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1995-1999
全新的 3D 世界
和全新的受众

上世纪 90 年代后半叶市面上依旧不断地出现一些经典游戏系列或是开创了新品类的游戏，不过这时 3D 画面才是真正的潮流。

得益于全新世代的主机，《超级马里奥 64（Super Mario 64）》、《最终幻想 7（Final Fantasy VII）》、《合金装备（Metal Gear Solid）》、《生化危机（Resident Evil）》、《荣誉勋章（Medal of Honor）》、《古墓丽影（Tomb Raider）》、《GT 赛车（Gran Turismo）》都卖出了几百万份，成为了 3D 游戏的标杆。

至于 PC 平台，RTS 和 FPS 游戏的受欢迎程度在不断上升，彼时出现了很多爆款游戏：《命运与征服（Command & Conquer）》、《帝国时代（Age of Empires）》、《魔兽争霸 II：黑潮（Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness）》、《星际争霸（StarCraft）》、《雷神之锤（Quake）》、《虚幻（Unreal）》、以及《半条命（Half-Life）》。同时随着 PC 玩家的不断增多，诸如《烈火战车（Full Throttle）》、《暗黑破坏神（Diablo）》、《幽魂（Phantasmagoria）》以及《博德之门（Baldur's Gate）》也都各自卖出了百万份拷贝，在当时这可谓是一项壮举。

然而，制作游戏的成本也在不断上升。犯错的代价变得比以前更大，诸如 Interplay 等公司在尝试抢占 3D 市场和主机市场的时候也逐渐败下阵来。有些长达数十年的游戏系列在转型为 3D 游戏时也显得不尽如人意，从此销声匿迹，例如：《国王密使 8：永恒的面具（King's Quest: Mask of Eternity）》、《创世纪 9：飞升（Ultima IX: Ascension）》以及《荣耀任务 5：龙之火（Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire）》。

随着 Windows 95 的发行，世上再无关于是否 PC 就等于 Windows 平台的争论，不过 Wintel 联盟的霸主地位也受到了威胁，因为 AMD 正在逐渐的与 Intel 的奔腾芯片形成了竞争。同时市场上对 3D 显卡、声卡以及一些操纵杆外设，甚至是浏览器之间都有着激烈的竞争。

随着 3D 游戏不断的成为主流，诸如 3dfx 、英伟达（Nvidia）、S3 以及 ATI 等公司都推出了其 3D 加速卡，以图霸占 3D 显卡市场。最后是 3dfx 公司的“巫毒（Voodoo）”显卡占据了主流地位。

到了上世纪 90 年代中期，互联网成为了商业的新战线。每个公司都想要弄一个网站（虽然大部分公司根本不知道自己建网站到底是为了什么），eBay 和亚马逊（Amazon）也在那时创立；第一批互联网横幅式广告已经出现；并且当时人们对互联网的市场潜力都有着不同的猜想——互联网泡沫就此开始了。

两大浏览器当时也在争夺市场的份额：Internet Explorer 和 Netscape Navigator。但微软将 IE 浏览器免费搭载到了所有 Windows 95 系统上，彻底结束了市场纷争。在 1998 年大部分浏览器都约定俗成地变成了免费，而后微软也被告上了法庭，被控诉恶意竞争以图获得市场垄断。

同时，苹果公司在彼时满盘皆输。它新推出的主机 Pippin 完全是个失败品，而 Mackintosh 早已成为了老古董。为了应对破产危机，苹果公司重新请回了在 1985 年被解雇的史蒂夫·乔布斯（Steve Jobs）。1998 年乔布斯发行了 iMac，将其定位成很酷且拆箱即用的 PC 替代品，最终成功拯救了苹果公司。

随着 Windows 95 的普及，大量优秀游戏的发行，以及互联网的吸引力，上世纪 90 年代末期才是电脑真正成为主流的年代。

1995-1999
New 3D worlds
and new audiences

The second half of the 90s continued with the impressive release of new games that spawned iconic series or even entire new genres, but now 3D graphics were the new hot thing.

Powered by the new generation of consoles, Super Mario 64, Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Medal of Honor, Tomb Raider and Gran Turismo sold millions and set the standards for 3D games.

On the PC side, RTS and FPS titles continued to rise in popularity, with blockbusters like Command & Conquer, Age of Empires, WarCraft II, StarCraft, Quake, Unreal and Half-Life. With the audience expanding, games like Full Throttle, Diablo, Phantasmagoria and Baldur's Gate also sold over a million copies each – an amazing feat at the time.

However, producing games was quickly becoming more and more expensive. Mistakes had a heavier costs, and companies like Interplay started to sink under failed attempts to get into the 3D craze and/or the booming console market. Decade-long series suddenly ended after disappointing jumps to 3D, such as King's Quest VIII: Mask of Eternity, Ultima IX: Ascension and Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire.

The arrival of Windows 95 erased any remaining doubt that PCs were now synonymous with Windows, but the “Wintel” combo was weakened as Intel's Pentium chips saw increased competition from AMD. Rivalry was also grew increasingly fierce among 3D acceleration cards, sound cards, peripherals like joysticks and even Internet browsers.

With 3D games being so popular, companies like 3dfx, Nvidia, S3 and ATI fought for dominance with their “3D accelerator” graphics cards – a battle mostly dominated by 3dfx's popular Voodoo cards.

By the mid-90s, the Internet had become the new frontier for business. Every company wanted a website (not often knowing why), eBay and Amazon were founded, the first banner ad campaigns appeared and there was a lot of market speculation – the dot.com bubble had begun.

Two browsers fought for dominance then: the Internet Explorer and the Netscape Navigator. But Microsoft giving its browser for free to any Windows 95 owner led to a quick victory, with most browsers becoming traditionally free and a subsequent trial in 1998, which condemned Microsoft for crushing its competitions to secure its monopoly.

Meanwhile, Apple was lost. Their new console, Pippin, was a failure while the Macintosh was a relic. The solution was to bring back Steve Jobs, fired in 1985. With the release of the iMac in 1998, he managed to revive Apple, establishing it as the “cool” and out-of-the-box alternative to PCs.

Between Windows 95's accessibility, popular new games and the lure of the Internet, the late 90s is when computers finally went mainstream.