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Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Samuel N. Hart All Rights Reserved |
[ Back / Geekcomix / Mail Sam ] Fifth Generation Systems, 1989 -1995 Many say that in 1989, the video game industry needed a good, firm, kick in the pants.11 The NES had been the only system of choice since 1985, remaining unchanged while the arcade machines raced towards increasing sophistication. Faster and more powerful arcade structures were reducing the price of the older arcade technologies, bringing them within the home video game buyer's price range. The industry (which had been decimated eight years previous only to return more stalwart than ever) was buzzing with rumors of 16-bit monster systems on the horizon. Sega had managed to stay in business despite the poor performance of its Master System due to their massive arcade base. They had been working on converting their arcade architecture into a home console, and were close to completing it. NEC, a Japanese company with $22 billion annual sales in non-video game arenas, spent $3.7 billion in Research and Development on video games in 1988.14 Both companies should have spurned Nintendo into action to produce their own 16-bit system. Nintendo, however, stayed with their lordly "above-the-fray" stance. "We listen to our players," Bill White, a Nintendo executive, told the press in 1989, "They tell us they are extremely happy with the existing system and are totally involved with the games. We haven't maxed out our 8-bit system yet." This attitude would leave Nintendo in the dust of the coming 16-bit revolution.13 The first of the new systems was to be the NEC Turbographix-16. While its initial success would be very impressive (outselling Nintendo's NES 3 to 1 in its first month) it would ultimately fail after the assault on the industry by Sega with their 16-bit Genesis. The Genesis was not only more powerful than the Turbographix, it had the arcade hits of Sega to back it. By Christmas of 1989, the Genesis and its games were outselling every other system on the market. By the following summer, Sega had wrestled 20% of the gaming market and 55% of new system sales from Nintendo's iron grasp.12 This sent Nintendo reeling, and caused many of Nintendo's exclusive licensees to cease NES game production in favor of producing Genesis titles. Electronic Arts, who had achieved marginal success under Nintendo's reign, was one of the initial companies to strike a deal with Sega. These games produced by EA for the Genesis would propel the system's popularity even higher. Nintendo, in an attempt to reclaim the industry, would join forces with NEC to battle Sega. A tentative agreement was made where the Turbographix would be Nintendo's new flagship system. However, when even Nintendo's software aid could not save the Turbographix from destruction, Nintendo would abandon the system and its parent company, leaving them to flounder. Wary of the fate that felled Atari, Hiroshi Yamauchi set one of his top engineers, Masayuki Uemura, in charge of a top-secret 16-bit system project. In a stark contrast to his insistent pressure during the design of the 8-bit NES, Yamauchi now left the technical specifications of the new system to the designers. Two years later, a completed 16-bit Nintendo system, called the Super NES, would be released with a tremendous amount of fanfare.15 The new system seemed poised to dethrone the Genesis, and regain Nintendo's dominance of the video game market. It sported a better graphic processor, offering nearly 63 times more on-screen colors than the Genesis and hardware scaling and rotation of sprites. It had an increased range of audio output with more channels. Furthermore, it had a 6-button controller as opposed to the Genesis' 3-button. However, the SNES had a very weak main CPU, running at 3.58 MHz. The Genesis at 7.6 MHz ran at more than twice that speed. Sega took this advantage and ran with it, producing Sonic the Hedgehog, a game designed specifically for a fast system. The SNES initially could not compete. Tremendous slowdown and games riddled with sprite flicker and tear would hinder the SNES and allow the Genesis to continue to be a powerful force in the market. While the SNES would emerge victorious the Christmas of 1991, it was a very narrow victory, and one that instead of forcing Sega from its throne, would simply make them scoot over.9 Over the next five years Sega and Nintendo would battle for supremacy, neither really pulling out ahead of the other and dominating the market exclusively. The end of year sales reports were indicative of the Pong match between the two Goliaths: 1991- Nintendo, 1992 - Sega, 1993 - Sega, 1994 - Nintendo, 1995 - Sega, etcetera.3 This heated battle between the two companies would greatly benefit the consumer, as both companies would try to best the other in their games. Jobs would also be created by the fiasco, and the industry boomed with many new concepts and ideas seeing light that might have been shunned traditionally. Alternative mediums gained popularity as Sega produced a fairly popular CD system called the Sega CD. Supposed system limitations were continuously toppled. The Genesis was able to display more colors through software techniques such as anti-aliasing and screen flipping. In addition to this, sophisticated scaling and rotation routines were created and refined until the Genesis could match those of the SNES. Nintendo designers shortened code and made software more concise until the SNES could seemingly operate at the same speed as the Genesis. Ultimately, neither system would beat the other. At the end of the 16-bit era, both systems had comparable sales, number of games, and, most importantly, respect.
Copyright (C) 1996-1997, Sam Hart, hart@geekcomix.com | |||||
