The encyclopedia · Software & IT · Strategic decision · 1994–1996
Microsoft shipped DirectX in Windows and used DOOM95 to make it the PC gaming standard
Facing a DOS-only game industry, three Microsoft developers built the DirectX Game SDK in four months; the free DOOM95 port proved it and the standard stuck.
Microsoft
The solution
By 1994 the best PC games ran on MS-DOS because it allowed direct, unfiltered hardware access, while Windows was considered slow and unpredictable for games. Microsoft's evangelist Alex St. John was met with ridicule when he asked studios to develop for Windows, and without games Windows 95 risked losing the home PC market to consoles.
Microsoft answered with an internal 'Manhattan Project': a three-person team built the Windows Game SDK in four months, released as DirectX 1.0 on September 30 1995. Its DirectDraw, DirectSound, DirectPlay and DirectInput interfaces standardized direct hardware access, and adoption remained slow until DirectX 2.0 shipped as part of Windows 95.
The turning point was DOOM95: Microsoft ported id Software's DOOM to Windows free of charge, and the port ran more stably and smoothly than the DOS original, with 640×480 resolution, more audio channels and much simpler multiplayer. Since DOOM was installed on more PCs than Windows 95 itself, the game was the perfect Trojan horse that put DirectX on millions of machines.
Why it worked
- Shipping inside Windows gave the API instant distribution to every PC
- Free SDK lowered the barrier for every game developer
- DOOM95 proved DirectX ran games better than DOS did
- Standardizing hardware access ended the DOS-exclusivity argument
What can be applied
A platform wins developers by solving their hardest problem and proving it on their most loved tool — give the flagship away, and the ecosystem follows the standard you ship.
Aftermath
Direct3D arrived in DirectX 3.0 (1996) and DirectX 6.0 (1998) made chip-specific APIs like 3dfx's Glide superfluous. Hardware T&L, shaders and DirectX 12 followed, and heise describes DirectX as the foundation of most PC games, tied to Windows becoming the dominant gaming platform.
Sources
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