History of Video Games - Part 11
The Revolution Will Be Televised
Catch Up on the Series
1 - Pressing Start / 2 - The New Industry / 3 - Have You Played Atari Today?
4 - The Great Video Game Crash of 1983 / 5 - Leave Luck to Heaven
6 - Now You’re Playing With Power / 7 - 8-Bit Magic
8 - Let’s Make Lots of Money / 9 - War Drums / 10 - Nintendo vs. Sega
One Vision, One Betrayal
During the 16-Bit Console Wars, a lot of the industry was experimenting, and it was a weird time. On the one hand, the console war was helping make gaming more mainstream, and now, you have two brands that were seen as the Coke and Pepsi of video games between Nintendo and Sega. On the other hand, the industry could see the leap from pixel 2D sprite graphics to 3D polygonal graphics was a matter of when, not if. We also had a changing tech landscape, with computers becoming even more the norm in middle-class households and the emergence of CD as a more viable media technology. Sega decided to create a CD-based add-on that would eventually become the Sega CD. Nintendo felt they couldn’t be left out and let Sega get the jump on them. Luckily for them, a Japanese giant would be a perfect partner, thanks to one man's vision.
Ken Kutagari came from a family with a small business and eventually worked his way to get a job at Sony. Sony was one of the post-war companies that took advantage of Japan’s tech and electronics boom to become a significant player, eventually getting a reputation worldwide, especially in the music space with the release of their super popular Walkman player. Kutagari became one of their best engineers, making numerous display panels and digital cameras. However, in 1984, he had a revelation when watching his daughter play with the Nintendo Famicom. He knew video games would be a major entertainment player in the near future.
He became obsessed with wanting Sony to make a console, but they had no interest, seeing video games as a fad. Luck would have it that Nintendo approached Kutagari to make the Super Famicom/Nintendo sound chip, and he accepted. Sony found out and was going to fire him until the CEO stepped in to save his job and decided to let the project go forward. Nintendo was so happy with how the sound chip came out that they asked Kutagari to make a CD-based game console. The moment Kutagari had waited for had finally arrived. He worked long nights on the system's design, and at the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show, they revealed the Nintendo and Sony Play Station. One part is a Super Nintendo, and the other is a CD-based console and player. The next day, Nintendo shocked Sony and Kutagari by announcing they had changed their mind and would make a system with another CD manufacturer, Phillips.
Now, to be fair to Nintendo, the contract did give away too much power regarding IP and characters to Sony. Nintendo began to get nervous about this and decided they wanted a deal that gave them more power, so they teamed up with Sony's rival, Phillips. However, Nintendo went about it controversially and would have ripple effects. Nintendo would eventually drop out of the deal with Phillips but let them publish Mario and Zelda games that have become known as some of the worst for both iconic franchises. Kutagari went to the Sony CEO and told him that Sony was embarrassed. In one of the most critical moments in the industry’s history, he looked at Kutagari and said two simple words: “Do It.” Sony would make their own console with their eyes set on getting revenge on Nintendo.
The Failed Console Boom of the 90s
Throughout the 90s, it wasn’t just Nintendo and Sega. Other companies saw video games becoming more than a fad and saw potential in being involved in the industry. Trip Hawkins, who had once worked at Apple and then left to help found Electronic Arts, teamed up with Panasonic to release the 3DO. The concept of the system was to see if video games could become like VHS players and not worry about console ecosystems. Panasonic was only the first of a planned line of manufacturers. Well, anyone who knows how systems sell knows they take a loss, so Panasonic sold it for a profit at $699, the equivalent of $1,500 today! Needless to say, the system bombed even after some price cuts and 3DO became a software company that would make games for the next generation of consoles.
Amstrad, a British consumer electronics company, released its own console—the Amstrad GX4000. The system, released in 1990, was based on 8-bit technology, which quickly became a problem when Sega and Nintendo released their 16-bit machines. It never had a chance and fizzled out. However, it is worth noting that this was a pretty good try by a European company to enter a market mostly known today for the United States and Japan.
There were so many others as well. Atari released the Jaguar in 1993. It was a powerful console for the time, but developers had yet to grasp how to make 3D video games. With a high price to boot, the system failed. Atari, the company that had made console gaming standard, would stop making hardware. There were so many others as well. The Phillips CD-i came out of the chaos of Nintendo looking for a CD partner. It was another system that got a lot wrong. Its claim to fame today is the home of a terrible Mario game and a few bad Zelda games that Nintendo was contractually obligated to let Phillips make for the system. Finally, we had Apple and Bandai team up to release the Apple Pippin, a system that also acted as a Mac computer. It was another that didn’t follow the formula and bombed hard. When Steve Jobs returned to the company, his first order was to discontinue Pippin.
