Western Home Computer Game Machines (WHCGM)

Western Home Computer Game Machines

A Western home computer game machine is a PC or microcomputer sold by Western computer manufacturers and upon which Westerners primarily played computer games.

By Western, I mean primarily the U.K., the U.S.A., the British Commonwealth and Western Continental European countries, such as France and Germany.

Alphabetical listing of WHCGMs with which the cRPG Blog is primarily concerned:

• Acorn BBC Micro (1981 MOS Tech 6502/6510 clocked at 2 MHz)
• Acorn Archimedes (1987, ARM RISC clocked at 8 MHz)
• Apple 2 (1977, MOS Tech 6502 clocked at 1 MHz)
• Atari 8 bits (400 & 800, 1979, MOS Tech 6502 clocked at 1.77-1.79 MHz)
• Atari ST (1985, Motorola 68000 clocked at 8 MHz)
• Commodore 64 (1982, MOS Tech 6510/8500 clocked at 1 MHz)
• Commodore Amiga (1985, Motorola 68000 clocked at 7.09-7.16 MHz)
• IBM PC & Compatible (1981, PC Booter, MS-DOS, Windows: i808x, i80x86)
• Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1982, Zilog Z80 clocked at 3½ MHz)
• TRS-80 (1977, Zilog Z80 clocked at 1.77-1.79 MHz)

My main focus is on the IBM PC, the Amiga and the C64.

Note how specific the term is: Western home computer game machine (WHCGM). This is how I make sure that readers understand exactly what I write about; that is, I do not write about arcade machines and their games, I do not write about mainframes and their games, I do not write about video games machines and their games, and I do not write about Japanese home computer game machines and their games -- except in passing, and only if such constitute an origin of the subject matter at hand. This is how my commentary separates itself from almost all other commentary: I am specific in that readers will never be left wondering what I am writing about or what my images represent. And yet this relatively specific subject matter is still immensely broad.

The technical capacities of computer-game machine hardware are found in the above articles, my History of Shoot 'em ups article, and my History of 1990s Computer Games article. This is because it is more interesting (for me) to consider hardware in the context of software.

 

I collectively refer to computer games that appeared on a micro as its computer-game catalogue.

 

In classic computer game language Western computer-game machines include 8, 16 and 32 bit micros manufactured by Acorn, Apple, Commodore and others.

My commentary does not refer to IBM PCs as micros, but rather as IBM PCs, IBM PC compatibles or simply PCs. As a rule, IBM PCs are too physically big to be referred to as micros.

Conversely, in the sphere of computer-gaming the Amiga, the Archimedes and the ST were only very rarely referred to as PCs back in the day, even though they most certainly were personal computers whose high-end variants were audio, science or graphics workstations (e.g., the NewTek Video Toaster of 1990 on the Amiga 2000). But my commentary on home computers is restricted to their role as computer-game machines.

For me, the general term home computer encompasses both microcomputers and PCs. Home computers are constrasted with computers that are not typically used as home appliances, such as minicomputers, mainframes, arcade machines, terminals and workstations.

David Braben's Elite of 1984 running on a BBC Micro clocked at 2 MHz:

cf.

• Early 1990s IBM PC Games that made Amiga owners jealous
• 1980s IBM PC Games that made Atari ST and Amiga owners jealous
• 1980s Amiga games that made Atari ST owners jealous
• 1980s Atari ST games that made Amiga owners jealous
• 1980s Atari ST and Amiga games that made IBM PC owners jealous
• Best IBM PC Game
• Best Apple 2 Game
• Best ZX Spectrum Game
• Best Commodore 64 Game
• Best Commodore Amiga Game
• Best BBC Micro Game
• Best Acorn Archimedes Game
• Best Atari ST Game
• The First REAL Amiga Game
• Computer Games Listed in Chronological Order
• History of 1990s Computer Games
• History of Shoot 'em Ups
• cRPG Blog (Master Index)