Remember when Star Wars and Command & Conquer ruled PC gaming?

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. Monitor tech changed a lot: in 1996 a $600–$700 buy got you a 17‑inch CRT around 800×600, while in 2016 the same price brought a 27‑inch 1440p panel at 165Hz.

Today OLEDs top our best gaming monitors guide, showing how a quality display has stayed pricey across 30 years. Star Wars dominated covers in the '90s, with June 1996 featuring X‑Wing vs. TIE Fighter and a cover story titled "A New Hope: Star Wars goes multiplayer." June 2006 put Command & Conquer 3 on the cover with "Raising Kane," and 2016's UK issue led with Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 3.

Those features trace shifts in RTS design and franchise peaks across the years. Each issue also captured industry oddities and news: June 1996 noted Thrustmaster reproducing the Rotational Hand Controller for Lockheed Martin, Blizzard's Beyond the Dark Portal, early worries about gambling on the Net, and multi‑CD changers.

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