Now when I refer to PeeCee gamers nowadays, I speak of the many computer owners who never owned Amigas, or worse never even heard of Amiga. In the past, it was impossible to be a PeeCee owner and not know about the dreaded and fearsome Amigas, lol! There was always this rivalry between systems, altho not quite on the same level (at least not for a very long time) This was because many PeeCee owners were very well aware of the marvels of Amiga computing - the superior stereo sound and full color gfx, but somehow remained in loser denial wishing that PeeCees would one day catch up. And shoot! guess what happened, they actually got their wish!
Of course many of us Amigans crossed over to PeeCeeworld in the mid 90s, some of you more recently. I myself felt physically sick when seeing how far behind PeeCees were in 96 to Amigas. But having no alternatives and a job depending on Win95 familiarity, I made the switch anyway. I always viewed it as a downgrade rather than a switch. And for many years resented Commodore for allowing the greatest travesty in computing to happen in such a way.
But out of all of this, my biggest gripe remained to be the PeeCee gamers resistance to cold hard facts. This being, that PeeCees were cumbersome and inferior machines for gaming. PC speaker? Give me a break! CGA gfx? lol! For the recent gamer, bred on PSX and PS2, it is probably impossible to imagine a world were a superior platform like the Amiga, could fail to capture a larger market when going against the humbe 286/386. And one might say it was comparable to a PS2 competing with a PeeCee running windows 3.11. But yes this was exactly how it was like.
Amiga reigned supreme since 1985 to 1993. And during this time, I had heated debates with PeeCee users and their lofty claims that PeeCee games, despite their shortcomings were still superior to their Amiga counterparts. Some even went to the extremes of saying that games didn't matter were computing was concerned. But one didn't have to be Einstein to know that these PC advocates were just overprotective and insecure individuals, who couldn't admit reality even if it slammed right in front of them.
The curious thing was that despite their Pro-PC resolve, many of these PeeCee gamers were completely oblivious and ignorant to what good gfx were. Many of them had skewed notions of what cutting edge gfx were at the time. And for many years, things remained this way. I even recall pointing out the horrible zoomed in look, to a friend running a PC port of Lemmings 2. The sounds were appaling (PC speaker? hello!) And the chunky sprites were distracting to say the least. I remember telling him "Dude, sorry to say this, but that thing just plain sux ass... man. Seriously it does" He would quickly snap and say "Oh so, it looks and plays better on your Amoeba, does it? huh does it? ahh schoolkids back then. lol! I guess being spoilt on Amiga gfx had its problems too, yeah like arguements with PC diehards and being generally perceived as being too fussy of gfx.
Suffice to say, growing up with Amigas in the 80s, was like stumbling across a conspiracy in keeping the world ignorant to sublime computing, heh the bgates conspiracy. It was like discovering some Pentagon files proving there was intelligent life on Mars, but not being able to tell anyone, without risking ridicule. Of course it was a relief when discovering other Amigans, and being able to share the experience together.
It wasn't until 3D games and more sophisticated h/w came out, that PC gamers finally became aware of the deficiencies to their software rendered low res gfx. Now PC gamers pride themselves on how THEIR games outshine the competition. PeeCee gamers are the new spoilt kids, were gfx are concerned. lol! And now these same people are the ones crying out why they should adopt AmigaOnes, if their h/w outclasses AmigaOne on every level.
Its ironic isn't it? That these very same people couldn't think this way when Amigas outclassed their POS x86 on every level back in 1985, not only that but it kept the lead for almost a decade. Yet now they would have you know who has the higher specced machine and make it their quest to point out OUR deficiencies. lol!
PeeCee gamer geeks lol! You gotta love 'em. They really are a funny bunch!
I bet us Amigans have a million experiences of this (what i like to call) PeeCee gamers conundrum, I'm sure they would make for many an interesting post
