Heritage and Nostalgia: Retro Awakening

by Darren Lee Taylor - 2008/04/08 4:14am

The first generation of gaming began in 1972, with the release of the Magnavox Odyssey, working through a television set and operating on battery power. It was the world’s first console, defining a new generation of home technology, and videogame revolution. This basic set-up was replaced in 1976 with the Fairchild VES, starting the second generation of gaming, allowing the first ever CPU of a games console to gain access to unheard of potential and processing power. Atari soon followed suit with the release of its console, the VCS or 2600 in 1977.

This cartridge based console was 2K in size and sold considerably well. In 1979, a group of Atari employees created the huge global games company, Activision, which is now known as Activision Blizzard after a significant merger at the end of 2007. The third generation of gaming began in 1983 with the rise of 8-bit technology, powering consoles into a whole new dimension of gaming. A small time card manufacturing company in Kyoto Japan released their go lucky attempt at an 8-bit console with the Famicom computer system in Japan in 1983. This swiftly became the NES in the USA and Western Europe, surpassing all that was known at the time in videogame technology. Nintendo released a small budgeted title, Super Mario Bros in 1985 for the NES, and it has since become one of the world’s best-selling games of all time, with over 40 million copies sold. One of the main competitors at the time was Sega and its growing urgency to topple Nintendo’s sudden claim to power with its 1986 machine, The Master System. It failed to dent Nintendo’s solidity in Japan, but sold considerably well in the USA and Europe, tackling most of the Western markets with significant ease.

The fourth generation started in 1987 with the launch of the first console to PC-engine, the TurboGrafx. It was the first console to also have a 16-bit graphics chip, and went straight into loggerheads with Nintendo and Sega in the first real console war. Franchises such as Final Fantasy and Mortal Kombat were firmly established, and the wars began to rage even further when Sega decided to create a new mascot to replace Alex The Kidd, Sonic The Hedgehog, born in 1991. The sonic series has sold over 45 million copies worldwide combined, and easily combated Nintendo’s attempts at breaking out of homeland Japan with its regular Western only releases.

The fourth generation, in particular the year 1991, saw Atari cease production of its Atari 2600 after the longest production run in history even today. This was also due to the rise of Nintendo’s handheld wonder, the GameBoy in 1989 and the Super Nintendo, or SNES in 1990 with another world selling game Super Mario Bros 3. Sega also released the Megadrive or Sega Genesis as it was known in the US in 1991 to combat Nintendo and help bolster its new icon flagship character Sonic.

The fifth generation began in 1993 in earnest, with the home PC’s taking hold of some of the most powerful 3D games the world had ever seen, and a new dawn for Sega and Nintendo with the new 32/64 bit era respectfully. Although both companies were busily working on several prototypes and machines with this new found power, and Nintendo siding with some unlikely allies for many years, Squaresoft and Sony, the war was about to explode in a molten packet of manufacturing gore and guts. Sony took the market by storm with the Sony Playstation, after splitting ways with Nintendo over their disagreement on CD products and cartridge based media, the industry suddenly hit maximum velocity as the greatest era in videogame history was about to begin.

Nintendo, although extremely bitter at Sony for parting ways so unnecessarily had its own secret machine under wraps, Sega was also busy beavering away on a console so far in advance of any of the machines that little did it know that not one, but two of its next big releases were destined to fail, simply because the consumer wasn’t ready.

The Sega Saturn and the Sega Dreamcast, the latter launching in 1998 as the first 128-bit console in the sixth generation, were both huge successes at launch, particularly in the East, selling in excess of over 4 million console units each, but the marketplace was not ready for such technology, wireless internet, online gaming and voice control. It was too soon, much too soon, and Sega began the long descent into darkness. Not even countless iterations of Sonic The Hedgehog could prevent the once majestic and magnificent developer from crashing headlong into the abyss.

Whilst Sony prepared its new console for global markets however with some of its new IP’s such as Crash Bandicoot, Spyro The Dragon and Tekken, Nintendo unveiled the Nintendo 64, a cartridge based console with its unaturally high production costs, far outweighing anything that had been seen before. Ocarina Of Time, Lylat Wars (Starfox 64), Paper Mario, Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye and Super Mario 64 were just some of the classics that were launched on this very console, and established Nintendo as the greatest developer in new technology and game design ever with its accolades of award winning 3D world graphics and level designs in Zelda, to the groundbreaking freeform camera work in Super Mario 64.

As Sony’s Playstation ripped through the competition at an alarming rate, finally putting an end to Sega’s dream machine and denting Nintendo’s reputation, countless titles were in development for the console that was to define a decade, namely Final Fantasy VII, a game Square had moved away from the original intended console of the Nintendo 64, and onto Sony’s machine; Dragon Quest VI, Metal Gear Solid, Wipeout, Ridge Racer, Gran Turismo and Tomb Raider, it was a good time to be a gamer. Nintendo continued to combat Sony’s releases with big hitters of its own, Majoras Mask, Super Smash Bros, Donkey Kong 64, Pokemon Stadium and Yoshis Story all proved that Nintendo were here to stay.

On the dawn of a new millennium however, the fate of the Nintendo 64 and the Dreamcast were sealed permanently. The year 2000 brought a brand new competitor to the marketplace, the Sony Playstation 2, a powerhouse of intelligence and sophistication. With its sleek black design, the console brought with it a wave of brand new IP’s and sequels that bolstered Sony’s governance and determination over the market share with Nintendo. With Sega quietly dismissed from the picture altogether, Sony suddenly had complete control over all of the latest technology, and pushed title after title onto retail shelves, filling the marketplace with exclusive franchises and groundbreaking series.

