Chapter 1.6

PC DOS Computers (1981)

History

Before the “IBM PC compatible” dominated the market, a trip to the local computer retailer was like a night at the casino. With a roulette wheel of incompatible platforms to choose from, consumers risked wasting hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on a machine that could very well be extinct within a few months. Naturally, the stakes were also high for software developers, who had to take on the financial burden and risk of building and porting software for all of these different systems.

Companies such as Apple, Commodore, Tandy, Texas Instruments, and Atari (just to name a few!) struggled mightily to eliminate their rivals and become the standard home computing platform. Some succeeded in dominating for a time, but it was not their destiny to produce the computing platform synonymous with the term “Personal Computer.” IBM would claim the victory, but not the spoils, of the home computer war, introducing and then losing control of what would become a truly ubiquitous home computing platform.

No other computer manufacturer had the corporate clout and deep pockets of IBM. For generations of professional businesspeople, the word “computer” meant a mainframe; anything else was just a gadget or—worse, in their eyes—a videogame system masquerading as a computer (consider how Atari marketed its 2600 console as the “Video Computer System”). Indeed, the very idea of a “personal computer” was suspect; the term “computer” meant a refrigerator-sized machine and a bevy of professionals to operate it (ordinary mortals never touched the actual computer). The old way of doing computing had worked well for IBM in the past, but it was becoming increasingly clear that the future was in personal computers, not mainframes.

As told in Emerson W. Pugh’s 2009 book, Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology, IBM can trace its roots back to 1890, when inventor Herman Hollerith developed a punched-card machine used by the US Census bureau. Later, Hollerith merged his company with two others to form International Business Machines, hiring Thomas J. Watson in 1914 to manage the combined operation. Watson (1874–1956) and, later his son, Tom Jr. (1914–1993), were the brilliant capitalists at the helm who literally changed the way the world does business. In 1964, IBM introduced the System/360, a “family” of versatile mainframe computers that became the industry standard, remaining in production until 1978.

Watson Jr. had retired in 1971 after suffering a heart attack, and the company went through a series of less effective CEOs. Although there were many at IBM who wanted to move into the personal computer sector, the lack of decisive leadership to deal with the endless internal office politics stymied the process. By that point, technological advances such as integrated circuits (ICs) and Intel’s “computer-on-a-chip,” the microprocessor, were not only shrinking the size, but also lowering the cost of computer hardware.

Tellingly, the IBM PC (later known commonly by its 5150 model name) was developed at a skunk works in Boca Raton, Florida, far away from the company’s bureaucracy. It was designed by Philip “Don” Estridge (1937–1985), an employee at IBM’s Entry Level Systems Division. As a former systems programmer for the Apollo moon mission and engineer on project SAGE, Estridge was no stranger to challenging assignments. Estridge and his team of 12 fellow engineers wanted to build a home computer out of commonly available parts and then publish the design specifications. The idea was that “open architecture” would offer third-party hardware and software developers an advantage in developing products for the platform. It was a critical design decision that would have ramifications undreamt of by the team and their company.

Furthermore, rather than develop its own operating system, IBM approached Digital Research, whose CP/M software (Control Program for Microcomputers) seemed like a great fit for the new machine. Developed by Gary Kildall (1942–1994) in 1974, CP/M was a highly portable system that allowed programmers to write software that could run on a variety of different hardware standards. It was the dominant 8-bit operating system for professional applications, boasting powerful software like the WordStar (1978, MicroPro International) word processor, the dBASE (1980, Ashton-Tate) database, and the SuperCalc (1980, Sorcim) spreadsheet. Fortuitously, CP/M had recently been ported to work on Intel’s 16-bit 8086 as CP/M-86.

A deal between IBM and Digital Research made perfect sense, but the companies famously failed to reach an agreement. There are varying accounts as to what happened when IBM’s representatives met with Kildall’s wife, Dorothy, who handled her husband’s business matters. The usual story goes that she refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement, a matter that the representatives considered a routine bit of paperwork that certainly wasn’t worth holding up the process for. The “pointless” delay angered them, so they left in a huff. A more likely scenario is that Dorothy didn’t want to sell CP/M for a lump sum with no option for royalties. In any case, the fateful decision led to IBM pursuing other options, and CP/M was soon replaced as the industry standard operating system by Microsoft’s MS-DOS.

