From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


"Lemmings", the action/puzzle game that came out for DOS and Amiga,
released 35 years ago on February 14th, 1991. Happy (belated)
birthday, "Lemmings!"

[Useless fact: in real life, given good health, a lemming
will only live 2-3 years. So all those little critters we
saved from self-destructive deaths so many years ago are
long dead ;-)]

Here's a video about the fact:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulx0WE8KnA4
(and a pretty good history of its development too)


I can't remember exactly when I picked up "Lemmings". It wasn't in
1991, that's for sure; it probably happened a year or two afterwards.
It was only after I got a soundcard and that wasn't until '92, I
think. That's important because it was the sound --or more
importantly, the music-- that really attracted me to the game. Sure,
the gameplay was addictive and the visuals were impressive... but it
was the music that kept me playing.

Technically, I don't think I've ever finished the original game, as
in, I don't think I got through all the levels. That's because, past a
certain point, the game starts re-using levels (but gives you fewer
lemmings and fewer tools), and that repetition drained the fun out of
the experience for me.

But it was really the music I wanted; those chirpy half-familiar tunes
played through an OPL3 chip was probably, at the time, the best music
I'd ever heard coming from a computer speaker. I'd often start a
level, then immediately pause it just to have the music playing in the background as I did something else.

The later "Lemmings" games never captured my imagination quite the
same way. Psygnosis bet too big on the popularity of the critters as
mascots, and --while cute enough in their original 10-pixel
incarnation-- the company kept making them bigger and more
expressive... and I found them ugly. Too, the game-play got
kitchen-sinked; they added more and more tribes and powers and the
games lost that easy drop-in-and-play immediacy.

I struggled to finish "Lemmings 2: Tribes"; "3D Lemmings" and
"Lemmings Chronicles" were terrible; the various spin-offs like
"Painball Lemmings" weren't worth the disks they came on. ("Lemmings Revolution" was bearable but felt very gimmicky, and the early-3D
graphics lacked all charm).

But I'll always have a soft-spot in my heart for the original. Thanks
for 35 years of fun and cool tunes, you self-destructive rodents!


Did you play Lemmings? Which game was your favorite? And do you agree
the music was fucking awesome? ;-)




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On Mon, 16 Feb 2026 12:13:48 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Did you play Lemmings? Which game was your favorite? And do you agree
the music was fucking awesome? ;-)

I played and still own the original. It is the only puzzle game I ever
liked. It is the only puzzle game I will likely ever play again. I
never played any of the sequels. Not sure why. Maybe I was just
focusing on other genres.

And yes, the music was fantastic. The tunes are part of my soundtrack collection. Very catchy.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 2/16/2026 9:13 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

"Lemmings", the action/puzzle game that came out for DOS and Amiga,
released 35 years ago on February 14th, 1991. Happy (belated)
birthday, "Lemmings!"

[Useless fact: in real life, given good health, a lemming
will only live 2-3 years. So all those little critters we
saved from self-destructive deaths so many years ago are
long dead ;-)]

Here's a video about the fact:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulx0WE8KnA4
(and a pretty good history of its development too)

I can't remember exactly when I picked up "Lemmings". It wasn't in
1991, that's for sure; it probably happened a year or two afterwards.
It was only after I got a soundcard and that wasn't until '92, I
think. That's important because it was the sound --or more
importantly, the music-- that really attracted me to the game. Sure,
the gameplay was addictive and the visuals were impressive... but it
was the music that kept me playing.

Technically, I don't think I've ever finished the original game, as
in, I don't think I got through all the levels. That's because, past a certain point, the game starts re-using levels (but gives you fewer
lemmings and fewer tools), and that repetition drained the fun out of
the experience for me.

But it was really the music I wanted; those chirpy half-familiar tunes
played through an OPL3 chip was probably, at the time, the best music
I'd ever heard coming from a computer speaker. I'd often start a
level, then immediately pause it just to have the music playing in the background as I did something else.

The later "Lemmings" games never captured my imagination quite the
same way. Psygnosis bet too big on the popularity of the critters as
mascots, and --while cute enough in their original 10-pixel
incarnation-- the company kept making them bigger and more
expressive... and I found them ugly. Too, the game-play got
kitchen-sinked; they added more and more tribes and powers and the
games lost that easy drop-in-and-play immediacy.

I struggled to finish "Lemmings 2: Tribes"; "3D Lemmings" and
"Lemmings Chronicles" were terrible; the various spin-offs like
"Painball Lemmings" weren't worth the disks they came on. ("Lemmings Revolution" was bearable but felt very gimmicky, and the early-3D
graphics lacked all charm).

