swaaye wrote:Win95 almost wasn't that great for gaming. If it hadn't been for the guys who came up with DirectX and jammed it down the non-gamer MS execs' throats, it wouldn't have been all that much better than Win 3.x.
Nonetheless, eventually games were all tuned for Windows 9x (and later, XP), but take a look at the steep hardware requirements --compared to DOS and consoles. Even the first X-Box uses 733 MHz Pentium III processor.
swaaye wrote:It's an interesting angle for sure. I think we would've seen more and more middleware driver libraries like Miles and HMI.
...and DOS extenders, of course. Do you think DOS4GW would keep sitting on the throne, or would there be something better?
And since we're talking in the context of "alternate history" where Win9x never came up, don't you think MS will try to make their own DOS extender to gain dominance in gaming market? And would it be successful?
Nonetheless, without Win9x, do you think MS would ever gain dominance in the gaming demography? Would more and more people switched to PC-DOS or DR-DOS while using QEMM and Stacker, instead of using MS-DOS and EMM386? Without Win9x, would Creative Labs be able to keep their throne in the gaming world? And how about 3dfx? Without Win9x and Direct3D, everyone would have to use DOS-based APIs, and since 3dfx was the only accelerator at that time..... (the rest being decelerator. Alright, Rendition Verite was nice, but sucky Mode X ruined everything)
swaaye wrote:Wavetable synthesis (actually sample-based synth) only lasted until PCs could play back streaming digital audio. I don't really mean CD Audio (yuck), but content like the later IMUSE generation in X-Wing Alliance.
I think it depends on how well DOS extenders can enable games to run demanding tasks like streaming digital audio. Sure, CD Audio was already ubiquitious in late DOS games like Archimedean Dynasty and WarCraft II, but dynamic music is another thing.
Or maybe take a look at the good side: maybe people would eventually complain about the static music provided by Redbook Audio, and people would eventually back to MIDI for that purpose. And considering the phletora of WaveTable upgrades during the end of DOS era, maybe MIDI music and hardware would keep evolving instead of dying off.
By the way, since we're talking about completely different thing here, wouldn't it be appropriate if this thread got splitted?
Never thought this thread would be that long, but now, for something different.....
Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman.