to solve
puzzles, the game can be played again and again.

First important multiplayer game, now on X86

Mule is an influential multiplayer video game developed by Ozark Softscape (Dan Bunten, Bill Bunten,
Jim Rushing, and Alan Watson). It was initially published in 1983 by Electronic Arts for Atari 8-bit and
C64. To support the IBM PCjr home market strategy with more games in mind, IBM requested from
Electronic Arts an IBM PC conversion for the very popular video game. Electronic Arts then
subcontracted the small Troy, Michigan based company K-Byte to port the game from C64/Atari to the
IBM PC x86 architecture. K-Byte is now defunct; but you can still watch a TV news spot about them on
YouTube (named K-Byte WXYZ-TV Detroit 1983). The port was completed sometime in 1985, and soon
after IBM published the game.

M.U.L.E. for the IBM PC is one of the rarest versions of the game, for the above mentioned reason
that it was published near the end of the IBM PCjr lifecycle and was one of the few IBM’s involvements
with the home computer gaming market. To the M.U.L.E. gaming community, the existence of this version
was always known, but for the past 27 years few digital copies existed to re-experience the game or play
it on more modern PC’s, as it was possible with all the other M.U.L.E. versions.
Genre innovation. The game successfully mix action and strategy and has many influencing elements
and themes: Board/Party Game, Managerial, Sci-Fi/Futuristic.


Mule in CGA composite mode.

Gameplay. One to four players take on the role of settlers on a distant planet, who claim plots of land
and then try to farm or mine one of four commodities from it using a cantankerous robotic M.U.L.E. Every
turn, players get a limited amount of time to work on their holdings; they can move M.U.L.E.s around,
outfit them to do different jobs, assay plots to tell what would be best to farm in them, hunt a mysterious
monster in the hills for cash, and stop in at the pub that paid money based on how much time in their turn
they had left. Once everyone had adjusted their farms, there was a production phase and then everybody
adjourned to the auction house.
Graphics. I find amazing the fact that IBM/ Electronics Art/ K-Byte didn’t discussed to implement the
16 colors PCjr graphic standard in a game designed especially for the PCjr and the more advanced 3 voice
sound supported by the PCjr was also left out. The programmers did implement the CGA and the CGA
composite mode. Nonetheless even the limited CGA was enough for the simple graphic design found in the
game.
Multiplayer innovation. This game had a true multiplayer gameplay, years before the Internet and
even before cheap modems! The game has always four players, with 1-4 human players possible and the
rest played by the AI. Because the players only need two buttons at most (up/down in auction) in auction,
it’s easy to play with four people around the same computer. You need human opponents though the AI is
terrible now, and it was abysmal then.
Overall, the IBM PC conversion of M.U.L.E. is a surprisingly good one from the gameplay point of
view as the mechanics and economics are well converted much better than other conversions such as
Nintendo Entertainment System or MSX, which are much less faithful conversions. The “Tournament
mode” which allows up to 24 turns of gameplay is a stand-out feature which none of the other M.U.L.E.
versions have. My only problems are with the CGA graphics and especially the sound that is much worse
when compared to the original C64/Atari 8-bit version of the game.
Bow your heads for the 1998 loss of Danielle Bunten Berry (Dan Bunten). M.U.L.E is not only one of
the best games of the ’80s, it’s one of the most innovative games ever made. This game is still elegant
enough to worth playing. It’s a rarity: an old game that one can actually grow into despite having been
raised on much more technically advanced interfaces, and deserves a place in the classics. This game is
not only important for MS-DOS based gaming, it’s a landmark for all video gaming and an early classic.

Solid foundation for future RPG’s

Ultima III: Exodus is the third game in the Ultima series. Exodus is also the name of the game’s
principal antagonist. Released in 1983, it was the first Ultima game published by Origin Systems.
Originally developed for the Apple II, Exodus was eventually ported to 13 other platforms, including the
NES/Famicom while the DOS version launched in 1985. The title, Exodus, is a nice irony, considering
that Lord British aka Richard Garriott left Sierra to found his own company, Origin, during the game’s
development.
“Not only was Akalabeth written by myself, but Ultimas 1, 2, 3, amd 4 were essentially written by
myself. Occasionally I’d get help with a subroutine or two or a piece of art here and there, but as a
general rule all of the first 4 Ultimas and all of the prequels were written solo. It was only starting with
Ultima 5 that I really began to have a team.” - Richard Garriott, interview with IndustryGamers

The 1985 MS-DOS version. CGA left, CGA Composite right (16 colors)

The original Apple II version

Regarding graphics the MS-DOS port supported only CGA and CGA Composite mode and while the
CGA Composite mode did help to increase the graphic quality on x86 computers the overall quality was
still behind Apple II graphics and most of the competing platforms.

IndustryGamers: Did you use artists on any of the earlier ones? No, I did all the art, I did all the
sound effects, I wrote every line of text, I wrote every line of code, I wrote all the manuals, the prequels
and all the way up through Ultima 4 were almost entirely solo endeavors, in every aspect. It was a one-
man band. -Richard Garriott, interview with IndustryGamers.

Ultima III had tons of atmosphere due to its consistent, imaginative and varied game world. The game
mechanics were pretty simple, so the game is easy to get into. The game design is great, and it uses this
simple mechanics to maximum effect, providing lots of surprises, some nasty, some nice. After Ultima II,
which is extremely uneven, boring and just plain badly designed, Ultima III shows that Garriott knows
how to create great games is definitively is a big step towards the even greater Ultima IV.

Sid’s Sub. Sim (Sid Meier’s submarine simulator)

Silent Service is a 1985 submarine simulator video game. It was designed by Sid Meier and
published by MicroProse for a very large number of personal computer systems including the IBM PC.
The follow-up game, Silent Service II, was released in 1990.
Gameplay innovations. The game allows the player to choose when to attack and a whole range of
realistic tactics are available, including the End Around as well as near invisibility at night (if the sub’s
profile is kept to a minimum). The game’s realism was hampered by the simulation’s inability to handle
more than four projectiles at a time. This was particularly troublesome when battling multiple destroyers,
since the submarine would not be able to fire if four torpedoes were already in the water.

“Our approach to making games is to find the fun first and then use the technology to enhance the
fun. “- Sid Meyer

EGA graphics. Not the greatest EGA, however one of its first use in games


Graphics. This is one of the first games to support EGA graphics. Tandy / Pcjr and CGA were also
used by the programmers. Still the graphics were only marginally improved as the game’s graphics
weren’t very artistic and didn’t use all available EGA colors very efficiently.

Both version of this game for Atari ST (left)and Amiga(right)were launched in 1986. While the Atari ST
had great graphics on the Amiga they were amazing.


The game also accelerates real time when not in combat. Sid Meier described a number of key factors
that influenced the design of the game: The size of the theatre, the variety of tactical situations, and
evolving technology, such as torpedoes that did or did not leave trails of bubbles on the surface, and the
use of surface radar. Tasks such as navigation, damage repair, and firing were compartmentalized into
different screens to allow players access to a great deal of information, but also focus on the task at hand.
In 1996, Computer Gaming World ranked it as the 86th best game of all time for having “introduced
the control-room interface for submarine games on variety of platforms.” Detailed rules, historical
accuracy and layers of complexity made this simulation a necessity in every gamer’s library when it first
appeared.

An early flight fighter

F-15 Strike Eagle is an F-15 Strike Eagle combat flight simulator developed and released in 1984 by
MicroProse and is the first in the F-15 Strike Eagle series that will included later the F-15 Strike Eagle II
and F-15 Strike Eagle III sequels. It was originally published for Atari 8-bit computers. The game was
again designed by Sid Meier with input from Air Force pilot John W. “Bill” Stealy in a custom language
called SidTran.

The PC version of the game included a method of DRM that required the player to use a decoder
wheel to start the game. In later versions, players were able to use “Mission Codes” in order to continue
from where they last left off.

Graphics. This is one of the few games from 1985 to support the EGA graphics with its smallest
graphic mode the 200x160/16, smaller compared to standard CGA at 320x200/4 color graphic mode but I
do prefer colors over resolution in this game. Other video modes supported were the standard CGA and
Tandy / PCjr. Although the x86 version supported EGA the graphics were better on most other platforms.

F-15 Strike Eagle is one of the few games to support EGA’s nearly-unknown 160x200x16 mode.

The old and the new Atari, on the left Atari 8-bit (1984) and on the right Atari ST (1985)

The game won the “Action game of the Year” in Computer Gaming World’s 1985 reader poll and sold
over 1.5 million copies a huge number for the 80’s. As one of the first flight fighter simulation games, this
product was a classic in the 80’s.

Beyond Castle Wolfenstein is a 1984 computer game designed by Muse Software. It is the sequel to the
innovative and successful Castle Wolfenstein, a prototypical stealth game. Unlike the original game, Beyond
Castle Wolfenstein was originally developed simultaneously for both the Apple II and the Commodore 64, but
was quickly ported to the Atari 8-bit and one as a PC Booter in 1985.
Gameplay. Like its predecessor, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein is a combination action and adventure
game with mixed stealth and shooter gameplay. It is set in World War II during Adolf Hitler’s rule as
Chancellor of Germany. The objective of the game is to traverse all the levels of the secret Berlin bunker
where the Führer is holding secret meetings with his senior staff. The player must retrieve a bomb that the
operatives have placed inside the bunker and place it outside the door of the room where Hitler is holding
his meeting, a scenario bearing a passing resemblance to the July 20 Plot.
Graphics. This is one of the games that didn’t required advanced EGA graphics to look nice and 4
colors were enough to create a decent visual experience. Although the other platforms were theoretically
more graphical advanced than CGA in this game the quality of graphics was similar.


 The MSDOS version of Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, only in CGA

Sound. I would like to remark the fact that this game supported the Tweaked sound implemented in
PCjr and Tandy 1000 and so gamers could hear advanced digitized sound “Halt! Com.. in zee, zeis pass,
Hail!!”
This game is an improvement over the original Castle Wolfenstein with, better CGA graphics and
better sound, and a greater emphasis on stealth and puzzle solving. You can run and gun your way through
the game, but you won’t get far. You can avoid detection by using you knife and moving bodies out of
view. Much of the game involves collecting the correct floor passes and picking locks to open closets.
While this may frustrate some, it’s a vast improvement over the timer chest-opening mechanism of the
original and makes this a pretty good game to play.

The decent only games. Unfortunately, these previous 6 games are the only good MS-DOS games
with graphics from 1985. The severe lack of good MS-DOS games launched this year forced me to
include several only decent releases, just to have a more complex overall opinion regarding this year x86
gaming.

An amalgam of genres

The Dam Busters is a combat flight simulator set in World War II developed by Sydney Development
Corp. The game was released on several platforms and was one of the earliest flight simulators available on
home computers.

Genre innovation. This is perhaps one of the few games to mix action, simulation and strategy genres in
one game package and has many secondary genre elements: Flight, Historical Battle, Real-Time, Shooter,
making it very complex.

Gameplay. Dam Busters is an early flight simulation, set in World War II. It focuses on Dam Busters
who historically were used to heavily bombard strategic objectives, in this case dams. This task is not
easy, as en route you will face heavy opposition forces. Fortunately, you won’t be a sitting bomber in the
air. Your aircraft is equipped with machine guns (left and right) with unlimited rounds of fire power to
fire at will as the enemy approaches.

A successful mission, the dam will be destroyed. The black really helps to simulate night: D
 The CGA only MS-DOS graphics were very simple and comparatively all other competing platforms
had similar modest graphics. Since the action takes place in the night and the night is black this is again
one game that is satisfied by the CGA’s 4 colors. I also like the sense of map immensity allowed by the
dark night plane view-screen.
While the game was fun it wasn’t such a huge technical realization or success, it’s only a decent game
and also worth mentioning because of the high number of genres it used.

Borrow another PC top play this one
Borrowed Time is a point-and-click adventure game. The game was developed by Interplay and
published by Activision in 1985. The storyline is about a detective, who tries to rescue his kidnapped
wife.
The player has to type in combinations of verbs and nouns to make an action. Locations are described
in text form and presented by pictures, the latter often providing additional information not contained in
the text description; therefore the graphics were used for the gameplay.

CGA graphics can be really ugly

The Atari ST version on the left was also launched in 1985 had great graphics while the Amiga
version from 1986 was even more polished

Overall the game was decent with an interesting gameplay but the MS-DOS graphics were awful
compared to all other platform and the in-game screenshots proves just how much better looking were
Atari ST and Commodore Amiga graphics launched in a similar period.

Educational can be fun!

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? is the earliest version of Where in the World Is Carmen
Sandiego? game series. It was released in 1985 for Apple II and IBM PC and later on other platforms. This
is an educational game that teaches you many of the world capitals and some fun elementary detective job.
Educational gameplay. This is a game that tests the player’s knowledge about geography and general
knowledge about different countries. Missions will begin with a treasure being stolen and the player
flying to that location. A time limit counts down while they must search the area and interview witnesses
to find enough clues to figure out what country the thief flew to next. The player always has a limited
selection (usually three or four) of flights available in any given country. This process is repeated until
either the villain is found or time expires and they are able to get away.
Graphics are static and have very simple visuals but fortunately the programmers implemented the
CGA Composite mode with better colors and higher appeal compared to the limited CGA.

Buenos Aires (CGA) and Reykjavik (CGA Composite) two of the many places in the World to search
for Carmen Sandiego


This was a great old game and its replay value was high. After you capture Carmen, you retire and can
start a new game trying again to capture her. And since each time you go after a criminal the sites change,
it’s never the same game twice. If you have never played it, you are missing out on a ground-breaking
“edutainment” game and a great way to have fun and learn at the same time.

Good text/ASCII games launched in 1985

While games with graphic failed to impress this year the text based games will have a better year with
a decent number of text adventures and one ASCII strategy game and I will present only the most
representative and best of them as there were many more others.

For Trekkie fans

Starfleet I: The War Begins is a 1985 ASCII strategy computer game designed by Trevor Sorensen
and developed by Interstel (some versions by Cygnus Multimedia). It was released for Apple II, DOS and
Commodore 64 but the game is the most symbolic for DOS. Versions for the Atari ST and Atari 8-bit
were released in 1986 and versions for the Amiga and Macintosh were released in 1987. The game was
successful enough to spawn sequels which are collectively known as the Star Fleet series.

Game genre. While a text based game is most of the time associated with interactive fiction this was
a turn based strategy game that proved how complex ASCII based strategy games can be.

Always fighting

With this release the gamers could finally evolve from cadet to admiral in a superb rendition of the
“main-frame” Star Trek. Although the graphics are only colored ASCII, the game shines with its very
complex gameplay mixing a lot of strategy and advance planning. Adding the extremely loved Star Trek
universe and a huge replay value this is one of my favorite games from 1985.

Impressive puzzle-less adventure

A Mind Forever Voyaging (AMFV) is an interactive fiction game designed and implemented by
Steve Meretzky and published by Infocom in 1985. The name is taken from book three of The Prelude by
William Wordsworth.

Game story. The year is 2031 and the world is near the brink of economic collapse. To avoid this,
the president comes up with a plan to stop the disaster - but before applying it, the long-term impacts
on the world need to be validated. This is done with a simulation visited by the computer project
PRISM, designed to be a true AI. The game starts when PRISM awakes from a simulation of his own,
human life and is told that he is in fact the world’s first sentient machine. At this point, the player
takes control over PRISM.

And so the adventure begins

Gameplay. Unlike other Infocom offerings, the game is meant to be experienced, rather than played.
The first two parts of the game have almost no puzzles, focusing instead on exploration and discovery as
you walk the streets of Rockvil, watching daily life, seeing what activities can be attributed to the effects
of the Plan, and watching the changes that take place over time. PRISM uncovers a devious plot made by
greedy politicians, which will corrupt the entire country unless he can stop it…somehow. A fantastic
finale and the ability to traverse a whole city, enhances this great game.

I will conclude with a gamer review. “If the other video games were more like it, they could’ve
achieved that art status they’re desperately seeking a long time ago. Undoubtedly AMFV is one of the
best adventures up to date with hardly a single puzzle in it. If you’re going to play only one interactive
fiction game in your lifetime, make sure it’s A Mind Forever Voyaging.”

Spellbreaker is an interactive fiction computer game written by Dave Lebling and released by
Infocom in 1985, the third and final game in the “Enchanter Trilogy”. Like most of Infocom’s games, it
was released for many of the time’s popular computer platforms including PC. It is Infocom’s eighteenth
game. This game was a sequel to Sorcerer and the concluding part of the Enchanter trilogy within the Zork
universe.

Grabbed by the giant Roc and being carried to her nest. Let’s hope she’s not too hungry…

The game plays similarly to its predecessors, the player inputting text commands to interact with the
game world and solve puzzles. The magic system is still present; however, spellcasting can fail now, due
to the game’s premise of the decline of magic. A new feature is the player’s ability to name the objects the
protagonist collects in the game. This ability becomes a necessity when the player is required to collect
the identically-looking Cubes of Foundation, having to name them in order to differentiate between them.
Since I haven’t had much time to play many interactive fictions I will conclude again with another
gamer’s review: “The sheer imagination within this game combined with the breathtaking prose of
Dave Lebling (who I personally reckon wrote the best Infocom adventures) and the amazingly flexible
text parser made this game an absolute classic.”

Not as difficult, just as funny

Wishbringer: The Magick Stone of Dreams is an interactive fiction computer game written by
Brian Moriarty and published by Infocom in 1985. It was intended to be an easier game to solve than the
typical Infocom release, and provide a good introduction to interactive fiction for inexperienced players.
It was one of five top-selling titles to be re-released in Solid Gold versions including in-game hints.
Craig Shaw Gardner novelized Wishbringer in the Infocom Book line.

 The poetic description of your death

In a world of many difficult interactive fiction games Wishbringer was by far the least frustrating and
one of the most enjoyable. I’d definitely recommend this game to anyone who hasn’t played puzzle-based
interactive fiction before. For hardcore gamers there were clearly better options.

Games vs hardware, the 1985 conclusion. The only three tolerable games from a technical/graphical
point of view, as they used the EGA standard are King Quest II, F-15 Strike Eagle and Silent Service and
the first two used the lowest available 200x160 resolution although the EGA also supported the very high
640×350 resolution at the same 16 colors. Quite disappointing I must say. In the remaining seven
graphical games presented three used CGA Composite and four CGA, techniques available from 1981
with abysmal graphic quality. While PCjr graphics were implemented in a large number of games in
1984, this year they were completely forgotten, showing how little the game developers cared now
regarding the unsuccessful PCjr computer. As a result of all disappointing previous statements, 1985 in by
far the weakest year in all gaming history of x86 computers except of course the launch year 1981. Luckily
for IBM and the rest of IBM PC Compatible manufacturers the x86 computers were primary used as a
home business tool and gaming was only a complementary bonus, heavily unsatisfactory this year.
Gaming competition for IBM PC’s and Compatibles in 1985
MS-DOS based gaming wasn’t the only one to be affected by the North American video game crash as
Apple II, Macintosh and Atari 8-bit computers were all affected, and received a significant smaller
number of games and top releases compared to the previous years. Without the Atari’s consoles, TI-99/4A
and TRS-80 CoCo the competition on the North American market was much relaxed compared to the
previous years.
While the EGA standard was used in several games it wasn’t implemented at its top potential only
matching the graphics in older competing platforms and by this year both high end Amiga 1000 and Atari
ST computer platforms emerged with much better graphic capabilities. The competition has again more
games that are better and more original, with better graphics and better sounds.

New competing platforms, launched in 1985

While theoretically the top x86 computers were quite capable (EGA and 80286 was a potent
combination) the graphic quality implemented to date on x86 games that run on IBM PC and Compatibles
was still behind most competitors including older systems such as the Atari 8-bit computers launched in
1979. If this wasn’t enough the competition will improve even more in 1985 launching three top platforms
for gaming, one legendary console, the Nintendo Entertaining System and two innovative high end
computers, Amiga 1000 and Atari ST. The future of x86 computers was in serious danger from an
amazingly number of points of view and for now only a wonder seemed to save the x86 PC’s and after
you will read about these three new amazing platforms my point of view will become clear.

For now a plausible future for electronic gaming


Twice in everything, equal in gaming (related to C64)

Commodore 128. The C128 was introduced by Commodore in January 1985 at the CES in Las Vegas,
three years after its predecessor, the bestselling Commodore 64. While C128 failed to reach its
predecessor C64 success will have good overall sales with around 5.7 million units sold worldwide, a
reasonable success for Commodore but failed to meet expectations.

C128 and a compact design considering the dual CPU design



Hardware. The C128 was a significantly important upgrade compared to its predecessor, the C64,
with nearly full compatibility. The new machine had 128 kB of RAM in two 64 KB banks, and an 80-
column color video output. It had a redesigned case and keyboard. It amazingly included two 8-bit
microprocessors, the MOS 8502 at 2 MHz to maintain compatibility with the C64 software while the
second was a Zilog Z80 CPU which allowed the C128 to run the CP/M operating system, as an alternative
to the usual Commodore BASIC environment. The new 8502 microprocessor was completely backward-
compatible with the C64’s MOS 6510 1MHz microprocessor but could run at double the speed in the
C128 mode. The VIC-II graphic chip was the same one used in the older C64 computer but the hardware
designers also added a new MOS 8563 Video Display Controller, capable to generate a higher resolution
an 80-column (640×200 pixel) RGB video display. Officially, the VDC was a text-only VDC and lacked
sprite capabilities, which limited its use in gaming applications; however supported a bitmap mode and
blitting (video acceleration) capabilities, making the chip very capable for fast high-resolution graphics
in non-gaming graphic software.

Three imperfect working modes. To use as efficiently as possible the available hardware
Commodore engineers implemented three working modes for their new computer: the C128 mode, the
CP/M mode and the C64 mode.
The C128 mode had double the RAM, twice processor speed and the higher 640x200 graphic mode
over the original C64 making the C128 a much better choice to run the GEOS graphical operating system
compared to the C64. Nonetheless the VDC graphic mode will be extremely impractical for gaming
because the MOS 8563 Video Display Controller had no sprites or raster interrupts required in a large
number of games. Therefore the CPU and RAM advantages were rendered redundant in games by the
uninspired graphic chip.

 The CP/M mode was used to offer compatibility with the CP/M operating system and software but
unfortunately the second microprocessor, the Zilog Z80 at 4 MHz was running at an effective 2 MHz
because of wait states in order to allow the VIC-II video chip access to the system bus. Therefore C128
ran CP/M noticeably slower than most dedicated CP/M systems.

The C64 mode was implemented by incorporating the original C64 BASIC and kernel ROMs entirety
in the new C128 (16 KB total). With the compatible CPU and the identical VIC-II graphic chip the C128
achieved almost 100 percent compatibility with the older Commodore 64. In this mode many of the
C128’s additional features were disabled or unavailable such as the 640x200 graphics, fast CPU mode,
memory management unit and BASIC 7.0.

Impressive software support. The supplementary presence of the Z80 and the huge CP/M software
library it brought, coupled with the C64’s software library, gave the C128 one of the broadest ranges of
available software among its competitors. Although very successful in late 70’s and early 80’s the CP/M
was long past its prime by the mid-1980s, and so it was seldom used on the C128.

C128 gaming = C64 gaming. About 30 commercial games will be specifically designed for the
C128 hardware, an amazingly low number compared to the total number of C64 games ever launched;
several thousands. Some of the best games that will be optimized for C128 are Ultima V: Warriors of
Destiny, Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom, Wizardry: Legacy of Llylgamyn - The Third Scenario and
many other interactive fiction games launched by Infocom.
The biggest advantage for the C128 will be the compatibility with the C64 software and consequently
games because the C64 had by far the largest library of video games launched in the 80’s. While twice as
capable as C64 in both RAM, CPU power and graphic resolution the C128 will bring no improvement to
personal computer gaming in the 80’s leaving the Amiga line to be the true innovating multimedia
computer.

The first true multimedia computer

The Commodore Amiga 1000. The Amiga is a family of personal computers sold by Commodore in
the 1980s and early 90’s. The first model Commodore Amiga 1000 was launched in 1985 as a high-end
home computer and became popular for its advanced graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities. The
Amiga family provided a substantial upgrade from 8-bit computers, such as the Commodore 64, and the
platform quickly grew in popularity among computer enthusiasts.
Much later in 1994, when unfortunately Commodore filed for bankruptcy, Byte magazine called the
Amiga 1000 “the first multimedia computer… so far ahead of its time that almost nobody-including
Commodore’s marketing department-could fully articulate what it was all about”

Hardware. The Amiga 1000 implemented the powerful Motorola 68000 microprocessor also
employed by the Macintosh and Atari ST and had some of the most advanced graphics and sound
hardware of its class and a preemptive multitasking operating system that fit into 512 KB of memory. The
processor was running at 7.15909 MHz (on NTSC systems) or 7.09379 MHz (PAL systems), precisely
double the video color carrier frequency for NTSC or 1.6 times the color carrier frequency for PAL. The
chipset was designed to synchronize CPU memory access and chipset DMA so the hardware runs in real-
time without wait-state delays. Therefore the A1000 at 7 Mhz was faster than the Apple Macintosh that
had a Motorola 68000 at a higher 8 Mhz frequency but with up to 35% performance loss due to its
inefficient wait-state. The RAM memory came in the standard 256–512 KB configuration but supported
up to 8.5 MB, a huge amount for all 80’s.


The Amiga 1000 computer, extremely advanced for its time


The amazing chipset trinity designed by an amazing engineer. The system logic was called at the
time OCS (Original Chip Set) and was composed of three main chipsets: Agnus, Denise and Paula that took
take care of all Amiga’s advanced capabilities. The system logic was similar to the 1989 Atari 8-bit logic
consisting of the ANTIC, GTIA and POKEY chips but on a more complex hardware level. This was no
coincidence as both system chipsets were conceptually designed by Jay Miner a famous American
integrated circuit designer also known as “father of the Amiga”. He also designed the chipsets for the Atari
2600 and 5200 called TIA and CTIA.

Agnus is the central chip in the design, today called chipset. It controls all access to chip RAM from
both the central 68000 processor and the other custom chips, using a complicated priority system. The
original Agnus can address 512 KB of chip RAM and includes sub-components known as the Blitter (fast
transfer of data in memory without the intervention of the processor) and the Copper (video-synchronized
co-processor) whose name is short for “co-processor”. The copper is a programmable finite state machine
that executes a programmed instruction stream, synchronized with the video hardware and it was named
later a video accelerator, the first to be found in home computers. Due to Copper many games runs faster on
Amiga than just about all other personal computers at the time therefore Amiga systems were preferable for
fast action gaming.

Denise is the main video processor. Denise supports interlacing, which doubles the vertical
resolution, at the cost of pretty bad flickering on most monitors produced during the same timeframe as the
Amiga computers. Planar bitmap graphics are used, which splits the individual bits per pixel into
separate areas of memory, called bitplanes. In normal operation, Denise allows between 1 and 5
bitplanes, giving 2 to 32 unique colors. These colors are selected from a palette of 4096 colors (4 bits
per RGB component). Denise also supports eight sprites, single pixel scrolling, and a “dual playfield”
mode and also handles mouse and digital joystick input. The most used graphic modes were 320×200 to
320×400interlaced (NTSC) 320×256 to 320×512interlaced (PAL). Graphic modes supported up to 32
and 64 (EHB mode) or 4096 (HAM mode) on-screen colors. You are probably lost: interlaced, EHB,
HAM; while there is very much to write about these amazing graphic standards I’ve only included the
basics them just to show how advanced was the Amiga line.
The graphic modes with higher resolution 640×200 to 640×400i (NTSC) and 640×256 to 640×512i
(PAL) had up to 16 on-screen colors and were less used in games due to the smaller number of colors.
 Paula chipset was responsible for the impressive sound capabilities with 4 × 8-bit PCM channels (2
stereo channels); at 28 kHz maximum DMA sampling rate and 70 dB S/N ratio. While there can be many
debates regarding Atari ST vs. Amiga sound when it comes to games I do prefer the Paula chipset over
Atari ST due to its multichannel digital sound that allowed more complex music, that sounded more close to
reality and less speaker like and muffled. Still this is a personal opinion as others preferred Atari ST sound
while for electronic music creation the Atari ST was a much better tool due to its MIDI support.

Gaming on Amiga personal computer systems. Many great games were launched for Amiga systems
and to name just a few of them The Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, The
Settlers, Cannon Fodder, Lemmings, Civilization, Wings, Out of this World, Pirates!, Another World and
the large list can continue. The games had better graphics than most MSDOS based games from the 80’s
and are similar with MSDOS based games from the early 90’s showing how advanced the system really
was. Regarding sound capabilities the MS-DOS personal computers were also clearly inferior and only
few MS-DOS games from 1989 will support digital PCM sound, with the launch of the Sound Blaster
sound cards. As a total number of games available for all Amiga systems over the time, there are more
than 1000 games available to play and a large number of them are top releases.

Alien Breed 2 game from 1993, 320 x 200/ 256 colors HAM graphics


Amiga 1000 games in 1985 were few and unimportant. This is understandable considering the late July
release and the different and powerful graphic and sound capabilities that required time to be learned and
implemented into the game design. From 1986 things will change.

Atari reborn

Atari ST. The Atari ST is a high end home computer released by Atari Corporation in June 1985.
Development machines were distributed around May 1985 and it was available commercially from that
summer into the early 90’s. The “ST” officially stands for “Sixteen/Thirty-two”, which referred to the
Motorola 68000’s 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internal architecture. Due to its graphical user interface,
it was jokingly referred to as the “Jackintosh”, a reference to Jack Tramiel. The ST was later superseded
by the Atari STE, Atari TT, Atari MEGA STE and Falcon computers.
When launched the ST was primarily competing with the Commodore Amiga. Amiga had much better
graphic capabilities and arguably better sound that included a graphics accelerator and PCM (pulse-code
modulation) sample based sound, while the Atari ST had fewer colors, a simple frame buffer and a 3 voice
FM synthesizer chip. Yet Atari ST had the CPU faster clocked, and had a high-resolution monochrome
640x400 display mode, ideal for business and CAD.
 While in was positioned in the same price range Apple Macintosh was inferior due to its monochrome
graphics and had lower sales. Towards the end of the 80’s the system will also compete with powerful
x86 computers based on 80286/80386 microprocessors and VGA cards.

With Atari ST, Atari was back in business

Hardware. The Atari ST was part of the 16/32 bit generation of powerful home computers, based
on the powerful Motorola 68000 CPU at 8 MHz, typically with 512 KB of RAM or more, a graphical user
interface, and 3½” microfloppy disks as storage. This CPU was also used in the Apple Macintosh, and the
overall simple system design allowed the ST to precede the Commodore Amiga’s commercial release by
almost two months. The Atari ST was also the first personal computer to come with a bit-mapped color
GUI, using a version of Digital Research’s GEM released that February. The integrated video controller
was capable of generating 320x200x16 colors, 640x200x4 colors, and 640x400 monochrome video modes
from as many as 512 colors palette. While similar to EGA the early Atari ST based games had most of the
time much better implemented graphics.

MIDI Music. The sound capabilities were great due to its Yamaha 3-voice FM sound generator with
integrated MIDI support, the first home computer with MIDI support. Thanks to its built-in MIDI it enjoyed
success for running music-sequencer software and as a controller of musical instruments among amateurs
and professionals alike, being used in concert by bands and performers such as Jean Michel Jarre,
Madonna, Eurythmics, Tangerine Dream, Fatboy Slim and others and also named the German digital
hardcore band Atari Teenage Riot.
Gaming on Atari ST. A very large number of games will be launched for Atari ST, more than 2000,
many of them with advanced graphics and sounds, much better than most MS-DOS games prior 1988 and
1989. Some of the best games for Atari ST are Dungeon Master, Cannon Fodder, Chaos Strikes Back, Sim
City, Battleships, Formula One Grand Prix, Populous and these just to name a few as they are many more
great games. I do appreciate the fact that Atari ST had in many games similar graphics with Commodore’s
Amiga family despite the inferior graphic capabilities.

Atari ST games in 1985. While the platform was commercially available from the summer of 1985 it
received enough good games in 1985 to count as a viable gaming platform. Such good games are SunDog:
Frozen Legacy, Phantasie, Time Bandit, F-15 Strike Eagle and King’s Quest II: Romancing the Throne; a
decent list considering the short time left of 1985.




SunDog: Frozen Legacy for Atari ST an amazing complex game


The greatest of games can be made on cost effective hardware.

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit video game console that was launched by
Nintendo in Japan in 1983 as the Family Computer, or Famicom. It was released in North America much
later during the end of 1985, in Europe in 1986 and Australia in 1987. In South Korea, it was known as
the Hyundai Comboy and was distributed by SK Hynix which then was known as Hyundai Electronics. It
was succeeded by the Super Family Computer/Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Limited Hardware except for the graphics. For its central processing unit (CPU), the NES used an 8-
bit microprocessor produced by Ricoh based on the very common for the time MOS Technology 6502 core.
The CPU was similar with the MOS 6507 the microprocessor used by the 1977 Atari 2600, therefore quite
old tech. The NES contained a very small amount of 2 KB onboard work RAM. A game cartridge may
contain expanded RAM to increase the small amount.

Graphics. The NES had an uncommon 256 horizontal pixels by 240 vertical pixels native resolution,
very close to a square. This was very different than standard computers that had a 320x200 or 16:10
format but was better suited for the common 4:3 televisions. While the resolution was fully visible on
PAL it was cropped to 256 × 224 on most NTSC televisions.

NES revived the lifeless North American home console market

The NES used a custom-made Picture Processing Unit (PPU) also developed by Ricoh. The chip is
known for its very effective use of memory, using very little memory to store graphical data. It was rather
advanced for its time when it was released, sporting full sprite support, movable backgrounds, and many
colors on screen at the same time. All deviations of the PPU featured only 2 KB of video RAM, 256 bytes
of on-die “object attribute memory” (OAM) to store the positions, colors, and tile indices of up to 64
sprites on the screen, and 28 bytes of on-die palette RAM to allow selection of background and sprite
colors. The system has an available color palette consisting of 48 colors and 6 grays.

NES palette, quite impressive

Up to 25 simultaneous colors may be used without writing new values mid-frame: a background color,
four sets of three tile colors and four sets of three sprite colors. A total of 64 sprites may be displayed
onscreen at a given time without reloading sprites mid-screen. The graphic card was the biggest NES
advantage; while cost effective it allowed respectable graphics with good resolution and a large number
of colors.

The North American release. At June 1985’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Nintendo
unveiled the American version of its Famicom. This is the system which would eventually be officially
deployed as the Nintendo Entertainment System, or the colloquial “NES”. Nintendo seeded these first
systems to limited American test markets starting in New York City on October 18, 1985, following up
with a full-fledged North American release of the console in February of the following year 1986.
Nintendo released 18 launch titles, most of them great games: 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land,
Duck Hunt, Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite, Hogan’s Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu,
Mach Rider, Pinball, Stack-Up, Tennis, Wild Gunman, Wrecking Crew, and Super Mario Bros. Some
varieties of these launch games contained Famicom chips with an adapter inside the cartridge so they
would play only on North American consoles.

The winning policy. Nintendo instituted a strict licensing program to ensure that the gaming industry
crash – with its glut of games of questionable quality — would not happen again with the NES. No
unlicensed games would be tolerated on the NES platform. All games would have to be approved by
Nintendo and third parties could only create a certain number of games per year for the NES, while the
same games could not be made for competing platforms for two years.
Their strategy to create great games and to sign exclusivity for some third party game designers top
gaming announcements worked. Nintendo’s quality first-party efforts as well as the incredibly powerful
third-party support resurged and revived the home videogame industry. If Nintendo didn’t step up to the
plate, the gaming industry and especially console gaming industry as a whole may have turned out entirely
different, the not so enjoyable different.
]
Gaming on NES. There is too much to be said about the NES games. A console, opposed to the
computer is especially designed for gaming and while computers can survive without gaming due to their
business use, a console will not survive without enough good games. Fortunately for Nintendo and for its
buyers the console received about 700 total games and a very large number of classics. As for me, a huge
fan of NES games and especially of Super Mario Bros I would have bought the console only for my huge
love for Mario. I also enjoyed other great games such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, Contra, Bionic
Comando, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda and many more others.
 The NES helped revitalize the US video game industry following the video game crash of 1983-1985,
and set the standard for subsequent consoles of its generation. NES is the best console ever not because it
had the best hardware and features as it didn’t, it was the best because Nintendo created the right rules
and ecosystem that allowed the NES to receive some of the best games ever (related to the hardware
capabilities and timeframe).
NES is also the platform to have the best ratio of good/bad games receiving an impressively low
number of bad games, another big plus.

NES games in 1985. I won’t name them again because the best games launched for NES this year are
the ones presented before in The North American release. While most of them were designed in 1985
there were some first created in 1983 and 1984 for the Japanese market and now adapted for the U.S.
market. About 80 NES games were launched in 1985.

Super Mario Bros (1985) is my favorite game from the

80’s. A timeless classis


The older competition

Arcades. Only five good arcades were launched in 1985: Hang On, Ghosts n’ Goblins, Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom, Arkanoid and the fourth and best arcade game from 1985 was Gauntlet
that broke the boundaries of simple arcade action found in most arcades as it was one of the first multi-
player dungeon crawl/hack and slash arcade games. Nonetheless none of them succeeded to have
significant sales.


Gauntlet for Arcade. Great isometric/top down fantasy graphics

The end of the second generation of consoles and the rise of the third

Consoles. After the disastrous 1983 and 1984, 1985 was a very quiet year for Atari and consoles
based video games. Although few games were released for the 2600 by third party companies such as
Activision that produced Cosmic Commuter and Ghostbusters, they were launched with little fanfare or
marketing and did not sell well. However, because of the huge library of games and extremely cheap
price, Atari still sold over a million 2600 consoles in 1985.
Luckily for console lovers in 1985 will be released on North America the Nintendo Entertainment
System already a successful console in Japan as it was launched there from 1983 under the Famicom
name. With a weak start and considering the troubled U.S. console market few people hoped and even
fewer figured that NES would become in time such a successful gaming platform. While it had more of a
test start in 1985 sales will slightly improve from 1986/1987 and in time NES will become one of the
bestselling consoles ever. With NES consoles based electronic gaming will change forever.

C64 gaming in 1985. C64 had another great year for gaming. Graphic and especially sound
capabilities were still great and programmers made their best to release many top games such as: Zoids,
Commando, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Elite, Karateka, Winter Games, Law of the West, Summer
Games II, Planetfall, Paradroid, Heart of Africa, The Bard’s Tale: Tales of the Unknown, Silent Service,
Mercenary: Escape from Targ, The Way of the Exploding Fist and again many more others.

Winter Games for C64, a much loved game on C64

While C64 was the only computer not affected by the North American video game crash, the system
did received a significant smaller number of games (around 370 games) compared to the previous year
(more than 500 games).

Old but still capable

Apple II. It is impressive that a platform released

in 1977 still receive a decent amount of games with
good enough graphics. Best games for Apple II were
in 1985: Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Autoduel,
F15 Strike Eagle, The Oregon Trail, Elite, King’s
Quest II: Romancing the Throne and Little
Computer People. The total number of games
received also decreased slightly compared to 1984,
with only 100 games received.

Little Computer People for Apple II, the 80’s Sims

Atari 8’bit. Atari 8’bit family will get in 1985 a smaller number of games and great games compared
to the previous years and especially 1984. Some of best games launched for the platform this year are:
Autoduel, Archon:The Light and the Dark, The Great American Cross-Country Road Race, Alley Cat,
M.U.L.E. ,Ballblazer, Koronis Rift and the Eidolon.



Koronis Rift for Atari 8-bit. Graphics were still good

It is interesting to see how capable still were the Atari 8-bit computers regarding both graphics and
sounds despite their respectable age, as the platform was launched on the market from 1979. The total
number of Atari 8-bit games will noteworthy decrease compared to the previous year, with less than 90
games.

No video game crash in United Kingdom. If I have to name the best thing about British computers it’s
their longevity as they were supported by both hardware manufacturers and game designers a very long
period of time. The ZX Spectrum will maintain the very large number of games received at almost 200 while
the Amstrad CPC will receive an important grow with about 150 games beating all U.S. based personal
computers regarding this year gaming.


ZX Spectrum. While the Spectrum still was amongst the top platforms for gaming in 1985 it will
clearly lose the battle with C64 that had a larger number of games, that were more successful and had
most of the time better graphics. Some of best ZX Spectrum games launched this year are: Elite, Dynamite
Dan, Dun Durach, Fairlight, Roller Coaster, Skool Daze, Spellbound, Starion, Starquake.

Skool Daze for ZX Spectrum, the same dark contrasting graphic style

Amstrad CPC will receive a very large number of

games dis year, considering it was only released as a
platforms the previous year. Yet few of them will be
top releases such as Stunt Rider, Jet Set Willy,
Satellite Warrior, Archon: The Light and the Dark
and few others. The CPC will clearly lack top games
in 1985.

BBC Micro. Few good games were launched in 1985 for the BBC Micro, games such as Repton
(Superior), Citadel (Superior) and Castle Quest (MicroPower), Lode Runner, Jet Set Willy and Tapper. The
platform received about 40 games this year.


Good year in Japan

MSX gaming in 1985. While the platform had a slower start in 1983 from 1984 and especially 1985
the MSX will be a great platform for gaming. It was especially loved in Japan where Microsoft will
establish a fruitful partnership with the Japanese game developer Konami that will launch seven great MSX
games this year: Yie-Ar Kung Fu, King’s Valley, Soccer, Road Fighter, Konami’s Boxing, Konami’s PING-
PONG and Pippols. Other third party good games launched in 1985 are The Castle, Zaxxon, Deus Ex
Machina and Volguard and some more others.

Road Fighter for MSX

While all all other North American personal computers received a significant smaller number of
games compared to the previous year, C64 included, the MSX was the one platform to receive a larger
number, clearly showing that the video game crash from North America had nothing to do with the Land of
the Rising Sun.

Macintosh. As the only representative left 16/32 bit platform the Macintosh didn’t received many
top games in 1985. The best Macintosh games released in 1985 are Ultima II: The Revenge of the
Enchantress, The Ancient Art of War and Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord.


Ancient Art of War for Macintosh, nice resolution and good dithering

The competing Atari ST, launched this year in May 1985 already received at least 6 top games,
proving that is easy to program games for 16/32 bit computers in a very short time. Macintosh lovers
clearly didn’t buy the Mac for games back in 1985.


1985 Conclusion for x86 gaming. The question is “Can this year be more disappointing than 1984
regarding x86 gaming?” The answer is a clear YES as they are no original x86 games, there are very
few overall good games and the graphics (including EGA) were badly implemented with a very small
resolution and poorly used colors. There were some decent ASCII based games but not enough to save the
year. All other major platforms from U.S. including the very old and declining Apple II and Atari 8-bit
had better graphics and more games than a x86 platform that in theory supported much better EGA
graphics, had more RAM and processing power. Fortunately the x86 gaming didn’t end this year as this
book would probably had no meaning. Let’s hope that future years will be better considering what
competition already fetched on the high end personal computer market with the launch of Atari ST and
Amiga 1000.

Games vs. Hardware in 1986

General computer industry events
This is another interesting year regarding technology and computers and many interesting events took
place:

Beny Alagem buys the Packard Bell name from Teledyne and starts the Packard Bell computer
company while Pixar is co-founded by Steve Jobs the next year after leaving Apple. Another very
large number of future great companies are founded in 1986; some hardware based such as: MSI,
Gigabyte, Biostar, Leadtek, D-Link but also many gaming companies such as Bethesda Softworks,
Ubisoft, Codemasters and more others.

Regarding hardware and computers, chipsets begin to be found on computer motherboards with the
introduction of the Chips and Technology 82C206 replacing the large TTL logic, IBM becomes the
 first company to use a one megabit chip in the IBM Model 3090. Apple introduces the Mac Plus a
monochrome computer that contained a total of one megabyte of RAM, new keyboard that
contained cursors and numeric keypad and sold for $2,600. Tandy announces the Color Computer 3
July 30, 1986 as an advanced computer for low end market.

There are also many innovations regarding internet as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is
formed January 16, 1986; the domain ibm.com comes online March 19, 1986; NSFNET is created,
a crucial bacKBone to ARPANET and the Internet as we know it today, Eric Thomas develops the
first Listserv and Internet Mail Access Protocol is defined for e-mail transfer.

Regarding tech personalities I must note Heinz Nixdorf that passes away March 17, 1986
(Age:61), James Wilkinson passes away October 5, 1986 (Age:67), David Karp is born July 6,
1986 while the regretted programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist Aaron
Swartz is born November 8, 1986; may he rest in peace.

New x86 hardware launched in 1986

The first computer to use the mighty Intel 80386

Compaq DeskPro 386. The first company to design and manufacture a PC based on the Intel 80386
was Compaq. By extending the slowly evolving 16/24-bit IBM PC/AT standard into a natively 32-bit
computing environment, Compaq became the first third party to implement a major technical hardware
advance over the IBM PC platform. IBM was offered use of the 80386, but had manufacturing rights for
the earlier 80286 and chose to rely on that processor for a couple of more years.

The computer presented/praised in a contemporary computer magazine


Costing $6,499 at launch the computer had a new 32-bit bus and a completely astonishing for the time
16 MHz clock speed. The high end Motorola 68000 based computers: Macintosh, Atari ST and Amiga
1000 which had slower a 7-8 MHz clock speed and a slower architecture were clearly blown away. At
only three months after its announcement the Deskpro 386 shipped with Windows/386. This was a version
of Windows 2.1 adapted for the 80386 processor. Support for the virtual 8086 mode was added by
Compaq engineers.
Futureproof gaming. This computer was impressive at the time and was excellent for future games,
including the most resource hungry games from early 90’s. Coupled with a common ISA VGA card this
system will run very fast Wing Commander at 640x480 in 256 colors, one of the most resource hungry
games from 1990. The computer will also be fast enough to run most of the games launched in 1994 and
1995, nine years later.

The early success of the Compaq 386 PC played an important role in legitimizing the PC “clone”
industry and to reduce the IBM’s role within it. While the Tandy 1000 already successfully compete with
IBM in the home market now the high end market had a faster alternative than all IBM’s offerings. This
meant the beginning of the end concerning the IBMs dominance in the x86 PC market. It also brought the
performance title into the x86 computer markets. While the Intel 80286 and Motorola 68000 were roughly
equals on many tasks, the 80386 was clearly the most powerful processor available for the personal
computers. The competition still was ahead regarding graphics and sound capabilities but this was the
first important triumph of the x86 platforms over the competitors, the performance crown.

An IBM-made 386 machine eventually reached the market seven months later, but by that time
Compaq was the 386 supplier of choice and IBM had lost its image of technical leadership.

For Europe’s homes and offices

The Amstrad PC1512 was the first Amstrad’s IBM PC-compatible computer system, first
manufactured in 1986. After the Amstrad CPC 464, the CPC 664 and the CPC 6128 (three home
computers based on the Z80) and the PCW 8256 and the PCW 9512 (both dedicated word processing
computers based on the Z80 as well), Amstrad decided to make its first low-cost PC clone, and not any
kind of clone, one very capable and powerful.
The same winning Tandy’s strategy. Entering the x86 PC market was a winning move comparable to
the Tandy Corporation decision that separated their computers in the cheaper TRS-80CoCo family based
on the Motorola 6809E microprocessor and the Tandy family, moderately priced and based on Intel x86
microprocessors. While the PC1512 was based on an x86 microprocessor had some troubles to comply
with all IBM compatibility standards but overall it was enough. It launched for £499 and sold very well,
as it was one of the first cheap x86 PC’s launched in Europe. In time it will become an immense European
success, capturing more than 25% of the European computer market (impressive then and impossible to
achieve now).

Hardware. The PC1512 shipped with 512K of RAM; it could be upgraded to 640K of RAM with an
expansion pack commonly known as a “top hat”. Video output was compatible with the CGA standard,
with an extension allowing all 16 colors to be used in the 640×200 graphics mode; therefore it was better
than Tandy/PCjr graphic standards. The CPU of both the PC1512 and the later PC1640 was an 8 MHz 16-
bit Intel 8086, which was sufficient for playing future top games such as The Secret of Monkey Island,
Maniac Mansion and Prince of Persia. The computer system is also notable for the mouse implementation,
the Amstrad Mouse, which was incompatible with the serial mice common at the time. It was supported
by some games, including Elite, but many DOS programs had problems with it.




Good hardware with mouse included, multiple OS (graphical included) and a decent price, the
recipe for its huge success


Multiple Operating Systems. Amstrad licensed both MS-DOS 3.2 and Digital Research DOS Plus,
which was largely compatible with MS-DOS and included some features from CP/M and the ability to read
CP/M disks. They also later licensed the GEM graphical operating environment, which supported the
customized CGA hardware available on the 1512. Only one of these operating systems could be used at a
time but switching between them was fast and easy.

The computer significantly helped to open up the European PC market to both home consumers and
small companies despite the fact that Amstrad’s advertising for the PC1512 was aimed at homes rather
than offices. The 1512’s influence was such high that the UK PC magazine PC Plus originally targeted
itself at the “Amstrad PC 1512 and compatibles”, since home ownership of other x86 PCs at the time was
rare.


The Amstrad PC 1640 was the successor to the Amstrad PC 1512. It had the same characteristics as
its predecessor except for added memory (640 KB instead of 512 KB) and the EGA graphics standard.



Alarming news for Microsoft

New x86 Software used for gaming in 1986

In a time when most other high end competitors such as Atari ST, Macintosh and Amiga offered
graphical operating systems that could also run and execute games, Microsoft only released a small and
unimpressive upgrade of their older non-graphical operating system MS-DOS, the new 3.2 version. Their
mind was clearly set on other big projects such as Windows 2.x and OS/2, leaving their only operating
system that was able to support games clearly behind most competitors regarding capabilities with no
multitasking, no mouse support and no graphical environment.
MS-DOS 3.2 was introduced in January 1986. It was the first version to support 3.5 inch, 720 KB
floppy drives and diskettes and also fixed several bugs, but nothing more leaving the x86 owners that
wanted a Microsoft made graphical O.S. to choose Windows 1.0 (launched in November 20, 1985), clearly
an incomplete, imperfect and DOS dependent release.
 While some other platforms already had graphical operating system words of disarray even came from
the x86 Compatibles camp as the very successful Amstrad PC1512 and Amstrad PC 1640 computers based
on Intel x86 microprocessors already offered multi-boot choices besides this new MS-DOS 3.2 supporting
both Digital Research DOS Plus that was able to run MS-DOS and CP/M-86 Applications and the
graphical Operating System Digital Research GEM (Graphics Environment Manager) plus GEM Desktop
and GEM Paint.
With GEM x86 computers finally had a choice for a graphical environment, independent of DOS and
with some nice features, for the time in many ways a better choice than Windows 1.0. Microsoft future
wasn’t as assuring compared to the previous years.

Convalescence year

New x86 games, launched in 1986

After a modest 1983 and two downright disappointing years regarding gaming: 1984 and 1985, the
falling lane will finally stop and in 1986 the IBM PC’s and Compatibles will finally get a better year
regarding gaming. With a small but substantial number of decent games and finally good graphics in some
few releases the PC will finally prove that it deserved to survive the North American video game crash.

The original x86 top games from 1986 are few: King’s Quest III, Starflight and Mean 18. I even had a
reserve to include King’s Quest III in this category as both Atari ST and Amiga versions of the game were
also released this year. Still it was clear that this game was optimized for the MS-DOS platform. A
notable positive element was the significant number of games that received a common release with other
top gaming platforms at the time, showing that game designers were taking the PC in consideration.
The launch of the Intel 80386 used in the extremely powerful Compaq DeskPro 386 probably showed
the gaming companies how future proof really was the x86 family because from 1987 the number of games
launched for the x86 platform will dramatically increase.

Again with x86 in first plan

King’s Quest III: To Heir Is Human is the third installment in the King’s Quest series of computer
games produced by Sierra On-Line. It was the first game in the series not to feature King Graham as the
player character. The game was released for both Apple II and PC in 1986. The latter was the first Sierra
game to be DOS-based instead of using a self-booting disk, as well as the first to feature from the launch
EGA and Hercules graphics support.

Development. Roberta collaborated with a team consisting mainly of the same people that worked
with her on the previous two games, but more people were involved in the production this time. Al Lowe,
who made the music in King’s Quest II, became the lead programmer of King’s Quest III, while his wife
Margaret made the music.

King’s Quest III was the biggest and most ambitious game Sierra made up to that point. Roberta
Williams said that “My previous games, from Mystery House to King’s Quest II, were all great. But they
were essentially glorified treasure hunts…your object being to win the game by finding and collecting
items. It was not possible to have bigger and more complex plots than that thanks to technical
limitations”. The game was released on five 5.25” floppy disks and three 3.5” disks. It became Sierra’s
second largest game after Time Zone (six disks). It was almost 50% larger than King’s Quest I or King’s
Quest II. KQ3 had 104 screens, whereas KQ1 had about 80 and KQ2 had about 92. A year later, it was
re-released with the slightly improved AGI V3 engine.

Apparently this was the first adventure game featuring auto-mapping, with a “magic map” found in the
game that can be used to teleport to most locations that the player has visited before. This feature was
unpopular among some fans who claim it made the game too easy; hence, magic maps in future Sierra
games were more limited in their teleporting ability. The developers also introduced a real-time clock,
with some actions even based on the clock.

Same graphics. The graphics were based on the older AGI engine and were clearly optimized for the
200x160 EGA graphic mode and were nice but the resolution was quite small for 1986. The Atari ST and
Amiga 1000 had identical graphics, and their graphic capabilities were also clearly underused. Other
video modes supported on PC were: CGA, CGA Composite (16 colors), Hercules and Tandy / PCjr.

The small EGA resolution was also very suitable for older 8-bit systems that will implement later in
1988 similar vivid graphics and style.

TRS-80 CoCo 3 and Apple II graphics from 1988

The sound was also good despite the weaker capabilities of x86 computers, in tone with most Sierra
games and supported Tandy / PCjr 3-voice chips.
King’s Quest III was markedly more difficult than its two predecessors. The player was required to
type in magic spells line-by-line from a spell book that came with the game. The spells partially served as
a form of copy protection, although the game already had a disk-based protection.
After the rather innovative but nonetheless modest first two King’s Quest games, this is where the
series really came into its own. Compared to the previous two games the KQ3 had better ideas, more
satisfying puzzles and was clearly better overall. Not quite the best King’s Quest game, in my opinion, but
on hindsight, it’s one of them.

An MS-DOS original

Starflight is a strategy/simulation of space exploration, trading and combat developed by Binary
Systems and published by Electronic Arts in 1986. Originally developed for IBM PC’s and Compatibles it
was much later released for the Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh and Commodore 64. A fully revamped version
of the game was developed for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1991.
 Story. Set in the year 4620, the game puts players in the role of a starship captain sent to explore the
galaxy. There is no set path, allowing players to switch freely between mining, ship-to-ship combat, and
alien diplomacy. The broader plot of the game emerges slowly, as the player discovers that an ancient
race of beings is causing stars to flare and destroy all living creatures.

