3 May
2010
3 May
'10
6 p.m.
On 5/3/2010 10:34 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
I reckon one could argue persuasively that no other
single machine had
such an influence.
People laugh at me when I state the same of the PCjr, but I feel the
same way. Without the PCjr introducing 16-color graphics and 3-voice
sound, I don't think the PC as a gaming platform would have taken off.
Why? Because while the PCjr died a horrible death, the Tandy 1000
(which was a clone of the PCjr, not the PC) survived and did quite well,
and Sierra continued to support the enhancements on all Tandy 1000s,
which gave it a real sales edge, which other companies noticed, which
started to do the same.
It's hard to remember that sound boards on the PC were not using for
gaming until Sierra pushed very hard for it in 1987. Until that point,
they were all music- or speech-only applications. And Sierra wouldn't
have pushed if they hadn't been frustrated by the 3-voice limitation of
the Tandy 1000/PCjr.
So, the little PCjr holds a special place in my heart. Just don't ask
me to describe how many sidecars are necessary to fill that space...
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Help our electronic games project: http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/