Home computers were a novel concept – it was offices where PCs had first boomed.
“If you thought 1993 was a good year for PC junkies,” wrote the LA Times on Christmas eve 1993, “just wait until 1994. Prices will continue to plummet, just as they did in 1993”. Firstly, can we all agree to go back to calling ourselves PC junkies? And second, that quote captures a pivotal moment. Home computers were indeed becoming more affordable year on year, and a storm was gathering that would birth PC gaming as we know it.
Id Software knew this when it launched Doomin December of ’93. Future Publishing knew it when some forward-thinking execs had launched the first issue of a magazine called PC Gamer a month previously. People had been using computers to play games since there had been people, computers and games, but ’93 represents the start of PC gaming in the modern sense, and that comes down to hardware.