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    Book Complete History of Video Games PDF

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    Don'tAsK TheStupidOnes

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    of 98
    THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES CONTENTS ‘COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES: THEN AND NOW PROLOGUE: HE'S WHERE THE STORY REALLY STARTS 198: Te Space Invaders take planet Earth! ‘1982: Behold the first home computers. ‘1983: Everywhere you look there's video games. 1984: Consoles lose their grip. All hail the Commodore 64! 1985: Atari rise from the grave as the Amiga is born. 1986: Home computers make the It leap. ‘987: Consoles back in fashion, Nintendo rules! 1988 Spectrum’ last stand 1989: Dan of the Mega rive and Game Bo. 1990: Ode to the one-man-band. 199: Golden Years for Ang. Lov your Super Fanicom! 1992: fst ‘UonsleCrisas tales the UK ‘1993: We have the technology. 1994: The Personal Computer gets friendly. 1995: Anyihng you can do. on, 1996: Nintendo strikes back. ANOTHER PROLOGUE: We've sen he future ACKMOWLEDGHENTS COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES: THEN AND NOW THEN AND NOW HERE'S WHERE THE STORY REALLY STARTS ho started this whole video games caper then, cht Was it Nintendo? Sega? Surely it wasnt Amstrad? In fact, the soot of the video-games industry can be traced way back 1962, when Steve Rusell, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a fondness fr scence fton, created a game called Space ‘Wr It was simple game tt pte to Fine-deawn spacecraft gaint each other in head-to-head combat, but in those days of vases and vacuum tubes twas an advanced pice of programming tht took the available technology toi limits. The only computers powerful enough to run i were the room sized michines fended by beardy men in white coats down athe local uni- ‘versity’ computer lb, By the end ofthe 60 tho Space Wr was king itbigas an extracursculae activity among America's seience students ating fiom the University of Usa, decided to build his on version of Space War which he called Computer Space Unlike the oviginal game this, ‘version woul need a mainte computer to plait, Bushnell wed the ectonics skills be had learned to put together just enough computer hardware to play the game, He hooked the hardware up to a 19-inch and-white TV and the ist teade game was born ‘Bushnell’ game dda’ require ful-blown computer inside thebox, so the reckoned it would be relatively cheap to mass-produce Computer Space ‘machines and set thems up as coin-operated amusement giemos in hars and arcades, He convinced an amusement munufactueer to build 1,500 Computer Space machines, but, surprisingly, hard anyone was interested in buying them, possibly becuse they just weren't sure what they were Some potential buyers woried thatthe machines would be stolen for the “television set they contained. But even the fee pliers who got to ty Computer Space were put off by the lengthy instructions and options that confronted thers when they put thei coin inthe so Bushnell put the ulure of Computer Space down to experience, but he wast put oft He realised that a simpler game would be more likely 10 attract customers in a bu. The simplest game he could come up with was « sort of computerised tennis, n which two players used abt to bounce "ball backwards and forwards across the screen if your apponent lt the bull pst his bt, you scored pont. In 1972, te fist commercial video a mercial video game, called Powg in Andy Capps tavern in Sunnyvale, ne company, which Bushnell had named Atari installed its first com California. And twas big success. 6 Home computer 1 Atari moved onward and upward, acquiring cash and a staff of enchusias tic young workers. Amongst them was 17-year-old drop-out called Steve Jobs who was iced in 1974 es a techn ‘work on a video baseball game. A friend of Jobs was another electronics whi called Woznink Steve Won anes and obs would smuggle his friend him play the new ‘Gran Trak’ driving machines for fee. Wozniak would aso help out when ot an toa teh nical problem, and eventually he camne to work at Atari full-time, helping Steve Jabs to build the fist Breakone machine Their join interest in computes working mu witha computer oftheir own, which they cll the Apple The Apple ous weckends in obs’ frily’s garage the pair came up wasn't terribly power bu the people who stw i thought was some thing special and before they know i Jobs and Wozniak had SO odes fo the fest Apple computer self 1 coming up witha way to make the Apple computers appeal to 4 ty electronics bulls who inhabited th sea computer cubs. He came ap with specifications, drafted in po ted, and prety much the whole personal computer industry with