Son of PC: The History of x86 Game Consoles

IN THE BEGINNING there was the IBM PC, and it was good. Then came the PC clones—and several tangentially related machines in the 1980s that utilized the Intel x86 CPU architecture because it, well, became fruitful and multiplied.

Along the way, some engineers became so familiar with x86 CPUs and the IBM PC architecture that they utilized it in side projects, including embedded systems, arcade games (Q*Bert comes to mind) and yes, eventually, home video game consoles.

With that in mind, I recently discovered that there have been more x86-based game consoles than I previously realized. Not all of them are derivatives of the IBM PC (although many are), but all of them have benefited from software tools derived from development for the IBM PC platform itself.

Today we find ourselves in a curious situation. As the average computer user moves away from x86-based desktops and laptops in favor of ARM-based smartphones and tablets, the game console market is moving toward being more like x86-based PCs. In fact, between the PS4 ($799.95 at Amazon) , Xbox One ($200.00 at eBay) , and Steam Machines, the home console landscape today is dominated by the x86 architecture (well, x86-64 to be exact).

How did we get here? Well, the answer, as I hinted at above, is ease of development. Since x86 architecture machines have traditionally been the most popular platform (thanks to the IBM PC), they have had the most software tools developed for them, and that translates well into productivity when it comes to making software for game consoles.

In the old days, it wasn't too hard (I say this in a relative sense) to program games for non-x86 CPUs. It was a one- or two-person job. Game console companies could choose whatever CPU they wanted—usually what their engineers were most comfortable with, and those that they could purchase cheaply in large quantities. Today, in an age where video games are often complex beasts requiring multi-million dollar budgets and large development teams, streamlining productivity is more important than ever. And using x86 CPUs allows a huge boost in productivity for game developers.

So it's especially interesting, considering the current console climate, to take a look back at some of the precursors to today's modern x86-based consoles, then fast-forward into the modern day where these machines reign supreme. And that's exactly what you'll see in the slideshow ahead.

1. PROTOTYPE: Konix Multisystem (1988)

CPU: Intel 8086

The Konix Multisystem, developed by the British firm Konix, was an attempt at making a home game console that could be everything to all people, including a driving simulator, flight simulator, light gun trainer, and force feedback chair. Ultimately, it got caught in development hell and never made it to market. If it had, it possibly would have been the first x86-based game console to market.

(Photos: Konix)

2. Tandy VIS (1992)

CPU: 12 MHz Intel 80286

The early 1990s saw a boom in "multimedia" -- a delicious piece of marketing jargon that represented the marriage of text, interactive software, audio, and video in one medium. The Philips CD-i lead the way as a standalone multimedia platform, and a few firms followed -- including Tandy, which released the Video Information System (VIS). The VIS was essentially a stripped-down 286 PC running a custom version of Windows. It flopped horribly in the marketplace, and few have heard of it today.

(Photo: Tiger Software)

3. Fujitsu FM Towns Marty (1993)

CPU: 16 MHz AMD 386SX

In 1980s and 90s Japan, several firms extended the popular IBM PC platform by adding custom high-resolution graphics hardware that could support complex Japanese text characters and, by extension, better video game graphics. The Fujitsu FM Towns, which shipped in a tower form factor with an integrated CD-ROM drive, was one of the most prominent of these machines. In 1993, Fujitsu pared down its FM Towns to create a standalone console, the Marty, that could run its games. It never made it to the US and did not fare very well in Japan.

(Photo: Evan Amos)

4. Bandai WonderSwan (1999)

CPU: 3 MHz NEC V30 MZ

The WonderSwan is most famous for being the final project of Nintendo veteran Gunpei Yokoi -- who is best known as the creator of the Game Boy -- after he retired from Nintendo in 1996. What few people realize is that the WonderSwan was the first x86-based handheld game console because it used a NEC V30 CPU, an x86-based chip. The console, and its two successive color-screen iterations, never saw release in the US.

(Photo: Evan Amos)

5. Microsoft XBOX (2001)

CPU: 733 MHz Intel Pentium III

When it came time for Microsoft to make its first game console, it used what it knew best -- a slightly modified IBM PC-compatible architecture. The result was the Xbox, which used a an Intel Pentium III CPU, but hid its Windows- and PC-based lineage fairly well from its users. The setup proved popular with game developers and worked well for Microsoft, although the firm did deviate from x86 in its follow-up console, the Xbox 360.

(Photo: Evan Amos)

6. Sony PlayStation 4 (2013)

CPU: 1.6 GHz AMD x86-64 Jaguar (8-core)

When it came time to develop a successor to the notoriously difficult-to-program PlayStation 3 (which had an unusual PowerPC-based Cell processor), Sony invited famed game craftsman Mark Cerny to pull together a much more developer-friendly console based on a supercharged PC architecture. It was a plan that apparently worked well, as the PlayStation 4 currently rules the home console market in the US.

(Photo: Evan Amos)

7. Microsoft Xbox One (2013)

CPU: 1.75 GHz AMD Jaguar (2 quad core modules)

After a generation where all three major game consoles (Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3) used PowerPC-architecture CPUs, both Sony (as we have seen) and Microsoft decided to pull a complete 180 and turn toward modified PC architectures for their consoles. The reason, of course, is that many developers are familiar with the x86 platform and it is easier to program for. Also, the x86 setup allows for iterative forward-compatible console upgrades much like a PC, as we will soon see with Microsoft's Xbox Scorpio and Sony's PS4 Neo.

(Photo: Evan Amos)

8. Steam Machines (2015)

CPU: Varies

Valve's Steam digital distribution software has been dominating the PC game market as its own platform-within-a-platform for roughly a decade now. With recent challenges from Microsoft's own PC-based Windows 8/10 online game store, Valve thought it would be a good time to try to strike out on its own as a real, bona-fide separate hardware platform that did not rely on Windows. In 2015, the first Steam Machines debuted from a variety of vendors -- most notably from Alienware ( at Dell) (pictured) -- and they all utilized x86 CPUs and a custom Linux-based SteamOS. So far the Machines have achieved lackluster results, but they are just the latest, and probably not the last, attempt to make an x86-based game console.

(Photo: Alienware)