Defacto2
Scene milestones
Also, not mentioned are the more notable communities on other microcomputers (Apple II, C64 and Amiga) that often were poorly imitated by the PC scene.
1981
First IBM Personal Computer
IBM PC 5150
Based on an Intel 8088, 4.77 MHz microprocessor and Microsoft's Disk Operating System, it heralds the x86 PC platform AugustFirst published PC game
IBM's Microsoft Adventure
A port of the text only Colossal Cave Adventure1982
Some early publishers include Brøderbund, The Avalon Hill Game Company, Strategic Simulations, Inc., Windmill Software, Orion Software and Spinnaker Software.
1983
Atarisoft, Infocom, Datasoft, Mattel and Sierra On-Line.
First popular IBM PC clone
Compaq Portable MarchIBM's PC-DOS 2 with ANSI.SYS is released
Includes for the first time a device driver to view ANSI text May 12Earliest unprotect text 1
Directions by Randy Day for unprotecting SPOC the Chess MasterSPOC.UNP
Earliest distributed cracked game
Atarisoft's Galaxian broken by Koyote Kid
1984
First 16 color PC game
IBM's Kings's Quest
For the IBM PCjr, a short-lived PC line with custom hardware October 17Earliest information text 2
Zorktools 1.0 (for Infocom game titles) by Software Pirates Inc
EGA graphics standard
Earliest demonstration on the PC
Fantasy Land EGA Demo by IBM
Earliest PC groups
1985
1986
IBM PC clone sales pickup in Europe
First 16 color EGA game
Accolade's Mean 18
Earliest PC loaders 4
Earliest "DOX" 5
Dam Buster* Documentation by Apocalypse BBS
DAMBUST1.DOC
*Accolade's The Dam Busters
1987
Earliest PC demo 6
3 Dimensional EGA Demonstration
AdLib audio standard
VGA graphics standard
1988
First 32 color VGA game
Arcadia's Rockford: The Arcade Game
April 4Earliest standalone BBS ad
Swashbucklers II BBS README.!!!
Earliest ANSI ad
Mindscape's Paperboy by BSP SCREEN.ANS
Earliest NFO-like document
KOEI's Romance of the Three Kingdoms by BSP
October 6Earliest ASCII art
MicroIllusions Fire Power by $print $PRINT.TXT

Earliest scene drama
TNWC accusing PTL of stealing a release README.NOW
Well unlike PTL I won't sacrifice some game code to put up a fancy title screen for the group that released this (TNWC)
1988
1989
First 256 color VGA game
Electronic Art's 688 Attack Sub
MarchEarliest BBS ANSI loader
Rogues Gallery BBS in Long Island, NY (516)

Earliest PC intro 7
First intro by Sorcerers

Earliest PC cracktro 7
Mandarin Software's Lombard RAC Rally by Future Brain Inc (FBi)
June 1First issue of Pirate magazine
The earliest magazine for the PC scene
1989
The Underground Council (UGC)
Triad 1989 ↩
Norwegian Cracking Company (NCC)
1990 ↩
International Network of Crackers
Pirates Sick of Initials (PSi)
Triad 1990 ↩
Future Brain Inc (FBI)

American Pirate Industries API
Pirate
International Network of Crackers
Miami Cracking Machine (MCM) ⤴
New York Crackers (NYC)+(ECA) ⤴
1990
1990
ANSI Creators In Demand (ACiD)
Aces of ANSI Art (AAA) ⤴
Bitchin Ansi Design (BAD)
Damn Excellent ANSI Design (DEAD)
Future Crew

The Humble Guys (THG)
United Software Association 1991 ↩
THG-FX 1991 ↩
Nokturnal Trading Alliance (NTA) 1991 ⇄
The Original Funny Guys 1992 ↩
Lamers of Power 1992 ↩
National Elite Underground Alliance (NEUA)
Software Chronicles Digest (SCD)
1990
1991
Earliest BBS VGA loader
XTC Systems BBS
April 12Earliest contemporary cracktro 10
Blues Brothers* by The Dream Team, Tristar & Red Sector Inc. (TDT/TRSi)
*Titus Software's The Blues Brothers

Earliest contemporary demo
Mental Surgery by Future Crew (FC)
October 21Earliest elite BBStro
Splatterhouse BBS
1991
1992
1993
1994
Earliest CD release 11
Slob Zone* by ROM 1911
*Deep River's H.U.R.L. aka Slob Zone 3D
1995
1997+
Some notable BBSes
Akira (416)
BBS-a-holic (708)
Park Central (708)
Cloak-n-Dagger (516)
The Pits (718)
Dimention XXX (215)
Manhattan Project (503)
Midnight Oil (214)
Nevada Testing Ground (313)
Rusty-n-Edies (216)
Silicon Wasteland (713)
Spyrits Crypt (802)
It happened like this, I'd just used "Unguard" to crack the SuperLock off of Bubble Bobble, and I said "I need some file to put the info about the crack in. Hmmm.. Info, NFO!", and that was it.9. In this example, the term "music" is a loose definition that relies on the horrible internal PC speaker. By this era, many commercial games supported good audio hardware addons such as the AdLib, MT-32, or Covox. 10. Programmed by Hard Core, it's the first PC cracktro with listenable music and a modern VGA aesthetic that could hold its own with cracktros on other systems. 11. Due to the potential size of programs distributed on CDs and the high cost of low-capacity hard drives, the sharing of CD games was not desirable. By mid-1995, some groups started to "rip" out subjective fluff such as intro animations and redistribute the rest of the incomplete but playable game as a "CD-RIP." 12. An ISO is a file archive of a physical media disk such as a CD or DVD. The trading of ISOs between individuals happened for years prior. Still, the formalization of an ISO trading scene for software occurred in late 1997, but it took years before it became a dominant format.