History of the video game. Part 4

Когда компания взбирается так высоко, что её начинают называть лидером рынка, это вызывает несколько очевидных последствий. The first is the increased attention of competitors to what the company does and what it plans in the future. The second – produces the effect of “irreplaceability”, as it was, for example, with Atari, which was considered a leader and all competitors repeated everything behind her.

Nintendo has become such a leader, but in completely different conditions. Since 1985, Nintendo raised the industry from the bottom with seven-mile steps, into which it was driven by the preceding crisis 1983, due to which, in fact, there was no competition, and the company was able to quickly capture the attention of players around the world. But any ascent, no matter how smooth it is at the beginning, always encounters new obstacles. And this applies not only to the pioneers, but also to those who are trying to follow their traces. I want to talk about how the competition was revived, how the new generation of prefixes began, about the development of games against the background of these events and, of course, about how competition has determined the type of market for another dozen years.

The difference in generations

How to understand than one generation of games and consoles differs from another? An urgent problem that did not exist 30 years ago. Each leap was obvious, and the difference was sufficient to notice it by any layman who was not interested in this topic. The transition from block graphics to spree, expanding memory and, as a result, new approaches to the game design and history. All this is the changes that have defined the third generation. But what determined the fourth?

Well, if in short … all the same. Improving graphics, developing memory modules, as a result, an increase in the place on cartridges and a more free approach for developers when creating the environment and studying the mechanic, the development of control elements, the development of the plot and. T. D. Let’s go about everything in order.

And if you divide sixteen into three ..

Visual – an important aspect in video games. And by this I do not mean only the number of pixels. This refers to the work of artists creating a graphic style, an atmosphere, with the help of the opportunities that gave them time. And in 1987, it was an increase in the number of pixels that gave new opportunities for the development of all aspects of graphics. Previously, the image quality was one of the decisive factors, and there is nothing strange in this. This is now we can say with a calm soul that the picture has reached the level when you can not notice the difference between games of different generations. Nintendo has advanced an 8-bit graphics, so it is logical that 16 bits were the next step.

In addition to graphics, both processors and memory modules, about which I already said that everything allowed everything to work smoother with increased complexity of projects.

NEC and TurbograFX-16

The first prefix, using a new type of graphics, was Turbografx-16, or PC-Engine. If this name does not tell you anything, then this is not surprising. The majority of us on this planet.

Funny, that the processor all worked on 8-bit architecture.

PC-Engine was released in Japan in 1987. It was developed by NEC and Hudson Soft. The first is known to many as a manufacturer of electronic, computer and telecommunication technology. I remember her for the magnificent monitor that I used from 2006 to 2016 … True, he may be one of the reasons why I lost my sight, but these are already details.

Hudson Soft was the same, and is to this day, a computer game development company. They started their way in 1979, shortly before, you correctly understood that very crisis. Over the years, the company has created several successful series, which you can now know, for example: Mario Party, Bomberman, Bonk, Adventure Island and others.

Common efforts, the platform was able to gain momentum in her native market, bypassing even Nintendo Famicom, which was far from the worst indicator. It was highlighted by a good design, a large number of games both at the start and who came to it later, and, of course, graphics. The console was the first representative of the new generation, the fourth in a row.

Many call the first Sega Genesis, forgetting about the brainchild of NEC and HUDSON, and so it turns out due to the fact that … Nobody needed it behind the ocean. The prefix entered the American market two years later, in 1989, and failed with a bang. In the United States, the console changed its design, becoming more faded against the background of the original, and it also simply crushed NES, since at that time it was still at the peak, despite the new releases from Sega and NEC.
How the console differed from everything that was on the market, in addition to graphics? Well, this is a good question.

Technical pieces

Continuing the technical part, it is worth mentioning another format of carriers that the console used. The so -called Hucard is the development of Hudsonsoft, which grew out of its past development – BEECARD for MSX computers, common in Japan. The main advantage of this type of carriers was the size. It would seem that this is special … Yes, in general, nothing. This is just the development of cartridges, since with such sizes they could contain almost less information, without sacrificing quality, safety and other factors. They were no more than a credit card, only a little thicker. However, due to MSX failures in other markets and, as a result, disinterest in developing something on this system, cartridges were used in a very limited number of projects.

For the Hudson console updated the medium. Increased the number of connections, re -sounded their design and promoted them as a more compact and convenient way to store information and play games. The dimensions made it possible to reduce the cartridge connector and add some chips that improved the work of the prefix and games.

By the beginning of the nineties, the excitement was sleeping, and NEC gradually began to stop supporting the prefix. How strong the regional differences were, which led to such situations? Let’s talk more about them.