IBM had already established relations with Bill Gates’ fledgling Microsoft company in 1980, requesting a version of the company’s popular BASIC interpreter. During the talks, when the 25-year-old Gates heard that IBM hadn’t decided on the far more important issue of the operating system, he referred them to Digital Research. Only after the negotiations with the Kildalls had fallen through did he propose his own solution. Acting quickly, Gates purchased the rights to Tim Paterson’s QDOS (Quick and Dirty DOS) for $50,000, and repurposed it for IBM’s needs. He called that version PC-DOS, but he’d make much more money selling the rebranded MS-DOS to IBM’s rival manufacturers. Cleverly, Gates had insisted on a non-exclusive arrangement with IBM, guessing correctly that great hordes of other computer manufacturers would seize the opportunity to license his operating system and use it to create cheaper and/or superior versions of the IBM PC. The insight paid off mightily for Gates, of course, eventually making him the richest man in the world.

Even the system’s BIOS, the part of a computer responsible for “booting up” the computer before loading the operating system, was made publicly available. This decision allowed companies such as Columbia Data Products, who introduced the first IBM PC compatible desktop in June 1982, and Compaq, who introduced the first IBM PC compatible transportable in November 1982, to easily reverse-engineer it, thereby legally circumventing IBM’s patents.

It took Estridge and his team only 30 days to complete a working model and a little over a year to get the IBM PC ready for production. The 16-bit IBM PC made its debut on August 12, 1981, and retailed for $1565 in its most basic configuration, although it would take at least double that amount to get something usable. Despite a price point that limited its appeal more to large businesses than consumers, there was enough demand to make the IBM PC the most profitable computer IBM ever produced. By 1984, IBM had sold more than 750,000 IBM PCs. Tragically, Philip Estridge and his wife Mary Ann died in a plane crash at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in 1985. Philip and his wife were only 48 and 46 years old, respectively.

Estridge and his team’s vision and commitment to expansion and versatility are evident in their design of the IBM PC. It was based on an Intel 8088 processor and shipped with anywhere from 16KB to 64KB of RAM, a cassette-oriented form of BASIC in ROM, and five expansion slots. Complementing the system’s sleek, heavy-duty industrial design was a weighted keyboard with highly responsive “clicky” keys that serious typists greatly appreciated and whose design is still admired today. It was exactly the kind of efficient, no-nonsense personal computer that you’d expect from the company that brought you the Selectric typewriter.

Customers could choose from a low-cost Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA) card or spring for the Color Graphics Adapter (CGA). An IBM PC equipped with a CGA card could display a maximum of four colors (from a palette of eight) in 320 × 200 resolution. The CGA card also enabled a monochrome resolution of 640 × 200. Hercules Computer Technology released a more sophisticated monochrome card called the Hercules Graphics Card in 1982, which soon became a competing standard to the MDA. The Hercules displayed much sharper text and higher resolution (720 × 348) than the MDA, and, more important, could render graphics. In “text mode,” the IBM PC could display 25 lines of as many as 80 characters.

Sound hardware, unfortunately, was more whimper than bang, limited to the computer’s internal “PC Speaker.” The PC Speaker could produce only one tone at a time, with waveforms generated by a Programmable Interval Timer. Because of its simplicity and rather unimpressive abilities, many users referred to it as a beeper, squawker, or buzzer. Cards to enhance the sound of the IBM PC would remain scarce until the late 1980s, when support for AdLib, Sound Blaster, and other add-ons became more common in computer games. In the meantime, however, gamers on these systems would suffer severe audio envy.

Data storage was initially delegated to cassette tapes, but floppy drives were also available. The all-important hard drives arrived later via expansion cards, and became standard on later models for internal storage.

IBM sold plenty of its own PCs and offered several more innovations, but Estridge’s decision to make the system open was great for the platform, not for the company. Essentially, Estridge and Gates had opened the door to rival manufacturers, who could “clone” the IBM PC and compete directly for its share of the market.

Within a few years of its introduction, hundreds of other companies hawking IBM compatibles would soon appear on the market, and so began the famous “clone wars” that continue to this day. Although at the time some manufacturers preferred to offer more feature-rich, proprietary configurations at the expense of compatibility, the clone wars eventually drove down the cost of these systems and fostered massive third-party development to a merged standard. Although it’s obviously evolved since then, that same standard is more or less what we find in today’s PCs.

Indeed, the advanced graphics, sound, and 3D acceleration that distinguish the modern PC are the result of a long history of third-party manufacturers one-upping one another to sell more expansion cards, or boards designed to enhance the base system, as well as more central components such as motherboards and CPUs. The horde of third-party hardware and computer developers gave the IBM compatible platform a huge advantage over closed, proprietary, and more legally defendable systems, such as those from Commodore, Apple, or Tandy, which tried to block outside competition and cloning. Gradually, and perhaps inevitably, these strategies lost out. The IBM compatible eventually reigned supreme, even as IBM itself gradually faded from the scene.