Regarding graphics the game is notable for its good use of the EGA graphics and also supported the
older video modes such as CGA, CGA Composite (16 colors), Hercules and Tandy / PCjr. The game also
supported the improved Tandy/PCjr 3-voice sound. While audiovisuals aren’t everything in a game,
Starflight managed to be a superior game in both that departments when compared to most MS-DOS
games at the time.

Good EGA graphics

The game had powerful sense of wonder and exploration. Few games allowed you to go anywhere
you wanted, because the game universe was so vast and had so many secrets to uncover. And the storyline
is a thing of beauty, revealed as it really is through snippets of alien communications and hidden messages
found in the ruins of some far-flung planet. Although replay value is low, you may be tempted to play on
even after solving the game just to see if there’s any part of this intricate and vibrant universe you may
have missed.
If you’re not a SCI-FI fan, you’ll no doubt find the game harder to appreciate. But if you’ve ever
longed to travel the stars, to experience the thrill of grand discovery among the timeless void, Starflight
will touch you too. This game is truly staggering in size, enormously addictive, deep, and enough non-
linear action, an 80’s masterpiece.

The first good golf DOS game

Mean 18 is a golf sport simulator released by Accolade from 1986 for many platforms including MS-
DOS. The first to be launched was the MS-DOS version but it was quickly ported to other popular home
computer platforms of the era. It was eventually ported to the Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari 7800 and Atari ST.

Mean 18 had two major claims to brag about: it was the first computer golf game to give the golfer’s
point-of-view of the course, and it was the first golf game to come with an editor that allowed players to
create their own tracks. The game featured the Augusta National and Pebble Beach and St. Andrews
courses. It used the soon popular 3-click control system, whereby the first click starts the swing, the second
sets the power, and the third sets draw or fade.


Not very artistic, even so EGA graphics

Despite the fact that some of the other personal computers had superior graphics abilities (notably,
the Amiga, Atari ST and Apple IIGS) the graphics for all the ports were similar to the DOS EGA version.
The MS-DOS version was also compatible with CGA, CGA composite and Tandy/PCjr.
While extremely dated now the game was innovative and fun in the 80’s and made a lot of fans.

Common 1986 gaming releases

This year some of the game designers will no longer ignore the IBM PC’s and Compatibles and will
launch some games with a common year release for both x86 PC’s and some major competing platforms.
The number of such games was small compared to the ported games but some of these releases were quite
amazing and will be very loved by the PC owners.

SF, creativity and EGA under Sierra, a sure hit

Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter is a video game released in October 1986 that will quickly
became a hit, selling in excess of 100,000 copies (sales are believed to be around 200,000 to date, not
including the many compilations it has been included in). Space Quest was the brainchild of Sierra
programmers Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, who had worked on prior titles like King’s Quest II, but had
not designed their own game until this one. According to Murphy “At that time (1985), everything at
Sierra was so somber and had an almost medieval atmosphere. So we decided Why not make a fun,
silly game?”
A precursor of this game is the interactive fiction game Planetfall presented before, created by Infocom,
whose player-character is a lowly “Ensign Seventh Class” who does the lowest form of labor aboard a
spaceship and who appears on the cover with a mop. Just as King’s Quest adapted the text-adventure puzzle
games set in a medieval world to a visual display, Space Quest did the same for the space puzzle game.
Gameplay. The game was programmed using Sierra’s AGI engine and featured the same pseudo-3D
environment, allowing the character to move in front of and behind background objects. The primary
means of input in Space Quest, as in many other AGI games, was through the use of a text parser for
entering commands and use of the keypad or arrow keys for moving Roger Wilco around the screen. The
Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari ST and Mac versions of the game also offered basic mouse support for
movement.

 The same smallish 160x200 AGI resolution, at 16 colors

Graphics. The video modes supported were CGA, CGA Composite (16 colors), EGA, Hercules,
MCGA, Tandy / PCjr while VGA was added later. The EGA graphics had same small 200x160 resolution
displaying 16 colors. The small AGI resolution was also a limiting factor for both Amiga and Atari ST as
both similar graphics with EGA.
Sound cards were not available in 1986, so sound was played through the PC’s internal speaker;
owners of Tandy 1000, PCjr and Amiga computers would hear a three-voice soundtrack, while Apple
IIGS owners were treated to a fifteen-voice soundtrack with notably richer sound.
Gamer review. “Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter is a golden classic, that not only sets a high
standard of creativity that would run throughout the SQ series, but one that stands as one of the best
entries in the series on its own (graphic & sound advancements allowing). If you’re an adventure game
fan and have never played it, then track down a copy as soon as possible! A top-notch start to an
excellent adventure series”.

Another great adventure coming from Sierra, luckily without parser

The Black Cauldron is a 1985 American animated fantasy adventure film produced by Walt Disney
Feature Animation. The 25th film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, it is loosely based on the first two
books in The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, a series of five novels which in turn is based on
Welsh mythology. The video game of the same name was designed by Al Lowe from Sierra On-Line and
released in 1986. It was made shortly after the first King’s Quest game, so it resembled that adventure in
many ways. Along with The Dark Crystal it remains one of only a few adventure games by Sierra to be based
on films.

Gameplay is similar to other Sierra adventure games of its day (such as Space Quest II or King’s Quest
III) but does not use a text parser so it’s easier. Instead the function keys are used to initiate actions that
appear at a text selection. Players control Taran and can make him walk, run, swim and interact (talk) with
other characters in the game. Puzzle-solving and advancement in the plot requires item manipulation of using
the right item at the right time or at the right location.


A much underrated EGA game!

The EGA graphic are just great for 1986, artistic, colorful and with interesting animated elements
such as animals, fir, smoke to create an animated experience but the resolution was again very small at
200x160. Like all recent Sierra games, it also supported the 3-voice PCjr/Tandy sound.

Gamer review. “A great, colorful game that is absolutely brilliant for kids to get a taste of
adventure gaming. It has the essence that all the great adventure games have had, and that is that if
you want to, you can just wander around lush environments exploring and enjoying the sights, while
meeting other game characters who are actually interesting and likeable. You’re not really restricted
that much either. The non-linear paths through the game make it that much better, rewarding people
for trying out different things”.

3D games are back in the menu. After the 1983 games Battlezone and 3-Demon, both 3d vector
games, came a period of drought as no other 3D vector game was launched in 1984 and 1985. These 3D
games will finally reappear in a small number this year with the launch of Starglider, another 3d vector
game and Gunship, one of the first ever 3D software games as it included pixel based 3d elements.

Another amazing simulation designed by Sid Meier

Gunship is an AH-64 Apache helicopter combat flight simulator video game released by MicroProse
in 1986 under Sid Meier’s direction. I was released for the PC DOS, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64,
FM Towns, MSX, PC-98, Sharp X68000 and ZX Spectrum. The game won the award for best simulation
game of the year according to the readers of Crash. In 1996, Computer Gaming World ranked it as the
102nd best game of all time.
Gunship describes one of the Western world’s finest attack helicopters: The AH-64A Apache. This
simulation recreates the weapons, flight systems, and performance of the real machine. The player
controls an arsenal that includes laser-guided Hellfire missiles, a 30mm cannon controlled by helmet
gunsights, clusters of bombardment rockets—even air-to-air missiles for duels with enemy helicopters.

Gunship with its 3d software EGA graphics


Gunship for Atari ST left and C64 right. Both were launched in 1986

It supported all major x86 systems IBM PC, PCjr, XT, and AT; including Tandy systems-Tandy 1000,
1200 and 3000. The video modes supported were the standard CGA, EGA, Hercules, Tandy / PCjr. The
EGA graphics were quite nice, better than C64 but weaker that Atari ST. Joystick was also supported.

Gameplay description made by a gamer. “Gunship wasn’t just a simple shoot’em up game. It had
strategy and tactics. For each mission you had to distinguish which kind of armaments and attributes
would best suit your Longbow Apache. To me this is just like a character development from an RPG
perspective - suiting up your character, deciding what’s best to face the challenges ahead. The game
also had complicated difficulty settings, like realistic landing (which I was too young to appreciate
since I hated crashing), winds (I think) and standard enemy difficulty. But the thing that got me most
was this was the first Simulation game that had a complex ranking system. Depending on your
capabilities on the battlefield, you’ll either get a promotion or a medal. Now this is totally the “RPG
element” of a simulation game. You’re developing your character, even though the recognition is
through ranks and medals. Because of this you always feel you have to do more, since the sense of
reward is always a joyful anticipation. Even though you’ve done the Primary and Secondary missions,
you’ll always feel you have to go back to the base, restock, and flatten the whole map with your trusty
Hellfire missiles!”

Gunship was one of the few 3D software games at the time for the PC to have an impressively fast
action and gameplay and despite the fact it dealt with the incredibly complex subject of flying an Apache
helicopter, it was easy to play, easy to control, and fun! New flight sim designers should take a look at
how this one worked, and take notes, it was that good.

The second 3d game of the year, based on vector graphics
Starglider is a 3D vector video game released in 1986 by Rainbird. It was developed by Argonaut
Software, led by programmer Jez San. The game was inspired by Jez San’s love of the 1983 Atari coin-
op Star Wars and for the 16/32-bit Atari ST and Commodore Amiga machines. Rainbird also licensed
Realtime Games to produce 8-bit versions for the Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, ZX Spectrum and also
for the IBM PC’s. Solid Images were commissioned to produce versions for the Commodore C64 and
Apple IIGS.

Genre. It was a fast-moving, first-person combat flight simulator, rendered with 3d wireframe vector
graphics. The game took place over the surface of the occupied planet Novenia, and the player’s goal was
to free the world of the mechanized Egron invaders. To this end the player was equipped with a high-
performance AGAV fighter aircraft, which was armed with lasers and television-guided missiles.

This is one of the best implementation of CGA in games with good resolution, mixed dots to simulate
trough dithering a larger number of colors and also included 3D wireframe vector graphics.



One 3d wireframe, simple but enjoyable CGA graphics based on Palette 0

The Amiga version (1987) was the best looking


Good Sound but not for PC. The Amiga version is notable of having a melody made by Dave Lowe
using instrumental sounds that were of exceptionally high quality for that time. Both ST & Amiga versions
also have about 15-second long song - a single sound file - with real vocals and synthesizers. A male voice
sings: “Starglider …by Rainbird”.While Tandy and PCjr also supported synthesized/digitized sound; the PC
version didn’t receive any of those.
While the MSDOS version of the game had a good gameplay and action, the CGA only graphics and
lack of synthesized sound made this game less desired.

Simulating life

Alter Ego is a life simulation video game released by Activision in 1986. It was created by Peter J.
Favaro, Ph.D. for the Commodore 64, DOS and Apple II. The game allows the user to make decisions for
an imaginary person (being therefore the player’s alter ego) and shows what possible consequences these
decisions could have on that person. The game was also ported in 2009 for Android and iPhone and for
iPad in 2010.

Gameplay inovations. Alter Ego is a game which tries to simulate life itself. The player creates a
character with different personality statistics, either by assigning them randomly or by answering a few
introductory questions. They then guide this character through seven life phases; from infancy to old age.
The gameplay consists of a series of situations where a decision has to be made. This is done by choosing
one of multiple answer possibilities, sometimes accompanied with a mood. Alter Ego was available in
both male and female versions, each using a different set of experiences.

 Alter Ego, alter and simulate the life. C64 graphics were even less inspired but this game is not
about graphics

For every action player gets receive an outcome and goes on to the next situation. Every decision has
long-time consequences and influences the personality, health and which situations await further down the
road. Some decisions may even result in an early death or instant game over. Every life phase is
represented by a life tree where the situations are lined up; the motive of the situation card shows the
general theme of the situation. After reaching a certain age, additional life options can be undergone at any
time. Here the player can change his lifestyle and manage his love and professional life.
An adventure game of sorts, Alter Ego puts you into a simulation of real life, and gives you all the key
choices to make. You can choose a degree and a career path, anything from entrepreneur to scientist, save
lives, take up interesting hobbies, and have the marriage of your dreams. It’s an individual and unusual
basis for a game, but it all hangs together due to the variety, humor and obvious validity of the outcomes.
Psychedelic graphical adventure

Tass Times in Tonetown is a 1986 adventure-themed computer game by Activision for multiple
computer platforms. It was written by veteran Infocom designer Michael Berlyn and his long-time
collaborator Muffy McClung Berlyn, and programmed by Bill Heineman of Interplay Productions, in
cooperation with Brainwave Creations.
Description. You job is to visit Tonetown to save your grandpa from a hideous crocodile creature
named Franklin J. Snarl, with the aid of your dog that not only could talk but will also became a star
reporter. Based on the engine used in 1985’s Borrowed Time, Tass Times sports an intuitive icon-based
interface and extremely creative puzzles (although they are mostly easy due to the small number of items
you can pick up and use) which makes playing relatively fast and easy, compared to other games from the
mid-80’s. Exploring the game world is half the fun nowhere else will you see floating phones, triangular
moon, and NPCs that look like futuristic MTV generation come to life.

CGA only MSDOS uninspired graphics.

 Apple II graphics (left) were better while on
Amiga (right) were amazing


As one of the strangest and most underrated adventure games ever, Tass Times in Tonetown is a fun
romp in a psychadelic / punkrock alternate reality that could have been conceived by Timothy Leary. The
game was extremely fun and it really can make you smile sometimes, but in a game with interactive
graphics the CGA only uninspired visuals and weak sounds were a major setback for the MS-DOS port.

Come play chess with me

The Chessmaster 2000. The successful Chessmaster series started with The Chessmaster 2000
developed by The Software Toolworks. It was published for Amiga, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, ZX
Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Macintosh, and DOS. The game had a chess engine
written by David Kittinger.

This early iteration from the long Chessmaster series offered strong chess opponent at 12 skill
levels, catering for novices to grandmasters. Its many features include an opening library built around
71,000 moves and the ability to print out the move history.

Old graphics. The game uses the better CGA Palette 0 but the game designers swapped the default
black with blue and the results are arguable. Still EGA and 16 colors were not imperative to make a good
chess game.

Isometric graphics but only in CGA

Atari 8-bit left and C64 right, had similar graphics



Chess master is a good chess program for someone who knows the basics of chess and wants to
improve their game to help them crush a human opponent when the chance presents itself. The simple
layout of the program makes it easy to get playing and stay focused on the game.

The (im)Ported games
These are the games originally launched for other platform and ported only later, on the next years for
PC. While is nice to finally have a good game on PC, the delay clearly shows that the other platforms
were still preferable as the first option for gaming. While this is the last category presented we must also
acknowledge the fact that many of the great games launched on competition never saw the daylight on the
PC.
CGA in 1986, a premise for seriously limited graphics
Summer Games II is a sports video game developed by Epyx and released by U.S. Gold based on
sports featured in the Summer Olympic Games. Released in 1985 for the Commodore 64, it was also
eventually ported to the Apple II, IBM PC, Atari S, Sinclair Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and the Amiga
platforms. The MS-DOS version was launched in 1986 as a PC Booter.
Summer Games II is one of the many athletics games made in 1980s. Most of these games involve
brainless joystick abuse, sometimes badly implemented. Epyx approach to control your athletes is a tad
more natural as triple jumping is about right timing and javelin for example requires player to throw
javelin at right angle.
CGA only graphics didn’t impress compared to other platforms and the Commodore 64 version was
in particular beautiful with impressive animations, colors and graphics.

Very few colors on CGA

Please count the number of colors in the C64 version of the game

Summer Games II is a great game for gathering of competitive-minded friends. Controls are easy
enough to succeed in events and after some practice world records are also breakable. Because the MS-
DOS graphics and sound were mediocre the preferred version to be played for this game was the clearly
the original C64 release.

When great games were made by one man

Karateka is a 1984 beat’em up video game made by Jordan Mechner, his first game created while
attending Yale University. It was originally programmed for the Apple II, and was later ported to several
other home computers and early gaming consoles including MS-DOS. The game was published in North
America by Brøderbund, and in Europe by Ariolasoft but only later in 1986.

Within the game, the player controls an unnamed protagonist who is attempting to rescue his love, the
Princess Mariko, from the castle fortress of Akuma. A combination of a side-scrolling platform and
fighting game elements, the player faces Akuma and his guards, using punches and kicks to defeat the foes
and make his way deeper into the fortress. The game, as with most at the time of development, lacked
checkpoints or the ability to save game, making it a challenge to complete the game in one single sitting.

For their original 1984 time frame, the graphics were well done. Crisp, clean, and effective, they were
exceptional for when the game came out, but in 1986 the IBM PC version had inferior graphics because they
were still based on the older 4 color CGA standard. Nonetheless this game implemented one of the best CGA
Palette 1 use with detailed graphics, good character design and nice animation despite the fact it only used 4
colors. Hercules and Hercules InColor graphic standards were also supported but few gamers owned an
InColor video card.

The original Apple II-left and the CGA Karateka right

“I wanted to bring the silent-film techniques I was learning about in my history-of-cinema classes
— rotoscoping, cross-cutting, tracking shots — to the Apple II. My goal was to create a game that was
visually sophisticated, yet so easy to play that even a non-gamer could immediately grasp the story,
pick up the joystick and become addicted” - Jordan Mechner
The finest aspect of Karateka, one that hasn’t lost appeal due to the game’s age is how well Jordan
Mechner could express a tale with nothing but visuals and musical cues. There is no dialogue, not even
text. Characters merely make gestures and the music plays their mood so wonderfully that one knows what
the characters are ‘saying’ without hearing/seeing a single world. It’s brilliant and such an achievement
has only been achieved a few times in the history of gaming. At the time, the basic concept of running
down the hall fighting opponents in a very simplified fighting game style was still enjoyably fresh and
made a lot of fans trough Apple II owners.
Karateka for Apple II has been well-received, particularly for the realistic animations used for the
game’s characters. The game was considered a breakthrough success for Mechner, and would lead him
towards the development of the Prince of Persia franchise. A high-definition remake, helmed by Mechner
was developed in 2012 and similar to the MS-DOS version of the original game had limited success. As
an early side-scrolling fighting/action beat’em up game, Karateka is a classic and excels in the way it
tells its story.

Game of innovations, but not for x86 platform

Marble Madness is an arcade video with action puzzle elements game designed by Mark Cerny, and
launched by Atari Games in 1984 as an arcade game. The PC version was launched two years later, in
1986 as a PC Booter.

Innovative everywhere. It this game the player must guide an onscreen marble through six courses,
populated with obstacles and enemies, within a time limit. The player controls the marble by using a
tracKBall. Marble Madness is known for using innovative game technologies. It was Atari’s first to use the
Atari System 1 hardware and to be programmed in the C programming language. The arcade game was also
one of the first to use true stereo sound; previous games used either monaural sound or simulated stereo.
This is not the case for the IBM PC platform that received a ported version made by EA that doesn’t hold a
candle to the arcade classic or Amiga port. The IBM PC game sound was mono, had worse sounds and of
course worse graphics because it used the same limited CGA standard, standard that can look better in
games with some attention.



The MSDOS version. CGA only graphics again

Cerny was a fan of the contemporary 3D graphics used in arcade games Battlezone and I Robot, but
felt that the visuals lacked definition and wanted to create a game with “solid and clean” 3D graphics.
Unlike most other arcade games of the time, the course images were not drawn on the pixel level. Instead,
Cerny defined the elevation of every point in the course, and stored this information in a heightmap array.
The course graphics were then created by a ray tracing program that traced the path of light rays, using the
heightmap to determine the appearance of the course on screen. This format also allowed Cerny to create
shadows and use spatial anti-aliasing, a technique that augmented the graphics with a smoother
appearance. Cerny’s course generator allowed him more time to experiment with the level designs. When
deciding what elements to include in a course, practicality was a big factor; elements that would not work
or would not appear as intended were omitted, such as an elastic barricade or a teeter-totter scale. Other
ideas dropped from the designs were breakable glass supports, black hole traps, and bumps and obstacles
built into the course that chased the marble. Call that imagination but there were already implemented
many innovative concepts.
 The Arcade version has amazing 3d graphics (3d in the 80’s, isometric now)

On the amazing arcade version of Marble Madness, take away the rich stereo sound and give only one
channel music with awful sounds also take all but 4 colors and give a smaller resolution, supply it with
some fiddly sluggish controls therefore keeping your ball under control is quite a challenge and you have
the PC version of this great classic game.

Transylvania is a graphic adventure and was released initially in 1982 for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit
family and Commodore 64. It was later re-released for the Apple Macintosh in 1984, while the Amiga,
Atari ST and MSDOS versions were launched in 1986.
The game sets the player on a quest to rescue Princess Sabrina from a countryside roamed by a
werewolf, a vampire, a prankster goblin, a witch, and an alien space ship. The game has a time limit
(dictated to the player by a note encountered early on that reads, “Sabrina dies at dawn”), as the Princess is
trapped in a coffin in the castle tower. The storyline smoothly mixes fantasy, horror and even science fiction
elements together and it requires a healthy bit of creative thinking, and a sense of humor, to solve all the
puzzles in time to save the princess.

Transylvania had simple static visuals

The game’s usage of hand-drawn graphics was part of an early 80’s trend where once entirely text
adventure games started to use basic computer graphics to show the game’s environment. While the
graphics were good back in 1982 now in 1986 they were only modest despite it implemented all major
graphic MS-DOS graphic standards (only EGA was excluded): CGA, CGA (Tweaked), Hercules and
Tandy / PCjr.
The game got humor, mystery as well as some familiar creatures from fantasy, horror and science
fiction genres. All of the games in the trilogy are certainly worth playing but this is the most popular.

 Other decent graphic based MS-DOS games from 1986. While I tried to review and describe the
better and most representative games from this year, there were some other decent games launched worthy
at least to be mentioned. Other decent games with CGA graphics were: Elevator, World Games,
Wizardry: Legacy of Llylgamyn - The Third Scenario, Hacker II: The Doomsday Papers, while the decent
games with 16 colors graphics (Tandy/PCjr or rarely EGA) are: Bop’N Wrestle, The Crimson Crown and
Ninja. I hope that in my quest to find good games I didn’t forgot or find any other good games from this
year.
Text/ASCII based games in 1986
Interactive fiction games were again released in a large number this year, almost 20 but I will try to
include only the best as most of them were only modest releases.

Pulp-Science Fiction Adult Game + Superheroes & Mad Scientist’s + extreme package

Leather Goddesses of Phobos is an interactive fiction computer game written by Steve Meretzky and
published by Infocom in 1986. Like many other Infocom titles, it was released for DOS, Atari 8-bit, Amiga,
Apple II, Apple Macintosh, Atari ST and Commodore 64 computers. This game was Infocom’s first “sex
farce” and featured selectable “naughtiness” levels ranging from “tame” to “lewd”. It was one of five top-
selling Infocom titles to be re-released in Solid Gold versions including in-game hints. It is Infocom’s
twenty-first game.
As one of the first European ‘Adult’ computer games ever and predating even the same popular
‘Leisure Suit Larry’ this game received a considerable amount of effort. The game has 75 Rooms, and 41
Objects; recognizes 978 Words; and uses 13763 Op-codes to implement.

Exploring the unexplored, the Ladies’ Room


Package innovations. The game featured no copy protection as such, but like many Infocom games,
it included puzzles that were nearly impossible to solve without hints from the accompanying
documentation (the so-called feelies).This creative take on copy protection earned Leather Goddesses a
SPA Excellence in Software Award for Best Software Packaging in 1987. Leather Goddesses included the
following package goodies, one of which was quite uncommon among Infocom’s games:
A small scratch and sniff card which bore seven numbered areas (at certain points in the game,
the player would be instructed to scratch a certain number and then whiff the resulting odor.
 Given the possibilities for a game featuring a “lewd mode”, the scents were relatively innocuous,
such as pizza and chocolate.)
The Adventures of Lane Mastodon, a 3-D comic book containing vital hints to the game;
3-D glasses for the Lane Mastodon comic book;
A double-sided map of the catacombs.

Because I didn’t have the pleasure to try this game until now I will quote another gamer’s review.
“Another milestone for Infocom, their first Sexy adventure! Steve M’s (Steve Meretzky) humor and
clever puzzles push this one to the top. Especially interesting is his brilliant device for establishing
your sex (via which Bathroom you choose!) and having a character die yet mysteriously survive again
and again (shades of old Flash Gordon serials).”

Trinity is an interactive fiction computer game written by Brian Moriarty and published in 1986 by
Infocom. It is widely regarded as one of the company’s best works.
The plot blends historical and fantastic elements as part of a prose poem regarding the destructive
power of the atomic bomb and the futile nature of war in the atomic age. The name refers to the Trinity
test, the first nuclear explosion, which took place in July 1945. It is Infocom’s twentieth game and the last
game released by the company when it was in the money, before bankruptcy.

“Trinity” ranks among the most inimitable and interesting work of text adventure. Its successful
mixture of fantasy, history and children’s literature proves a fascinating combination. The puzzles in
“Trinity” are generally well-written, but overall the game is extremely difficult. This is due to unfortunate
factors such as the ease of leaving behind critical items or failing a sequence that can only be attempted
once. The lack of a clear overall direction in the game can also prove frustrating while the bizarre world
of “Trinity” will not appeal to everyone. Due to these few elements and the game’s difficulty, “Trinity” is
probably best avoided by those new to interactive fiction. However, experienced interactive fiction
players are encouraged to try “Trinity” at least once as the game is that good.

Amazing one, not from Infocom

Thomas M. Disch’s Amnesia is another interactive fiction computer game created by Charles
Kreitzberg’s Cognetics Corporation, written by award-winning science fiction author Thomas M. Disch
and programmed by Kevin Bentley using the King Edward Adventure game authoring system developed
by James Terry. The game was acquired and produced by Don Daglow and published by Electronic Arts
in 1986 for MS-DOS and Apple II systems. A version for Commodore 64 was released later in 1987.
Story. The character wakes up in a hotel room in midtown Manhattan with no clothes and no money, and
what is worse, no memory. Soon he discovers that some man wants to kill him and he is wanted for murder
in Texas. Now his quest is to find out what exactly is going on, who he is and how to set things right.

Who wants a mustache? Pick me, me, me, I want one


Game description. The defining feature of Amnesia is the inclusion of the whole of Manhattan, more
specifically about 4000 separate locations, 650 streets and the subway system. For this reason the original
game package includes a map and the “X-Street Indexer” (a code wheel for finding the nearest cross street
when aligning the avenue name with the street address number), so that the player can find his way through the
city. The game also simulates the time of day which, for example, means that stores close and open at the
correct time. Most puzzles are inventory or conversation-based and it is often required to be at right place at
the right time. Additionally the player needs to take care about surviving, so he needs to take jobs to earn
money, buy food and find shelter at night. This is represented by the score which is divided into three parts:
detective (plot advancement), character (how he interacts with Manhattan’s citizens) and survivor.

Gamer review. “Unfortunately, Amnesia does have its fair share of instant death puzzles. Going
down a seemingly normal staircase instead of up will, through circumstances beyond your control,
cause your death. But even in death, Amnesia keeps up its stylistic storytelling, for in some of the
death scenarios, you must come up with your real name before the ferryman, Charon, will take you
across the river Styx making Amnesia a good example of the text adventure genre taken to the level of
an art form that fans of text adventures should try. Amnesia might even change the opinions of gamers
who would not normally consider playing a game of this type.”

Hollywood Hijinx is an interactive fiction computer game written by “Hollywood” Dave Anderson
and Liz Cyr-Jones and published by Infocom in 1986. Implemented using Infocom’s Z-Machine, the game
was released over a wide variety of platforms, including the Apple II, Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64. It
is Infocom’s twenty-third game.
Gamer review “This one really spoke to me, since I love B-movies and they are lampooned here.
The puzzles were the perfect mixture of difficulty, and they all felt like they belonged in the story. Plus
a nice ending on top of all that! Though Hollywood Hijinx is not a difficult game, there are a few
places in it that might give some trouble to gamers who attempt this otherwise light, funny, and
entertaining game.”

Other decent text adventures launched this year are: Moonmist, The Pawn and Jewels of Darkness.

Games vs hardware conclusion for 1986. This is another year when the top available hardware is
extremely underused. There are six good games that used EGA graphics but most of them employed the
small 200x160/16 colors resolution that was even inferior to what the older Tandy/PCjr was capable
with its 320x200/16 colors graphic mode. Most of the remaining games used the plain old CGA with
graphics well below older competition. Regarding microprocessors there were already launched the
80286 and the 80386 but no game needed more than an old 8088. While I can understand that the 80386
microprocessor was extremely expensive, the 80286 based computers were by now available at
reasonable prices.

Gaming competition for x86 in 1986

New competition, gaming systems launched this year

As the launched competition for PC’s gaming wasn’t already strong enough with top gaming systems
launched in the previous year such as Amiga 1000, Atari ST and NES and with the older C64 still
standing extremely strong, other powerful competition will arrive this year with the launch of two new
consoles Sega Master System and Atari 7800 and three personal computers: Apple IIgs, Macintosh Plus
and Tandy’s Color Computer 3. Strong competition is again at its peak, same as in 1982-1983, a time
when some companies greatly suffered, before the beginning of the North American video game crash.
Let’s see who will survive now and how the IBM PC’s and Compatibles will stand in this crowded
market.

Will beat NES, but only in Western Europe and Brazil

The Master System often called the Sega Master System or SMS, is a third-generation video game
console that was produced and released by Sega in 1985 in Japan (as the Sega Mark III), 1986 in North
America, 1987 in Europe and 1989 in Brazil. The Master System was released as a direct competitor to
the Nintendo Entertainment System in the third generation of video game consoles.
The Sega Master System, nice looks, great hardware, good games

While the Master System was technically superior to the NES, which preceded its release by nine
months in North America, failed to overturn Nintendo’s significant market share advantage from Japan
and North America. In the European, Brazilian and Oceanic markets, this console allowed Sega to outsell
Nintendo, due to its wider availability. It enjoyed over a decade of life in those territories and was
supported in Europe up until 1996. Up until 1994, it was the console with the largest active installed user
base in Western Europe, peaking at 6.25 million units in 1993.

Better Hardware, but similar to NES graphics. Theoretically all the Master System components were
better than Nintendo’s NES. The Master System’s CPU is an 8-bit Zilog Z80 that was also implemented on
some personal computers and was sensibly faster than MOS processors used in NES. The RAM was also
much higher, while NES had 2KB (expandable in cartridges), the SMS had 8 KB of MAIN RAM, that can be
supplemented by game cartridges and 8KB Boot ROM expandable to 256 KB, depending on built-in game.
On SMS the video graphics had 16 KB RAM while NES had only a little over 2KB but the NES
was a monument of efficiency and while overall the graphics capabilities were slightly better on SMS,
the differences were very small or inexistent in real life. The SMS’s VDP (Video Display Processor)
was derived from Texas Instruments TMS9918A and had similar resolution with the NES Screen
resolutions displaying 256×192 and 256×224 (available on NES). PAL/SECAM also supports 256×240
also available on NES. Up to 32 (NES had 25) simultaneous colors were available (one 16-color
palette for sprites or background, an additional 16-color palette for background only) from a palette of
64 but the NES could also show a similar number of colors using programming tricks.

Two chips for sound. The main sound chip (PSG) was Texas Instruments SN76489 that supported 4
channel mono sound (3 square wave, 10-octave tone generators plus 1 variable-period white noise
generator).
The second sound chip (FM) was Yamaha YM2413 included as a built-in “accessory” with the
Japanese Master System (1987). It supported the Mono FM synthesis switchable between 9 tone channels
or 6 tone channels + 5 percussion channels. The FM Yamaha chipset was supported by certain games only.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World, one of the best games for SMS

Games. A very large number of great were launched in time for the Sega Master System, games such as
Phantasy Star, Zillion, Golden Axe Warrior, Sonic the Hedgehog, Alex Kidd, Wonder Boy and many more
others but overall the NES classic games were in a larger number and overall better. Nonetheless this was a
great console and deserves our respect for the evolution it brought for gaming.

Sega Mater System games in 1986. SEGA Master System received a decent number of great games
in 1986: Choplifter!, Fantasy Zone, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Space Harrier and some few others.

NES vs Sega Mater System. There are many debates regarding SMS and NES but in the end the
higher number of top quality games indicated the clear winner, also pointed by the total number of
consoles sold: Nintendo sold 62 million NES while Sega sold almost 15 million of Master Units.

Clearly behind NES and SMS

The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a video game console officially released
by Atari Corporation in January 1986. The 1986 launch is sometimes referred to as a “re-release” or
“relaunch” because the Atari 7800 had originally been announced in May 1984, to replace the unsuccessful
Atari Inc.‘s Atari 5200, but a general release was abandoned due to the sale of the company. In January
1986, the 7800 was finally released but unfortunately for Atari strong competition was already established
with the launch in North America of the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Master System. It had
simple digital joysticks and was almost fully backward-compatible with the Atari 2600, as it was the first
console to have backward compatibility without the use of additional modules. It was considered
affordable at a price of US$140.

Atari 7800 will have a limited success

With the 7800 launch, Atari put a focus on “budget” gaming, with many games selling for less than
$19.99. Because the system was all ready to go back in 1984, most of the launch titles were arcade titles
from several years prior.
The Atari 7800 remained officially active in the United States between 1986 and 1991 and in
Europe between 1989 and 1991. On January 1, 1992, Atari Corp. formally announced that production of
the Atari 7800, the Atari 2600, the Atari 8-bit computer line and the Atari XE Game System would cease.
By the time of the cancellation, Nintendo’s NES dominated the North American market, controlling 80%
while Atari Corp. controlled just 12%. Only 3.77 million units will be sold in North America.

Hardware. The internal CPU is an 8-bit Atari SALLY 6502 (“6502C”) clocked at 1.19-1.79MHz.
Memory size is between NES and SMS with 4KB RAM 4 KB BIOS ROM, 48 KB Cartridge ROM Space.
The video controller supports 160×240, 320×240 (160×288/320×288 if PAL) while up 25 on-screen
colors were available at a time out of 256 colors palette. The max number of colors was identical to NES
while the maximum resolution was better than both NES and SMS. The system was quite capable in
visuals, due to its 25 from 256 colors and this was obvious in some games like the bundled Pole Position
II, Commando, Alien Brigade and others but overall the games were not as resounding and successful
compared to SMS and especially NES releases. Also its sound system lacked: the system designers
created a cheap sound chip that could be included in cartridges, but to keep costs low, Atari limited the
use of the sound chip in very few titles.

 Games for Atari 7800. With Nintendo locking up third-parties with its two-year exclusivity
agreement, Atari had a hard time convincing third-party companies to produce games for its console and
as a consequence the company went to acquire rights for popular games that were available only for
computers but also produced games by itself.

Pole Position II (1987) for Atari 7800, quite capable graphics

While the 7800 can actually play hundreds of titles due to its compatibility with the Atari 2600, there
was limited third party support for the 7800 and fewer than 100 titles were specifically designed for it
and so the console is not as relevant for gaming as NES and Sega Master System. Nonetheless the console
will receive some good games that I will present in the next competing years; unfortunately in 1986 the
platform didn’t receive many top games.

The cheapest Color Computer

Color Computer 3. Continuing its strategy to have two separate platforms, the moderately priced
Tandy line based on x86 microprocessors and the cheaper Color Computer line, Tandy announced on July
30, 1986 the Color Computer 3 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. It sold in Radio Shack
stores and Tandy Computer Centers for a very affordable $219.95.

Hardware. The CPU used was an 8-bit Motorola 68B09E at 2 MHz, one of the best 8-bit
microprocessors from the 80’s. It came with a decent amount of RAM - 128 Kb quite good considering its
low price, which could be upgraded to 512 kB. While CoCo 1 and 2 had a similar weak graphic
processor, the CoCo 3 was updated with an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) called the
“GIME” (Graphics Interrupt Memory Enhancement) chip. The provided GIME was quite capable
regarding graphics supporting: 320 x 192 (16 colors), 640 x 192 (4 colors), 640 x 225 (2 colors). To
have such a small price there was one big absence, no hardware sound chip. Mark Siegel from Tandy
explained the decision behind: “I had been given a choice in the production budget that I could put in
either a sound chip or a UART. Not enough money for both. So I opted for neither. I put in
programmable timers and an interrupt controller. That way I could do both in software.”

Software and Games. The CoCo3 was also compatible with almost all CoCo 1 & 2 hardware and
software. While the CoCo 3 featured many enhancements and was well received, it was not without
problems and disappointments. As initially conceived, the CoCo 3 had some features of hardware
acceleration and enhanced sound. However, internal politics crippled the design so it would not be
perceived as a threat to the Tandy 1000 but considering the price I find the system quite good, and did sell
reasonably well as more than 2 million units were sold.
The system will receive a small number of good games and I will present them on the remaining
years of the 80’s; unfortunately the number of games will be much smaller than most if not all competing
platforms. Some of the best games that will be launched for the CoCo3 for the remaining 80’s are: Tetris,
Thexder, Slipheed, King’s Quest III: To Heir is Human, Arkanoid, Rampage, Crystal City and some few
others. No important game will be launched for the Color Computer 3 in 1986.

Launched for compatibility, with amazing graphics and sounds

Apple IIGS. The Apple IIGS is the fifth and most powerful model in the Apple II series of
personal computers produced by Apple Computer. The “GS” in the name stands for Graphics and Sound,
referring to its enhanced multimedia capabilities, especially its state-of-the-art sound and music synthesis,
which greatly surpassed previous models of the line and most contemporary machines including all x86
models and even the more expensive Macintosh family. The machine outsold all other Apple products,
including the Macintosh, during its first year in production.

While it kept the II name the machine was a radical departure from any previous Apple II, with its
true 16-bit architecture, increased processing speed, wavetable music synthesizer, graphical user
interface and mouse. While still maintaining full backwards compatibility with earlier Apple II models, it
blended the Apple II and aspects of Macintosh technology into one. Keeping with Apple’s “Apple II
Forever” slogan of the time, the IIGS set forth a promising future and evolutionary advancement of the
Apple II line, but unfortunately Apple paid it relatively little attention in the future as the company
increasingly focused on the Macintosh platform.

Amazing hardware, amazingly unsubstantiated by Apple


Hardware. The Apple II used W65C816S a 16-bit microprocessor (MPU) developed and sold by
the Western Design Center (WDC). The processor was especially interesting as it was based on the very
common 8-bit MOS 6502 used by the previous Apple II models and it was compatible with most of the
older Apple II based software. It was also faster and supported up to 16MB of RAM due to its 16-bit
architecture. Towards the end of the 80’s and the early 90’s the CPU will suffer in performance when
compared with the faster 80286 and Motorola 68000 microprocessors; the Apple IIGS 16-bit
microprocessor while faster than other 8-bit CPU’s will be overwhelmed by other 16/32-bit CPU’s.

Graphics made for colors. In addition to supporting all graphics modes of previous Apple II models,
the Apple IIGS introduced several new ones through a custom Video Graphics Chip (VGC), all of which used
a 12-bit palette for a total of 4,096 possible colors. The new graphic modes were now more common and
ranged from 320x200 up to 640x200 while regarding the number of colors the Apple II engineers did
wonders. The 320×200 resolution supported up to 16 palettes of 16 colors. In this mode, the VGC holds 16
separate palettes of 16 colors in its own memory. Each of the 200 scan lines can be assigned any one of these
palettes allowing for up to 256 colors on the screen at once. This mode is handled entirely by the VGC with
no CPU assistance, making it perfect for games and high-speed animation. A mode with 200 palettes of 16
colors was also supported. In this mode, the CPU assists the VGC in swapping palettes in and out of the
video memory so that each scan line can have its own palette of 16 colors allowing for up to 3,200 colors on
the screen at once. This mode is computationally intensive, therefore was only suitable for viewing graphics
or in paint programs.
Amazing sound. Apple IIGS was the first personal computer to come with a built-in “wavetable”
sample-based synthesizer chip, utilizing technology from Ensoniq called Ensoniq ES5503 DOC
wavetable sound chip, the same chip used in Ensoniq Mirage and Ensoniq ESQ-1 professional-grade
synthesizers. The chip allowed for 32 separate channels of stereo sound, and while Atari ST and Amiga
also had innovative sound chipsets the Apple IIGS was in many regards even better.


Compatibility with 8-bit Apple II software. The Apple IIGS was almost completely backward
compatible with older Apple II computers, so that users (particularly in education) wouldn’t be left with
large libraries of useless software. The IIGS could run all of Apple’s earlier Apple II operating systems:
Apple DOS, ProDOS 8, and Apple Pascal. It was also compatible with nearly all 8-bit software running
under those systems. The 8-bit software also ran at least twice as fast unless the user turned down the
processor speed in the IIGS control panel.

O.S and software. The Apple IIGS was the first computer produced by Apple to use a color
graphical user interface, as well as the “Platinum” (light grey) color scheme. The IIGS system software
provided a mouse-driven graphical user interface using concepts such as windows, menus, and icons.
This was implemented by a “toolbox” of code, some of which resided in the computer’s ROM and some
of which was loaded from disk. The IIGS GUI was very similar to that of early Macintoshes. Only one
major application could run at a time, although other, smaller programs, known as Desk Accessories,
could be used simultaneously.
Games on Apple IIGS. From the launch the lucky Apple IIGS owners could enjoy the older Apple II
games but clearly at the older smaller resolution and with fewer colors. Apple severely neglected the
Apple IIGS platform in the favor of the more expensive brother the Macintosh line and rarely promoted the
huge hardware advantages of the IIGS therefore failing to make important agreements with game
developers. For this reason the amazing Video Graphics Chip with 256 colors was almost unused in the
80’s games while the Ensoniq sound chip was used in few of them, not always at full potential without
using all sound channels available. Some of the best games for Apple IIGS are: Thexder 1987, Zany Golf,
Space Quest II, Warlock, Tomahawk, Silpheeed, Crystal Quest, Arkanoid II, Rastan, QIX, The Immortal,
Legend of the Star Axe, Task Force, Shufflepuck CAFE, Out of this world, Tunnels of Armageddon,
DUELTRIS, Ancient Glory. I will present the top Apple IIGS games yearly to compare them with the x86
PC’s. About 140 Apple IIGS games will be released in time , an amazingly low number compared to the
Amiga and Atari ST computer.

The same different older philosophy, again a less successful one

Macintosh Plus. The Macintosh Plus computer was the third model in the Macintosh line,
introduced on January 16, 1986, two years after the original Macintosh and a little more than a year after
the Macintosh 512K, with a substantial price tag of US$2599. As an evolutionary improvement over the
512K, it shipped with 1 MB of RAM standard, expandable to 4 MB, and an external SCSI peripheral bus,
among smaller improvements. The Macintosh Plus had the same 9-inch 512×342 pixel monochrome
display with a resolution of 72 PPI, found in the previous Macintosh models.
I want first of all to compare the launch price in these new two Apple models: 999 USD for IIGS vs
2599 USD for the Macintosh Plus. Sure the Macintosh had a faster CPU, more RAM and an integrated
monitor but the Apple IIGS had much better graphics/colors and sound and a much larger catalog of
available 8-bit software and games. If Apple would take the middle path: the Macintosh without monitor
and with the IIGS graphics and sound for less than 1300 USD they would had launched one the best
computer in the 80’s.

The older competition gaming for PC in 1986

While newer competition was launched, the older C64 and MSX will have an impressive year,
receiving a very large number of top games, while the more recent NES, Amiga and Atari ST will also
start to enter into gaming elite, NES due to amazing top gameplay and good graphics and Amiga and Atari
ST especially regarding graphics but also good gameplay.

Arcade gaming in 1986. This is a decent year for arcades as they received the best racing game to
that date called Outrun and two great arcade games made by Taito: Arkanoid and Bubble Bobble. Other
decent arcade games were: Championship Sprint, Rolling Thunder and Gauntlet II. Overall the arcade
games launched this year were better than the arcade games launched in 1985.

Arkanoid and Bubble Booble, Taito really knew to make arcades

Growing slowly in American hearts despite the amazing games

NES gaming in 1986. While NES was already very successful in Japan this was the first relevant year
for the NES in North America and the results were not that good. After the recent video game crash (1983-
1985) the North Americans were not so opened for consoles and with low initial sales the predictions for
Nintendo and NES were grim; nonetheless the console sold enough in 1986 in U.S. to continue to live
overseas. At the same time in 1986 many top/classic NES games were launched, games that will persuade
many Americans to buy the console starting from 1987. Such top games are Castlevania, Metroid, Gradius,
Circus Charlie, Super Mario Bros. 2, The Legend of Zelda, Dead Zone, Suisho no Dragon (Crystal Dragon).
About 130 NES games were launched this year.

 The Legend of Zelda and Castlevania , two amazing NES games

C64 gaming in 1986. Sierra and few other game developers will neglect C64 in some games in favor
of its more powerful brother, the Amiga, nonetheless C64 will again receive the largest number of good
games this year.

The Sentinel, amazing for the time quasi 3d graphics

Some of the best C64 games released in 1986 are: World Karate Championship, Ultima IV: Quest of
the Avatar, Gunship, Uridium, Ikari Warriors, Leaderboard Golf, Alter Ego: Male Version, World Games,
International Karate, The Detective Game, Bard’s Tale II: The Destiny Knight, The Sentinel, Ghosts ‘N
Goblins, Transformers and many more others. Regarding graphics C64 was no longer amongst the best but
the sheer number of games more than compensated.

While overall NES received better games and more classics this year , the C64 received more than 400
games and a large number of top releases, more than 20. With much higher sales than NES and still extremely
loved by most gamers, C64 wins as the better overall platform for gaming in 1986.
The best year ever for MSX

MSX gaming in 1986. For MSX this was clearly the best year regarding gaming of all its history and
was in my opinion in 1986 the best platform for gaming after C64 and NES as it had almost as many good
games as the C64 platform and graphics as good as NES.



Vampire Killer for MSX; impressive graphics


The graphics were by now extremely optimized and surpassed all 8-bit platforms many times
matching the more advanced 16/32 bit platforms, clearly beating the x86 PC games. Many of the best
games launched in 1986 for the MSX were again developed by Konami and were: Twinbee, Vampire
Killer, The Goonies, Penguin Adventure, Nemesis a.k.a. Gradius and Knightmare. Other third party
developers will also take the MSX seriously and will also launch many good games such as: Dragon
Warrior, Spelunker, Thexder, Alpha Roid, Magical Kid WIZ, Bouken Roman, Adventure Island, Ghost
House, Gulcave, Zanac and Zanac EX. Around 160 games were launched for MSX this year.

Apple II gaming in 1986. Apple II will receive fewer good games this year as I can only name Ultima
I: The First Age of Darkness, Might and Magic, Tass Times in Tonetown, Arcticfox, The Black Cauldron,
Space Quest: Chapter I - The Sarien Encounter as top games. This is the first year when Apple II slightly lost
the gaming battle with x86 computers, despite the fact that x86 PC’s also had only a modest year for gaming.
As a positive note the powerful Apple IIGS, with the GS coming from “graphics and sounds”, was launched
this year and with the new IIGS the Apple II finally had the chance to equal and possibly beat all competitors
regarding gaming as it did with the original Apple II in 1977 when it had no rivals.

Ultima reinvented in Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness

Technically still capable but morally outdated

Atari 8’bit. By 1986 Computer Gaming World stated “games don’t come out for the Atari first
anymore”. In April the magazine published a survey of 10 game publishers which found that they planned to
release 19 Atari games in 1986, compared to 43 for Commodore 64, 48 for Apple II, 31 for IBM PC, 20 for
Atari ST, and 24 for Amiga; only the Macintosh’s 17 was fewer. Companies stated that one reason for not
publishing for Atari was the unusually high amount of software piracy on the computer, partly caused by the
Happy Drives, add-in boards with ability to “back up” floppies, therefore capable to reproduce games.

Star Raiders II for Atari 8-bit. Graphics were still good despite age

Despite their age and the limited support from developers the Atari 8-bit computers still received some
decent games this year such as: Ninja, Warhawk, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, International Karate,
Trailblazer and Star Raiders II.

Changes on U.K. 8-bit PC market. On 7 April 1986 Amstrad announced it had bought from
Sinclair Research “the worldwide rights to sell and manufacture all existing and future Sinclair
computers and computer products, together with the Sinclair brand name and those intellectual
property rights where they relate to computers and computer related products“ which comprised the
ZX Spectrum, for £5 million. This included Sinclair’s unsold stock of Sinclair QLs and Spectrums and
Amstrad made more than £5 million on selling these surplus machines alone. While for Amstrad this was
a winning move eliminating competition in the low-end computer market, the UK’s leading role in
computers and hardware innovations will slowly decrease in late 80’s and the smaller number of platform
builders in U.K. will be one of the main reasons.

ZX Spectrum gaming in 1986. Despite the sell of its mother company the ZX Spectrum will have an
amazing year regarding gaming and will receive a very large number of games in 1986, more than 260.
Some of the best releases this year are Bobby Bearing, Heartland, Jack the Nipper, Quazatron, Rebelstar,
Winter Games, The Great Escape and Saboteur. Despite the very large number of games received the
portion of top gaming releases was not as favorable compared to other gaming platforms

Rebelstar for ZX Spectrum
Amstrad CPC gaming in 1986. For CPC this year was one of the best in its entire history buying
Sinclair the biggest competitor for the 8-bit home computer market and releasing some very successful
16-bit x86 computers.
This was also a good year for the Amstrad CPC concerning gaming, as the platform received more
than 270 games, an immense number considering it was only the third year for the family on the market.
Some of the top CPC games launched in 1986 are: Elite, Spindizzy, Winter Games, Gauntlet, Get Dexter
(aka Crafton & Xunx), Desert Fox and some more others making the CPC one of the most desired gaming
computers from U.K. and Europe.

Get Dexter, a great CPC game

BBC Micro gaming in 1986. This will be the last decent year for the BBC Micro regarding gaming.
Launched in December 1981, 8 months before the still extremely successful C64, the British game
developers will ignore the computer in favor of the slightly newer CPC and Spectrum. It will still receive
some good games in the following years such as Exile and Camelot but the platform won’t be as relevant
for gaming and will be less of a competition for x86 PC’s. Best BBC Micro games this year are Repton 3
(Superior), Yie Ar Kung-Fu (Imagine/Konami),Stryker’s Run (Superior) and Ravenskull (Superior).

Yie Ar Kung-Fu for the Micro

Gaming on high end computers. The 16/32 bit platforms based on the fast Motorola 68000
received a decent number of games except for the monochrome Macintosh that will receive a fewer
number of top releases.

Top hardware, too few game developers

Amiga. While the platform was launched in 1985 no important game was released that year
compared to its main competitor the Atari ST that received several great games. Things will slightly
improve this year as some game developers will create several great games for the Amiga 1000 systems
such as: Marble Madness, Defender of the Crown, Ultima III: Exodus, Tass Times in Tonetown,
Arcticfox, Archon: The Light and the Dark, Marble Madness and some few others. While its advanced
sound capabilities were theoretically slightly bested by the Apple IIGS, the Amiga line still had a small
lead over Apple IIGS regarding graphics capabilities due to its hardware acceleration. Nevertheless no
top Apple IIGS games was made this year, and very few will be made in the following years leaving for
now the Amiga 1000 without competition regarding high end graphics and sounds. Amazingly the
competition will arrive in 1988 and 1989 from the most questionable platform until now, the x86 PC’s,
but more about this in 1988 and 1989. For now the Amiga 1000 computer offered the best looking games
launched this year and Defender of the Crown is perhaps the best example.

Defender of the Crown, probably the best in-game graphics in 1986

Growing steadily in gamers hearts

Atari ST has a decent year regarding gaming with a slightly higher number of top games compared to
Amiga but also with slightly inferior graphics. The MIDI sound was also one of the best features to be
found in many Atari ST games. Best Atari ST games launched in 1986 are: Super Sprint, Arkanoid,
Starglider, The Black Cauldron ,Exodus: Ultima III, Marble Madness, Silent Service Space Quest:
Chapter I - The Sarien Encounter, The Black Cauldron, International Karate, Star Raiders and Joust.
Almost 90 games were launched this year for Atari ST while Amiga received about 65 and Macintosh
about 40.

International Karate for Atari ST, good colorful graphics

Macintosh will again be the most neglected platform for gaming but two great games will be
launched in 1986: Dark Castle and Uninvited; finally some good fun for the Macintosh owners,
possessors unfortunately of a very monotonous until now personal computer. The Macintosh will also
receive several decent ports with the launch of: Exodus: Ultima III, Tass Times in Tonetown and Archon:
The Light and the Dark

Uninvited for Macintosh


Overall conclusion for x86 gaming this year. The biggest problem this year is the total number of
good games available for the x86 computers, only 6-7 of them. While there are more than 20 decent games
only those few were good and none of them will match the amazing quality of the best NES games
launched this year. Text games will have a productive year with a large number of good releases.
Regarding graphics the x86 personal computers again received a modest year when compared to most
of the competing platforms, in not all. Only few EGA games were at a similar level with competition
(C64 and older 8-bit computers and Atari ST) while the majority remaining CGA games were at the
bottom of the comparison scale with extremely unimpressive graphics. Sound capabilities were again at
the bottom, as most other competing platforms, including the 1989 based Atari 8-bit still had much better
sound capabilities.
While I’m not as disappointed as in the previous 1985 year, that was quite awful this is not a very good
year for x86 gaming that was again bested by most platforms when considering the quality of games,
graphics and sounds. It barely surpassed some 8-bit gaming platforms regarding the total number of games
released that year such as the very old Apple II and the old Atari 8-bit.


Losing on gaming and popularity, winning on hardware and modularity

Conclusion for 1983-1986 x86 gaming

From 1983 up to 1986 (included) x86 PC gaming gained some acceptance and will be regarded as a
viable platform for gaming but unfortunately as one of the most limited options on market because of the
weak graphics available on games (despite the hardware was capable of better) and especially weak
sound.

While the x86 gaming was limited there were some other huge wins that allowed x86 platforms to
occupy an important place on the market. The first huge win was the extremely important business support
with important “killer applications” such as Lotus 1-2-3, Wordstar a successful word processor originally
written for the CP/M and ported for DOS and Microsoft’s own Word. These programs were extremely
used for document processing, home accounting and for small business while the available games were
nice to play after a hard day of work and sometimes even during that hard day without the need of
swapping to another personal computer.

The second huge win was the open architecture that allowed computer builders to enter the x86 market
with or without IBM’s wish. Such companies were the Italian Olivetti, the British Amstrad and the U.S. based
Tandy, Compaq and even Atari. With great engineers and also great systems sometimes better than IBM’s x86
computers the competition evolved year by year and enhanced the x86 PC market. Their decision to enter the
x86 market was a very clever one as all of them had huge success in this market in the 80’s. I am sure that x86
computers will not be as powerful today if it was not for all those innovative IBM PC Compatibles.

