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HoloDust on 03 July 2019
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Wyrdness said:
HoloDust said:

As I said, it did start to chip away that market, but given that Sega Master System sold around 6.8 mil in Europe, not that far from NES' 8.3, it would be a stretch to say that NES ended computer era in Europe.

If you were computer gamer (like I am since early 80s) around 1987-88 you would most likely transition from C64/ZX/CPC464 to superior Amiga 500 (my choice) or Atari 520ST. It was ultimately when Sega Mega Drive started to make splash that I noticed something drastically changing, only to see computers slowly dwindle in early 90s. Germany and UK were last bastions of that era of "gaming" computers, due to massive popularity of Amiga500, but that was it...until PCs, that is. And if you were like me, one look at Comanche Maximum Overkill around 92/93 running on i486 was enough to tell me were the next thing is.

Megadrive sales are no different to NES in Europe suggesting the same market NES created just carried over same with Master System as that came after the NES in Europe and for most of its active life was sold alongside its successor the Megadrive which came out a year after it did, me personally I wasn't a home computer gamer in the 80s my dad and various cousins were and they eventually migrated to consoles until PCs, the NES was an entirely new spectacle for gamers at the time and not much on home consoles were alternatives to what they had, you see it as chipping away which is fair enough I personally see it as shifting the market to consoles.

The game that really elevated PCs imo was Half Life as it came at a time where consoles became dominant in the late 90s and had aspects in it that really highlighted the PC platform's ability that for me was the game that showed what PCs had to offer as even though the were games with good tech and concepts before HL brought a new angle of approaching game development ironically its sequel would do the same over a decade later and helped launch Steam.

Not sure where you're getting your info on SMS, I'd recommend this https://segaretro.org/History_of_the_Sega_Master_System

SMS launched in '86 in Germany, '87 in UK and was beating NES in key markets...so what i'm trying to say is that while NES and SMS did start to chip at gaming computer market, it is SMD and SNES that really got the kill. Both Amiga and Atari ST were vastly superior to NES and SMS, and released in about the same timeframe in Europe as those 8-bit consoles in addition to C64 and ZX still selling great...but eventually when it was time for something new to compete with SNES and SMD in early 90s, Amiga 1200 in '92 was just not good enough, and PCs already started to show what the future brings (that's why I've mentioned Comanche, that was mind blowing experience after coming from "16-bit" systems).

As for HL - yeah, that was really genre changing game - while I loved early FPS games on PC (especially DN3D, Quake II and Dark Forces), HL was somethng quite different that pretty much set a blueprint for following shooters (for better or worse). But overall, I'd say that it was combination of FPS, real-time strategies and cRPGs that made PCs as popular in those years.