The Most Important Windows 95 Games
Alex Walker
Published 2 years ago:
July 27, 2021 at 11:00 am
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Filed to:windows 95
Image: Microsoft
As we look forward to the future of Windows, it’s worth appreciating enormous impact made by one of the OS’s biggest releases: Windows 95.
Games were also an important part of the platform, as Microsoft relied on them heavily to help sell the operating system. So as we prepare to move on from Windows 10 to Windows 11, let’s look back at some of Windows 95’s most important games.
Fury 3
Most people know Fury 3 by its DOS equivalent, Terminal Velocity. Still playable on phones and most systems through GOG today, Terminal Velocity — which was coded by the lead programmer from Microsoft Flight Simulator — was a classic ’90s action game. Big polygons. Lots of space-age weaponry. Giant levels that you could just roam around and dogfight in. And grand boss fights against sci-fi enemies.
It was a hit back in the day, and the nature of its 3D engine made Terminal Velocity a perfect target for Microsoft. So Microsoft asked the studio to effectively re-release Terminal Velocity — since it shipped earlier in 1995 on DOS only — for Windows.
The developers re-tooled the game for Windows and re-released it as Fury3, with a sequel to follow in 1996. It wasn’t particularly flash or a massive upgrade from Terminal Velocity by any stretch of the imagination. But the higher resolution and sharper textures played well in Microsoft’s marketing, provided you had a PC that could power it all.
Monster Truck Madness
Microsoft had a surprisingly strong track record of publishing video games in the ’90s and early ’00s. Monster Truck Madness was one of those, a game that brought a bizarre subculture to life in a satisfying and engaging way.
Doom 95
I mentioned how the marketing was a key element of making Windows 95 stick, and no bigger game played a part in that than Doom 95.
Bill Gates famously recorded a video for a developer conference where he walked into DOOM‘s E1M2, talking up Windows 95’s DirectX API, and some of the challenges users and developers had with DOS.
“DOS — it’s been impossible to install a game, hard for the developers, hard for the users, tech support problems, and nowhere near the graphics performance we’re getting today,” Gates said, before blowing away a demon with a shotgun.
DOOM was such a big drawcard at the time that Microsoft knew they had to get DOOM working on Windows 95. DOOM was more popular than Windows 3.1 at that point. Companies had even started introducing policies to stop staffers from playing too much DOOM during work time.
But DOOM didn’t play nicely with Windows. It ended up being the work of a producer called Gabe Newell, who personally ported DOOM to Windows 3.11. As outlined in the video below, Newell even called id software’s John Carmack to let them know that Microsoft would port DOOM and DOOM 2 to Windows 95 for free, sparking a long relationship between the two industry titans.
Diablo
Diablo was never meant to be the genre-defining dungeon crawler that it was. In a video with Ars Technica, Diablo lead coder David Brevik explained how the original Diablo concept was for a turn-based game, something that honoured the original RPGs and tabletop games that Brevik grew up with.
“For me, it was much more about the loot, it was about getting the awesome vorpal swords … I wanted a game that was more about killing monsters and getting cool loot, rather than having a long story with deep character customisation,” Brevik said.
A key issue the team ran into at the time was that a lot of the publishing executives came from business backgrounds, not gaming, and so their worldview was primarily dominated by statistics.
RPGs had lost their lustre, but fortunately Brevik was able to pitch Diablo to Blizzard, which fully understood the industry and where the developers were coming from.
It took a company all-hands meeting to flip Diablo from a turn-based strategy to an action-adventure, which Brevik was overturned on. Brevik had to go back to Blizzard to pitch for extra milestone funding, originally telling Blizzard that they wouldn’t have anything to show Blizzard for a month because of the time it’d take to retool the game.
A playable version of the new Diablo as a real-time action-adventure, the game that would spawn a franchise and become a pillar of Blizzard’s identity as a publisher, was completed in a day.
“When people came in Monday morning, it was working, it was done, it was obvious this was the way to go and we never looked back,” Brevik said.
Civilization 2
One of the landmark titles that defined a generation of games, and a genre of its own.
The game had earned $US21.1 million in its first year of release. By April 1998 it had sold more than 1.2 million copies worldwide, with estimated worldwide sales of 3 million by 2001.
Civilization 2 was that rare breed of game. It was a “killer app”, the kind of title you upgrade computers — or operating systems — for. Also, how could you not love a game that gave you an Elvis impersonator in a toga as your attitude adviser?
Barbie Fashion Designer
Image: Ally McLean
Ignored by a lot of the regular gaming press, Barbie Fashion Designer was a huge commercial hit at the time. It outsold DOOM and Quake upon its release in November 1996, selling over 500,000 copies within two months.
As outlined in our report into Barbie as Rapunzel, the success of Barbie Fashion Designer re-educated the industry on the merits of making “games for girls”.