Regional differences

Regional options were a frequent phenomenon in the 80s and early 90s. Nintendo Famicom and Nes, although there were, in fact, the same product, but they were distinguished by the design of the consoles themselves, and the design of cartridges, and the year of exit, and even games. The regional exclusivity of projects was no less rare, and regional restrictions were the norm.

About the Lock region, perhaps it was worth talking last time, but here this topic will be appropriate. Regional restrictions are a technology that was built in different ways into electronic devices (and they still do this, in some cases), limiting their capabilities when used outside a specific region. In the 80s, technologies have already allowed to enter the Lock region, and Nintendo decided to use all the possibilities in full.

First, let’s talk about the regions themselves. Now there are four main regions:

These four regions conditionally divided the whole world equally, despite the fact that China had to be allocated from Asia, and most of Africa did not take into account at all. Nintendo for its NES used a slightly different list of regions:

There are two approaches to the establishment of this system www.tgcasino.org – system and hardware. In the first case, Nintendo used a special 10nes chip, which allowed to determine the region in which the console is located. This chip read information from the licensed cartridge in which the second chip was located, and if they conflict with each other, the game did not start. It also helped to solve the problem with piracy.

However, it is interesting that later, in 1993, Nintendo updated Nes, removing 10nes, which allowed, for example, console from America to launch games from Europe or Japan. And in Famicom this chip was not at all. So, the Japanese gave a great opportunity to launch anything on their prefix? Unfortunately no. In this case, there was another restriction that Nintendo, of course, provided for. The console distinguished not only the design of the devices themselves, but also the design of the cartridges. Famicom needed carriers much less than for NES. But this is not the most funny. Cartridges, depending on the region, used different boards, with a different number of pins, because of which they could not be suitable for consoles of different regions.

Similar restrictions were then, rather, a forced measure. The publisher needed regulation of products, the fight against piracy and profit, which is why companies could somehow motivated to buy everything that the player was required in licensed stores.

The different design of the consoles was, rather, a marketing measure, for different regions are different preferences and representations … and possibly the stereotypes of the Japanese that in America everyone loves everything big. Nes, in comparison with the original Famicom, was huge, demanded a new type of huge cartridges and, of course, occupied a huge amount of space. Stereotype on a stereotype, but the move was a success and everyone knows what came of it.

The beginning of the console wars

Ordinary soldiers in our army, who took only preparatory courses on their smartphones, now do not understand much what was actually console wars. Yes, and I admit, not the largest expert in the issue. However, I still remember some information.

The end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s-the period that gave rise to the very concept. Yes, the competition was before that, but it was much less dynamic and serious, for Atari was in too good position, in comparison with the rest, because of which everyone tried to copy them, and not put something of their own against them. Immediately another case. Any competition progresses along with the market in which companies compete. This period of history was characterized by the fact that different companies proposed different platforms, with different games and philosophy, standing behind the marketing company and the corporation in general. And start this conversation with the company that brought this “spirit of confrontation” to the industry.

Rivalry and competition between companies – a phenomenon, as I said, is not new. It appeared with the market itself. Atari, Magnavox, Bally, Coleco and others – the first companies in industry, competing with rather primitive methods, such as AMD and Intel – for all the same, but we have cheaper, more technological or more beautiful. But we are interested in “console wars”, which, so to speak, made the competition of a more conscious and tactical.

Sega was previously mentioned, but in the third generation she could not contrast NES. SG-1000 came out with a difference of a few days with the prefix from Nintendo and just evaporated against its background. Sega Master System attracted more attention, as she was more perfect from a technical point of view, but she could not adequately overcome the big n. However, it is worth paying the company. After two “failures”, the company was not afraid to try again. A little more than two years after the release of Master System, Sega announced not another competitor NES, but something completely different.

Sega not only stepped forward in the schedule, like PC Engine (Turbographx), and also brought her “entertainment philosophy”. Games, design, marketing – everything that could show how the game experience on Sega from experience on Nintendo differs. And it worked.

Sega Genesis

Sega Genesis, or Sega Mega Drive, was published in 1988 in Japan and in 1989 in America. And although, unlike Nintendo, she did not have such a strong starting line, she tried to play on another.

The console was technically better than everything that Nintendo managed to let out then, but its dominance in the market (about 95% of the market) at that time all over the world was not allowing the majority to break through. What was the secret? Nintendo was guided by everyone, but first of all – to the children’s audience. Even given the not numerous exceptions, the games on their prefixes were designed for a very young audience. And there is nothing wrong with that, it’s just a work on a mass audience. But here the loophole was hidden. Sega was known for her contribution to the market of arcade slot machines, having many episodes in the arsenal. Their machines stood in almost every arcade hall, and in their homeland there were entire gaming arcade centers strictly for games from Sega.

Golden Ax, Space Harrier, Outrun – all this was by hearing, and, importantly, all this was popular … among adolescents.