The third huge win was Intel itself, as it developed and launched in a relatively small time very fast
microprocessors such as the Intel 80286 and Intel 80386, allowing the x86 platforms to take the lead in
performance, as those microprocessor were faster than all other microprocessors available in home
computers at the time, including the Motorola’s 16/32-bit 68000 microprocessor.

The fourth win but less visible at the time was the lack of software and platform fragmentation on
MS-DOS as all x86 system builder used the same CPU architecture. With an opposite strategy both
Apple, Atari and Commodore created a new software environment, incapable to run 8-bit software, with
their new high end computers, the Macintosh, Atari ST and the Amiga line based on the Motorola 68000
16/32 bit CPU. They completely separated the newer high-end platforms from their older 8-bit platforms
the Atari 8-bit, Apple II and C64. This meant lack of compatibility with both older software and games
and for game developers twice the job as they had to support both older 8-bit and the new 16/32 bit
environment. The game developers acted differently, the C64 will receive more support than Amiga, Atari
8-bit computers will be left out in favor of the new Atari ST while the Macintosh will be the most ignored
and unfortunately so will be older Apple II models because of the dated capabilities. Apple learned from
the Macintosh relative failure and launched one of the best computers in the 80’s the Apple IIGS with a
new 16-bit processor capable to run 8-bit software, a very important feature but in the following years
Apple won’t support and promote the system enough to make it relevant on the home computers market.

We must also not ignore IBM’s importance and role; they’ve created the open platform, launched
several good x86 computer systems and made the Lotus 1-2-3 software, their top product that weighted in
value more than 20 top games. IBM decisions will allow future platform success for both Microsoft and
the x86 Compatibles but will limit IBM’s own involvement and role regarding its own family due to
several bad past and future decision.

 The greatest of 80’s for PC gaming, 1987-1989

This last chapter will show the last 3 years of the 80’s, a period when the IBM PC computers and
compatibles will grow into a major player in the electronic gaming, not always the best but clearly ahead of
many. Big improvements were the MCGA and especially VGA graphics that allowed 256 colors, therefore
matching almost all competitors but the biggest win of all will be the introduction of soundcards in 1988 with
the launch of AdLib Music Synthesizer Card while the Creative Sound Blaster family will be launched in
1989. Many other sound systems will follow. Sound quality was by far the biggest disappointment in prior
years and finally x86 computers had the chance to sound good.

Games vs. hardware graphic 1987-1988


- The red arrows show a necessary element, as the game can’t run without.
- The blue arrow represents the fact that a game will not run at its full potential if that component
is older, slower or in small amount; a slow CPU will display lower framerate and an early graphic
chip CGA only graphics.
- The green arrows shows elements that are not needed sometimes or not needed at all (sound
card), but their lack will affect the gaming pleasure.

The mouse will also officially appear on MS-DOS and games with the MS-DOS 4.x version launched
in 1988. The only element that will lack on x86 computers from late 80’s will be a good, complex and
stable graphical operating system that could also support older MS-DOS games. Both Windows 2.x and
OS/2 were decent operating systems but with many important limitations, considerably behind other
graphical operating systems at the time regarding gaming capabilities. Therefore I would also like to
explain in the graphic the big red X pointed between OS/2, Windows 2.x and 80’s games. While these
two operating systems were launched in the late 80’s as graphical operating systems none of them
allowed or supported the games to run directly in the O.S. environment without the intervention of MS-
DOS. These operating systems run most of the x86 games by swapping into DOS mode (Windows) or
under a DOS mode (OS/2) that caused many problems for some games while most of them were unable to
run. Most of the times it was necessary to reboot in the DOS mode to be able to play an MS-DOS game.

Games vs. Hardware in 1987

Main events in computer industry
Regarding companies VIA, SIS, Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), ALI, McAfee, RealTek,
Kingston, Apogee all were founded this year.
Technology and science. The SPARC processor is first introduced by Sun. The AdLib first mass
market PC sound card is released; nonetheless the card will only be used in games from 1988.

Software. Microsoft and IBM released the OS/2 1.0 in December after 2 years and 5 months of
hard work, while again Microsoft for this time alone launched the Windows 2.0 in the same month.
For that time IBM didn’t see Windows at a competing operating systems but it didn’t escape the
keen eyes of Apple that will fill a lawsuit in 17 March 1988 against Microsoft and Hewlett-
Packard, accusing them of violating copyrights Apple held on the Macintosh System Software. The
judge ruled in favor of Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft in all but ten of the 189 patents that Apple
sued them for.

Internet. The domain apple.com goes online in February 19, 1987; the domain cisco.com comes
online in May 14, 1987 while the first e-mail from China is sent to its connection in Germany on
September 20, 1987.

IT personalities. Robert Noyce is awarded the National Medal of Technology while Steve
Wozniak ends his employment with Apple on February 6, 1987. I would also like to quote one of
the Steve Jobs interview from 1987 – “If, for some reason, we make some big mistake and IBM
wins, my personal feeling is that we are going to enter a computer Dark Ages for about twenty
years.” - Steve Jobs: The Journey is the Reward (1987) by Jeffrey S. Young. Fortunately for
Steve Jobs, IBM will not win the PC market, as it will lose in the 90’s the both software and
hardware battles, with Microsoft and the IBM PC compatibles. However, if he referred to the x86
computer market then his fears will come true.
New x86 Hardware from 1987

Atari enters x86 market. The open architecture of x86 and its high success especially for small and
home business finally convinced Atari to join the PC compatibles market with its first model, the Atari PC-1
an interesting computer with an 8088 CPU, 512 KB RAM and CGA, EGA, Hercules compatible graphics.
While 8088 seems weak for 1987 the processor had switchable CPU frequency, 4.77 Mhz for older x86
software compatibility and 8MHz for faster performance in the newer software. More models were later
added. In time the Atari adoption for x86 will prove to be quite late and indecisive as it will own only a very
small portion of the x86 Compatibles market.

Another bad move

Micro Channel Architecture, MCA was an IBM proprietary bus introduced by IBM in 1987 with the
IBM’s PS/2 family as a higher performance competitor to the common 16-bit ISA bus. The MCA bus
offered several additional features over the ISA such as a 32-bit bus (although there was also a 16-bit
bus), ran at 10MHz, automatically configure cards (similar to what Plug and Play is today), and offered
bus mastering for greater efficiency. Micro Channel architecture was first introduced without fanfare at
the launch of the PS/2 range in 1987, with three out of the four of the new machines featuring it. It soon
became clear that MCA was a huge technical improvement over ISA and while IBM didn’t brag about the
technology did requested substantial fees. Only a small number of other manufacturers, including Apricot,
Dell, Tandy, Research Machines and Olivetti adopted it, but only for their high end x86 PC range and for
a limited time.

In late 1988 the “Gang of Nine” (including some of the early MCA adopters) led by Compaq,
announced a rival high performance bus - Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA). This offered
similar performance benefits to Micro Channel, but also had the double advantage of being able to accept
older ISA boards, and being free from IBM’s control and licensing. This will lead to an immediate
downfall of MCA in personal computers and another failure on IBM side, that realized the hardware
strength of the x86 Compatibles. IBM still had a possible winning card in his sleeves, the control over
future x86 software with its OS/2, co-developed with Microsoft.

How a PC full of innovations can lead to a downfall

The Personal System/2 or PS/2 was IBM’s third generation of personal computers released in 1987
and consisted on 4 launch models: Model 30, Model 50, Model 60 and Model 80; other models were
added later. The PS/2 line was created by IBM in an attempt to recapture control of the x86 PC market by
introducing an advanced yet proprietary architecture. IBM’s considerable market presence plus the
reliability and innovations of the PS/2 family ensured that the systems would initially sell in relatively large
numbers, especially to large businesses. However the other x86 Compatibles builders retaliated at IBM’s
licensing terms to develop and sell hardware such as the MCA bus, particularly as the demanded royalties
were on a per machine basis. Also the evolving Wintel architecture was seeing a period of dramatic
reductions in price for both 8088/8086 and 80286 while the cheaper 80386 SX will be launched in 1988.
These developments also prevented the PS/2 from returning control of the PC market to IBM as the
Compatibles offered most of the time cheaper computers.

Hardware innovations. The only standard in the family component was the CPU, as the IBM used
common 8086, 80286 and the very fast 80386 microprocessors, also used in their previous families.
Memory innovations. The PS/2 introduced the 72-pin SIMM (often called extended data out DRAM
or EDO DRAM) which became the de facto standard for RAM modules by the mid-90s in mid-to-late 486
and early Pentium desktop systems until the launch of SDRAM (168-pin). My first computer mainboard
could use both EDO RAM and SDRAM, as a transitory step.
Graphic innovations. The Model 30 received a new MCGA standard while the rest of three received
the VGA standard both supporting up to 256 colors and many other innovations.
A new PS/2 connector for both mouse and keyboard was also launched, and it’s still used today in
many desktop computers. Although 3.5” floppy disks were becoming common in the industry by 1987, the
PS/2 family was the first desktop IBM models to use them as standard.

Price “innovations”. The base Model 30 (roughly equivalent to a PC XT) contained an 8MHz 8086
CPU, 640KB of RAM, and a 20MB hard drive, and retailed for $2295 while most powerful configuration of
the Model 80 came equipped with a 20MHz 386 CPU, 2MB of RAM, and a 115MB hard drive for a total
cost of $10,995. Neither configuration included an OS as customers had to buy PC-DOS 3.3 for an extra
$120. To conclude I will call IBM’s pricing strategy as “greedy” and more nicely said “the return to the
business only price strategy”.

 Due to the higher costs of the newer architecture, most home users preferred the cheaper competing
compatibles PC’s that extended the existing PC architecture instead of abandoning it for something newer
and pricier. However, in time many of the PS/2’s innovations, such as the 16550 UART (serial port),
1440 KB 3.5-inch floppy disk format, 72-pin SIMMs memory, the PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, and
the VGA video standard, went on to become standards in the broader PC market.

The next graphical O.S. launched in text mode. The graphical OS/2 operating system was
announced at the same time as the PS/2 line and was intended to be the primary operating system for
models with Intel 80286 microprocessors. However, at the time of the first shipments, only PC-DOS was
available. OS/2 1.0 but in text-mode only and Microsoft’s Windows 2.0 became available several months
later in December, while the graphical user interface was released only with the OS/2 1.1 and much later
in October 1988. I don’t know much about the details of the IBM-Microsoft agreement from 1985 but for
now they certainly favored Microsoft.

IBM also released AIX PS/2, a UNIX operating system for PS/2 models with Intel 386 or later
processors because the OS/2 wasn’t yet optimized for the new 80386 features, fragmenting even more the
operating systems available with the PS/2 line as now DOS, Windows 2.x, OS/2 and AIX PS/2 were
operating systems optimized for some of the family members.

Cause for failure. Overall, the PS/2 line was largely unsuccessful with the home consumer market;
even though the PC based Model 30 and the later Model 25 were an attempt to address it. With what was
widely seen as a technically competent but cynical attempt to gain undisputed control of the market, IBM
unleashed both industry and consumers criticism. The firm suffered massive financial losses for the
remainder of the decade, forfeited its previously unquestioned position as the industry leader, and
eventually lost its status as the largest single manufacturer of personal computers, first to Compaq and later
to Dell. After the failure of IBM’s PS/2 line to establish a new standard bus, the MCA and to own high
market share, IBM was forced to revert to building ISA PCs following the industry it had once led with the
PS/1 line and later the Aptiva and PS/ValuePoint lines. Eventually, later in 2004 IBM sold its entire PC
business to Lenovo giving up the PC family it had given birth back in 1981.
The PS/2 family remains as one of the most innovative personal computers ever that was backed by
extremely bad decisions regarding licensing, marketing and pricing that led to a disaster instead of an
almost sure success.

256 colors in some games, monochrome in others

The Multi-Color Graphics Array or simply MCGA is a video subsystem integrated directly into the
motherboard of the IBM PS/2 Model 30, introduced on April 2, 1987, and Model 25, introduced later on
August 11; no standalone MCGA cards were ever made.
 The MCGA supported all older CGA display modes plus 640×480 monochrome, at 60 Hz refresh
rate, and 320×200, 256 colors (out of a palette of 262,144) at 70 Hz refresh rate. MCGA was similar to
VGA because it had a 256-color mode in the 320x200 resolution (the 320x200/256-color mode in VGA
was sometimes referred to as MCGA even though MCGA only existed on a small number of PS/2 models)
and used 15-pin analog connectors, but the chipset’s abilities were limited to that. MCGA lacked EGA
compatibility, while VGA, on the other hand, was almost fully backward compatible with EGA. VGA
also included other high-resolution display modes with more colors and more specific graphic functions.

MCGA use in games

The 320x200/256-color mode proved most popular for gaming, but at the time the MCGA was
introduced, no PC game offered support for 256-color graphics were forced to fall back to four-color
CGA mode or not run at all. Many games with EGA video modes such as the 320×200/16 color and
640×350/16 colors were unplayable because the IBM engineers didn’t provided compatibility with EGA.
However, some other 16-color EGA/ Pcjr/Tandy/ games (especially adventures from Sierra On-line and
Lucasfilm Games) specifically supported MCGA with its 320×200 256-color mode, but they used only
the colors from the 16-color RGB palette, while leaving the other available colors in that mode unused.
The full 256-color VGA games later launched ran fine and with full colors on MCGA as long as they
stuck to the basic 320×200/256-color mode and didn’t attempt to use the VGA specific features such as
multiple screen pages.
Some of the most important MCGA compatible games with colors launched in late 80’s are: Space
Quest: Chapter I - The Sarien Encounter, King’s Quest IV, Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel,
Space Quest II: Chapter II - Vohaul’s Revenge, F-19 Stealth Fighter, Budokan and more others.
Unfortunately few of the top games that supported MCGA used all 256 colors in the late 80’s. In the early
90’s as game developers will start to implement 256 colors in games MCGA will truly shine and show
what was capable to do.

Wing Commander 1990, using up to 256 colors

The 640x480/2 monochrome graphic mode. While it seems very unlikely for developers to prefer
this graphic mode over 256 colors, many of them did. Once the very popular VGA games with high
640x480/ 16 color resolution were launched such as SimCity, Hero’s Quest: So You Want To Be A Hero,
Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon and many more others it was easier for game developers to
launch the game at an identical VGA resolution with monochrome graphics than develop a lower
320x200/256 MCGA version. Another interesting fact about this graphic mode it is its very late use in
games from 1988/1989 up until 1994/1995.


SimCity, graphically rich monochrome high resolution

The market life fo MCGA was brief; the PS/2 Model 25 and Model 30 were discontinued by 1992
and no manufacturer produced a clone of this display adapter, since the VGA standard introduced at the
same time was considerably superior. MCGA was also rendered redundant to VGA since almost all the
capabilities of MCGA were also part of VGA. Nonetheless about 600 games launched for PC will
support MCGA in 256 colors or monochrome mode showing a significant support from game developers.

The graphic standard for future gaming

Video Graphics Array (VGA) refers to the video display hardware first introduced with the IBM
PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread adoption has also come to mean an analog
computer display standard, the 15-pin D-subminiature VGA connector and later as the 640×480 resolution
itself. VGA was the last graphical standard introduced by IBM that the majority of PC clone
manufacturers conformed to, and is today (2014) the lowest common denominator for all video cards and
x86 operating system including the new Windows 8.

All PS/2 models had the MCGA/VGA graphic chip and memory on the motherboard. This is the
PS/2 Model 70’s motherboard

The original onboard VGA had 256 KB Video RAM also supported many graphical improvements
such as: 256 colors from a 262,144-color global palette, hardware smooth scrolling support, split screen,
had some “Raster Ops” but lacked hardware sprites. Opposed to Amiga line that had a video accelerator
also known as blitter (located in the Agnus chiset), the VGA didn’t implemented the blitter but had very
fast data transfers via ‘VGA latch’ registers and while it was not as effective it certainly helped the
graphic speed. IBM will also launch a professional video card that supported hardware acceleration, the
IBM 8514, but it was very expensive and certainly not designed for the x86 gaming.
The VGA supports both All Points Addressable graphics modes, and alphanumeric text modes.
Standard graphics modes, which were also used in games, are: 320×200 in 16 colors, 320×200 in 256
colors, 640×480 in 16 colors or monochrome and 640×350 in 16 colors.

Early VGA use in games

The 320×200 in 16 colors was used to maintain compatibility with older EGA/Tandy/PCjr games
from the 80’s as it required no additional development from game developers when porting older
EGA/Tandy/PCjr games. In this mode the use of multiple video pages in hardware allowed the programmer
to perform double buffering, triple buffering or split screens, which, while available in VGA’s 320×200
16-color mode, was not possible using stock Mode 13h.This graphic mode was used in most of the VGA
games from late 80’s.

The 320×200 in 256 colors (Mode 13h) was quite a popular mode from early to middle 90’s in both
computer games and art/animation software as it allowed very colorful graphics, sometimes true work of
arts. Mode 13h provided programmers with a straightforward manner of accessing video memory
(nicknamed chunky graphics); at the expense of not being able to access other useful features of the VGA
hardware such as double buffering, triple buffering or split screens and others. There are so many great
games that used this mode and I won’t start naming them now, but I will try mention at each game VGA
game the number of colors and graphic mode it used.

As I said, true work of arts, The Secret of Monkey

Island (1990)

The 640×480 in 16 colors. This graphic mode will be quite overkill in most games for the older
8088/8086 microprocessor but will be quite a good companion for the newer 80286 and especially
80386 that were fast enough to fill this resolution at high speed. Very few games from late 80’s will use
this graphic mode but its use will dramatically increase in the 1990-1994 timeframe because it allowed a
very high resolution, while 16 colors were enough in many games. While the small number of colors may
look as a severe limitation in the 90’s many developers made wonders with this graphic mode and you
really can’t always tell that some of those games had only 16 colors. Such game was the 1990 SimEarth:
The Living Planet launched for both DOS and Windows 3.x, as you can see from the picture the game
seems quite color rich although it is not.

SimEarth: The Living Planet, used 640x480hi-res and only 16 colors

Games to implement both: 320x200/256 and 640x480/16. There will be some games from the 90’s
such as the 1993 Syndicate to implement both graphic modes.

Syndicate released in 1993, was one of the best game launched that year


In Syndicate the 320x200/256 graphic mode was (left) used for the movies (left down)and
management/equipment menu(left up) while the 640x480/16 graphic mode (right) was used for the real-
time isometric action. The game had great graphics, implementing nicely both graphic modes.

640×350 in 16 colors. This graphic mode was rarely used in games, and was identical to the older EGA
top standard 640x350x16. It was used to run older EGA games based on this standard, and there are some
examples at the EGA mode.

Future VGA 640x480/256 colors was attainable by placing more Video RAM 512KB/1MB on the
newer external VGA and VGA compatible adapters. Many games from 1992-1995 used this mode that
also supported by the newer SVGA/VESA video cards; more about this graphic mode in the 90’s.

Several higher-resolution display modes were possible with16 colors such as, 704×528, 736×552,
768×576, and even 800×600 but weren’t used in games, only in graphic programs.


The default VGA 256-color palette


VGA was officially followed by IBM’s Extended Graphics Array (XGA) standard, but it was
effectively superseded by numerous slightly different extensions to VGA made by clone manufacturers that
came to be known collectively as Super VGA under a common Video Electronics Standards Association
(VESA) guiding.
While this standard will be used in a small number of games from the 80’s it will be one of the most
important graphic standards in 90’s; even the first-ever native only 3d card the Voodoo launched in 1996
used the 640x480 graphic mode as the highest resolution available. The VGA will be also extremely
important for the evolution on x86 hardware as it will bring some of the best graphic standards at the time
for the x86 market. At this time only Amiga A1000 and Apple IIGS could brag with similar graphic
capabilities. Both Amiga 1000 and Apple IIGS were slightly better on 320x200 resolution supporting
even more than 256 colors (although rarely used in games) while the VGA had the advantage of showing
the highest resolution with its 640x480/16 colors graphic mode. Amiga also had an advantage over both
VGA and Apple IIGS as it included a fast graphic accelerator or video coprocessor called Agnus.
The card that inspired many top 2d graphic accelerators in the 90’s

IBM 8514. In 1987, the IBM 8514 graphics system was released as one of the first video cards for
IBM PC compatibles to implement fixed-function 2D primitives in electronic hardware. While graphic
accelerators were already available on the market they were based on an external chipset (Agnus in
Amiga 1000) or expensive graphics coprocessor boards (Truevision TGA/TARGA). The IBM 8154 was
the first graphic card to integrate video card and graphic accelerator under the same silicon chipset.
IBM 8514 is an IBM graphics computer display standard supporting a display resolution of 1024×768
pixels with 256 colors at 43.5 Hz (interlaced), or 640×480 at 60 Hz (non-interlaced). 8514 usually refers to
the display controller hardware (such as the 8514/A display adapter). However, IBM sold the companion
CRT monitor (for use with the 8514/A) which carries the same designation, 8514. The Main 8514 card
supported 512 KB of video RAM but an additional Memory-Daughtercard of 1MB was needed due to the
high space required to install so much video RAM; comparatively NES only had a little over 2 KB in the
graphic chip.
8514 used a standardized programming interface called the “Adapter Interface” or AI. This interface is
also used by XGA, IBM Image Adapter/A, and clones of the 8514/A and XGA such as the ATI
Technologies Mach 32 and IIT AGX. The interface allows computer software to offload common 2D-
drawing operations (line-draw, color-fill, BITBLT) onto the 8514 hardware. This freed the host CPU for
other tasks, and greatly improved the speed of redrawing a graphics visual (such as a pie-chart or CAD-
illustration).

The 8514 on top and the Memory-Daughtercard of 1MB bellow

Third-party graphics suppliers did not clone IBM’s 8514 as extensively as VGA. Nevertheless, ATI
did develop 8514-compatible graphics controllers: the Mach8 and Mach32. Both were sold in ATI-
branded graphics boards. The first Windows based accelerator, the S3 911 launched in 1991 also had
some common points with the 8514 having many similarities in the draw engine and its register interface.
While interesting for evolution of PC graphics this has little to do with the evolution of gaming in the
80’s, as it was related especially with CAD illustrations or professional graphic design, but top video cards
from early 90’s were based on this professional graphic card and therefore it is relevant for the 90’s gaming.
New x86 Operating Systems
Because Microsoft’s software engineers were working hard on two fronts, releasing this year both
OS/2 and Windows 2.0, they had little time to improve the old and by now seriously dated MS-DOS.
While stability and the software library for MS-DOS were both attractive the old operating system lacked
a lot of the modern features such as graphical environment, mouse, multitasking or an advanced
application programing interface (API).
DOS 3.3 was introduced in 1987. It added support for 1.44MB diskettes and multiple (up to 23
logical drives) 32MB disk partitions.
DOS 3.31 was introduced by Compaq in November 1987. It supported FAT16b for drives larger than
32MBwith hard disk partitions up to 512 MB.
Both DOS version were minor updates and didn’t bring anything new into the undesired ASCII world
of MS-DOS. Everyone hopes for a better operating system for Christmas turned into OS/2 and Windows
2.0, as both operating systems were launched on December 1987. Let’s see how they performed,
especially regarding gaming.

Finally on the market, but not as a graphical operating system

OS/2. The first version co-developed by Microsoft and IBM was released in December 1987 and I’ve
already express some thoughts at the PS/2 systems presentation. While launched in text mode only the OS/2
version 1.0 was an advanced 16-bit multi-tasking protected-mode operating system supporting many
advanced features such as: pre-emptive scheduling, multi-threading, dynamic linking, and virtual memory.
Because OS/2 was a protected-mode operating system, it required at least a 286 CPU, although it was
capable of running on 386 systems as well, albeit without taking advantage of any 32-bit features.
In OS/2, dynamic linking was consistently used to implement many operating system additional
features. The entire OS/2 API was accessed through a set of dynamic link libraries (DLLs), and users
could write their own DLLs; this is a trait also implemented in the future Windows operating systems.
As one of the first multi-threaded operating systems it supported threads that were pre-emptively
time-sliced, with a fairly sophisticated scheduling algorithm. OS/2 1.0 supported many other multi-
threading options such as: shared memory, pipes, queues, semaphores, signals, interprocess
communication and synchronization primitives.
While the OS/2 was internally very advanced, the common users only saw the text interface, also
present in MS-DOS, while some high-end users and some companies saw both the text-only interface and
the unsupported 80386 as extremely limiting factors. And the last big problem was the very poor MS-
DOS software compatibility, games included that affected all users.

The second graphical extension for MS-DOS

Windows 2.0 is a 16-bit Microsoft Windows GUI-based operating environment that was released on
December 9, 1987 and is the successor to basic Windows 1.0. While it was an OS with graphical user
interface, Windows 1.0 had no relevance whatsoever for x86 PC Gaming, as the Windows didn’t
supported MS-DOS games. Same as the first Windows 1.0 it was very DOS dependent and cannot run
without it. You can picture Windows 2.0 as an advanced software for MS-DOS, unable to run without
MS-DOS and capable to run some additional graphical software programs. To close Windows and to be
able to run most of the DOS software including games you had to press an – button on top left and the
message “This will end your Windows session “appeared and you were back in MS-DOS.

Windows 2.0 (the light blue logo) cannot run without MS-DOS, MS-DOS can run MS-DOS
programs such as games (up) and software (down) while Windows 2.0 usually can’t but allowed the
execution of graphical apps


The x86 gaming in 1987

Most of the top games launched in 1987 are not original x86 releases, most of them are ports of
successful games launched in previous years making their way now on PC. And were so much of them,
is as all the game developers finally observed the potential for gaming found in the x86 computers and
decided to release all their older game on the x86 PC’s. Even more amazing was the fact that some of
the ports were many times better compared to the original release, if not always in graphics, at least in
the refining and improvement of gameplay, a fist one as all previous ports were inferior releases.
Besides the ported game, many game developers will opt for a common year release, launching their
games for both PC’s and the competition in the same year, and this was another good sign, as now MS-DOS
was taken into consideration as one of the better platforms for gaming, clearly not the leader but also not as
one of the last choices so common in the previous years. In numbers, from all the games reviewed this year,
eleven will be ported from previous year, eleven will be common year releases and 2 were original PC
releases.

“Life is like Tetris; if it doesn’t fit, just flip it over”- Sabine Hein

Tetris is an innovative tile-matching puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by
Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the
Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow. He combined its name
from the Greek numerical prefix tetra- (all of the game’s pieces contain four segments) and tennis,
Pajitnov’s favorite sport. It is also the first entertainment software to be exported from the USSR to the
U.S. and was initially published by Spectrum HoloByte for Commodore 64 and IBM PC.

Simple yet innovative gameplay. Five geometric shapes fall from the top of a playfield to rest on the
bottom and the player must fit the pieces together, and the complete line they form disappears. If the
pieces don’t form lines and eventually stack up to the top of the playfield, the game is over. Difficulty
increases by dropping the pieces faster and faster over time.

The original x86 version. The IBM PC version was co-developed by Alexey Pajitnov (Pazhitnov),
Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov. At age Vadim Gerasimov was one of the original co-developers
of the famous video game Tetris: he ported Alexey Pajitnov’s original game to the PC architecture and
they’ve also added additional features to the game.

The original DOS version of Tetris (left), the U.S. version launched by Spectrum Holobyte (right)

Vadim Gerasimov said some words about the MS-DOS version “We diligently implemented the MS
DOS version of the game in such a way that it could run on any PC we had available. The program ran
in a text mode using colored space symbols to represent squares of teraminos. The game could even
automatically recognize the IBM monochrome card adjusting the way it drew (printed) on the screen.
The clock-frequency race had already started with the introduction of IBM PC AT and PC clones. Many
games released for the earlier PC and PC XT (4.77 MHz) models ran too fast on the newer machines.
The last version of our game was one of the first to use proper timer delays. 20 years later the same
program still runs without any changes, looks and feels the same”.
Graphics on the original MS-DOS were good, simple but effective and I prefer them over the U.S.
version. The last one supported all major graphic standards prior 1987: CGA, EGA, Hercules, Tandy /
PCjr.

While ports of Tetris were sold for a large variety of the 1980s home computer platforms as well as
the arcades and consoles, it was the immensely successful handheld version for the Game Boy launched in
1989 that established the game as one of the most popular ever. Electronic Gaming Monthly’s #100
placed Tetris in first place as “Greatest Game of All Time” while in 2007 Tetris came in second place in
IGN’s “100 Greatest Video Games of All Time”. It sold more than 70 million copies for consoles/hand
held consoles and personal systems and will also reinvent in the 90’s and 2000’s in mobile phones. The
game is - as I like to say- “a soviet atomic game”.

Where there is a sea there are pirates - Greek Proverb

Sid Meier’s Pirates! is a mixed action/strategy video game created by Sid Meier and developed and
published by MicroProse in 1987. It was the first game to include the name “Sid Meier” in its title as an
effort by MicroProse to attract fans of Meier’s earlier games, most of which were combat vehicle
simulation video games. While the game was first available for Commodore 64 it will be released on
many platforms including IBM PC.

Amazing gameplay complexity for the 80’s. The game is a simulation of pirate life, as a privateer or
a pirate hunter in the Spanish Main in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The goal of the game is to pension
with as much gold and land as possible, as many ranks/titles as possible (Colonel, Admiral, Marquis,
Duke), and a wife. Gameplay is open-ended; the player may choose to attack enemy ships or towns, hunt
pirates, seek buried treasure, rescue long-lost family members, or even avoid violence altogether and
seek to increase his wealth through trade. The game also has no predetermined end, although as time goes
on and character ages it becomes more difficult to recruit crew members, fighting becomes more difficult
and deteriorating health will force the character into retirement. The game ends when the player retires, at
which point he is given a position in his future life, from beggar to King’s adviser, based on accumulated
wealth, land, rank, marital status, and other accomplishments.
The game tests a wide range of skills: hand-eye coordination during the fencing sections, tactical
ability during the land and sea combat phases, and strategic thinking, for everything from choosing a wife to
deciding when to divide up the plunder. Moreover, each game is likely to take a different course, as most
events in the game are random, including the economic and political systems, and early in the game these
can greatly affect future strategic options. In the course of the game a player may try to tack in a frigate in
order to run down a smaller and faster pinnace, but must be fortunate enough to have the weather gage.
Another innovative feature of Pirates! was the introduction of a dynamic playing field. In the game, many
of the most important factors which affect player decisions are randomized at the beginning of the game, and
continue to shift during gameplay. The most important random factor in the game lies in the diplomatic
relations between the four nations laying claim to the Caribbean. This not only creates a new experience each
time the game is played, but also requires the player to remain flexible, and be ready to exploit possibilities
when they occur.
 If I were to remain alone on an island with one computer and only one game from the 80’s, this would be
my categorical pick up, just as Alpha Centauri, another game designed by Sid Meier, and Brian Reynolds,
designer of Civilization II would be my categorical pick-up from the 90’s games.

Good EGA graphics

C64 graphics- slightly inferior, while NES (1991) looks more cartoonish

Graphics and sounds. The MS-DOS version was nicely implemented and supported: CGA, EGA,
Tandy / PCjr, and I must say that the EGA implementation was quite good, slightly better than C64, only
losing slightly to Atari ST. The monochrome Macintosh graphics were also interesting while the Amiga
port from 1990 had by far the best graphics of all computers. The sound devices supported was the old
PC Speaker slightly tweaked and the 3-voice Tandy / PCjr, decent but clearly behind other platforms.

Pirates! is a groundbreaking game for its era. The game is immersive, the combat is terrific, the
game “world” is immense, there are dozens of towns and ships to blow up, to do sword fighting, cannon
duels…; you can spend hours just tracking the Spanish gold fleet across the Main. Although other open-
ended games had already been released, the style of player-directed gameplay in Pirates! led it to be the
spiritual predecessor of countless top other games since, designed both by Sid Meier himself
(Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, Alpha Centauri) and many others, notably Will Wright (SimCity, The
Sims). The game is also educational, as you will learn about piracy through the thoroughly researched
manual.
“Pirates!” was and still is an absolute landmark in PC gaming, a virtually perfect game that was so
much better and complex than most other games launched on the market at the time. Ranks right up there
with M.U.L.E, Elite, King Quest, SimCity, Prince of Persia, Tetris and some few others among the true
masterpieces of the 80’s the first era of PC games and is my favorite from the whole bunch.

Visual masterpiece coming to PC with worse graphics but better gameplay

Defender of the Crown is a strategy computer game designed by Kellyn Beck. It was Cinemaware’s
first game, and was originally released for the Commodore Amiga in 1986, setting a new standard for graphic
quality in home computer games. In 1987 it was ported to DOS, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES),
Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and Macintosh while in 1988 was ported on the
Apple IIGS. The game had in 2002 a Windows remake that looks amazing compared to the original due to
technical advancements in PC graphics, but didn’t had as much success.


The original Amiga version. The high-quality graphics made the game a blockbuster; never before
had such detailed, colorful and realistic graphics been seen on a home computer. The art direction by
James D. Sachs set the game apart. Retrospectively, it can be said that the quality of graphics in the game
is far from the highest that Amiga games later reached, but by 1986 standards, the results were admirable.
The music by Jim Cuomo is also notable though it failed to utilize all the capabilities of Amiga’s sound
chip, since the game did not feature digitized sound effects or instrument samples. Some reviewers
complained about the “shallowness” of the Amiga’s version of the game: it could be finished in a very
short time and after that there was nothing new to see. This problem was partially overcome with later
ports of the game.

The x86 port. The PC booter version supported all major graphic standards: CGA, CGA (Tweaked),
EGA, Tandy / PCjr. The top EGA graphics were good because the game was artistic but were not as
impressive as other versions; the porting resulted in an important loss in graphic and even greater in audio
quality due to those systems’ inferior abilities compared to the Amiga.

The EGA graphics (up) were good but Amiga graphics (down), were much better

The game implemented one of the best and most artistic versions of CGA graphics, making true works
of art with only 4 colors, cleverly implementing some dithering and the better Palette 0.


The beautiful Saxon maiden Rosalind during the love scene. While this is one of the best uses of CGA
graphic, wonders don’t usually happen on CGA

The PC version reflects the period when the Amiga (and Atari ST) were far superior in terms of
graphics and sound. The luscious backdrops and portraits of the original don’t quite have the same appeal
when translated to EGA, but when in was compared to other EGA games this one had no competition. Not
to mention that most of the PC owners at the time still used CGA capable computers with even more loss
in graphic quality and with the basic speaker sound. The game also supported 3 voice Tandy / Pcjr
sounds.

“It’s hard for me to describe what made this game such a joy. It had simple but fun gameplay, a
great game atmosphere and just seemed to be out at the right time for me. I was learning medieval
European history in school when I was playing this game. It was just tons of fun to be raiding
castles, rescuing fair ladies and visiting Robin Hood for help in your quest for the crown. This game
has simply great artistic graphics for 1987, beautiful and memorable music and incredibly addictive
levels of gameplay. With many subgames and versions for just about every platform in existence, how
can one go wrong? “– gamer review.

Better in ship combat but less complex fun than Pirates

The Ancient Art of War at Sea is a historic Real-Time Strategy developed by Brøderbund and
released for IBM PC and compatibles in 1987 as a sequel to The Ancient Art of War. The game was also
released for Apple II in the same year and for Macintosh in 1988.

Graphics. The MSDOS version supported all major graphic modes launched before 1987 such as
CGA, EGA Tandy / Pcjr and also supported the rarely used text based Hercules graphic mode. Sound
unfortunately supported only the 1981 PC Speaker mode, quite a limiting factor.





 EGA graphics, enough colors, not so inspired design

Gameplay. While on water the game didn’t improve so much the innovative game the 1984 original
Ancient Art of War, it was slightly more complex but from a general point of view, it was still similar to
AAoW. There is still the village and fort concepts but they changed it for ship repairs. The terrain was
much more difficult, as hostile waters can actually sink or damage your ship(s). The scenarios were well
thought out and often offered the player numerous options.
The best was that moment of anticipation when two squadrons would engage, the game would zoom
in, and you’d have to make that critical decision in real-time as to how to approach the enemy’s line,
taking into account the ships involved, wind, damage, opposing commander, etc.
The manual was awesome as well. It didn’t just tell you how to play the game it had basically an
entire section within the manual illustrating tactics, recounting of famous historical battles, pirates, etc.
Overall this is an excellent and underrated strategy game from the 80’s, and will be still fun to play today
if it was clothed in some new graphics.

We want more RPG’s. This is a good year for RPG’s with several great releases. Due to their higher
complexity in gameplay and input compared to the standard action games, the RPG were usually more
defining for personal computer gaming on and less for home consoles and arcades gaming, and that
tendency will accentuate in the late 80’s and the 90’s.

A game of compassion, morality, truth love and courage

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, first released in 1985 for the Apple II, is the fourth in the series of
Ultima RPG’s. It is the first in the “Age of Enlightenment” trilogy, shifting the series from the hack and
slash, dungeon crawl gameplay of its “Age of Darkness” predecessors towards an ethically-nuanced,
story-driven approach. In the fourth Ultima you weren’t just slaying monsters… you were slaying bad
habits. The MS-DOS version will be launched two years later in 1987.

Development. Rich

ard Garriott has specified that he began writing this fourth Ultima game when he realized (partly from
letters of enraged parents) that in the earlier games immoral actions like stealing and murder of peaceful
citizens had been necessary or at least very useful actions in order to win the game, and that such features
might be objectionable. Furthermore, organizations like BADD (Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons)
were drawing attention to the supposedly satanic content in role-playing games in general, and the demonic
nature of the antagonist of Ultima III, as depicted on that game’s box cover (image from the left) was a good
example for the concerns. The concept of virtues from the game was inspired by a TV show about the Avatars
of Hindu mythology, which described the avatars as having to master sixteen different virtues. The eight
virtues used in the game were derived from combinations of truth, love, and courage, a set of motivators that
were better fit for the game, also found in one of Garriott favorite films, The Wizard of Oz. The game took
two years to develop, twice that of both Ultima II and Ultima III. Garriott described the playtesting as
“slightly rushed” to make the Christmas season; he was the only one to finish playing through the game by the
time it went out for publishing.

Graphics. This is the first Ultima game to support EGA mode and therefore the graphics were finally
comparable to the other non x86 gaming systems. Besides EGA the game was compatible with the most
important graphic modes available on the market such as: CGA Composite (16 colors), Tandy 1000/PCjr
(16 colors) and of course 4 colors CGA.

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar; few MSDOS games were as pretty in 1987


Game vs. hardware. The game worked on any 8088/8086 but required a very large for the time
amount of RAM - 640 KB while the EGA cards required at least 64KB video memory to run 320 x
200/16 color graphic mode. Comparatively the older Ultima III required only 128KB of RAM to work.

“What makes me a powerful designer is I did write all the code once upon a time. I did draw all the
art once upon a time. And I was the only designer for many, many years. So now, even though I think
there are clearly other great designers in the field of computer games, I think it is extraordinarily rare
and I would argue that amongst all the teams I ever used to work on the one skill where I still remain
at the top of the heap is design” - Richard Garriott, interview with IndustryGamers.

The IBM PC port for Ultima IV is an in-between step between the 8-bit computer versions and the
later Atari ST and Amiga editions. Because the game supported the newest graphic modes and
implemented them in a great way the result was a DOS Ultima that finally look good and the PC’s owners
had now the chance to compete on graphics with other Ultima ports. Nonetheless, while the DOS version
was better looking than all other 8-bit computer versions, its sound still were seriously behind them, using
only the older Speaker sound with extremely limited sound quality.

Reception. Dragon called it “The most impressive and complex adventure to date; a total
adventuring environment that takes place across an entire continent “and the closest anyone has yet come
to approximating a full-fledged fantasy role-playing experience in a computer game”. In 1996, Computer
Gaming World ranked it as the second best video game of all time, as well as the second most innovative
computer game. The game designer Richard Garriott considers this game to be among his favorites from
the Ultima series.

Best review, made by a gamer. “If I ever have children, I would want them to play “Ultima IV”. To
show them the greatness of a game that was made many years ago and has since then became a legend;
to explain to them the meaning of role-playing and of gaming in general; to share with them the joy of
adventure and exploration. And then who knows, maybe they will also want to step on the difficult and
noble path of the Avatar. “

The Bard and its unknown tale

Tales of the Unknown: Volume I - The Bard’s Tale is a fantasy role-playing video game created by
Interplay Productions in 1985 and distributed by Electronic Arts. It was designed and programmed by
Michael Cranford. It was originally released for the Apple II, and was also ported to all major personal
systems such as Commodore 64, Apple IIgs, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST,
MS-DOS, Apple Macintosh, and NES platforms with the DOS version available from 1987.
Based loosely on traditional Dungeons and Dragons gameplay and inspired by the Wizardry
computer games, Bard’s Tale was a great game of dungeon-delving, a computerized D&D spin-off. For
role playing enthusiasts, the game provided the perfect opportunity to imagine warriors and paladins
swinging their swords against the forces of chaos and wizards casting spells and pursuing power. Elves,
dwarves, hobbits and humans united against evil - and it was all up to your party of adventurers to save
the realm!

Graphics. The game supported all major older graphic modes such as: CGA, CGA Composite (16
colors), EGA, Tandy / Pcjr while the newer MCGA and VGA were not supported. EGA graphics are
amongst the best of all ports losing only slightly to Amiga and Atari ST personal systems. All older 8-bit
platforms had troubles to compete with the EGA graphics.

The game was also innovative regarding graphics as it was one of the first PC games to employ 1’st
person pseudo 3d graphics as navigation was done trough enviorment drawed in 2d in that way the
graphics could resemble 3d. While the usable visual screen was quite small, the visuals were quite nice.
The characters and enemies encountered were still drawed in 2d style.

Pseudo 3d graphic(left) and 2d enemy (right)
 I also liked the graphics of the black and white Macintosh version


The Bard’s Tale was noteworthy for its unprecedented pseudo 3D graphics and animated character
portraits. The Bard class was also an innovation in games. “The Bard was author Michael Cranford’s
contribution to the genre, a character who casts spells by singing one of six tunes.” This is a
groundbreaking game in the history of computer role-playing games. Not a standout by today’s standards,
but incomparable for its time.

Is difficulty rewarding? … For many it is

Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum is an early role-playing video game
released for the Apple II, IBM PC, NES and a number of other platforms, and is the first game in the
Might and Magic series. It was published in 1986 by New World Computing and also later re-released in
the Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven Limited Edition and as Might and Magic VI: The
Mandate of Heaven Special Edition. The MSDOS version was launched a year later in 1987. The game
will also get a Macintosh release with good graphics and it will be extremely popular in Japan as it was
released for: FM7, MSX, PC-88, PC-98, Sharp X1 and Sharp X6800.
Development. The original Apple II version of the game was written almost single-handedly by Jon
Van Caneghem over three years. Van Caneghem had difficulty finding a publisher to distribute MM1, so he
handled the distribution himself from his own apartment until he was able to broker a deal with
Activision. RPG Codex: You started New World Computing in 1983 from your apartment to develop
Might and Magic I. How did your decision to develop a computer role-playing game come about? Did
you come from pen and paper RPGs?

Jon Van Caneghem: I had been playing board games my entire life and then found paper RPGs like
D&D. As much as I enjoyed the Saturday D&D / board games, I wanted to play more often and faster.
Once I was introduced to computer games, besides being addicted to playing non-stop : ), my mind went
wild with the future possibilities for games. Given my background and knowledge of games and a
passion for math and programming, I convinced myself that nothing was going to stop me from
designing and creating computer games!

EGA graphics and an unfriendly green dragon


The video modes supported were: CGA, EGA, and Hercules. While EGA was used the graphics were
only decent, as few colors were used at the same time.

The game looks good on Macintosh, while on NEC PC-98 it was the best


Innovations. The game is set on the world of VARN (Vehicular Astropod Research Nacelle) which
features expansive outdoor terrain, castles, caves, underground cities and an Astral Plane. You can also find
there NPC (non-playable characters) interaction, there is no dialog choice but is still a dialog. It is also one
of the first role-playing games to feature detailed drawings of both indoor and outdoor locations. The most
notable thing about this game is that it is HUGE. There were dozens of wilderness areas to explore, 5 towns
and 5 castles. That is not counting the dozens of dungeons for you to find and explore. Each area had unique
encounters and quests for you to do. You could win the game and still not have run into all there was to find
and do. Also the game is a rare RPG with a non-violent ending to it, not that you won’t do a lot of fighting to
get to the ending though.

RPG Codex: How did you create the Might and Magic universe, and what were the main
inspirations behind the lore?
JVC: Well, a mixture of historic mythology, fantasy / sci-fi movies and books and many paper RPG
modules. Numerous characters and stories came from several of my own D&D campaigns and
characters from years past.

I must say I very much like the Might and Magic universe and I have to praise Jon Van Caneghem for
all the great inspiration and great ideas that lead to one of the most interesting fantasy related universe in
PC gaming.

If you’ve got the patience, dedication, and drive to finish a massive game (which I believe would
be among the hardest of all in the M&M series) then you might have a shot at this one. It’s insanely
difficult, with the mapping work needed taking a great deal of time, mastering a lot of dangerous
monsters, and getting a party up to scale and not running into the countless pitfalls that await… And if
you manage to finish the game there is the possibility that you might need to start over and over again
with different character combinations and alignment to see what different results you might get. –
Gamer review

 Underrated RPG

Wizard’s Crown is a 1986 top-down role-playing video game published by Strategic Simulations,
Inc. (SSI). It will be released for the Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, IBM PC, Apple II and Commodore 64.The
game design and programming was done by Paul Murray and Keith Brors, game development by Chuck
Kroegel and Jeff Johnson, and the rulebook created by Leona Billings.

Description. Wizard’s Crown is a fantasy role-playing game in which the player creates an advanced
party of up to eight adventurers and takes them on a quest to retrieve a magical crown from a wizard
named Tarmon, who sealed himself and the crown in his laboratory five hundred years ago.
The best aspect of Wizard’s Crown was its incredible attention to detail in character development and
combat. Wizards and priests did not have a huge selection of spells, but the spells they did have were a
lot of fun to use and always had a strategic impact on the battle and not just doing damage to enemies.
Weapons were varied in their abilities and strengths: swords would do lots of damage in some situations
but almost no damage to certain types of armor or creatures. The wide variety of combat tactics in the
game really made you think about how you would approach a battle.

Modest CGA graphics

Graphics. CGA only in 1997 is nothing to brag about and the graphics were mainly for gameplay sake
as they weren’t fancy, artistic or colorful. All other version had similar modest graphics while on Atari ST
the graphics were nice.

Atari ST graphics left and C64 graphics right

Other great feature of the game which unfortunately has not been implemented in more recent RPG’s
was the option to turn on “Quick Combat” which saved tons of time when you were fighting easy
opponents and made the combat a lot less repetitive.
Finally, character development was a dream. You built your party completely from scratch with a
point-based system. As long as you had a high enough intelligence, you could choose as many character
classes as you wanted with the price that your overall skill and attribute advancement for that character
would be slower compared to a more specialized character.
Wizard’s Crown was a very complex and rewarding game at the time of its release. While the
graphics are inferior to other RPG’s at the time, the extensive combat, injury, character advancement, and
magical equipment systems rival those of games made ten years later.


The granddaddy RPG is finally ported on DOS

Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness. The

original Ultima was first published in the United
States by California Pacific Computer Company,
which registered a copyright for the game on
September 2, 1980 and officially released it in June
1981exclusively for Apple II computers. The game
had a huge success on Apple II as an exclusive
release. While the next three Ultima games II, III and
IV were also launched with some decent delays on
MS-DOS the first Ultima will be finally launched
after 6 years for the x86 computers as a remake
called Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness. The
remake will also be launched for Apple II, C64 in
1986 and for many Japanese computers such as
MSX, PC-88, PC-98 and Sharp X1 in 1988.The
original Ultima was re-programmed using assembly
language, with updated graphics, minor changes in
towns’ and people’s names, and had some different
puzzles.

Graphics. The game’s graphics supported CGA, Tandy/PCjr and EGA standards and featured both
tile based top-down over the world graphics and basic first person 3D vector graphics inside the
dungeons. While the top down graphics were quite nice with good design and colors the first person 3d
visuals was quite limited, similar to the 1981 graphical style. Graphics were also slightly better than the
newer Apple II and C64 ports.

Good EGA graphics on top down view and modest in first person


As a remake of the popular Ultima/Akalabeth the game was great, it was more refined with better
graphics, quests and fewer bugs but Ultima wasn’t anymore alone in the RPG market, new games such as
Tales of the Unknown, Wizard’s Crown and Might and Magic were by now better, more innovative and some
even prettier. Nonetheless the game was still good and diehard MS-DOS fans of Ultima games had finally the
last missing game from the series in their grasp.

2.5D great isometric graphics in an unknown Spanish jewel

La Abadía del Crimen (The Abbey of Crime) is a computer video game programmed in 1987 by
Paco Menéndez and released for Amstrad CPC, MSX, ZX Spectrum and MSDOS. The game was
originally conceived as a version of Umberto Eco’s book The Name of the Rose. However, Paco
Menéndez and Opera Soft received no reply from Eco in order to secure the rights for the name, so the
game was released as La Abadía del Crimen. The graphics were made by Juan Delcán. This game is a
video adventure with 2.5D isometric graphics, where a Franciscan monk, Fray William of Occam
(William of Baskerville in the book) and his young novice Adso of Melk have to discover the perpetrator
of a series of murders in a medieval Benedictine abbey.

Graphics. The game implemented interesting isometric graphics, with good details but the MS-DOS
version implemented CGA only graphics and 4 colors are a serious limitation in this game with a lot of
architectural details. Looking at both Palette 0 and Palette 1 from the graphic I do like the Palette O
slightly better. Because the game’s screens where implemented in 3D Filmation style the characters and
their movement was animated, fast and smooth. While the level of detail was good for the CGA resolution
it was no match for the much better graphics implemented in the Amstrad CPC version, a much loved
computer in Spain in middle-late 80’s.

CGA only isometric graphics. This is one of the games to support both CGA Palette 0 left and Palette 1
right, neither with impressive results

Amstrad CPC version of the game was the best looking

Music. The music played in the game corresponds to the Minuet in G major and the sonata for flute BWV
1033 from Bach, and Crystal Palace from Gwendal. The original x86 version also featured the “Ave Maria”
from Schubert, in a short chorus recording that played through the speaker when we went to the church.
The game was programmed making the most of the capacities of 8-bit computers, and taking a high
level of care for details: plot, mapping, graphics, artificial intelligence of the characters, sound, etc. All
of this made the game to be regarded as one of the best videogames made for 8-bit computers. In spite of
its quality, the game was never officially released outside of Spain. It’s really considered THE 80’s
classic in Spain an amazing game for its time and is probably one of the most beloved and best Spanish
games ever designed if not the most.

Adventure can be both funny and stimulating

Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards is the alliterative title to a graphic adventure
game originally released in 1987 as the first part of the Leisure Suit Larry series developed and published
by Sierra On-Line with Al Lowe as designer. Originally developed for DOS and the Apple II, it was later
ported to other platforms such as the Amiga, Atari ST, Apple IIGS and the TRS-80 Color Computer. It
utilizes the Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) engine made famous by King’s Quest: Quest for the Crown.
In 1991, Sierra released a remake that used the Sierra’s Creative Interpreter (SCI) engine with 256 colors
and a point-and-click, icon-driven (as opposed to text-based) user interface.

Description. Set in the fictional city of Lost Wages, the story follows Larry Laffer, a middle-aged
male virgin, as he tries to “get lucky”. Land of the Lounge Lizards establishes several elements which
recur in the later Larry games, including Larry’s campy attire, perpetual bad luck with women, and
penchant for double-entendres. The story and basic structure of the game were inspired by Softporn
Adventure, a 1981 Apple II text adventure.

 Romantic setting in the night and the close up, impressive EGA use


Graphics. This was one of the most technical capable games at the time for x86 PC’s supporting all
graphic standards and had one of the best EGA implementations at the time. All other platform had similar
graphics as implemented by Sierra On-Line, despite their superior graphical capabilities over EGA
(Amiga, Apple IIGS) to save development time. The MCGA and VGA support were also added but
nonetheless both were identical to EGA in graphics not using more than 16 colors.

TRS-80 CoCo3 on the left and Apple IIGS on the right had similar graphics despite the superior
graphical capabilities for the Apple IIGS

Despite a lack of advertising, the game was a sleeper hit and a high commercial and critical success
due to its funny -parody like- narrating, the vivid graphical style with half naked girls and its sexual
connotations. It took adult matter and presented it in a way that was humorous, yet risky while the good
story kept you laughing the whole way through. This game definitely followed the newer Sierra’s trend to
create funnier adventure games and this one of the funniest text parsers truly infused with Al Lowe humor.


Adventure in space

 Space Quest II: Chapter II - Vohaul’s Revenge is the
sequel to The Sarien Encounter, and the second game
in Sierra’s humorous Space Quest series developed
and published by Sierra On-Line, Inc in 1987. The
game was developed mainly for 16/32 bit platforms
such as DOS, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST, Apple
IIGS completely ignoring many other 8-bit computers
except the Apple II.

Four in game captures, huge artistry but in smallish 200x160 AGI resolution

The player navigates Roger Wilco around with arrow keys, and interacts with the world by typing
commands. Much of the gameplay is dedicated to avoiding the many traps and hazards Roger will meet on
his way. Some actions must be performed quickly in order to prevent Roger from getting killed.

Same AGI graphics. As all previous Sierra games it supported all graphical standards except for the
VGA that implemented later. Just like its predecessor it used the lowest EGA mode 200x160 a very small
resolution for 1987. On the other side the graphics are very colorful and artistic, with some of the best
artistic touch. The sound devices supported on PC were the same old weak PC Speaker and Tandy / PCjr.

 Macintosh graphics were not so enjoyable while the 8-bit Apple II received some of the best
graphics ever


The game was well received by both critics and consumers. As Computer Gaming World noted,
“Though the game is similar to the original Space Quest, the addition of more detailed animation,
more difficult puzzles, an improved parser (hurrah!), and greater scope makes a good game even
better.” Some criticisms leveled at the game included some objects’ unclear descriptions, and some
puzzles which are hidden from the player.
While the game was a good adventure the biggest flaw of “Space Quest II” and the main reason why
many fans of the series consider it the least successful Space Quest title was its lack of satire. All other
Space Quest games are intentionally humorous, while “Space Quest II” is was “just an adventure”. It has
some humorous places (beside the death messages), but compared to the first “Space Quest” (and
especially to later ones) the humor in this one is rather poor.

Space Quest II” is certainly not as charming and as humorous as the other games of the series, and its
gameplay might seem shallow today, but its tremendous suspense, great atmosphere, imaginative puzzles,
and a genuine feeling of adventuring make up for its shortcomings.