It was the sixth-highest selling PC game of 1996, which was remarkable in that it was sold in the toy aisles instead of the software section of stores like Toys ‘R’ Us, breaking new ground for the video game industry in terms of marketing and its approach.
Phantasmagoria
Phantasmagoria‘s a weird one in that it was never meant to be tied to Windows 95. The game shipped simultaneously on Windows 95 and DOS, but it was meant to launch years before Windows 95 was out. Roberta Williams’ adventure had a much bigger budget than anything Sierra had produced before, and despite being shown off at CES 1994, challenges around the game’s development meant it was pushed back several times.
The United States also didn’t have a ratings system in place when Phantasmagoria released, and the game also didn’t ship with explicit warnings about some of its more graphic scenes. And scandals around the game certainly helped its market appeal: CompUSA, one of America’s biggest discount computer stores, refused to stock the game. Phantasmagoria was banned in Australia by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC), with no R18+ rating available at the time, and including a one-chapter preview of Phantasmagoria meant the OFLC had to ban the Roberta Williams Anthology in Australia too.
Because of the immense amount of delays around production, particularly around filming, the studio’s inexperience and the difficulties the actors had working in front of blue screens, Phantasmagoria ended up launching the same day as Windows 95. After costing Sierra $US4.5 million — almost $US4 million over its original budget — and an extra $US1.5 million for the new studio Sierra built specifically for the game, Phantsamagoria became Sierra’s first title to sell more than 1 million copies.
Unsurprisingly, there’s nothing like scandal and controversy to drum up interest.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 95
Naturally, Microsoft needed games of their own to pump up the excitement of Windows 95. So it made sense that their long running sim franchise, Microsoft Flight Simulator, would get a major overhaul to take advantage of the graphical power of the new OS.
While it was a re-release of Flight Simulator 5.1, which shipped for DOS the year prior, Flight Simulator 95 was a massive deal. The game’s frame rate was a massive improvement, and the game came with improved 3D modelling and aircraft that transformed the look and feel. There were textured runways, more high density 3D buildings, textured skymaps — well, sprites for clouds, anyway.
By the Flight Simulator 98 shipped in 1997 — which included more scenery, more planes and a better interface for third-party add-ons — the game was a massive success for Microsoft. Flight Simulator 98 sold more than a million units in three months.
StarCraft
Age of Empires was hugely successful in its own right, but it’s hard to go past StarCraft here as the RTS that had the most impact on the genre. Putting its impact on esports industry to one side — that wouldn’t come until years later with Brood War — the sci-fi RTS vaulted Blizzard into legendary status.
It was the first time Blizzard’s film department had featured in a video game, producing some of the most memorable, highest quality cinematics that would go on to become a hallmark of Blizzard’s identity. StarCraft also transformed Blizzard’s multiplayer services, too. The Battle.net multiplayer system grew by 800 percent after StarCraft‘s release, supporting 2.
1 million users by early 1999. Over 1.5 million copies were sold in 1998, with South Korea eventually buying 4.5 million copies of the game alone by May 2007.
What Windows 95 games — so anything that launched before Windows 98 — do you remember fondly? Let us know in the comments!
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Best Windows 95 Games Of All Time
Is there anything that brings back more memories than the Windows 95 launch sound? Anyone who recalls the calming chiptune song will be whisked away to a simpler period when data was stored on floppy drives and even sending an email was a Herculean task.
Although we’ve gone a long way since then, it doesn’t imply that the Windows 95 period isn’t worth remembering. Few people remember how diverse the gaming selection for Windows 95 was, and how many of those titles were actually quite good.
Looking back, there are some Windows 95 titles that could easily rival in terms of entertainment value with some of today’s top-spec console games.
Because we’re all huge lovers of retro gaming, we’ve compiled a list of the finest Windows 95 games ever produced. Furthermore, all of the games on this list are now available for download as freeware or shareware, allowing you to begin playing immediately.
Fury 3
Terminal Velocity is a classic game that every gamer who grew up in the 1990s will remember. It was a large game with many outstanding features and a pleasant environment for the decade. The game was developed by a recognized source, so its success was certain, yet it nevertheless generated fantastic results and amazed the gamers.
The game contained a lot of stages where players could travel around and battle to kill time. The game also included fantastic boss fights, so it practically had it all for its day.
Because of the game’s immense potential, Microsoft became interested in it and eventually approached the game’s distributors about releasing it on their new operating system. The game was repackaged as Fury 3 and then made available to OS users.
The game was such a hit for the OS that it was followed up with a sequel the following year. The game’s repackaging did not feature any substantial improvements over the original edition. The gaming company, on the other hand, took advantage of the restart and upgraded the game’s texture and quality.