Because the early MS-DOS systems lacked sophisticated graphics and sound capabilities, most users sought them out for serious business applications rather than games. After all, IBM was legendary for its suit-and-tie, no-nonsense corporate culture, and the idea that their PCs would eventually dominate the computer games industry would have seemed ludicrous. The IBM PC was intended to boost a company’s bottom line, not provide the latest arcade thrills. Furthermore, since almost all business applications at this time were text-based, there was little need for fancy graphics, and even less for quality sound. This situation would change, albeit slowly and grudgingly, as more consumers purchased these relatively expensive machines they were using in the office for home use. Of course, the multimedia explosion of the 1990s proved decisive in this regard, quickly bringing the audiovisual capabilities of DOS-based machines up to snuff with their more game-centric competition.

Despite (or perhaps because of) their buttoned-down reputation, IBM unrolled a humorous and lighthearted marketing campaign for its Personal Computer, featuring a Charlie Chaplain impersonator trying to buy a personal computer. Their television commercials stressed the urgency of buying a personal computer and the ensuing customer confusion—perhaps a stab at the company’s many rivals, many of whose MS-DOS-based machines were not entirely compatible with IBM’s. IBM assured customers that its computers were the safest bet in the midst of so much upheaval and uncertainty. Another noteworthy IBM television spot of this era features the members of Spinal Tap, the satirical and fictitious heavy metal band. Clearly, IBM was targeting a wide and diverse demographic!

Although the IBM PC was ostensibly a machine designed purely for business, commercial games for the IBM PC and, by extension, the IBM Compatible, were becoming increasingly available.¹ However, since the majority of these computers offered graphics and sound shamed by even the cheapest videogame console, most of these games seem primitive compared to those on contemporary systems. The games that thrived on the system were those that took best advantage of what the platform did have to offer—raw 16-bit processing power. Like most computer manufacturers of the time, IBM published a variety of its own software, including games. One such disk was the text-based Zyll (1984), which was an innovative one- or two-player simultaneous game that combined some of the best elements from the adventure and role-playing genres in one seamless experience.

Although the same sorts of ASCII and text-only games available for the CP/M platform were also available for MDA-equipped PCs, anyone who was remotely serious about gaming on the platform purchased a CGA card. The CGA card had two palette options: black, white, cyan, and magenta; or black, red, green, and yellow. With palettes intended for bar graphs and pie charts rather than arcade games, they certainly give CGA games a distinctive, if garish, look.

One of the most popular (and arguably best) of the CGA games was Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.00 (1982), which offered smoother animation and finer detail on the PC than on any other machine. For the time, it was a highly realistic virtual experience, offering a fully rendered three-dimensional environment and even weather and day/night simulation.

In 1983, SSI released its strategy games The Warp Factor, The Battle of the Bulge: Tigers in the Snow, and Epidemic! for CGA-equipped systems. Broderbund supported the platform in 1985 with the first game in its The Ancient Art of War strategy series and Spectrum Holobyte with the popular submarine simulator Gato.

Adventure games were also well represented on the platform. Sierra released many of its highly popular graphical adventure games for the system, including King’s Quest (1984) and Leisure Suit Larry (1987). Fans of role-playing games had plenty to keep them busy, too, including such hits as Interplay’s The Bard’s Tale (1987) and Sir-Tech’s The Wizardry Trilogy (1987). Arcade-style games, although painfully primitive-looking compared with their counterparts on other platforms, were nevertheless abundant on CGA-era IBM PCs and compatibles. By 1982, a 15-year-old named Gary Kuperberg had cloned Pac-Man for the system, calling his game PC-MAN. Kuperberg also ported a game called Paratrooper, a game reminiscent of Atari’s classic arcade Missile Command. By 1984, many arcade or action games had been officially ported to the IBM PC from other platforms. Some of the better known titles include the popular martial arts game Karateka (1986) by Jordan Mechner. Other notable ports include Sega’s isometric arcade shooter Zaxxon (1984), Muse Software’s stealth game Castle Wolfenstein (1984), and Atari’s Marble Madness, which was ported from the arcade in 1986. In each case, the audiovisuals were vastly inferior to those available in the arcade or more arcade-friendly home computers such as the Commodore 64.