On Like Donkey Kong
In the 16-bit console war, Sega and Nintendo were locked head-to-head in a battle for console brand supremacy. The 16-bit war was primarily a Western thing, as Japan clearly chose the Super Nintendo over Sega. But Nintendo badly wanted to come out on top after Sega took the North American video game market away from them. Eventually, Nintendo would win the war by close to fifty million units, and they would beat Sega in the West thanks to an old Miyamoto creation.
In 1985, Chris and Tim Stamper, two brothers who were game developers, created Rare. After being waved away by Nintendo, the two reverse-engineered the NES and showed it to Minoru Arakawa, the president of Nintendo of America. He was impressed enough to let them make games for the console, which led to classics like Battletoads. When Nintendo released the Super Nintendo, the brothers invested significantly in Silicon Graphics, wanting to use 3D renders for their games. Their use of 3D renders got some eyeballs from the industry. Howard Lincoln wanted Nintendo to compete with Sega’s Aladdin game, which got praise for its graphics and art direction. He was told about Rare and their Silicon Graphics renders and paid them a visit.
Nintendo asked the brothers if they could make a game based on a forgotten character: Donkey Kong. After the NES release of Donkey Kong 3, the original Miyamoto franchise was abandoned in favor of Mario. The brothers accepted the challenge and decided they would make a game on pre-rendered graphics, taking advantage of the power of the Super Nintendo. The game's codeword was “country,” so eventually, the game would be named Donkey Kong Country. It would be Rare’s biggest project to date, with long hours and a deadline to get it out by the 1994 holiday season. At first, the pre-rendered approach raised some eyebrows at Nintendo, but Shigeru Miyamoto was supportive, and the team has said he gave them tips and crucial advice.
Donkey Kong Country was released on November 18, 1994, and became the fastest-selling video game at the time. The game received high scores and praise around the industry for its characters, colorful designs, addicting and challenging platforming, and soundtrack, which was composed by Davis Wise, who today is considered among the greatest video game composers of all time. It would eventually sell over nine million copies and is the best-selling game in the franchise. The game was a must-play, and Nintendo finally had something for Sega fans to envy.
The release of Donkey Kong Country was part of Nintendo’s “Play it Loud!” campaign, which targeted older teenagers to counter Sega. The campaign used 90s humor (some of which doesn’t age well from a cultural standpoint today) and featured teens and adults instead of kids. The Game Boy got a lineup of colors, and Nintendo wanted to feel just as bold and loud as Sega. While some look down on this era of Nintendo, it did work. The campaign and Donkey Kong Country turned the tides of war in Nintendo’s favor. The Super Nintendo would outsell the Sega Genesis and win the 16-bit console war. But as great as that was, everyone in the industry looked to the future.
The Revolution will be televised
Nintendo knew that 3D graphics would be the future. Sony was all in on ensuring their new game console would be the 3D revolution in the industry. On the other hand, Sega knew 3D was the future but wasn’t one hundred percent sold on full multidirectional 3D just yet and wanted to make a system that would aim for more of a 2.5D style. The industry was ready to try 3D gaming, but the transition would be bumpy.
For their part, Nintendo took advantage of Rare’s partnership with Silicon Graphics. They slowly but surely bought almost half of Rare. They made a deal with Silicon Graphics to provide the technology for what was being called at the time the Ultra Nintendo and, eventually, the Ultra 64 as they were going for the jugular and skipping 32-bits for 64-bits in power. With the CD format taking over the industry, Nintendo originally planned for CDs to be a part of their new system but eventually opted out to stay with the more expensive game cartridges due to their worries about potential piracy.
Sony meanwhile worked on the technology for their first console from the ground up, with Ken Kutagari helping. The system wouldn’t just dip its toes into 3D; it would go all in on 3D. The GPU used a rasterisation process and was made to make the process as uncomplicated as possible for developers. Sony used all their engineering knowledge to develop a 32-bit 3D game console that would use CDs and show what game consoles should be in a post-cartridge-based 2D market. The problem was that Sony had issues getting developers on board when they visited multiple companies. Developers were worried about increasing game development costs and knew going to 3D would skyrocket those costs. Furthermore, Sony, as a company, looked down on the new Sony Computer Entertainment gaming division. The head of Sony Music wasn’t quiet about his belief it would bomb. Ironically, that would all change thanks to Sega,
Sega released Virtua Fighter to arcades in 1993. The game featured fully polygonal 3D graphics and was a big hit in the arcade market. Many developers saw this game, and immediately, their imaginations lit up with ideas of what full 3D gaming could be. Sony went from developers questioning to going the new route to getting phone call after phone call to ask what was possible. It became apparent that the industry was ready to switch, and Sony would lead the way. With Nintendo working on the Ultra 64, Sony working hard to launch their new system, and Sega, scrambling to launch a 3D console in time - it set the stage for the first-ever E3 in 1995, and video games would never be the same again.