But I'll always have a soft-spot in my heart for the original. Thanks
for 35 years of fun and cool tunes, you self-destructive rodents!

Did you play Lemmings? Which game was your favorite? And do you agree
the music was fucking awesome? ;-)

I think I played it like 5 minutes on a friends computer, and watched
like 10 while they played. It wasn't bad, I just didn't care for it.
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

"Lemmings", the action/puzzle game that came out for DOS and Amiga,
released 35 years ago on February 14th, 1991. Happy (belated)
birthday, "Lemmings!"

[Useless fact: in real life, given good health, a lemming
will only live 2-3 years. So all those little critters we
saved from self-destructive deaths so many years ago are
long dead ;-)]

Here's a video about the fact:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulx0WE8KnA4
(and a pretty good history of its development too)

I can't remember exactly when I picked up "Lemmings". It wasn't in
1991, that's for sure; it probably happened a year or two afterwards.
It was only after I got a soundcard and that wasn't until '92, I
think. That's important because it was the sound --or more
importantly, the music-- that really attracted me to the game. Sure,
the gameplay was addictive and the visuals were impressive... but it
was the music that kept me playing.

Technically, I don't think I've ever finished the original game, as
in, I don't think I got through all the levels. That's because, past a certain point, the game starts re-using levels (but gives you fewer
lemmings and fewer tools), and that repetition drained the fun out of
the experience for me.

But it was really the music I wanted; those chirpy half-familiar tunes
played through an OPL3 chip was probably, at the time, the best music
I'd ever heard coming from a computer speaker. I'd often start a
level, then immediately pause it just to have the music playing in the background as I did something else.

The later "Lemmings" games never captured my imagination quite the
same way. Psygnosis bet too big on the popularity of the critters as
mascots, and --while cute enough in their original 10-pixel
incarnation-- the company kept making them bigger and more
expressive... and I found them ugly. Too, the game-play got
kitchen-sinked; they added more and more tribes and powers and the
games lost that easy drop-in-and-play immediacy.

I struggled to finish "Lemmings 2: Tribes"; "3D Lemmings" and
"Lemmings Chronicles" were terrible; the various spin-offs like
"Painball Lemmings" weren't worth the disks they came on. ("Lemmings Revolution" was bearable but felt very gimmicky, and the early-3D
graphics lacked all charm).

But I'll always have a soft-spot in my heart for the original. Thanks
for 35 years of fun and cool tunes, you self-destructive rodents!

Did you play Lemmings? Which game was your favorite? And do you agree
the music was fucking awesome? ;-)

I liked Lemmings 2: Tribes the medal system was neat. I played Lemmings
on a friend's Amiga, but had Lemmings 2 on my PC.
--
pBkHHoOIIn8
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

Did you play Lemmings? Which game was your favorite? And do you agree
the music was fucking awesome? ;-)

I can't remember the music and trying a few Amiga tracks at https://retro.sx/music/41 didn't ring any bells. But yes, I played the
original PC release of Lemmings. I think I even got through all the
levels. Although it seems crazy, 120 levels? Who'd want more after that?

Then again, I seem to remember only the hardest levels were actually
hard. I don't think I've even seen any of the sequels, I was all
lemminged out after the original. Well, Xmas Lemmings was a free
demo with a couple of levels I think? That I did play.

Oh, someone put together DHTML Lemmings in 2003, so you could play in a browser. I remember doing a few levels of that, about 20 years ago.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 15:14:11 +0200, Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> said this thing:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

Did you play Lemmings? Which game was your favorite? And do you agree
the music was fucking awesome? ;-)

I can't remember the music and trying a few Amiga tracks at >https://retro.sx/music/41 didn't ring any bells. But yes, I played the >original PC release of Lemmings. I think I even got through all the
levels. Although it seems crazy, 120 levels? Who'd want more after that?

Then again, I seem to remember only the hardest levels were actually
hard. I don't think I've even seen any of the sequels, I was all
lemminged out after the original. Well, Xmas Lemmings was a free
demo with a couple of levels I think? That I did play.

Ah, but /which/ Christmas Lemmings? The original one that came out in
1991? The sequel in 1992? The 1993 'Holiday Lemmings'? Or its 1994
sequel? ;-)

Psygnosis milked the shit out of that franchise!



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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

Ah, but /which/ Christmas Lemmings? The original one that came out in
1991? The sequel in 1992? The 1993 'Holiday Lemmings'? Or its 1994
sequel? ;-)

Psygnosis milked the shit out of that franchise!

Huh. I really have no idea, probably the original.