Poker Broker
Poker Broker is usually a one-on-one poker game. It’s usually categorized as freeware. Typically, the participant begins the game with $5,000. After that, he is free to gamble as much as he wants. Following that, he is given five cards.
He has the option of swapping some, all, or none of the cards. Any hand with fewer than two jacks loses in the second deal. A hand with a pair of honor cards receives its stakes back. Anything that is higher than this wins several stakes. Poker Broker is a game without a high-score table or a save game option.
Hover!
Hover! is widely regarded as one of the first first-person video games with anything like 3D visuals, and it is still popular among retro gamers.
The game was created with the intention of demonstrating the multimedia capabilities of the Windows 95 operating system prior to its debut, but it turned out to be an unexpected hit.
Hover! is a game that combines carnival bumper cars with capture the flag, in which you control a speeding bumper car and drive it around progressively bizarre terrain in order to grab elusive flags.
Monster Truck Madness
There were a lot of success stories after the games started rolling out on the OS. Monster Truck Madness was another one of those fantastic success stories. The game had a simple idea and no groundbreaking gameplay, but it did a good job of executing the essentials, and it became a popular game among aficionados.
Telephone Puzzle 2
The Telephone Game is a single-player, mouse-controlled puzzler that is available as freeware. The second telephone problem is a rather simple thing. Words are represented as numbers in this case. The words are based on how letters are arranged on a telephone.
A, B, or C, for example, indicate the number 2. D, E, or F are the letters that make up the number three.
Each number symbolizes a different sort of word, which the player must figure out. For example, the word ‘Conclusion’ is represented as 2662586466. The games are all timed. Statistics are also kept based on how many problems the player is able to solve. There is no high score table or save game function in this game.
SkiFree
SkiFree, which was initially published for Mac in 1991, is actually older than Windows 95. If you’ve ever played one of the millions of ski-jump clicker games available on the App Store, you’ll recognize the game right away. SkiFree, on the other hand, was a forerunner at the time and is now one of the most graphically spectacular and demanding versions of this famous game style. The skier in SkiFree was initially meant to only leap in response to live coding requests, which is why the game is still so popular among hackers.
Doom 95
The marketing staff was one of the main reasons why the OS was able to reach such amazing heights.
Marketers created fantastic scenarios for the OS to show off its capabilities and wow the audience. The game Doom 95 was instrumental in establishing the OS as a popular gaming platform.
Bill Gates was personally involved in the OS’s marketing and ensured that no stone was left unturned when he created a movie demonstrating the OS’s capabilities, which enabled the gaming.
The creator of the well-known operating system business highlighted various reasons why it used to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to create such high-end computer games, but then demonstrated the gameplay to signify the industry’s shift.
When the OS first came out, the DOOM game was a huge hit, thus having it on it was a necessity. The game’s popularity was phenomenal, and it even outperformed the previous operating system in terms of likeability and recognition. To keep their staff from playing the game, several business owners had to institute new workplace restrictions.
The relationship between the game studio and the parent business of the operating system was rocky to begin with.
They had a tough start, but owing to the efforts of a few executives, the game was successfully launched on the OS, and their connection is still going strong today.
Pressure Drop
The keyboard controls the game Pressure Drop, which is a color-matching game. It is played by one or two people. Each player is equipped with a Chromagun. On a rail, the Chromagun travels right and left. At the bottom of the screen, the rail is located.
The Chromagun sends out many colored beams. Colored tile ranks will descend from the screen’s top soon. The player is now obligated to use their Chromagun to demolish the bricks. To do this, they fire certain tiles.
The color and tone of the tile are progressively changed. Each brick in the block eventually becomes identical. Because the tile blocks are falling, they must be destroyed before they collide with the Pressure ray. Every block that hits the ray causes it to travel up the screen.
Myst
Given that its various variations have managed to leave a lasting impression on games and gaming culture, many gaming aficionados will already be familiar with Myst.
The idea is the same as it was in the original 1995 edition.
When you open the enigmatic ‘Myst’ book, you are whisked away to a strange and whimsical island realm where you must solve riddles and negotiate royal intrigues in order to return home. The game was unusual at the time for having no time constraints, no adversaries to hunt down, and no danger of dying at any point during the game. It’s for these reasons that Myst became a cult classic, selling over 6 million copies and establishing its place in gaming history.
StarCraft
If you asked a gamer from the 1990s what the best real-time strategy game of the decade was, the majority would say StarCraft. The game was fantastic, and practically everyone who reviewed it gave it high marks. The game is regarded to be the one that launched Blizzard Entertainment into popularity and global fame.
The game was the first to show off the studio’s filmmaking prowess to a wider audience. The game’s cinematic work was intriguing, and the company was able to carve out an identity for itself via hard effort.
