> The reality is all these machines are basically PCs now, and where's the excitement from playing a PC based arcade game on a ~25" screen for 50 cents to a dol

> The reality is all these machines are basically PCs now, and where's the excitement from playing a PC based arcade game on a ~25" screen for 50 cents to a dollar when you could play it at home on your PC or your PC based console. This is something that Michael Abrash hasn't really received proper credit for: he basically invented the model of using off-the-shelf PC components for videogames, which then spread to consoles and arcade games. If it wasn't for Abrash's "mode x" we wouldn't have DirectX, then Direct3D, then XBox, then arcade games that are nothing more than personal computers. At the time that Abrash came up with "mode x", there were basically two ways to play games on a PC. The first method was to use a PC that included a great graphics chip (like the Amiga), the second method was to add aftermarket cards. Neither method was ideal, because there weren't many Amigas in existence, and software developers couldn't maximize sales while selling software that required aftermarket hardware.