it Games console 1 IF Apple computer was to grow it would need investment, Steve Jobs tied round for, but Bushnell dedtined. He had his vn plans o smasket and they were to stat with a home ver sion of Atari original arcade hit, Pong. AA similar game from a company called “Magnavox had aleady ben sling since 1972, but when Atari clase its official home version of Pong in 1974 it had the advantage of being technically superior. Aer an nisl poor response the ‘machine had realy taken off by 1975, so much so that many other American electronics conglomerates started to take an interest inthis new demand for TV games By the end of 1976 there were 20 competitor al tying to out-do each “other with more techrically advanced machines. I took a company called Fairchild Camera to come up withthe frst game to use imerchangeable puter, and in May, Starpath launched a sytem which boosted the VCS 6 remory capacity allow ing it to load games in fro tape, promising more ‘gameplay ata lower cos By summer the quantity of new games scemed to slacken, and cat twidge prices were dropping — Ataris take on the Scramble genre, Vanguard, was released at under a tenner When VCS Connpae appeared aéverts exhorted players to buy quickly atthe speci offer price of $24.99, hecause the price would be going up to £2999 on August ist In retro spect, Atari probably had good reson to try sling as many games as fast as posible, ‘Over inthe USA, Atari was in a major cash criss, Desporate to get rid of stock, it was knocking out $40 games for $4, On Wall Steet, Warner Communications’ shares plummeted in value and Warner were forced 89 announce that, over just the second quarter f 1983, they had salered $285.4 milion loss, and most people blamed Atari Atari vs Nintendo AND Coleco Atari's computer busines was having st as bad time as its console arm, The 800 and 400, which had never een big sellers abroad, ba started los ing out in the USA tothe Apple I. Ata’ chairman, Ray Kass, tried scquite the exchuive home computer rights to Donkey Kong from Nintendo inthe hope that sucha big tle would help the 800 back oa ite feet. Nintendo was happy sel Atari the outs 1 forge Fink with Atari, because it wanted to Japan rights toa console itd been succesfully sl: ing in Japan, A deal was stuck and Kassa was sea to sign the contacts st the 1983 Suma Coleca’s tand and saw an official Donkey Kowg running on the new Coleco + Consumer Electronics Show wen he walked past Adam, a computer based on the Colecovision. Thinking he a been dou le-dealt, he got Ataris busy legal department to threaten Nintendo with legal retribution if something wasn done. That night Nintendo's president, Hireshi Yamauchi met with Coleco boss, Arnold Greenberg, and lew his stack at him for jeopardising ‘Nintendo's Atari deal Greenberg tried to past off sa misunderstanding, but Yamauchi was having none of it and threatened massive legal action nue to sll Do gaint Coleco if they con key Kong forthe Adan, Coleco had relent, bu the problem worked itself oat inthe end The three partis eventually got eogether to sort out the Donkey Kong problem but shor aftrsard the Coleco Adam sank without trace, and Ati str celta come apart atthe seams Nintendo OF Amevica's president, Minoru Arakawa, was mortified to lose the console distribution deal with Atari ut his regrets were short ved. He later discovered that Atari had just been tevng to buy outa pos sible competitor tt ts technology then drop the product Ifthe deal had gone through, no-oie outside of Japan might ever have seen the machine that was to become the Nintendo Entertinment Ste. % i 1983 Atari vs the UK Computer Market Back in Britain, Atari was sill tumbling slong in the computer market, ougl the 40 was sling for just £98 and the $00 at £268. The new Atari 6OOXL seemed lke another one of the crowd of Spectrum imitators, ‘though, lke its stablemaes it ad far superior hardware..ust hardly any offordable software. Asin 1982, 1985 had seem numerous new eeleases into the Spectrum end of the home computer market. Mattel launched the under-powered Aquarius, while Computer Games Limited released the Sord M5, which was competent, but unpopulat Memnotech had a similar problem with thie MIX time pried o compete with the BBC Micro, but doomed oblivion stn 12, probably one ofthe highest-spec home computers ofthe ply because no-one produced any games frit It was a vicious circle that Trapped so many’ new machines: if no-one was buying the — compute, games companies wouldnt program for, and if cpm there were no games walable, no-one would buy the com puter. Acorn was icky with its new machine, The Electron vas ent-price,cut-dowen BBC Micro, which meant that the numerous software houses already producing BBC games were able to easly translate maay of thet hit ties. Asa result the Flectron dil comparatively well Howe serSinclair's Spectrum was well and tray established asthe mum mes compte, with the most games and a price that wa right At the start of May. in the face of meagre competition from the likes ofthe (rie: incr turned om the pressare even further by dropping the price ‘ofthe 16K Spectrum from £125 o $99, and the 48K model, the one every ‘one was aow going for went down to only £129, Shortly afterwards it went into WH Smithe’ computer departsents and alter thai looked like no ‘one eae would get lookin The Spectrum Sets the Software Standard The quality of Spectrum games was improving greatly from month to ron. Psion today renowned for their electronic organises, was one of Sincla's tame software houses at the time and produced such clases as Flight Simulation and Hungry Horace ~a PacMav game staring a charac ter who managed tobe charming ad sinister at the same time, Melbourne Hose released The Hobbit a sophisticated graphic adventure game, based en tale. Bug Byte was the fortunate publisher of the summer biggest Spectrum game, a fendi platoon game called Manic Miner, hich eventually changed hands when the programme, Matthew Snich Speci mention x which surfaced during 198: Ultimate Ply The Game seemed t be given to three Spectram software houses ome fom nave wih its ame ingarcade-quality titles, which started with the awesome Jfpac and PSST a 1983 ‘wold be woorng the Spectrum-owning public with the awesome Are tac Jetmen. Actually, Uhimate’s programmers were arcade game Jesigner, sponsible for Century's classy 3-D blast, Gyrus, hough they of Donkey Kong and within a year was trading as Ocean Sotrare, with Moca ft HS licensed versions of Centurys Hunchback coln-op.agol game endorsed by {wi tee! Bena the Royal Birkdale club and a Burger Tine done, starring the promotional mn And of we, there was Imagine Softwate. Imagine kicked off at the file trough lavish va sun advertisements. Ads entre pseudo-intervews with Imi sp. grammes, hyping them up asi they were rock st h they were producing as many a many’ mses as its. By Christa the company bad some decent tls on itshand: though, including an entertaining 3-D air raft shoot-em-up called Zesom. Imagine also boasted of plans for twa and Bandersntch. Fee details were given, but it was rumoured that both ce the computers they were running on. The new dream machine sil £70 more expensive than the Spectrum i was tempting buy now th Cot as well as developing games on both platforms simulkan 8 CHAPTER 4: 1984 [om tree tin redhat by ttc gy would empower government agenciesand help oppress theaverage Joe. As the real 1984 dawned, gloomy pundits wondered whether or not the growth of home computers was going to take usall one step loser to id’ seem that way th their new machines to notice Orwell vision. I It wos, everyone was having, to0 much fun nds, with plenty It fad bee big Christmas forall he rain compar be ot hot new games driving sls Its new lower price had helped xl the 48K spectrum, and more well-heeled players who wanted tobe part ofthe schoolyard elite, rational cer bad helped sell the Comninodore 64 to ‘Thekids whose parents were teachers weren't complaining about their new BBC Micro, because it meant they could play a pretty good version of Killer Gorila,and Acornsoft vse ail tuning out sch corks as Starship Conmmand (whic let players Donkey Kong, in the form of Program Power’ fy all sors of famous sci spacserft into battle) and Aviator (a Spitfire Aight simulator bythe ong Geof Crammond) The Game Is Up For Consol The oaly people in the games busines who werent ising the growth of computer? popularity were the console manufacturers, Thee business ws suffering badly in the USA, and the fat that more and more European players were raring to computers was proving a major problem. Atari's 2600 was by nove dead in the water nd sinking slow. Aad and he other VCS software producers were tying to save off the machine's obsolescence by releasing cartridges which had more memory and new super chips inside them to provide more levels, etter graphics and improved sound, The tle was, al this ast bumped up the price of the cartridges, sf as British players were concerned, the games were sill no better than their Spectrum equivalents (in some cases they were notably worse) but they cost nearly six times as much In the States, things had long ago reached crisis point at Atari. The massive price cuts had helped clear it stock of cartridge but Atari was sil losing money. Its hosts tried to revive the company’s fortunes with some new projects, such as the underpowered Atari 6D0XL computer and Atrisoft ~ a vision offering official coin-op conversions to a home computer crowd who no longer cared about playing another ve sion of PacMon, officiel or otherwise. These were staff cutbacks and of broken up and sold. The computer and console hardware divisions went to the founder of Commodore, ack Teamie been ousted from the company he started and «closures but Atari had had it. Oa July 6, 1984, the company was who had recently nted his new Atari Corporation to take on both Commodore and Apple. The arcade end of 0 alco alti cee ‘one Sate al 1984 Atari was Sold to Masaya Nakamura and Atari Games became a divi sion of Namco, Meanveil, the price cts Atari had instigated set the whole US con sole basness nto a fat sin, Other manucturers had to cut their pices to remain competitive, The result was that, by the end ofthe year Mattel had sold ofits electronics division and Coleco, which had weathered the storm better than most (though mainly thanks ots other big to esa, hs Cabbage Patch Dol) folded, And with that. long silence settled over the Western world’s console industry Sinclair's Quantum Leap In spite of seme disappointing pos-Christas software sale the UK's home computer business wa sil lve and kicking smong them the Sinclair QL. This was a major departare forthe boy Snel, who was aiming higher up the New machines were ill appearing, carket than he had with the Spectrum, The QL was meant to bea low-cost, hhome/business machine, ftw take on the new [BM PCs and thee clone reresis, Aco, hich ws sill sling with its 128K of memory, I6-bit processor and twin Microdeves. At it was also anatackon Sinclair’ the BC Micro at that price. Bul thistime Clive was biting off more than he could chew. The QL. was he racine Nooded i, though toon became apparent thatthe machine wasn’ even Binshed. The fist mtchines ide go out unl several months ate, sth a placstory software bundle andthe dongle’ = carrie that fed bugs inthe QLs ROM. Customers ho received the bodged machines were promised they would be able to sap them for competed ones as soon as they were avaiable Though it was cheap, dhe QL was ao match for serious business machines becuse it dct have the industry standard softwaee, nor would it ever baconme avilable on the tiny Microdtive cartridges, in fact very few essa it to else any software forthe QL, and the machin compan ened into Sinclair’ first major op Something did become of the QLS haedware, though, ‘To Christma, Sinclair relesed the Spctrum, new version of the Spectrum QLype case, with a Ql-type plastic (as opposed to clamamy rubber) keyboard hich wos ictal to the old one cept that came in om With Spectrum software houses still churning out fantastic games, the Spectrum was a big hit at some of the eatly siodels drew criticism becuse if they were ined upside dove, the ys fll ut ofthe keyboard, Commodore werent idle dur 984 either Its Commodore +4, released i the autumn, was an attempt at & QL type machine with 64K of memory and four a busines applications squeezed onto a 32K ROM chip, This plummeted between the two stools of busines and home computing, the applications were fa too crde for business nse and because the +4 was compatible with the Commodore 6t it did't have acces toa ready supply of games. The +4 was only compatible withthe Cammodore 16 rlessed a the same tim but seeing as that only had an inadequate 16K of memory it as aso destined for oblivion Behold The New Standard ‘There were notable anwar releases this yer, though. M wasthe fist This was an attempt by an alliance of Japanese electronics giants to take the home computer world by storm, just as they had been doing with video recorders They reasoned tht one ofthe biggest problems Facing the com per busines from everyone's point of view — was that there was na stan ‘and for ardwate or sofas punter who bought a Commodore machine ‘out use Spectrum software and software manufacturers hil to quan der resources producing several diferent versions ofthe same software for cach machine The VCR manefcturers fun this situation fair, having advo deal ina market where diferent asst formats Matsushita's VHS and Sony's Reta, had ated for supremacy: Ton companies, hardvaze manufac ‘rer called Spctravideo andthe software developer Microsoft, were asked ‘come up with a specication which could be use a the basis for ll the neve ‘machines. Te dea was thal ofthe machines would be compatibles that they could all run the same software and use the sume ards add-ons but hey would necesaiy be identical. The basic format wae unspetacalar pete), but diferent manu (6iK of RAM, \6-colour graphic cat fers were able toad indviual touches to their awn machines. Sony's MSX machine, the Hit-Bit, incorporated a personal ditaile program to store addresses and phone numbers, Ya’ machine had superior sound fail gg ioncerasr die pl ties which could be controlled in Yamaha musi Keyboud, Ponce? MSX connected tothe P and there wastalk of laser diseacade games appearing on the machine. 