Gaming enthusiasm typically encompasses two worlds: computer and console. From the first days both got their standards defined in, respectively, the TRS-80/Apple II/Commodore PET triumvirate and Atari Video Computer System (later 2600), crossover between these worlds was frequent but still had releases adhering to the differing rules of each. The early experimentation with giving consoles the capability to be accessorized into computers (Colecovision, Sega Game 1000) or the reverse of trimming computers into consoles (Atari 5200, Commodore 64GS & CD32) were nothing compared to what came in the 21st century: consoles growing so similar to computers the only real differences now are game setup and that the console version is more likely to feature splitscreen play...even platform exclusives are fast becoming passé. Who from the days Nintendo and Sega duked it out could imagine it would come to this?
One answer I would submit is Trip Hawkins, who with Electronic Arts sought to make computer software its own form of household essential and with 3DO apply the same vision to hardware. On both fronts he proved ahead of his time (way too far with 3DO which crashed and burned) but he was not alone aboard that train of thought. Jack Tramiel's Commodore knew their Amiga was a multimedia powerhouse thus turned the computer into a living room appliance they called CDTV. NEC and Sega made CD drives for their 16-bit consoles which could not only play Redbook audio discs but also CD+G, capabilities that would be included for all other CD-based add-ons and consoles the rest of the 90s save Playstation and Dreamcast; several had libraries consisting of multimedia encyclopedias and interactive documentaries as well as games.
Back at this time exploiting console architecture differed from computer; ports from the Amiga to Sega Genesis were never identical despite being programmed on the same CPU, and Sega Saturn titles were not necessarily improved in the transition to PC because 3D graphics APIs were in their infancy. Where things started coming to a head was with the explosive popularity of Doom by id Software: the fact that only some had PCs capable of meeting Doom's elite system requirements made it very sensible to make Doom perhaps the first 3D non-arcade game to achieve widespread console distribution. On its native MS-DOS Doom got the attention of Microsoft head Bill Gates who realized games were now imperative to the future of multimedia home computing and wished it to make it part of the new Windows.
Strange Bedfellows
Sega's PC division was actually formed before the launch of Saturn, though sales of Saturn ports to PC would be a bright spot in the company's tumult of the late 90s. Eschewing MS-DOS and the floppy disk format, Sega targeted 16-bit Multimedia Windows with CD-ROM ports that improved on some of their console games (Ecco the Dolphin) but not so much in others (Comix Zone). Sega was one of the several developers who braved the frustrations of WinG and Device Control Interface with fair results, though most (including id Software) avoided Windows for the production hassle it was.
This was the heyday of extended DOS, a loophole through the aging operating system's strict memory caps giving it new lease on life that was inconceivable when it first launched in 1981. Also unlocked was graphics capability that reduced the vaunted IBM Mode 13h from a standard to a minimum, with fully-3D texture-mapped games such as Descent and Terminal Velocity showing potential for PCs to more than equal consoles at launch day. Yet what consoles still had going for them was a singular architecture that could be fully-exploited once grasped, contrasted with computers that could be using any combination of hardware and drivers with varied interface standards (not to mention that one could buy two or three consoles for the price of a single computer with equivalent gaming capability).
A few years prior had seen a competition of incompatible standards for PC sound, and while the war was not quite over by 1995 developers found it simple enough to support Creative Sound Blaster for digital effects, Adlib (bundled with every Sound Blaster) for FM synthesis and Roland MIDI for wavetable, plus a few holdouts (Sound Source and Pro Audio Spectrum) or the occasional enhanced alternative (Ensoniq). With VESA SVGA firmly established a new war was to rage on the field of 3D accelerated graphics. The big issue was much like the last: all would support basic resolutions but unless a game was programmed for a card's proprietary API then processing 3D textures fell to the CPU, reducing quality for certain and probably performance as well.
Sega was among first to take a big plunge on this front. Still with good reason to believe quadratic 3D, used in their Model family of arcade machines plus the Saturn, would be the prevailing route they allied with a brand new company who was destined to become that other green monster (yes, Boston Red Sox reference) of the new millennium: Nvidia. Nvidia's first GPU was essentially a Saturn clone, even having ports for that system's controllers; it was similar to Creative putting a 3DO system into a multimedia kit (the 3DO Blaster) but unlike that effort the NV1 played only PC and not console games. It was too little a success to leave much more than a starting legacy (video evidence suggests it did a poor job with the few 3D games using its API) but it was the start of a new direction for both companies.