Funny, this brought Boulder Dash to mind but that only had 16 levels in
the original and that was more than enough. For me anyway. And yet, the
sequels added hundreds more and with the construction kit users added
even more.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Fri, 20 Feb 2026 13:54:11 +0200, Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> said this thing:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

Ah, but /which/ Christmas Lemmings? The original one that came out in
1991? The sequel in 1992? The 1993 'Holiday Lemmings'? Or its 1994
sequel? ;-)

Psygnosis milked the shit out of that franchise!

Huh. I really have no idea, probably the original.

Funny, this brought Boulder Dash to mind but that only had 16 levels in
the original and that was more than enough. For me anyway. And yet, the >sequels added hundreds more and with the construction kit users added
even more.

Pac-Man was a success with just one level ;-)

I get why developers did that, though (especially in the early days).
Making games was difficult and risky, and why spend a lot of time and
resources on creating hundreds of levels for a game that might not
succeed? But when it does succeed, well, you gotta give people value
for money (especially since the hard work programming has already been
done). Level design is (relatively) easy... all the more so since
quantity was seen as the primary goal, not quality.

And for a lot of games in the 80s and 90s, quality was very often
missing. Take for instance all those awful Doom MOD CD-ROMs (or,
really, even some of the official releases from Id). It was obvious
the main goal was to boast about having x number of levels, and not
necessarily to provide a good experience on any of them.

Fortunately, game publishers have learned from those days and would
NEVER shovel shit out the door willy-nilly like that anymore. ;-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-)



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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

IIRC, I played it on my 486DX2/66 PC. Fun and cute little puzzle game. I remember my college freshman dorm neibhbor was playing it in old school
color Mac SE(?).


Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

"Lemmings", the action/puzzle game that came out for DOS and Amiga,
released 35 years ago on February 14th, 1991. Happy (belated)
birthday, "Lemmings!"

[Useless fact: in real life, given good health, a lemming
will only live 2-3 years. So all those little critters we
saved from self-destructive deaths so many years ago are
long dead ;-)]

Here's a video about the fact:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulx0WE8KnA4
(and a pretty good history of its development too)

I can't remember exactly when I picked up "Lemmings". It wasn't in
1991, that's for sure; it probably happened a year or two afterwards.
It was only after I got a soundcard and that wasn't until '92, I
think. That's important because it was the sound --or more
importantly, the music-- that really attracted me to the game. Sure,
the gameplay was addictive and the visuals were impressive... but it
was the music that kept me playing.

Technically, I don't think I've ever finished the original game, as
in, I don't think I got through all the levels. That's because, past a certain point, the game starts re-using levels (but gives you fewer
lemmings and fewer tools), and that repetition drained the fun out of
the experience for me.

But it was really the music I wanted; those chirpy half-familiar tunes
played through an OPL3 chip was probably, at the time, the best music
I'd ever heard coming from a computer speaker. I'd often start a
level, then immediately pause it just to have the music playing in the background as I did something else.

The later "Lemmings" games never captured my imagination quite the
same way. Psygnosis bet too big on the popularity of the critters as
mascots, and --while cute enough in their original 10-pixel
incarnation-- the company kept making them bigger and more
expressive... and I found them ugly. Too, the game-play got
kitchen-sinked; they added more and more tribes and powers and the
games lost that easy drop-in-and-play immediacy.

I struggled to finish "Lemmings 2: Tribes"; "3D Lemmings" and
"Lemmings Chronicles" were terrible; the various spin-offs like
"Painball Lemmings" weren't worth the disks they came on. ("Lemmings Revolution" was bearable but felt very gimmicky, and the early-3D
graphics lacked all charm).

But I'll always have a soft-spot in my heart for the original. Thanks
for 35 years of fun and cool tunes, you self-destructive rodents!

Did you play Lemmings? Which game was your favorite? And do you agree
the music was fucking awesome? ;-)

--
"This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another." --1 John 3:11. :) (L/C)NY eve. Watch out 4 da bucking fire horses.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:27:35 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) said
this thing:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Did you play Lemmings? Which game was your favorite? And do you agree
the music was fucking awesome? ;-)

IIRC, I played it on my 486DX2/66 PC. Fun and cute little puzzle game. I >remember my college freshman dorm neibhbor was playing it in old school >color Mac SE(?).

I came /so/ close to getting a Mac back-in-the-day as my primary PC
(of course, back then 'primary PC' was also 'only PC'). Sometimes I
wonder what my life would have been had I done so. The rigors of
owning a DOS-era PC pushed me down a far more technical path than I
expected my life to go.

