Pages for the eras of Video Games

First off, I know that these have been on YKTTW for a while, but I was debating whether or not if I should put this on the forum, but I'm convinced that I should now.

Now, I put forth the idea of eras of video games on YKTTW. The reason for this is that we already have History of Animation and The Ages of Superhero Comics, so I thought that video games should get the same treatment since it video games are already classified by eras.

The histories of PC gaming and console gaming are very separate until the seventh generation, so I've decided to make separate groups for both histories.

These are all the pages we have right now for the consoles:

• The Golden Age Of Video Games (already a page, inexplicably)
• The 8-bit era
• The 16-bit era
• The fifth generation
• The sixth generation
• The seventh generation
• I'll make the eighth generation, but I haven't found the time for that

What I'm planning for the history of PC gaming (setup mostly credited to Rocket Dude):

• Mainframes And Minicomputers (already a page)
• Early home computers era (e.g. Commodore 64, Apple II, MSX, IBM Personal Computer)
• DOS era
• Early graphical operating systems era
• Windows 95-XP, Mac, Linux
• The seventh generation (by this time, the histories of consoles and PCs essentially merge due to many multiplatform games)

I need major help on the PC pages because I'm not experienced in PC gaming, so I'm not quite knowledgeable about it.

So, hopefully, we can get these YKTTWs done so they all of the eras can be pages.

edited 20th Oct '12 11:11:38 AM by WaxingName

I could've sworn that we already had that list created a few years back. But if not (or if it got lost during one of the crashes or purges), then if couldn't hurt to bring it back. It's gonna take a LOT of research and detail to make it factually correct and proper though.

You should also consider making a separate group for the eras of pc gaming. PC's have had a much different history from console gaming until very recently. Moving from the text only games through the adventure boom and early first person shooters, cd technology, Dos, Windows, Educational games, strategy games (turn based and real time), the reemergence of the first person shooter, and digital downloads. I don't have an exact chronology, but we could probably hash something out.

I already said that we need something separate for PC gaming, and that's why I need someone else to do it because I'm not terribly experienced in PC gaming.

edited 18th Oct '12 9:07:11 AM by WaxingName

^^[EDIT: The site doesn't exist anymore.]

I have found some material to watch, however, to help give you an idea of FPS games:

edited 18th Oct '12 10:11:47 AM by RocketDude

Well, I'm not sure how to divide it. The console version is ordered by console generation. Maybe we could go by the technological advances on computers.

• Text only games
• Graphics
• Animation/EGA
• The mouse
• cd rom
• 3d graphics and graphic accelerators
• Digital Distribution

Except with better names.

There were certain genre booms throughout computer gaming as well (which kind of tie into the technology aspect). I kind of went over it in gerenal in my last post.

We could try to go gold, silver, bronze, iron, modern (or however we want to divide). We do need good stopping points for those.

On the seventh generation YKTTW, I noted that the era marked a "merging" of the PC and console histories because I've seen countless games being Multi-Platform on console and PC. So I think we have one part of PC gaming down.

Now, one page I'm having trouble finding things to say is the 8-bit era. I don't know what else to say besides what I've already put there.

edited 18th Oct '12 2:37:34 PM by WaxingName

^^Besides those things you mentioned, there's also this sort of succession:

• Workstations (games being developed on non-home computers)
• Home computers and other personal machines
• DOS
• Early operating systems
• Windows 95-onwards, Mac, and Linux

edited 18th Oct '12 9:26:24 PM by RocketDude

Would the Home Computers era include stuff like the Commodore64, MSX, and Apple II?

Yeah, pretty much. We're talking pre-Windows here, so late 70's to sometime in the 80's.

edited 18th Oct '12 3:32:59 PM by RocketDude

Alright, I'm getting somewhere in where the eras can be separated. Now, I'm just wondering, what separates DOS from other early operating systems?

DOS is the last great command prompt based operating system. It dominated for a long time and many games were developed specifically for DOS, including most of the more fondly remembered titles from early gaming.

So it seems that we need an alternate name for early operating systems, since it needs to be more specific than that. Rocket Dude's proposal appeals to me because it is sort of a generational approach to computers, but that one thing needs to be changed.

Now, back to the YKTTWs I have now. What can we do to improve them? They haven't gotten five hats for a reason.

edited 18th Oct '12 6:06:54 PM by WaxingName

I'm going to respond about that on the actual YKTTWs (after I find the time to read them fully).

edited 18th Oct '12 6:15:09 PM by arks

Fair enough. I guess we can focus on things about PC games here then.

It's slightly generational. Like, as time went on, we transitioned from DOS to graphical operating systems such as Windows and Mac OS (there were other OS' too, such as the OS2, which is a bit obscure).

edited 18th Oct '12 8:50:33 PM by RocketDude

PC Gaming became generational since Windows 95 because almost all "PC Gaming" has been based on a Microsoft OS. The percentage of "gaming" in Linux/OS X is still quite low. There's also the key difference between Windows and Linux/OS X: Windows can have both Direct X (being from Microsoft) and Open GL, the latter only has Open GL.

Okay then, I'll go with Rocket Dude's approach to this and edit the OP to include this. Now, I just need descriptions about how all the eras of PC gaming went down so that we can get started on them.

^^Yeah, when we moved from 95/98/whatever to XP, things got different compatibility-wise, I think. And then there was Vista/7, and soon, there will be 8.

edited 18th Oct '12 9:27:28 PM by RocketDude

So, RocketDude, when do all the things that arks listed earlier like text-only games, the mouse, 3d graphics, and others fit into your generational approach to organizing the eras of PC gaming?

Well, you have to look at them on a case-by-case basis. For example, I think the first text-only game was a text adventure programmed on a non-home computer in the 70's.

Were text-based adventures ever dominant of the industry at that time?

Also, what other genres dominated the industry during each of the eras you mentioned?

edited 19th Oct '12 1:22:46 PM by WaxingName

I don't think any genre really dominated for quite a long time. In the 70's, you may have had games like Adventure, but you also had Maze War, Spasim, and some other games. In the 80's and early 90's, you had both text adventure games and then 3D games like Mech Warrior and Hovertank 3D, and then there were games like Commander Keen, Dune II, and Ultima.

Well, at least we're getting somewhere. I don't want explanations of a single genre that dominated during a given era, I just want explanations of the many genres that gained popularity during each era. The following list shows the genres that have been historically PC oriented, as far as I know. I'll definitely need more examples of these genres.

• Text-based games
• Adventure Game
• The "Doom clone" variety of First-Person Shooter
• The post-Half Life 1 variety of First-Person Shooter up until the console FPS boom brought about by Halo.
• Western RPG
• MMORPG
• Real-Time Strategy

I also need to know how advances in PC technology contributed to the rise of these genres, as I have included that information in my console era proposals.

edited 19th Oct '12 1:41:34 PM by WaxingName

Edutainment Games have also been historically more popular on PC.

edited 19th Oct '12 2:07:38 PM by arks