The director of the Sega of America of those years, Michael Katz, who previously worked in Colgate and Proctor & Gamble, was also hooked for this difference, which are not connected with technology, and Coleco, which, as some remember, has already been engaged, and technology, in particular, games and consoles. Having come to the company in 1989, he expanded the staff, hired marketers and the company has one simple goal – to do what Nintendo cannot (Genesis does What Nintendonon

Marketers, in particular El Nielsen, the head of the department, also noticed the difference in audiences in two corporations. A basic idea was formed for the release of the prefix, which sold both games and the console itself. And although there were only nine games at the start, and even taking into account the fact that it was the period after the console’s launch, putting up advertising and the correct targeting gave rise to a miracle – the first places in sales ratings, popular love and, also important, a lot of green pieces of paper with the faces of the dead American uncles.

This difference led to the differences in games and in the “social status” of the prefixes. Previously, the games were the most like niche entertainment. Of course, to say that “Games is entertainment for children” is now not entirely true, but even then was not 2022. Due to the fact that at that time not everyone was ready to spend $ 150-200 on a “toy”, computer entertainment was much less massive. However, having conquered young people, the company could submit a much wider and “popular” market. Therefore, in the late 80s, early 90s, Sega was able to do what no one could think about her. She made a gaming cool. To be able to play, understand games and just play on popular new items became cool. And this, along with connecting a large number of American developers, and not just Japanese colleagues, and brought Sega Genesis forward, making it the main rival of Nintendo and starting the very “console wars”.

And what … games?

And really a good question: what about games? The new round of development made it possible to create more extensive gaming worlds, a variety of gameplay and a beautiful 16-bit wrap. Speaking about the time of that legendary rivalry, the market was able to first offer more spectacular entertainment, develop new genres and sucks, and in some cases to determine the development vector for decades for decades.

The first to come to mind, of course, two mascots of competing companies. Mario was already a symbol of Nintendo and, what is to be modest, games in general. A memorable image, at the sight of which the memories of the world 1-1 and the revolutionary at that time Leoel and the game design immediately emerge. And it is true that Sega wanted to create a competitor, a mask who could not only show people that not for only one Mario there is a place on Olympus, but also promote a new generation philosophy. And Sonic coped with this the best possible.

In fact, the gameplay of these two franchises is very similar. This is a scroll of platformers, divided to levels that need to go as efficiently as possible, collecting the maximum number of upgrades and coins. But they were distinguished by one important aspect – dynamics. The speed of the blue hedgehog is his main trump card, who sold both the game and the console. New iron made it possible to draw detailed and beautiful locations that have several opportunities for passing and sharpened at speed. Sonic was a lazy, impudent and elusive Tasman devil, against which the gameplay seemed to be … outdated … And, importantly, this is one of the games that you can still play with great pleasure.

Against the backdrop of the war, the industry was able to give rise to more than one masterpiece project, as on SNES \ Nes or Genesis, but also on the Boyar platform. Let’s remember what came out at that time.

Street Fighter II

Personally, I’m not a big fan of fight. For me, this is a fun topic only in the company of friends, when no one can normally master the character, but we just have fun to beat each other. But even so, Street Fighter always bypassed me. And this, after all, is one of the first representatives of the genre in principle.

The game was released in 1991, saying loudly about itself. Unlike the first part, the game was more diverse, with a honed combat system, a large number of characters and advanced graphics. She left a trace in history for the most part due. Brought to simplicity in the development of management, the introduction of almost all recognizable features of the genre, according to the type of combo, standings and. T. D.

And when the game came out on home consoles, she fixed for a long time in the lists of best -selling and popular titles.

At the same time, Nintendo met this no less masterpiece and fundamental titles for the genre, such as ..

The Legend of Zelda: A Link To the Past

I had a review somewhere for this game, so I will say briefly. In fact, this project has determined all Topdown Advent for decades, and still echoes of the mechanic and ideas proposed in Zelda can be found in modern projects of this genre. After the controversial second part, the third raised the quality bar to a new level, becoming, at that time, the most sold part of the series, overtaking the first part. To this day, you can meet articles calling this game “Best in History”, which says a lot.

Super Metroid

A funny trend that so many mentioned games have determined entire genres. But, apparently, this is another feature of that generation. Super Metroid to this day is considered the best part of the series. She gave the players a large, worked out world, set the basic mechanics of the sucking of metroids, and was also just one of the most smooth, beautiful and nonlinear games of her time. And, interestingly, this game was one of the first to popularize a phenomenon as a speedran.

PC Boyarin Tim

Speaking about the projects of that era, we must not forget about our favorite PC. By the beginning of the 90s, personal computers became even greater everyday life, and the idea to release games directly for personal computers no longer seemed so hopeless.

