Software
Software was the edge
In the time of the micro computer software were written specifically for each computer, as they all came with their own operating system build into them. Burned into their microchips where the commands that they understood, and programmers needed to write their programs to the specific machine. The amount of software available for a specific computer played a significant role in it’s success.
This is one of the reasons for the huge success of the Commodore 64. With it’s powerful graphics and sound processors it was a perfect platform for games and it gave programmers a strong platform to developed all sorts.
Of the more famous ones one could mention:
- Archon: The Light and the Dark (1983)
- A mythical battle chess, Impossible Mission (1984)
- A platform action game, Pitstop II (1984)
- A car race simulation, Elite (1985)
- A space simulation game, Leaderboard Golf (1986)
- A sport simulation, IK+ (1987)
- A fighting game, InternationalSoccer (1988)
- A soccer simulation, Grand Prix Circuit (1989)
- Formula One, Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday (1990)
- An adventure/RPG, Creatures 2: Torture Trouble (1992)
- Platform type and Mayhem in Monsterland (1993)
- A platform type.
The software operating system
A contester to the micro computer was IBM’s so-called Personal Computer or PC although is was much pricier and did not find it’s way into normal homes straight away. This began to change as the new IBM PC (PC for Personal Computer) entered the market. The IBM PC used a software operating system. This had to load on startup, but made it easier to update - simply because you did not need to buy a completely new piece of hardware. The OS (for Operating System) was called MSDOS, this was short for Micro-Soft Disk Operating System (yes, they used a dash in their name in the early days). The code was based on the UNIX operating system although greatly simplified.