Not your common adventure game

Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel. Police Quest is a series of video games produced and
published by Sierra On-Line between 1987 and 1993. The original series was composed of four
adventure games, the first three of which were designed by former policeman Jim Walls, with the fourth
title designed by former LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates. The first game of the series Police Quest: In Pursuit
of the Death Angel was released for the IBM PC, Apple II, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST and Apple IIGS.

Released in 1987 using the longstanding Sierra’s Adventure Game Interpreter parser engine, the
game is the most realistic of all developed by Sierra in the late 1980s such as Leisure Suit Larry, King’s
Quest, or Space Quest, and featured many puzzles where proper police procedure is required to succeed.
It is an adventure game whose gameplay is centered on interacting with the environment to resolve a
series of scenarios. These largely revolve around typical police work, such as securing crime scenes and
recovering stolen vehicles, plus some important duty procedures. The original release of the game
required the player to type in the desired actions, such as opening doors, pressing buttons or firing one’s
gun, while the remake allows the player to use the mouse to select actions from a menu and objects in the
environment.
The lack of “traditional” puzzles made the game stand out at the time of release, although it also resulted
in some criticism because of the dry police work. Unlike many games of this genre, the style of play depends
largely on a strict adherence to standard police rules and procedure. Failure to abide to proper procedure
typically leads to the player being penalized on points, or having his character killed. For instance, if Sonny
neglects to store his side arm in gun lockers before entering the jail to book a prisoner, the prisoner will take
the gun from him the moment his handcuffs are removed and him with it, ending the game.

The same old small AGI resolution at 200x160 but nice graphics nonetheless

Regarding graphics the developer really struggled to deliver as much as possible regarding the time
graphic technology. The older computers could use the CGA composite with 16 colors, while
EGA/Tandy/PCjr graphics were good with their 16 colors. The newly MCGA/256 color mode was also
used but only with 16 colors and even Hercules textual mode was quite graphically usable. There is also
great attention in design and a decent sense of artistry. The only negative element was the small resolution
used, the 200x160/16 including the text parser but this was addressed later in 1992 with the VGA
320x200/256 colors remake. The sound devices supported were PC Speaker and Tandy / PCjr.

The 1992 SCI remake used the higher 320x200 resolution and 256 colors

The game drags you into the world of Police/detective simulation with lovable characters, a great
plot, cool cartoon graphics, awesome set-pieces and a perfectly paced game that escalates into a worthy
conclusion. This and Police Quest 2 are by and far the best in the series, and are right up there with the
best Sierra adventures (Kings Quest 3, Space Quest 1-4, Manhunter, Larry 1-3).The1992 remake used 256
color VGA graphics and the SCI engine, which dramatically improved the appearance and audio of the
game, and replaced the command line interface with mouse and point and click dramatically improving
the gameplay. A classic adventure but not the common one as it was different than other adventures and
wasn’t proper for all adventure games lovers.

The inspiration for many future games. TBS started from this

Empire: Wargame of the Century is a turn-based wargame with simple rules, conceived by Walter
Bright in 1971 and released as a computer game in 1977. Bright recoded only later the game in C on an
IBM PC. With low commercial expectations, he submitted an announcement to January 1984 BYTE
Magazine’s “Software Received” section, and received a flood of orders. After writing to many software
companies (including Brøderbund, Sirius Software, Simon & Schuster, subLOGIC, Epyx and
MicroProse), he licensed the game to a small software company named Interstel, who hired Mark
Baldwin to add a graphic user interface. Starting with 1987, Empire: Wargame of the Century was
produced on the Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, Apple II, Macintosh and DOS.
The game was based on various war movies and board games, notably Battle of Britain and Risk. In the
game, each player starts with one city in an unexplored world, and uses the city to build armies, aircraft, and
various types of ships.

Made for Multiplayer. After M.U.L.E and few other less important games this is one of the few
games in the 80’s designed with multiplayer in mind, as it included several options to play the game with
more than one human gamers such as PBeM (Play-by-E-mail) and Same/Split-Screen Multiplayer with 1
up to 3 Human or CPU players allowed.
With the rise of the Internet, email and websites have largely replaced postal gaming and postal games
zines. Play by mail games differ from popular online multiplayer games in that, for most computerized
multiplayer games, the players have to be online at the same time - also known as synchronous play. With a
play by mail game, the players can play whenever they choose, since responses need not be immediate; this
is sometimes referred to as turn-based gaming and is common among browser-based games. Some video
games can be played in turn-based mode: one makes one’s “move”, then play for that player stops, and the
turn passes to another player who to makes his or her move in response.

Graphics. The video modes supported were the standard: CGA, EGA, Tandy / PCjr and while the
game was detailed and had enough colors and a good resolution the graphics had no artistry.

EGA at 320x200/16, good details, not very artistic


In its review of the game, Computer Gaming World noted the improved UI, saying “the playability of
an already successful system has been significantly enhanced.” The game would later receive the
magazine’s “Game of the Year” award for 1988.
The game is one of greatest turn based war-game in the 80’s, and clearly the most innovative. Anyone
who works/uses strategy, tactics & logistics on a steady basis could use this game as a training aid
(military, warehousing, transportation, etc.). This game inspired a great deal of the strategic gaming genre,
most notably including Civilization, Empire Master, Global Conquest, Nintendo Wars, Strategic Conquest
and many more others.


First great sports simulation, truly innovative

Earl Weaver Baseball is a baseball computer game designed by Don Daglow and Eddie Dombrower
and published by Electronic Arts initially for Amiga and PC’s. Daglow and Dombrower had previously
teamed together to create Intellivision World Series Baseball at Mattel in 1983, the first video game to
use multiple camera angles and the first console sports simulator.
The artificial intelligence for the computer manager was provided by Baseball Hall of Fame member
Earl Weaver, then manager of the Baltimore Orioles. The game featured the MLBPA license and feature
actual major league players. Because of the huge game success the publisher distributed annual baseball
statistics disks to update the rosters and stats of the major league players and so did the third party
publishers. After leaving EA, Daglow would later lead the design of the Tony La Russa Baseball series,
working with Tony La Russa.


So many gameplay innovations. The game brought so many innovations in gameplay that is very difficult
to mention all but I will include the most important:

* EWB was the first commercial computer sports game to allow players to simulate an entire season of
games without actually showing each game play-by-play on the screen.
* Had the option of either playing in arcade mode or manager mode.
* Offered single pitch mode, which allowed games where players dueled as managers to be completed
faster by not calling every pitch and displaying only the outcome of each at-bat.
* The first time different stadiums were shown graphically on the screen, with game play adjusted for
their actual dimensions. Defunct or demolished stadiums were included.
* Players featured what Dombrower called “artificial ego”. Players would realistically occasionally
make errors in judgment, such as trying to take an extra base or attempt to catch an uncatchable ball.
* Depicted a manager arguing with a referee. On a close play, the manager would rush out to the
referee, and they would argue “Out! Safe! Out! Safe! Out! Safe!”, while the manager kicked dirt a la Billy
Martin on the umpire’s shoes.
* The first time a baseball manager had worked with game designers to provide the managerial strategy
and artificial intelligence for a computer game.

Game vs. Software. While the game required only 256 KB to run on older DOS 2.x version on the
new 3.0 it amazingly required a double amount of RAM, 512 KB. I really do wonder which of the new
“advanced” DOS 3.0 features required so much memory.

Graphics. The graphics are outstanding for the time and the x86 PC’s received some of the best EGA
graphics I have ever seen; and there are even some digital crowd noises in the Amiga version. Overall I
think is one of the few EGA games to compare to and even slightly beat Amiga graphics.

While relatively equal on graphics the Amiga version featured voice synthesis, a first in a sports
computer game. Players were announced at each plate appearance or substitution. The x86 version
implemented sound support for the older PC speaker and Tandy/ PCjr 3-voice sound.


Good EGA graphics. CGA, Tandy / PCjr were also supported

The Amiga graphics (1987) were similar, but I prefer the EGA version.

EWB was a major hit, and along with John Madden Football helped pave the way for the EA Sports
brand, which launched in 1992. As one of the best sports games ever made, Earl Weaver Baseball is a
revolutionary baseball game that introduced numerous features that are far more advanced than al other
contemporary sports games, including multiple camera angles, lifelike animations, and TV style
presentations. The game offered back in the 80’s some of the best playability and features never seen
since in a baseball game. Perhaps the best proof of how EWB’s sheer playability stands the test of time is
the fact that there are leagues on the Internet that have been running for almost a decade, if not more. This
EA’s classic brought deep simulation to arcade sports games.



Porting done great

Ghosts’n Goblins, alternative spelling Ghost’n Goblins, is a 1985 platform game developed by
Capcom for video arcades and has since been ported on many other platforms, about seventeen with the
MSDOS version was launched in 1987. It is the first game in the Ghosts’n Goblins franchise. Though
originating as an arcade title, the franchise has been featured on a variety of PC and video game consoles
with the latest entries in the series, Ghosts’n Goblins: Gold Knights I & II, released on the iOS.
Ghosts ‘N Goblins is a sideways scrolling action platformer spread over six levels, each of which
must be completed within three minutes (or a life is lost), taking in forest, village, mountain and cavern
settings with increasing difficulty.

 Game vs hardware. The DOS EGA required 512 KB RAM quite a lot considering that the rest CGA,
EGA, Hercules graphics worked with 256 KB RAM still it worth the trouble as the EGA graphics were
impressive closing on top systems such as Amiga and Atari ST, both launched much later in 1990.

Probably the best MS-DOS graphics in video games from 1987

Ghosts ‘N Goblins is a great platformer with a horror theme that fits the gameplay and overall tone of
the game. The game was followed by a series of sequels and spin-offs eventually becoming Capcom’s 8th
best-selling game franchise, selling over 4.4 million units. Its sequels include Ghouls’n Ghosts, Super
Ghouls’n Ghosts, and Ultimate Ghosts’n Goblins in addition to producing the Gargoyle’s Quest and
Maximo spin-off series. While the difficulty is extreme, the game is balanced by great gameplay and the
payoffs are well worth the trouble with the difficulty, making this one of the best games ever to be ported
from arcade games to x86 PC’s.

The decent only games from 1987. After the 6 previous weak or modest years for x86 gaming I
was amazed to discover so many great games launched in 1987, the ones reviewed until now. While
everyone preference is different and some will not agree with me, I consider all these previous games as
good and even great releases. I will also include some of the other only decent games from 1987 just to
show how many games were published that year for x86 PC’s.

The launch of a racing games family
Test Drive is a cross-platform racing game released by Accolade in 1987. It was launched in 1987
for C64, DOS and Atari ST and ported in 1988 for Amiga and Apple II. It is the first in the Test Drive
series of racing games and has been followed by numerous sequels.
Gameplay. The game features various modes including Quick Race, Single Race and Underground, the
game’s main mode. Race mode includes circuit, cop chase and drag race. The cars do not suffer damage
and they can be painted pre-set or custom colors. There are 26 cars in total and 12 of the cars have police
variations. It also had an interesting plot / storytelling and on the game course players can unlock other
supercar models.

Good
 EGA graphics

Still way behind Amiga graphics quality, launched later in 1988

The video modes supported where the standard CGA and EGA and it also supported the rarely used
Hercules graphics. While the EGA graphics were good and surpassed Apple II, C64 and older 8-bit
systems were on the other hand were clearly inferior to Atari ST and Amiga.
The MS-DOS version had the same simple Speaker sound implemented decently while the sound on
C64, Amiga and ST was much better and even had rock, rap and techno soundtrack consisting of ten
artists and seventeen songs that were played in races and on menus.
Test Drive is a good driving or racing game, a genre that lacked in x86 PC gaming community and
was clearly desired. It was both “serious” enough to be passed off as a simulation (barely) and “fun”
enough to breathe some life into computer racing games. Racing games up to that point had been arcade
toys, and not seriously considered.

Emphasize on sound

Mach 3 is a video game launched from 1987 for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, MSX, Thomson
TO7, ZX Spectrum and x86 PC’s and was developed by Loriciels. In the game, the player controls a
spacecraft and shoots various enemy crafts while avoiding mines and obstacles. Mach 3 became
somewhat famous for a sampled phrase spoken (through PC speaker) during the intro screen, “Get ready
for Mach 3”.
It is a first person pseudo 3D shooter utilizing only CGA 320x 200 video modes and while EGA was
unsupported the CGA Palette 1 swapped with Palette 0 during the gameplay and overall the graphics were
nice and brought a sense of surreal world, quite appropriate for the game. Other 8-bit computers had
similar graphics while Atari ST and Amiga ports were by far the best looking.



Decent CGA but unspectacular compared to Atari ST version


Good sound even for DOS. The game had one of the best sound for MS-DOS before the sound card
era as it offered high quality sampled sound with a beautiful women’s voice such saying: “Get ready for
Mach 3”, “Well done”, “Ooo boy” or “Game over”, The music before the game was also great and the
sounds during the game were also appropriate.
The game was way ahead of its time: had smooth gameplay, good graphics despite the lack of EGA
and beautiful sound effects and music offering many hours of great gameplay on a wretched 8088!


Porting done decent, excluding the graphics

Dark Castle is a 1986 platform computer game for the Macintosh published by Silicon Beach
Software, later ported to various platforms, including MS-DOS in 1987. It was designed and illustrated
by Mark Pierce and programmed by Jonathan Gay.
The bulk gameplay is side-viewed, involving single screens to pass through, which incorporate
ropes, cages and trapdoor. There are enemies walking, flying and hovering through this, and many of them
respawn.

Macintosh vs EGA, I prefer the Macintosh graphics any day with the crisp details and huge
resolution. Sega Genesis (1988-right) has amazing graphics.

The game supported CGA and Hercules and EGA graphics, but sadly this game has one of the weakest
implementations of the EGA standard as I’ve seen as many CGA only games had better graphics.
Amazingly the Tandy/PCjr graphic was ignored and those computers were forced to run the game in CGA,
still not such a great deal considering the overall modest graphics and little difference between EGA and
CGA.

It must have been a great effort to port this game to the PC. The entire game was first created on the
classic Macintosh, with its higher 512x384 1-bit (black and white) resolution, while the PC at that time
used most of the times the smaller 320x200 resolution. All of the playfields and sprites needed to be
redrawn and the game logic rewritten to fit the smaller resolution of CGA/EGA and the results were not
always so great. There are some screens improved, as they use colors which the Mac didn’t have at that
time but overall I prefer the Macintosh graphics. But even with those obstacles, and excluding the
graphics the PC port is really decent. The game physics feel identical to the Mac, and the solutions to
each screen remain the same but because the PC did not have a mouse at the time, aiming was done
through the keyboard. The game programmers even managed to include the same digitized sound.
While the game was a decent MS-DOS port I’ve included mostly for the sake of Macintosh gamers, as
the game was one of the best and most representative games for the monochrome Macintosh.

Porting done bad, a great game for C64 only modest for MSDOS

Wizball is a computer game written by Jon Hare and Chris Yates (who together formed the company
Sensible Software) and released in 1987 for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC.
Versions for the Amiga, Atari ST and PC were also released later that year. The music in the Commodore
64 version was composed by Martin Galway. Wizball’s more comical sequel, Wizkid, was released in
the early 1990s for the Amiga, Atari ST and IBM PC.

Story is nice. In Wizball the player takes the role of the friendly wizard Wiz who can turn himself
into a green ball that is able to defend his world against the color-sucking enemies who have turned his
once brightly colored Wizworld into a drab planet. With his trusty feline companion Catelite, the wizard
will restore the colors to the world by retrieving them from defeated enemies.

CGA only MSDOS graphics (left),C64 graphics were better(right)


For C64 the game has good graphics, perfect scrolling, groovy sound and classic playability and
Wizball a must. Amiga also had a great implementation as the game had even better graphics and sounds
than C64. Unfortunately the MSDOS port had worse graphics, it was slower and had inferior gameplay
and the sound was also limited, making this only a decent game, way behind the C64 implementation, not
to mention Amiga.
Decent Wolfenstein Clone

Into the Eagle’s Nest is an action computer game developed by Pandora Software and released by
Mindscape in 1986 for the Apple II, in 1987 for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64,
IBM PC and ZX Spectrum, and by Atari Corporation in 1988 for their Atari XEGS.
In the game three Allied soldiers have been captured, and you must infiltrate the facilities, rescue your
brave comrades, destroy the building, and salvage as much of the stolen art treasures as possible. With
limited ammunition including explosives, guards everywhere, keys placed at a premium location, and lots
of strategic hiding points, an all-guns-blazing approach is less successful than a planned, measured one.
A joystick is required for control, and the player depresses the firing button to fire the machine gun,
which carries enough ammunition for 99 shots. Nazis require two well-placed shots to eliminate, and
Nazis sitting at a table only require one well-placed shot.
MS-DOS graphics supported CGA and EGA, and the EGA implementation was quite good similar to
other 8-bit computers but behind Atari ST and especially Amiga graphical implementations.


A graphical advanced clone of Castle Wolfenstein with EGA graphics

Overall the game was a newer clone of Castle Wolfenstein, with newer graphics, joystick support for
more precise control and even had some gameplay innovation but didn’t match the success of the original
Wolfenstein games.

MS-DOS gaming explodes. While the games reviewed until now in 1987 are not few there were
many more other decent games launched this year for MS-DOS that worthy at least to be mentioned.
While in the previous year it was hard to find decent MS-DOS games, from this year it was hard for me to
separate the good games already reviewed from the decent only and weak games. And so after many
studies and reviewing other decent games are: Moebius is one of the first RPG’s to support MCGA and
VGA graphics, Thexder one of the first games with MCGA support (16 colors only), Stuart Smith’s
Adventure Construction Set supported EGA and was one of the first RPG makers, The King of Chicago
(EGA), Ikari Warriors (EGA), Roadwar 2000 (CGA Composite), Superstar Ice Hockey (EGA), Déjà Vu:
A Nightmare Comes True!! (CGA) and Wizardry 2: The Knight of Diamonds (CGA).
I really hope that weak games didn’t slip in this presentation and that I didn’t forget or missed ant
other great one worthy to be mentioned.
3d games in 1987
After three 3d vector games from 1983, Flight Simulator 2.0, Battlezone and 3-Demon, a completely
free of 3d 1984-1985 period and two 3d games from 1986: Starglider, another 3d vector game and
Gaunship, one of the first 3d software games, the 3d games are back in the menu with three top 3d
software games: Elite, Arcticfox and Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Simulator, enough to make a
separate distinct category of graphics the 3d software graphics.

I would like to differentiate again the 3d software found in the 80’s and 1990-1999 from the 3d
hardware launched from 1995/1996 till present. While 3d software games had 3d faces (polygons) those
were rendered in software by the CPU while 3d hardware games are defined by 3d objects that have
textures and many more other functions such as shaders and lighting and are rendered in hardware by the
video card.
While 3d games were already launched before on all platforms and were particularly advanced on
some video arcades, for x86 PC’s 1987 is the first year with significant games that contains real 3d
elements with filled objects, rendered in software by CPU so we can call it the first relevant year for 3d
software regarding x86 PC gaming. There were also one 3d software game and some 3d vector games
(without color filled objects) launched for MS-DOS in the years before but were not enough to count as a
distinct category except perhaps 1983. These 3d games launched in 1987 were also quite amazing for that
time, as they weren’t just some tech demos with 3d graphics; they had amazing gameplay and impressive
3d graphics.

Explore the galaxy on one 5 1/4 Floppy 360 KB drive. An influential game

Elite is for many platforms is a seminal space trading video game. The game was originally published
by Acornsoft in 1984 for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers, fathers of ARM processors. The
DOS version was launched 3 year later in 1987 while overall the game received more than 10 ports.


Gameplay innovations. Elite is the original golden free-form standard of space trading and combat
simulations that let us play among the stars. The game created a believable open-ended wire frame
universe of planets, political systems, economies including smuggle and contraband, trading routes and
space stations, in which you could explore the galaxies and define your Commander Jameson and choose
what you want to be: a bounty hunter, a miner, a trader or a pirate. Another novelty was the inclusion of
The Dark Wheel, a novella by Robert Holdstock which influenced new players with insight into the moral
and legal codes to which they might aspire.


Technical innovations. The original 1984 Elite was one of the first home computer games to use
wire-frame vectors to simulate 3D graphics with hidden line removal. The game took two years to be
completed and was written in machine code, allowing much tighter control of memory usage than using a
compiler, as the designer’s computer had only about 14 kilobytes of memory. Much care was given to
maximum compactness of code. The last part added was the 3D radar display fitted into the last few
unused bytes in their computer. The Elite universe contains eight galaxies, each galaxy containing 256
planets to explore. Due to the limited capabilities of 8-bit Acorn computers, these worlds are
procedurally generated. A single seed number is run through a fixed algorithm the appropriate number of
times and creates a sequence of numbers determining each planet’s complete composition (position in the
galaxy, prices of commodities, and even name and local details— text strings are chosen numerically
from a lookup table and assembled to produce unique descriptions for each planet). This means that no
extra memory is needed to store the characteristics of each planet, yet each is unique and has fixed
properties. Each galaxy is also procedurally generated from the first. This is perhaps the most optimized
game in the history of PC gaming due to the technical restriction of the 1982-1983 computers, the period
when this game was developed.

 CGA only but with some cool tricks

Graphics on PC. While the game only use the standard CGA Palette 0 in high intensity, the game
implemented the same old dithering trick to simulate a larger numbers of colors and so by placing small
dots of light red over yellow that part will look orange, as seen in the picture. The good 3d software
graphics with color filled objects and the fact that space is black also helped the graphics creating quite a
good looking game for 1987 considering it only had four colors available to work with. This is one of the
few CGA games to have better graphics than most other 8-bit computers ( due to filled colors and great
CGA implementation) but doesn’t stood a chance to compete with the Atari ST and Amiga ports of the
game that were launched later in 1988.

Amiga (left) and Atari ST right had identical graphic as you can see from the united pattern in the
middle
Elite’s open-ended game model (same as Sid Meier’s Pirates! But implemented much earlier),
advanced game engine and revolutionary pseudo-3D wire-frame graphics ensured that it was ported to
virtually every contemporary home computer system, and earned it a place as a classic and a genre maker
in gaming history. Newer games might have better graphics, sound and game options but none -including
Elite own sequels- have had the magic of the original. Elite was a hugely influential game, serving as a
model for more recent games such as Space Rogue, Eve Online, Freelancer, Jumpgate, Infinity: The Quest
for Earth, Wing Commander: Privateer, Pardus, the Escape Velocity series and the X series of space
trading games.

3d software graphics and advanced A.I. makes an innovative game
Arcticfox is a 1986 science fiction tank simulation video game developed by Dynamix and published
by Electronic Arts for Amiga, Atari, Apple II and C64. The MS-DOS version was launched in 1987.
Infantile story. The story is quite childish and says that in 2005, aliens have taken over Antarctica.
You are sent over there to combat them with the new super tank, the Slye-Hicks MX-100, codename
Arcticfox and it is expected that one man with one tank to destroy a civilization so advanced that managed
to travel on earth. Yea right, that’s really plausible. Nonetheless the strong part of the game is not the story
and so I will end my criticism.
Game vs. hardware. The DOS version supported CGA and Tandy/PCjr graphics while EGA was not
supported although it is listed on the box cover. This wasn’t such a great problem since the only visible
difference between EGA and Tandy/PCjr in the 320x200/16 graphic mode is the fixed 16 colors palette
found in Tandy/PCjr compared to the selectable 16 colors from the 64 palette at EGA. With CGA
graphics the game required 256 KB RAM to work while for Tandy/PCjr with 16 colors it required 384
KB. The CGA implementation was also good and is always interesting to see how games tried to make
CGA’s in 4 colors look good and some games such as this one even succeeded.

Real 3d (software) graphics

Another remarkable element found at this game regarding graphics are the software 3d software
visuals quite advanced for 1986/1987 with real 3d units and filled colors applied on them, not just simple
wireframe lines, making the game quite visually appealing.

Initially I found Articfox slow in gameplay but in the end it is one of those games that creeps up and
grabs you without noticing. Don’t expect fast and furious action because after all this is a 3-D tank
simulator with a more strategic than arcade touch and with a good AI, well ahead of its time. The game is
still challenging and surprising after all these years and is one of the best 3D software games from the
80’s.

Meet 14 great planes

Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Simulator is a

multiplatform flight simulator developed by
Electronic Arts since 1987, including for MS-DOS.
In Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Trainer you have the chance to test pilot 14 different airplanes,
such as the Bell X-1 and the Lockheed SR-71. It features 10 different viewpoints both inside and outside
of the plane, with an amazing zoom of up to 256x, and different aerodynamics for each plane. While there
is no shooting you can do different things with the planes, from racing against a computer opponent, to
practicing formation and stunt flights therefore don’t expect MS Flight Simulator like boringness.

The game has some of the best MS-DOS CGA graphics in the 80’s including 3d software graphics
with filled colors and dithering. The CGA showed the very rare used Palette 3 in high intensity using red
instead of magenta and had the filled colors in dotted patterns to simulate more than 4 colors as seen in
the enlarged 320x200 image.

 Perhaps the most technical advanced CGA game ever. I’ve enlarged the picture to better observe
the dithering used

The game also supported all graphic standards prior to 1987 including the CGA Composite and
Hercules graphics. The EGA/ Tandy/PCjr version was also good looking with colors more close to
reality and also used dithering yet amazingly probably to save developing time and some RAM the
Electronic Arts game developers used only 4 colors instead of the 16 available. All graphic versions
worked with 256 KB RAM.

One of the few EGA games to use only 4 colors

While simply exploring the world and admiring the 14 different planes from a 3rd person camera was
enjoyable enough racing around the courses with obstacles against computer opponents was both
exhilarating and challenging. This is one of the best games in the 80’s and it weren’t only the graphics to
make the game so good, it was the gameplay with fast action, the variety of planes and the various modes
to play this game without combat.

ASCII based games launched in 1987

1987 is the Song of the Swan for the text/ASCII based games represented mostly by Interactive fiction
games. Many great ASCII games will be launched this year and clearly few expected that the death of the
text based game will come so soon in 1988/1989.

ASCII masterpiece, probably the best rogouelike RPG game in computer code started on
MSDOS

NetHack is a single-player roguelike/RPG subdivision video game originally released in 1987 with
ASCII graphics. It is a descendant of an earlier game called Hack (1985), which was itself a descendant of
Rogue (1980). Salon describes it as “one of the finest gaming experiences the computing world has to
offer.”
The “net” element references the fact that its development was coordinated through Usenet, even
before the internet existed in its present form. The “hack” element refers to the game it was based on,
Hack. The player takes the part of a dungeon-delving character in search of the Amulet of Yendor.

Gameplay. In the beginning, you choose one of the classes - there are some traditional ones, like
Priest or Knight, but also unusual ones like Tourist or Caveman. Then, you find yourself on the 1st level of
the dungeon, along with your pet that will accompany you and help you in combat. On each level, you
have to find an exit to the lower level; on the way, you’ll find countless monsters to fight, as well as items
to collect. Sometimes, you come upon a shop, where you can buy or sell items.

80-column text/ASCII mode used to create graphics

While based on simple ASCII graphics Nethack is a very complex with tons of features. The
interactivity is also outstanding for a roguelike RPG game. You can pick from 13 different types of
characters, and 5 different races. You can worship many different gods. You can go to shops, and you can
even train your pets to steal from them! The only downside of Nethack is its thoroughness, as Nethack has
tons of features, this will result in a really slow learning curve. However, tons of spoilers and secrets are
available from the home page or from other web pages. Also there is a warning to come with the game, a
long addiction to Nethack caused a tremendous increase in the typing speed and therefore better
productivity at work (Nethack uses tons of different key combinations for various commands). If you
enjoy rogue-likes, Nethack is one of the best options and the fact that many gamers call Nethack “the best
game ever” says a lot about its qualities.

A little more than text adventure

Beyond Zork also known Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor is an interactive fiction computer
game written by Brian Moriarty and released by Infocom in 1987. It was one of the last games in Infocom’s
Zork series; or, rather, one of the last Zork games that many Infocom fans consider “official” because titles
such as Zork: Nemesis and Zork Grand Inquisitor were created after Activision had dissolved Infocom as a
company and only kept the “brand name”.

It signified a notable departure from the standard format of Infocom’s earlier games which relied
purely on text and puzzle-solving: among other features Beyond Zork incorporated a small on-screen
ASCII map, the use of character statistics and levels, and RPG combat elements. The basic mapping
feature and the mouse control were added to increase the Zork experience.
Interactive fiction helped by some special ASCII characters

Beyond Zork is one of the last best text adventures from the 80’s released the biggest master of the
genre, Infocom, by now (1987) bought by Activision. It features outstanding writing, clever puzzles, zany,
off-kilter humor and a lot of atmosphere. If you liked Spellbreaker and/or Trinity, then it’s a fair bet you’ll
like Beyond Zork too.

Stationfall is another interactive fiction computer game written by Steve Meretzky and released by
Infocom in 1987. Like the majority of Infocom’s works, it was released simultaneously for several popular
computer platforms of the time, such as the Commodore 64, Apple II, and PC. The game is a sequel to
Planetfall, one of Infocom’s most popular titles. It is Infocom’s twenty-fifth game.
As a sequel to Planetfall, featuring the same protagonist who has been promoted from Ensign Seventh
Class to Lieutenant First Class and a plot that will lead him with his robotic side-kick Floyd on a
deserted space station with only an ostrich and an Arcturian balloon creature left untouched. And so the
investigation begins…

The game begins

Generally, the problem with sequels is that they are either a boring rehash of the original, or they are
so completely different that they are sequels in name only. Stationfall strikes a marvelous balance
between these two extremes, and provides a quintessential example of what a sequel ought to be.

Bureaucracy is an interactive fiction computer game released by Infocom in 1987, scripted by
popular comic science fiction author Douglas Adams. It is Infocom’s twenty-fourth game.
 “Bureaucracy” is based on an unpleasant experience that author Douglas Adams had with a bank at the
time. It has a humorous story which takes the form of a “paranoid fantasy” that proves comical throughout its
duration. The gameplay includes unique and interesting features, such as the use of player provided
information during the game and monitoring the player character’s blood pressure.

Opening window

The game’s puzzles have a strange logic behind them which makes them whimsical and challenging.
However, the difficulty of the game can also be frustrating and will likely lead players to seek clues or a
walkthrough. While the player is generally free to explore the game area, the amount of interaction the
player can have with the parser may be limited by increases in blood pressure, which can cause sudden
death. Overall, “Bureaucracy” is worth playing for its humorous and at times unorthodox gameplay
despite its difficulty.

The Lurking Horror is an interactive fiction game released by Infocom in 1987. The game was
written by Dave Lebling and inspired by the horror fiction writings of H. P. Lovecraft (including his
Cthulhu Mythos). Like most of Infocom’s games, it was released for several platforms simultaneously
thanks to the Z-machine. The original release included versions for DOS, the Apple II, Atari ST, Atari 8-
bit family and Commodore 64. Later, it was ported to the Amiga with the addition of sound effects,
making it the first title with that feature. The effects would play at appropriate times in the game in an
effort to intensify the horror atmosphere.
This marked one of the few major additions to the Z-machine with the exception of graphics;
traditionally, Infocom had eschewed such changes in favor of expanding the parser capacity and overall
size of game files. It was Infocom’s 26th game; Infocom rated it as “Standard” in terms of difficulty.
Lurking Horror was the only horror game ever released by Infocom.It’s a very highly atmospheric game;
the writing is excellent and the puzzles are smart; the parser -as in every Infocom game- is great!

Plundered Hearts is an interactive fiction computer game created by Amy Briggs and published by
Infocom in 1987. It was released simultaneously for several popular computer platforms of the time, such
as the PC and Commodore 64. Plundered Hearts was Infocom’s first (and only) game in the “romance”
genre. It is Infocom’s twenty-eighth game.
Plundered hearts would make a good introduction to interactive fiction games. In addition to a great story
(pirates are always a winner), the puzzles aren’t too challenging and the game is even a bit more non-linear
than most others.


Other two good text adventure games launched this year are Border Zone and Nord and Bert Couldn’t
Make Head or Tail of It but I won’t write about them because I feel that the space taken by 1987 based
game is already too large, nonetheless I recommend both to interactive fiction lovers, they are great games.

Games vs. Hardware conclusion for 1987. Well this is the first year when I am almost satisfied by the
MS-DOS graphics. Certainly overall Atari ST and especially Amiga had better graphics than EGA but on
many games the developers implemented similarly graphics regarding all three of them.

EGA as a graphic standard really starts to shine this year as it was implemented in many games and
had good graphics in most of them, better than most 8-bit platforms. While CGA graphics were still used
in many games its impressive implementation in Elite and Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Simulator
impressed me and also surpassed more capable 8-bit computers.
Regarding microprocessors use the 8088 and the slightly faster 8086 were still fast enough for all
games as most of them had the small 320x200 resolution and even the smaller 200x160 graphic mode
used by Sierra. Nonetheless in those three 3d software games presented, the 8086 at 6 or 8 Mhz was
clearly the recommended choice as it provided a better frame-rate compared to the weaker 8088 at 4.77
Mhz. The fewer 80286 owners were the most fortunate to play these games as it was more than fast
enough for the 320x200 resolution.

Again the weakest point in most of the MS-DOS games was the sound quality obviously way behind
most 8-bit and all 16/32-bit competition. For example an Atari 8-bit computer from 1979 still had better
sound than all x86 computers. Regarding sound capabilities things will finally start to change from the
next year; after 7 years of silence or muffled Speaker sound Sierra will say enough and launch the first
video games to support external sound systems such as Adlib sound card and the Roland MT-32 Multi-
Timbre sound module, both capable to play MIDI sounds, and both launched on the market this year, yet
unused in games until 1988.

Gaming competition for x86 PC’S in 1987

Another busy year for Commodore

New competing platforms. By this year the market already had a very large number of different
computers not all of them designed with gaming as their primary goal but still quite capable to run games.
Nonetheless many of these gaming systems competed only on several regions and countries and there was
still room for even more innovative systems. As in all previous years I will only describe the more
representative for gaming.
This year Commodore in particularly was very active on the personal computer market launching
several updates of the by now old C64 and also two new computers in the faster Amiga family, the A500
and A2000.

Back to the successful C64 philosophy

Amiga A500. The Amiga 500 also known as A500 was the first “low-end” Commodore Amiga
16/32-bit multimedia home/personal computer and competed directly against the Atari 520ST. Before
Amiga 500 was shipped, Commodore suggested that the list price of the Amiga 500 was $595.95 USD but
at launch Commodore increase the price at $699 USD. Even with the increased price the Amiga 500
represented a return to the original Commodore philosophy, selling affordable computers in mass retail
outlets, same as the C64, to which it was a spiritual successor.

A500 was impressively compact for a 16/32-bit platform

Hardware is almost identical with the original A1000 despite the smaller chassis and had some minor
revisions offering the same amazing graphics modes and a good performance due to the fast Motorola
68000 microprocessor. RAM was also the same as the standard Amiga 1000 implementing 512 KB.
The original Amiga 500 proved to be Commodore’s best-selling Amiga model, enjoying particular
success in Europe. Its most widespread use was as a powerful gaming machine, where its advanced
graphics and sound for the time were of significant benefit. The system’s top capabilities in both graphics
and sound were still unsurpassed.

Amiga A2000. As a high end computer the original price of $1495 USD was quite affordable
compared to the also new $5,498 USD Macintosh II that had comparable graphics but comparing with
some other popular computers such as Apple IIGS and continuing with its cheaper brother A500 the price
was too high. At this price range a hard drive was required but it was unfortunately missing in the original
version and the only notable improvement over A500 was the double amount of RAM, 1MB compared to
512KB. To reduce the price later models had redesigned hardware using the more highly integrated A500
design. In time the system will also receive a SCSI-based hard drive, faster Motorola microprocessors
more RAM and from 1990 an updated chipset called ECS with higher resolution in graphic modes and
more functions.

The Macintosh in colors, at a very colored price

Macintosh II. The Apple Macintosh II is the first personal computer model of the Macintosh II series in
the Apple Macintosh line and the first Macintosh to support a color display. The Macintosh II was designed
by hardware engineers Michael Dhuey (computer) and Brian Berkeley (monitor) and was the first Apple
computer with a modular design.



The Macintosh II, powerful yet very expensive hardware

The project was begun by Dhuey and Berkeley without the knowledge of Apple head Steve Jobs who
opposed features like expansion slots and modular design but the project was continued nonetheless as
Steve Jobs resigned the company in 1985. Introduced in March 1987 and retailing for US $5,498 at the base
model the system will be more popular as a workstation and less popular for home computing and gaming.

Powerful hardware. The Macintosh II featured a Motorola 68020 processor operating at 16 MHz
teamed with a Motorola 68881 floating point unit. Standard memory was 1 megabyte, expandable to 68
MB, though not without the special FDHD upgrade kit; otherwise, 20 MB was the maximum. The graphic
card was unaccelerated contrasting to the accelerated Amiga line now available at just 699 USD, but it
had a 16.7 million color palette (true color). It supported two resolutions, 512×384 and 640×480 and was
available in two configurations, 4-bit and 8-bit. The 4-bit model supports 16 colors on a 640×480
display, 256 colors (8-bit video) on a 512×384 display, which required 256KiB video RAM. The 8-bit
model supports 8-bit/256-color video on a 640×480 display, which required double video RAM of
512KB.

Cause for failure. While Macintosh II was a very hardware innovating and powerful computer Apple
wasn’t IBM, as this computer resembled more the IBM strategy to launch good expensive hardware to
large companies but without IBMs top business software support required by the large corporations.
Apple started and was still seen as a company that designed color computers for schools and for home
use, not very cheap but also not extremely expensive and the most representing model for this philosophy
was the Apple II computer family. The creation of the original Macintosh family launch in 1984 was a
depart from this home/school use philosophy with its high price and monochrome graphics targeting
corporations while Macintosh II was even a steeper depart with its even higher price that could cost as
much as $10,000 in the complete color-capable system. As a consequence due to its low sales Apple
retired the computer from market on 15 January 1990. Instead Apple should have concentrated all efforts
on the Apple II line and especially the great Apple IIGS model with 8-bit software compatible 16 bit
microprocessor, good graphics and cheaper price and they didn’t, although the IIGS lasted on market until
December 1992. Until the return of Steve Jobs in 1996 most of Apple’s hardware innovation and vision
ended with an overlooked Apple IIGS and an overpriced Macintosh II.

Another monochrome update

 Macintosh SE was an update of the old Macintosh monochrome line and was introduced by Apple as
the same time as the Macintosh II. Overall the main hardware such as the CPU, graphics and RAM were
the same but the system added support for dual floppy drive and a floppy drive plus a 20 MB hard drive.
Other improvement consisted in an expansion slot (first compact Macintosh to do so), the introduction of
Apple Desktop Bus launched initially on the IIGS for mouse and keyboard interface, improved SCSI
support and better reliability due to the addition of a cooling fan.

Very compact, a common successful philosophy nowadays

Unfortunately the price was extremely high 2900 US$ (dual floppy) and an incredible 3900 US$
(floppy plus 20 MB hard drive). While this Macintosh had several strong points on some graphical
related business environments due to its compactness and advanced graphical interface the system had no
chance whatsoever to compete on the home computers market or regarding gaming. The home market
already had the Amiga 500, Atari ST and many decent x86 EGA systems at a fourth of Macintosh base
price. Consequently the Macintosh SE had limited success and was soon discontinued on 15 October
1990.

The Atari 8-bit computers console successor

The Atari XE Video Game System (Atari XEGS) is a video game console released by Atari
Corporation in 1987. While Atari 8-bit computers were initially designed as consoles but were rebadged
ad home computers with the XEGS Atari returned the 8-bit family to its initial designation, the console
market. The console was conceived as an attempt to increase Atari’s console market share while improve
the fading sales of the Atari 8-bit family. Designed as a “beginning computer” and “sophisticated game
console” in one device the console failed to convince more retailers and software developers to support
the platform and also failed to have significant sales in the console marketplace ruled by now by the NES.
It was discontinued on 1992 and was followed by the also unsuccessful Atari Jaguar.

Hardware. Because it was based on the 8-bit Atari 65XE computer, the XEGS was compatible with
the existing Atari 8-bit computer software library. The hardware consisted from an old MOS 6502
microprocessor, 64KB RAM and 384x240 resolution with 256 color palette. Furthermore, it is able to
operate as a standalone console or full computer with the addition of its specially designed keyboard. In
computer mode, it is able to use the majority of peripherals released for the 8-bit computer line. The default
model was shipped with joystick while a deluxe model had a separate keyboard, joystick and light gun.




The console, the cartridge and the accessories, I like the console design

Games on Atari XEGS. The XEGS shipped with the Atari 8-bit version of Missile Command built
in, while Flight Simulator II, and Bug Hunt which was compatible with the light gun. As the XEGS is
compatible with the earlier 8-bit software, many games released under the XEGS banner were simply
older games rebadged, to the extent that some games were shipped in the old Atari 400/800 packaging,
with only a new sticker to indicate that they were intended for the XEGS. Best XEGS games were the
rebadged older Atari 8-bit hits already presented in the book while regarding newer games there were
launched: Thunderfox, Food Fight, Ace of Aces, Battlezone, Airball and Crystal Cased, games designed
in 1987 and 1988.

Unfortunately while the console was enough hardware capable it brought nothing new except the good
design and compatibility and the mostly old games had no chance to compete with the much better Sega
Master System and especially NES based games.

The King Kong of Japanese computer, competition for PC only from 1993

Sharp X68000. In 1987 Sharp released the extremely impressive X68000, an enthusiast’s dream
machine. At launch, the X68000 was initially sold at an expensive but fair price of ¥369,000 (roughly
$3000 in 1987 dollars). Rather than competing with NEC head-on, Sharp designed an expensive but
powerful computer squarely targeted at core gamers, programmers, artists, and musicians. The X68000
was so powerful that Capcom used them as development machines for their arcade CPS1 titles. The case
was designed in a stylish “Manhattan shape”, with separate vertical case sections inspired by the
regretted twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Center. The system was sold only in Japan and
still is one of the best looking desktop computers ever to be released.

Great hardware, aesthetics and design

The computer was launched only for Japan therefore it didn’t compete the worldwide x86 PC market
and gaming. It had a very strong position in high end until Microsoft released Windows 3.1J with support
for the Japanese language, which shipped 1.46 million copies in its first year on the market (1993) in Japan.
At that time many of the competing computers from Japan such as NEC’s PC9801 and Fujitsu FM Towns
had Intel x86 microprocessors and were able to install the newer and better Windows operating system
while the Sharp X68000 was unable to use it because of the different Motorola architecture. Perhaps most
important reason for its demise was the increasingly powerful x86 architecture, by 1993/1994 much
cheaper and faster than Motorola’s microprocessors used in the Sharp X68000 family. The last X68000
model will be launched in 1993 and will still be upgraded and will receive better hardware in 1994 but
once the successful Windows 95 was launched in Japan, Sharp will finally yield.


Hardware. The first model featured a 10 MHz Motorola 68000 CPU (hence the name), 1 MB of
RAM, and no hard drive while the custom graphic 1987 chip supported many resolution modes: 256x240,
256x256, 512x240, 512x256, 512x512, 640x480. The 1987 palette was 16-bit (up to 65,536 colors).
Colors on screen ranged from 4-bit (16 colors 1024x1024/16 colors) to 8-bit (512x512/256 colors)
while a 1988 update increased the colors in 512x512 resolution at 512(2 planes) and 65,536(1 plane).
128 hardware sprites were supported on screen with 16x16 pixels each and the system also supported
many graphic accelerator cards as external add-ons. Video RAM (VRAM) memory available at the 1987
model was 1072 KB and was composed by Graphics (bitmapped) memory: 512 KB, Text (bitmapped)
memory: 512 KB, Sprite memory: 32 KB and Static RAM (SRAM) memory: 16 KB.

Amazing sound. The sound was also by far the best possible supporting FM, DAC, PCM and MML
(Music Macro Language).The FM (Frequency Modulation) synthesis sound ship was offered by a Yamaha
YM2151 @ 3.5 MHz chip that had impressive features: Stereo, 8 channels, 4 operators, 8 double-octave
chords, noise generator. The DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) sound chip was also provided by
Yamaha with the YM3012. The digital PCM (Pulse-Code Modulation) sound chip was provided by Oki
MSM6258V @ 15.6 KHz and featured: 4-bit mono ADPCM (Adaptive Differential PCM), 1 voice. The
overall sampling rate was a very high 22 KHz while the Music Macrol Language used was MDX. And
while all these features may prove more than enough for gamers more other powerful sound modules and
extension boards were launched in time for musicians.

Gaming on the X68000. Like all arcade machines, much of the X68000’s advanced graphical
capabilities came from the use of custom GPU graphics processors, which were improved with later
hardware revisions. As a result, it had a large number of arcade-perfect conversions and even served as
the development machine for Capcom’s CPS arcade system over the next several years after its release.
The X68000 remained the most powerful home gaming system up until the release of the Neo Geo arcade-
based console in 1990.


Gradius for Sharp X68000, amazing graphics in 1987

The X68000 is perhaps best known in the West for its arcade ports and a Castlevania spin-off (later
ported to the PlayStation as Chronicles) nonetheless the X68000 also saw many awesome exclusives,
which are now sadly overlooked by Westerners too focused on its arcade ports. Ignore these, since there
are dozens of other games X6800 games you won’t find anywhere else. The X6800 gaming extends from
1987 until the late 90’s and the systems received many great games and I will only name a few: Rygar,
Strider Hiryu, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Castlevania Chronicles, R-Type, Nemesis ‘90, Street Fighter II, Super
Hang On, Pacmania, Zugya, Gemini Wing, Flying Shark, Spacer Harrier, Final Fight, Salamander, Image
Fight, Gradius II as they were many more others.
The X68000 also received several great games in the launch year such as: Gradius, Space Harrier
and Super Xevious.

Unfortunately as a European, I know too little about Sharp’s X68000 gaming and it is one of the many
reasons I regret the fact that I wasn’t born as Japanese as I have the greatest respect for all Japanese
history, culture and technical innovations in computing. As further goals in life, I plan to buy this computer
or at least play some of its games, learn Japanese and to visit Japan with my wife and yet my unborn
child. May all of my wishes come true!


Amazing computer, amazingly overlooked

Acorn Archimedes was the first commercial computer based of the Acorn ARM architecture and was
built upon the ARM Development System an add-on for the BBC Master that included an ARM processor, 4
MB RAM and some support chips called VIDC, MEMC and IOC, designed to write programs for the BBC
master with the help of a set of development tools and an enhanced version of BBC BASIC.


The Archimedes prices started from £799 for the 305 model and the system was advertised in both
printed and broadcast media. Initially the Archimedes will be popular in the United Kingdom, Australia, New
Zeeland and Ireland, as it was was considerably more powerful and advanced than most offerings of the day.
However, the vast majority of home users opted for an Atari ST, Commodore Amiga or x86 computers when
looking to upgrade their older 8-bit microcomputers because of the larger catalog of software and especially
games.
From 1987 until the early 90’s the family won significant share in educational market from UK, Ireland,
Australia and New Zealand but eventually the educational market turned away from Archimedes and by
middle 90’s the platform was discontinued from the market. From then, the ARM architecture wasn’t used any
more for desktop computers and it still isn’t used today but I predict that in short time it will be again, at least
in laptops. Until then, the ARM architecture is by far the most used today, as almost all mobile phones, tablets
and smaller electronic devices use the very efficient ARM architecture.

Hardware. The Archimedes was one of the most powerful home computers available during the late
1980s and early 1990s; its main CPU an 8 MHz 32-bit ARM2 Risc was faster than the Motorola 68000
microprocessors found in the more popular Commodore Amiga and Atari ST machines and was similar in
performance with the Intel 80386, usually used in more expensive workstations. All models featured
onboard 8 channel stereo sound.

Great Graphics. The palette range was 4096 colors (12-bit) and the main graphic modes were 160 ×
256 with 4, 16 or 256 colors, 320 × 256 with 2, 4, 16 or 256 colors, 640 × 256 with 2, 4, 16 or 256 colors,
640 × 512 with 2, 4, 16 or 256 colors and 1152 × 896 with 2 colors. However, in 256 color modes, 4 bits
of the color data were hardware derived and could not be adjusted. The net result was 256 colors, but only
16 of them could be assigned as desired, while the rest of 236 were predetermined colors. Fortunately this
was only a minor disadvantage as the range of predefined colors was large and is some few more were
needed; other 16 were available. The monochrome mode had an immense non-interlaced 1152 × 896
resolution and was clearly the best on the market. For comparison the professional IBM 8514 video card
alone was more expensive than a full Acorn Archimedes while offering a smaller interlaced resolution of
1024×768, yet with 256 colors and with hardware acceleration functions.

Gaming on the Archimedes family. The platform received some good games but unfortunately too
few compared to most other platforms considering the relatively long lifetime of about 5-6 years.



Zarch for Acorn Archimedes, amazing 3D graphics from 1987

Zarch video game was launched originally for Acorn Archimedes and featured real-time 3D, real-time
shading and was first computer game with real-time object shadowing. The game was also ported on Amiga
in 1988 and despite the fact that Amiga had a fast for the time Motorola 68000 CPU and a graphic
accelerator, the original version for Archimedes was faster, had better physics, better resolution and graphics,
showing how capable the ARM microprocessor really was.
The total number of games launched for the Archimedes was less than 100 while other platforms
received several hundreds and some even more than a thousand games. Nonetheless a large part of these
few games were top game. Some of the best games launched for the Archimedes are: Wolfenstein 3D,
Elite, Last Ninja, Diggers, Alone in the Dark, Lemmings, Cannon Fodder, Descent and Flashback.
Zarch (1987), Conqueror (1988) and Apocalypse (1990) were some of the first games to feature
realtime true 3D shaded polygon graphics on personal computers and physics and other great 3D games
were also launched later such as Birds of War, Aldebaran and Starfighter 3000.


After I saw what kind of graphics was capable to drive the Acorn Archimedes with its ARM
microprocessor I was amazed as no other system in the 80’s was capable to run 3D games that looked so
great, had so much physics and had so much polygons that were running at a such high speed. The problem
with Acorn was not the hardware or the operating system it were the often financial problems, the ever-
changing shareholders and the limited support from game developers. The system had many advantages
over Atari ST, Amiga and x86 computers but unfortunately as seen in many other examples in the
computer industry innovation is not enough. If this computer was backed for games only a quarter as
effective as Nintendo did with its NES we would have today one of the best computers ever for gaming.

The first 16 bit console with an 8-bit CPU …

The TurboGrafx-16 Entertainment SuperSystem, originally known in Japan as the PC Engine is a
video game console joint-developed by Hudson Soft a Japanese video game publisher and the powerful
NEC. The console was released in Japan on October 30, 1987, and in the United States later on August
19, 1989. It was the first console released in the 16-bit era, albeit still utilizing an 8-bit CPU. Originally
intended to “beat” the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Sega Master System, it ended up
competing against the likes of the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, and even the Neo Geo
AES.

“Every action has a reaction; every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent or greater
success”. The PC Engine was a collaborative effort between the relatively young Hudson Soft and NEC.
NEC’s interest in entering the lucrative video game market coincided with Hudson’s failed attempt to sell
designs for then-advanced graphics chips to Nintendo, similar to Nintendo’s later rejection of Sony’s
designs for a Super Famicom CD attachment which evolved into the PlayStation. Therefore both PC
Engine and the first PlayStation were direct results of a failure, the failure to make a deal with Nintendo
and both will be extreme competitors in the Japanese (PC Engine) and worldwide (Playstation) and I like
to say that “Nintendo created itself its own demons”.

Hardware. The TurboGrafx-16 has an 8-bit CPU and a dual 16-bit GPU, hence the name; and is
capable of displaying 482 colors at once, out of 512. The CPU is a HuC6280A (a modified version of
MOS 6502) running at 1.79 or 7.16 MHz (switchable by software). The dual graphics processor setup
contained a 16-bit HuC6260 Video Color Encoder (VCE), and one 16-bit HuC6270A Video Display
Controller (VDC). The majority of TurboGrafx-16 games did use the 256×239 resolution but higher
graphics modes such as 512x 242 were also available.

Western markets model (left) and the Japanese system (right)

Capable Sound. The TurboGrafx-16 was capable to play 6 Mini-Wavetable stereo audio channels;
programmable through the HuC6280A CPU while digital PCM sound was also available.

The CD-ROM upgrade. The PC Engine was the first video game console to have a CD-ROM
peripheral which was released in Japan in December 4, 1988, later released in the United States as the
TurboGrafx-CD in 1990. This was the first time that CD-ROM discs were used as a storage medium for
video games. The American TurboGrafx-CD’s launch price was $399.99, and did not include any bundled
games.

Gaming on the TurboGrafx-16. While the console failed in overall sales to compete with both older
8-bit platform NES and SMS and the newer 16-bit Mega Drive/Genesis and SNES the console was quite
popular in Japan where it took second place in the console wars eroding the popularity of the Famicom,
trashing in sales the Sega Mega Drive, and succumbing, eventually, only to the mighty Super Famicom.
The console received a significant number of great games with beautiful graphics such as: Air Zonk, the
Bonk Series, Bomberman, Bomberman ’93, Military Madness, Blazing Lazers, Neutopia, Ninja Spirit, R-
Type, Splatterhouse, Alien Crush & Devil’s Crush, Legendary Axe and many more others, most of them
made for the Japanese market.



Bonk’s Adventure for TurboGrafx-16

The TurboGrafx-CD non-bundled launch titles were: Monster Lair (Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair)
and Fighting Street (Street Fighter) while Ys Book I & II soon followed. Other great CD-ROM based
games were Gates of Thunder and Lords of Thunder.

The older competition for x86
Arcade games. Several good arcade games will be launched this year such as: Street Fighter, Contra,
Final Lap, Blasteriods, Pac-Mania, R.B.I. Baseball and Dragon Spirit. However none of them will be as
remotely successful as the 1978-1983 arcades and will have weak overall sales. Arcade gaming will only
recover later in the early 90’s with the launch of Street Fighter II in 1991, Mortal Kombat in 1992 and
Mortal Kombat in 1993.

The original Street Fighter, launched in 1987

C64 gaming in 1987. While 1987 was a good year for MS-DOS based games the C64 had absolutely no
problem to wipe the floor with x86 gaming and basically most of the competition receiving an immense
number of great games such as: International Karate Plus (IK+), Sid Meier’s Pirates!, California Games,
Maniac Mansion, Bubble Bobble, Speed Buggy, Arkanoid, F-19 Stealth Fighter, Skate or Die, The Last
Ninja, Defender of the Crown, Wizball, Airbone Ranger, The Great Giana Sisters, Legacy of the Ancients,
The Train: Escape to Normandy, Head Over Heels, Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior and I’ve probably
missed some more and I won’t start counting the remaining decent releases.
The 1987 came a record regarding C64 games as more than 530 games were launched this year for the
C64, some made by high profile game developers and some by individual programmers, an immense
number and I seriously doubt that other platform equaled this huge number of games over the years.
While by now many other systems had better graphic capabilities the game designers used the
maximum from the C64 graphic capabilities launching many good looking games while the sound was still
good enough, clearly beating x86 computers and was still good enough for most games. While NES
received some amazing classics this year the sheer large number of games and good games launched for
the Commodore C64, made me declare again the best platform for gaming.

