PC Games 2015

2014 is dead—nyoooo! It was pretty good, but it could do nothing to halt the unstoppable wave of new games 2015 will bring. There are talky games, shooty games, driving games, games that let you bake bread and games that let you become bread. There are new monsters to kill, new plot twists to uncover and new armies to command; it’s going to be awesome.

Home computer games became popular following the video game crash of 1983, particularly in Europe, leading to the era of the "bedroom coder". The faster graphics accelerators and improving CPU technology resulted in increasing levels of realism in computer games. Players found modifying CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files for memory management cumbersome and confusing, and each game needed a different configuration. In response to a reader's challenge to find a DOS game that played better than the Amiga version the magazine cited Wing Commander and Civilization, and added that "The heavy MS-DOS emphasis in CGW merely reflects the realities of the market".[27] A self-reported Computer Gaming World survey in April 1993 similarly found that 91% of readers primarily used IBM PCs and compatibles for gaming, compared to 6% for Amiga, 3% for Macintosh, and 1% for Atari ST,[28] while a Software Publishing Association study found that 74% of personal computers were IBMs or compatible, 10% Macintosh, 7% Apple II, and 8% other. By 1990 DOS comprised 65% of the computer-game market, with the Amiga at 10%; all other computers, including the Apple Macintosh, were below 10% and declining. Computer games, however, did not disappear.

As 3D graphics libraries such as DirectX and OpenGL matured and knocked proprietary interfaces out of the market, these platforms gained greater acceptance in the market, particularly with their demonstrated benefits in games such as Unreal.[33] However, major changes to the Microsoft Windows operating system, by then the market leader, made many older DOS-based games unplayable on Windows NT, and later, Windows XP (without using an emulator, such as DOSbox). To enhance the immersive experience with their unrealistic graphics and electronic sound, early PC games included extras such as the peril-sensitive sunglasses that shipped with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or the science fiction novella included with Elite. The faster graphics accelerators and improving CPU technology resulted in increasing levels of realism in computer games. IBM, the world's largest computer company, introduced the IBM Personal Computer (PC) in 1981. To enhance the immersive experience with their unrealistic graphics and electronic sound, early PC games included extras such as the peril-sensitive sunglasses that shipped with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or the science fiction novella included with Elite. First sold in 1977, Microchess eventually sold over 50,000 copies on cassette tape.