The IBM PS/1 Essential: A door into early-90s PC Gaming

When you hear the name IBM, a few words probably come to mind – and gaming isn't one of them. Work. Business. Productivity. Spreadsheets. And in the early 1990s, that was precisely IBM's problem. Home PCs were becoming more capable, which meant they were beginning to eat into the low end of the business market, too.

The problem wasn't a secret. An editorial in the October 1990 issue of Compute Magazine – the same issue that reviewed the first IBM PS/1 Essential – boldly proclaimed that a "new wave of computer buyers are posed to enter the market." These new buyers wanted productivity software, sure, but also new-fangled entertainment like online services, educational programs and, yes, computer games.

The IBM PS/1 Essential was Big Blue's play at this market, and it was a big deal. With hindsight, we all know IBM would lose the battle for the consumer PC and eventually sell the division to Lenovo. But in 1990, when the first PS/1 Essential released, IBM was still the biggest player in the PC market.

The problem was IBM's new competitors. Companies like Compaq and HP were selling cheap PCs by the millions. The IBM PS/1 Essential responded with a more affordable – though still rather expensive, for the hardware – MSRP of $1,999. It was even sold at regular retailers like Sears, a point contemporary reviews were sure to mention. Finally, any Joe Blow could buy an IBM computer in the same store they bought their pants.

IBM tried it the IBM way...

The PS/1 that shipped in 1990 was an odd duck. It ran MS-DOS, but the power supply was bundled into the monitor – meaning it couldn't be swapped out. And while it supported upgrades for RAM, hard drive, and additions like a sound card, all of this used proprietary interfaces designed by IBM. It was also, truth be told, a bit slow, shipping with a 286 at 10MHz when some competitors were moving to the 386 instead.

None of this seemed a problem for media outlets covering the PS/1, as they largely praised the machine as a go-to pick for PC-curious consumers. But shoppers proved reluctant to buy a PC with such limited support for industry standard hardware, and IBM's share of the PC market continued to dip.

Which brings us to my machine – a 1993 PS/1 Essential that I picked up at a yard sale last year for 50 bucks. The owner actually had two, both in great shape and complete with the original monitor and mouse (though the keyboard was long gone). According to the seller, they'd once worked in software design and testing but had barely touched computers in well over a decade – maybe two.

Based on the condition of this machine, I believe it. While I did brush off a bit of dust here and there, the machine was otherwise pristine. It was a similar story inside – it was hardly even dusty. When it came time to turn it on, though, I ran into two issues: a dead time-keeping battery (easily replaced) and a defunct hard drive that was missing a capacitor.

Rather than try to repair the mechanical drive, I opted for an SD card adapter. I was also able to find the original recovery disks on the Internet Archive so, after about an hour of installation, I was in business. The machine was working like new.

...and then it gave up.

At a glance, this IBM PS/1 looks a lot like the prior models. It's similar in color, design, and of course has Big Blue's understated but iconic branding. But this PC was IBM's admission of defeat, as evidenced by what's inside the case.

Once we remove the top of the case – which slides off smoothly without any tools – we get to the guts of the computer and... well, it's basically a standard MS-DOS computer. The Intel 486 clocked at 25MHz, the RAM slots, hard drive, floppy disk drives (both 3.5 inch and 5.25 inch), and bundled modem all conform to industry standards of the time.

Most telling of all are the trio of ISA slots on a riser card. While the original only supported a handful of proprietary expansion cards from IBM, this 1993 model did a complete 180 with standard ISA slots that worked just as you'd expect on any competing PC. For IBM, this was an admission that the company's time as a leader in PC design was at an end. Unlike the very first PS/1 Essential, there's really nothing specific about this PC's hardware that would give it an edge over the competition.

If you want to know more about its specifications, by the way, check out this obscure webpage.

But How Does It Game?

The standardization that spelled IBM's doom was actually great news for gamers. This 1993 model, unlike the original, could support industry standard sound cards, and could be upgraded with common RAM modules and hard drives. I upgraded this PS/1 with an ES Audiodrive sound card, and it works beautifully.

The machine's biggest limitation is its 2MB of RAM. Not all games towards the end of '93 required more than that, but some notable titles including Doom and SimCity 2000 did. A memory upgrade is possible, though my particular unit has given me fits when I've tried to swap the RAM.

But that's okay, because there are plenty of games it can run beautifully. Dune II looks and plays very nicely, and the CRT monitor, despite its small size and limited brightness, does the game justice. If you're going to play Dune II today, having it on a small CRT like this is really the way to go – the game just feels weird otherwise.

Games that were a year or two older run just fine on this PC. Lemmings, released in February of 1991, requires nothing more than a 386 with 512KB of memory, so the PS/1 handles it with no problem. Older 3D titles work well too, since this was the era prior to 3D accelerators as we know them today. While a 25MHz 486SX wasn't state-of-the-art in 1993, it was a competent choice that met at least the minimum system requirements for most games of its era.

I've tested a variety of games across different genres including The Oregon Trail, Loom, Civilization, and another personal favorite, the MS-DOS port of Super Off Road. I even managed to get Doom working through the Windows 3.1 shell, though the results weren't great – mostly a slideshow except in small rooms.

A Gateway to Gaming

Obviously, this PS/1 Essential wouldn't have been the absolute best choice for playing games in 1993, but it wouldn't have been a bad choice, either. That was a different era of media, and the fact a PC couldn't play the latest and greatest was often not such a big deal because, unless you regularly bought PC gaming magazines, it could be months or even years before you'd hear about hot new titles.

The PS/1 Essential would've benefited from an extensive back catalog of games, with many titles from the late 80s and early 90s running more than fine on this machine. Humble machines like this were modest when they hit store shelves and quickly went obsolete, but they also introduced millions of people to gaming.

This is now my main computer for playing games from the late 80s and early 90s, and I quite enjoy it. Computers like this were considered a bit bland at the time they were released but personally, I like the squared-off, buttoned-down design of this old IBM. While it may represent IBM's surrender in the consumer PC market, it's a fantastic time capsule of early 90s computing and gaming.