PC game
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Personal computer games are games played on a personal computer. These games usually require a specific operating system such as Microsoft Windows. Mac and Linux operating systems have less support than Windows among the big games developers but compatible versions of popular games are becoming more common.
Overview
Games have been around on personal computers (PCs) for about 30 years, evolving from text-adventures such as the 1976 game Adventure to the almost-ubiquitous video games of today. Many PC games released recently are also available on dedicated games console platforms, like the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube but current PCs are more powerful than games consoles (with the notable exception of the Xbox 360), often resulting in the option for more detailed graphics or AI in the PC versions. The vast array of customisation available to a PC makes PC game software piracy a much bigger problem than with other forms of videogaming.
Hardware
Most setups will include a keyboard and mouse. Other common gaming peripherals are headset and microphone for faster communication with teammates or opponents in online games, joysticks for flight sims and steering wheels for driving games.
PC games have to deal with the constantly-improving PC hardware market that makes it potentially confusing for game buyers to tell if a new game is compatible with their machine. New CPUs and graphics cards are coming out all the time and many games have a minimum hardware requirement, with successive new releases often requiring newer and faster processors or graphics cards. Unlike consoles, a 3-year-old PC will not be able to run the latest games. Unfortunately, many PC owners buy pre-packaged PCs and simply don't know the speed of their computer's processor or graphics card. Even if they do, the complexities of trying to deal with all the possible configurations of graphics card, processor, motherboard and RAM can lead to PC games being much more buggy than their console counterparts.
Multiplayer
Support for networked multiplayer through Internet or LAN connections has become a requirement for many genres, like first person shooters, real-time strategy and racing games. The Internet has also allowed the creation of massively multiplayer online games supporting hundreds to thousands of simultaneous players.
Cultural
Japan
Many Japanese gamers view personal computers as a business tool, and that games are best played on dedicated hardware. However, some genres like bishōjo games are popular. The MSX Computer series also impacted the future of games for computers and consoles alike.
UK and US
Gamers in the UK and US have embraced PC games from their inception and most PC games are developed in these countries. Among hardcore gamers there has traditionally been a subset who will spend tremendous amount of money upgrading their PCs several times a year, just to keep up to date with the latest technological developments in gaming. Most Western gamers play PC games over the Internet in the comfort of their own homes or bring their own PCs to designated places (e.g. someone's home, or a commercial venue) to play against each other in a Local Area Network. These gatherings are known as LAN parties and have the benefit of much faster connection and response times than playing over the Internet, as well as feeling much more social.
South-East Asia
LAN parties are less common in South-East Asia , with the majority of competitive PC gaming going on in LAN gaming centres, particularly in Singapore, Malaysia and Korea. These are much more prevalent than in the western countries and can sometimes occupy an entire floor of a shopping centre. They allow gamers to play competitively without the technical knowledge required to set up the LAN as well as providing access to Internet games. This can allow gamers in MMORPGs or team FPS matches to coordinate much more effectively than if they were communicating through headsets. They avoid potentially crippling communication problems such as lag.
History
The history of computer games has not received much attention from researchers. Although one might expect a consensus on such a 'young' research area, many details are more than cloudy. Which game, for example, was the first?
The usual answer is Spacewar. In the 1960s computers were a luxury for the few. The machines were enormous and usually exclusive to research institutions or the military. In 1961, MIT students Martin "Shag" Graetz and Alan Kotok, with MIT employee Stephen "Slug" Russell, used a computer for statistical calculations for employees at the university. However, he and his friends had another interest; they were devoted fans of Edvard E. Smith's science-fiction saga Skylark. With this saga fresh in memory they constructed Spacewar.
In 1976, the first adventure game was born Adventure (Crowther and Woods 1976) and was purely text-based. With the arrival of the mouse, textual interaction was replaced by graphical interfaces. In the 1980s, strategy games gained popularity in the wake of successes such as Sid Meier's Pirates! (MicroProse, 1987) and SimCity (Maxis, 1987). The FPS genre was created with the release of Wolfenstein 3D (id Software, 1992) and remains one of the highest-selling genres today.
The first generation of games lacked the polish and AI seen in modern video games. They were text games where the player communicates with the computer by typing the direction in which to move. Nowadays these are known as interactive fiction. The first text-adventure, Adventure was created 15 years after Spacewar, but unlike the original Spacewar it could be played on a computer you could have in your house. The next generation of PC games were a hybrid of text and static graphics, commonly seen in the SSI [gold box] games like the original Pool of Radiance.
With advances in technology other game types were developed as computers became powerful enough to control and render more moving objects. Some were based on the IBM PS/2 Model 30 - with a 20 megabyte harddrive and 256 colour MCGA graphics. Sequels to titles like Leisure Suit Larry and SimCity are still popular today. Other games included flight simulators (Comanche, Microsoft Flight Simulator series), Microsoft Game's Mechwarrior series, and strategy games (Command & Conquer, StarCraft, Warcraft).
In the early 1990s third-party developers created shareware demos of games, usually allowing people to play the first section of the game for free and requiring payment to play the rest. Apogee Software was one company that distributed shareware demos on disks and later through the Internet. These have since been replaced by free downloadable demos of games, or demos that come with gaming magazines.
Around the same time, 16-bit systems had little capability to create 3D texture maps. While leading Sega and Nintendo console systems kept their CPU speed at 3-7 MHz, the 486 PC processor ran at a much faster 66 MHz allowing it to perform many more calculations. 1993's 3D PC-based first-person shooter Doom was a breakthrough in graphics and design while consoles still had 2D side-scrollers like Nintendo's Mario series. As technology grew more sophisicated, dedicated games consoles caught up with the advances made by personal computers, paving the way for third-party developers to share game franchises like MDK between the different platforms,
Many early PC games included extras like the peril-sensitive sunglasses that shipped with the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. By the mid-90s these extras had been dropped for a long time but many games were still sold in the traditional over-sized boxes that used to hold the extra "feelies".
The added competition from console games and the early 2000s explosion in computer game development was the trigger to redesign this packaging and by 2001 PC games were almost exclusively sold in smaller DVD-sized game boxes.
Screenshot
See also
External links
- Gamespun Gaming news and commentary.
- PC Gamer Magazine PC Gamer Magazine: A great Source for Pc Gaming news and PC Gaming Hardware News.
- Gamers 2.0 Gamers 2.0 is a new gamers website with reviews, news, discussion communities.
- Gamers Tools Gamers resources and industry news.