Later Models and the Attack of the Clones

IBM followed up the IBM PC with the IBM Personal Computer XT (model 5160) in 1983 and the AT (model 5170) in 1984. The XT was a high-powered computer designed for business professionals. It shipped with 128KB of RAM, a 5.25-inch floppy disk drive, and a 10MB hard drive. The XT also offered three more expansion slots than its older brother. The AT was built on Intel’s 80286 (286) microprocessor, which allowed the AT to run at 6MHz (later models ran at 8MHz). The AT also featured a 20MB hard drive, albeit one that was initially buggy and prone to error (the drives had a 25–35 percent failure rate), and a high-density floppy disk drive that could store as much as 1.2MB on a 5.25-inch disk. Unfortunately, using standard low-density disks in the high-density drive led to all sorts of problems, and the floppy disks themselves were hard to tell apart. Eminently expandable, the AT could handle as much as 16MB of RAM. According to popular legend, IBM purposefully slowed down the AT to 6MHz to stay consistent with their release cycle of planned obsolescence.

The IBM PCjr is another one of those quirky entries in the history of computers that almost defies explanation. Introduced in November 1983, but not released until March of 1984, the PCjr was IBM’s attempt to market a more game-friendly home computer, one that would defy the stereotype that IBM could only produce boring and expensive business machines. Although IBM had enjoyed tremendous success with its high-end business computer, the IBM PC, its PCjr (nicknamed “Peanut” by IBM engineers) would face much tougher competition. The life of the IBM PCjr was short-lived, particularly after the introduction of similarly capable Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) graphics and the arrival of cheap IBM compatibles that could not only match, but exceed most of the PCjr’s capabilities.

On one level, the PCjr had much in common with the best-selling and revolutionary IBM PC. Both were based on Intel’s 8088 microprocessor and ran versions of PC-DOS. Accordingly, some of the software written for the IBM PC would run on the PCjr. However, the differences between the two machines are more significant than the similarities. For instance, its unusual “user-friendly” design required users to install expansion packs, or “sidecars,” on the side of the machine rather than internally, a fact that rendered it incompatible with the vast array of popular add-ons for the IBM PC.

While these expansions could be daisy-chained, the end result was a fairly wide and cumbersome machine, similar to what Texas Instruments users had to endure on the TI-99/4 and 4A before the introduction of the Peripheral Expansion Box (PEB). In addition, the more sidecars added to the formerly svelte system, the more likely a power sidecar would be needed, creating the need for additional outlets since the PCjr’s own power supply was not designed to handle excessive loads.

Perhaps IBM’s most infamous innovation with the PCjr was the choice to ship the unit with a wireless, infrared chiclet keyboard with widely separated and raised keys. While the thinking behind this move might have been reasonable and even progressive—the keys were fully programmable and would allow software makers to include useful keyboard templates—it was a fiasco. Besides being difficult to type on, the AA-battery-powered wireless keyboard had a very limited range (IBM claimed it was 6 feet, but users discovered it was more like 2 or 3 feet). Reviewers and users alike slammed it. Although IBM soon issued a conventional (full-stroke) version of the keyboard for the PCjr, the affair no doubt cost the computer significant credibility in a competitive marketplace.

Nonetheless, the PCjr had several advantages for gamers over the IBM PC. Most importantly, it had better graphics and sound. It was capable of displaying 16 colors in a typical resolution of 160 × 200, and its audio chip, designed by Texas Instruments, was capable of three channels of mono sound. The PCjr also had two cartridge slots and two joystick ports. The cartridge slots not only allowed the PCjr to instantly load games, it also helped it run powerful productivity applications—like Lotus 1-2-3, a best-selling spreadsheet program—in less memory by using both of these ports simultaneously.

The PCjr was offered in two packages. For $669, purchasers got the 4860-004, which included 64K of RAM. For $600 more, they could get a PCjr with 128K of RAM and an internal 360K 5.25-inch floppy disk drive. At these prices, the PCjr was simply not as competitive as it needed to be to achieve dominance in the home computer market. A complete Commodore 64 or Atari 8-bit computer system could be had for half the price. In fact, even contemporary sources were ambivalent about IBM’s chances, with David Kay, marketing product manager for Kaypro, for instance, making the following statement in the March 1984 issue of Creative Computing: “Frankly, the Commodore 64 is a far better computer, but the PCjr is slick looking and has IBM’s name on it. Even so, I don’t think there’s a market for it.”

Furthermore, Apple had built up quite a bit of marketing momentum with its sleek and recently introduced Apple IIc, and IBM was slow to catch up. Charles Eicher, an employee at a ComputerLand store in Los Angeles, explained that at one point the Apple IIc store displays were running a colorful and attractive demo to lure customers, but the IBM PCjr models were switched off. Apple had shipped its demo on a floppy disk, which could be easily backed up, but IBM’s demo for the PCjr was on a proprietary ROM cartridge. Since the store was far more concerned about someone stealing a ROM cartridge than an easily replaced floppy disk, the staff demonstrated the computer only by request. IBM eventually discovered this problem and rushed out a demonstration disk just before Christmas 1984, but it was just one more example of the megacorporation’s failure to understand the market it was trying to enter.

