{"id":1597743,"date":"2026-06-05T00:05:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yaqqr4TLJNkVn4AFVrmjvJ"},"modified":"2026-06-05T00:05:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:05:31","slug":"remember-when-star-wars-and-command-conquer-ruled-pc-gaming-june-in-pc-gamer-10-20-and-30-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/remember-when-star-wars-and-command-conquer-ruled-pc-gaming-june-in-pc-gamer-10-20-and-30-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Remember when Star Wars and Command & Conquer ruled PC gaming? June in PC Gamer 10, 20, and 30 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In Junes 20 years apart, PC Gamer was writing about monitors, and what you could get for $600-700. In 1996, that was a CRT with something in the 800×600 pixel range at 17 inches. “That’s not bad, but it isn’t exactly cheap, either,” we said at the time. In 2016, standards had changed a wee bit: a 27-inch, 1440p display with a 165Hz refresh rate was the hottest thing on the market, and around the same price. Today we’re gaga for OLEDs as you can see in our best gaming monitors<\/a> guide. There are certainly cheaper options, but it’s funny how a quality monitor hasn’t changed in price all that much even 30 years later.<\/p>\n

Here’s a window into what was happening in PC gaming\u2014and in the pages of PC Gamer magazine\u2014one, two, and three decades ago. Any of these issues look familiar? How do our review scores hold up? What seemed incidental at the time that’s now the stuff of PC legend? Here’s one example I noticed: the game Spycraft, which we scored a strong 89%, got a whole documentary made about it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What was on the cover?<\/span><\/h2>\n

June 1996: Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (US, issue #25)<\/h3>\n
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(Image credit: Future)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cover story:<\/strong> “A New Hope: Star Wars goes multiplayer” by Jason Bates<\/p>\n

PC Gamer’s editors may not have known it at the time, but they were entering the golden age for Star Wars games, spearheaded by the upcoming Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2. Multiplayer would really<\/em> take off with the follow-up Jedi Academy, but most of the feature is devoted to the also-beloved X-Wing \/ TIE Fighter crossover, which was a substantial technical step up from the first two games in the series.<\/p>\n

It’s easy to forget now that Star Wars is ubiquitous across all forms of media, but this was<\/em> Star Wars at the time, alongside a few novels. The prequel films were still years away.<\/p>\n

Cover hits:<\/strong><\/p>\n