How Disney's THE LION KING let PC Gaming evolve

In celebration of the 30th Anniversary of Disney's THE LION KING, Here's an interesting story:

Did you know THE LION KING single handedly allowed the next major evolution in PC Gaming?

It's true. And it all dates back to the Infamous December 1994 release of the Animated Storybook CD-ROM game.

Actually, it was Media Station's and COMPAQ's fault for all of this that lead to the creation of the most important API in all of PC Gaming.

You see, it was the harsh reality of fighting Expensive prices on Computers as well as System Requirements that many people simply couldn't afford despite 1993-1999 having the best economy.

December 1994 Compaq Presario Computers were hit the hardest with the worst of the Christmas rush.

Apparently, these computers were not tested with the WinG API which Lion King Unfortunately required in order to work.

And because Christmas meant buying a shit-ton of toys or games for your children, COMPAQ had to rush out these new computers to the masses.

Whatever, many a developer avoided WinG like a plague because the API was very picky about what Graphics Card or Chipsets it likes... at least in the mid-90s.

As terrible as Customer Support was for parents calling both Disney Software and Compaq, complaining about those Error Messages or Blue Screens, at least one company responded. 

And that company is:

Yes. That Microsoft! The maker of everybody's favorite Operating System, as well as everybody's favorite punching bag due to the company demanding our money and information.... but we still begrudgingly support because of important Software Compatibility and XBOX.

But Microsoft in 1994 and 1995 took notice about the Lion King Compaq Debacle because at the time, they were hard at work finetuning on the most important Operating System of the 90s.

Apparently, this freaked the shit out of the developers of Windows 95 because they want their operating system to be the dominant Front-End for playing PC Games on your computer, at a time where developers would only make their games be playable on MS-DOS.

So after they took notice of the Lion King WinG Compaq debacle, the got to work on making their API that would make running games on Windows Painless.

That API would be referred to as 

This API would ensure that the game runs flawlessly on your PC no matter what.

And to this day, this API is still in active development.

Currently, we are now running DirectX12 for many of our modern titles
though your many older games still work just fine using older versions of the API which your computer can happily install.

Modern GPUs like your Nvidia RTXs, AMD Radeon RXs, and Intel ARCs have this symbol on the box from where your GPU came from.

The funny thing is Windows 95 originally did not ship with the DirectX but it did become available out of the Box with Win95 OEM Service Release 2 as well as later Windows OSes such as NT 4.0, 98, etc.

And yes, DirectX is available for Linux too but that's only for Distros with the Windows Subsystem for Linux but would people care if they use this wonderful piece of Software Combability layer shown below: 

"I'm for Windows Compatibility on Linux. Not for drinking."

So the next time you buy or build your new computer, upgrade your GPU, etc, remember to give thanks to the Majestic Lion who helped inspire a Microsoft to develop the most important API for all of your PC Games you play.