IBM’s advertising campaign for the PCjr focused on the simplicity of the setup, suggesting that even a small child would have no problem setting it up and operating it. It was the computer that was “easy for everyone.” An IBM booklet from late 1983 describes “junior” as a “tireless worker and playmate,” a “bright little addition to the family” of IBM home computers. A television spot had the familiar Little Tramp character pushing a PCjr in a baby stroller. This cutesy approach seemed pandering to some critics. As Steve Jobs remarked at the time (quoted in Owen Linzmeyer’s 1994 The Mac Bathroom Reader), “I expected the computer to wet all over the television set.”

Several interesting products were eventually released that improved the PCjr’s usefulness after IBM ceased production and more specific support began to dry up. For instance, Racor Computer Products, Inc.’s PCID cartridge fools software into identifying the PCjr as a standard IBM PC, increasing compatibility, and a motherboard modification makes the PCjr compatible with the software, particularly many of the games, designed for the Tandy 1000 series of computers. Other aftermarket products gave the PCjr access to additional memory, disk drives, and even hard drives, making the system a more professional PC compatible.

The most historically important game released for the PCjr was Sierra On-Line’s famous King’s Quest (1984), published by IBM. It was a game that single-handedly redefined the graphical adventure game and helped spawn several megafranchises that still endure today. Indeed, the paradigm Sierra set with this game was essentially unchallenged until Trilobyte’s The 7th Guest (1993) and Cyan’s Myst (1994) conclusively demonstrated the startling potential of CD-ROM technology to make expansive, photo-realistic games. With full 16-color animated graphics and three-channel sound, King’s Quest demonstrated the PCjr’s superiority over CGA-equipped IBM PCs and compatibles, setting a high standard that few other systems of the day could match.

There were several games released on cartridge for the PCjr, including Gibelli Software’s Mouser (1983), a Pac-Man-like multiscreen game in which players manipulate the walls of the maze; Sierra On-Line’s Crossfire (1983), a hybrid maze and shooter game; and Activision’s conversions of its popular Pitfall II (1983) and River Raid (1983) games. Imagic, another big supporter of the platform, released its most graphically lush version of Demon Attack (1984) for the system.

On disk, Imagic offered Touchdown Football (1984), a highly playable arcade football game that was notable for its use of digitized sound. Sierra On-Line released Championship Boxing (1984), a sports game known for its detailed simulation of its subject matter.

Tandy Corporation offered a clone of the PCjr (sans cartridge ports) called the Tandy 1000, which was released in late 1984, not too long before IBM officially pulled the plug on the PCjr in early 1985. Fortunately, in addition to taking steps to improve compatibility with the IBM PC, Tandy proved much more successful than IBM in executing and marketing its system, creating its own “Tandy compatible” standard in the process. Ironically, Tandy was better able to fulfill the potential of the PCjr’s technology than IBM itself, mirroring how IBM’s main PC series would also eventually lose out to clone systems. In fact, a forward-looking statement by industry analyst Barbara Isgur, in the March 1984 issue of Creative Computing, predicted a variation on just such a possibility: “The IBM home computer will probably establish the standard operating system for the home market as it has in business. So even if the PCjrs have gone into the closet, I think that as the software continues to evolve and increase, they will be brought out.”

Why was Tandy able to succeed where IBM had failed? There are several possible explanations. First, Tandy was able to lean on the thousands of Radio Shack stores all over the country to help promote, support, and sell the computers. Second, Tandy already had a large and loyal user base for its TRS-80 and Color Computer (CoCo) computers who were willing and able to upgrade. Third, the 1000 corrected two of the worst problems of the PCjr: it had a full-travel keyboard and internal expansion. Last, and perhaps most important, Tandy was able to respond quickly and effectively to the demise of the PCjr, quietly removing all references to the doomed computer in its marketing materials while playing up its compatibility with the IBM PC.

Tandy’s built-in graphics and sound capabilities offered a standard that competed successfully with IBM’s AT and IBM compatibles equipped with EGA cards. Once IBM released its VGA card in 1987, and Ad Lib’s and Creative’s sound cards became more commonplace, Tandy lost its edge and finally gave in to other standards, becoming just another clone until the line was ultimately discontinued.

Like the PCjr, the Tandy 1000 was based on Intel’s 8088 processor with 128K of expandable RAM. It featured 16 on-screen colors, with most games displaying in 160 × 200 resolution. Sound was output over three channels in mono. The unit had a built-in 5.25-inch 360K floppy disk drive and an extra bay for a second. Software was offered on 5.25-inch floppy disks, although by 1987 Tandy was offering systems with 3.5-inch drives. Its built-in game ports were compatible with controllers for the CoCo line. The Tandy 1000 enjoyed fairly good compatibility with most MS-DOS software, though the enhanced graphics and sound technology worked only when specifically targeted by developers.

Tandy packaged a proprietary menu-based application suite with the 1000 called Deskmate. This surprisingly useful integrated package included a word processor, spreadsheet, calendar, and database application. Everything fit on a single 360KB floppy disk. Some Tandy 1000-series computers even had DeskMate (and DOS) built into ROM for faster access, much like the far less useful 3 Plus 1 suite in the failed Commodore Plus/4.

Later models include the EX, a compact 1000 with built-in keyboard, and the HX, with built-in keyboard and 3.5-inch floppy drive. The TX, released in August 1987, featured Intel’s 16-bit 80286 CPU and came standard with 640K of RAM, while the SX was a cheaper model based on the 8088 that came with dual 5.25-inch floppy drives. After the TX, models (SL and TL) became increasingly incompatible with the original PCjr-like specifications and more like regular IBM compatibles, culminating in the R-series, which, of all the original features, still only supported the Tandy sound standard.

The Tandy 1000 benefited from its compatibility with the IBM PC and XT and the swathe of titles for these systems. However, these machines were limited to CGA graphics and the PC speaker and thus couldn’t take advantage of the 1000’s more sophisticated sound and display capabilities. Once the Tandy computers proved themselves a sales success within a few short years, an increasing number of top game publishers made sure to include specific support for the platform when creating their PC games, including Sierra On-Line, Broderbund, Electronic Arts, Epyx, and Microprose.

Since Sierra was familiar with the 1000’s technology from its pioneering work on the PCjr, the company naturally started supporting the platform beginning in 1985, releasing its classic graphical adventure game series like King’s Quest, Space Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry, among many of its other titles. Broderbund offered the platform hit Lode Runner (1984), its popular Carmen Sandiego edutainment games (first release, 1985), and the city-planning classic SimCity (1989). Electronic Arts offered sports titles (John Madden Football II, 1991), strategy role-playing games (Starflight, 1986), and flight simulators (Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat, 1991), to name just a few. In short, with its standard audiovisual prowess and direct joystick support, Tandy’s systems offered the best overall gaming experience for IBM compatible users until VGA and sound cards became industry standards in the 1990s.

Nevertheless, with the arrival of the Enhanced Graphics Adapter, or the EGA card, things began to look brighter for gamers on the IBM PC line and their compatibles. The EGA card, designed for the IBM PC AT, was capable of displaying up to 16 colors at a relatively high resolution (as well as the modes available to the older CGA and MDA cards). No longer were PC users getting mostly ports from other systems as they did with CGA, but were actually becoming a primary platform. Furthermore, the slow emergence of industry standards for sound with the arrival of the AdLib Music Synthesizer Card promised liberation from the PC’s seriously inadequate internal speaker. Meanwhile, Intel had released the 80386, a 32-bit processor eventually capable of speeds of up to 40MHz. In short, a perfect storm was forming that would soon alter the face of computer gaming forever, and the very name “PC” would come to mean an IBM compatible computer running MS-DOS (or a compatible variant) and later Microsoft Windows, which, although the first version was released relatively quietly in November 1985, would come to face down a multitude of competitors over the years. Ultimately, by 1990, the oft-cloned PC platform had taken over 80 percent of the market on its relentless march toward ubiquity.

Perhaps the best place to start is by revisiting IBM’s PC AT and PCjr. As noted earlier, the PCjr had quickly become an albatross around IBM’s neck and dropped out of production—although Tandy resurrected the unit’s advanced graphics and audio standards in its Tandy 1000 series of computers. However, IBM’s AT equipped with an EGA card promised users a serious computer with serious graphics—better graphics (higher resolution), in fact, than the PCjr. However, by 1986, IBM had begun to lose its edge, gradually falling behind the many companies manufacturing PC clones. Compaq, ever on the forefront of the “clone wars,” released a PC based on Intel’s new 80386 in 1986, beating even IBM to the powerful new processor. Other PC manufacturers would follow, gradually lowering the price and bringing these systems within reach of a slowly expanding user community. These machines tended to be referred to by the last three digits of their processor; that is, a 286 or 386 computer meant PC models based on Intel’s 80286 and 80386, respectively. Eventually, other manufacturers began cloning the EGA card, and some, like ATI Technologies and Paradise, even improved upon them. Although the price of a high-end PC was still more than twice the price of Commodore’s Amiga or Atari’s ST, the gap was steadily closing. Thus, even as early as 1986, the PC and compatibles constituted the largest single portion—greater than 55 percent—of the home computer market, before the year was out.²

The Decline of the IBM PC

IBM’s own role in the story begins to peter off in April 1987, with the release of its Personal System/2 (PS/2) line of computers. Essentially, the PS/2 was IBM’s effort to repeat the coup it had undertaken with the original IBM PC, but this time keeping things proprietary, or closed, rather than open, to prevent cloning. For years, IBM had steadily been losing market share to clone makers, who were spared the need to expend expensive research and development efforts; they would merely wait until IBM had released a new product, copy it, and offer it for a cut rate. The loopholes that allowed such rampant cloning were the open nature of the architecture (made up of off-the-shelf components) and IBM’s non-exclusive license with Microsoft for its operating system (which allowed Microsoft to license the de facto OS to rival manufacturers). To combat this trend, IBM introduced its own OS/2 operating system, which began as a collaboration between Microsoft and IBM, but later became exclusive to the latter when the former decided to focus on refining a resurgent Windows. In any case, the new proprietary hardware and operating system was far more expensive than many other capable MS-DOS-compatible machines, and the bulk of users decided not to migrate. Although the powerful OS/2 operating system received updates for several more years before being discontinued, the lack of specific commercial game development and the rise of Microsoft’s Windows never allowed the operating system to gain critical mass acceptance.

Suffice it to say, once IBM let the genie out of the bottle with its original IBM PC, there was no stuffing him back in. The market now belonged to the clone makers—a fact that was being grasped not only by IBM, but also Commodore and Atari, who would release a short-lived run of clones of their own, as well as see a steady release of compatibility options for their proprietary systems. In the words of Charlie Chaplin, “I suppose that’s one of the ironies of life—doing the wrong thing at the right moment.”

AdLib and SoundBlaster Sound Cards

Although the PCjr and Tandy’s 1000 had featured good standard sound capabilities (three mono voices), the typical PC was still limited to the tinny internal speaker, which, despite the occasional clever workarounds, was good for little more than shrill beeps. This situation began to change when a Canadian company called Ad Lib began manufacturing expansion cards that would enhance the computer’s sound output. The AdLib Music Synthesizer Card, released in 1987, was built from off-the-shelf parts. It was based on Yamaha’s YM3812 sound chip, which allowed the PC to output tunes via FM Synthesis. This technique was optimal from a memory-conservation perspective but inadequate for making realistic sound effects for games. It was only after Creative Labs launched its first Sound Blaster card in November 1989 that such effects were possible. The Sound Blaster was based on the same Yamaha chip, but it also featured a Digital Sound Processor (DSP) that could play back mono sound samples. In addition, the card featured a combined joystick port and MIDI interface. Although there were always competitors offering their own formats, each with varying degrees of official support, both Ad Lib and Creative Labs set industry standards (that others would try to clone) for PC sound that would enable game developers to realistically incorporate music and sound effects into their games.

As was typically the case, Sierra On-Line was on the cutting edge of PC technology and was one of the first companies to support and recommend that gamers purchase a sound card to get the most out of their games. Other companies soon followed: Interplay with its Bard’s Tale III: Thief of Fate, Lucasfilm with Loom, and Origin Systems with Times of Lore (all 1988). However, most early adopters of these sound cards were primarily interested in music composition; it took a few more years before developers and gamers really started taking the cards seriously.

Of course, the product that would eventually tie all of this advanced graphics and sound hardware together was Microsoft’s Windows, released in 1985. Originally little more than a graphical front end for MS-DOS, Windows nevertheless boasted simple multitasking capability and, along with competing operating systems (environments) at the time, helped introduce PC users to the mouse. Version 2.0, released in 1987, offered better support for the faster 286 processors and windows that could overlap each other. However, it wasn’t until 1990, with the release of Windows 3.0, that the product began to catch on. This third version was optimized for the 386 processor and included a software development kit (SDK) for programmers that made it much easier for them to code for the platform. Computer manufacturers began pre-installing it on their machines, helping to entrench it. Nevertheless, the platform would not become a truly viable choice for gamers or game developers until the release of Microsoft’s Windows 95 and companion DirectX standards in 1995, which greatly simplified Windows game programming and efficiency (for more on Windows, see Chapter 3.1).