The game was important in strengthening the studio’s multiplayer services since it attracted a large number of players to the service, which naturally transferred the studio’s emphasis to it. The game’s success and significance cannot be overstated, since it has sold millions of copies even a decade after its release.
Super Marble Solitaire
This is a peg solitaire game for one player. This game is played entirely with the mouse. Furthermore, by pulling the pegs and marbles into place as needed, you may swiftly drop them into place. The Crossbow, Diamond, On the Edge, Man in the Middle, The Cross, French Classic, A Big Plus, Marked on the Edge, Stellar, Triangular, and Hexagonal are among the layouts available in the shareware version of the game.
The game creator feature allows the user to create his own puzzles. The game has features such as an undo mechanism and the ability to alter the background and marble color aspects. The game, on the other hand, lacks the load and ‘no save’ functionality.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 95
Because Microsoft couldn’t rely on other studios and developers to provide games that supported their operating system, they decided to create their own. The parent firm of the OS didn’t have to spend much time thinking because they already had an amazing simulation series.
The simulation franchise had a promising idea that may succeed if properly developed, which is exactly what the business accomplished. They redesigned the game in order for it to benefit from the new OS’s enhanced visuals and become more immersive.
NanoCore
Nanocore is a single-player Breakout-style game. It’s also a three-dimensional shareware game. What is the plot of the story? The Nanocore has been infected with a virus. He needs to be cleansed. The player is forced to use an Elementium ball that shoots fire at adversaries.
The player must launch the ball and maintain it in play in order to fulfill his objectives. He must also utilize the paddle for the entire duration of the game.
If the ball collides with anything that isn’t a permanent object, it will do instant harm. In the shareware edition, there are eight stages. There are 32 levels in the registered version. The keyboard may be used to adjust the camera level.
Phantasmagoria
Originally, Phantasmagoria was not intended to be a game for the operating system. The game was released in the year twenty-four, and it astonished players with its promise and potential. The game was a bit of a stretch for the firm, as they had never done anything quite like it before.
The game’s development phase had significant challenges, causing it to be continually pushed back. Finally, the game was finished and released on the new Windows OS, which was focused on outstanding games.
When the game was ultimately released in the United States, there was no classification system in place, and the makers omitted to note the game’s mature material on the package. When the game was first released, it sparked some controversy, but this only served to increase its exposure and user demand.
Because of the game’s explicit nature, it sparked outrage, and it was outright banned in several nations. The game could have avoided all of the problems if there had been a rating system in place.
There were several variables that led to the game’s repeated delays. To begin with, the game’s development studio had no prior experience with major launches or projects. The studio’s lack of knowledge carried over into the filming process as well. Actors were unable to deliver satisfactory performances in the game’s cinematic moments. Despite the delays, the game was released on the same day as the operating system.
The game cost more than $5 million to produce, but it all worked out in the end since the game was a huge success. The company was able to sell over a million copies of the game, due in large part to the constant scandals that surrounded it.
First Windows 95 Games — Retro on DTF
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A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Microsoft released its next Windows with such fanfare that it seemed that other operating systems were no longer needed.
A single ad was spent $300 million with launches in different parts of the world. People lined up to grab a box of operating systems! But what about games? Were they then part of the evil corporation’s plans? What games for Windows 95 did Microsoft offer at launch? What exclusives were available in the first months after the release? What are the benefits for gamers of the new OS? How did other game developers react to the release of the 95th? Was it worth switching to it in the first place? All this and more in this article.
This text is an adaptation of our video release on the same topic. Therefore, if you like material with a video sequence and a large number of titles and pictures, then the video on the channel is for you.
Well, we’ll continue.
Windows 3.0
Windows of the third edition became popular as an operating system, and although it is called an operating shell, in the first half of the 90s it managed to develop its own market and its own niche.
Actively published programs ranging from screensavers and office to design and graphic editors. Older versions received more convenient and versatile window interfaces. All devices and system settings could be controlled through a single menu. There was a desktop, windows, drop-down menus and limited multitasking. Under DOS none of this happened.
Of course, there were also games. But for Windows, the glory of the platform with casual, uncomplicated games has been entrenched. Some kind of quests or simple arcade games. Or there some multimedia projects, where there are a lot of videos, pictures, voice acting, but the games were not serious. Nevertheless, quite a lot of 16-bit Windows applications have been released. And although a fast video card was required for comfortable work in three rubles, for drawing windows and menus, he himself did not keep up with the progress. At least when it comes to games.
Descent came out under DOS at the very end of 94.
Most of the heavy, technological, demanding projects continued to be released under DOS even after the advent of Windows 3.1 in 92. The release of windows did not end the era of DOS gaming, and it can be considered completed only by the 98th year, when there were either piece projects, long-term construction, or add-ons or add-ons for existing DOS games. The same addons on the Duke 3D engine, like World War 2 GI. And, of course, no one canceled amateur games from all sorts of retrogrades.