2 eal at Tht a 1984 After so much investment, the consortium must have been somewhat sorprived when their standard filed to make any impact ouside of apan. Tn the USA, Apple was sill the esabishe home compter mans: facturer, with Commodore coming up on the inside and PC-compatibles XX machines promised nothing new o interesting in either hardmae or software, and the £300 price tags roving in populist. In Europe the a ‘made them too expensive tobe competitive MSX' other problem was that it wns an attempt to standardise the whole computer industry of! unambitous Bit, Spetrum- chomping off the player’ hes ea apnea (inparitetanvia'e Steer, programmed by Sensible Softwar, had a top-down view and ~ 2 The Ost scored some cao! socoer games dating this ya. Mcropros Baa ast ely option complete wit ickringHackand- white aprenden Mashing inte comer of Ue en, Aang > of the acon, rather ke te erg Interior. Thgh Ef ipklt wren cee eel sd len ole hegre fk and proved to beeen mare widely fone than the Mlcroprose game, The supe hit was Tekst Manag, by Golath 5 Lorain o4 a1350 called Kevin Toms had succesflly made them his ies worksince 1981), but this one had the novel approach of tin he player pik hie team ae up hit strategy, an then read » Kck-bykick match commentary generated by the ‘omputer, Reading about the unfolding action was almost ike stein to 4 ‘natch the rio ~ wend, but strangely atmospheric There were two move nae orginal 64 tides. ltbough perhaps org ina ithe wrong word for thom, US Gold seemed to havea gem on its hands in the form of Te Gree Gia Sie very playable Super Mari Hrorclone programmed by German coders, Rainbow Arts. The game looked et for big siccess until one of Nintendo's staf spoted the game on display ata German ‘compute fir and immediatly demanded its removal farther threat of leg action from the mighty N was enough to can the game and its sequel, “Afr such an experienc, it’s surprising that US Gold ida’ smell row bie when, a couple of months lar, the sesame Rainbow As presented thea with pretty amazing Commodore shoot"e-up called Karas which had lods of weapons and looked rather lke lem’ R-Tpe. Unfortunately, Activision, owners of the lisence to convert R-Tpe thought it wa too close to the real thing, and Katais wae pile atthe ast minute, then sent back to Germany for some binary surgery The to biggest it games ofthe year were to come at Christina, fom ‘Ocean Software. Ocean hal ied their release of the Robocop game-of the novi to coincide with the fils release on video, and there was ven an ad forthegameat the tart ofthe tape thefizet time such a technique had een ted to sella game, I mast ave worked though, because Robocop was tobe 4 number one hit not jst over Chistnas, bat over most of the following evo Iga mst pse wot US eee ere praised thei own designs inthe light ofthe PlayStations Sega hunredly aay stata ay ‘Nintendo, neither of whom had released their new machines yet, reap Shy no have wamel optus shes pig a Reality would be a -hit machine which used cartridges (a mediam which ‘would be much easier for Nintendo to contra than CD-ROMs) ‘With the challengers nor lined up it only remained to sce which of thera would release the Sst machine, Nintendo stated that wouldnt have a machine ready before the end of 995,30 was up to Sony and Seg to get thai fet inthe door stand reap the benefits ofa years ead start Both the Satan and PlayStation hit Japanese shelves in Noverber, and they ad arrived om import inthe UK by Christmas. Neither ‘machine had much in the way of software at fis, but there was the promise of great tings to come. Sega showed off the ist meg-gume, ramet is conversion of Virtua Figen, programed by acade coders AM2, ad there was a Stun version of Sep nest ree ding sensation, ema sant vate ayiona USA coming in 1995. The big name in the PlayStations ctalogue AEE Yalm sep eas Ride Rac, a tandaton of «ashy Namco ving game which was awa tem pod but dd quite have the cred of Dayton athe ime. There was ao a_i ere an 3 beat‘emvup called Tendon vic, though unheard of looked ike it ERE melt Wnt ‘ou he even beter than ic Sats vesion of Wa Fighter etre wt met tn rae so i stn kane fam be ee ate u tue we 1994 “The excitement was building, and plyers wondered which machine they should upgrade to. By the time the inport PlayStations and Saturn had arvved at Christmas, the 3D0 and the Jaguar had both been officially available for a couple of months, nd all our looked promising machines By this time the 3D0 looked lke it was acquiting some quality sft roi Arts’ Road Rash, Jo Madden Football and FIFA Sovcer all with superb 3-D graphics, and comin ware, including conversions of E time for Christmas there was the best Stet Fighter fa, