Pentium Baron wrote on 2022-07-12, 04:59:
I toyed with an idea of building a 286, but then.. PC really came to shine as gaming platform from around 1992 when 286 was obsolete. And pre 90s games were almost always developed for other platforms (with better graphics/sound) and then ported to DOS. An AMIGA 500 or 1200 will be a much better system for such games.
Personally, I think it was 1993 onwards that the 286 PC was obsolete. 😉
1992 was the last and final hooray! for the 16-Bit world, I think.
Windows 3.1 came out, and many Windows applications/games ran in Standard-Mode, still.
After this year, many DOS4GW extender games came along and required a 386 or higher.
The 32-Bit OS/2 2.x also was on the rise at the time.
In 1994, 'beta' testing for Windows 95 started and Win32c applications were seen more often.
Things like WinG and Win32s began to require 386 Enhanced-Mode.
Commercial games like Creatures! or 16-Bit QuickTime titles really cried for quick 386 machines.
The shareware scene was still active and assumed VGA/SoundBlaster, DOS5 and 386 PCs (though 286 PCs were still compatible, albeit being seen as "slow"and low-end).
When 1995 was near, next-gen consoles were praised as successors to the aging 16-Bit veterans SNES/MegaDrive/TGFX16..
Speaking under correction, of course.
The official and inofficial story isn't always the same.
At home, many users likely kept using their 286-586 PCs up to the turn of the millennium.
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
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