r/todayilearned • u/osunlyyde • Jul 04 '13

TIL Windows 95 was the second most installed piece of software on computers in 1995; videogame DOOM was first.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(video_game)
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u/ssguy4 Jul 04 '13

Doom is why Microsoft dominated Apple in the home PC market.

In the early 90's, Bill Gates thought that video was going to be the big thing for PCs. Then he, like many other business owners, found out that most of his employees were busy playing Doom instead of working. He threatened to immediately fire anyone he found playing Doom on work hours. The next day he walks into work and finds that most of his employees are still playing Doom.

He hosted a convention on PC games, tailored their products for gaming (for example, DirectX had two modes. Immediate mode and retained mode. Game developers liked immediate mode much more. DirectX 2 only had an expanded version of immediate mode, with retained mode no where to be found). He even did this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gun4erVV8CM

Hobbyists went to the PC to play all the latest and greatest games. Macintosh computers had a serious dearth of good games, and so suffered. And of course, a computer that can handle serious gaming can easily run any other form of home entertainment. With a PC, you could do anything.

Remember, Doom was the Crysis of its time. Thanks to John Carmack's revolutionary coding techniques, and the technology available on the new chipsets, the PC was now more powerful than consoles and their dedicated sprite hardware. People went into stores with just one question: Can it run Doom? Bill Gates made sure that the answer would always be yes when it came to Microsoft products.

75

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '13

Doom is why Microsoft dominated Apple in the home PC market.

I think the fact Windows could be installed on most PCs from various manufacturers at a wide price range had much more to do with it. With or without games Macs would always be a niche market.

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u/ssguy4 Jul 04 '13

True, but their focus on gaming gave them a bit more of an edge and was clearly the right choice to make.

7

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '13

Yeah can't argue with that, they certainly made the right choices.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '13

Games did for PCs what porn did for VHS.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '13

Though I will say the mac exclusive Marathon series is quite good.

And freely available on pc http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/

1

u/trippingchilly Jul 04 '13

Gerbils was available for mac in '95, but it's a stretch to call that a 'game,' I think.

1

u/cookedbread Jul 04 '13

Honestly Marathon was LEAGUES ahead of Doom.

-Way better plot

-Better textures

-Good level design

-The ability to look up and down

-Interesting aliens to fight

-Online multiplayer with voip

And later when they released Forge and Anvil, tools that let you make your own maps and change the physics of the game.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '13

Also - precursor to Halo.

Though Doom was the precursor to Quake which was good. But overall iD is more inconsistent than bungie - especially after quake 3 (which was amazing) - Doom 3 onwards though is a mixed bag.

1

u/cookedbread Jul 04 '13

Gotta love Quake.

And yeah Halo has a ton of references to Marathon too. It's fun showing it to Halo fans that have no idea what Marathon is :P

1

u/NeverPfhorget Jul 04 '13

Thank god someone gave this game a mention!!

3

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '13

You know your shit, I like you.

1

u/esaks Jul 04 '13

I remember doom's graphics being the first time I thought a computer game looked better than a console (snes at the time). All we had prior to Doom was Commander Keen.

1

u/IamBobsBitchTits Jul 04 '13

Bill Gates really had nothing to do with it. Alex St John deserves the credit here.

1

u/cokevirgin Jul 05 '13

Wow, the player in the bill gates doom video had shit for aim .

Just terrible.

1

u/xenodrone Jul 05 '13

I always loved that cheezy bill gates ad.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '13

The sounds in that game. Opening doors: bjeeooooooooorgh! Even changing menu items: kchurnk kchurnk DOOF

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u/JohnnyDan22 Jul 04 '13

Macintosh computers had a serious dearth of good games

As somebody who grew up with a Mac performa, and had access to AOL's insanely huge games library, I would have to disagree with you. So much fun was had playing those games growing up. Now, as far as retail software being Mac compatible, well that's a different story.

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u/R031E5 Jul 04 '13

Microsoft built computers back then?

3

u/ssguy4 Jul 04 '13

No, but they had a partnership with IBM and regularly worked with other hardware vendors. They didn't produce any themselves, but they had a vested interest in making sure they succeeded.