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Those who lived in the 80s and 90s remember MS-DOS or Microsoft Disk Operating System very well. This is a system that predates windows and it too had some video games like Prince of Persia, Monkey Island, and Doom. That’s right, some of the most popular franchises of today started as MS-DOS games. Today we have way more sophisticated game engines and more powerful hardware, but it would be fun to reminisce about the good old days.
Here we will explore the connection between Dos and casino games. More specifically we will focus on why MS-DOS was so popular, how it shaped the gaming industry and laid the foundation for online casino games.
Accessibility
Personal computers started as a trend in the early 80s, and thanks to the first disk operating system Microsoft managed to make quite a name for themselves. Due to its accessibility, MS-DOS was quickly adopted across the market and became a go-to solution for many users. It wasn’t as user-friendly as the OS we have today, but it was revolutionary for its time. Moreover, PC owners could finally play games and it opened up a lot of doors for future game developers.
Casino Games at Home
During the 90s the number of PC users or households significantly grew. As a result, many industries started to think about this new hype train, and how they can use it to their advantage. For the gambling industry it was easy, they can create digital versions of their existing games and allow people to play at home. At that time there were no offers where a player could deposit 10 play with great bonus, the business itself wasn’t even fully digital, to begin with. However, if you can play for free, sooner or later you would try a real money version at a casino. Additionally, it also led to a revolution of casinos that slowly started to switch to computers.
This allowed casinos to improve their offer and in the early 2000s, Las Vegas establishments were significantly altered. Now they were filled with arcades and more diverse games with significantly better graphics.
First Online Casino
Online casinos started to grow in the year 2005, but the first online casino was created in 1994. In fact, one of the most popular game developer companies of today, Microgaming, was behind that project. This was also one of the first glimpses into the possibilities of MS-DOS, and it obviously had a massive impact on the development of this industry. After all, Microgaming is one of the best developers that continues to expand, and this event is basically their origin story.
Of course, online casinos couldn’t be at that time what they are today. As mentioned there were many gambling enthusiasts who didn’t even own a PC. Moreover, there were no smartphones, and most importantly not many households had an internet connection.
Why Was MS-DOS So Popular?
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This operating system was made by Microsoft, which is the biggest tech company today. So, as a tech business that introduced their own line of personal computers, it was only natural for their operating system to be widely accepted. If you create an infrastructure or eco-system for other companies to use then your product will soar. It’s not that there weren’t other operating systems, it's just that MS-DOS was established as a standard, and was able to reap the benefits of that situation.
Games definitely played an important role, since a lot of people were buying PCs in order to play. Since there weren't many games that were compatible with another OS, MS-DOS quickly assumed dominance on the market. Today, a lot of those early games are available as browser games. People even used to embed links to these games in their tweets in order to promote this newly formed archive of DOS content.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you learned something new about the humble beginnings of DOS and gaming in general. It’s worth pointing out though that there was another OS in the early 90s that is still used today, called Linux. That being said, the only real rivals to Microsoft are Google and Apple at least when it comes to operating systems. Of course, even this might change in the next few decades as new tech companies continue to emerge and bring about innovative software.
Those who lived in the 80s and 90s however will always remember DOS games, as they changed their lives. Without these early games, we wouldn’t have such a strong community of online gamers and gamblers.
