In the late 80’s and early 90’s there was a war for consumers video game bucks, thought mostly to be occurring between Nintendo’s NES and Sega’s Genesis. There was, however, another contender, the personal computer or PC. PC’s of the time were able to do more than consoles in every facet from education to plain processing power.
One area of technology where PC’s had consoles beat was sound. The most popular sound card of the time was Creative Labs’ Sound Blaster. The card, which featured an 11-voice FM synthesizer, input/output jacks, and a MIDI/joystick port, became the top-selling add-on card in the PC market. (Kent 2001) PC’s also had better looking graphics, given their greater processing power, so the games looked and sounded better then they would on a console. The advent of CD-ROM ensured that PC’s would stay ahead of consoles at least until the next generation came along.
An additional advantage of a PC is education software which was sorely lacking on the consoles. Compton’s Multimedia Encyclopedia, Learning Tree’s Reader Rabbit, and JumpStart’s 1st Grade were all leading examples of software that the consoles didn’t have. Parents wanted to buy something for their children that could help them out with their future not just a game player. My mother for one recognized an important skill to have for the future was typing, so instead of buying me a console she bought an Apple IIc and a typing program. I would still be able to play games on it though so my gaming needs were still placated.
And last but not least, first person shooters available on the personal computer. While first person shooters were not new, there were two notable examples; Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. Wolfenstein 3D was notable because in "Wolfenstein 3D, enemies fell and bled on the floor." (Kent 2001) The game paved the way for what would be the great video game hit of 1993, Doom. Doom was a FPS that added a new way to play games: up to four people could play over a modem. Id software was so proud of this fact they claimed "In 1993, we fully expect to be the number one cause of decreased productivity in businesses around the world."(Wilbur 1993)
For all these reasons, if you could afford it, buying a personal computer was a popular choice over a console.
References
Kent, S. The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond: the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world. 1st. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, 2001. Print.
Wilbur, J. (1993, January 1) Id Software to Unleash DOOM on the PC Retrieved January 20, 2011 from
http://www.rome.ro/lee_killough/history/doompr3.shtml
