| HoloDust said: 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. |
I'm from UK so our release was 87 although noted SMS had a hand in the shift as well. Amiga and Atari ST would do well at the time as they were the known brands that's kind of my point as after that time frame is when they began fell off because of the impact of new consoles imo SNES and SMD inherited a position where the market had already shifted to put it in other words the damage was already done as the market was in full transition which is more due to their predecessors but I do see your pov as well.
The late 90s imo was something of a below the radar golden era for PC you are correct that the combination of those genres was what defined PC at the time key games like Warcraft, Starcraft, C&C, System Shock, Baldur's Gate and the rise of the modding scene are examples of key aspects of what gave the platform a new identity even in the early 00s the were titles like Deus Ex and NOLF with the former still being one of the greatest hybrid FPS/RPGs imo. The irony of things is that every time EA writes something off it comes back with a bang they wrote consoles off in the 80s and then they wrote PCs off in the mid 00s and then Steam came along to add convenience to the platform while the GPU market went into overdrive in 2009 causing them to scramble to get Origin out.