But what ended it? The release of Windows 95. A full-fledged 32-bit operating system in which the developers tried to resolve the existing shortcomings and turn to face gamers and video game creators.
But everything is not so simple here — back in 1993, Microsoft already released one 32-bit operating system. And this is Windows NT 3.1 or New Technology, built on the wreckage of a joint construction with IBM, that is, work on OS / 2. Which also came out, but without the participation of Microsoft.
NT had little in common with simple Windows, was no longer dependent on DOS, could run on several architectures, such as MIPS and Power PC, without being limited to x86, but at the same time was compatible with existing programs. So why do people only know about it from labels like «this program won’t run on Windows NT»?
Windows NT 3.1 video
It was not quite popular — the system requirements included a 386-25 MHz processor and 12 megabytes of memory, and 486 and 16 megabytes were recommended, while many did not even have half in 93. Device support was murky — it was sometimes difficult to understand whether sound, video and peripherals would work, because almost no one wrote anything about Windows NT. It was the same with program ports. It definitely had advantages — real multitasking, support for DOS, Windows and OS / 2 programs, increased security, but the OS was raw and hastily made. Therefore, they started talking about NT only after the appearance of 95th, when versions 3.
5 and later appeared, which later evolved into Windows 2000 and XP.
95th was not unique in its performance — a desktop with icons, multitasking and multi-contact appeared in previous versions of Windows on a PC, and even earlier on other systems — Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST, Acorn Archimides. Perhaps at first everything was not so sleek, but by the beginning of the 90s they were able to run in.
Yes, even IBM itself managed to make its OS / 2 a normal operating system in seven years. And a few years ago there were Debian and Slackware — Linux distributions where you could get the same windows, menus and desktop. But Microsoft not only improved their product, but also knew how to advertise and support it. And even before the appearance, many knew what Chicago was — codename 95th.
Bill Gates presents Windows 95
Windows 95, which was supposed to be a new round in technology, went on sale on August 24, 1995. The old turn, in the form of NES, retired 10 days before.
Needless to say, the premiere was pompous. A free issue of the London Times was published dedicated to this event, other publications devoted special issues to it, the heroes of the TV series Friends made a promotional film, and the theme music — Start Me Up was taken from the Rolling Stones. And for a live presentation, together with Bill Gates, Jay Leno, a prankster, a mischievous person, and the host of an evening show on American TV, went up on stage. Didn’t hear about Windows 95 could only be deaf, but they would have been explained to them too.
Yes, yes, the same photo.
The new product was priced at $90 and shipped on a CD that included both a large set of device drivers and additional materials. But there was also an option for computers without it on 13 floppy disks, and later twice as many. And the versions weren’t identical, and if you wanted a little more of what was left for CD owners, you could write yourself an extra set of CD Extras on five more floppies.
One can imagine the pleasure of such an installation.
Windows 95 installation disks
The new operating system required a 386DX processor with a frequency of 20 MHz or higher, 4 megabytes of RAM, 70 megabytes of hard disk space, and a VGA video card. This configuration is 5 years old. But these were the minimum requirements, and on such a system it was not only games that slowed down, but the axis itself, and one should not count on working in serious applications and adequate loading time. Windows 95 managed the available resources better, and you could even run Word and Excel on such a minimal configuration, but the speed was depressing. Unless, of course, your task is not just to create its appearance. Although this could be enough to work in a notebook.
Windows 95 in all its glory
Adequate minimum requirements were: 486 processor with a frequency of 33 MHz, at least 8 megabytes of memory and, again, a fast video card.
Not necessarily an accelerator, but not junk on the ISA bus either. It is clear that not everyone could make the transition to 95 from DOS and Win3 without upgrading the system or completely replacing it. Well, these are the minimum requirements, not optimal for work, multitasking, internet and games. For this, a Pentium and 16 megabytes of memory were already needed. By the way, neither Internet Explorer nor other browsers were originally included. However, time passed, prices fell and 8 MB of memory in 9The 6th was already $200.
But what exclusives did gamers get when they bought a new operating system when it was released?
Microsoft released life-affirming advertisements, where they said that 95 is for both players and games. But it seems that at the grand launch there were no game programs made specifically for the new version of the OS. The king was left without a retinue, except for Minesweeper and Kerchief Solitaire, but these games were in version 3, and frankly, they did not fit well with the technological revolution.
However, deep in the extras folder on the disc, the game Hover was also tucked away.
