21 January 2021, 18:58 | #41 | |
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Of course, it rather populated some niches while the PC was dominating in general. |
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21 January 2021, 19:12 | #42 | |
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22 January 2021, 06:03 | #43 | |
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With a better display mode that didn't require a weird custom monitor like the A2024, the Amiga would've made an awesome business computer. Even then, it would've been doomed because Commodore simply didn't have the sales channels of IBM, and IBM had a four year head start with the IBM PC. It would be like a company known for making golf carts trying to break into the market for semi trucks. They might have the best semi truck in the world but business types buy from who they know. Some clone companies eventually got their foot in the door after years of effort, but they had to do it via cloning what IBM made. Even then, it took years for Compaq, etc. to make a dent in IBM's business market despite a huge cost advantage (Compaq in particular got in by having a luggable when IBM had none). Even now, large businesses buy via corporate accounts from big names like Dell, even though they're overpriced. Corporate sales channels are slow to change and are built around paying extra for the ability to deflect blame when things go wrong. "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" was the mantra at the time. If something goes wrong, you pass the blame to IBM, and then IBM passes the blame to bad luck or the universe or something because obviously IBM can't be at fault -- they make too much money for that to be possible. Nowadays IBM isn't the only company in that position, but the rule is still the same. |
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22 January 2021, 10:16 | #44 |
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The market just preferred the dominant format for business, didn't care if the Amiga had 4000 colors and the PC had 16, they just wanted a high res (640x400 minimum), a hard drive and the applications, that simply didn't exist on the Amiga. Seems the biggest problem was the lack of hard disk controller and a normal high res mode. The applications could be made in house in the end, but looks like Commodore didn't have a clue what they were doing.
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22 January 2021, 10:33 | #45 | |
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Last edited by idrougge; 22 January 2021 at 11:28. |
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22 January 2021, 10:35 | #46 | |
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22 January 2021, 12:22 | #47 |
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Sorry, but the id Software story Masters of Doom never mentioned anything about EGA hardware scrolling when Carmack cracked smooth scrolling on PC, they said it was down to him only updating the parts of the screen that needed to be updated. Now THAT'S genius.
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22 January 2021, 12:53 | #48 | |
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Now don't get me wrong, Carmack is a very important individual in PC games history and he's an absolutely great coder, but that technique really isn't that unique. |
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22 January 2021, 13:14 | #49 |
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22 January 2021, 15:53 | #50 | |
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EDIT: Did a quick check and even Keen 1 seems to do EGA hardware scrolling Last edited by britelite; 22 January 2021 at 16:10. |
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22 January 2021, 18:12 | #51 | |
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I wouldn't know myself how updating parts of the screen would help you with scrolling, everything moves and thus everything needs to be updated. |
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22 January 2021, 19:30 | #52 | ||
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23 January 2021, 02:43 | #53 |
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I often wonder if the Atari ST was the origional PC that IBM wanted to invent with the 68k. Built with off the shelf components
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23 January 2021, 16:17 | #54 | |
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You're more than welcome to think that Commander Keen was some sort of pinnacle of, and a turning point in early PC gaming, and then try to build a simplistic narrative around it. But this just another reason why I mentioned historical revisionism earlier. |
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23 January 2021, 21:07 | #55 | |
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King’s Quest is an inventive game, by all means, but it should also be noted as a testament to the uninventiveness of the PC game developers that all subsequent Sierra games (on all platforms) used the same blocky 160x200 PC Jr graphics until VGA was well-established. And, well, if EGA is horrible, then PC Jr graphics are even more horrible. Only an 80s PC gamer would consider Commander Keen to be any more noteworthy than Alfred Chicken or Snaperazzi in the grand history of games. Any attempt to bring it into a historical narrative is history revisionism, as is any mention of Carmack’s scrolling technique. |
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23 January 2021, 21:09 | #56 | |
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The ST had a custom chipset, it just was very poor compared to the Amiga’s. |
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24 January 2021, 15:18 | #57 | |||
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And, gameplay being any kind of important factor? You got to be kiddin'. All that, of course, after we've ignored the little detail of talking about a very pricey business-oriented platform, which by default had much lower interest from game devs/publishers than the other ones. Might as well complain that my microwave makes poor toasts. Quote:
Commander Keen is somewhat noteworthy in the history of PC gaming, but it's a very small-sized milestone. This is down to the fact you're strenously trying to ignore: that the PC has always had a different gaming audience then consoles, and partially home computers (mixed bag). Gaming world does not revolve strictly around scrolling action games, and the PCs' strength has alway been in the adventure/RPG/IF/sim/strategy genres, later 3D FPS. One glance at the post-CK PC gaming landscape should be enough to establish it did not really make such great waves outside of the PC-shareware market niche, and definitely is not a proof of the alleged uninventiveness of PC devs prior to its release . W're going in circles now so I'll bow out of this, ahem, "discussion", but I'm sure we'll have a chance to return to it on some other occasion. These seem to appear quite regularly around here. |
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25 January 2021, 12:17 | #58 |
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"W're going in circles now so I'll bow out of this, ahem, "discussion"" - Yes... and you tried to get the last word in instead of taking the high road and bowing out BEFORE that rather loaded wall of text that should not have been posted.
It should not be this hard to be nice to each other. |
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