No matter how funny, in the late 80s there were many cult strategies and quests. So, in 1989 the first Simcity and Populous were released. Simcity is an urban planning simulator, in fact – the first popular genre game that sets the basic principles and mechanics of this type of game. Despite the absence of any action, the game delayed the process of building the city itself, its expansion, improvement and the player’s pleasure received from the result.

Populous, also published in 1989, was, as they are called, the simulator of God. It was created by Peter Mulinjo, about which you can separately write a whole scientific work, and its main feature was that the player ruled a certain mighty essence that directed its followers, helped them develop, and the main goal was to defeat the followers of another powerful essence.

With the advent of the 90s, another genre of games became popular-shooters. In 1992, the notorious Wolfenstein 3D was released, presenting the revolutionary schedule and dynamic gameplay at that time, as well as the first doom to advance the achievements of Wolfenstein even further. The plot, as expected, was like in porn, but with an incredibly tight gameplay. What can I say if the first parts of DOOM still receive new content from the players themselves, turning the game either into RPG, then into a horror with Terry Cruise and. T. D.

And I would also like to note myst game. Its main feature is a full -fledged 3D graphics that helped create, though not large, but detailed (by those standards) worlds that were incredibly interesting to explore and reveal their secrets. She was also one of the games that popularized the use of a new type of carriers-CDs that allowed to store more information.

Mortal Kombat

This game can be calmly called the main headache of moralists of the late 80s and early 90s. There were no less hype around the games of this series than around the scandalous GTA. At that time, games that were not shy to show all the possibilities of using human limbs, blood and. T.d, were, to put it mildly, not in honor. Lawsuits, proceedings and protests that caused the first parts of Mortal Kombat cannot be counted. However, despite all this, the game went to the people and became a cult.

When the question arose about the release on the consoles, many companies faced a big problem. The game was clearly not intended for the too young audience, but, in fact, no regulators at that time existed. It was because of MK that the age ratings were developed that were engaged in the distribution of games by categories. This became a big problem, because a higher age rating meant less coverage, because the 13-year-old will not sell the game 17+, and not every parent will take responsibility to buy a game with a lot of violence, sexual content and. T. D. That is why the games began to be adjusted to fall under lower ratings.

SNES vs Genesis

Mortal Kombat was the first game where, when porting it on the console, key features were carved – blood and fatals. However, one useful cheat was hidden on the SEGA consoles, which she did not hide from the players. This cheat allowed to launch the version of “uncensored”, and recalling the great slogan “Genesis does What Nintendonon”, it is clear which console people chose if they wanted to play the MK house.

SNES was released in 1990 in Japan and in 1991 in the USA. Distinguished its introduction of many technical innovations, according to the type of 16-bit graphics, improved audio, advanced graphic solutions in games and. T. D. She also had a new type of gamepad, in which two additional buttons appeared, X and Y, as well as the upper buttons, a la modern RB and LB.

It was with the release of SNES that a new round of competition began. Nintendo began to realize that this time the market is not empty, and it would be necessary to enter into direct confrontation with rivals in order to conquer more and more interest and increase sales. Since 1991, two companies fought for the championship in porting certain projects for their consoles, fought in pricing policy, playing with the prices of the prefixes and the console themselves. But, which is important, at some point the case came to the court.

As I already mentioned, cruel video games began to more and more disturbing political forces in the United States, because of which questions about the licensing of certain projects, their release for home consoles and their issues for a very long time. T. D. In 1993, after a precedent in the form of Mortal Kombat, the process began on the regulation of the age rating in games. At these hearings, representatives of the Sega of America and Nintendo of America as they could accuse each other in everything that could only dig. SEGA claimed that its console was created for a more adult audience, and that they, unlike the rest, have a system of age rating, the idea of ​​which they already actively promoted when Nintendo took everything manually and was engaged in stiffly censorship of all the objectionable. Nintendo did not deny this, one explained that her approach to the release of the games was more selective, and that they did not think at all that there was a place in the industry for cruel video games, accusing Sega of promoting them.

This process has led to the creation of the already mentioned ESRB system, which all publishers of the video game are subordinate to this day.

Despite all the efforts of the court, Nintendo and Sega continued rivalry. The proposed rating system was rejected for a long time Nintendo, because they saw this recognition of the SEGA victory, which promoted it.

According to the results of the 16-bit era, Nintendo defeated again, but this time it was given, as you understood, not just. The game market has become more motley, less predictable. Sega, partly, has achieved its. For a very long time, she was the leader of the market, pushing the large N, promoting a more adult game experience and becoming an icon of the late 80s. However, then she stumbled as never before, and Nintendo … In other things, this is a story the other time.

P.WITH
Thank you all for reading. I hope it was not entirely uninterrupted. If you notice flaws, then please – write! These blogs help me better understand how and what to write, so I hope for you)