IK+, very good graphics and a lot of animations


Apple II/GS gaming in 1987. Unfortunately this will be a modest year for Apple II based gaming with
very few top games launched for the Apple II family.

Thexder for Apple II(left) and Apple IIGS (right)

Such games were Pirates! California Games and Maniac Mansion optimized only for the older Apple II
family graphics while Leisure Suit Larry 1, Thexder, and Winter Games received two versions one for the
Apple II and one for the IIGS. Fortunately for the Apple IIGS owners Sierra will throw some support for the
advanced Apple computer releasing three successful ports compatible with the IIGS: King’s Quest, The
Black Cauldron and Space Quest: Chapter I - The Sarien Encounter.

The last good enough year

Atari 8-bit gaming in 1987. Despite their hardware advantages over many platforms including some
older x86 computers in both graphics and sound capabilities this is the last good year for Atari 8-bit
games as the platform will receive a smaller number of games starting with 1988 while the C64, a
platform with similar graphics and slightly better sounds still had a long prosperous life ahead. This is the
last year I will mention the Atari 8-bit computers in the competing platform section because by 1988 very
few game developers will launch games for Atari 8-bit computers and without top releases. While this
year the Atari 8-bit computers will receive about 80 games many of them were older games in a cartridge
re-release and no top game will be launched. By 1988 the number of games will be reduced to less than
40, a dramatically decrease.

The Atari 8-bit legacy will still be continued for a couple more years by the unsuccessful Atari
XEGS console, capable to run all Atari 8-bit games. The last Atari 8-bit model launched will be Atari
800XE (1987), mainly seen in Easter Europe. On January 1, 1992, Atari corp. officially dropped all
remaining support of the 8-bit line.

ZX Spectrum gaming in 1987. ZX Spectrum received an amazingly high number of games in 1987,
more than 350 showing an impressive support from game developers.

Renegade for the ZX Spectrum

While the number of games was very high the game developers were smaller and less notorious,
releasing overall few top releases. Best games for the ZX Spectrum launched in 1987 are: Head Over
Heels, Renegade, Arkanoid, Boulder Dash, California Games, Bubble Bobble and Spirits. I do admit the
fact that is difficult to review more than 350 games so I may have missed some goodies; sorry Spectrum
fans.

Amstrad CPC gaming in 1987. The CPC received a decent number of good games, being
approximately equal with by now its adopted brother, the new family member ZX Spectrum. Nonetheless
both CPC and Spectrum sales were affected in the U.K. by the increasing popularity of 16/32 bit systems
such as the Atari ST, Amiga 500, Acorn Archimedes and x86 computers. Best games this year are:
Contra, Arkanoid, Aliens, F-15 Strike Eagle, Gradius, Sid Meier’s Pirates!, Bubble Bobble, Prohibition
and Warhawk.

Contra for Amstrad CPC, had very optimized graphics

The CPC family received more than 300 games this year, an amazing number and again some of
them may have slipped my top gaming selection.
MSX gaming in 1987. MSX had another successful year in Japan concerning gaming with about 150
games received this year, still a large number.


The long history of the successful Metal Gear series started on an 8-bit MSX

The MSX received this year a significant number of good games such as Metal Gear, Salamander,
Bubble Bobble, The Maze of Galious - Knightmare II, Hinotori, Life Force and Nemesis II.
Comparatively, the Japanese NES platforms received a similar total number of games (about 150) but
with a much larger number of better releases and classics.

TRS-80 CoCo3 gaming in 1987. As a cheap personal computer platform the TRS-80 CoCo3
received only good games this year: Flight Simulator II, and Tetris and some few others much more
modest.

Gaming on the 16/32 bit computers

Amiga gaming in 1987. While the platform was already launched from 1985 many game
developers ignored the Amiga family this year and focused on making games for the older C64, a
rational choice as the C64 was owned by an immense number of computer owners while the Amiga
line still had limited overall sales. This in unfortunate as the platform graphics and sound capabilities
were among the if not the best of all platforms but with the launch of the cheaper A500 member the
platform will be taken more seriously in the next years. Amazingly x86 gaming clearly surpassed
Amiga based gaming this year regarding total number of games with more than 260 releases for x86
computers while Amiga received about 130 games. Nonetheless regarding graphics and sound
Amiga quality Amiga was a clearly better choice than x86. The top games launched for Amiga in
1987 are: The King of Chicago, The Three Stooges, Barbarian, Bubble Bobble, The Black
Cauldron, Earl Weaver Baseball, King’s Quest II: Romancing the Throne, Tetris Leisure Suit Larry
1, Earl Weaver Baseball and Winter Games.

The Three Stooges for Amiga had amazing graphics back in 1987


Macintosh gaming in 1987. After a very weak start in gaming 1983-1986 Apple finally
acknowledge the importance of gaming for a computer platform and convinced some developers to create
monochrome games for the Macintosh. Such good games were: Apache Strike, Cairo Shootout, Tetris,
Beyond Dark Castle, The Fool’s Errand and Crystal Quest. The number of game clearly wasn’t as high but
was decent enough to finally make the Macintosh a viable platform for electronic gaming.

Beyond Dark Castle for Macintosh

Atari ST gaming in 1987. The third place regarding gaming this year is won by the Atari ST in my
point of view. While C64 won the first place due to the huge number of games and great games and NES
was close due to its high number of amazing games I will give Atari ST the third place as it had better
graphics and sound capabilities than NES and C64 and also received a significant number of high quality
games, some even seminal.

Dungeon Master for Atari ST, a groundbreaking RPG game


Best Atari ST games launched in 1987 are: Dungeon Master, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Falcon,
Bubble Bobble, Test Drive, Oids, MIDI Maze, Turbo GT, Leisure Suit Larry 1, Colonial Conquest,
Falcon and Defender of the Crown. The total number of games launched for Atari ST increased to a
reasonable large number this year as almost 190 games were launched for the new Atari platform.

Gaming on Consoles in 1987. Consoles are back in the everyday life and both NES and the Master
System received some of the best yearly games. The Atari 7800 will receive noteworthy support from
Atari and third party game developers and will receive some decent games but clearly not as good as the
games launched for SMS and particularly NES.

NES gaming in 1987. Already loved in Japan were it clearly surpassed MSX and other competition
regarding total number of games and their overall quality the console will also start to grow in American
hearts receiving more and more amazing games. Some of the best NES games launched in 1987 were:
Metal Gear, Life Force, Ikari Warriors, Mega Man, Castlevania, The Goonies II, Final Fantasy, Kid
Icarus, Rush’n Attack, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, Lode Runner, Ring King, Spy hunter, Rygar, Zelda II:
The Adventure of Link, Stinger, Rad racer, Wizards & Warriors, Kid Niki: Radical Ninja and I’ve
probably missed some. The NES is in my point of view the second choice for gaming in 1987 after C64
as it received an impressive number of top games and classics redefining the definition for high quality
action games.

Mega Man for NES, good graphics

SEGA Master System was another great gaming system in 1987 receiving many top games such as:
Phantasy Star (1987 Japan, 1988 United States), Zillion, Outrun, Shinobi, After Burner, Wonder Boy in
Monster Land, R-Type, Golvellius: Valley of Doom, Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa, Double
Dragon, Rastan, Ys: The Vanished Omens, and some few others. Regarding the overall number of games
received this year for the SMS, Sega clearly lose the battle with Nintendo with about 40 games compared
to about 150 launched for NES. Both console implemented great graphic quality in the games, better than
most x86 games launched this year.

The beginning of Phantasy Star, an amazing RPG series made by SEGA

Atari 7800 and Atari XEGS. In 1987 Atari attempted to compete with NES and Sega Master System
with its two consoles, the 7800 and XEGS launching new games or remaking older ones and they also
convinced many developers to launch games for both the 7800 and XEGS. Unfortunately for Atari the
company did lose both fights as NES and SMS had much better games and were both slightly better in
hardware. Some of the best games launched for the Atari 7800 are: Centipede, Food Fight, Pole Position
II, Desert Falcon, Ms. Pac-Man, Joust, Choplifter!, Winter Games, Hat Trick, Dig Dug and many of them
were made by Atari.
The best games launched for the XEGS were: Pole Position II, Thunderfox, Food Fight, Battlezone,
Airball and Ace of Aces. Some other decent games, especially old ports were also available for both
Atari consoles.

Desert Falcon for Atari 7800, nice isometric graphics

It must have been difficult for Atari to support two platforms but the main fault was Atari’s who
launched two equivalent consoles at only one year distance. While the XEGS was nicer looking its
hardware was roughly the same as the older Atari 7800 and therefore brought almost nothing new except
for the software and games compatibility with the older Atari 8-bit computers.
Conclusion for x86 gaming in 1987
This is the first good year for x86 gaming, represented by the IBM PC’s and the compatible systems.
While C64 had the largest number of games and top games, NES some of the best games, Amiga the best
graphics and Atari ST a large number of top games and good graphics the x86 gaming was close, slightly
beating C64 at graphics and also received more games than both Amiga and NES. I would place the x86
gaming on an honorable fourth place after C64, NES and Atari ST, equal with Amiga just a little better
than ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Sega Master System and clearly beating the rest of the competitors such
as the older 8-bit computers, the Apple II family (IIGS included) and the Macintosh, making an interesting
showing in all aspects of gaming except for the sound quality, still very bad.

Games vs. Hardware in 1988

Main events in computer industry
Companies. Fewer important companies were founded this year and I will name SanDisk, Trend
Micro, Linksys and Cyrix. I am particularly attached by Cyrix, a microprocessor developer that
was founded in Richardson, Texas as a specialist supplier of high-performance math coprocessors
for 286 and 386 microprocessors. The company was founded by former Texas Instruments (TI)
staff members and had a long but troubled relationship with TI throughout its history. Cyrix
founder Jerry Rogers aggressively recruited engineers and pushed them, eventually assembling a
small but efficient design team of 30 people. My first microprocessor was a Cyrix 686 without
MX, very fast back then.

Internet. Regarding network and internet many new protocols and improvements will be
introduced such as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) an “Internet-standard
 protocol for managing devices on IP networks”; first T-1 backbone is added to ARPANET while
Jarkko Oikarinen developed IRC.
As a final negative event I will evoke Robert Morris´ worm that flooded the ARPANET. Then-23-
year-old Morris, the son of a computer security expert for the National Security Agency, sent a
nondestructive worm through the Internet, causing problems for about 6,000 of the 60,000 hosts linked
to the network. Morris was sentenced to three years of probation, 400 hours of community service, and
a fine of $10,050. Morris, who said he was motivated by boredom, programmed the worm to reproduce
itself and computer files and to filter through all the networked computers. The size of the reproduced
files eventually became large enough to fill the computers´ memories, disabling them.

Personalities. Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, who left Apple to form his own company, unveiled
the NeXT computer. At a high base price of $6,500, the NeXT was too expensive and ran too
slowly to be popular. The computer that Jobs and his team created failed to have significant sales
but was recognized as an important innovation regarding computers, another NeXT step in the
evolution of computers.
Andrei Ershov one of the best Soviet pioneer programmers passes away December 8, 1988. He
was the first programmer to receive the Academician A.N.Krylov Prize.

Compatibles start to dictate the x86 PC market
New x86 hardware launched in 1988

Lower cost for high end microprocessors

Intel 80386SX microprocessor. In 1988, Intel introduced the i386SX, a low cost version of the
80386 with a 16-bit data bus. The CPU remained fully 32-bit internally, but the 16-bit bus was intended
to simplify circuit board layout and reduce total cost. The 16-bit bus simplified designs but also
hampered performance. Only 24 pins were connected to the address bus, therefore limiting addressing
to 16 MB, but this was not a critical constraint at the time. Performance differences were caused by the
differing databus-widths, but also by the lack of performance-enhancing cache memories often employed
on boards using the original 80386 chip. The original 80386 was afterward renamed i386DX to avoid
confusion.

The performance was still closer to the original 80386 than the older 80286 and the processor was
clearly promoted by Microsoft for their Windows operating system as it allowed fast switch between real
mode and protected mode and was much better designed that the 80286 for multitasking, a very useful
feature in a graphical operating system.

 A new non-IBM bus standard. EISA is announced in September as an alternative to IBM proprietary
MCA. Compaq and other PC-clone makers developed enhanced industry standard architecture in some
ways better than MCA and also retained compatibility with existing machines. EISA used a 32-bit bus and
allowed more than one CPU to share the bus., It was somewhat expensive to implement (though not as
much as MCA), so it never became particularly popular in desktop PCs but was successful in x86 server
market.

A new non-IBM graphic standard. In November 1988 NEC Home Electronics, maker of the
MultiSync monitor line, forms the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) to promote a
standard called Super VGA, which it says to provide 56 percent more on-screen pixels than standard
VGA. The other eight initial members were all video display adapters’ manufacturers: ATI Technologies,
Genoa Systems, Orchid Technology, Renaissance GRX, STB Systems, Tecmar, Video 7 and Western
Digital/Paradise Systems. VESA’s initial goal was to produce a standard for 800×600 SVGA resolution
video displays. It wasn’t until 1989 that a standard for programming Super VGA modes was defined by
VESA.

Revolution in sound for x86

AdLib Music Synthesizer Card. While the AdLib sound card was released in 1987 I’ve included its
review this year as no compatible game was launched that year. By 1987 all major x86 competitors offered
much better sound that IBM PC and compatibles starting from the now very old C64, continuing with Atari
ST that supported MIDI FM synthesis; Amiga that supported PCM digital sound and Apple IIGS that
supported wavetable and allowed up to 32 sound channels. I won’t mention what the Japanese computer
especially Sharp X68000 were capable to do regarding sound as they were even better than Amiga, Atari
and Apple IIGS computers. Sega Master System and NES were also more capable than IBM PC and
compatibles as NES has 5 sound channels while Sega had 4 sound channels and FM synthesis in later
models. It was clear that a good sound card for x86 computers was badly needed and the only element
missing was a catalyzer. That catalyzer will be Sierra On-Line with its new SCI engine that allowed the
game designer to incorporate an orchestrated musical score along with more complex sound-effects, a
previously unattainable feat. The first released with the SCI engine was King’s Quest IV: The Perils of
Rosella offering for the first time support for add-on or external sound card.

Ad Lib, Inc. was a Canadian manufacturer of sound cards and other sound related computer equipment
founded by Martin Prevel, a former professor of music and vice-dean of the music department at the
Université Laval. After he developed the Adlib sound card with the help of LYRtech engineers, Prevel
struggled to attract the attention of the development community with his company’s new product and even
handed out development kits at trade shows. The luck came later when Prevel engaged the assistance of
Top Star Computer Services, Inc. (also known as TSCS), a New Jersey company that provided quality
assurance services to game developers. Top Star’s President, Rich Heimlich was sufficiently impressed
by a product demonstration in Quebec in 1987 to endorse the product to his top customers such as the
Sierra On-Line.

 The Adlib sound card

The AdLib used a 9-voice Yamaha’s YM3812 sound chip which produces sound via FM synthesis.
The AdLib card consisted of an YM3812 chip with off-the-shelf external glue logic to plug into a
standard PC-compatible ISA 8-bit slot. PC software generated multitimbral music and sound effects
through the AdLib card, although the acoustic quality was distinctly synthesized. Digital audio (PCM) was
not supported; a key feature supported by Amiga and later x86 competition such as the Creative Labs
Sound Blaster. The older Atari ST also supported FM synthesis via an older Yamaha YM2149 chipset
that supported only 3-voice and therefore was less capable.
The company’s first product the AdLib Music Synthesizer Card (ALMSC), or simply the AdLib as it
was called, was the first add-on sound card to achieve widespread game-developer acceptance for IBM
PC platforms, becoming the first de facto standard for audio reproduction on x86 personal compuers.

The much better expensive solution for sound

reproduction

The Roland MT-32 Multi-Timbre Sound Module is a MIDI synthesizer module first released in
1987 by Roland Corporation. It was the first product in Roland’s line of Desktop Music System (DTM)
packages in Japan. Technically Roland MT-32 is a sound module that could be connected externally to a
computer via a MIDI interface card. It produced sound using a combination of digital samples and
subtractive waveform manipulation, resulting in synthesized music that continues to sound quite
professional even in the nowadays.

The Roland MT-32, music for my years.


The fact that MT-32 could not play digital sound samples (PCM) would eventually become a
limitation by the early 1990s, but those who owned MT-32 experienced the purest MIDI music that
computer games had to offer until pre-recorded digital sound became the norm. The MT-32 could
produce sound in true stereo, playing up to 32 voices simultaneously depending on the instruments
selected. The string, synthesizer and percussion sounds were particularly good for that era, and the MT-
32 even found its way into some mainstream music released during the ’80s such as Pete Townshend’s
song Man and Machines. The MT-32 also had a reverb effect, adding realism and depth to the music. In
contrast all sounds produced by the AdLib card were completely dry, lacking environmental effects of
any kind. If want to be convinced search video comparisons of AdLib vs. Roland MT-32 in games such
as Police Quest 2, Space Quest 3, The Colonel’s Bequest and The Secret of Monkey Island. They were
made by professional compositors and while the Aldib sound is nice due to the high quality music
composition the Roland MT-32 sound blown me away.

Best music for x86 Games. Despite its original purpose as a companion to other professional MIDI
equipment, the MT-32 became one of several de facto standards for PC computer game publishers. Sierra
On-Line, a leading PC game publisher of the time, fortunately took a high interest in the sound-design of
its PC games. Sierra secured a distribution deal to sell the MT-32 in the US, and invested heavily in
giving its game titles (at the time) state-of-the-art sound by hiring professional composers such as William
Goldstein (Fame) and Bob Siebenberg (Supertramp) to compose soundtracks supporting Roaland MT-32
and AdLib for their upcoming games.
Along with its compatible modules, the Roland MT-32 established an early de facto standard in
computer based budget semiprofessional music design and as a high end device for gaming music as the
device will be specifically supported by more than 200 games. The MT-32 remained the gold-standard
for musical composition well into the early 1990s, when the game-industry began to shift toward General
MIDI and later high quality PCM/ CD Audio, digital audio formats.

“Music can change the world because it can change people.” – Bono

Sierra On-Line changed forever the sound in games and I have all the admiration for immense
contribution that Sierra had in the evolution of x86 PC sound. Sierra promoted both the MT-32 and the
“low end” cheaper Adlib sound card sold initially at $200 while the MT-32 with a necessary MPU-401
interface cost $550.00. The MT-32 was even available to be bought from Sierra who was one of the
first dealers to sell the device. Beside hiring compositors Sierra also mailed letters and demonstration
cassettes to its customers to promote both the AdLib and Roland MT-32. Although the MT-32’s high
price prevented it from dominating the end-user market of gamers the Adlib sound card had a great
success and other PC publishers quickly followed Sierra’s lead, expanding the role of music in their
own game title. Other sound cards producer such as Creative followed with other good sound cards the
so consumer sound card market was born.

The 1987/1988 audio underdog

Creative Music System. Same as Ad Lib and Roland, Creative Music Systems released in 1987 a
sound card called Creative Music System or CMS card, later re-releasing it through Radio Shack in 1988
under the new Game Blaster name. The Game Blaster contained two Philips SAA1099 circuits that could
play up to 12 channels of sound simultaneously in true stereo, with each channel playing a square wave
for melody or a noise for sound effects and percussion.

The Creative Music System aka Game Blaster

Because the square wave was the only non-percussion “instrument” available the Game Blaster was
seen as vastly inferior to the AdLib. It was similar in tonal quality to four Tandy 1000s/PCjr computers
with 3-voice sound playing simultaneously, except for the fact that Game Blaster had the ability to adjust
the volume of individual sound channels. The early companies that supported the Game Blaster were
Sierra, Electronic Arts and Accolade. Most other companies related to game design stayed away, and so
did the most consumers as they choose the AdLib sound card, similarly priced. However, AdLib’s
superiority wouldn’t last much longer; in 1989, Creative Music Systems renamed Creative Labs and
released the very successful Sound Blaster, a card that will drive Ad Lib company out of business.

“I had a laptop when they weighed 10 pounds”- Curt Schilling

Compaq SLT/286. Compaq Computer introduced in October its first laptop PC with gray-scale VGA
graphics, the Compaq SLT/286. It had a 12 MHz 80C286 processor, a new low-power chip that was
among the faster 80286 microprocessors, 640 KB RAM, 20-40 MB hard drive, 3.5-inch disk drive,
detachable keyboard and built-in 10-inch gray-scale LCD VGA screen.

Compact, with battery and LCD (Japanese-made) are traits of a modern laptop

At 14 pounds(about 6.3 kg), including the battery and the hard disk, the SLT/286 was close to match a
modern laptop definition but the increased weight assure us that Curt Schilling used another “lighter”
model. The laptop worked up to three hours on one battery charge. Price started from $5,399 but it was
acceptable considering the innovations. The SLT/286 was one of the first x86 computers that established
the portable computer market.

New x86 Operating Systems launched in 1988

DOS 4.x. While I have specified much fewer examples in the book many games from the 80’s and
especially early-middle 80’s were PC Booter releases; there were actually more than 200 PC Booter
games. You just have to plug the floppy disk into computer and play the game without any MS-DOS
interaction or help. These games only used the x86 hardware and completely ignored the MS-DOS. This
was a disadvantage and an undesirable practice as Operating System must help games by providing them
a complex environment so the games could run fast, efficiently and to access additional software libraries
(application programming interfaces/API) that should help games. Unfortunately MS-DOS had very few
advantages to help games and that reason led to so many PC Booters. While the DOS 4.0 launched in July
convinced many game developers to renounce to make PC Booter games it still offered very few facilities
for games. Some of the most important features of the DOS 4.0 version were the optional text-based file
manager shell (DOSSHELL) interface, the support for disk partitions ranging from 32MB to 1024 MB and
improved error handling. Other most important features for games were the enhanced video/graphics
support and finally the inclusion of a graphical/mouse interface. Mouse based games were already
developed for other platforms and the DOS 4.x will finally allow game developers to produce mouse
driven games for x86 computers; many will do so.


80386 and some basic DOS software support

Windows/286 2.10 and Windows/386 2.10 were both released on May 27, 1988, less than a year
after the release of Windows 2.0.These versions could take advantage of the specific features of the Intel
80286 respectively Intel 80386 processors, therefore Windows/386 was an early choice for many
hardware builders who used a fast 80386 microprocessors such as Compaq with its DeskPro 386.
Windows/286 could also run on the older 8088/8086 and a hard disk was required to install Windows but
most of the top x86 PC’s had one so this wasn’t a problem.

Windows/386 in particularly was much more advanced than its 2.0 predecessor and the
Windows/286. It introduced a protected mode kernel, above which the GUI and applications to run as a
virtual 8086 mode task and it allowed several MS-DOS programs including games to run in parallel in
“virtual 8086” CPU mode, rather than always suspending background applications. With the exception of
a few kilobytes of overhead, each DOS application could use any available low memory before Windows
was started.

Tetris on Windows/386

Nonetheless games worked using DOS and Windows as an operating system had nothing to do with the
software, except for the fact that it allowed the game to run in the protected Windows environment. Many
games were unable to run on Windows while for the better and faster gameplay the boot to DOS was
always necessary. For now MS-DOS gaming was clearly not a viable choice under the Windows
environment but the boot to DOS was only two mouse clicks away.

OS/2 1.1 finally a graphical operating system. The early promised Graphical User Interface (GUI),
Presentation Manager, was introduced with OS/2 1.1 in October, 1988 by IBM and Microsoft. The
Extended Edition of 1.1, sold only through IBM sales channels, introduced distributed database support to
IBM database systems and SNA communications support to IBM mainframe networks. For now the OS/2
was clearly not a choice for gamers.

X86 gaming in 1988

No longer the second choice for game developers. After we saw in the previous years on PC
gaming a lot of ported games, launched sometimes several year on PC after its original port thing will
finally change completely and finally the game designers will regard the x86 PC’s as one of the main
systems for gaming. This is why in 1988 from all the top games reviewed, including the 3d games, about
20 will have a common year release, 8/9 will be ported games, many from newer arcades while the rest
of 4/5 games were original PC releases, never released or in the next years on other platforms.

I must also note that the page setting of the top games is completely erratic as there are so many
amazing classic games launched for PC DOS this year that is impossible to place them all on the first part
of the 80’s description. You will figure which one was better due to my enthusiastic long reviews which
end with “classic” in the last concluding part.

Adventures from two. From 1988 and many years later the word of x86 MS-DOS based adventure
will be shared by two major players, the good old experienced Sierra On-Line (now defunct) and the new
and innovative Lucasfilm Games (later LucasArt and by 2013 acquired by Walt Disney Company, at that
time ceasing to be a game developer). Both companies will bring many innovations for adventure games
and while Sierra will focus on graphics, sound and story while Lucas Art will be focus more on the ease
of gameplay and funnier stories. Both companies will be leaders in x86 adventure gaming for a very large
period of time. Regarding 1988 top adventure games were launched in a very high number, making the
adventure fans the luckiest gamers of the year.


Sierra’s Quest towards hardware and gameplay innovations

King’s Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella released in 1988 for PC, was the fourth game in the King
Quest series and is one of the most innovative games ever form many point of views. The game will be
also released later for Apple II, Apple IIGS, Atari ST and Amiga. It was the first major graphical
computer adventure game with a female protagonist and also the first PC game to support a sound card.
Story. The player takes on the role of Princess Rosella, daughter of King Graham of Daventry (KQI and
KQII) and the twin sister of Gwydion/Alexander (KQIII). King Graham has suffered a heart attack, during
quality time with his family, and is on the brink of death. The good fairy Genesta contacts Rosella through the
magic mirror and offers her assistance. Genesta will teleport Rosella to the land of Tamir, where she learns
about a magical fruit that can heal her father. This is the only chapter in the King’s Quest series where the
action takes place in real-time. The events of the game cover about 24 hours. Some activities must be
completed during the day, while other puzzles can be solved only at night.

 Roberta Williams wrote in the notes to the King’s Quest Collection Series, “Before King’s Quest IV
was released; word leaked out that Graham would have a heart attack and might die. Fans were upset
enough to write in, asking to save Graham. I wanted King’s Quest IV to have some pressure applied to
you: a timed game, taking place over a 24-hour period, so you roam around during the day and
eventually it turns to night. I don’t remember other games using the same scenes at night; it looked
creepy.”

The higher resolution 320x200 SCI version

The lower resolution 200x160 AGI version

Two Graphic versions for PC. The game was simultaneously produced and published in the AGI and
SCI engines. The AGI engine was used in all earlier Sierra adventure games while the SCI will be
implemented with this one. SCI supported higher-resolution graphics (320x200 resolution versus 200x160),
more sophisticated animation, mouse, and sound card support. Some older features like CGA composite
mode and PCjr support were removed in SCI version. King’s Quest IV was the only native-mode SCI game
to also have an AGI version (some games originally made with the AGI engine like KQ1 were re-released in
updated SCI versions). This was done mostly as a fallback measure because the SCI engine was new and
unproven, and also for the large existing user-base of 8086 machines. However, the older AGI version was
only available by mail order and only a small number of copies were sold. It was discontinued within a few
months of the game’s August 1988 release and so this proved that the developer’s fears were unfounded.
The two games are almost identical in gameplay, except that the SCI version was updated with some
additional parser responses. However, AGI version 2.0 contains the famous ‘beam me’ Easter egg (which
transported Rosella to a Star Trek-esque room with all of the development team present). This easter egg
is neither present in any SCI version nor in AGI version 2.3.

Game vs. hardware. Memory requirements for SCI games were double compared to those of AGI
games (512KB vs 256KB). The new engine was designed for then-current PC hardware (i.e. 8-16 MHz
286 or 386 machines with EGA or VGA graphics and a hard disk) and ran poorly on older 8086 and
especially 8088 PC’s. The video modes supported by the SCI engine are EGA, Hercules, MCGA, Tandy
and VGA. The AGI version required 256K and supports PC Speaker and Tandy/PCjr sound only. The
CGA Composite mode and Pcjr is also supported in AGI version only.


Sound innovations. King’s Quest IV was the first game commercially released for PC’s to support
sound cards supplementary to the older built-in speaker. In addition to the familiar PC speaker and Tandy
sound, it could utilize Adlib, CMS, Disney Sound Source, or Roland MT-32 boards. Sierra’s new SCI
engine allowed the game designers to incorporate an orchestrated musical score along with more complex
sound-effects, a previously unattainable feat. To ensure an immersive soundtrack, composer William
Goldstein, known for several Hollywood soundtracks (such as the 1982 television series Fame), was
hired to write the game’s musical score, totaling over 75 short music pieces.
The game stands out first as a technological accomplishment for MS-DOS in both graphics and sounds
but also in gameplay as the game is much bigger, there’s much more to explore than do than the previous
entries, with the night-time section of game-play particularly standing out. In my opinion, if you only ever
play just one King’s Quest game, this should be the one. It has a real nostalgic feel to it, being a reminder
of both Sierra adventures and King’s Quest games in their heyday, at their very best.

Good mix between new (VGA/sound cards) and the old (text parser)

Police Quest II: The Vengeance is an adventure game produced by Jim Walls for Sierra On-Line,
and released in 1988. It is the sequel to Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel and is part of the
Police Quest series.
Gameplay is the same as the first game, move at crime scene and use the text parser to interact but
PQII is more forgiving than PQI. You don’t lose the game on the spot when you accidentally leave a print
un-dusted. Game sequences are more varied, and include a shooting range, an underwater search or
searching the inside of an escape vehicle.

Outside the police station (EGA/MCGA/Tandy)

Game vs hardware. The game implemented the new SCI engine and worked on all major graphic
standards at the time. The VGA support was also included but the VGA had the same resolution and
similar graphics with EGA/MGCA/Tandy/PCjr. The Tandy graphic modes required 640 KB RAM vs.
512 KB RAM required by the standard SCI.
Graphics. I do enjoy the game’s graphics. Sierra did some great stuff with 320x200/16 colors, and
PQ2 is no exception. The colors are bright and vibrant, and the close-ups and in-game graphics were
crisp and detailed.
Sound. The soundtrack, composed and performed by Mark Siebert, is very nice as the game
supported the Adlib, Roland MT-32 and other less popular external sound cards. The music is
appropriate and atmospheric, and some of the tunes will stay in your mind for a long time. However there
isn’t enough of it, as a good deal of the game is played in silence.
 PQII is quite an exciting game. There is a little more action than in PQI, it has an engaging story with
characters that you believe in and make you want to keep playing just to see how everything turns out and
parts of the game will quite honestly have you on the edge of your seat.

Larry’s second search for love can be deadly

Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places) is the second game in the
Leisure Suit Larry series of graphical adventure games by Sierra On-Line, released in 1988. Like its
predecessor, it was developed for MS-DOS, Atari ST and Amiga therefore excluding all older 8-bit
platforms and the 16-bit Apple IIGS.

As opposed to the first game, which relied on exploration of one large area, this sequel has a more
linear progression, the player being continuously taken to new locations as dictated by the plot. There are
fewer puzzles than in the previous game; however, the number of ways to die has increased, danger
awaiting Larry in in Several Wrong Places.

EGA art on 16 colors. It isn’t easy

Yet again the same very funny game

Graphics. The game used the newer Sierra’s Creative Interpreter (SCI0) engine, featuring up to 16-color
EGA graphics and a mouse-based interface for movement. The decent 320x200 resolution was backed by
good landmark design and an artistic graphical execution. Other video modes supported were, Hercules,
MCGA, Tandy, VGA. MGGA and VGA implemented only 16 colors and had identical to EGA graphics.
Atari ST and Amiga had both similar graphics.
Sound. Because the SCI engine supported FM and General MIDI music sound most of the available
sound cards and devices were supported. AdLib, Game Blaster (CMS), IBM Music Feature Card, PC
Speaker, Roland MT-32 (and LAPC-I), Tandy / PCjr all worked with the game.

Larry II is a light hearted frolic of an adventure that tells an outstanding humorous story in a linear
way. You get it right and get the girl or you get it wrong and die, in a predetermined sequence. But more
importantly, it is a superb piece of all-round entertainment with good graphics and sound particularly, but
not exclusively, suited to adventure players.

The past California in games

California: Gold Rush! (originally named Gold Rush!) is a graphic adventure game originally released
by Sierra Entertainment in 1988 for Apple II and DOS and in 1989 for Apple IIGS, Macintosh, Amiga and
Atari. It was designed by Doug and Ken MacNeill. The rights to the game are currently owned and published
by The Software Farm and its original developers the MacNeills.

Gameplay innovations. There are three routes available to play and finish the game and to reach
California: by land, travel by ferry to reach the Atlantic shore of Panama, cross the isthmus, and then get a
second boat in the Pacific shore, or making the dangerous all-boat trip by Cape Horn. As usual with many
Sierra adventures, instant killing happens if the player is careless, but will also happen at random. Other
important and innovative concept is the game being timed. If Jerrod takes too long to leave Brooklyn,
passages to California increase in price, and his house devalues.

Small AGI 200x160 resolution but still artistic graphics and
great contrast in landmarks

Graphics. This is the only one Sierra game from 1988 to unfortunately miss the SCI engine. All video
modes were supported including the VGA but the very small 200x160 resolution favored none. Nonetheless
this is one of the best uses of the AGI engine; the landmarks are beautiful, vivid, artistic and contrasting.
There are also many animations such as chariots, birds, fire and others. The Sierra’s graphic designers did
a great job considering the AGI limitations. Regarding sound the AGI only supported the older PC speaker
and the Tandy/PCjr.

There is a great feeling of freedom, actually believing that you could basically do anything. The 3
main different paths you can take did add to the replayability of the game and in addition to that, it makes
you think that there are actually events that could have happened but didn’t due to the choice you made,
unlike strict-linear-games that don’t let you experience this. The storyline held all to the end and the
graphics are the best I have seen from Sierra’s AGI making this an excellent adventure game to
experience. If you liked the King’s Quest and series alike, you will definitely want to give this one a try.


The father of all point&click mouse based adventures

Maniac Mansion is a 1987 graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games.
Initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II, it was Lucasfilm’s foray into video game
publishing. The MSDOS version was launched a year later in 1988.
 It was also the debut of their SCUMM engine, which was in many ways superior (not graphical or
sound related) to Sierra‘s AGI engine. The SCUMM engine was easier to work with for both game
designers and players as players could now select with the mouse commands and objects on the screen,
rather than entering them on the keyboard while the game designers’ days of work to overcome the text
parser and its limits were over.

Story and description. The story revolves around a meteor that has crash-landed near a mansion.
Doctor Fred, the owner of the mansion, decides to bring it in from the cold and store it inside his “seckrit
lab”. Since then, Fred does some strange things. First, he goes out and kidnaps a young girl, and hooks her
up to his machine capable of turning innocent people into zombies. The game follows teenager Dave Miller
as he ventures into a mansion and attempts to rescue his girlfriend from an evil mad scientist, whose family
has been controlled by a sentient meteor that crashed near the mansion 20 years earlier. The player uses a
point-and-click interface to guide Dave and two of his friends through the mansion while avoiding its
dangerous inhabitants and solving puzzles.

No more of the text parser, mouse is finally in PC games

Graphics. All major x86 graphic modes available until then were supported: CGA, EGA, Hercules,
MCGA, Tandy / PCjr and VGA. The VGA, EGA and MGCA graphics were similar and are good for
1987/1988 and have a comic touch that fits the game but lacks the artistry so often found in Sierra games.

Maniac Mansion is a classic in all respects and the historical value of this game is huge: it was the very
first of LucasArts’ games to feature the SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) engine, with
a groundbreaking scripting system that was something of a legend. SCUMM will become the absolute game
engine for all future adventure games launched by over the course of the ’80s and ’90s (such as the Monkey
Island series, Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max). Beside the SCUMM the game had many other strong
points such as graphics with cut-scenes and animations, and a large dose of humor. The story is interesting
and well-implemented while the control system is intuitive. I feel compelled to appreciate the amount of
work which went into making a game to compete with adventure mammoth of the time, the Sierra On-Line.
All in all, Maniac Mansion was a fine way to help launch the mouse based point-and-click adventures
back in the day. If you play adventure games more for the exploration than for complex story and
characters, MM should definitely appeal to you, even today, though it hasn’t stood the test of time as well
as some games. Compared to later SCUMM adventures, it’s been surpassed in almost every area
graphics, story, characterization, even interface but for 1987/1988 the game was extremely innovative.
Despite its age, it’s still quite solid and enjoyable, and well worth playing, if largely for its huge
historical relevance.

The mother of all point&click adventures to come

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a graphical adventure game, originally released in
October 1988, published by LucasArts (known at the time as Lucasfilm Games). It was the second game to
use the SCUMM engine, after Maniac Mansion. The project was led by David Fox and was co-designed and
co-programmed by Matthew Alan Kane. Like Maniac Mansion it was developed for the Commodore 64 and
released in 1988 on that system and the PC. An Apple II version was apparently planned, but never released.
The following year, the game was ported to the Amiga and Atari ST and re-released on the PC with enhanced
graphics. Finally in 1991 a version was produced for the Japanese FM-Towns computer, which came on a
CD-ROM and featured 256-color graphics, full soundtrack and redrawn sprites in Anime style (when played
in Japanese).

Inspiration. The game was heavily inspired by the many popular theories about aliens, ancient
astronauts and mysterious civilizations. The many places visited in the game are common hotspots for these
ideas, such as the pyramids of Egypt and Mexico, Lima, Stonehenge, Atlantis, a space Cadillac with an
alien Elvis and the Face on Mars. Lead designer and programmer David Fox, consulted with New Age
writer David Spangler, before Ron Gilbert and Matthew Alan Kane persuaded Fox to increase the
humorous aspects of the game.

C64 (left) and the higher resolution EGA/VGA from 1989(right)

Graphics. The video modes supported were CGA, EGA, Hercules, MCGA, Tandy / PCjr, while VGA
support was added in 1989. The original 1988 version topped a 200x160 EGA resolution while the
enhanced 1989 version used the 320x200 VGA/EGA/MCGA resolution both in 16 colors.

The 1991 256 color version of the Japanese x86 based FM Towns computers had amazing graphics

The game was great and had many strong points: easy interface, good graphics but the strongest advantage
was the story that was very hilarious. This game will make you laugh, guaranteed. The adventure part is well
done, too. It is somewhat like an early RPG, in the sense that it is a bit non-linear and that there are multiple
solutions or workarounds to puzzles (i.e. you can either pay your phone bill or use the computer to fix it)
making the game easier and not so repetitive.

The captain of concept, gameplay, graphics and music

 Captain Blood (L’Arche du Captain Blood in France) is the title of a French adventure video game
from 1988 made by ERE Informatique and released by Infogrames. It was later re-released in the UK by
Players Premier Software. The title melody is a stripped down version of “Ethnicolor” produced by Jean
Michel Jarre.
Nice psychedelic story. Story is one of the best to find in a game and involves a game designer Bob
Morlock who is trapped in a spaceship within its own designed game. A hyperspace accident clones him
thirty times. Each of the clones departs, taking with him a portion of a vital fluid that sustains Morlock’s life.
Assuming the persona of the brave Captain Blood, the programmer tracks down and disintegrated twenty-five
clones, spending 800 years to achieve that goal. However, five clones still remain, hidden somewhere in the
depths of the galaxy. Captain Blood must find these clones and destroy them before he loses his own life.
Gameplay was also very innovative for an adventure. Conversations with the aliens are conducted via
the so-called UPCOM interface. Over 150 icons are available to represent different concepts. Since each
alien speaks his own language, the player must input various combinations of the icons to be able to
understand the alien and communicate with him. Successfully concluding conversations may offer clues or
unlock other planets. The protagonist’s health deteriorates over the time, which affects the game’s
interface by making it more difficult to control. These symptoms may be reverted by disintegrating a
clone.

A gamer description. “Captain Blood is a very special game. Without wanting to sound
pretentious, it blurs the line between entertainment and art. It works as a game, an art-piece or a
demonstration of technology. In 1988, the Atari ST original really blew everyone away. The sampled
music, the sampled alien language, the amazing graphics, the fractal flight-engine, the icon-based
communication system and the whole wacked-out scenario were all years ahead of their time, and had
really never been seen before. Yes, I know the way this review sounds (vomit-worthy) but Captain
Blood really was (and still is, in my opinion) dazzling in the way it melded together so many elements,
all so original and inspired, to create a fully-formed whole. Captain Blood oozed style and elegance,
creativity and technology.”

Captain Blood in EGA clothes

The PC version doesn’t have the Atari ST’s excellent sound that also included Jean-Michelle Jarre
music, but it does have the same gameplay and the PC graphics were good enough (even in CGA). Many
fans would say that the game can only be properly experienced on the ST, but I think the gameplay is the
most important element, which is why Captain Blood still works so well on the PC, or on the C64 and the
Amstrad.
Reception. Computer Gaming World gave the game a positive review for its unusual concept,
execution, and graphics.INFO Magazine January/February 1989 gave the game 5 out of 5 stars, remarking:
“Captain Blood is a marvelously alien experience. The graphics & sound (Atari ST) are first rate.
Captain Blood as a game is in a class of its own. Philippe Ulrich and Didier Bouchon are the creators
of one of the most outstanding computer entertainment products, ever. Captain Blood was way ahead of its
time in 1988, and while the designers’ vision couldn’t be fully implemented on the home computers of the
80’s they did an amazing job. But look at Captain Blood in connection with today’s 3D and A.I.
technologies and you might see how their vision can now be a lot closer of being made reality. Therefore
game designers for touchscreen platforms please consider this game for a re-launch.

Another great year for RPG’s. The 1987/1988 timeframe clearly shows a tendency of x86
computers and personal computers in general to be the most loved platforms for RPG games. While 1987
was great for RPG lovers and received many top games, 1988 is just amazing as more than 6 great RPG
games were launched this year

Perfected once more, the fifth time

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988) is the fifth entry in the role-playing video game series Ultima.
Warriors of Destiny is the last Ultima developed for the Apple II; the limits of that system (excluding the
16-bit Apple IIGS) were increasingly becoming a hindrance to further technological advance, and thus all
later games were developed on other personal computers. This was also the last time in which Ultima
creator Richard Garriott did a major share of the actual coding; in the later parts he acted as a game
designer only. The increasingly popular Ultima V will be launched on 10 different platforms all over the
world including Japan: Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, C64, C128, FM Towns, NES,PC-98, Sharp X6800 and
of course MS-DOS.

Gameplay. Warriors of Destiny featured much more polished writing and considerably greater detail
than previous games. It was the first Ultima to implement a time-of-day system in which the sun rises and
sets, and non-player characters follow daily routine schedules. This game has been lauded as realistically
portraying a culture living under a dictatorial regime; its tone is much darker than that of Ultima IV: Quest
of the Avatar.
As in Ultima IV, the player can interact with non-player characters (NPCs) by typing a word or phrase
that signifies the topic to discuss. The NPCs will say what they care to share about a subject when it is
mentioned, and the player can repeat key words used in the NPC’s response to ask for further details.
Graphics. The game used CGA, EGA, Hercules and Tandy/PCjr graphics. While it lacked MCGA
and VGA support the EGA graphics were great, among the best MS-DOS games launched this year.

EGA version, good graphics and colors in both top down and quasi 3d screens

 Apple II (left and C64 (right) had slightly
inferior graphics

Ultima V is the most quintessential game from the Ultima series, and shows you everything that made
the Ultima worlds so detailed and made the game design groundbreaking. Perhaps it isn’t an immersive
enough experience for gamers that started to play later in 90’s with the 3D hardware revolution, but for
those of us who began before that time, this is a classic roleplaying game and the graphics are still
useable, even today. If you can accept the unbelievable difficulty level, you will be rewarded with an
outstandingly rich and rewarding RPG experience that was way ahead of its time. Ultima V had a huge
influence on RPG development; all later Ultimas were modeled after this one; all great Western fantasy
RPGs of our time (like Baldur’s Gate or Arcanum) are its descendants. Ultima V is an awe-inspiring
timeless classic.
The first RPG based on AD&D

Pool of Radiance is a role-playing video game developed and published by Strategic Simulations Inc
(SSI) in 1988 for MSDOS and C64 and in 1989 and 1990 for many other platforms. It was the first
implementation of Tactical Studies Rules (TSR)‘s Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D or D&D)
fantasy role-playing game for home computers, becoming the first episode in a four-part series of D&D
computer adventure games. Pool of Radiance takes place in the Forgotten Realms fantasy setting, with the
action centered in and around the port city of Phlan.

Development. The scenario was created by TSR designers Jim Ward, David Cook, Steve Winter and
Mike Breault, and coded by programmers from Strategic Simulations, Inc’s Special Projects team. The
section of the Forgotten Realms world in which Pool of Radiance takes place was intended to be
developed only by SSI. The game was created on Apple II and Commodore 64 computers, taking only one
year with a team of thirty-five people. Developers also worked to balance the graphics with gameplay to
provide a faithful AD&D feel, given the many limitations of a home computer. In addition to the core
AD&D manuals, the books Unearthed Arcana and Monster Manual II were also used during development.
The images of monsters were adapted directly from the Monster Manual book.
Graphics and sound. The video modes supported were the usual CGA, EGA and Tandy/PCjr. EGA
required 512 KB RAM while Tandy mode required 640KB of RAM. The graphics were quite simple but
interesting and featured 2d animations, quasi 3d graphics for exploration and a large screen with isometric
graphics for combat. Sound was the weakest element of the game, very uninspiring and with awful sound
despite the use of the 3-voice found Tandy/PCjr.



Not so inspired EGA graphics. Clockwise from upper left: conversation with a dragon; the party in
combat; exploring the graveyard; sample character view

Pool of Radiance is a true classic CRPG that set the standard for many years. Its wonderful
customization, adherence to AD&D rules, and story make it a game worth playing by serious RPG fans.
Lead a party of six adventurers on a quest to restore the glory of the fallen town in a post-apocalyptic
RPG where you struggle to survive the ill-fated events that followed a nuclear holocaust. Who wouldn’t
want to play that?

The RPG placed in the future, Fallout started from this

Wasteland is a critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic role-playing video game first published by
Electronic Arts in 1988. The game was designed by Brian Fargo, Michael A. Stackpole, Ken St. Andre
and Alan Pavlish, and programmed by Pavlish for Interplay Productions. Wasteland was first distributed
for the Apple II and ported to the Commodore 64 and PC DOS platforms in 1988. While all versions
were nearly identical in terms of gameplay, the EGA PC port had upgraded graphics while the C64
boasted the best sound. The PC version also has an additional skill called “Combat Shooting” which
could be bought only when a character was first created.

Plot and future influence. Wasteland is set in 2087, following the nuclear war of 1998, when Earth
has been turned into the so-called “wasteland” where survival is the dominant objective. The game’s
setting and concept will become the basis for Interplay’s later game, Fallout, which itself would extend
into an extremely successful series.

Graphics. The EGA graphics on this game were much better compared to the rest of the platforms that
supported this game. The game also supported CGA, CGA composite and Tandy/PCjr.


 Great EGA in both top down view ( left) and combat screen (right)

Simpler Apple II and C64 graphics

Innovative skill system with mouse support. Wasteland introduced an original skill system that has
had a significant influence on the RPG genre. The game makes use of the skill system in conjunction with
traditional character attributes to achieve goals and get past impediments. Besides helping the characters to
fight more efficiently, main attributes sometimes have an impact on activities used outside of combat. For
example, high strength can be applied to break a heavy object, charisma rating might influence the way
NPCs interact with the main character. The newly introduced mouse support increased the gaming speed
and made the selection of numerous on screen commands much easier.

Awards. In 1992, Computer Gaming World wrote that this “classic mix of combat and problem-
solving” was the favorite of the magazine’s readers in 1988, adding, “the way in which Wasteland’s
NPCs related to the player characters, the questions of dealing with moral dilemmas, and the
treatment of skills set this game apart.” In 1996, Computer Gaming World ranked it as the ninth best PC
video game of all time for introducing the concept of the player’s party “acting like the ‘real’ people.”

Clearly this game is regarded as an 80’s version of Fallout. If you liked Fallout then you have to play
this game and vice versa! The plot is more interesting while the game is more challenging and longer
compared with the first Fallout. Another great aspect of this game is the fact that is scripted like a book. It
also has a wonderful storyline with a fundamentally rigorous idea as a basis and impressive gameplay
with huge amount of skills, funny hidden jokes and a depth of character unlike any i have seen. For many
gamers this is the best RPG game and the best game from the 80’s and is a true amazing old classic.

The Bard’s Tale II: The Destiny Knight is a fantasy role-playing video game created by Interplay
Productions in 1986 and was initially for Commodore 64, while the MSDOS version was released later
in 1988. It is the last game of the series that was designed and programmed by Michael Cranford; another
programmer created The Bard’s Tale III.

The game features Dungeons and Dragons-style characters and follows in the footsteps of its
predecessor, The Bard’s Tale, also created by Michael Cranford. The Bard’s Tale II takes place on a
larger scale with an explorable wilderness, six cities, and multiple dungeons which give this game its
dungeon crawl character. The game has new features such as casinos and banks, and introduces a new
magic user called an archmage, among other changes from the first game in the series. It has huge
replayability, randomness, monsters that can join party but it on the other side it is extremely difficult.

The game supported all graphic standards except VGA and MCGA and the EGA graphics were nice
with many animations and many artistic images. Quasi 3d fist person graphics were also available in
some screens, a feature found in many contemporary RPG’s. Regarding sound capabilities only the old PC
speaker was used and consequently the sound didn’t hold a candle to the graphics and was the weakest
link of the game in the PC DOS port.

The original 1986 C64 graphics (left) and the better EGA graphics (right)

Gamer review – “This sequel to the hit game Bard’s Tale I set the bar even higher! Twice as high!
There was no other game RPG game as replayable as this one. It has all the classic elements of
medieval fantasy - monsters, tons of dungeons, magic, adventuring and an actual world the player
travels around in, full of cities, wilderness, wilds, dungeons, and more monsters. Before Fallout, before
Dungeon Siege, before Neverwinter Nights, before today’s RPGs and MMORPGs…there was Bard’s
Tale II.“

Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World is another role-playing video game launched in 1988
developed and published by New World Computing. It is the sequel to the game Might and Magic: The
Secret of the Inner Sanctum. It was very successful and received 14 different ports, including many future
platforms such as Sega’s Genesis and Nintendo’s SNES.

Core gameplay is similar to predecessor, with the player creating a party of six characters and
exploring vast first-person quasi 3D environments, while fighting enemies in turn-based combat and
leveling up. Unlike the first game, enemy encounters occur at set points rather than spawning randomly,
though enemy type selection is still random.

Good EGA/MCGA quasi 3d graphics

The video modes supported were CGA, EGA, Hercules, MCGA, Tandy / PCjr and the quasi 3d
graphics were nice: colored, animated had a large gaming area, larger than most other RPG’s at the time.
Both Apple II and Commodore 64 had inferior graphics.

This game has one of the most non-linear storylines around quite rare for an RPG. You are free to
wander the world, cities, dungeons, caves, and elemental planes while solving minor quests as you
gradually learn more about the main plot, a model also implemented by the newer Oblivion and Skyrim.
Character development is stunning, magic is handled well, there are scores of interesting items and
weapons, and there are hosts of NPC hirelings who you can have journey with your party. Overall it is a
good RPG for 1988.

The Action-RPG full of technical innovations

Times of Lore is an action role-playing game placed in a meticulous and complex world. It was
developed by ORIGIN Systems for several platforms, including PC, Commodore 64/128, ZX Spectrum,
Amstrad, Atari ST, Apple II, NES, and Amiga. It inspired several later titles by Origin Systems, such as
Bad Blood and Ultima VI: The False Prophet.

Gameplay consists of moving the protagonist in real-time (day and night) through various terrains like
plains, forests, towns and dungeons. The player character gathers basic items, like health and magic
potions, and increasingly powerful weapons as he completes tasks and advances the plot. Conversations
are handled through key phrases while battles involved few types of creatures (skeletons, orcs, rogues) in
various colored clothes.

Great isometric graphics and 320x200 VGA resolution

C64 left and Amiga right. One of the few games when C64 matched Amiga graphics


Graphics. All major MS-DOS graphic standards including VGA with up to 64 colors were supported
and the developer made serious efforts to make the game look good on most platforms implementing an
advanced isometric design with a lot contrast that made the game look unique. The EGA/MCGA/VGA
version was one of the better looking. Animated water is also used and the game world slowly changes
color between night and day. The Commodore 64 version was also impressively implemented and featured
high-res overlays for the sprites, a technique that employs two sprites on top of each other one being a low
resolution multi-color sprite and the other a high resolution monochrome sprite.

Sound innovations. This is one of the first games to support Adlib and Game Blaster (CMS) beside
the older PC Speaker and Tandy/PCjr and consequently has some of the best sounds available in the 1988
games. Music was also good but behind Sierra’s SCI based adventure games that was created by
professional composers. Roland MT-32 was unsupported.
Other innovations. The game takes place in a very complex world, featuring 13,000 screens of map
according to the promotional material. There is no loading during the game, which was quite a feat at the
time for such a massive environment. The newly introduced for MS-DOS mouse was also implemented
nicely and so was the menu, very effective for the mouse use.

 This game had it all! Good plot, great graphics, nice and easy interface, cool sounds, and even cool
weapons (especially the knife and the magic axe). Although it is somewhat mixed Ultima, and everything
in the game is a series of quests in the form “PLEASE SELECT THE RIGHT ANSWER”, the game features some
nice storytelling and has a lot (and I mean A LOT) of action with battles to be fought and many quests to
perform.

Decent mix of TBS and RPG BattleMech

BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk’s Inception is a turn-based adventure/role-playing video game
based on the BattleTech franchise. It was developed in 1988 by Westwood Studios and was published by
Infocom. It was one of the first commercial ports of the license, and featured some of the franchise’s
worlds, institutions, political figures, and weapons, particularly the three-story tall Battlemechs.

Gameplay has two distinct parts. The first part of the game is spent training in the Citadel, acquiring
the game’s currency and experience, and learning how to fight in Battlemechs or on foot, using smaller
weapons. Afterwards, the game follows a more traditional RPG structure: Jason explores Pacifica,
visiting its cities, recruiting companions, and fighting enemies in turn-based combat.

Regarding graphics, while they are not very artistic, the game has two strong points: the use of
isometric graphics, quite rare in the 80’s and is one of the first good games to support VGA. The graphic
resolution was the common 320x200 but the graphics were very detailed. The game also supported the
older graphic standards CGA, EGA, MCGA, Tandy / PCjr. CGA was also implemented nicely
considering the 4 colors limitation.