I think I made the right choice. ;-)



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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Wed, 25 Feb 2026 09:37:04 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

I came /so/ close to getting a Mac back-in-the-day as my primary PC
(of course, back then 'primary PC' was also 'only PC'). Sometimes I
wonder what my life would have been had I done so. The rigors of
owning a DOS-era PC pushed me down a far more technical path than I
expected my life to go.

I think I made the right choice. ;-)

Since a DOS computer means DOS gaming, that is definitely and always
the right choice.

I almost went down the Amiga or Atari ST route myself. I've never
owned anything from Apple. My phone is Android. The last time I used
an Apple computer was in high school.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Wed, 25 Feb 2026 09:48:08 -0500, Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> said
this thing:

I almost went down the Amiga or Atari ST route myself. I've never
owned anything from Apple. My phone is Android. The last time I used
an Apple computer was in high school.

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate Macs. I, in fact, own a few myself. I
even like some things about them too. ;-) I do think they are
overpriced for what they offer, and there's stuff I dislike about them
as well.

[I also have a sore spot about the platform, but that's
more because of the users than the hardware itself. I heard
over and over again the superiority of the platform over
Windows because "Macs never crash like PCs do!"... and lemme
tell you, as someone who had to support that platform, that's
a fucking lie. Macs --especially in the classic OS era--
crashed, and crashed hard... and thanks to Apple's obtuse
error handling, figuring out what had gone wrong was a bitch
compared to PCs. And yet --even as I was there fixing their
machines-- many uses still touted its superiority over any
platform. It's not that I think Macs were any worse in this
regard... but the attitude of the users /still/ burns me to
this day.]

Atari computers I never had anything to do with... mostly out of
snobbishness. Atari was, for me, forever "that pong company", a
purveyor of platforms with ancient graphics and poor performance. To
this day, I really don't know how well their later computers competed
against their contemporaries and I still have little interest in
finding out. Talk to me about C64 or Apple or DOS, I'll listen... but
(and I'll be the first to admit this is completely unfair) when it
comes to Atari, I just can't make myself care. Such is the power of
the lingering biases of our youth ;-)

And Amiga? I only really started learning about it after its heyday
had passed and PCs had equalled or surpassed it in capability. By that
time, I was invested enough in the IBM PC/compatible platform that
Amiga would never be more than a curiousity to me. An interesting one,
surely; something that might inspire 'what if?' scenarios... but
rarely more than that. Even today, given the choice between playing a
game on an ancient PC and playing it on an Amiga, I usually pick the
former... even if the latter is the better option.



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Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:27:35 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) said
this thing:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Did you play Lemmings? Which game was your favorite? And do you agree
the music was fucking awesome? ;-)

IIRC, I played it on my 486DX2/66 PC. Fun and cute little puzzle game. I >remember my college freshman dorm neibhbor was playing it in old school >color Mac SE(?).

I came /so/ close to getting a Mac back-in-the-day as my primary PC
(of course, back then 'primary PC' was also 'only PC'). Sometimes I
wonder what my life would have been had I done so. The rigors of
owning a DOS-era PC pushed me down a far more technical path than I
expected my life to go.

I think I made the right choice. ;-)

Same. For me, I was pondering to get a Mac or PC after my Apple //c. I
was at my church's friends using his 386. It was nice so I got an IBM
PS/2 model 30 286 10 Mhz PC. Macs wouldn't be good especially when I
decided to get into computer science instead of entomology. I still got
used MacBooks though.
--
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." --Matthew 22:37-39. Ant doesn't even love himself! Slammy outty humpy day!
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )
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On Thu, 26 Feb 2026 05:23:50 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) said
this thing:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:27:35 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) said
this thing:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Did you play Lemmings? Which game was your favorite? And do you agree
the music was fucking awesome? ;-)

IIRC, I played it on my 486DX2/66 PC. Fun and cute little puzzle game. I >> >remember my college freshman dorm neibhbor was playing it in old school
color Mac SE(?).

I came /so/ close to getting a Mac back-in-the-day as my primary PC
(of course, back then 'primary PC' was also 'only PC'). Sometimes I
wonder what my life would have been had I done so. The rigors of
owning a DOS-era PC pushed me down a far more technical path than I
expected my life to go.

I think I made the right choice. ;-)

Same. For me, I was pondering to get a Mac or PC after my Apple //c. I
was at my church's friends using his 386. It was nice so I got an IBM
PS/2 model 30 286 10 Mhz PC. Macs wouldn't be good especially when I
decided to get into computer science instead of entomology. I still got
used MacBooks though.

I'll admit, it was the games on PC that finally cinched the deal. And
it's not like using a Mac means you can't go into CS or anything like
that. But, especially back in the 80s, there really was a difference
between Macs and PCs in ease of use, and the latter practically forced
you to learn a shitload of technical jargon just to get basic stuff
done.

Games helped too. You wanted the best experience with your games, you
needed to learn how to install sound-cards and extra hard-drives and
modems and network cards and all that jazz. The Mac had fewer games,
and fewer hardware options overall --often, the best solution for the
average user was just 'buy the next model of Macintosh-- so there was
less opportunity to get your fingers dirty with the 'geek stuff'. And
once you're already learning about IO ports and clock-speeds, it's not
as big a jump to asking, "how do I write a program" or "what does this
chip do?"

Apple made a major mistake not positioning the Mac as a more-game
friendly platform, and I think one of the reasons that the iPhone was
as successful as it became was that it opened itself up to letting
millions of games be sold on its app-store. Games are the honey that
draw in all the worker bees.


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Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, 26 Feb 2026 05:23:50 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) said
this thing:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:27:35 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) said
this thing:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Did you play Lemmings? Which game was your favorite? And do you agree >> >> the music was fucking awesome? ;-)

IIRC, I played it on my 486DX2/66 PC. Fun and cute little puzzle game. I >> >remember my college freshman dorm neibhbor was playing it in old school >> >color Mac SE(?).

I came /so/ close to getting a Mac back-in-the-day as my primary PC
(of course, back then 'primary PC' was also 'only PC'). Sometimes I
wonder what my life would have been had I done so. The rigors of
owning a DOS-era PC pushed me down a far more technical path than I
expected my life to go.

I think I made the right choice. ;-)

Same. For me, I was pondering to get a Mac or PC after my Apple //c. I
was at my church's friends using his 386. It was nice so I got an IBM
PS/2 model 30 286 10 Mhz PC. Macs wouldn't be good especially when I >decided to get into computer science instead of entomology. I still got >used MacBooks though.

I'll admit, it was the games on PC that finally cinched the deal. And
it's not like using a Mac means you can't go into CS or anything like
that. But, especially back in the 80s, there really was a difference
between Macs and PCs in ease of use, and the latter practically forced
you to learn a shitload of technical jargon just to get basic stuff
done.

Games helped too. You wanted the best experience with your games, you
needed to learn how to install sound-cards and extra hard-drives and
modems and network cards and all that jazz. The Mac had fewer games,
and fewer hardware options overall --often, the best solution for the
average user was just 'buy the next model of Macintosh-- so there was
less opportunity to get your fingers dirty with the 'geek stuff'. And
once you're already learning about IO ports and clock-speeds, it's not
as big a jump to asking, "how do I write a program" or "what does this
chip do?"

Apple made a major mistake not positioning the Mac as a more-game
friendly platform, and I think one of the reasons that the iPhone was
as successful as it became was that it opened itself up to letting
millions of games be sold on its app-store. Games are the honey that
draw in all the worker bees.

Yep, games were the other factors for me. I remember when Steve Jobs and
John Carmack showed off native Quake game. Too bad this didn't pick up.
Apple could had easily gain big in this area.
--
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." --Matthew 22:37-39. Ant doesn't even love himself! Slammy outty humpy day!
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 01:30:30 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) said
this thing:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, 26 Feb 2026 05:23:50 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) said
this thing:

Apple made a major mistake not positioning the Mac as a more-game
friendly platform, and I think one of the reasons that the iPhone was
as successful as it became was that it opened itself up to letting
millions of games be sold on its app-store. Games are the honey that
draw in all the worker bees.

Yep, games were the other factors for me. I remember when Steve Jobs and >John Carmack showed off native Quake game. Too bad this didn't pick up. >Apple could had easily gain big in this area.

This was, from what I recall, an intentional move by Apple... or more, precisely, Steve Jobs. The Apple ][ was an extremely successful
machine, partly because there were so many games for it. But when
Apple was developing the Macintosh, Steve Jobs wanted to position it
as a 'more serious' machine; something for Artists and Intellectuals
and not just a toy that hoi polloi might use. Thus, he discouraged
anything that might make the platform more friendly to gamers and game-developers including (if my fading memories of long-ago read
newspaper articles are correct) refusing partnerships or support to
video-game publishers.

Now, how long this attitude lasted I don't know... but I suspect it
lingered for decades, by which time the Macintosh was seen as a
second-tier platform by most big-name game publishers. Having been
spurned by Apple, those C-levels in turn spurned the Macintosh.

I don't think this attitude remains at Apple (and probably hasn't been
around for twenty years) but by now its too late. In order to chase
the office crowd, Apple ignored the gamers... forgetting that people
who use computers at work are the most familiar with the device and
most likely to be the ones buying games for it. Everyone else would
just get a console.


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