Meanwhile Back at Microsoft
In a twist, both Microsoft and id Software experimented with 3D standard adoption on the same chipset: the Rendition Vérité. While id's efforts on the only 3D accelerated DOS version of Quake left a distaste such that they adopted the far more flexible OpenGL from that point forward, Microsoft took inspiration from the Rendition functions in developing what would become Direct3D. Vérité had perhaps the best 3D performance of early accelerators in the class of those that also offered SVGA on-board, in contrast with SVGA standard-setter S3 whose ViRGE chipset kept going their reign as master of 2D but with such terrible 3D support (even on their own API) they earned a reputation as decelerators.
It would be 3dfx and their Glide API that would win the first round of the 3D accelerator wars, but not so decisively as to keep either OpenGL or the new Windows standard from continuing. 3D was one prong in the API equation Microsoft was tackling, and once the functions for 2D graphics, sound, and interface came together DirectX was finally ready. Its success is noted by the sheer number of Windows-exclusive games in the latter half of the 90s, and after 3dfx was forced to bow out that left DirectX as the dominant PC standard API for many years [its operating system-exclusivity not a liability thanks to Windows being ubiquitous on the PC platform].
While all this was happening Sega was just beginning to discover their fortunes with Genesis were not to be repeated in Saturn. DirectX came right in time to adopt as replacement for the failed NV1 effort, and with that Sega and Microsoft started quite the cozy relationship. Sega's business with Nvidia continued too, their former partner considered for such again only this time as 3D chipset developer for the new Dreamcast console; that deal never came through but Nvidia now had Microsoft's interest as well which would pay off as they developed the first DirectX 7.0 GPU as well as NV2A, the graphics architecture that powered the original Xbox.
Redefining Consoles
Sega realized two things as they were poised to pioneer the sixth console generation: 1) Saturn's failures began with relative lack of developer accessibility to the complex architecture; 2) technology was now at a point that what drives PC gaming, API standard commonality and online multiplayer, could translate to consoles with relative ease if executed right. Microsoft was already contemplating a stretch beyond its computer-exclusive roots and saw Sega Dreamcast as a grand opportunity to test the waters (not unlike Sony having done the same with Sega CD). Sega in turn got for its console a unique edition of Windows CE (the predecessor to Windows Mobile) and with it the benefits of DirectX.
Sega Saturn could, with the separate modem and a compatible connection, access the internet through a proprietary browser and play a small handful of supported games via direct peer-to-peer connection (limited to 2 players). Dreamcast upped this ante to a stock high-speed [for the time] modem with every console supporting AAA games via connection to dedicated servers. Select among these games, for instance the port of id Software hit Quake III Arena, supported online cross-platform play with computer gamers. Add that the console (for both internet navigation and certain games) had its own keyboard and mouse, Dreamcast may not be full-fledged home computer (no operating system interface for the end user) but it was the closest a game system got to a contemporary Windows PC...at least for that day.
Success eluded Sega a final time as one of the major console competitors, but the gap left in the sixth generation market by Dreamcast's departure was not to remain vacant for long. A variant of Windows 2000 and the most current DirectX library (version 8.1) would power Microsoft's first Xbox console. Their first independent console foray would be rough on Microsoft but the successor Xbox 360 (now boasting DirectX 9.0c which had turned Windows XP into a gamer's choice OS) would end the multi-generation reign of Sony's Playstation line, effectively avenging beleaguered colleague Sega.
What This Means Today
That the Xbox line is a spiritual successor of Sega's home console innovations is an important matter on multiple points. Technically, yes, upon going third party Sega made a separate peace with both former rivals (Sony and Nintendo) and started developing for their platforms even before Dreamcast died. Yet the Sega-Microsoft partnership that started back in the Sega PC days of 1995 reverberates, from original Xbox controllers having dual accessory slots (what sole other console is that an attribute of?) to the fact that today's Xbox consoles are among the best emulation platforms of Dreamcast games.
Now pause right there a moment! There were originally plans to make Xbox backwards compatible with Dreamcast discs but this never came to be. Some (Shenmue II, Headhunter, World Series Baseball) were ported; others (Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Sega Bass Fishing) made it to Xbox 360 Live Arcade but are more ports-of-ports being based on their PC releases rather than the original Dreamcast versions.
It turns out the Xbox One/Series family is the culmination of a long quest by Microsoft to break up and banish the barriers that used to exist between PC and console gamers. They run Windows 10 which has an applet architecture universal to all devices that use it, desktop or mobile. The result is that few to no PC or Xbox games are exclusive to their platforms anymore, cross-platform play is a given for multiplayer (barring the paywall that is Xbox Live) in 8th or 9th generation, and most pertinent of all, software exists accessible to anyone with these consoles to exploit their PC-like attributes and run more than just Xbox games and Microsoft Store apps.
I recently acquired a Xbox One X as a birthday gift to myself (at my age that is the default); I had my eye on one a couple years ago but it took until this point for the demand of Series X to dump enough One family consoles on the secondary market that they can be picked up easily for hundreds below MSRP. It is worth noting Series X can do everything One X can do and more (100% backwards compatibility same as Playstation 5 is to Playstation 4 including Pro); Series S was never considered because it lacks the high resolution capability of One X. But I have no regrets: One X features all I need as a retro gamer.
Thanks to homebrew development efforts on the Universal Windows Platform a decent emulation suite is available for any Xbox One or Series without the hassles that came with "jailbreaking" the Xbox 360 or soft-modding an original Xbox (not that the latter makes a difference anymore since the 2010 shutdown of the first Xbox Live service). RetroArch is accepted standard, but for those of us who prefer standalone programs Flycast is available and on Xbox does an impressive job emulating both Dreamcast and Sega's NAOMI arcade family. Arcade compatibility has some way to go and I know I would like see better VMU support (play of minigames and ability to put VMU screens outside the game screen), but otherwise like any advanced emulator it can play games better than the original hardware could and it also helps that the Xbox controller layout still matches its Dreamcast ancestor so well.
Where This Leaves Things
Even before learning about its easily-accessible emulation capabilities I was targeting the Xbox One X as a choice platform for two disparate foci. One the past side, its backwards compatibility to original Xbox and 360 encompasses a good number of games of my interest (particularly those from LucasArts), many of which have the added enhancements available only with One X or Series X. As for the present, some retro games released digitally the past few years are not supported on my Xbox 360 but are available for the One family, such as the Duke Nukem 3D and Doom 3 enhanced remakes. One X enhancement can be enough for the Xbox release of a game to supersede its PC version as the definitive edition.
It does not hurt that future capability (not to mention future-proofing through its 4K and Ultra HD Blu-Ray support) is unlocked by the One X upgrade. Xbox One games continue to be produced even as the console itself has been discontinued for years because the Series family is essentially a superset of the One family. Xbox One X boasts greater power than my gaming PC which makes it a valuable part of the hardware lineup for games too limited by my GTX 560 (which I have no plans to switch out because it is the the Duke [Nukem]'s Fully Loaded Package version). Sonic Forces and Sid Meier's Civilization VI are liable to choke my G2030, but being enhanced on Xbox One X makes them just as definitive as their PC releases. And yes, I want to play Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War because President Reagan is in it.
Thus this is now my generation computer gaming hardware line. Consoles are their own category: I own every Sega from Master System to Saturn, a PS3 that is chiefly for playing PS1 and PS2 games (as well as movies on Blu-Ray), and a Wii that is also used for Gamecube titles. Limited backwards compatibility in succeeding generations makes the original Xbox and 360 still worth having but as consoles only.
Pre-2002: a vintage gaming PC I customized to accommodate as many prevailing standards of DOS and 32-bit Windows games as viable from Roland LA to Aureal A3D and 3dfx Glide to ATI TruForm
2002-2005: the original Xbox era corresponds with the heyday of Windows XP gaming and there is much crossover between both; Xbox runs a variant of DirectX 8.1 so Windows games at that level will be about equivalent while 9.0 and above shows more impressive on PC (particularly games that use Creative EAX), however the visual boost may not be desirable if it comes at the cost of console-exclusive features
2006-2013: the Xbox 360 era corresponded with the Games for Windows standard which branded only a small library of PC releases but anything using DirectX 10 (trumping 9.0c on 360) or above was generally more impressive, though console releases could still be the definitive if they have splitscreen multiplayer and/or exclusive downloadable content; my gaming desktop is able to switch to Legacy BIOS mode to multiboot XP and Vista in order to support their respective features (plus Windows 10 for Steam support)
2014-present: the question of whether I would opt for Xbox One X enhancement or upgrade my gaming PC has been answered for now, and while I am grateful for the support Microsoft offers its console back catalog (something Sony and Nintendo do grudgingly at best) that could change anytime so I will focus exclusively on enhancing retro games already in my library right now. PC hardware capable of covering the same ground (as well as playing contemporary PC exclusives like the recent and pending releases from MicroProse) is out of my price and interest range at this time, though if such an upgrade becomes necessary a Steam Deck may prove a fine alternative...in fact, I may refine my 21st century gaming PC by adding SteamOS 3.0 to the multiboot menu when it finally gets a general release
So far I have only run some tests my Xbox One X but I look forward to experimenting with its extended gaming capacity. Simpler games and programs can be run without any setup thanks to Microsoft Edge support for JavaScript used in browser-based emulators; Xbox One's Edge has also been discovered to function as a gateway for the Nvidia GeForce Now game streaming service. If, as speculated, streaming services will begin to supersede retail delivery methods for games as occurred with movies last decade, we may be witnessing the ultimate point of both computer and console gaming...at least until someone invents the home holosuite.