EGA(left) and CGA(right) and a clean good isometric design

Take the entire spectrum of Mechwarrior and put it into one great, playable TBS and RPG mix with
good storyline, exciting Mech battles, mech customizing fun, various ways to earn your living, personal
combat, different character classes and some extra secrets such as laser rifles and you’ve got the makings of
one of the first futuristic RPG’s for the PC. BattleTech does not have quite the level of puzzling you would
expect from a Westwood Studios/ Infocom game and gameplay was slightly dull, but it combined efficiently
the ‘Mech combat and quest elements and the result was a very good game back in 1988.

Amazing game for Tolkien fans and not only, made for the mouse

War in Middle Earth is an impressive combination of real-time strategy, adventure and RPG
released for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MS-DOS, Commodore Amiga, Apple
IIGS, and Atari ST in 1988 by Australian company Melbourne House.

Gameplay. The game combined both large scale army unit level and small scale character level. All
the action happened simultaneously in game world and places could be seen from the map or at the ground
level. Individual characters could also be seen in larger battles (in which they either survived or died,
Gandalf alone could easily defeat a hundred orcs). If the battle is with few combatants (approximately
less than 100 units) it can be watched on ground level otherwise it will be only displayed numerically. On
ground level characters could acquire objects and talk with computer controlled friendly characters (such
as Radagast or Tom Bombadil).

Regarding graphics the PC DOS version of the game was quite advanced with a lot of details,
animation and artistic design and most of video modes were supported: CGA, EGA, MCGA, Tandy /
PCjr, lacking only VGA. The beloved Tolkien characters were also nicely colored and portrayed, and
were nicely designed. The MS-DOS sound was the only weakness of the game as it supported only the
1981 based PC speakers

Meeting Gandalf, great EGA graphics

The Amiga’s had even better graphics.

This is one of the first many games from 1988 to support the mouse and it will be clear in time that
mouse is the most important input device for the RTS genre and games like Warcraft, Age of Empires,
Command&Conquer, Rise of Nations and Starcraft can testify my affirmation.
This game was amazing because of the total control of the armies and map, the good quality of
graphics, high replayability with many ways to win and the fact is was a Lord of The Rings game. It had
some bugs but overall it is a classic and a must for either the real time strategists or J.R.R. Tolkien fans,
and if you are both and played the game back in 1988 you probably still love this game.

Mixing three genres

Autoduel is a video game developed and published by Richard Garriott Company, Origin Systems
and was initially released for Atari 8-bit and Apple II computers in 1985 but received many more ports
over time, including the one for MS-DOS IN 1988. It was based on the Steve Jackson Games series Car
Wars which also includes the GURPS Autoduel worldbook.

Genre innovation. Successfully mixing three genres action/combat, racing/driving and RPG this game
clearly is one of the few games in the 80’s to be so complex and satisfying.

Gameplay. You could do anything you want in this game. In order to earn more money you had to keep
updating your cars or building your cars from scratch. There were arenas that you could test your car and
your abilities in, as well as courier jobs that you could fulfill. Sometimes, while listening to the rumors in
the truck stop you could find out that the FBI wanted you to do some jobs for them or the clone hospital in
Boston wanted a heart delivered. Or you could sell your courier jobs to the fixer at the bar for the price of
your prestige. Building your own vehicles was one of the best parts of the game. Almost every weapon was
useful, and you had to make a lot of tough decisions to balance the offensive, defensive, and cargo capacity
of your vehicle so you can succeed later in the action art of the game. This was one of the many PC games
from 1988 to implement the newly supported by MS-DOS mouse, very effective in this game.

High resolution EGA, still little or no artistry design. Adventure-like navigating in the left and
action/fighting in the right

Graphics. The game featured top down graphic and I personally see some resemblance between this
game and the later GTA hit launched in 1997 in both graphics and gameplay.The game’s graphics were
overall nice with good details but little artistry while the video modes supported were: CGA, EGA,
Hercules, MCGA and Tandy/PCjr.
Autoduel was one of the first games of its time to combine arcade diving and shooting action with
role-playing, and it worked very well. You not only got to build up your cars, but you got to build up your
driver as well and there were a lot of ways to win the prestige you needed to ultimately win the game.
Whether you chose to be a delivery boy or master of the arena or both, the game was chock full of action
and fun. It clearly shows that the masterminds behind this game was Richard Garriott and it company
Origin System as the game’s gameplay screamed out loud of high quality RPG. This is another amazing
addictive classic from the 80’s, well done Origin and Lord British.

My introduction in PC racing, I have great memories concerning this game

Accolade Grand Prix Circuit is a Formula One

racing computer game released for 1998 on the ZX
Spectrum, Amiga, Apple IIGS, Commodore 64,
Amstrad CPC, Macintosh and MS-DOS.

Description. Back in 1988 Formula One racing was nicely recreated with many details considering
the timeframe making this game an enjoyable simulation. You had the choice to drive a Ferrari 187/88C, a
McLaren MP4/4 or a Williams FW12, each with different qualities. Rival drivers also have their own
styles and strengths, and to win the World Championship you will have to master all these. Pit stop timing
and planning is crucial as well, although only tires were changed in the late 80’s F1.
Quasi 3d graphics. While the game’s graphics resemble 3d they had nothing to do with the third
dimension, as the game designers implemented quasi 3d first person graphics, drawing all elements in the
game to resemble 3d and they did an impressive job for the time. The video modes supported on DOS
are: CGA, EGA, Hercules, Tandy and EGA. Tandy 16-color and the EGA graphic modes required 512
KB RAM compared to the standard 384 KB. For me it was no problem later in 1987 because my
computer had 16 MB of RAM.

I enjoyed the 80’s graphics in late 90’s

Best ever PC Speaker only sounds. While the sound was limited to PC speakers only the game designers
did a good job considering the limitation making good sounds for the car and impressive introductory music.
For me the game implemented some of the best PC Speaker sounds ever and I still enjoy the sounds.

I have special memories regarding this game. While

I’ve first played this game very late in 1997-1998 I
enjoyed the EGA graphics wondering of course why
anyone would prefer to play the game in the CGA
mode, selectable at the start as I knew nothing about
the 80’s hardware at the time. I was competing with
my father and each one us bested from time to time
the highest track score achieved by the other; I had
such great times back then.
Grand Prix Circuit was in its time, back in the 80’s
a great Formula 1 racing simulation game,
combining good quasi 3d graphics with great
gameplay, track variety, good sounds despite the PC
Speaker use and realistic for the time driving. While
racing games don’t stand the test of time very well as
the game is extremely outdated now it remains one of
the best racing games in the 80’s and if my available
time allows it I will give it again some try on my
father older computer. Let’s see which one is the best
now, 17 years later.


The present California in games

California Games is a 1987 Epyx sports video game released for many home computers and home
consoles; the MSDOS version launched in 1988. The game received more than 15 ports for various
platforms. Diverging from their popular Summer Games and Winter Games series, this game consisted of
some sports supposedly popular in California including skateboarding, freestyle footbag, surfing, roller
skating, flying disc (frisbee) and BMX.

320x240 MCGA/VGA/16 colors graphics

All x86 video modes available at the time were supported included MCGA and VGA but both VGA
and MCGA only used 16 colors. Sound was a no go as only PC Speaker were implemented.

Amiga version left (1988) and Sega M.S. right (1989) had better graphics

The game has many nice touches and charming humor: Hitting the seagull with the footbag, the letters
of the Hollywood sign falling down, the boy whistling at the girl while roller-skating, the appearance of
the dolphin during surfing etc… Up to 8 persons could compete in the tournament and everybody had his
favorite events. California Games is easily as impressive as its forerunners with the six events providing
plenty of playability and long-term entertainment.

The first sport game with sound card support

Kings of the Beach is a beach volleyball computer game released by Electronic Arts in 1988 for the
Commodore 64 and DOS. A version for the Nintendo Entertainment System was produced by Konami
(under the Ultra Games label) in 1990.

The actual gameplay was quite small on the EGA display mode

But the EGA was great to display the beach girls

The video modes supported were the standard CGA, EGA and the Tandy / PCjr. The graphics were
colorful and nice with scenic backdrops and well-defined players and EA gave a special attention to the
beach girls providing them with “artistic” shapes.
Sound. This is probably the first MS-DOS sport based game to support the Adlib sound card beside
the older PC Speaker and Tandy/PCjr sound. While the sounds in the game were simple the melody at the
game start was very nice.

Multiplayer. This is one of the few x86 games from the 80’s to support multiplayer gaming. Two
human players were supported in a same/split-screen option and the CPU opponents were quite capable
to deliver headaches.

A brilliant control scheme lets you spike, block, and even dive for the ball. One problem that plagues
many volleyball games is the ability to get your player into proper position to hit the ball. Kings of the
Beach addresses this issue by stopping your player once he’s moved into the correct spot, and that makes
all the difference in the world. Beach is easy to play, but mastering it is another story, and the CPU
opponents are no joke. If you like beach volleyball, or regular volleyball, then you probably enjoyed Kings
of the Beach back in the 80’s.

Porting done great, the multiplatform multiplayer game

Bubble Bobble is an arcade/platform game developed by Taito, first released in 1986 and later
ported to numerous home computers and game consoles about 20. The MSDOS port from 1988 was
especially good with great sounds and music, true with the original version with perfect controls, great
mechanics and good graphics.

Nice Story made for multiplayer. Bubble Bobble is the story of two humans, Bub and Bob who
wander into the mysterious cave of monsters and magically turn into dinosaurs. The only way to transform
back is to reach the end of the cave…Bubble Bobble is a platform game, with each level being a single
screen. The enemies must be cleared from a level to go to the next one. With one player controlling Bub
and the other controlling Bob, the players can jump and collect items for points (such as fruit). The real
power that Bub and Bob possess is the ability to blow bubbles. These bubbles can be as platforms to leap
on, or to trap enemies. Enemies trapped in a bubble must be popped by jumping into them, wherein they’ll
turn to fruit.

Beautiful 320x200 EGA/VGA graphics

Graphics. The video modes supported were the standard CGA, EGA, Hercules, Tandy / PCjr and
VGA. While the VGA supported only the 320x200/16 colors graphic mode the visuals were extremely well
designed by Taito.
Sound innovations. This was another game taking part of the small 1988 league that supported
external sound cards therefore improving even more the pleasure to play the game with quality sounds and
music. I also like the fact that sounds and music were used both in the gameplay, many other contemporary
games capable to work with sound cards had a nice MIDI melody at the game beginning and only sounds
in the gameplay. The sound devices supported were Adlib, Game Blaster and the older PC Speaker and
the 3-voice Tandy / PCjr.

There are few occasions when an arcade game port is almost as good as the original as usually the
graphics, the sound and the gameplay speed is seriously affected. This didn’t happen in the MS-DOS port,
the graphics are almost as good as the original arcade and so are the sound and the gameplay speed. On
MS-DOS the game is sheer bliss and if you want to play as a small cute dragon that captures enemies in
bubbles this game might be just the one to play.

 Good porting for PC, another champion at number of platforms

Arkanoid is another arcade game developed by Taito in 1986. It is based upon Atari’s Breakout games of
the 1970s and was released on a very large number of platforms; seventeen only in the 80’s including a
MSDOS version in 1988.
The title refers to a doomed “mothership” from which the player’s ship, the Vaus, escapes, the ball is
an energy bolt, and the bricks form a mysterious wall stopping the ship from progressing to safety.

Gameplay. Much like the game Breakout, the player controls the “Vaus”, a space vessel that acts as
the game’s “paddle” which prevents a ball from falling from the playing field, attempting to bounce it
against a number of bricks. The ball striking a brick causes the brick to disappear. When all the bricks are
gone, the player goes to the next level, where another pattern of bricks appears.

The third level, EGA graphics

TRS-80 CoCo 3(left) and NES (right) graphics were both developed by Taito

Graphics. The MS-DOS version was ported by NovaLogic that implemented only functional CGA,
EGA and Tandy / PCjr graphics. The Amiga, Apple IIGS, NES and many more other ports were developed
by Taito itself and received better graphics. The arcade had a bigger resolution and nice dotted patterns.
Sound was also left out as only PC speaker sound was supported but the overall the sounds were enjoyable,
despite the PC Speaker only use.

Overall Arkanoid for PC was a good port featuring better than arcade gameplay with better controls
and a ball less prone to miss the “ mothership”. Graphics were decent, the controls were great and the
level design was excellent. The main element that was missing in the MS-DOS version was the excellent
sound present in the C64 system that featured an amazing atmospheric melody made by Martin Galway.
Arkanoid for PC is nonetheless a classic but the game was slightly better implemented on most other
platforms.

Chess visual fess

Battle Chess is chess based video game in which the chess pieces come to life and battle one another
when capturing. It was originally developed and released by Interplay Entertainment for the Amiga in
1988 and subsequently was ported on many other systems, including 3DO, Acorn Archimedes, Amiga
CD32, Amiga CDTV, Apple IIGS, Apple IIe, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, FM Towns, NES, Mac OS,
PC-98, Sharp X68000 and Windows 3.x, to be found on about thirteen platforms. In 1991, Battle Chess
Enhanced was re-released by Interplay for the PC, featuring improved 256 colors VGA graphics and a
symphonic musical score that played off of the CD-ROM.

The EGA version has impressive pseudo 3d graphics

Regarding graphics Battle Chess was back then an incredible game with great graphics starting with
the intro screen and the board layout and had even greater animations making an incredible visual
experience in 1988. CGA, EGA, MCGA, Tandy / PCjr, VGA were the supported video modes. The
pseudo-3D approach was also innovative at the time and very effective as well. Even on a XT with
modest CGA display, this game rocked not to mention the EGA or the later VGA version. It took the
experience of playing a chess game (any chess game) on a computer to new heights, and it is still valid
today.
Multi-player support could also be implemented with a modem and/or serial port play making long
distance two players gaming available.
The controls are excellent and even the AI is reasonable. The character animations are sometimes
spectacular and sometimes hilarious (especially when a rook attacks the king), and are always fun to
watch. Compared to other chess games of the era the A.I. was pretty bad but this game was designed to be
fun. While not as much throwaway fun as the much older and complex Archon games the great graphics
and more impressive animations did make Battle Chess almost as good.

Playing Dr. House… with a mouse

Life & Death is a computer game published in 1988 by The Software Toolworks. It is one of the few
realistic medical computer games ever released. A sequel, Life & Death II: The Brain, was published in
1990. In this game, the player is a neurosurgeon.
In the role of a resident abdominal surgeon at fictional hospital Toolworks General, the player must
diagnose and treat a variety of maladies including kidney stones, arthritis, appendicitis, and aneuritic
aorta. The last two require the player to perform surgery. Regardless of your level of medicinal
knowledge, the game endeavors to teach you every step to perform surgery, from reams of documentation
in the box, to in-game classes showing your exact mistakes in surgery and how to correct them for future
surgery and treatments.

MSDOS graphics enough details and contrast

but poor colors choice and number

Regarding graphics the game was one of the few games to support the 3’rd CGA palette with red
instead of magenta, quite an effective choice for this game as there is a lot patient blood to be seen. While
the CGA implementation was good with decent resolution and details and small dots to simulate more
colors the graphics were weak compared to other platforms. The only mysterious element is the fact that
both supported EGA and VGA graphics supported by the game look the same as the CGA; probably to
save some RAM.

AMIGA had all MS-DOS advantages including great colors

Game made for mouse support. This is the kind of game that would be almost unplayable with a
keyboard and really show how useful a mouse can be and why it became in time the main gaming tool for
so many games and genres.

I have to say that this game is a lost classic, and one of the only games of its kind to really do what it
intended to do. That is, to be educational and entertaining at the same time. Even by today’s standards the
CGA graphics are admirable, especially in the operating theater. Modern critics continue to praise the
game for its attention to detail and the way it offers significant depth and challenge despite only using one
input, the mouse. As a closing note take mind that patients don’t usually survive unique surgical
techniques.

The decent only graphical games from 1988

While, I consider the games reviewed until now the best PC releases from 1983, I would also like to
mention other decent games launched this year. They were clearly good enough to be played back in the
late 80’s.

An earliest tactical shooter
Airborne Ranger is a real time tactic video game developed and released by MicroProse in 1987 for
the Commodore 64 and was launched from 1988 on Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum and
MS-DOS. The game is a relatively realistic action game (for its timeframe) in which a sole U.S. Army
Ranger is sent to infiltrate the enemy territory to complete various objectives.

All major graphic standards including the 320x200 / 16 colors VGA were supported while the sound
devices supported were the older PC Speaker and Tandy / PCjr. Graphics were merely average on
EGA/VGA and many other EGA only games were better looking.

EGA/VGA graphics with 16 colors

One of the great features was the diversity of missions, stealing information, sabotage, and diversion.
Although the map changed very little, different objectives required different playing methods. In some
levels you had to avoid enemies and in others you could be Rambo. Airborne Ranger is the earliest
tactical shooter, long before Rainbow Six reinvented the genre in 3D.

CGA only games are still released. While the time difference from 1981 to 1988 is quite large and
many other great graphics standards were launched beside CGA several game designers preferred to live
in the past as they released some CGA only games this year. Except Contra the first two game were quite
good, despite the CGA graphics.

Decent porting except graphics

Solomon’s Key is a puzzle video game developed by Tecmo in 1986 for video arcade and was built
on custom hardware based on the Z80 chipset. It is better known for the 1987 port to the Commodore 64
and the Nintendo Entertainment System, although it also appeared on many other game systems of the time,
like the Sega Master System in 1988 and was also launched in a MS-DOS booter version 1988.

 CGA only in 1988.The NES port (1997) looks much better

The game is generally recognized as one of the most difficult games to appear on the NES. The player
must overcome unlimited enemy spawning, challenging level designs, a countdown timer, Dana’s fragility,
and limited ways to dispatch enemies. In addition, it’s easy for players to unintentionally make levels
impossible to clear while playing them. There is no saving, so if you lose all of your lives at level 49, you
have to start from the beginning. However, if you hold Up and press A+B at the GDV screen, you will be
able to continue at the level on which you lost your last life.
Solomon’s Key has many hidden items and secret levels that are hard to find which enhances the
reward for playing. The ending slightly changes depending on which secret levels, if any, the player finds
and completes.

The modest porting

Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior (Death sword) is a video game first released for Commodore 64
personal computers in 1987; the title was developed and published by Palace Software, and ported to
other computers in the following months. The developers licensed the game to Epyx, who published it as
Death Sword in the United States. The DOS version was launched in 1988.
Barbarian is a fighting game that gives players control over sword-wielding barbarians. In the game’s
two-player mode, players pit their characters against each other. Barbarian also has a single-player mode,
in which the player’s barbarian braves a series of challenges set by an evil wizard to rescue a princess

CGA vs Amiga graphics, quite the diffrence


Made for Multiplayer. This is one of the few games from the 80’s to support multiplayer with the two
players fighting on the same screen, making this an older, simpler barbarian version of Mortal Kombat.
Gamer description. “This game is one of the oldest fighting games ever. Unlike those before it such
as the excellent Golden Axe or Double Dragon, in this game is no side scrolling, bash many pitiful
enemies. That is NOT the barbarian way. Instead, it is a lot like today’s fighting games - two equal
opponents have it out, until one of them loses his health or whatever. But Death Sword was way before
Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, or these newfangled Tekken, Virtua Fighter and Soul Calibur, with
their fancy hardware assisted 3D graphics and FPU’s. No siree, Death Sword was programmed and
played the hard way, with CGA graphics and a processor so slow it couldn’t run a toaster”

While the MS-DOS version kept the great C64 gameplay mechanics, the MS-DOS graphics and sound
were awful compared to C64 and especially Amiga computers. Both C64 and Amiga had good music, great
sounds with the metal swords clashing and Amiga also had a lot of amazing digitized sounds. Barbarian: The
Ultimate Warrior was a great game but not on the PC where it was only decent.

Porting done badly

 Contra, known as Gryzor in Europe and Oceania, is a 1987 run and gun action game developed and
published by Konami originally launched as a coin-operated arcade game on February 20, 1987. It was
also released for Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, DOS, NES MSX, ZX Spectrum and much later in 2006
for Xbox 360. Much of the game’s popularity came from its two-player simultaneous gameplay, which
was an uncommon feature in video games at the time of Contra’s release. While successful in the arcades,
the game became and remained widely popular and remembered when it was ported to the Nintendo
Entertainment System in 1988. Contra was voted #1 by gaming website IGN.com as being the “Toughest
Game to Beat”.

CGA only and the indecipherable player and graphics make one of the worst CGA graphics. The
NES version is from the same year…

If I was to review the NES version I would highly praise this game as it is one of the best games ever
to be launched for NES and they were not few but this book is about x86 MSDOS games and unfortunately
the MSDOS version was probably the worst porting of the game with poor 4 color graphics, annoying
sound, poor game speed, and poor gameplay and totally unresponsive controls. A classic game but not for
MSDOS platform as the programmers did a terrible job with the port.

Other decent non-3d graphical games. About 30 games (without the 3d releases) to write about until
now are already too much for 1988 but this is understandable considering that more than 350 game were
launched this year for PC DOS. I also want to point out the fact that so many x86 games were launched this
year by presenting some other decent releases. Other satisfactory MS-DOS games launched in 1988 were:
Annals of Rome (EGA), Double Dragon (EGA), Skate or Die! (EGA), Manhunter: New York (VGA), Demon
winter (VGA), The Games: Winter Edition (MCGA), Uridium (EGA), Rocket Ranger (EGA), Tower
Toppler (EGA), Wizardry V (CGA), Will Harvey’s Zany Golf (VGA), Jordan vs. Bird: One on One (EGA
and sound cards). While some of these games were natively only decent the rest were quite a blast on other
platforms but the MS-DOS port was’nt as successful and that’s why I didn’t reviewed them.

3D software games launched in 1988

This year continues the 1987 trend to launch games with real 3d graphics but rendered in software (by
the CPU). There are four good exclusive MS-DOS 3d games while rest of three were also available or
ported on other platforms. I find interesting the fact that a significant number of 3d games were available
in 1988 only for DOS. While I can understand that the older 8-bit computers had limits in the CPU power
and RAM but the newer 16/32-bit Apple IIGS, Amiga, Atari ST and the Macintosh computers were
clearly powerful enough to drive these games. Perhaps Amiga and Atari also had their share of exclusive
3d games as I didn’t make such an extensive research concerning the two competing platforms.

The best 3d game of the year F-19 Stealth Fighter will be ported but later in 1990 on both Amiga and
Atari ST and I also know an amazing classic game launched for both of them this year, Carrier Command.

Amazing Sid Meier interpretation of combat flight simulation, first on DOS

F-19 Stealth Fighter is a combat flight simulator released in 1988 (DOS) and 1990 (Amiga and Atari
ST) by MicroProse, featuring a fictional United States military aircraft. It is the 16-bit remake of the 8-bit
game Project Stealth Fighter, which was released for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum in 1987. In
1992, it was also ported to the NEC PC-9801 in Japan only. Critically acclaimed, the game was followed
by Night Hawk: F-117A Stealth Fighter 2.0 in 1991.

F-19 Stealth Fighter was based around Sid Meier’s closest estimate of the stealth fighter based on
the data available at the time. You get full 3D software graphics, 3D enemies, random objectives different
missions, dynamic radar effectiveness that depends on your position and radar cross section, enemies that
search you out if you do “tickle” their defenses, even civilian aircrafts in the air. It is also present the
ability to play in cold war, moderate war, or all-out war, with very different rules of engagement.

The graphics, even though only 16 color VGA, were well done. With a little imagination you’re
soaring over the North Cape or Iranian Desert. That they managed to fit very complex 3D theatres into the
humble 8088 based PC XT without using the 80286/80386 with floating point capabilities prove some
very awesome programming skills used in game. As always only the 320x200 resolution was a good
match for the old 8088/8086 microprocessor. Other Modes Supported CGA, EGA, Hercules, MCGA and
Tandy / PCjr.

VGA 320x200/ 16 3d graphics, while only in software rendering this is a huge realization (8 years
before 3dfx and Voodoo)


Sound innovations. F-19 Stealth Fighter was the first 3d game to implement support for many add on
sound devices such as: Adlib, Innovation Sound Standard, Roland MT-32 (and LAPC-I) and Sound
Blaster. It also supported the older PC Speaker and Tandy / PCjr. Consequently the game had amazing
sounds coming from engines, machinegun, rockets and explosions and a nice melody at the game
introduction. It was amazing back then.

While the game has its flaws, it does not distract from the truly amazing for the time gameplay, graphics
and sound as you kept coming back for more. The tension in the mission is real. If you got hit with heavy
damage and if you managed to get the wounded bird back to base you really feel you’ve cheated death. The
manual was also a masterpiece; it really sucked you into the environment. Many of today’s flight games
based solely on graphics could learn a lot from this amazing game with its astonishing gameplay and
atmosphere. This is not one of the best 3d software games from the 80’s, it is one of the best MS-DOS
games ever and it is a true classic; well-done Sid Meier.

From 2d adventures to quasi 3d flight simulation

Battlehawks 1942 is a quasi 3d naval air combat flight simulation video game released in 1988 by
LucasFilm Games. It is set in the World War II Pacific air war theatre, and was the first of Lucasfilm Games’
trilogy of WWII flight simulations, followed by Their Finest Hour (1989) and Secret Weapons of the
Luftwaffe (1991).

Gameplay. You can fly as an American or Japanese pilot in one of 4 operations in the Pacific Theatre
during WWII with some of the most fascinating planes from the WWII (A6M Zero, Aichi D3A, F4F
Wildcat, SBD Dauntless and TBF Avenger). This simulation can also qualify as educational software
because the manual features tons of historical information. The 127-page manual for Battlehawks 1942
includes a 100-page illustrated overview of the Pacific War.

Battlehawks 1942, Tricked me to include it as a 3d game


More quasi 3d than 3d graphics. Regarding graphics the game supported all major video modes
including MCGA and VGA, using 16 colors. Graphics were decent but slightly inferior when compared to
other 3d games such as F-19 Stealth Fighter and Flight Simulator 3.0. The main difference between this
game and the other 3d software games was the inclusion of many 2d images or sprites, such as planes and
battleships filmed in different angles that changed position depending on your approach. Hell I even doubt
the fact that this game had a single polygon unit but the 2.5d elements are implemented so well that made
most of us believe us to be a 3d game, including me and now it’s too late to move it back to the 2d games.
The game also has 3d gameplay, as you can fly the plane in any direction. I also liked the effects found in
the game such as smoke, bombs, explosions and machinegun fire, all are nicely implemented but in 2d.
The sound only supported the PC Speaker and was uninspired.
The game was a very impressive combat simulator of the major carrier battles of World War II from
the cockpit perspective. The good quasi 3d graphics with realism and attention to authenticity makes this a
very atmospheric and enjoyable game, complemented by excellent documentation and a remarkable
gameplay for 1988.

Again MS-DOS only 3d

JetFighter: The Adventure is a Flight Combat Simulator developed and published by Velocity in
1988 as an MS-DOS only game.
Description. Fly the F/A-18, F-16, and F-14 in a hypothetical invasion of the U.S. west coast by the
Soviet Union. Missions range from combat air patrols to bombing runs to intercepting cruise missiles.
Plus, carrier launches and landings are also possible.
 Game vs software. All major video modes were supported including VGA and while the game
worked with 512 KB RAM, the game required more ram on the newer MS-DOS 3.2 / 4.0 utilizing 640
KB RAM. This will be a much common tendency at the shift between MS-DOS and Windows 3.x in early
90’s.

VGA at 320x200/ 16 colors and 3d made decent graphics

The 3d software graphics were nice and the graphics included a detailed model of San Francisco - the
Golden Gate Bridge, Transamerica tower/pyramid, and more other landmarks.
Sound was the main negative element from the game, the old PC Speaker based sounded awful and
was irritating for years.
Jetfighter is a good game overall. Its description of carrier operations were unmatched for a few more
years, and combat missions ranging from dogfights to hauling mud, were definitely fun. Jetfighter’s
graphics engine was fairly advanced for its time as well and the single big lack was the lack of good
sounds.

Technical excellence in graphics

Flight Simulator 3.0 is a flight simulator developed and published by Microsoft. Microsoft Flight
Simulator 3 improved the flight experience by adding additional aircraft and airports to the simulated area
found in MSFS2 and also launched improved high-res (EGA, VGA) graphics and some other features.

The three simulated aircraft were the Gates Learjet 25, the Cessna Skylane, and the Sopwith Camel.
Flight Simulator 3 also allowed the user to customize the display; multiple windows, each displaying one
of several views, could be positioned and sized on the screen. The supported views included the
instrument and control panel, a map view, and various external camera angles.

Graphic innovations. The third release of Flight Simulator was a huge advancement over the previous
one regarding graphics. The video modes supported are CGA, CGA Composite (16 colors), EGA,
Hercules, Hercules InColor, MCGA 256 colors, Tandy / PCjr and the VGA. The game remarkably
implemented the 640x350x16 colors EGA/VGA graphic mode, a remarkable feat for late 80’s. The game is
also notable for the first time implementation of Gouraud Shading in video games allowing smoother
details on objects. The “pull down menus” were also nice to easily extend the gameplay visuals.


EGA/VGA 640x350/16 colors. I personally prefer higher resolution and 16 colors in this game
instead of the MCGA 320x200/256 presented lower
Game vs hardware. Not too many (if none) other games at the time could boast full-framerate, hi res
filled polygons and the high resolution 640x350x16 colors resolution. In this graphic mode the mighty
80286 was clearly needed to run the game at a high frame-rate (15-20 frames). The graphic modes at the
lower 320x200 resolution could be played on an 8088 microprocessor but at slow frame-rate and on 8086
at decent but still slow framerate.

MCGA with 256 colors. So many colors are better in character related games such as adventures
and RPG’s, and are unnoticeable in this game

Impressive use of CGA, dithering and 3d elements

While graphics were extremely well implemented the sound was completely and unfortunately
ignored by Microsoft as only slightly tweaked PC Speaker was implemented. The game also featured a
rare feature of the time multiplayer with null modems.

While the first two FS games had basic 3d vector graphics their visuals were quite unpleasant and
limited, just weird lines. With the launch of Flight Simulator 3.0 the standard for “realistic” flight
programs was set for many years after. Even the next release could not improve on it too much.

Another impressive 3d engine and another DOS exclusive

Abrams battle tank is a computer game developed by Dynamix and published by Electronic Arts in
1988 for DOS and was exclusive for DOS until the Genesis port from 1991.
Designed by Damon Slye, the game is a 3D vehicle simulation of the M1 Abrams tank, one of the first
games with tanks launched on the market but while the game was advertised as a simulation, the mission
were arcade game-like with a fixed sequence of actions to perform.

Innovative 3d graphics

Innovative graphics. The game graphics supported CGA, EGA, Hercules, Tandy / PCjr and were
very good and innovative for their time, featuring detailed polygonal units, palette change (when under
attack), many colors and dithering to simulate even more colors. With its advanced 3d graphics the game
clearly helped in the evolution of 3d gaming and its innovative 3d engine will be also used in many future
Dynamix games and in Betrayal at Krondor, a game released five years later in 1993.
The tank control was very goods; there were lots of items and enemies to blow up while the night
mission and irregular terrain also added to gameplay complexity. The game supported PC Speaker and
Tandy / PCjr compatible sound and for a tank based game resulted sound was decent enough to leave it on.

Reviews for the game are mixed, with many players enjoying the “fun factor” introduced by the lack of
realism, and others decrying it for the same reason. In the end the game offers a decent mix of arcade action,
3D puzzle, and tank simulation. It’s not realistic in some aspects, realistic in others, and has a strict script that
requires almost a puzzle-like approach. What makes this a special game are the very advanced 3d graphics,
graphics good enough even for early 90’s.

Innovating 3d graphics for personal computer

Virus (Zarch). Zarch is a computer game written by David Braben, (better known as the co-author of
Elite) in only three months in 1987, for the launch of the Acorn Archimedes computer. Zarch started off as
a demo called Lander which was bundled with almost all releases of the Acorn Archimedes. The game
will be ported and released under the Virus name in 1988 for to the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga (coded
by Jez San and his Argonaut team), and IBM PC (coded by Chris Sawyer). It was later ported to the ZX
Spectrum by Steven Dunn, an impressive achievement considering the inferior processing power and poor
graphics the Spectrum had when compared to the Archimedes, Amiga, Atari ST and PC.


Virus, dressed in EGA had polygons, shadows, particles and lighting effects

Innovative 3d graphics. The game was groundbreaking for the time, as it featured a three-
dimensional mouse-controlled craft (the “lander”) flying over a tile-rendered landscape that dazzled
reviewers in a primarily 2D-dominated game industry. While 3d software games were already launched
on the PC platforms, Virus was one of the first games launched for personal computers to have 3D
lighting effects, particles and polygon shadowing, although these are less sophisticated than those of
Zarch, launched for the Archimedes. Video arcades already received lighting and polygon shadowing,
with the I Robot arcade, launch in 1983.


Graphics on PC version. Chris Sawyer did a good job with the PC port, offering good 320x200/16
colors EGA graphics and the gameplay was fast enough even on the weak 8088 microprocessor, still to be
found in many x86 PC’s. Playing the game with an 8086 and especially 80286 did provide nontheless a
much smoother experience.
Reminiscent of the older arcade games Lander and Defender, the game is one of the most technical
innovative games through the 80’s and although its controls were difficult for beginners, requiring precise
mouse control the game was also very entertaining and enjoyable.

Good 3d for Macintosh, not so good for MS-DOS

The Colony is a first-person shooter developed by David Alan Smith and published by Mindscape.
The 1988 Macintosh release came in two versions, one in color and one with black-and-white graphics.
The DOS version, released the same year, was available in black-and-white only while the 1990 Amiga
version was also colored.

Development. It is interesting to note that in early stages of the game’s development, the standard
method of programming for the Macintosh was to use an Apple Lisa. Development tools for the Macintosh
did not exist when the Macintosh was initially released. David Alan Smith completed the first scenes of
The Colony with a C compiler ported to the Macintosh by Softworks. Those first scenes were developed
on a Macintosh with only 128KB of RAM and a single floppy disk drive. Eventually, development tools
were made available on the Macintosh, allowing Mr. Smith to complete his work using the Megamax C
and Lightspeed C compilers on a Macintosh upgraded to 512KB of RAM and a 20MB hard drive.

Innovations for 3d graphics. Previous first-person perspective games of the era used pre-rendered
views, such as The Sentinel/Sentry, or fixed-perspective quasi 3d graphics, such as the first person view
from Ultima and many other RPG’s. The Colony was one of the first games of its kind to let the player
move freely into a closed environment while rendering graphics in real time. It was also the first 3D
software game to let the player drive a vehicle. Instead of a 360-degree circle; The Colony used 256
“pseudo-degrees” which allowed the game engine to rotate the player’s perspective using only one byte
of data. Bit-map graphics were drawn using MacPaint, while 2D images such as doors, letters, and the
Apple logo were crafted using the game engine.

The innovative color Apple version running in window mode and with a very high 640x480
resolution

3d on MSDOS in black and white is not so impressive despite the high 640x350 EGA resolution used

Graphics on MS-DOS. The video modes supported for MS-DOS were AT&T PC 6300, CGA, EGA,
and the monochrome MCGA and the lack of colors was a serious drawback for the PC version. The
Macintosh graphics were much better, with a huge resolution, detailed objects and colored graphics, but I
do appreciate slightly more the innovative 3d graphics with lighting effects and polygon shadowing
available in the Zarch/Virus video game.

Truly innovative for this game was the first 1st-person shooter settings in a closed environment very
different than all other 3d games at the time who had their action set in air or dark space, locations better
fitted for 3d graphics. The game also included an effective interface combined with an excellent plot
which combined with the top graphics made the game extremely fascinating and liked in late 80’s. The
Apple version won the Best Adventure Game of the Year from MacWorld magazine for while the worse
black and white MS-DOS version passed probably unnoticed.

Text ASCII games launched in 1988 for PC

The fall of Text Adventures. At the same time that 3d games with 3d software graphics are finally
launched in a decently high number, interactive fiction starts to fall into abyss. The fall of text adventures is
a clear and logical step in the evolution of PC gaming due to the increasing performance and graphical
capabilities of modern computers that were powerful enough in late 80’s to display advanced graphics, to
make innovative operations and computational tasks much more advanced that those required by the
ASCII/text games. Also, most of the gamers wanted advanced graphics and so the ASCII based games such
as interactive fictions did lose a lot of interest in the late 80’s. While there were many great ASCII games
the same great text stories can be always integrated with graphics and sound therefore keeping pleasure to
read while increasing the appeal of the game and targeting a larger number of gamers.

Text adventure games will still be launched in 1988 but not as good and interesting as the one launched
in the previous years; perhaps the best interactive fiction game of the year is “Dr. Dumont’s Wild
P.A.R.T.I.” and I will only describe this one.

The last party before the death of interactive fiction

Dr. Dumont’s Wild P.A.R.T.I. is a text based Interactive Fiction game developed by First Row
Software Publishing in 1988 for MSDOS and Macintosh. The game’s text and descriptions were so well
written that it was easy to imagine what was going on. It has a fun, dark, sinister feel to it: lots of evil
clowns, kite races, and other other-worldly attractions. The puzzles are hard, but not impossible, and the
map is big, interesting and complex.

Exploration, the key of success in many text adventures

Unfortunately I didn’t play the game that’s why I will let a gamer to express his opinions about the
game. “I loved the old IF games and this one was so clever that I still hold it as my favorite. Ultimately,
I was so intrigued by the game that I started thinking that I wanted to program professionally so I’d be
able to do this kind of thing (look at me now, I program Database front ends: yipee). It had a fairly
complex map, hard puzzles (but not ridiculously hard like HHGG’s babel fish problem!) and the text was
very well written. It just had a neat, sinister, evil clown feel that put it apart from the other IF games in
that era. “

Other decent text adventures launched in 1988 are Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels, The
Shadows of Mordor, Fish,Time and Magik: The Trilogy, Dream Zone and Corruption. Overall the quality
of interactive fiction games was seriously lower compared to the previous years.

Game vs. Hardware, the 1988 conclusion. While I can’t question the abundant number of games and
top games and the impressive gameplay quality concerning the x86 games released this year I will express
some dissatisfaction about the use of newer hardware by the games. EGA with its high 650x350/16 colors
was almost unused (except for the FS 3.0) while the MCGA/VGA capable of 256 colors at 320x200 only
received 16 colors (except for the same FS 3.0) thus being almost as incapable as a Tandy 1000 or PCjr
computer which had the fixed palette as the main disadvantage. Sure graphics were faster on EGA/VGA
and many special effects were also available but most gamers only saw the same 16 colors already
implemented since 1984. While some developers such as Sierra implemented graphics similar to
EGA/VGA in the top rival platforms such as Amiga and Atari ST to save time; in other games the Amiga,
Atari ST and even NES had much better graphics showing their true hardware capabilities; amazingly
CGA only games were still developed.

While the 80286 was already launched by a large period of time no game from 1988 specifically
required the processor to run the game but some engines such as Sierra’s SCI and many of the 3D
software games were slower on the older 8088/8086 making finally a narrow reason to upgrade the
microprocessor.

As a huge fan of good sounds and music in games my huge joy this year comes from the implementation
of powerful sound devices such as Adlib, Roland MT-32 5-6 good games; the weaker Game Blaster was
also used in a similar number. Sound on IBM PC and compatibles will finally change for good.

I must also positively acknowledge the new peripheral hardware, the mouse, supported by now by
newer MS-DOS 4.x although it was available some years before on some x86 PC Compatibles and many
years before on the competing platforms. The mouse was used in a very large number of games this year;
much more than I expected and was used quite efficiently, as many game designers optimized both the
gameplay and the menu for the mouse use.

Gaming competition for PC’s in 1988

New competing hardware
As we saw this year the PC is finally taken into account as a preferred platform for gaming, despite
the launch of other amazing gaming platforms in the previous years. This year only one top gaming device
was launched, the Sega Genesis, a high end console that for now wasn’t such a big threat for the x86 PC
gaming, at least compared to the previous high end computers such as Atari ST, Amiga 500 and Apple
IIGS.

So innovative that launched a new generation of consoles

SEGA Genesis. The Sega Genesis, also known as Mega Drive in most regions outside North America, is
a 16-bit video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Sega Enterprises, Ltd. The Genesis
is the first 16-bit console and launched the fourth generation of consoles, based on 16-bit CPU’s. The Genesis
is Sega’s third console and was a direct successor to the Master System. Sega first released the console in
Japan in 1988 and later worldwide.
The Genesis is Sega’s most successful console in terms of both sales and market share with around 40
million consoles sold worldwide but in Japan, the Mega Drive did not fare well against its two main
competitors, Nintendo’s Super Famicom (1990) and NEC’s PC-Engine (1987). However, it achieved
impressive success in North America and in Europe, capturing the majority of the 16-bit console market
share in several territories including the United States and the United Kingdom. The console and its games
continue to be popular among fans, collectors, video game music fans, and emulation enthusiasts.
Licensed third party re-releases of the console are still being produced, and several indie game
developers continue to produce games for it.

The original Mega Drive had a better design vs. the Genesis Model 2


Arcade hardware in console size. Designed by an R&D team supervised by Masami Ishikawa, the
Genesis hardware was adapted from Sega’s System 16 arcade board, centered around an amazingly
powerful for a console Motorola 68000 16/32 bit processor as a primary CPU and a Zilog Z80 as a
secondary processor or sub-processor which controls the sound chips and also provided backwards
compatibility with the Master System. The system contains 72 KB of RAM, as well as 64KB of video
RAM, and can display up to 64 colors at once from a palette of 512. The system’s games were released in
the common ROM cartridge format and are inserted in the top. The system produces sounds using two
chips; an FM synthesizer and a Texas Instruments SN76489 Programmable sound generator. The Z80 sub-
processor directly controlled the two sound chips, producing stereo music and sound effects, both
synthesized and digitized.

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) an amazing Genesis game

Gaming on Genesis. Except for the fact that it was compatible with games launched for the Sega
Master System that were already in large numbers, the Genesis library was initially modest, but eventually
grew to contain games to appeal to all types of players. The initial pack-in title was Altered Beast, which
was later replaced with Sonic the Hedgehog. Top sellers included Sonic the Hedgehog, its sequel Sonic the
Hedgehog 2, and Aladdin. The system supports now a huge library of over 900 games created both by Sega
and a wide array of third-party publishers and delivered on ROM-based cartridges.
It can also play the complete library of Sega Master System games when the separately sold Power
Base Converter peripheral is installed. The Genesis also benefited from numerous other peripherals and
several network services, as well as multiple first-party and third-party variations of the console that were
launched to extend its functionality and lifetime.


There are so many great Genesis games that I must present them on a yearly basis as a competing
gaming platform for the x86 computers but unfortunately most of the games will be developed in the 90’s
and therefore most of them will be described in my second future book.
Older competition for x86 gaming
Arcade gaming. This year is one of the weakest regarding gaming in all arcade history as very few
arcade games were launched: Asault developed by Namco, Ghouls’n Ghosts developed by Capcom and
Superman developed by Taito. The Tetris arcade was also launched this year, but had limited success.

C64 was in 1988 on a “No retreat, No Surrender strategy” (I loved the movie), where the small
powerless guy (C64) still beat the crap out of the stronger, bigger and more powerful Ivan Kraschinsky
the Russian aka Van Damme (16/32-bit Atari ST and Amiga,) which itself beat the crap out of the smaller
and powerless opponents (other older 8-bit platforms).

Armalyte, a C64 exclusive and the red eye boss

Best C64 games launched this year are: Impossible Mission II, Keith Van Eron’s Pro Soccer, Zak
McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, Wasteland, Last Ninja 2, Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny, Pool of
Radiance, Emlyn Hughes International Soccer, Neuromancer, Katakis, Samurai Warrior: The Battles of
Usagi Yojimbo, Times of Lore, Armalyte, Bard’s Tale III: The: Thief of Fate and there it also received
many more other decent games.
Again the C64 will receive an amazingly high number of games, with more than 460 releases, an
impressive number considering the platform’s age.

Apple II and Apple IIGS received a decent number of good games such as: Bubble Bobble,
Wasteland (Interplay), Impossible Mission II, Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World, Zany Golf,
Space Quest II, Warlock, Tomahawk, Silpheeed, King’s Quest III: To Heir is Human, Marble Madness,
California Games, Defender of the Crown and few more others recovering from a very weak previous year
for gaming.

Silpheed for Apple IIGS and another red boss

While Apple IIGS received a large number of top games, the number of games specially designed for
IIGS capabilities were below 40 while the older Apple II platforms received almost 80. While Apple
IIGS was also capable to run the other 80 Apple II games, inferior in graphics the platform failed to make
a successful impression to game developers.

Defender of the Crown, for Apple IIGS, one of the first and few games to implement 256 colors on
Apple IIGS

ZX Spectrum. The gaming supremacy days of the ZX Spectrum in UK were far from over in 1988.
While few top games were launched this year for the Spectrum: RoboCop, Laser Squad, R-Type and few
others, many other decent released were available for the ZX Spectrum because the platforms received
more than 300 games this year, an amazing number considering the limited hardware. Many British
computer fans that were also using by now an Atari ST, Amiga, x86 or Archimedes computer also kept the
ZX Spectrum as a gaming and educational device for their youngsters.

 R-type and ….a red boss

Amstrad CPC. While the British computer will receive a large number of games this year, more than 240
titles few of those many games launched will be top games. As top games the CPC platform will receive
Xenon, Arkanoid: Revenge of DOH, Bionic Commando, Arcticfox, Captain Blood and perhaps others
because I am not so versed concerning CPC gaming. I do know that many smaller European game developers
extensively supported the CPC in the late 80’s.

Bionic Commando for CPC

 TRS Co-Co3 will receive in 1988 some top games such as: Slipheed,
King’s Quest III: To Heir is Human, Thexder, Leisure Suit Larry in
the Land of the Lounge Lizards, Silpheed and the decent Super
Pitfall.

Slipheed for TRS-80 CoCo3

TRS has the best ratio of top games vs total number of games
launched this year as only 9 games were launched for TRS Co-Co3
this year and I’ve mentioned five; an amazing efficiency for good
games and an amazingly small number of games.

MSX. While the MSX glory days were over the platform still received in 1988 several good games:
R-Type, Parodius, Aleste, Nemesis 3 - The Eve of Destruction and Quinp. More than 140 games were
launched this year for the MSX, quite a large number.

R-type for MSX. I remember killing this…red boss on the ZX Spectrum

Atari ST received this year many good games such as: Buggy Boy, Typhoon Thompson, Nebulus,
Speedball, Super Hang-On, Carrier Command, Captain Blood, Xenon, Elite, IK+, Obliterator, Tower
Toppler and I hope I’m not forgetting some goodies. Overall it was a very good year for Atari ST based
gaming but the platform was slightly bested by its most direct competitor the Amiga and also by the x86
computers. The Atari ST will receive about 290 games this year, a very large number.




Carrier Command, the first 3D (software) RTS was

launched first on Atari ST

Amiga. After a modest previous year regarding gaming the launch of the Amiga 500 a high end
multimedia computer with a very good price convinced many game developers to produce a lot of games
for the Amiga family.

International Karate + for Amiga with some impressive colors

While in 1987 around 120 games were launched for Amiga, in 1988 the platform received more than 300
games, showing how fruitful really was for the platform the launch of the Amiga A500 computer. Best Amiga
games launched in 1988 are Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Xenon, Rocket Ranger, Menace, Zak McKracken
and the Alien Mindbenders, Elite, F/A-18 Interceptor, IK+, Fish!, Battle Chess, The Great Giana Sisters,
Super Hang-On, Hybris, Red Storm Rising, Jinxter and there were others. While C64 still had a larger
number of better games the Amiga graphics and sound were unmatched in both U.S. and Europe.

Macintosh and Macintosh II. Although the Macintosh platforms received less than 45 games this
year the ratio of good games from those 45 was extremely favorable with many top releases such as:
Arkanoid, Autoduel, Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Simulator, Life & Death, Leisure Suit Larry in the
Land of the Lounge Lizards, Sid Meier’s Pirates!, Space Quest II: Chapter II - Vohaul’s Revenge, Tetris,
Star Wars, Shufflepuck Café, Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Simulator, The Manhole, The Colony,
presented before and some few other. I always favor the top games over the total number of games
received by a platform therefore I consider this year quite decent regarding Macintosh gaming.



Sid Meier’s Pirates! for Macintosh, very enjoyable graphics

Amazing hardware, completely unnoticed

Acorn Archimedes received unfortunately only four games in 1988 and I don’t mean 4 good games, 4
games overall. Conqueror was a 3d game based on the original Zarch while Repton 3 and Corruption
were also decent games but the platform was clearly way behind all competitors despite its important
hardware advantages. The other platforms received much more games this year (Apple IIGS about 40,
Atari ST about 280, Amiga about 310, PC DOS about 350 and C64 about 450). Comparatively, platforms
that I’ve stopped presenting in the previous year’s such as the Atari 8-bit received almost 40 games, Atari
2600 received 18 games and BBC Micro around 25 games.

NES. This year was astonishing for NES as a gaming device because many classic games with the
best gameplay, good graphics and good sounds were launched for the successful Japanese platform. Some
of the best NES games launched in 1988 are in no particularly order: Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest,
Blades of Steel, Dragon Warrior III, Bubble Bobble, Blaster Master, R.C. Pro-Am, Contra, Bionic
Commando, Mickey Mousecapade, Legendary Wings, Tetris, Life Force, Jackal, The Guardian Legend,
Super Mario Bros 3, Mega Man 2, Super Dodge Ball, Guerrilla War, Ninja Gaiden, Ice Hockey, Section
Z.

Super Mario Bros 3 a Nintendo exclusive classic (World 8 - first autoscroller) and The Guardian
Legend a NES exclusive and its red Dragon Boss :D


In 1988 NES was the clearly the best platform for gaming followed closely by C64, Amiga and x86.
Almost 160 games were launched this year for the platform.

SEGA Master System received some decent games but had a trouble competing with the NES in
both number and overall quality of the games. Best SMS games from 1988 are: R-Type, Space Harrier 3-
D, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Kenseiden, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Cloud Master and some few decent
others.

Kenseiden is an SMS exclusive, at the training academy and the final red boss seen the game and the
last red boss from my yearly platforms comparison.

TurboGrafx-16. The newly launched TurboGrafx-16 received in 1988 the amazing classic Galaga
‘90, R-Type I and II, Keith Courage in Alpha Zones and some other good games released exclusively for
the Japanese market. It will enter the U.S. market only later in August 1989 and with limited success. This
is unfortunate as the TurboGrafx-16 was one of the best platforms in the 80’s regarding graphics with up
to 482 simultaneous colors, capable to make wonderful looking games.

Galaga ’90 had amazing graphics, sound and gameplay. The game also had red bosses but I
resisted the temptation

Atari 7800 and Atari XEGS. In 1988 the Atari will gave up most efforts to develop games for the
XEGS and third party developers will also produce few games for the 7800, concentrating most efforts on
SMS and especially NES. Some of the best 7800 games in 1988 are: Dark Chambers, Super
Skateboardin’ and Xevious while the Atari XEGS received Crystal Castles.



Dark Chambers for 7800.The game is an Atari 8-bit exclusive and had nice graphics at the time

Atari will maintain its effort to develop games for the 7800 in 1989 and 1990 as the consoles was
owned by more than 3 million of North Americans but in 1991 will completely stop to develop games for
its 8-bit platforms.

A word of regret about Japanese computer based gaming in the 80’s.

I would like again to express my regrets about the very brief description of Sharp X1, Fujitsu FM-7,
NEC PC-8801 and NEC PC-9801 and Sharp X68000 computer families regarding hardware and the
absence of description regarding games. There are two main reasons regarding these omissions, my lack
of familiarity regarding the Japanese games in the 80’s and the fact that these Japanese computers didn’t
compete with the European and U.S based computers and especially the x86 computers, they had a
different market of their own. The notable exclusions is the standardized MSX computer and the Japanese
based consoles such as NES, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis and the Turbografx-16 designed for both
Japan and the rest of the world, platform that clearly competed with the x86 PC’s regarding gaming.

Conclusion of x86 gaming in 1988. 1988 is a revolutionary year regarding x86 platform gaming from
many points of view: total number of games received with the larger number after the C64, amazing
innovations in gameplay for many of them, enough games that were available first on MS-DOS or MS-
DOS exclusives and the x86 computers also received the most 3d software games.

Things were completely rose for the x86 platform especially regarding graphics because CGA only
games were still launched, EGA was not implemented at its full potential while the VGA games with 256
colors were clearly out of the menu. Almost all VGA games were implemented at quality levels similar to
EGA and the older Tandy 1000 and PCjr. Overall I would place the overall x86 graphics this year slightly
above C64 but bellow NES, Atari ST and especially Amiga.

Great Adlib or Roland MT-32 based sound was present in too few x86 games to dethrone the overall
sound quality of the older C64 and NES, while Atari ST and Amiga still were still incomparably better
regarding overall sound quality in games.


I would also like to note the fact that 1988 is the first relevant year for multiplayer gaming ; while
games capable to support more than one human player were already launched in the previous years the
overall numbers were too low to count a relevant category. Some of the PC games that supported
multiplayer gaming in 1988 are Battle Chess, Bubble Bobble, Kings of the Beach, Contra, Death Sword,
Flight Simulator 3.0 quite a bunch of them, including some top titles. The reality to have only one computer
and two gamer kids under the same roof was now less unfortunate.

 While the absolute ruler in electronic gaming this year is NES I would place the x86 gaming on a
honorable second place, equal with the C64 (slightly fewer top games, weaker overall graphics, better
overall sound) and Amiga (considerably fewer games, better overall graphics, much better overall
sound). Atari ST followed the gaming podium quite closely.

Games vs. Hardware in 1989

Main events in computer industry

Companies. Plextor, Tyan, ABI, Iwill, XFX, KingMax, Asus and S3 Inc. are were founded this
year. All will become in time important companies regarding x86 hardware. Asus and S3 will be
particularly active on the x86 computer market in the 90’s.

Hardware. Motorola announced in 1989 the 68040 microprocessor, with approximately 1.2
million transistors. The 68040 was the first member of the 680x0 family to include a floating-
point unit and included instruction and data caches of 4KB. The orange book is a book first
released in 1989 by Philips and Sony that defines the standard for writable discs. In this book,
you can find the standards for CD-MO, CD-R, CD-ROM and CD-RW discs.

Software. Corel released the first version of CorelDraw in January.

Networks and internet. The SQL Server and the networking routing protocol OSPF are
introduced. The first ISP (internet service provider) known as “The World” began servicing
customers this year. It started by offering the dial-up access to the public with the 9600 baud
Modem, with the amazing non attainable top speed of 9,60 Kbps or 1,17 KB/s. In comparison my
ISP offers the amazing attainable top speed of 1000 Mbps, or 1000000 Kbps, therefore it is at
least 104166 times faster.

Personalities. Fred Cohen is awarded the Information Technology Award. Jan Rajchman a prolific
inventor with 107 US patents including the first read only memory passes away April 1, 1989.
Antoni Kilinski another computer pioneer passes away May 6, 1989. Robert Morris becomes first
person indicted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act on July 26, 1989.
New x86 hardware launched in 1989
Unused in the 80’s, indispensible in middle-late 90’s

SVGA. Originally the SVGA was only an extension to the VGA standard first released by IBM in
1987 but unlike VGA a purely IBM-defined standard the Super VGA was never formally defined. The
closest to an “official” definition was in the VBE extensions defined by the Video Electronics Standards
Association (VESA), an open consortium set up to promote interoperability and define graphic standards.
In this document, there was simply a footnote stating that “The term ‘Super VGA’ is used in this
document for a graphics display controller implementing any superset of the standard IBM VGA
display adapter.” When used as a resolution specification, in contrast to VGA (640x480) or XGA
(1024x768) for example, the term SVGA normally refers to a resolution of 800 × 600 pixels.
Though technically some Super VGA cards appeared in the same year as VGA (1987) they were also
called VGA with additional graphic modes or VGA extended and it wasn’t until 1989 that a standard for
programming Super VGA modes was defined by VESA. In that first version, it defined support for (but
did not require) a maximum resolution of 800 × 600 4-bit pixels. Each pixel could therefore be any of 16
different colors. It was quickly extended to 1024 × 768 8-bit pixels, and well beyond that in the following
years.
On paper, the original Super VGA was to be succeeded by XGA successor the SUPER XGA but in
practice the industry soon abandoned the attempt to provide a unique name for each higher display standard,
and almost all display systems made between the early 90s and the early 2000’s are classed as Super VGA.

SVGA use in games. The SVGA standard began its life in x86 PC games timidly in 1993 in some
games such as Alone in the dark 2, Quest for Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness, Myst and few others. The
earliest common graphic modes used in the SVGA games was the 640x480/ 256 colors also implemented
in some VGA cards with more RAM and the 800x600 graphic mode with both 16 and 256 colors. The
VGA and SVGA continued to coexist until 1996/1997 when the SVGA replaced almost completely the
VGA in the games requirements. The SVGA will also coexist with the XGA for a small period of time as
they shared several common resolutions 640x480 and 1024x768 (800x600 was added later in the XGA-
2). Every resolution beyond the 1024x768 was considered a SVGA only back in the 90’s. While there is
much to say about the SVGA I will extend the debate in the 90’s.

The best CPU for personal computers

Intel 80486. The Intel 80486 (alias i486 or Intel486) was an advanced and powerful microprocessor
following the already very fast (for 1989) Intel 80386. Introduced in 1989, it was the first tightly
pipelined x86 design as well as the first x86 chip to use more than a million transistors, due to a large on-
chip cache and an integrated floating point unit; it also had advanced multitasking capabilities. It
represents a fourth generation of binary compatible CPUs since the original 8086 microprocessor
launched in 1978.

Intel i486, the external package (left) and the internal die (right)

Performance. The processor used instruction pipelining, a technique used by RISC processors, to
more than double the performance of the 386 in some cases. Overall the performance gains compared to
the 80386 at the same frequency were between 20 and 60% while for floating point calculations the
increase was much higher as the 80486 integrated a floating point unit.


Gaming on 486. The 486 wasn’t use for gaming in 1989 as it was very expensive and was initially
available only in a small number of computers costing more than US$15000. Later, from 1992/1994 when
AMD and other CPU makers will release cheaper 80386 and 80486 clones and reduce overall prices of
microprocessors the 80486 and especially the 486DX2 66 MHz version will become very popular. The
80486 Intel processors and their clones will be used in many gamer’s computers running video games at a
high speed during early up to mid-1990s, toward the end of the MS-DOS gaming era due to its high
integer performance. It was often coupled with a VESA Local Bus video card that also has some basic
functions to accelerate 2d graphics.


Demise. The introduction of advanced 3D software games and from 1996 3D hardware accelerated
computer games brought the end of the 486’s reign, because complex 3D graphics make heavy use of
floating point calculations, need faster CPU cache and more memory bandwidth. Developers began to
target the P5 Pentium processor family almost exclusively with x86 assembly language optimizations
(e.g., Quake) which led to the usage of terms like “Pentium compatible processor” for software
requirements. Many of these games required the speed of the P5 Pentium processor family’s double-
pipelined architecture. Nonetheless many games from late 90’s worked on a high frequency 486, games
such as Age of Empires, Starcraft and many more others.

The first, not so personal computer based on 80486. In 1989 Apricot Computers announced the first
486-based PC, in London, England. The VX FT was a server and used the 25 MHz Intel 80486
microprocessor, IBM’s MCA bus, Ethernet on-board, 1MB up to 16MB RAM and VGA. Its price started
from US$18,000, how many gamers could afford this?

Digital sound, FM, game port and a great name

SoundBlaster. Creative Labs introduced in 1989 the SoundBlaster/ CT1320A (code named “Killer
Kard”), a sound card specifically launched for the x86 PC’s that contains an FM synthesizer with text-to-
speech, digitized voice input/output, a MIDI port, a joystick port and bundled software.
In addition to the older Game Blaster features, the CT1320A had an 11-voice FM synthesizer using
the Yamaha YM3812 chip, also known as OPL2. It provided perfect compatibility with the then market
leader AdLib sound card, which already had gained support in some PC games in the previous year.
When Microsoft announced Multimedia PC (MPC) in November 1990, it suggested to developers that
they use the Sound Blaster as it was the only sound card that came close to complying with the MPC
standard. The press speculated that Microsoft based the MPC standard on the Sound Blaster’s
specifications, a reasonable assumption since it was the best and more complex sound card launched for
PC’s.

The first sight of digital sound in PC’s

The new winning features. Creative used the “DSP” acronym to designate the digital audio part of
the Sound Blaster. This actually stood for Digital Sound Processor, rather than the more common digital
signal processor, and was really a simple micro-controller from the Intel MCS-51 family. The DSP
encoded the signal into pulse code modulation (PCM) and could playback monaural sampled sound at up
to 22 kHz sampling frequency (approx. FM radio quality) and record at up to 12 kHz (approximately AM
radio quality). The sole DSP-like feature of the circuit was ADPCM decompression.


 The digital DSP sound also known as PCM was also available at the older AMIGA line but at an
inferior quality and was a very important feature missing in Adlib sound card. The inclusion of the game
port, had also a significant importance for the card early success and is often forgotten or overlooked as
PC’s of this era did not include a game port and game port cards were costly (around $50) and also used
one of the few expansion slots PC’s had at the time. Given the choice between an AdLib card and a fully
compatible Sound Blaster card that came with a game port and digital “DSP” sound at a similar price
what would you choose? Most gamers obviously decided to buy the Sound Blaster.


While the Sound Blaster has MIDI features comparable in quality to Adlib sound cards it had no
chance to compete in this regard with the Roland MT-32. Nonetheless the Roland sound cards lacked
PCM/digital sound and also had a much higher price; therefore Sound Blaster also was a competitor here.

This card vs the sound in the competing platforms. With the launch of Sound Blaster all other
previous kings in sound quality, the Amiga line, the Atari ST line and the Apple IIGS were completely
dethroned, all having overall undoubtedly inferior sound features compared to the Sound Blaster card. The
only two more powerful platforms regarding sound quality were in Japan with the launch of the powerful
Fujitsu FM Towns in 1989 while the older Sharp x6800 was still the king of computer based music. Yet
those systems were only sold in Japan and for now were not in market competition with the Sound Blaster.

In less than a year, the Sound Blaster became the top-selling expansion card for the PC. It achieved this by
providing a fully AdLib-compatible product, with additional features, for the same, and often a lower price.
New x86 Operating Systems and their use for gaming in 1989
No more Booter games. While no new MS-DOS version was launched this year, the DOS 4.0
launched in 1988 finally convinced game developers to launch DOS only games. From the amazing number
of almost 500 games launched in 1989 for the PC platform only 4 of them were PC Booter, ending finally
the long period of unused operating system for gaming.

The confines of DOS. Many software developers struggled with the DOS architectural choices and
RAM limits; companies such as Lotus and Microsoft who improved the code-intensive versions of their
programs, were relying on undesired bank-switching techniques or DOS extenders to make their programs
run more efficiently under the 640KB of RAM memory limit allowed by DOS. Both choices were not
simple as each has its own set of assets and liabilities. But with OS/2 at the time delayed in the market, it
seemed to be a future for alternatives. Microsoft has chosen bank switching for Excel and Windows,
while Lotus has seriously looked at DOS extenders for its unreleased 1-2-3, Release 3.0. While for most
game developers the 640 KB were still enough, the future prospects of higher quality games were limited
because of the small amount of RAM supported by MS-DOS.

OS/2 1.2, better but not for gaming. In 1989 Microsoft and IBM unveiled the 16-bit OS/2 1.2
operating system. The Version 1.2 introduced Installable Filesystems and notably the HPFS filesystem.
HPFS provided a number of improvements over the older FAT filesystem, including long filenames and a
form of alternate data streams called Extended Attributes. In addition, the extended attributes were also
added to the FAT file system. The OS/2 1.2 had a similar user interface to Microsoft’s Windows 2.1
launched in 1988. The interface will be later replaced in versions 1.2 and 1.3 by a tweaked GUI closer in
appearance to Windows 3.1. The DOS software support, especially for games was still buggy and
unreliable, so the O.S. was clearly not a choice for gamers.

 Unfortunately for OS/2 the immensely successful Windows 3.0 will be launched by Microsoft alone
very soon in May 22, 1990 and the inevitable breakup between IBM and Microsoft will also came that
year; more about the reasons in the next book, about the 90’s.

Desired future roles for Windows and OS/2. Responding to increasing industry confusion about the
relative roles of Windows and OS/2 both IBM and Microsoft jointly issued, during the COMDEX, a
public statement titled “IBM and Microsoft Expand Partnership; Set Future DOS and OS/2 Directions.”
According to the statement the majority of development resources were to be applied to OS/2, with the
intent to deliver in 1990 an advanced version to exploit the innovative capabilities of the 80386 and i486
microprocessors. The future OS/2 was also advertised to receive more other advanced features such as
demand paging, the ability to run multiple DOS applications concurrently and allow applications to
exploit the 32-bit flat memory model and to enable OS/2 for 2 MB entry systems. DOS and Windows
were recommended for systems with 1-2 MB of memory or fixed disk drives smaller than 30 MB. I do
believe that most of the statement was composed by IBM because the future role of Windows was clearly
undervalued; later in 1990 IBM will be stunned by the success that the “inferior” Windows 3.0 will have
on the PC market.
Games launched for PC’s in 1989
Some thoughts. It was mostly this year that I had some basic knowledge about x86 games when I
began to write this book and after a lot of study and gaming I realized how little I knew. I will save the
rest of my thoughts for the yearly conclusion but I will explain the omission of a true classic game from
1989 called Prince of Persia. While the game was launched for Apple II in 3 October 1989 the MS-DOS
version was ported a year later in 1990 therefore I will mention the game in the second book. Sorry
Prince of Persia fans.
I don’t know if many observed but I had a reticence until now to call the IBM PC’s and compatibles
under the simple PC name as I consider all non x86 computers from the 80’s personal computers.
Nonetheless no more x86, MS-DOS, PC DOS or IBM compatibles, from now I will only use the PC term.

An exemplary model of originality. From the top games reviewed this year 7 games were ported
from the previous year’s competing platforms, 12 are same year releases, some even launched first on PC
and amazingly 16 are original PC games, ported only later on other platforms or PC exclusives. While
other TOP PC platforms such as Atari ST and Amiga had their share of exclusive games, their numbers
were considerably smaller; NES still was the leader in exclusive due to its exclusivity agreements.
Seven plus twelve plus sixteen may appear like a very large number but in my point of view all of
them deserve to be mentioned and most of them to praised. Again there is no particularly order for the
placement in the book. Let the 1989 gaming begin!

Prepare to be a GOD

Populous is a computer game developed by Bullfrog in 1989 and is regarded by many as the first PC
god game. The game was released for a very large number of platforms, mostly based 16-32 bit
architecture. It was the first game in the Populous series, preceding Populous II and Populous: The
Beginning. The 2001 game Black & White also led by Molyneux (but this time at his company Lionhead
Studios) will be called the “spiritual descendant of Populous.”
Bullfrog prototyped the game-play as a board game using Lego, over the course of a few days. Peter
Molyneux led the development team and mentioned in an interview that the reason the player could
manipulate terrain was that he was too lazy to design the many pre-defined maps that would have
otherwise been required.


Innovative game concept. The game concept is a very intriguing one: prove yourself the deity of
deities by assuming godly powers and aiding the Good little computer people in their life-or-death struggle
with the evil little computer people. You do this across a very large number of worlds (500 levels) with
striking and strikingly different-looking terrain types: grassy, snowy, desert, lava, etc. In addition to raising
and lowering the level of the terrain, you have the power to cause floods, earthquakes, and volcanoes. You
can dub some of your “walkers” and call out knights who will equip shield and sword and go forth and
wreak much havoc against the enemy, killing them and burning their homes and castles.

Graphics. The PC version supported most of the graphics standards including the VGA. The
resolution was the common 320x200 with only 16 colors and had a small gameplay area. Nonetheless the
game had good isometric graphics that simulated a 3d terrain.

Populous for MS-DOS. All platforms had similar graphics

Great Sound. The game fortunately supported both Adlib and Roland MT-32 (and LAPC-I) beside the
older PC Speaker (Tweaked) and Tandy / PCjr. It featured both good music and sounds during gameplay, an
amazing feat for 1989.
The game also supported the modem for multiplayer gaming between two players and both modem
and null-modem cable gaming choices were available.
Awards. In 1991, Populous won the Origins Award for Best Military or Strategy Computer Game of
1990 as well as 1990 Computer Game of the Year in American video game magazine Video Games &
Computer Entertainment.
The god game launched in 1989 by the Bullfrog designer Peter Molyneux helped establish the genre
for would-be deities with totally unique gameplay, simple design and layout and smooth 2.5D colorful
isometric graphics with deformable terrain. It is a classic that spawn a significant number of follow-ups
but none was as innovating as this one.

Luckily from Atari ST to DOS, the best port from 1989

Dungeon Master (short: DM) is an early grid-based pseudo 3D role-playing video game blessed
with real time action. DM was developed and published by FTL Games for the Atari ST in 1987. It
reportedly sold 40,000 copies in its year of release alone, and went on to become the ST’s best-selling
product of all time, reaching a market penetration of more than 50% of the Atari STs ever sold. The PC
version was launched in 1989 and was as successful.
Gameplay Innovations. Dungeon Master is a real-time RPG game in contrast to the very common
and traditional turn-based gameplay found in contemporary RPG games. The older abstract Dungeons and
Dragons style experience points and levels were eschewed to favor a system where the characters’ skills
were improved directly via using them. Dungeon Master was not the first game to introduce these features
as Dungeons of Daggorath for the TRS-80 Color Computer first employed them in 1982 but Dungeon
Master was, however, responsible for popularizing these elements. Other innovative feature of Dungeon
Master was the fact that it allowed players to directly manipulate objects and the environment by clicking
the mouse in the enlarged first-person view. It also introduced some novel control methods including the
spell casting system, which involved learning sequences of runes which represented the form and function
of a spell’s effect. For example, a fireball spell was created by mixing the fire symbol with the wing
symbol. This kind of attention to detail and focus on the user interface was typical of the game and helped
create an often captivating sense of craft and ingenuity.

Amazing Gameplay. The game’s gameplay was incredible for late 80’s. Traps, tricks and puzzles
were all that this game was about. There is even one floor that has 8 puzzles that need to be solved in
order to proceed to the next level. Timing puzzles, floor switch puzzles, teleporters and many more other
elements were implemented in game. I will also briefly describe other innovative gameplay concepts
from the game:

Was one of the first truly free form experience gaining systems; you practiced attack spells to
gain wizard experience, wielded weapons for fighter experience, and throwing stuff (anything)
for ninja experience.
The game offered free form spell casting. You had to choose spell components (syllables) to
build your spells.
Creepy atmosphere; when you’d be carefully inching your way around the dungeon, and then spot
in the distance or worse vicinity some very bad monsters. If you weren’t prepared for them, you
had to escape back to the stairs up to the upper floor. Sound effects were also used to indicate
when a creature was nearby.
It could take months to finish the game; it was that big and that complex and difficult. Only to
finish it once was enough rewarding.

Impressive graphics. The game used the very common 320x200 resolution with 16 colors but the rest
of the game was everything but common. The graphics were good, colorful and artistic; the gameplay area
was also large enough while the fixed quasi 3d graphic design offered a good perspective. Extremely
amazing was the fact that not only the environment but many enemies and items from the game were also
portrayed in a quasi 3d style, increasing even more the overall visual impression and the game appeal.
The menu was also nicely implemented, having a futuristic look and an innovative mouse ready point-and-
click interface. The game also implemented primitive dynamic lighting. This is one of the first MS-DOS
games to completely leave out of the picture the CGA standard as it was unsupported in this game; the
game implemented EGA, MCGA, Tandy / PCjr and VGA graphics.

Dungeon Master for MS-DOS. Graphics were similar on all platforms

 The sound in Dungeon Master was also great. The PC version used the Adlib/Sound Blaster for its
effects, and it used them well. The creaking of raising gates, the noises from the creatures, the crackle of a
fireball were amazing back then. All sound devices supported were: Adlib, Disney Sound Source, PC
Speaker, Sound Blaster and Tandy / PCjr.

Gamer review. “You have to try and imagine what this was like back in 1987 for Atari ST or 1989
for MSDOS - there was nothing to compare it to. It was a total gaming revolution that surpassed
everything else in terms of sheer atmosphere and tension. Superb. Try to play; even if the graphics may
rebuke you, at least go past the second stair, games are not only graphics with millions of polygons…”

Will Wright’s seminal city-planning simulator that changed the strategy games forever

Sim City is an open-ended city-building video game series and the brainchild of the prodigy game
developer Will Wright. It was developed by Maxis and was released on many computers and consoles.
The game was first published in 1989 as SimCity, and it has spawned several different editions sold
worldwide. The ongoing success of SimCity has also sparked the release of many other spin-off “Sim”
titles, including 2000’s The Sims (also developed by Maxis), the best-selling computer game in history.

Innovative complex gameplay. Sim City was an excellent and innovative game when it came out. Ever
since its release, there have been numerous other similar games, but still Sim City stands as one of the
greatest Sim game of all time. The scope of the game was to build your own city from scratch. You had to
assign locations for residential, business and industrial purposes. You needed to be wise in choosing the
locations though. You couldn’t have residential areas too close to industrial areas, as the citizens wouldn’t
like that thus, just randomly assigning locations wouldn’t work. You also had to build a power plant with
your choice of fuel. Then you needed to hook up everything with power. Soon people would start living in
houses and setting up businesses. They would demand stuff and you had to provide them with it. They could
ask for more roads, better transport systems, whatever. It was up to you to decide whether to meet their
demands. Ultimately, your goal was to have as many people as possible in your city. You needed to control
your finances wisely. You could assign your choice of tax rates. Finances and the happiness of the citizens
had to be major factors in deciding this. To build a successful city, you needed to be connected to the
world. You had to arrange for that too by building airports and ports. You could check your progress in
various areas by looking at different graphs. You could also see what percent of the population was happy
with you.Sim City also brought disasters to the table. You had to contend with fires, floods, earthquakes and
even monsters. You had to decide what kind of means you would use to keep your city safe. Ultimately, Sim
City was a very addictive game and it still is.

EGA in a high resolution mode 640×350 16 colors

Graphics in hi-res. Luckily a high detailed and complex city was too big to efficiently fit a common
320x200 VGA/EGA or Tandy/PCjr resolution and Maxis was compelled to implement higher resolution
versions of the game. The EGA implemented a high resolution of 600x350 with 16 colors while the
MCGA version implemented an immense 640x480 resolution but only monochrome. The rest of the
graphic standards used the common 320x200 resolution. While the main game worked with 512 KB RAM
the EGA version required 640 KB RAM. The high EGA resolution with high detailed colorful city made
one of the best looking PC games from the 80’s.

Regarding sound quality the game was quite limited compared to other games and supported only the
Covox Sound Master (not so great digital sound), PC Speaker (Tweaked) and the Tandy DAC (TL/SL).

SimCity is a great classic with that elusive, sought-after quality: crossover appeal. I’m sure there
were lots of parents who refused to let their kids play Doom or Mario but let them play SimCity, content
in the knowledge that their children were learning all about how to run a city. The game will be followed
by followed by another ten Sim… games also designed by the amazing Will Wright, propelling him as one
of the best game designers in the world.
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to
everything.” Plato; so as a part of everything music gives life to games.

Silpheed (pronounced “Sil-Feed”) is a video game series developed by Game Arts and designed by
the late Takeshi Miyaji. It made its debut on the Japanese PC-8801 in 1986, and was ported to the several
other platforms with the MS-DOS version launched in 1989. It was later remade for the Mega-CD and has
a sequel called Silpheed: The Lost Planet for the PlayStation 2.

Silpheed is the name of the spacecraft that the player controls in the game. Like many shooter games,
the story involves using the Silpheed as Earth’s last effort to save itself from destruction by a powerful
enemy invasion. The game was notable for its use of pre-rendered 3D polygonal graphics played as a full
motion video background to simulate real-time computer graphics and a tiled third-person perspective.

A pre-rendered giant robot head
 A part of the FMV intro (left), and one isometric ground level (right)
Graphics. Most of the video modes except VGA were supported: CGA, EGA, EGA (Tweaked),
MCGA, Tandy / PCjr. While VGA wasn’t directly supported the VGA cards are all EGA compatible
therefore capable of playing all EGA games. The 320x200/16 colors graphics were good using in many
occasions innovative techniques such as pre-rendered elements (this giant robot head), FMV (full motion
video) in the background and in introduction and some third person isometric 2.5d levels. All platforms
had similar graphics.

One of the best melodies in the history of PC games. Personally, I think the game still has some of the
best music EVER heard on any video as Silpheed supported the Roland MT-32 sound system to play the in-
game beautifully composed music. The introduction melody in particular still is amazing, but the game
featured many other great melodies during the gameplay; the sounds were also greatly implemented. To
quote from the Featured Article Ten of the Best Games You’ve Ever Played in regards to the sounds of
Silpheed: “If you’re lucky enough to own an MT-32, your starship-blasting experience will be
augmented by some of the catchiest music ever to be heard in a PC action game.”
All the sound devices supported by the game are: Adlib, Game Blaster (CMS), IBM Music Feature
Card, PS/1 Audio Card (3 voice + noise), Roland MT-32, Tandy / PCjr and the PC Speaker.
The game is a classic as everything within was a blend of successful elements: the fast action
(considering it worked on a 8088/8086) the graphics were good and contained innovative elements, the
sound was above and beyond what anyone would expect, the gameplay was superb, and the style of
shooter and the style of weapons were both original ideas. Thank you for this game mister Takeshi Miyaji
and rest in peace “Yasurakani nemure”.

More than adventure only games. Sierra is again in 1989 one of the top game developers for x86
computers releasing many impressive games this year. Unfortunately in 2008 after a troubled history
Sierra was close down and ceased to produce games but its legacy still remains. Also some of the best
female game designers in the history of PC games worked at Sierra such as Roberta Williams (co-founder
and former co-owner at Sierra) creator of King’s Quest series and Lori Ann Cole, creator of Quest for
Glory series. Both left their mesmerizing print on the history of electronic gaming.

Lori Ann Cole (left) and Roberta Williams (right)

A successful cocktail of genres, first for DOS

Hero’s Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero is an adventure game/role-playing game hybrid designed
by Lori Ann Cole and was published by Sierra On-line for DOS, Amiga, Atari ST and the Japanese PC-
98. The game was later re-released as Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero because of trademark
issues involving the HeroQuest board game.

This is the first game in the Quest for Glory series and has been credited for being a genre-defining
game, as it successfully mixed graphical adventure gaming with role-playing-like elements such as
statistic building (strength, intelligence, health) that would actually have an impact on the ability to
accomplish certain parts of the game. The main character’s skills and abilities are raised directly by
repeatedly performing appropriate actions, e.g. fighting enemies, practicing, climbing, throwing objects,
etc. Combat takes the player to a separate screen (represented by the enemy’s picture) and involves timed
selection of commands such as Attack, Parry, etc. The interaction with the game-world is performed in the
old parser ways, by typing verb commands or conversation topics.

Rare gameplay elements. The mix of RPG and adventure was remarkable it was one of the funniest
games from the 80’s.The combat system is simple and fun while the story carries you along. With three
unique characters: fighter, magic user and thief with some unique quest for each class the game is very
replayable. The game also features a day/night cycle, which also includes character schedules. The main
character can get hungry and tired, so feeding him and getting some rest is essential.

The fighting screen and artistic some EGA graphic, both in 320x200/16 colors

Graphics. The game used the EGA graphic standard and in 1992 was updated just like first games in the
King’s Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry series, with a VGA version using Sierra’s
point and click SCI1.1. Before the big push to make VGA the standard Sierra managed to really squeeze some
great looking games out of the old 16 color EGA card and this is one of the best examples. Few is none EGA
games had this artistry, colorful design and very good animation for its time. Both Amiga and Atari ST had
similar gorgeous graphics.
The music was another strong element of the game as Sierra implemented the already presented sound
cards such Adlib and Roland MT-32 plus many other. The sound was good and atmospheric, fitting nicely
in the game’s overall tone: funny, artistic and colorful.
King’s Quest IV and the first Hero’s Quest are some of the best Sierra’s efforts regarding high quality
EGA graphics. Yet beyond impressive EGA graphics and remarkable sound quality this game took the
already enjoyable Sierra adventure a step further by introducing some RPG elements: combat, character
classes and players statistics. Hero’s Quest is definitely the jewel in the crown of the early Sierra
adventure before their crucial switch to the mouse and VGA graphics. If there is one Sierra game to play
this is one of the top picks.

Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon, the third adventure game in Sierra Entertainment’s Space
Quest series, was released on March 24, 1989, and was developed using an early version of Sierra’s SCI
engine. It was launched for MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST and Macintosh II.

Technical innovation for Sierra. The PC versions of the game supported for the first time in Sierra’s
adventure the mouse movement and the designers also implemented a new and heavily improved text
parser. Mouse movement was still in its primitive state at the time of the game, so Roger does not
automatically find his way around obstacles in the game world (instead he just stops dead if he encounters a
barrier). Computer mice were relatively new at the time, and Sierra’s mouse movement would greatly
improve in subsequent games.

Good EGA, very artistic and colorful at 320x200. MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST and Macintosh had
similar graphics.

All major graphic video modes were supported including MCGA and VGA. The graphics used the
common 320x200/16 resolution but the design was so artistic and colorful that is hard to observe that only
16 colors are used in the game. The Sierra’s graphic artists were clearly the best at the time.


More music innovations. Space Quest III featured music composed by Supertramp drummer Bob
Siebenberg, and was one of the first games to support the new Sound Blaster sound card. Sound effects
included digitized audio sampling, such as the voice of Roger Wilco speaking “Where am I?” during the
introduction. The digitized effects could be heard in the Tandy, Amiga and Macintosh versions of the
game. Though Space Quest III was designed to utilize the Sound Blaster’s ability to play digital samples,
the inclusion of an incorrect driver file left the effects unavailable to IBM PC users with the new Sound
Blaster card. The older sound devices such as: Adlib, Game Blaster (CMS), Generic MPU-401 MIDI
devices, IBM Music Feature Card, PC Speaker, Roland MT-32,Tandy DAC (TL/SL), Tandy / PCjr were
all supported.

Space Quest III is another classic example of early Sierra-style adventuring. It is simple, light-hearted
fun. Amusing characters, all kinds of weird deaths to avoid, lots of funny locations - everything is there. I
wouldn’t call it the best of the series - its story is particularly silly and it offers nothing really new to the
series; but it is still a great humorous adventure that certainly hasn’t lost its appeal till today.

The Colonel’s Bequest is a computer game published by Sierra On-Line in 1989 for DOS and in
1990 for Amiga and Atari ST. This graphic adventure game was the first of the short-lived Laura Bow
Mysteries series created by Roberta Williams and used many elements from the original 1983 Mystery
House video game also created by Sierra On-Line (named On-Line Systems in 1983). A sequel, The
Dagger of Amon Ra, was released in 1992.

Colonel’s Bequest had nice, artistic graphics



The game was based on the SCI0 engine therefore it supported all major graphic types such as CGA,
EGA, Hercules, MCGA, Tandy, VGA with 512 KB of RAM while PCjr required 640KB to work. The
320x200/16 colors were greatly implemented and the game looks nice, just as all the other Sierra games
in late 80’s. The game was even more capable regarding sound supporting Adlib, Game Blaster (CMS),
IBM Music Feature Card, Roland MT-32 (and LAPC-I) besides the older Tandy / PCjr and PC Speaker.
Overall, The Colonel’s Bequest: a Laura Bow Mystery is a good game that gives many hours of
enjoyable gameplay. An intermediate level player can easily get 6 hours or more of gameplay in a single
sitting. The game combines a great storyline, good gameplay, memorable music, and apt graphics and is a
statement of how talented all Sierra On-Line departments were at the time: game designers, graphic
artists, sound engineers and programmers.

The third Larry lands first on MS-DOS

Leisure Suit Larry III: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals is the third entry in the
Leisure Suit Larry series of graphical adventure games published by Sierra Entertainment. It was
developed for DOS, Atari ST and Amiga. The game utilizes Sierra’s Creative Interpreter (SCI0),
resulting in a graphic style similar to its immediate predecessor, as well as a larger repertoire of MIDI
music.
This installment abandons the linear progression of series predecessor Leisure Suit Larry Goes
Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places) in favor of the hot dating aspects of the original Leisure Suit
Larry game. With Leisure Suit Larry III, Sierra decided to return to the adult-oriented themes, which were
very rare in Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (In Several Wrong Places).

Graphics. All major graphic modes were supported and while its graphics were not as artistic as the
first Quest for Glory and the Space Quest III, they were detailed, humorous and colorful. There were also
many animated moments, most of them including girls ☺.

Many naked skins and a lot of humor ; a potent combination

The sound devices supported are identical to the previous Space Quest III including the support for
the new Sound Blaster. The music was good and completed the gameplay and the graphics nicely.
As a funny and involving animated adventure game with 4 hours of funny gameplay and pretty logical
puzzles this is one of the most enjoyable “old” Sierra games.

First for DOS

Mean Streets is a graphic adventure game developed and published by Access Software for MS-
DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64 in 1989. The game, set in dystopian cyberpunk neo-noir
world, is the first in the series of Tex Murphy mysteries; its immediate sequel is Martian Memorandum.

Good VGA use, Amiga and Atari ST had similar to VGA visuals
C64 has no chance against VGA

Graphics and Sounds on PC. All major graphic standards were supported, including the already
classic VGA with 320x200 with 16 colors. While the 320x200/16 colors of the VGA may seem similar to
the 320x200/16 colors of the old Commodore 64 it was not. VGA had a lot of advantages including all
points addressable graphics, many special effects and a huge 262,144-color global palette compared to
the C64 320x200/16 colors graphics mode which had a fixed 16 color palette and a very limited number
of colors in a screen region. Sound unfortunately was released on x86 computers as tweaked PC Speaker
only therefore regarding sounds C64 had a clear advantage.


Description and review. The principle behind Mean Streets is simple. What can be better for a game
than a modern sci-fi story like Blade Runner or an old-fashioned Agatha Christy murder mystery? The
answer is obvious, these two combined! Take a post nuclear war Earth, a classic detective noir, a
mysterious foe, a femme fatale, and an evil plot to destroy mankind; mix the ingredients, stir, and voila, you
have a fantastic adventure game called Mean Streets!

Another original MS-DOS release and the Tetris sequel

Welltris is a puzzle video game and was the first Tetris sequel. It was originally designed by Alexey
Pajitnov and Andrei Sgenov, developed by Doka and licensed to Bullet-Proof Software. Adaptations
were made by Sphere, Inc for Spectrum Holobyte, and by Infogrames. It was originally released for
DOS in 1989 but was subsequently ported to the Amiga, Amstrad CPS and Atari ST in 1990 and the ZX
Spectrum and Commodore 64 in 1991. Some other ports followed later.

Similar gameplay in top-down. It retains that game’s falling-block puzzle gameplay but extends the
pit into quasi 3d graphics while the blocks remain two-dimensional; the board was viewed from top-
down instead of the Tetris side view. Many gamers including myself preferred the gameplay found the
original version Tetris.

Play under the sought Alexey Pajitnov companionship in some levels

The graphics implemented topped at EGA using the very high EGA resolution 640x350 with 16 colors
(also supported by VGA) therefore the graphics were very detailed and crisp. The gameplay area from
the left simulated nicely the 3d while on the left were many artistic images inspired from Russia. All other
platforms including Amiga had clearly inferior graphics due to much lower resolution in the graphic
modes used.

A game very loved in UK as it was launched for both older Amstrad CPC right and ZX Spectrum
left

The game is excellent for both challenging your “spatial orientation” skills and for the older Tetris fans.
The challenge progresses as the right pace, and the game is designed to be fair. With the 3D approach, you
have the ability to “fix” your mistakes by approaching them from a different angle… if you’re fast enough!
While the game lost some of the original appeal and novelty impact the interesting gameplay was still there
while the DOS version had amazing graphics.

Another GOD puzzle game

PipeMania( also known as Pipe Dream) is a puzzle game developed in 1989 by The Assembly Line
for the Amiga. It was ported to several other platforms including MS-DOS by Lucasfilm Games, who
gave it the name Pipe Dream and acted as general distributors for the US.

Decent VGA, EGA with 16 colors

In this game, the player must connect randomly appearing pieces of pipe on a grid to a given length
within a limited time and a small zone. The basic idea probably came to the designer one day when he
had plumbers round, and its inherent simplicity is delightful. It was something different to the
Tetris/Klax/Columns style of puzzle games, and offered a lot of potential for invention and strategy.

The game in fun, addictive and features simple gameplay that anyone can get into mixed with different
skill levels to challenge both beginners and experts. The variety of ways to play and the randomness
ensures you won’t get bored with the game so soon and trying to devise complex pipelines never gets old.

Best Turn Based strategy, great RPG elements, a classic from Koei

Genghis Khan is an amazing turn-based strategy game developed by Koei, released for the NEC PC-
9801 in 1987, MSX and Sharp X68000 in 1988, the DOS and NES in 1989, and the Amiga in 1990.

The game has two different gameplay modes. The first is Mongol Conquest, which begins in the year
1175 A.D, which is a one player mode. You are Lord Temujin (childhood name of Genghis Khan) and you
must conquer the land by keeping your economy stable, having your army ready to fight, and by attacking
other lands. The second is World Conquest, which begins in the year 1206 A.D, is started by choosing the
number of players and difficulty and supports from 1 to 4 players.

The game concept is simply outstanding with excellent role-playing elements abound. Character
development is probably the central aspect of the game, a feature that definitely set GK apart from its
contemporaries. Dynastic decision-making is very engaging and challenging as you can marry your daughters
off to your most valued generals, and you guarantee their loyalty; you can promote your sons to Prince to
make them a general or governor, or groom them for eventual succession to the throne. Characters even grow
old and die if they aren’t killed by your enemies first. There are tons of decisions to be made: allocate
personnel to industries and the military, tax and spend funds, appoint and manage provincial governors, trade
various goods, buy weapons, build armies, play the espionage game (spy and counter-spy, complete with
dirty tricks), and engage in diplomacy.


EGA graphics were decent but nothing compared to Sharp x6800

The MS-DOS graphics supported the EGA standard at the common 320x200 resolution and 16 colors.
The graphics were good enough for such a heavy text game and were comparable to most other platforms
except for the Sharp X68000 that had incredibly detailed and colorful graphics with the high 512x512
resolution and 256 colors. Sound was not the strongest feature regarding the MS-DOS port because only
the old PC Speaker was used.

Amazing resolution, graphics and colors on Sharp x6800

In 1989, Computer Gaming World called Genghis Khan “the toughest, most satisfying, and richest
historical simulation, yet!” while in 2008, the Turkish developer TaleWorlds cited Koei’s Genghis Khan
as an influence on their Mount&Blade series, one of my favorite games ever with an amazing gameplay and
overall complexity. The game is an amazing simulation of turn based battles, character development,
diplomacy and leadership and it made me love many Koei games including the Romance of the Three
Kingdoms series. This game is an amazing classic coming from an amazing Japanese game developer.


Another great release from Koei


Bandit Kings of Ancient China, also known as Suikoden: Tenmei no Chikai in Japan, is a turn-based
strategy role-playing simulation video game developed and published by Koei from 1989.

Gameplay. Based on the Great Classical Novel Water Margin, the game takes place in ancient China
during the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty. The Bandit Kings of Ancient China -a band of
ten bandits - engage in war against China’s Minister of War Gao Qiu, an evil person with unlimited
power. The objective of the game is to build, sustain, and command an army of troops to defeat Gao’s
army before the Jurchen invasion in January 1127.
The gameplay is excellent even if the main computer opponent starts out much more powerful than
you, and you have a limited number of game turns to catch up to him. This combination makes the game a
challenge even for an experienced player. There are interesting and unique choices in both developing
your provinces, and in the battle sequences.

Decent EGA graphics

NES graphics (1990), left and much more modern Sega Saturn graphics (1996) using its lowest
320x226 graphic mode

The EGA 320x200/16 graphics are good enough, similar to the previous Genghis Khan while the
CGA graphics were sadly only monochrome. The Amiga graphics were similar while the NES with its
lower resolution 256x224 had inferior graphics.
As a “simulation” of 12th century China the game is an interesting turn-based strategy, with some
classical heroic Chinese folk backing it.

Increasing steadily. Electronic Arts is more and more present in the x86 markets as Developer and
Publisher Company, developing and publishing Budokan: The Martial Spirit and publishing another great
one, Starflight 2. The EA dominance on PC market will increase even more on the following years not
always with the best decisions and always with many critics, including today.

 Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula is a science fiction space trade video game
developed by Binary Systems and published by Electronic Arts for DOS in 1989 as the sequel to the
successful Starflight. Its success ensured its ports for Amiga and Macintosh later in 1991. It features a
combination of space exploration, role-playing and strategy within a futuristic setting.


Gameplay. The player commands a spaceship capable of traveling to the game world’s consisting of
150 solar systems, communicating with or attacking other spaceships, and landing on planetary surfaces
which may be explored with a manned rover for plot clues, minerals and alien life forms. Game
mechanics and the overall look and feel closely resemble the earlier Starflight game, but many new
features are introduced including an interstellar trade-based economy, new sentient alien races, and new
spacecraft accessories and artifacts. The player is tasked with discovering the ultimate source of the
advanced spacecraft technology and unlimited fuel supply which provide a military advantage to the
Spemin, a hostile alien race threatening to annihilate or enslave humanity. A major part of the game
consists of earning enough money to pay for spaceship upgrades and crew training by engaging in
interstellar trade and barter with various alien cultures at their planetary trading posts.

Graphics. The graphics did make good use of the MCGA/VGA 320x200/16 colors graphic mode and
overall Binary Systems did a top-notch job with the graphics: the aliens are interesting and colorful while
the planets were designed more realistic compared to the first game; there is also an interesting artistic
sense and imagination implemented in the game’s visuals. While no more than 16 colors were used at
once, many of the VGA’s palette colors were implemented in the game screens.

VGA, some artistic sense and a lot of imagination


Conclusion. I would describe this game as a great mix of role playing, science fiction storytelling and
space exploration. It is funny, tense, and though provoking all at the same time. Starflight II is a cross-
genre game that does nothing more than build upon the plot developed by first Starflight and give the
universe a broader VGA palette of colors. But this works, and unlike most sequels, Starflight II
successfully carries the banner of being one of the best computer games of all time, a classic.

Finally 256 colors on PC’s. While MCGA/VGA with 320x200/256 color graphic mode were
launched in 1987 I found prior this year only one good game to use that graphic mode, the 1988 Microsoft
Flight Simulator 3.0 but with almost invisible gains as I preferred the higher resolution EGA/VGA
640x350 with 16 colors. All other VGA/MCGA compatible games used the 320x200/16 colors to
maintain the compatibility with the older graphic standards without increasing the development time
required to implement another 242 colors, or at least more than 16. This year I found two games that
clearly show improvements when using the 256 color mode. Both are combat games, one logical and one
brainless.

Technical masterpiece: VGA 256 colors and sound card support

Budokan: The Martial Spirit is a computer video game released by Electronic Arts in 1989 for
Amiga and DOS two of the platforms that supported 256 colors. While the IIGS was also capable to
display at least 256 colors it was left out. The success of the game will force EA to also release CPC,
C64, Genesis, MSX and ZX Spectrum ports all featuring inferior graphics.
Budokan is a martial arts (versus fighting) game covering Karate (unarmed combat), Kendo (using a
wooden sword), Nunchaku (using piercing chain weapons) and Bo (using a staff). The player has a realistic
range of moves and must use them wisely, as Ki (life-force) is drained for every move made, whether
successful or not, and both this and your stamina level must be kept high. The game was especially
designed for multiplayer gamepla as two gamers could play at the same time.

Impressive Graphics. The game features graphics and animations which were very advanced for the
timeframe, attempting to provide a semi-realistic depiction of martial arts combat. The DOS version of
the game was one of the first to include 256-color VGA/MCGA graphics on PC with amazing quality
results. All other older graphic modes were also supported providing a way to clearly demonstrate the
256 colors advantages.

Great VGA graphics, Amiga had similar quality

The same 320x200 resolution, but only 4 colors at CGA and 16 colors at EGA

Great sounds. The designers supported the AdLib sound card and the Roland MT-32 MIDI synthesizer
and composed exciting stereo MIDI music. The inferior CMS (Game Blaster), tweaked PC Speaker and
Tandy / PCjr were also implemented. The six in-game soundtracks were great on AdLib and amazing on
MT-32 with a beautiful Japanese/Chinese theme while the older non MIDI sound cards had good enough
digitized sounds and much simpler music.
Budokan really adds a new twist to the beat ‘em up genre - it’s a thinking man’s fighting game. You
have to use both your brain and reflexes as you balance stamina, Ki and pure skill to outwit the opponents.
The sheer variety of moves take time to master, but practice reaps its own rewards - you really feel a
sense of satisfaction and achievement when you start to make headway in the Budokan. Beside the
rewarding fights the game has some of the best sound and the best graphics from the 80’s.

Mindless gameplay on 256 colors

Tongue of Fatman is a “versus fighting” video

game developed by Brian A. Rice and published by
Activion for MS-DOS. The game will be also ported
on C64 in 1990 and for Sega Genesis in 1991.
Gameplay was not so inspiring. After playing some impressive versus fighting games from the 90’s
such as Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter this game may seem unplayable. The controls were even then
pretty bad and counterintuitive; the A.I. was extremely limited with some bizarre actions while the hit
detection was also weird. Nonetheless back in the 89 the game was fun, with various opponents and a lot
of moves (about eighteen). The game designer also implemented an interesting bet system and a small
shop to buy items to increase attack, defense or to provide short time invisibility.

Graphics. The graphics have an amusing grotesque style very unique and colorful for the time, using
the very capable MCGA/VGA graphic mode with 256 colors at a 320x200 resolution. There were many
comic books like graphics with a lot of interesting animations.

EGA with 16 colors (left) and VGA/MGCA with up to 256 colors (right)

Sounds. The initial launch supported only digitized sound such as “Greetings. Mondo welcomes you to
the fight palace”. Later the game implemented support for all important sound cards: Adlib, Sound
Blaster/PRO and Roland MT-32 providing better sound quality and some nice melodies, but not as inspired
as the melodies found in Sierra or Electronic Arts games.

While disliked by some and not so well known the game was fun to play back in 1989; I’ve included
it mostly because it was capable to display the MCGA/VGA 256 colors graphic mode and had good
colorful graphics. The gameplay was clearly a serious drawback that dragged the game behind. Overall it
was a colorful and fun game but nothing more.

Rushed but repaired

Mars Saga (Mines of Titan) is a role-playing video game developed by Westwood Associates and
published by Electronic Arts. It was released in 1988 for the Commodore 64/Commodore 128, Apple II
and DOS.
Gameplay. This Westwood title is a turn-based RPG set on the surface of Mars. Your characters have
attributes and 21 skills that can be raised during the course of the game. You gather your party throughout
the game. Much of the game is viewed from a first-person perspective with a small top down map and
status line, but combat is all top-down. Combat can be handled directly by the player or left to the AI.
At the time of the game’s design, programmers were rushed to meet a 1988 completion date (on C64).
As a consequence of the haste, there are several items in the game that are illogical. Six different skills
that a character can train in such as mechanics, electronics, language, mining, strategy, and tactics are
useless. The designers had initial plans to use those skills to aid the player in solving puzzles and
advancing plot items in the game, but in the end the game was sent to print too early and the skills ended
up being included but useless.

In 1989, the game was completely fleshed out, retitled Mines of Titan, and released on PC platforms.
The setting of the game was moved from Mars to Titan, a moon of Saturn. The previously useless mining
skill was fixed, and in Mines of Titan it is used to avoid cave-ins while adventuring in mineshafts. The
other 5 skills were deleted. The differences between Mars Saga and its sister game are mostly plot
related. There are more side quests to complete in Mines of Titan as well as more things that must be
completed to forward the main plot. City layouts are the same and so are the enemies that are encountered,
although there are more enemies in Mines of Titan.

1’st person quasi 3d perspective and the top-down perspective for combat

Apple II and C64 had inferior graphics, clearly showing their age

The PC graphics used the common 320x200 resolution available for all MS-DOS graphic standards,
from CGA to VGA with 4/16 colors. The graphics were quite innovative using a large top/down approach
for combat and a small quasi 3d navigation screen for exploration and had overall a pleasant graphical
style. Sound was unfortunately completely ignored as only the very old PC Speaker compatible sound was
implemented.
Mars Saga is a one of the first great games that have set too complex gameplay elements within a short
deadline, therefore failing to deliver all elements promised before such as the KOTOR 2 and many more
others did. The MS-DOS version Mines of Titan fixed a lot of the incomplete gameplay elements making
now a better game with refined gameplay, better graphics and a smooth user interface.

Great on Amiga, good on PC

The Duel: Test Drive II is a cross-platform racing game developed by Distinctive Software and
published by Accolade from 1989 to 1992 on eleven platforms. It is the second entry in the Test Drive
series of video games and was quite loved at the time.

The game supported the CGA, Hercules, Tandy/PCjr and EGA standards. The EGA graphics were quite
good, simulating efficiently a 3d road with its quasi 3d first person graphics. The CGA required 384 KB
RAM while EGA, Tandy/PCjr required 512 KB. Regarding sound, the game only implemented PC Speaker
with limited appeal.

EGA graphics. Graphics were better on Amiga and Atari ST

The Duel: Test Drive II for Amiga, the best version of the game

The best version of the game was the one launched for Amiga, having much better graphic, more
realistic and colorful while the PCM/digital sound represented in detail the engine sounds, the breaks and
the police sirens, making an amazing experience.

This is one of the best early racing games launched for PC but they weren’t so many in the 80’s. The
beautiful graphics and sound, the easy driving and good sense of speed set new standards for its time on the
Amiga family while the MS-DOS version with decent graphic but limited sound was also good enough.

Arkanoid - Revenge of Doh (a.k.a. Arkanoid 2) is an arcade game released by Taito in 1987 as a
sequel to the very successful Arkanoid. The MS-DOS version saw the daylight in 1989.
The video modes supported were similar to the original Arkanoid: CGA, EGA, Tandy / PCjr with the
addition of the Hercules graphic mode. Compared to the original MS-DOS game the newer graphics were
better with improved bricks design, patterns on the screen and better overall level design.


 Good EGA graphics

The biggest improvement of the game was the Adlib sound card support providing now sound at least
as good as the competition. The Game Blaster (CMS) and the older PC Speaker and Tandy / PCjr were
also supported. The sound in the game was great with extremely well designed ball clinks and jingles.
The hitting ball/balls make beautiful music on her/their own when rapidly hitting the blocks. The music at
the game start and between levels was also very good.
If you liked the original Arkanoid, you sure as hell are going to like this sequel. With new levels,
better graphics, much better music and sound cards support, more levels and an internal level editor, what
more can you ask?

A decent game fit to praise the ending years of the Cold War

Balance of Power: The 1990 Edition. The original Balance of Power is a computer strategy game
regarding the geopolitics difficulties from the Cold War created by Chris Crawford and published in 1985.
The game is notable for engaging the player in nail-biting brinkmanship without using any graphics more
complicated than an outline map of the world. Chris Crawford, who rarely ever made a sequel to a computer
game, was besieged on mail by fans who asked him to update his classic to reflect the new state of the world
(with the shattering Iron Curtain). Therefore in 1989 the second edition, dubbed Balance of Power: The 1990
Edition was released for the Apple IIGS, Windows, Macintosh, Amiga and Atari ST.

Serviceable EGA graphics. Gameplay is all about the game


Gameplay. The objective is the same as the original Balance of Power: use your military, covert, and
industrial forces to make your country the most prestigious in the world while avoiding nuclear war.
However, it is now 1989, and the Communist Block is crumbling… making a setting for an even more
interesting gameplay.
As one of the two main superpowers of the Cold War you have to gain influence on more parts of the
world. There are a lot of different forms of influence, and so there is very much to do. But you have to be
careful because if you or your enemy starts a nuclear war you will both loose. The game is a real
masterpiece of computer diplomacy a very intelligent game for late 80’s, a statement that gameplay can be
more important than graphics.
The decent only non-3d graphical games
Too many x86 games. This year the PC platform received an amazing number of games, almost 500,
and from these 500 I did try to research as many as possible so I can only mention the year’s decent
releases, not an easy task I must say. These decent releases were not as good as the ones reviewed until
now - from my personal point of view - but were nonetheless agreeable games back in 1989. Also some
of them were worthy of review on some competing platforms because the MS-DOS version was ported
poorly. Some others were from birth only modest.
Thus, the decent x86 games are: Sword of Aragon, Curse of the Azure Bonds, The Magic Candle,
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Axe of Rage (a.k.a. Barbarian 2), Super Solvers: Midnight Rescue!,
Action Fighter, Hostage: Rescue Mission, Grand Monster Slam, Shufflepuck Cafe, Faery Tale
Adventure, Keef the Thief, Manhunter 2: San Francisco, Ys: The Vanished Omens, Lakers versus Celtics
and the NBA Playoffs and there are probably some more others.
Text/ASCII games launched in 1989
The death of interactive fiction. 1989 is the last year that saw the text adventures games. Furthermore
Infocom, the sensational company that was the mastermind of the best ever interactive fiction games was
also closed this year. Activision bought Infocom in 1986 but not without tensions and by 1988 rumors
spread concerning disputes between Activision and Infocom. Infocom employees reportedly believed that
Activision gave poorer-quality games to Infocom, such as Tom Snyder Productions’ unsuccessful
Infocomics. Activision moved Infocom development to California in 1989, and the company was now just
a publishing label. With rising costs and falling profits, exacerbated by the lack of new products in 1988
and some technical issues with its MS-DOS products, Activision closed Infocom in 1989 although they
released some titles in the 90’s under the Infocom Zork brand, but not as interactive fiction games.
Activision completely abandoned the Infocom trademark in 2002. Following the general trend from 1988
there were developed very few text adventures in 1989 and most of them had low quality. This is the last
year for text adventures and the genre will die this year therefore we can call the text adventures the games
of the 80’s.

Infocom’s last text games also had some basic graphics probably to improve the ease of gameplay but
they didn’t have the charm and success like the previous text adventures predating 1988. Such games are
Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur and James Clavell’s Shogun. Games from other companies such as
Ooze: Creepy Nites also had some graphic elements but they weren’t very successful either. The best text
adventure with graphics game from 1989 will again come from Infocom and it is Zork Zero: The Revenge
of Megaboz.

Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz. While chronologically the game is a prequel of the Zork
series it was the ninth and last Zork released by Infocom before the company’s closing and it is Infocom’s
thirty-second game.

Unlike its predecessors, Zork Zero is a more complex game, featuring a graphical interface with
scene-based colors and borders, an interactive map, menus, an in-game hints system, an interactive
Encyclopedia Frobozzica, and playable graphical mini-games. Three of the four graphical mini-games are
based on older logic puzzles. Peggleboz is a version of peg solitaire, Snarfem is Nim, and the Tower of
Bozbar is Towers of Hanoi. Other puzzles based on established logic puzzle types include a river-
crossing puzzle with a fox, a rooster, and a worm, and a Knights and Knaves puzzle.
Previous games launched by Infocom used a parser evolved from the one used in Zork I, but for Zork
Zero, they designed a new LALR parser from scratch and had some innovative features. If it notices if a
player is having trouble with it, it offers helpful suggestions, such as sample commands. Too bad that
Infocom closed and used LARL in this game only.

Graphics. The graphics were created by the computer artist James Shook and were good enough
considering the core gameplay with text/ASCII in mind.

Clockwise: Text description, Peggleboz minigame, Tower of Bozbar minigame and the Map mode

I will like to end with a part of the Adventure Classic Gaming review: “With ties to the original Zork
trilogy, lots of in-jokes, and a large number of surprises, this is unquestionably an important game for
understanding the fabric of the Zork universe. It is also of great importance for being Infocom’s first
game that uses graphics in an integrated way without sacrificing the wit or text that has made Infocom
famous”

The last text adventure?! The Usurper: The Mines of Qyntárr is regarded as the last commercial
“text adventure” of the classic era of PC computing; its release date was late in the decade (1989). While
the text adventures/interactive fiction games died in 1988-1989 their legacy of great writing and
imagination still lives in many of the great games today assisting the graphical part of the games,
sometime more and sometime less.

3D (software) games launched for PC in 1989

If by now the sum of all reviewed games in 1989 may be large enough, it isn’t over yet as it still remains
the last category of games, the ones launched in three dimensions. 1989 is an astonishing year for games with
3d elements rendered in software because an impressively high number of good 3d games were launched this
year. There were launched so many of them that even bested in numbers many years from early 90’s regarding
the total number of games with 3d elements. Before I begun to write this book I didn’t knew that were any 3d
games before Wolfenstein 3D and Doom to find out that were more than fifteen 3d games launched only in
1989, not to mention the previous years. Boy, I was wrong.
I will describe the games with 3d elements in no particularly order as most of them were top games
for the PC platform.

