So about PC

[yutterh]

I just realized how impractical it is. I feel instead of PC it should be arcade. Because the true PC didn't exist until windows 95. Before then it was all about the commadore and the amiga etc. Having PC I feel cheapens the whole market. Especially when it lasts well into infinity hahaha. But really though I feel it needs to be added later. Maybe have dev kits avalaible at the start. So we can choose out first console.

Edit: I have changed my stance. PC existed as dos but dos does not exist tell Aug 1981. Upple II has been added though.

[VanHell]

what about win 3 etc
not sure what your first PC had but mine was way before win 95

[Eggcode Games]

PC games are developed for a long time (DOS).
Examples are:

Ultima II (1982)
Alley Cat (1984)
Sim City (1989)

[yutterh]

yes thats true, but they ran off of other PC's like the amiga and commodore 64. I am just saying PC as a console doesn't make sense, especially to be around so long. PC nowadays is basically run off of windows/linux/whatever else or people buy macintosh's. but until windows 95 most PC's were prebuilt. better then consoles for sure. maybe have PC based consoles one size higher then consoles. but as far as something being a AAA from the beginning the only thing i can think of are arcade cabinets.

I guess what I am trying to get across is the PC went through the same stages as consoles before the modern PC was born. having it be around since the beginning with that high of a marketshare doesn't exactly make sense. Even if you use it like someone making their own system, the market share was definitly not as high as 35% and didn't catch on tell the 90's at the very least.

[PolecatEZ]

I had a Tandy 1000SX in 1984 and never had a lack of games for it. These were standard DOS games, and the SX had 16 colors and 384k, which was awesome. The PC was a perfectly viable platform since 1980 at least. Commodore and Amiga were little side-shows.

There's no reason not to leave them at AAA, you won't research enough features to make a AAA game until late 1990's regardless. Until then, you will be able to make a game with the best features for PC because that's what they're developed on...it wouldn't make sense to build an engine on a PC and then make a game the PC can't run.

[yutterh]

Exactly what I am saying though. You bought that system, whether it was less of a brand then the amiga or commodore is also a good point. because they had more consumer appeal. most people didn't have a tandy or could even afford one. what i am saying is that the system is not a realistic one. their were various PC models etc but no one really built their own PC's. They had a few people sure but it wasn't equal to the marketshare this game has.

Also I would like to correct myself on the commodore and amiga seems they already had the higher game sizes.

[PolecatEZ]

You are correct in that the gaming market was dominated by consoles, by volume, since basically Pong. The PC having a 50%+ share of the market throughout the game is unrealistic.

http://www.statista.com/statistics/190184/us-computer-and-video-game-sales-by-categorie-2010/

This is the best I could find. I'm betting if you go all the way back to 1980, PC might cap out at 10-20% some times.

One of the biggest markets in the early 80's going into early 90's is the coin-op market...people actually used to leave their house and go to the arcade to play the most cutting-edge stuff. Observe: http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Video_game_industry

[AetherialSapphire]

I think this game needs a more earlier start like what if we can start around the time when video games where first starting with arcade machines

[yutterh]

Originally posted by PolecatEZ:

You are correct in that the gaming market was dominated by consoles, by volume, since basically Pong. The PC having a 50%+ share of the market throughout the game is unrealistic.

http://www.statista.com/statistics/190184/us-computer-and-video-game-sales-by-categorie-2010/

This is the best I could find. I'm betting if you go all the way back to 1980, PC might cap out at 10-20% some times.

One of the biggest markets in the early 80's going into early 90's is the coin-op market...people actually used to leave their house and go to the arcade to play the most cutting-edge stuff. Observe: http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Video_game_industry

Which is exactly why i suggested putting Arcade in it's place. but I meant that PC is too vauge of a system. the tandy you suggested and the amiga were both considered PC's. IBM made the first PC but it eventually got taken out. what I am trying to get across is that PC's now a days are not really manufactured the same way anymore. They were pretty much super consoles at the time.

[PolecatEZ]

Tandy's were 100% PC compatible, they could run anything an IBM machine could run. They ran into problems with hardware upgrades though, as their actual parts were proprietary. Amiga/Commodore were their own beasts and were "super consoles" like you said.

I took it in this game as "PC" meant "Dos/Windows" compatible though, and it seems to hold up.

[yutterh]

That's very true nut my point is that their are many machines that ran off of dos. It wasn't exclusive to IBM but also apple 2 was pretty much the leading computer at the time. PC is just too vague of a name and the IBM pc was a brand. ms/dos was around but used in various computers made by various companies. It cannot be pinpointed to the PC model tell later when consumers made their own systems. Until then it was pretty much a console of its own. Did research for this topic and read some info on

http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/1980/

If eggcode wants to keep it the wya it is that's fine. Just making a discussion. After all it was that way since he started this game. So changing something like that be a biv step and definitely not save game compatible hahaha

Edit: also forgot to mention, IBM and MSdos were not made tell 1981 either way.

[semaj9001]

Even though there were a wide variety of different PCs, a game made in MS-DOS generally worked on any MS-DOS compatible system, so the specific brand/model doesn't really matter for game development. Just like how any game made for Windows generally works on any system running Windows.

[Justa Guy]

It does make it funny though in later stages of the game. I've got a monopoly on the game dev's and there hasn't been a game released on the PC in over a decade yet it still maintains a 50% MS. Perhaps every year a system fails to make a game it's MS should go down? It's kind of realistic in that once a system stops make games regularly no one wants to develp for it.

[yutterh]

Okay so total revision on my ideas, hopefully you read this eggcode

1. Apple II should take the place of the current PC spot. Having it be a B+ format, it was the current leader on computers at the time.

2. PC should be released in aug 1981 with the same stipulation you gave the upple mac. This will relieve some issues people had with the PC being dominate forever. Starting with a lower marketshare would really give a chance for history to change and get rid of PC being completely dominate forever.

3. Arcade cabinets actually should be a type of sale. Perform similar to f2p, since they focus on people spending money on them. This would be a big change of course. Not sure how it would work with consoles though, since it would technically be its own thing.

[aengus]

I am not sure about market volumes but I played some Star Trek game on my father's Olivetti pc (MS-Dos 2.0?) back in 1980/81. In 1987 I bought a hardware pc-Module for my Amiga 2000, because there were a number of games I was missing out on.

So, in games sales volume the Commodore computers won out, but it's not like you couldn't play games on MS-DOS machines (which is like the shell in all windows OS) way back in the very early 1980s.

[yutterh]

Yeah when I did my research, I added in that msdos was not made tell aug 1981. That the apple II makes more sense as too being the first console you can make games on. But he not gonna push the PC back which is fine but I am glad he added apple II.