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 800x600 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 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.
Here's a window into what was happening in PC gaming—and in the pages of PC Gamer magazine—one, 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.