Amazing mix of top down 2d with first person 3d

Space Rogue is a science fiction computer game released in 1989 by Origin Systems, makers of the
successful Ultima series, for the Apple II and Commodore 64 and later ported to the PC, Macintosh,
Amiga, Atari ST and FM Towns. The game combined elements of both a space combat simulator and a
role-playing game. It is notable for being the first game designed for Origin by Paul Neurath, who went on
to found Blue Sky Productions (later renamed Looking Glass Studios).

This is one of the few games in the 80’s to have two perspectives, 1’st person 3d when playing in the
ship as a space combat simulator and top down on the space map and on the plots based on the RPG
gameplay.


The two perspectives and impressive VGA graphics

The VGA graphics were just amazing and way ahead its times despite the use of only 16 colors. The
real 3d elements were well designed with different shaped 3d objects that included many colored
polygons and some even changed colors during gameplay. The top down 2d image was also good, with
colorful and detailed graphics. Amiga and Atari ST again had similar to VGA graphics while C64 and
Apple II were inferior.
Rogue combined action with an in-depth storyline; sprinkled with humor, hate, revenge and all the other
emotions which enhance an RPG while the adventure adds a new dimension by allowing you to walk around
a base or outpost, to converse with people, and to pick up items. Few games are as innovative regarding both
graphics, mix of genres and gameplay, the game was truly amazing.

3D, mouse support and amazing innovative gameplay

Carrier Command is a landmark computer game from the 80’s launched initially on Amiga, Atari ST
in 1988 but later ported on PC, ZX Spectrum, Apple Macintosh, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC
computers. The DOS version was launched in 1989 and included improved A.I. and a much needed time
accelerating feature and was overall even batter. The game received in 2012 a modern remake, am
ambitious game unfortunately plagued by the amazingly omission of multiplayer and with some other more
minor faults.

Innovative gameplay. The original Carrier Command is a cross between a vehicle simulation game
and a real-time strategy game where players control a cybernetic aircraft carrier filled with fighters,
amphibious assault vehicles, laser defenses and a fleet of decoy drones. Your mission is to build a series
of resource, factory, and defensive bases spanning an island chain. The only problem is the fact that at the
other end of the chain is an even more advanced carrier controlled by a terrorist organization that wants to
destroy you.

Clockwise: the carrier and the 3d screen, the equipment, landing might power and the Radar.
Impressively clean and aesthetic graphics and menu

Impressive graphics. When previewed and finally released on Atari ST and Amiga formats, the game
received substantial attention due to the level of fluidity 3D in the graphics engine that hadn’t really been
seen before. Across all but one platform, Carrier Command uses filled-in (dithering included) vector
graphics to create a three-dimensional view of the game world. The game does not use texture mapping
but uses a simple raster pattern to shade objects, a very common technique in the late 80’s. The carrier
and the vehicles it carries have full 360-degree freedom of rotation. The Commodore 64 version is the
exception and reproduces the same gameplay from a top down 2D viewpoint. The video modes supported
in MS-DOS are: 40-column text mode, 80-column text mode, CGA, EGA, Hercules, Tandy / PCjr and
VGA.

Similar with Amiga and Atari ST the MS-DOS version had very good 3d software with 300x200/16
colors VGA graphics and a very innovative control screen in both utility and aesthetics, specially
designed to support the newer mouse, used very effective in this game.

Game vs Hardware. The game required 512 KB of RAM and although did run on an older 8088 at
4.77 Mhz the average frame rates were at 3 FPS, making an interesting slideshow. The 8086 at 8 Mhz
displayed an average 7-8 FPS and was slow but playable while the mighty 80286 at 12 Mhz with a VGA
card witch itself had some basic acceleration offered more than 20 FPS and in this configuration the game
was extremely playable.

Music. The game including the DOS port featured a sampled theme song by Dave Lowe playable on
Adlib sound cards and compatibles, which was expanded into a full, studio-recorded vocal production
entitled “Just Another Mission”. This was included on an additional tape cassette with certain regional
releases of the game. A similar scheme was used for the game Starglider 2. The sounds implemented in
the game were simpler but enjoyable.

Even today if we exclude the graphics the amazing gameplay makes this is a spectacular game.
Regarding graphics the game is better than many 3d games from the early 90’s due to its detailed 1’st
person graphics. One of the best things about the game is its functionality and the great menu specially
designed for a mouse.
Described by The Games Machine as a “seminal game destined to change the state of gaming”,
Carrier Command won many praises across the industry. Overall this is one of the best 3d software games
from the 80’s and certainly one of the most innovative. It is an unknown gem and a classic. If I were to
recommend five 3d games from the 80’s to be played in the nowadays Carrier Command would be one of
them.

3d and great racing simulation

Indianapolis 500: The Simulation is a 1989 computer game. It is regarded as the first step of
differentiating racing games from the arcade realm and into true simulations. It was developed by the
Papyrus Design Group, consisting of David Kaemmer and Omar Khudari, and distributed by Electronic
Arts. It was first released for DOS and ported later for the Amiga in 1990.
Indianapolis 500: The Simulation attempts to be a full simulation of the Indianapolis 500 race, with
33 cars and appropriate Indy car “feel”. While racing, it only offers a first-person perspective, but the
game offers a replay mode as well. Indy 500 offers the ability to realistically set up the car, and any
changes made to the car directly affect how it handles. That’s not to say Indy 500 is an arcade game—
when it says “simulation”, it means it. You can adjust your spoiler, outer and inner tire pressure, and even
the amount of fuel you have in your tank to shave precious seconds off of your lap. Also, the physics are
true to life: If you enter a corner too fast, centrifugal force pushes you to the outside of the track, tires
squealing.

Game vs hardware. This is one of the first games from the 80’s to specifically recommend the use of the
80286. The game used the common 320x200/16 colors resolution and while it worked PC’s with 384 KB
RAM the developers specified that Intel’s 80286 and 512 KB Ram were recommended for enhanced in-game
effects. Their recommendations were clearly honest because an older 8088 microprocessor at 4.77 Mhz had
an average framerate of 2.5 FPS while a slightly faster 8086 at 8 Mhz offered between 7-10 FPS depending
on the video card choice.
The video modes supported were: CGA, CGA Composite (16 colors), EGA, MCGA 4-color, Tandy /
PCjr and VGA. The 3d software graphics were quite good and detailed even on the older CGA but also
painfully slow due to the older 8088 usually coupled with the CGA card.

Impressive 3d VGA graphics

Indy 500’s VGA graphics are simply stunning considering the launching year but the system requirements
are on the upper side as it requires the faster 80286 for a good framerate. The sound is also quite good; if you
have an Adlib or Roland MT-32, cards supported by the game the engine sounds are amazingly realistic.

Indianapolis 500: The Simulation is, without a doubt, the best racing simulation game produced in the
80’s. It has all of the qualities and features that make a really good game and more besides. Even is racing
games are not everyone’s favorite genre I recommend watching gameplay videos regarding it for an
impression. With its wonderful graphics, amazing realism and bags of playability the game was a sure
winner in 1989.


DOS and x86 processors, the new homeland for 3d graphics

Vette is an originally 1989 DOS racing video game where the object is racing a Chevrolet Corvette
through the streets of San Francisco. The game was notable for its detailed (at the time) un-shaded
polygon rendering of San Francisco streets. It was released on three floppy disks with a Black & White or
Color version available.

Ahead of its time gameplay. The game featured a completely 3D rendered San Francisco, with many
famous landmarks visible in the game including the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay
Bridge, and you can even drive down Lombard Street, known as the “Crookedest Street In The U.S.” by
locals. The game gave players freedom that was not seen in games before, and for many years after,
Vette!‘s release. There were also many features that were unheard of in 1989, such as:

Car damage that affected the car’s engine and handling
Full control over the game’s camera views, including interior cam with full working dashboard
The presence and interaction of law enforcement, in which you get pulled over and must give an
excuse as to your erratic driving
The ability to drive anywhere within the accurately modeled city, including highways, tunnels,
and bridges
Pulling over at the various gas stations was the only way to fix your car
This game had Grand Theft Auto qualities because the player is able to run people over.

A lot of 3d elements and tweaked EGA, very impressive

Graphics. The game uses a combination of 2D sprite graphics (lobby, dashboard, distant landmarks)
and 3D un-shaded polygons (cars, world). Some other games such as Carrier Command, Mechwarrior
had shaded polygons while Flight Simulator 4.0 even had shadows and Gouraud Shading and
consequently offered better 3d graphics. Yet none of them rendered a full city in 3d. The video modes
supported are CGA, EGA and EGA (Tweaked). EGA mode requires 640 KB RAM vs. 512 KB for the
remaining video modes.
Sound was unfortunately seriously neglected; the game designers only implemented the older PC
Speaker sound format with unimpressive results.

Multiplayer innovations. This is one of the earliest racing games to support multiplayer gaming
trough a modem or a null-modem cable with up to 2 players; the entire San Francisco is just too big for
only one player.

The game was way ahead time, featuring rudimentary now but innovative then 3d software graphics
based on polygons, many cars to choose, open world of San Francisco, damage for cars. It was like a
programmer for future returned years in time to produce the best 3d open word diving game on the
existing EGA graphics hardware.

Early wunderkind in both 2d and 3D graphics. Founded in 1984, the North American game
developer Dynamix exhibited in 1989 some of the most innovative 3d games from the 80’s: Deathtrack,
Mechwarrior, A-10 Tank Killer and Die Hard following another innovative older 3D game Articfox
(1986). The innovative 2d and 3d graphic techniques used by Dynamix and the impressive overall game
design and gameplay convinced Sierra On-Line one of the contemporary leaders of PC gaming, to buy the
company soon in 1990. The acquisition will prove fruitful as the Dynamix division will develop some of
the most successful Sierra’s games from the 90’s: Red Baron, The Adventures of Willy Beamish, Outpost,
Starsiege, Tribes and many others. Before the acquisition Sierra created only 2d engines, such as the
innovative SCI and this move allowed to successfully compete on games with 3d graphics.

3d, digitizing and an amazing game again only for DOS!

Deathtrack is a first person futuristic driving computer game produced Dynamix and published by
Activision in 1989, as an MS-DOS only game.

Gameplay. This wasn’t a bland average racing game. It had fast action; it had weapons and parts shop
with many possible combinations and a lot of tracks. The various opponents were captured nicely in 16-
colour digital photo while featuring futuristic 3D polygonal cars and a good A.I. made their best to
remove you from the race, permanently.

Digitizing technique for 2d graphics

Innovative 2d and 3d graphics. Beside good 3d software Dynamix also used their EGA digitizing
technique an interesting software method to capture actors and city pictures into the game’s world. For a
fixed 16-color palette, it looks amazing. The game also supported the older CGA, Hercules and Tandy /
PCjr graphic standards. The cars had a very impressive 3d design, very futuristic, with small dot to dither
more colors and interesting lines to create a distinct shape for 3d cars. The 2d animations and effect such as
laser guns and explosions were also impressively done. Overall the game has an impressive EGA use,
better than most VGA graphics from the 80’s.


Amazing for the time 3d graphics, completed nicely by 2d elements such as distant landmarks and
explosions

The sound devices supported were Adlib, Roland MT-32 and the older PC Speaker and I must say the
MIDI sounds were amazing with well composed energetic music during the gameplay, and the game has a
lot of shooting sounds.

Game vs hardware. If you had just the right machine (an 80286 was ideal), the framerate was a good
blend of detail and speed. But if you had a much slower or faster machine, Dynamix’s way of adjusting
that was to let you control how much detail was on the screen. This was fine for slower machines, but on
fast machines, you can’t add enough detail to get the game running properly. It’s ludicrously fast on
anything past a 386/33 as it didn’t implement a technique to limit the game’s speed.
The game designers failed to achieve what they were set to do: a fun a futuristic racing shoot-em-up.
They accomplished much more designing an extremely cool vehicular combat game with a lot of attitude,
great gameplay with fast driving and combat, parts and weapons shop, amazing futuristic car design and
3d graphics and an inspiring soundtrack. Few games in the 80’s offered so much mindless fun.

3d without CGA, and another DOS exclusive

Mechwarrior is an action/simulation video game published by Activision and developed by
Dynamix, Inc in 1989 exclusive for MSDOS. It was the first Mechwarrior to be launched.
Amazing gameplay. MechWarrior was the first video game to offer the player a chance to pilot a
BattleMech from the internal view of the pilot. In this game the player has a great deal of freedom when
compared to other games and even many of the follow-up MechWarrior games, which include choosing
missions, buying & selling ‘Mechs and parts, hiring lance-mates, and traveling throughout the Inner
Sphere. Underneath the major game mechanics, the player had the option of following a role playing style
story arc that would unfold over a five year (game time) period.
The video modes supported were EGA and the Tandy / PCjr, and this is one of the very few games
from the 80’s, to not implement the omnipresent CGA standard. The graphics were very nice with 3d
visuals in combat screen and the 2d used in the rest of the game: equipment menu, spaceport, repair
facilities, map and others. Accustomed by now with 3d cars and 3d planes this game brought unseen until
then 3d elements -the Mechs- designed very nicely considering the limited polygons. The 2d part of the
game was also nicely implemented with a good mix of Sci-Fi high-tech and artistic direction.

 Clockwise: 3d (software) gameplay, the Oshika spaceport, a new Mech to be bought and the repair
facility

Similar to the previous Deathtrack the game supported the Adlib and Roland MT-32 sound devices,
implementing some inspiring melodies and appropriate sounds. The older PC Speaker and Tandy / PCjr
are also supported.
Dragon’s early review gave the game a 100 score stating “MechWarrior will have you sitting on the
edge of your chair as you take enemy ‘Mechs head-on. The combat sequences alone would have been
enough for most gamers. Add in the adventure of finding your family’s killers based on clues you must
find throughout the Star League, and you’ve got an offering with an extremely high entertainment
value. We recommend MechWarrior not only to arcaders but also to adventure gamers.”
In a period when 3d was used mostly on racing or flight/space games Mechwarrior breaks that barrier
and gives us a great and complex and different action/simulation video game making many PC gamers
exultant and probably fans of 3D games.

3d environment and digitized sprites again only for DOS

Die Hard is an action shooter game Developed by Dynamix, and published by Activision in 1989 for
DOS and Commodore 64 in 1990.
While the game wasn’t a bit hit and the gameplay was only decent it was very technical innovative
implementing both 3d software graphics and digitized sprites; one of the first games to use both
techniques. Due to digitized sprites used by enemies and the character movements like, strafe, jump, roll,
turn back, shoot, crouch and others were so real and fluid. The 3D corridors and objects were also very
well done at the time. Even on a slow PC it is smooth, reasonably fast and quite believable. On a faster
machine it’s very impressive and makes the game smoother to play and more realistic to look at.

(left)Not very artistic EGA, but technological advanced. One of the first implementation of shattered
glass in games



(right)Again a 16-colour digitized photo. Amazing result for so few colors

Graphics. Dynamics again ignored the more capable VGA and MCGA graphic standards and
implemented only CGA, EGA and Tandy/PCjr. Nonetheless they used some many innovative techniques
for the time such as digitized images and digitized sprites and they succeeded to make the 16 color EGA
graphics to look very good for 1989.

While the previous two Dynamics games implemented Adlib and Roland MT-32, here the designers
only implemented the older PC speaker.

Searching good games from 1989 and not knowing about this one I was quite amazed to find a game
so technically evolved with both 3d graphics and digitized sprites 3 years before the acknowledged
fathers of both display technologies, Wolfenstein 3d for 3d graphics and Mortal Kombat for digitized
sprites. While Wolfenstein 3d and Moral Kombat were clearly better games Die Hard must be praised for
the high level of technical innovation.
The first 3d VGA game with 256 colors, again from Dynamix

A-10 Tank Killer is another 1989 3d title coming from Dynamix; the fourth game reviewed and
clearly made me ask how many employees the company had at the time. It is a flight simulation game and
was also published later in 1991 for the Amiga platform.
Gameplay. This simulation puts you in the cockpit of the A-10 Thunderbolt II, which is also known as the
“Warthog” with multiple camera angles. As the game’s name implies, it is used mainly to hunt enemy tanks,
but also for destroying roads and bridges. Landing is automated and a warp time function was also
implemented. Friendly characters have full AI to act without your involvement, and will communicate with
you in-flight. Actions in one mission affect another - something you failed to destroy in one mission can attack
you later.

Amazing graphics. After reviewing the first three Dynamix games and appreciating the advanced
EGA only graphics I’ve continued my writing not knowing about their fourth game, this one. Luckily I’ve
discovered by chance the game later and the graphics amazed me. Dynamix used for the first time the
MCGA/VGA graphics with up to 256 colors and this is the first 3d game that really displayed the
advantage of having so many colors. Using the same digitizing technique but now with 256 colors allowed
the game designers to create close to reality 2d images, for the first time on x86 computers.

The 2d mission briefing in MCGA/VGA(left) and EGA (right)


The VGA 3d was also remarkably executed; the most complex plane in the 80’s

The 3d elements of the game were also nicely implemented with many polygons to be found in
objects, elevations on terrain and colored buildings but the 3d gameplay rarely used more than 16 colors
except for the 2d cockpit. The shadows present in Flight Simulator 4.0 were not implemented here.
There also was a first regarding sound. While two of the previous Dynamix games supported both
Adlib and Roland MT-32 devices, the game also implemented support for the newer Sound Blaster. The
game implemented almost 4 minutes of great MIDI music and good in-game sounds.
This is one of the most overlooked games from the 80’s and also one of the most innovative featuring
good gameplay, great sounds and amazing graphics. Well done again Dynamix.

Masterpiece from MicroProse

M1 Tank Platoon is a real-time tactical simulation of tank warfare, released in 1989 by MicroProse
for MS-DOS. It will also be released later for Amiga and Atari ST ion 1990 and PC-98 in 1992. It sold
500,000 copies, a very large number back in the 80’s and early 90’s.

Complex twin sided gameplay. Depending on the player’s tastes, the whole game could be played
more like an action/simulation game or like a strategy game as the player can give orders to friendly units
via a tactical map of the battle area as well as taking control of a single tank - assuming the role of the tank
commander, driver or gunner. Between the battles, surviving crew members increase in military rank and
skill, giving the player an incentive to keep his team alive. Support units like recon and attack helicopters,
M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, MLRS artillery systems or other older M60 Patton tanks were also
available in some missions and could be given orders via the tactical map.

3D graphics with limited number of colors and 2d graphics with a lot of them


The complex tactical map, used for the strategic gameplay

Graphics. This was another early game to implement the 256 colors of the MCGA and VGA but only
in the 2d menu and in the tank’s 2d interiors such as the cockpit. The 3d graphics had some nice looking
polygonal units but the terrain lacked elevations and shadows while having overall very few colors.
Nonetheless for the 80’s the graphics were quite advanced.

Regarding sound devices supported this was another capable game as it supported Adlib, Roland MT-
32, Sound Blaster and the older Tandy 1000 and PC speakers. I am not particularly content with the MIDI
music quality as most other games had much better composed music but the sounds during gameplay were
great; well-made sound of warfare was coming strikingly from the speakers.

M1 Tank Platoon wasn’t just an average tank shooting game. It had impressive gameplay controlling
up to four tanks and support units in a strategic approach or an individual tank as a driver, gunner or
commander each with different sights, it had members that increased in rank and skill, good graphic and
good sound. In 1990 Computer Gaming World named it as Simulation Game of the Year and in 1996, the
magazine ranked it as the 32nd best PC game of all time. While its rank decreased over time, the game is
one of the 80’s classics, and its gameplay is still great today.


Non-combative aerial game with amazing graphics

Flight Simulator 4.0. Version 4 launched in 1989 brought several

minor improvements over MSFS3. These included amongst others;
improved aircraft models, as well as an upgraded model of the Cessna
Skylane, programmable dynamic scenery (non-interactive air and
ground traffic on and near airports moving along static prerecorded
paths), more detailed roads, bridges and buildings. It also allowed
users to design their own aircraft.


Again, innovative 3d software graphics with high 650x350/16 colors resolution

Graphics. The fourth simulator implemented all available graphic standards for MS-DOS: CGA,
CGA Composite (16 colors), EGA, Hercules, Hercules InColor, MCGA, Tandy / PCjr. Similar to the
older MSFS3 the game used both 320x200/ 256 colors available at MCGA and VGA cards and the
640x350/ 16 colors available at EGA and VGA, and again I prefer the higher resolution. Due to the high
resolution, impressive use technologies such as object shading, shadows for plane and Gouraud shading,
Flight simulator is the most technical advanced game from the 80’s and one of the best looking.

Game vs hardware. All this exhibition of impressive technologies used by the game had its
downsides. The game running at the 320x200 resolution on an early PC/XT with an 8088 4.77 Mhz CPU
displayed only 0.6 FPS while on the 8086 at 8 Mhz produced between 1.5 and 2.5 FPS depending on the
video card used. On the 80286 with an EGA/VGA video card the game was fast but for the 650x350/ 16
colors graphic mode the Intel’s 80386 was clearly the best choice for a high framerate.

In time between 1989 and 1993 a large series of add-on products will be produced for the FS4. Those
add-ons will bring a variety of high resolution modes became available for specific types of higher end
video cards and chipsets, thus supplying running resolutions up to 800 × 600 and another add-on also
implemented digital and FM sound.

Graphics were amazing, not a problem here but the game seriously lacked on sound not supporting the
newer sound cards such as Adlib and most of the gamers did want some fighting action, action found in
almost all other games from late 80’s that were placed in the air. Still for flying only purpose and some aerial
acrobatics this game was nice, but I would prefer the company of some nice MIDI music in background when
piloting my plane in the night admiring New York.

The second non-combative aerial, with some tricks

Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Trainer 2.0 is a flight simulator released by Electronic Arts in
1989 for DOS and was ported in 1990 on Amiga and Atari ST.
The game followed its predecessor recipe offering many different planes and various flight modes
such as formations, races, obstacle courses and a comprehensive flight training option, making an
enjoyable, non-combative experience.

Graphics. While the first Flight Simulator had good 3d graphics with an amazing CGA use and decent
4-color EGA at the common 320x200 resolution, this version increased even more the 3d graphics quality
by implementing the higher 640x200/16 colors graphic mode available at EGA and the 640x350 graphic
mode available at both EGA and VGA.


The 320x200 graphics were also nice; pictures with the higher EGA/VGA graphics are behind, at the
EGA description

While the game failed to be as successful as the first Flight Trainer adding too little to gameplay and
still missing the combat it implemented some of the most detailed graphics with an extremely high
resolution for the 80’s.

Aerial combat, coming from Lucasfilm Games in 256 color mode

Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain is a World War II 3d combat flight simulator video game
designed by Lawrence Holland and released in 1989 for DOS systems and in 1990 for Amiga and Atari
ST. It was the second game in the trilogy of World War II titles developed by LucasFilm Games, the
others being Battlehawks 1942 (1988) and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (1991). The game was
released with a 192-page manual written by Victor Cross that provided a detailed historical overview of
the battle and pilots’ perspectives.

Clockwise: The quasi 3d screen, the VGA (256 colors), EGA (16 colors)and CGA (16 colors)

Deceiving 3d. While I am sure that the game is 3d compared to its quasi 3d predecessor, the only 3d
element present was the terrain, which unfortunately missed any kind of elevations. The other elements
from the game such as enemy planes, cockpit, plane side-views, and firearms were all 2d elements.
This is one of the first 3d software games to implement the VGA with 256 color mode. All full video
modes supported are: CGA, EGA, MCGA, Tandy / PCjr and VGA. While the game didn’t used all 256
colors available the graphics were clearly more colorful compared to the older EGA/VGA at only 16
colors. Although the game is three dimensions I consider the game to have the weakest 3d graphics from all
the games released this year however it was advanced on 2d graphics with impressive quasi 3d visuals,
256 colors and great 2d animations.

While the previous game created by Lucasfilm

Games, Battlehawks 1942 only supported the old PC
Speaker the new game implemented support for the
Aldib sound card. I particularly liked the
machineguns sounds, quite accurate.
Although far from realistic in many aspects, this is still a good, enjoyable air combat simulator and one
of the first few to allow one to pilot multiple types of airplanes, with assigned squadron mates, in a semi-
meaningful random campaign. Battle of Britain enthusiasts who want a more realistic, prettier simulation
may want to play European Air War, but fans of the 80’s may want to try out this old piece of software
entertainment.

Amazing 3d tech and no loading screens

Starglider 2 is a 3D space simulator/flight simulator video game released in 1988 by Argonaut
Games and was the sequel to the 1986 Starglider. It was released for the Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, Apple
Macintosh and ZX Spectrum home computers. The DOS version was launched in 1989.

One of the most advanced 3d unit in the 80’s in VGA clothes

The game uses solid shaded 3D polygonal graphics (but only on 16 bit versions), and features open,
continuous gameplay without levels or loading screens after the game had started, despite taking place
across an entire planetary system. The player can fly through space, enter a planet’s atmosphere, explore the
surface, and penetrate subterranean tunnels in one seamless movement.
The games supported the fallowing graphic modes: CGA, EGA, Hercules, Tandy / PCjr, VGA and
more amazingly a tweaked VGA mode with direct registry access (instead of BIOS) for special effects,
one of the few games in the 80’s and probably the best to do so. The VGA tweaked mode could enable
many interesting effects, like smoothly scrolling the screen, enhancing animation performance, or creating
additional 256-color video modes like 320x400 or 320x240; clearly not all were used by the game. The
game also included many innovative 3d effects such as object shade, lighting effects, shadows projected
by the air units on the ground (same as FS4) and Gouraud Shading.

 While not such a known game, this was a technological jewel, as it had some of the best looking 3d
units and buildings and many animations such as objects destroyed in many pieces providing quite a
visual feast; gameplay was also good making this is an overlooked gem in the 80’s.

Worst 3d graphics of all platforms but mindless fun gameplay and physics

Stunt Car Racer (also distributed under the title Stunt Track Racer) is a racing video game
developed by Geoff Crammond and was published by MicroStyle in 1989. In the US it was published by
MicroPlay.

The EGA graphics were quite simple and uninspired, with many simple vector like lines (all filled with
the same green color) similar in quality to the Commodore 64 but well under Amiga and Atari ST versions
that featured the most advanced graphics with more colors on the background, tracks and much better
overall graphic design.
The PC port was saved by the game’s amazing gameplay and physics that allowed you to play on
unique racetracks at 100 feet in the air. Your car bounces around the track at high speed. There are jumps,
drawbridges, and devilishly-constructed jumps before turns. The physics model can make or break a
game like this, and in retrospect it probably shouldn’t have been attempted on such a slow machine as
gameplay on the older 8088 and 8086 was also quite sluggish. But they did it and you really get the
feeling that you’re up that high, that you’re landing that hard, and that you’re being thrown into that turn
that roughly.

EGA(left) vs Amiga(right). No terms of comparison

The game was a blast on Amiga computers with amazing graphics, amazing sound, amazingly fun
gameplay and physics. On MS-DOS the designers kept the same amazingly fun and fast gameplay and
physics but unfortunately plagued the game implemented some ugly graphics and limited PC speakers only
sound.

Other 3d games. Fourteen games with 3d elements reviewed only in 1989 is too much and I’m sorry
but I wanted to show just how many 3d games were made this year for the x86 platforms. Many of them
were amazing classic games back in 1988 while the rest came with innovative graphic/gameplay elements
convincing me to include them. These are not the only 3d games from 1989 as they were other good games
such as Sherman M4 and Interphase but there are already too many 3d games reviewed this year. Again
I am amazed how many games with 3d elements were made back in 1989.



Interphase, great 3d graphics, back in 1989

Games vs Hardware conclusion for 1989. This is the first relevant year regarding the “Games vs
Hardware” struggle that took place in the large history of PC gaming, except for most of the 80’s. For the
first time there were many games launched that required more than an older 8088/8086 to run efficiently a
game, some of them providing less than 5 frames per second on such sluggish machines. While all games
from 1989 could still run on a very old 8088 many 3d releases provided only some interesting slideshow;
for the first time the most avid gamers had a reason to upgrade their computer to a much faster one with an
80286 or 80386 microprocessor.
CGA only games are out of the picture, few games such as Mechwarrior not even included them;
quality sound/music is implemented in a very large number of games with both MIDI and digitally
synthetized sounds; EGA with 16 colors was perfected while MCGA/VGA graphics with up to 256 colors
are implemented for the first time, but in a moderate number of games. The most impressive show is made
by the extremely high number of great 3d MS-DOS exclusive games, showing just how capable the x86
platform really was regarding processing power (on 80286 and 80386). Older 8-bit platforms received
very few 3d games with limited graphics while the more capable Amiga and Atari were also seriously
behind regarding the total number of 3d games received.
Competition for x86 in 1989
The new competing platforms, launched in 1989

While I was accustomed to introduce platforms that competed the x86 PC’s such as new computers
and consoles this year Fujitsu will launch a computer more multimedia capable and at least as powerful
than any other x86 computers that wasn’t a competitor for the IBM PC and compatibles because it had a
very important reason; more in the FM Towns description.

Finally a worthy competitor for the Sharp X68000

The FM Towns system is a Japanese personal computer, built by Fujitsu from February 1989 to the
summer of 1997. It started as electronic device intended for multimedia applications and PC games, but
later became more compatible with regular PC’s. This computer didn’t competed the IBM PC and
compatibles for two main reasons: it was released only in Japan and later when Windows 3.0 entered the
Japanese market in the 90’s the computer itself joined the PC market as SURPRISE it was itself an x86
computer with an Intel microprocessor 80386DX as heart; in time will be upgraded with faster Intel
processors. The FM Towns had a launch price of ¥400,000 (over $3000 in 1989 dollars, equivalent to
nearly $6000 in 2013 dollars)

 FM Towns “bragging” about its main multimedia feature-the CD-ROM

The name “FM Towns” is derived from the codename the system was assigned while in development,
“Townes”; this was chosen as homage to Charles Hard Townes, one of the winners of the 1964 Nobel Prize
in Physics, following a custom of Fujitsu at the time to codename PC products after Nobel Prize winners.

Software. The FM Towns is notable to be the second Japanese 32-bit x86 computer family that
initially used different operating system than DOS, O.S/2 or early Windows used in rest of the world on
x86 architecture; the first was the NEC’s PC-9801 computer family which used x86 Intel microprocessors
since 1982. The implemented operating system was named Towns OS and was designed especially for
multimedia applications. The system was somehow compatible with other IBM PC systems, using a
special version of DOS + DOS Extender and received in time support for Windows 3.0/3.1 and from
1995 the system included support for the very successful Windows 95B OSR2. This allowed the
computer to run both Windows/ DOS games and specific FM Towns games therefore having a larger
catalog of games than any other x86 computer at that time.

Amazing hardware. Many variants were built; the first system was based on an Intel 80386SX
processor running at a clock speed of 16 MHz (much faster than Motorola 68000), with the option of
adding an 80387 FPU, featured one or two megabytes of RAM (with a possible maximum of 10 MB), one
or two 3.5” floppy disk drives and a single-speed CD-ROM drive. It was delivered with a gamepad, a
mouse and a microphone. The FM Towns featured video modes ranging from 320×200 to 640×480, with
16 to 32,768 simultaneous colors out of a possible 4096 to 16.7 million palette (depending on the video
mode); most of these video modes had two memory pages, and it allowed the use of up to 1024 sprites of
16×16 pixels each. It also had a built-in font ROM for the display of kanji characters. One unique feature
of the FM Towns system was the ability to overlay different video modes; for example, the 320×200
video with 32,768 colours could be overlaid with a 640×480 mode using 16 colours, which allowed
games to combine high-colour graphics with high-resolution kanji text. The FM Towns system was able to
play regular audio CDs, and also supported the use of eight PCM voices and six FM channels, thanks to
Ricoh RF5c68 and Yamaha YM2612 chipsets, respectively. The system had ports in the front to
accommodate Karaoke, LEDs to indicate volume level, and software to add popular voice-altering effects
such as echoes.

Gaming on FM Towns. More than 320 games were developed for the FM Towns, many of them with
amazing graphics and sound, many times comparable to arcades. And just to name some of the best FM
Towns games: Rayxander (Datawest), Bubble Bobble (Ving/Taito), Zack McKracken & the Alien
Mindbenders (LucasArts), Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade (LucasArts), Fight (Ving/Irem), Loom
(LucasArts), Raiden Densetsu (Success), Chase HQ (Ving/Taito), Rance III: Leazas Kanraku (Alice Soft),
Splatterhouse (Ving/Namco), Tatsujin-Ou (Ving/Toaplan), Muscle Bomber: The Body Explosion (Capcom),
Alone in the Dark (Infogrames), Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis (LucasArts), Viewpoint
(Ving/Sammy), Twin Cobra (aka Kyukyoku Tiger) (Ving/Toaplan), PuLiRuLa (Ving/Taitio), Flashback (US
Gold/Delphine Software), Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (Capcom) and many more others.

In the Western world, the system is perhaps best known for having many CD enhanced ports or
remakes (with improved graphics, audio, and interface) of classic Western RPG’s and adventure games,
such as the Ultima series and LucasArts games. The FM Towns ports are sometimes considered the best
versions of these games.
I described so many of them now because I won’t include the system in comparison in the early 90’s
because it was only sold in Japan and wasn’t a competitor for the global PC market while later with the
launch of the Japanese version Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 will itself join the PC market.

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders at

640x480 and up to 4096 colors

Older competing gaming platforms. It is the 10/12/2013, 9.33 PM at GMT +2 and I’m getting so
close to end this first book. The PC games evaluations are over and I’m more impressed by the x86
gaming from 1989. While I want to finally crown the PC as the best platform for gaming this year, one last
obstacle remains; I have to completely and complexly review the competition, that won from 1981 till
1988 every single title of top gaming platform in spite of the x86 computers. Trust me that I don’t know
the winner but I bet the fiercest competitors will be the Amiga line and the previous year winner, the 8-bit
NES. Let’s see how competition performed regarding number of games, overall top quality games,
graphic quality and sound quality while the 3d games are only a bonus as they are integrated in the graphic
quality category. Does anybody want to place a bet for a winner?! I will be objective don’t worry.

Arcades. This is probably the lightest year regarding arcade titles as only three good arcade games
were launched: Strider, Golden Axe and Hard Drivin’ a game with advanced 3d polygonal graphics. Four
Trax another game from 1989 wasn’t as great as the previous three but it was fun nonetheless.

Apple II and Apple IIGS. While the Apple II platforms didn’t received many top games in 1989,
those few available were some of the year’s best starting with the amazing Prince of Persia and Dragon
Wars for Apple II and continuing with Dungeon Master, Dark Castle, Blood Money, Battle Chess, Crystal
Quest and Arkanoid II, King’s Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella, for Apple IIGS. Regarding the total
number of games received the older Apple II received less than 50 games while Apple IIGS received 35,
less than in 1988.

Prince of Persia for Apple II, considering the platform age, graphics are good

While the Apple IIGS software compatibility with the older Apple II family was important,
unfortunately the developers were indirectly forced to create two separate game versions one for the very
capable IIGS and one for the more numerous Apple II computers. For this reason and some few others, the
Apple IIGS was many times ignored by game developers and Prince of Persia is the best example, as it
didn’t received a version for the Apple IIGS computer.

C64. About 310 games were designed for the C64 in 1989, a small number compared to 1988 with a
remarkable number of more than 450 games developed and the absolute 1987 when amazingly more than
500 were released.

Project Firestart, a C64 exclusive and one of the first survival horror

While the C64 platform was still preferred by a very large number of game designers there are also
fewer top games comparative with the previous years, but still more than enough. Some of the best C64
games in launched 1989 are: Project Firestart, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Grand Prix Circuit, Laser
Squad, Stunt Track Racer, Turbo Out Run, X-Out, Battle Chess, Shinobi and I hope I didn’t forget some
other goodies.

The 8-bit British such as the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC platform families will keep a large
number of fans and developers even in the early 90’s as both platforms will receive a decently large
number of games until 1992.

ZX Spectrum. The Spectrum received a decent number of good games and had a healthier year
regarding gaming compared to the previous 1988. Best games launched for the platform this year are:
Carrier Command, Fantasy World Dizzy, Robocop, Turbo out Run, Batman: The Movie, Rick Dangerous,
Chase HQ ad many more other decent releases as almost 250 games were launched in 1989 for the
platform.

Fantasy World Dizzy, a much loved game in Europe

Amstrad CPC. The Amstrad CPC low-cost computer family received a large number of platform
upgrades and graphic updates up to 1990, updated proved in the game Rick Dangerous which had
improved graphics on the newer CPC platforms.

Rick Dangerous for CPC

Other good games launched for the CPC family in 1989 are Fantasy World Dizzy, Gazza’s Super
Soccer, Lode Runner, Batman: The Movie and many more other decent releases. The CPC family fill
receive more than 220 games this year.

MSX: This is the last decent year for MSX regarding gaming and the last year I will mention the
platform. The MSX will also receive some games in 1990 and 1991 but not many important releases.
Some of the best MSX games in 1989 were: the first two Ultima games, Exodus: Ultima III, Gunship,
Contra, Double Dragon and Super Boy.

 Contra for MSX

TRS-80 CoCo3. This is the last time I will mention the CoCo3 as a gaming platform due to the
extremely small number of good games launched for this cheap computer in the early 90’s. Best CoCo3
games in 1989 are King’s Quest III: To Heir is Human, Arkanoid and Rampage and the platform received
less than ten games this year.

Gaming on the competing 16/32 bit computers

Advanced 16/32 bit computers are more and more favored by gamers all over the world. Gaming on
8-bit computers had a noteworthy abrupt fall compared to the preceding 1988 while gaming on the more
powerful 16/32 bit computers did increased visibly over the previous year.

Amiga. The Amiga platform received a very large number of games in 1989, games with the best
overall graphic and sound quality. The best Amiga games launched in 1989 are in no particular order:
Populous, SimCity, North & South, R-Type, F-16 Combat Pilot, Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz,
F29 Retaliator, Stunt Car Racer, It Came from the Desert, Shadow of the Beast, Battle Squadron, Laser
Squad, Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Maniac Mansion,
Silk Worm, The Newzealand Story, The Colonel’s Bequest, Xenon 2: Megablast, Balance of Power: The
1990 Edition and more other decent games.

I have to compare the Amiga platform with the PC from many objective points of view: at number of
games the PC received more titles (almost 500 for PC vs almost 430 for Amiga); top/ classic games were
more numerous on PC (more than 25 titles vs almost 20 at Amiga); graphics were overall better on Amiga
(more consistent), sounds were again slightly better on Amiga because only a fraction of the PC games
supported sound cards and as a personal (subjective) preference I liked the PC games slightly more as
many of them had original gameplay elements and covered a wider range of genres. The x86 platforms
also received the largest number of great 3d (software) games. Therefore overall I consider the PC a
slightly better gaming platform than Amiga in 1989.

Shadow of the Beast (left) and It Came from the Desert (right) two great Amiga games with impressive
artistic and colorful graphics

Atari ST gaming in 1989. The Atari ST received this year a large number of good games with good
graphics and beautiful MIDI music.

 North and South for Atari ST

The platform’s best games in 1989 are: Populous, Pirates!, Xenon 2, Gauntlet 2, North & South,
Bloodwych, Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny!, Player Manager, Kick Off, Stunt Car Racer, Rick Dangerous
and Balance of Power: The 1990 Edition. A significant number of decent games were also released.
Perhaps the biggest problem of the Atari ST this year was the lack of original releases; all of the games
were already launched on other platforms of had a multiplatform launch and I was accustomed until now
with amazing original Atari ST games such as Oids, Captain Blood, Carrier Command or Dungeon
Master. More than 360 games were launched this year for Atari ST, an amazing number making the
platform one of the most successful gaming platforms this year, finally beating the very old C64.

Gaming on Macintosh and Macintosh II. While the Macintosh platform received about 40 games in
1989, most of them were modest releases, and the platform clearly dreamed at top gaming titles. Some of
the best Macintosh games from 1989 are Captain Blood, The Duel: Test Drive II, Pool of Radiance, Sim
City and all featured monochrome graphics only. Another good game launched for Macintosh this year is
Grand Prix Circuit that implemented quasi 3d monochrome graphics.

Acorn Archimedes. The platform unfortunately received very few modes games such as: E-Type, The
Pawn and Jinxter. As a fan of Archimedes I must surrender in my quest to find a good game for
Archimedes in 1989. Things will improve but only slightly in the early 90’s. About 6/7 games were
launched this year for the platform, again a very disappointing number for such a powerful computer
platform.

Console based gaming in 1989

NES. The successful Japanese platform receive again a lot of great games, mostly action packed such
as: Mega Man 2 (1988 Japan, 1989 U.S.), River City Ransom, Ninja Gaiden (1988 Japan, 1989 U.S.),
Duck Tales, Faxanadu, Fester’s Quest, Shadowgate, Willow, Baseball Stars, Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles, The Guardian Legend, A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia, Cobra Triangle, Castlevania
III: Dracula’s Curse, Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Tetris and more others. For action games lovers
NES is again better than PC regarding gaming, but the PC had a wider variety of genres, more top games,
overall better graphics and sounds and a large number of 3d games, unavailable on consoles therefore I
must proclaim the NES inferior on gaming in 1989 when compared to the PC. More than 175 games were
launched this year for NES, an amazing number considering the strict licensing rules imposed by
Nintendo.

Great action games: Mega Man 2, Castlevania III and Ninja Gaiden

SEGA Master System. The platform received in 1989 a relatively small number of games (less than
40) and was clearly behind top computers platforms (PC, Amiga, Atari ST, C64) and NES regarding
gaming. Best games this year for SMS are: Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, Golden Axe, Psycho Fox,
King’s Quest, Alex Kidd High-Tech World and there were few others less known decent games.

Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap(left) and Golden Axe (right)

Gaming on SEGA Genesis/MegaDrive. While the console was launched in Japan in late 1988 on 29
October, in North America in August 14 1989 while the PAL European version will be launched next year
in 30 November 1990 the platform will receive a decent number of games in 1989, most of them quite
amazing. The best Genesis games in 1989 are Golden Axe, Space Harrier II, The Revenge of Shinobi and
Phantasy Star II all developed and published by SEGA and Herzog Zwei developed by Technosoft and
published by SEGA.

 The Revenge of Shinobi(left) and Phantasy Star II (right)

TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine. Games for the TurboGrafx-16 will start to flow in 1989 and I will
mention only some of the most important releases, most of them developed by the platform builders NEC
and Hudson Soft: Blazing Lazers, Legendary Axe (1988 Japan, 1989 U.S.), Military Madness, Neutopia,
Ys: Book I & II and Dungeon Explorer. A good performance for a platform barely launched this year in
U.S.

Blazing Lazers and some amazing graphics

TurboGrafx-CD. Originally released in Japan (1988) as PC Engine CD-ROM² this was the first
time the CD-ROM format was used for video games. The U.S. version was launched in 1989 (similar as
the TurboGrafx-16 ) and received three games launched for the U.S. market: Ys: Book I & II, Wonder Boy
III: Monster Lair (a.k.a. Monster Lair) and Fighting Street (a.k.a. Street Fighter, released in 1988 in Japan
and 1989 in U.S.), The Japanese market received more games such as Valis II, Tengai Makyō: Ziria and
few others.

Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair (left) and Fighting Street (right)

Atari 7800. Already available in a large number of North American homes as a very cheap console
the Atari 7800 will receive several decent games back in 1989: Double Dragon, Rampage, Ikari Warriors
and Commando. The battle with NES was by now clearly lost and Atari will initiate the development
plans for their next generation console to compete in the console market, clearly dominated by NES in
North America. The plans will come to life in 1993 with the launch of Atari Jaguar, marketed as the first
64-bit gaming system.

 Rampage for Atari 7800

So, who won the title of top gaming platform in 1989? While some games on Amiga, Sega Genesis
and TurboGrafx had some the best graphics, games on Atari ST and Amiga had the best sound and NES the
best action games the PC gaming won this year with the largest number of games received and the largest
number of top games. It also received a very large number of great 3d games and was close to the victors
regarding sound and graphics. After 8 years of waiting the PC finally scores an important victory in the long
history of electronic gaming.

The 1989 Conclusion. This is the year of change, when the PC gaming becomes from many points of
view the best gaming platform, but at this time the competitors were still very strong. Many VGA games
had similar graphic quality with the best of the competition such as Atari ST and Amiga computers while
external sound systems such as Roland MT-32 or the more affordable Adlib and Sound Blaster sound card
finally allowed better sound than all non-Japanese computers.

The number of games launched for IBM PC in 1989 is also staggering, almost 500 with a large
number of good games amongst them, the ones mentioned and also a reasonable number of decent games.
Unfortunately this is the last year for text adventures but on the bright side the games with 3d software
graphics were launched in an amazingly high number. All these elements shows how much evolved the PC
gaming in late 80’s and especially 1989 and what the x86 architecture impressively improved by Intel in
the 80’s was capable to do.

So, what are the best platforms for gaming in the 80’s?

While the PC won this last year regarding gaming I will also make the overall ranking regarding
gaming for all platforms in the 80’s.


The winner. The first place is without a doubt taken by the C64, the best platform for gaming in the
80’s. With a low price, hardware good enough to compete x86 PC’s launched in 1986/1987 and a good
marketing coming from Commodore the platform received a staggering number of roughly 3000 games
designed between 1982 and 1989 and more others will be designed in the early 90’s. From these 3000
more than 200 were top games, again an amazing number considering its weaker hardware.


Second place, a close decision. Regarding 80’s gaming I would place the NES on the second place as
it redefined the action games launching some of the best titles ever. It revived the lifeless North American
console market. While the early years in U.S. (1986,1987) were difficult even for Nintendo as the
Commodore marketing spells concerning C64 as an perfect console replacement personal computer had
deep and strong roots, from 1988 the quality of NES based games will finally broke the spell and won the
American hears. Due to NES the console market recovered and get stronger over the years; still standing
strong today. If I count the games released for NES in the early 90’s and the overall quality of its games then
NES probably was overall better than C64 due to its higher quality top games with many classics amongst
them.

The third place. Launched in 1977 the amazing that the Apple II family will endure the extreme
competition from the 80’s to only finally succumb in December 1992. During the 80’s the Apple II
launched a very large number of classics, even in 1989 with Prince of Persia and was overall one of the
most consistent platform regarding gaming.

Saved by Apple II compatibility. As an impressively capable upgrade of the older Apple II family the
1986 16-bit IIGS received a very small number of games in late 80’s and I was ready to place it in the
outsiders camp but the compatibility with the older Apple II games saved it.

Special mentions, other great gaming platforms in the 80’s

MSX and ZX Spectrum had both their share of glory, winning the Japanese and British gaming
markets for several years, and were also capable to work globally, winning a lot of fans all over the
world. Both are two of the best gaming devices in the 80’s, better than PC gaming on many years.

Atari ST and Amiga were both great gaming platforms in the late 80’s delivering amazing sound
quality, very good graphics and receiving many innovative games. I consider both of them better gaming
platforms than PC’s in the 80’s. Until 1989 both Amiga and Atari ST had similar great quality gaming, I
cannot say which was better. Both will also have something to say about the gaming in the 90’s, one more
and the other in a smaller part.

Amstrad CPC. While launched later in 1984 the CPC family will quickly become one of the most
loved computers platforms from U.K. and large portions of Europe. The number of games received in the
80’s will be extremely high, with more than 1000 releases, many of them developed by smaller European
game designers.



Atari 2600. Since the 70’s are not counted I must limit to the Atari 2600 games launched in the 80’s
with the best of them launched in the 1980-1982 timeframe. While a burst of uninspired games and the
video game crash from 1983-15 will spell the end for this early console we must all acknowledge the
huge importance this console had in the early years of electronic gaming.



Atari 8-bit computers were amazingly capable platforms for gaming when launched back in 1989
with innovative graphics and sound, much better than all early IBM PC’s and compatibles. The Atari 8-bit
computers had in many games better graphics than both Apple II and C64 and are one of the best 8-bit
platforms for gaming in the 80’s.

Arcades were by far the most technical advanced electronic gaming devices from the 80’s. Until 1982
the arcade was a synonym of extremely high earnings but the dominance of arcades will end in 1983 with
the rise of the C64 who caused the North American game crash who will severely affect the electronic
arcade market. While arcades will maintain a technical advantage in graphics and sounds over the home
computers and consoles until the end of 80’s the technological edge will be small and smaller year by
year while the number of arcade games will severely decrease.

Sega Master System is the second best console from the late 80’s after the NES and received a
decently high number of top games with good graphics. The SMS gaming portfolio that will increase even
more in the 90’s. The Atari 2600 in my point of view more representative for electronic gaming than SMS
despite the hardware disadvantages and worse overall games as it launched the home gaming movement
and defined the early gaming. Nonetheless if someone asked me right now to choose between the Atari
2600 and Sega Master System and 10 games for each platform I would clearly prefer the Sega console.


Other special mentions as decent gaming platforms are offered to: VIC-20 BBC Micro, TRS-80, TRS
80-CoCo Intellivision and ColecoVision while TurboGrafx and Sega Genesis consoles will have a lot
more to say in the 90’s.

The 80’s gaming outsiders. The Acorn Archimedes family, Macintosh family and Atari XEGS are
in my point of view the most uninspired platforms to play games on in the 80’s. The Macintosh family
obviously wasn’t advertised as a gaming system and the monochrome graphics and few overall games
will turn most gamers to the other gaming platforms. The Atari XEGS was launched to late, with
outdated hardware and with mostly uninspired games and failed completely to compete in the console
market ruled by NES; its only strong point was the compatibility with the older Atari 8-bit games.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment was the gaming on the Acorn Archimedes. The platform had an
amazing hardware and received at the 1987 launch an amazing 3d game called Zarch but later almost all
support from game developers stopped. The biggest reason probably was the new and unknown 32-bit
ARM architecture, with few development tools and the limited influence of Acorn over third party game
developers. Ironically, today all mobile platforms are based on ARM microprocessor and they receive
monthly an immense number of games, clearly higher than x86 based games.
Other noteworthy gaming outsiders in the 80’s were: Atari 5200, Atari 7800 and TI-99/4A, all of
them received less than 70-80 games
Overall PC gaming ranking in the 80’s. Unfortunately the gaming on PC was before1987 one of the
worse choices on the market, as most other platforms had better graphics, sound capabilities and overall
better games. The immense and mostly unexpected rise happen in the last part of the 80’s and helped the
PC gaming to surpass many other platforms coming somewhere in the first half of the overall ranking
behind C64, NES, Apple II, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST and Amiga but ahead of Atari 8-bit computers,
Atari 2600, Sega Master System and all remaining platforms presented in the book.

If not the games who’s responsible for the PC’s success?

Before presenting the elements responsible for the late success of the PC and x86 architecture I would
like to present the biggest drawbacks concerning the PC’s in the 80’s:

High price at the top computers;
Awful sound capabilities until 1988;
Weak graphics overall, CGA was overused due to availability many CGA only computers on the
market;
No games ready graphical O.S., games worked on MS-DOS;
Limited support from game developers until 1987;
Large size, most other personal computers had a smaller size;

At the same time the x86 PC’s had some advantages that allowed them to survive in early years and
later become one of the main personal computers platforms in the world such as:

Open architecture; the 5150 was the first IBM computer built from off the shelf parts (called
open architecture) and marketed by outside distributors (Sears & Roebucks and Computerland).
Multi-company support was a consequence of the open architecture that launched the gigantic
PC Compatible movement.
Various pricing. While x86 computers were never the cheapest they’ve occupied nicely the
middle and high end personal computer market.
Hardware advantages. The early 16-bit microprocessor and the launch of the higher
performance 80286 and 80386 ensured an important performance advantage over all other
platforms.
Modular architecture. All PC’s had upgradeable parts such as RAM, HDD even coprocessor
add-on and could support many peripherals and internal expansion cards from third party
component builders.
Business software. The killer software apps such as Lotus 1-2-3, WordStar ensured the selection
of PC as the main device for home business.

The software help. Regarding software/gaming companies I think Sierra Entertainment is the most
important company for PC gaming in the 80’s as it designed a lot of good games with good graphics in a
time when no one believed in x86 gaming and later when the x86 platform grew, Sierra improved the last
weak link in the x86 PC’s, the sound quality, transforming the PC sound from the ugly duck into a beautiful
swan. Microsoft also has its share of the “fault” for the success, while DOS was not so loved it was
stable and allowed direct access to hardware while Microsoft itself struggled to launch some games for
MS-DOS as both developer and publisher, not so successful in the end. Nonetheless Microsoft will be the
main element for the PC platform success in the 90’s with its Windows operating systems; more in the 90’s.
IBM with the amazingly important Lotus 1-2-3 software is the third contributor to the platform success, as
the successful spreadsheet software is more important than 10-15 classic games. The other game
developers that launched games in the 80’s for PC are also very important for the early platform survival
and only later success.

Sierra Entertainment and most other gaming companies from the 80’s are no more but their legacy in
games and gaming evolution remains

The hardware help. Regarding hardware companies I consider Intel the lead contributor for the PC
platform success as it launched amazingly fast microprocessors while maintaining compatibility, therefore
ensuring a very long and prosperous life for its x86 architecture.

William C. “Bill” Lowe and Philip Donald “Don” Estridge, the fathers of IBM PC’s. “Don” Estridge
died in a plane crash on August 2, 1985 while Bill Lowe died of a heart attack on October 19, 2013.
Their important decisions will lead to the creation of the dominant personal computer architecture in
the world.

The second hardware innovators are the PC Compatibles builders such as Compaq, Tandy, Amstrad
and Olivetti that launched amazing PC compatibles, many times better than the original IBM’s.

The third place comes to IBM and the two fathers of the IBM PC’s Philip the regretted Philip Donald
(Don) Estridge and William C. Lowe. The decisions of the two amazing personalities allowed the PC to
endure the crowded personal computer market and finally prevail although IBM made some uninspired
decisions on the road. While the PC’s will become in time the leader of the personal computer market,
IBM gradually left its connection with the x86 architecture and the latest news from the computer industry
is the fact that IBM just sold its x86 server business to Lenovo.

Help also came from competition. More the 90% of the PC games launched in the 80’s were ported
from the successful competing platform. Gaming on PC gained a lot from the gaming first launched on other
important personal computers at the time such as Apple II, C64, Atari 8-bit, Amiga, Atari ST and some other.

Arcades inspired a lot of x86 games especially in the early 80’s while not being a seriously competitor
for home use due to its high price and size. Home computers are in turn responsible for the lower arcade role
in the gaming market.

Consoles also inspired a significant number of games especially in the early 80’s and was gravelly
affected by the rise of personal computers, especially PC, recovering only later once when the two
Japanese console NES and SMS will enter the market.


THE END. This last idea concludes the “Game vs. Hardware” book concerning the 80’s. I hope that
most of you, booklovers had a pleasant read and accepted by now the many linguistic mistakes (hope to
be corrected ASAP by a professional corrector) and I hope I will also finish and launch my next book
about the 90’s as soon as possible. I do have a preliminary cover and should look like this: