The Rise Of PC Gaming
The age of home gaming had come, gone, and was coming back before PC gaming started to breathe a life of its own. The main restrictions of gaming on a personal computer were primarily a hardware issue. Beyond the capability to output a decent set of graphics, the ability of gaming on a PC was incredibly hindered. The lack of any form of input, besides text, made gaming a chore. The other hang-up that existed was a lack of sound. The occasional beep and boop was fine for gaming on an Atari because the controls were there. The gamer was doing something. On a PC, they were typing commands and there was the occasional sound. This was all about to change.
Two pieces of hardware were the cause of PC gaming exploding as fast as it ended up happening, the mouse and the sound card. The computer mouse completely changed how users interacted with their PCs. No longer were there the limitations of learning strings of text to do things. Point and click was the future and that revolution was happening. The PC was becoming more intuitive and more interactive. Users weren’t typing, they were doing. The mouse allowed people to be more in control of what was happening and how they wanted it to happen.
Beyond the mouse, another piece of hardware would arrive that would reinvent how the PC interacted with its user, the sound card. No longer did the gamer have to use their imagination to provide the sounds of their games. The PC had the hardware inside of it to do it. Instead of hearing the beeps and boops that they were used to, the PC user was hearing sounds that were directly related to things happening on the screen.
These two innovations allowed game designers and game programmers to aim much higher with their games. The limitations that had served to stifle their creativity were gone. PCs had a full set of controls and the ability to produce true sounds. With the boundaries gone, the time was right for PC gaming to expand in ways that were previously only wishful thinking.