Although Sony continued to pile drive its way through the competition, little did it know that a year later, in 2001, two more consoles would be joining the scrap for supremacy in the form of new boys Microsoft and their super brick Xbox, with launch title Halo Combat Evolved, and Nintendo’s little handbag of tricks the Nintendo Gamecube and Luigi’s Mansion and Rogue Leader. Suddenly fresh faces and leading brands had surrounded Sony, and it went on the defensive. Although the Gamecube was a true successor to the Nintendo 64, and packed a powerful processing punch in the graphics department, it still failed to take off, and was almost instantly left squandering in the marketplace, not just by its lack of support from third parties, but from Nintendo itself. With the slow trickle of releases, and the odd stellar game, including The Legend Of Zelda Wind Waker, Super Smash Bros Melee, Metroid Prime, Mariokart Double Dash and Tales Of Symphonia, and the complete denial from Nintendo on any online material or extra additional content, the Nintendo Gamecube was quickly shelved in favour of the other two behemoths.

Along the way, Nintendo had also unleashed the Gameboy Advance and Gameboy Advance SP, re-igniting the fact that although faltering in the home console market, they continued unrivalled as the undisputed masters of handheld technology. Many forms and iterations of handheld devices came and went, but it was the back lit, full colour Advance technology that continued to sell well, even into late 2005. By this time, the seventh generation of gaming had begun, and Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft were at loggerheads with each other on a daily basis. Nintendo released the Nintendo DS, the first dual screen handheld console since Game and Watch in the late 80’s, with touch screen technology, whilst Sony decided to venture into handheld gaming with its powerful Playstation Portable, or PSP.

Both units have continued to sell extremely well, but the DS has taken the world by storm, out-selling the PSP in Japan an incredible 22-1. Although Sony had entered the console race first with the Playstation 2 in the last generation, they were the last to also enter the next stage, as Microsoft quickly unleashed the Xbox360 onto Western territories, and Eastern at a later date. Although it continues to sell well in the US and Europe, it still struggles to gain a foothold in Japan, and is losing a considerable amount of marketplace ground in that key videogame territory to rivals Nintendo. Nintendo was next in-line with the release of the Nintendo Wii console in the winter of 2005. Although it sold well to begin with, Nintendo and the rest of the videogame world were unsure about whether Nintendo should follow Sega, and become software developers and publishers only after the complete flop of the Gamecube.

This was soon abolished, as Nintendo’s new vision of a motion controlled user friendly family approach paid off, as the Wii and DS combined forces and sales and stormed through Japan and the US/Europe at a unfathomable rate, outstripping supply and reaching the million mark within weeks of launch. With titles such as Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime Corruption, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronciles, Zack and Wikki, Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy and upcoming Mariokart Wii and Super Smash Bros Brawl, it has never been a better time to be a Nintendo gamer.

As for Microsoft, the Xbox360 was outsold by the Wii in European territories, but continued to sell exceptionally well in the US, with a strong marketing campaign, and groundbreaking titles such as Halo 3, Gears of War, Viva Pinata, Project Gotham Racing 4, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Bioshock and Half-Life Orange Box, it is a strong system seller, and will continue to gain in strength with the launch of new Live services and online play far into 2008.

Although the Wii and 360 had relatively successful launches, the same cannot be said for Sony’s Playstation 3. Ever since the demise of the Playstation 2 in the summer of 2007, Sony did not implement a careful enough strategy for its big launch of its next home generation console, and as a result, it was delayed in Europe and the US for several months whilst Sony floundered over the possibility that it wasn’t quite ready to join the marketplace. When the Playstation 3 did eventually launch in March 2007 in the UK, the last territory to secure its retail position, it staggered through several months of lacklustre releases and performance, with the battle between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD causing Sony to spend countless millions of dollars to back its campaign, times ahead looked troublesome.

The only company that had anything to smile about at the start of 2008 was Nintendo, as it announced its global marketplace share in excess of over $3,000,000,000,000, that’s three trillion dollars to you and me. Although Microsoft’s Halo 3 sold incredibly well at launch, becoming the fastest selling title to date, nothing could rival this enormous videogame adopted wealth. After a year on the market, the Sony Playstation 3 has picked up considerably, with some fantastic first party outings and third party offerings on the system, Blu-Ray emerging as victor, a new April PSN service and upcoming Home facilities scheduled for Summer 08 and Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto 4 arriving in the next few weeks and months, 2008 is going to match, if not rival that of the console war of 1991. Your in the right place people, stay tuned to PSB, and look out for the brand new Beyond Fame Galaxy for much more retroic nostalgia in the coming weeks.

PStars: Thanks Scather; it's partly down to the fact that so many of the new generation of gameplayers do not understand where the companies (developers and publishers) originated from today that such a feature was devised. This is a cut-down edited version of mine as well. I have a 49 page dissertation on this that I have written. Glad you liked it.

Scather: Good stuff man. Thanks for the excellent feature. I'm sure it will be enlightening for many people, as so few know thee legacy that the console wars have created.

PStars: Why thankyou Tycoon, and I am more than happy for you to explain your reasonings, in fact, I urge you too as I am quite fond to hear your opinions. Too far ahead of its time, in terms of the sophistication of the machine, is one just of the many accounts of its failure. To put it simply, the addition of online gaming, modem support, superior visuals and sound and a poorly marketed console in the West from retailers all sealed the Dreamcasts doom in the end, and ultimately, Sega paid the heavy price.

Tycoon: Your reasoning for the Dreamcast to fall, because it was "Too far ahead of its time." isn't really the reason the Dreamcast failed. I could go on and on why exactly the Dreamcast failed, and I would be happy to tell you. >_> But in any case, good overall history of gaming.