My Dad worked with computers and so I had exposure to IBM PCs from a young age. When he got a new laptop, his old one would work its way into my hands. I certainly remember tinkering with MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0 as my earliest memories of working with a Windows operating system. We got a Pentium 75 (and Pentium 90 a year later) in the mid-90s and this was really when my affinity with computing began. Using a CD-ROM drive was a game changer, no pun intended, what with its 700Mb capacity.
Unlike consoles where there are distinct generations of consoles and their games, PC gaming really began in the 90s and has spanned three decades. I use consoles nowadays for convenience and because having it in the lounge is a little more social than a personal computer. I have to admit though that PC gaming always has been far superior to console gaming, albeit often more expensive. There is a greater amount of flexibility through modding and this can transform a game. Some mods even became games in their own right such as Counter Strike or PUBG.
PC gaming in the 90s was was superb – it felt, again, like a major step up. The Web existed but it wasn’t as ubiquitous as nowadays. Bill Gates famously downplayed its importance in the mid 90s but it is likely that was more strategic. Nevertheless, the limitations of a 56K modem and the impracticalities of accessing the Internet meant forfeiting your phone line, meant it really wasn’t widely adopted. So people still used magazines for tech news and in the 90s it seemed every magazine would have a CD attached that would have software and game demos. Sometimes, you’d even get full games. CD burners weren’t commonplace though so it wasn’t until the early 2000s that I saw copied games (and DVDs) at markets.
Some of the earliest PC games I remember still ran in MS-DOS (6.22 to be exact – the last official version) as running Windows and a game was too much for most PCs. DOS for the uninitiated, was command-line interface (CLI) operating system as opposed to a graphical user interface (GUI) like Windows. The 90s was a time when games arcades were popular and a regular hangout for kids wanting to play the latest games (like Ridge Racer). Meadowhall once had such an arcade and even though some exist nowadays, they are no where near as popular as they were in he 80s and 90s. PCs brought (almost) arcade-quality games into the home. Some of my favourite PC games from the 90s are below.
DID’s EF2000 was a combat flight sim that, released in 1995, based on the designs and concepts of the Eurofighter Typhoon (which didn’t actually come in to service until years later). At the time, this game was revolutionary and by the time I’d read the thick detailed game manual, I was convinced I was qualified to fly the real thing. Flight mechanics were superb, from taxiing, take-offs, landing, dogfights, staying under the radar level through to mid-air refuelling. The game was incredibly realistic. It used AWACs, had realistic payload trade-offs and it certainly wasn’t just a case of firing long-range missiles at radar blips. If I ignore the graphics, to be honest, I haven’t ever since played a combat flight simulator that has given me the same degree of realism. I even remember that it has VR support – in 1995!
The 90s PC game I remember most fondly began a franchise that is still, probably, the most-adored game franchise ever: Grand Theft Auto. I even have a copy of the game’s soundtrack. If there was a ‘desert island games’, this would be my number one choice. It’s not like the beloved Rockstar games now – it was a top-down (or God view) game.
I still played 90s PC games well into the 2000s. I got my own PC in 2000 for Uni (Intel Celeron and Windows ME) and, in homage to the Trigger’s Broom sketch from Only Fools and Horses, that PC has lasted me all this time with five new cases and eight new motherboards.