Although EGA games with PC speaker or even AdLib sound were distinctly inferior in most ways to contemporary games on Commodore’s Amiga or Atari’s ST platform, the sheer size of the user base was motivation enough for game developers to offer games for the platform. Since the requirements for fast action did not always favor the strengths of the PC at the time, many of the best games continued to be either adventure or role-playing games. For instance, in 1986, Sierra On-Line released Space Quest I with support for EGA, and if there had been any doubt before, it disappeared after gamers saw the new card’s superiority over CGA. The extra colors and higher resolution made for much sharper detail, a critical feature in a graphical adventure game. Origin Systems also supported EGA with a rerelease of its popular Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness. The next year saw four new EGA games, including Interplay’s Bard’s Tale (with the game’s sequels supporting it as well). One of the earliest arcade game conversions released with the card in mind was Taito’s popular Arkanoid, debuting for the EGA specification in 1988.

In 1987 when IBM introduced the backward-compatible VGA card, which allowed games to display 256 colors on-screen in 320 × 200 resolution, the EGA’s 16 colors and relatively limited palette seemed rather dated and was slowly phased out as a primary specification. However, even after VGA’s establishment as the new standard in the early 1990s, many commercial games still also supported EGA.

The DOS Community Then and Now

As the dominant platform of the pre-Windows era, naturally there were plenty of user groups, online bulletin board systems (BBSs), clubs, organizations, magazines, and expos dedicated to the IBM PC and compatibles. However, the open nature of the platform meant that no particular hardware manufacturer united the community as a whole. IBM faded relatively quickly from the scene. Indeed, the only glue that really held the sprawling assembly of “IBM compatibles” together was the operating system, MS-DOS.

Relatively few of the millions of purchasers of these machines, however, bought them for gaming purposes—you could get a much better gaming rig from Commodore or Atari for a fraction of the price. As we saw above, IBM’s attempt at a more gaming-centric machine, the PCjr, was a fiasco, although Tandy had much more luck with the concept. Of course, these machines also benefited from their association with and presence in thousands of Radio Shack stores, which provided users with a hub for purchasing more hardware and software, as well as meeting fellow enthusiasts.

After the introduction of EGA and then VGA graphics standards, however—and innovative games to showcase their power—the PC seized the computer gaming crown, which it held until well into the Windows era. It was the living embodiment of the idiom, “slow and steady wins the race.” Indeed, if anything, PC DOS computers destroyed communities, since eventually all but the most diehard of Atari, Commodore, and Apple fans had abandoned their beloved old machines for a shiny new PC. By the late 1980s, most games were being developed (at least initially) for DOS machines, and by the 1990s, even quality ports for other computers were becoming a rarity.

Collecting for the PC DOS Platform

Collecting old DOS-based machines might seem pointless given the ubiquity of “obsolete” models that were dumped on the market in the wake of Microsoft Windows. There are no doubt still plenty of corporate warehouses stacked floor-to-ceiling with crates of compatibles and all the copies of WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 you could ever want. An original IBM PC can, of course, command a higher price than a clone, but even these can be found for a few hundred dollars. An IBM PCjr in good condition can get close to that amount. Tandy 1000-series computers also remain popular, both for the benefits of their own standard and overall compatibility with other classes of PC.

Where the complexity comes in is in building the ideal DOS-based “gaming rig,” a machine that can run the broadest range of DOS-games at their best possible specifications. This includes getting just the right type of video or sound card, and maximizing as many of the other specs as possible, without breaking compatibility or era-specific authenticity. It’s like a game in and of itself.

Speaking of games, PC DOS game software is among the easiest and cheapest to find on various auction sites, however, as usual, certain deluxe packages and software genres like CRPGs tend to command more of a premium. The earliest games, some of which came in plastic zip bags or demanded very specific PC configurations, also tend to have greater value than when the PC compatible standard exploded in popularity.

Emulating DOS

The best place to start with emulating DOS is DOSBox, a free emulator originally developed by Peter Veenstra and Sjoerd van der Berg, and released in 2002. Regularly updated, DOSBox is probably the only DOS emulator you’re likely to need, and is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and other platforms. The website www.dosbox.com features downloads and a wiki with all the information you’ll need to setup and run the program.

Many users will prefer to use a “frontend” for DOSBox. A frontend such as D-Fend Reloaded provides a useful GUI to simplify installing and playing games. If you are unfamiliar with DOS’s somewhat esoteric command-line interface, you will most likely want to go this route.

Finding and downloading DOS-era games from the Internet can be tricky. While “abandonware” sites are plentiful, many are ambivalent toward copyright laws and should never be trusted blindly. Thoughtful gamers try to make sure that the game is not legally available from a site like Good Old Games (www.gog.com) before hitting the download button on one of those other sites.

¹  As we’d expect given the Loguidice Law. It takes much more than crummy audiovisuals and a reputation for serious business to keep gamers off a platform.

²  http://jeremyreimer.com/m-item.lsp?i=137.