Yup, I'm at it again; stealing somebody else's ideas as the basis for
a new discussion. Although mostly I'm just using it as a springboard
to talk about 30-year old games.
So, the victim of my rampant plagiarism this time is this YouTube
video:
1996: The Year Computing Changed Forever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM1gXDZsMO0
The argument therein being that 1996 punched far beyond its weight,
and a lot of stuff that happened that year have had repercussions that
still effect us today. The presenter lists as examples:
- the mainstream adoption of Windows95
- Internet Explorer released as part of the OS
- the release of Quake
- the founding of Valve
- the first release of a 3DFX card
- the release of Tomb Raider
- Steve Jobs returning to Apple
(but mostly he picked 1996 because that's thirty-years ago, as opposed
to some other year that isn't a nice round number ago ;-)
None of these facts are disagreeable, and yes, they all had effects
that still resonate today. (Of course, that's sort of how time works
;-). I don't think 1996 was particularly special though; I think you
can make similar arguments for pretty much any year.* So I'll ignore
the central thesis of the video and just focus on the nostalgia. I'm
all about the old games and nostalgia!
# # # #
1996 I was still mostly a DOS-user. I may have upgraded to Windows95
by the end of the year (I honestly can't remember) but it was a very reluctant update. I can't say I /liked/ DOS, but I was comfortable
enough with it, and there was a definite performance boost when
playing games in Microsoft's ancient OS.
I used Windows 3.1 too, mostly for work-related stuff; I'd customised
that OS to perfectly fit my needs, which made Windows95 all the less appealing. One of the biggest features Microsoft touted about
Windows95 was how much better it's GUI was over the Windows 3.1
Program Manager. Undeniably true, but since I wasn't using Program
Manager, that meant upgrading to Win95 lost a lot of its appeal.
#
If my records are correct, I purchased my first Pentium that year; a
P100. It was an early revision and yes, as I recall it suffered from
the FDIV bug. I loved that old processor, but I have to admit; the performance didn't impress me the way previous upgrades did. It was
faster, certainly, but given I'd jumped from a 33MHz 486 to a 100MHz
Pentium (a processor with dual pipeline design and super scalar and
other Intel marketing nonsense!) I expected a much faster boost.
But where that computer shone was in its motherboard. Or rather, not
the motherboard (which was a forgettable no-brand OEM model) but the
fact that it had PCI channels which could support much faster video
cards. IIRC, I didn't get a 3DFX card that year but I went through a
bunch of other cards before that. None of the video cards I purchased
were all that spectacular but it was neat to get /any/ performance
boost in games just by adding in a new card. And the transparent water effects in Tomb Raider were a hoot!
#
While I was on the Internet in 1996, that was during my 'dark years',
when I didn't have a constant, established connection. I bounced
around between various services --CompuServ, AOL, local bulletin
boards, etc.-- but I didn't have a dedicated ISP. Heck, there wasn't
one around even if I wanted! My primary uses back then were Usenet and e-mail; I'm pretty sure I surfed the web on occasion, but back in 1996
there just weren't that many places to go.
#
When it came to gaming, 1996 doesn't stand out as one of the most
exciting years in the hobby's history. Yes, there were some good and important games that released that year (the aforementioned "Quake"
and "Tomb Raider"; "Diablo", "Daggerfall", and "Civilization II" are
some other notables). But these didn't resonate with me the way some
games from earlier years did. 1995, for instance, had "Bioforge",
"Command & Conquer", "Crusader No Remorse", "The Dig", "Flight
Unlimited", "Full Throttle", "Hexen", "Mechwarrior 2" and many more.
Those were the games I was mostly playing in 1996, not the handful of
new releases I picked up. I did buy my first** gaming console that
year though; a Sega Megadrive. Sure, it was outdated... but on the
plus side, the games were /really/ cheap. Even then, it was all about acquiring as many games for The Number at the lowest possible cost!
;-)
#
So 1996 doesn't really stand out as all that memorable a year to me,
for gaming or computing in general. But it wasn't without its moments.
What were you doing, with regards to gaming and computers, thirty
years ago?
------
* 1995! The year that computing changed forever! Win95 released;
Playstation released! The MP3 format released! Java 1.0 introduced!
etc. etc. You can do this for pretty much every year ;-)
** technically my second, but my first --a Coleco Telstar Arcade from
before I even owned a computer-- barely got used and didn't have any memorable games on it anyway.
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
What were you doing, with regards to gaming and computers, thirty
years ago?
I was in college in 1996. My friends and I downloaded qtestx86 into a >computer lab's Linuxn PC. It had no sound card, but it was still rad.
I do remember gazing at screenshots of the upcoming game (which I did download) and trying to understand the hype. They looked neat, but
nothing about them seemed to back up the hype surrounding the game.
One in particular stuck with me --it was an animated GIF of some
flying critter hovering over a castle-- and I was sorely disappointed
when I learned that particular beastie got cut from the game. ;-)
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
...
I do remember gazing at screenshots of the upcoming game (which I did
download) and trying to understand the hype. They looked neat, but
nothing about them seemed to back up the hype surrounding the game.
One in particular stuck with me --it was an animated GIF of some
flying critter hovering over a castle-- and I was sorely disappointed
when I learned that particular beastie got cut from the game. ;-)
Which flying critter was that?
On Sun, 15 Feb 2026 03:01:25 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) said
this thing:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
...
I do remember gazing at screenshots of the upcoming game (which I did
download) and trying to understand the hype. They looked neat, but
nothing about them seemed to back up the hype surrounding the game.
One in particular stuck with me --it was an animated GIF of some
flying critter hovering over a castle-- and I was sorely disappointed
when I learned that particular beastie got cut from the game. ;-)
Which flying critter was that?
Dunno. All we got was a screenshot and it wasn't any of the monsters
later featured in the game.
There were some pre-release screenshots of Quake that showed a dragon,
so it might have been that, although I seem to recall it being
smaller.* Alas, it was a long time ago, and I no longer have the
image; all I really remember for sure is that it had wings and it flew
across a purplish sky as seen from the battlements of a castle.
Tangenting off from that... I used to have a series of JPGs that were 'trading cards' for Quake, showing off the various monsters and
locations of the game. But that too seems to have disappeared into the
ether. The delete key is a terrible thing.
* but maybe it was just far away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMiKyfd6hA0
| Sysop: | DaiTengu |
|---|---|
| Location: | Appleton, WI |
| Users: | 1,097 |
| Nodes: | 10 (0 / 10) |
| Uptime: | 11:53:01 |
| Calls: | 14,089 |
| Calls today: | 2 |
| Files: | 187,110 |
| D/L today: |
5,468 files (1,718M bytes) |
| Messages: | 2,490,977 |
| Posted today: | 1 |