In it, you control a hovercraft with a first-person view, and drive through three-dimensional labyrinths like in shooters. Only here there is acceleration and inertia, and everything is more reminiscent of racing. Bonuses such as the ability to jump or protection are lying around the cards. And you can’t shoot either — just push, the rivalry is quite peaceful. And the goal is to capture the enemy flags that appear here and there on the map before the bots do it. And although this is not a masterpiece, it shows the capabilities of the platform much better — fast 3D in a window with detailed textures, settings from drop-down menus, responsive controls and even multiplayer.
Microsoft Plus!
Soon Microsoft released Windows 95 Plus! — something like a premium set of programs, utilities and everything else in a separate box. It cost a lot — 50 dollars. There was the first version of the Internet Explorer browser, various useful and not so useful things, fonts, themes for desktop customization.
Not much content — 32 megabytes. And among this there was a place for the game. And you most likely know about it.
Full Tilt Pinball
This is a pinball familiar to almost all Windows users with experience. Yes, this is the same Star Cadet. Later it will be included in other versions of Windows, but here it is, as it were, for the money. This is a cut and even somewhat rewritten version of Full Tilt Pinball, where there were three different tables, and here there is only one. This is quite a normal pinball with two-dimensional graphics. And although it can kill some time, this is clearly not a breakthrough in technology or gameplay. But still, which games were the first to show the capabilities of the system?
Actually, why guess when there are CDs that MS distributed itself during the release of 95. Something like a presentation and catalog of existing or upcoming applications. We open this disk, we find the “entertainment” section there and we get as many as four games: Microsoft Golf 2, Microsoft Arcade, and The Magic School Bus, but these are rather just games for Windows 3.
1. The only thing that promises to feel the full power of 32 bits is Fury3.
Fury 3
This game was released a little earlier on the Microsoft Home label, where all Multimedia was published, but it had a separate Windows 95 release. This is essentially a continuation of Terminal Velocity, one of the first truly fast 3d action games. Fury3 has a new set of levels, enemy models, textures and more, but essentially the exact same game. It combines flying on planetary surfaces, corridors and boss fights. This is not a simulator, there is no inertia, fuel supply, you can’t crash here. Focus on fast flights, shooting from a bunch of weapons and a bunch of opponents. By the way, it runs perfectly on modern versions of Windows.
What about the others? The transition did not happen immediately — many hits and high-tech games of that time remained DOS applications. Command & Conquer, Warcraft II, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Tomb Raider, Daggerfall — they all appeared as DOS applications.
Why did programmers prefer DOS? Because although it was single-tasking, and limited, and required crutches to work with memory and new processors, it consumed few resources and allowed the program to communicate directly with the hardware. That allowed to achieve high performance, and with Windows it was much more difficult, because a new layer was added that had to be worked on or somehow bypassed.
WinG Help
To somehow fix the situation, Microsoft released WinG — a program or a DLL somewhere to fix problems with access to the video card. It was shown at the Game Developers Conference and DOOM was launched as a demo program under Windows 3. Which was a very powerful demonstration, because Doom was both a popular and very demanding product. WinG was released in September 1994 and was used in the Civilization series, Simcity, Heroes of Might and Magic, and even made a shooter — Nitemare 3D, which worked under Windows 3. But WinG did not become a hit and Microsoft further focused on DirectX.
Legend has it that the fiasco with WinG was the reason for the creation of direct x. In 94, the cartoon The Lion King appeared, which collected a huge box office. Disney decided to build on the success and release games based on its events. Incidentally, this was their first product on CD. And everything seems to be nothing — Lion King Animated Storybook was made in less than six months, using animation frames from the film, the original script, and the game was ready in November, just in time for Christmas 94th year. During this time, Disney made $214 million from toys licensed from the film alone, and Disney spent several million to promote the project. But in the weeks that followed, a flood of calls hit the support phone. And most of them concerned the non-working of the game Lion King.
Simba laughs at the kids who don’t have the game working.
The game was made for Windows using WinG. But the driver for the video card Compaq Presario, relatively new models of the 94th year, has not been tested.
And Compaq was one of the most popular PC brands at the time. And instead of akunamata, he showed the children the blue screen of death. And since the Internet was still in its infancy, the few people who bought the game could update it, or get a driver fix. Disney had to get out, the developers print an additional edition of 1.1 and accept and exchange copies of the game. Well, everyone pointed fingers at each other, trying to shift the responsibility for embarrassment and spoiling Christmas. Due to the large promotion, the story ended up in the news and TV reports. The Wall Street Journal and Billboard wrote about her. As a result, the game was of course repaired, but it was clear that some kind of universal remedy was needed. And so end 94 years went on to work on what later became DirectX.
By the way, Microsoft didn’t initially approve the project because they didn’t consider it important, and the three developers worked on it literally in secrecy, asking game developers how they could improve the situation.
Basically, they said that Windows is too gluttonous and clumsy compared to DOS, and it is necessary to make sure that they again have direct access to the hardware and the operating system does not interfere with them and does not eat resources. April 95, next to the annual Game Developers Conference, the three unveiled a beta version of Direct X. It only ran on an ATI Mach 64 graphics card, and the CDs were printed at the last minute, hours before the event. But even in such conditions, they managed to convince part of the audience that the MS hut would be turned to their face in front. Later, they turned to id and Origin to support the initiative and sent a team from Origin to Microsoft to work specifically on porting.
The very first development kit, not yet named DirectX
The components were named DirectDraw, DirectInput, and DirectSound. It meant that developers get direct access to the hardware, bypassing layers of abstraction — direct access to video, sound and controllers.
DirectSound was created by John Meisle, the author of Miles Sound System, a program that was used in many dos games to adjust sound, and then ported to Windows. DirectSound provided low latency when working with a sound card. Direct 3D appeared later and was created by the company acquired by MS. Although the plans were to use proprietary standards. The first version of the DirectX game development kit appeared on September 95th. Before that, igrodely worked with betas.
3
Three versions of Direct X in one year.
The second Direct X was released on June 5, 96, and the third on September 15. With Direct3d support. The fourth was also planned to be done in a few months, but according to the memoirs of the developer Craig Eisler, the creators of the Cirrus Logic graphics chips could not release them on time, and since the changes in the new version affected them in many ways, it was decided to skip the fourth revision and say that wait for the fifth summer 97.
What happened — July 16, 97 and had much more support from game developers than previous ones.
But what about games?
The mark of quality that distinguished the releases of the first years.
At first, the boxes with such games had a logo — Designed For Windows 95, and it was clearly stated that the game requires it to run. Or not — if there was also a version for the previous system.
DOS versions of games generally had lower system requirements than Windows games. This is especially striking if the game was released immediately for both operating systems. For example, Phantasmagoria, a huge video quest on 7 CDs, could be run both under DOS and under Windows, but Sierra recommended the second option only to owners of very powerful computers.
Back then, it was common for people to finish their projects and add compatibility for Windows 95 at the last minute, or even as a patch after release. That is, just make sure that the program works.
The main focus was on 16-bit 3.1 or even DOS. That is, the bundle could have several executable files, sometimes as many as three. So we better look at those games that were made for 32-bit Windows and used new features.
This disk, which is called nothing less than Microsoft Windows 9, will help shed light on it.5 Game Samplers. That is, a cheese plate for 95 windows. But it’s not just a disc. Firstly, an introductory video was specially made for him, where someone like the Silver Surfer surfs the airless expanses, some spaceships fly and fire is fired from the station. Everything so that you understand how cool it will be now. At launch, what awaits us is not a simple menu with buttons or something like a multimedia magazine, a three-dimensional world and movement with a first-person view. A 3D engine that was specifically or not written for this compact. You can walk around the rooms and approach the demo versions of the games. The latest numbers date back to the end of January 96, that is, six months have not passed since the appearance.
But what does he offer?
3D level tour on disc
For example, ports of 8-bit Activision games for the Atari 2600. Even at that time they already looked like ancient fossils, which, given the history of the ET game, is not so strange. But all the less, it allowed everyone to experience the impressions of their first acquaintance in a convenient shell. The Virtual Console is not the first of its kind.
Next door similar to C64 with 15 games for the popular 8-bit computer. More precisely, only one in the demo — Hacker. A kind of computer hacker simulator? But hardly anyone was surprised that new computers could drive games of a bygone era.
Pitfall in the window
And here’s a port of Pitfall with the Sega Mega Drive, a peppy platformer in the then popular style and with a good budget. A game like Disney platform games or their imitators like Jim, Rayman or Jazz Jackrabbit. If you read it, the best version on PC is the music from the SEGA CD version, additional levels from the SEGA 32x version, and the game itself is the same.
But the first reviewers, back in November or October, noted the high system requirements for a generally ordinary 2D arcade game and problems with skipping animation frames. But nevertheless — this is one of the first releases for Windows 95 32-bit.
There is another port here — a port of one of the most important games of recent years — this is, of course, DOOM. Under Dos, he needed a memory manager, but under Windows there were no such access problems. It plays exactly the same, but the port is very simple, literally allowing you to start the game, change a few settings and that’s it. From the new graphics in 640×480 resolution, more channels of sound and support for new ways of online play. DOOM was the first game to support DirectX. But despite the early demonstration of the version for Windows, it never came out for 3.1, and for the release on 95 players had to wait.
Doom95 launch window
But it’s still a sin not to use it, especially after Bill Gates used the second level of the game for advertising.
The first and second parts were released separately, plus as Ultimate Doom.
Another early bird was 7th Level. They made several prime titles for ’95 at once. The first was Battle Beast, probably one of the early releases made specifically with an eye on Windows 95. This is a fighting game, but contrary to the trends, it is not cruel, without video primes and even drawn pixel heroes. Instead, it has some pretty decent cartoon animation. And the game is relatively harmless.
Su-27 Flanker. The first version of the hardcore flight simulator from Russia was immediately released for both Windows and DOS. Which is not surprising, because the game uses standard Windows menus and windows as an interface.
What were the advantages for games carried by Windows 95? Lack of picking settings files to load device drivers there and fight for free 640 kilobytes. It was no longer necessary to configure sound cards, think about what interrupt and access values to choose. In general, all settings from scattered folders have migrated to a centralized control panel.
The need to have a memory manager is gone — Windows itself dealt with this.
MS-DOS windows inside Windows 95
Autorun and shortcuts appeared. The philosophy was that you insert a disc, and then, like on a console, the menu loads, you install the necessary files in automatic mode, and launch the game directly from the disc. Plug’n’Play — that is, Windows itself could recognize your devices without fiddling with drivers. And if you changed something, then the computer did not panic, but saw this change and offered to install a new device. It didn’t always work, but it didn’t work under DOS.
It must be understood that no one sat under the bare dos, that is, the command line, unnecessarily. People used file managers like Norton or Wolfs Commander, or even a utility built into the MSDOS box. There were also graphical shells, not only Windows.
Another plus was the conditional ease of installation — under DOS there was no concept of autorun, but here, when a disk was inserted, a menu with the necessary options immediately popped up.
The installer wrote the game to the system registry and from there it could be deleted. And of course shortcuts — everything immediately fell on the desktop or in the Start menu, where everything was visible and accessible.
The next thing is help. In DOS games, there was no in-game help and you had to keep the manual or something heavier at hand at all times. Windows solved these problems by having built-in help files with the HLP extension. Somewhere they were just compiled documents with a table of contents, and somewhere they were serious work with pictures and interesting text. If the game was launched in a window — and often early Windows games did, then you just had to select the desired item from the drop-down menu, and the manual opened next to it.
One of the first games shown as a demonstration of the power of Windows and DirectX was Mechwarrior 2, which featured internet play via DirectPlay, a component for online play. By the way, oddly enough, it was the simulator of large robots that became one of the largest technological projects at the turn of 95-96.
There were several editions of the game with support for different formats of 3D accelerators — 3DFX, ATI, Matrox, PowerVR, S3 Virge, and even for Rave accelerators for Macs. There was also a separate edition for windows, which was sold as a pentium-edition. Compared to the DOS version, they all looked advantageous. They have textures, options for filtering them, and higher resolutions. Of course, the system requirements in order to see all the beauty were high — for this you needed a pentium and 24 megabytes. Despite the fact that the exhibition showed the game over the network, the version with direct3d support appeared only in 98 years and is considered not the best.
6
There were at least six different versions of Mechwarrior 2.
But Microsoft already had one game that brought them a steady income year after year, despite a rather specific theme. This is Microsoft Flight Simulator. A simulator of large and small aircraft, and at the same time exclusively peaceful, that is, without battles in the sky.
By the advent of Windows 95, 5 of its parts had already come out, companies that made content for this game had already appeared. The last game at that time appeared at 1993rd, and although despite this it only worked under DOS. That is, Microsoft themselves then did not consider Windows as a platform for serious games.
Part 5 was already shipped on CD, it had polygonal graphics with textures, huge worlds with main cities and airports, day and night cycle, support for various graphics options. A bunch of everything. Microsoft even sold discs with improved textures. Success had to be consolidated and Microsoft released Flight Simulator For Windows 9 in 965.
Oddly enough, there was no breakthrough. The Windows build has largely remained a port of version 5.1. The changes affected the graphics more, which is understandable because almost three years have passed since the last release. If 640×400 was the maximum resolution of the DOS version, here the quality of textures, cockpits, models, landscapes has increased.
Added multimedia features. Although FS wasn’t a revolution, but rather it was recast into a usable form, it became one of the best-selling PC games in ’96, and one of the few Windows games to make it into it.
Of course, these are far from all the games released in the first six months or a year of Windows 95 existence. Leading companies of those years like Sierra, Electronic Arts, Microprose, Origin, SSI also prepared and released products for the new operating system. Some of them were simply tested to work in it before release, and somewhere the games were specially modified. Many of them also did not gain wide popularity due to the fact that the de facto platform for gaming was still DOS. But in the 96th year, the first Windows 9 also went5-only games that didn’t have versions for either DOS or Windows 3.x But that’s material for another time.
And as for you… You will take a break from reading such a long article. Eat a biscuit with tea. And visit the PodcastOGRU youtube channel, where there is a lot of similar unique material, but in the form of moving pictures with voice acting.
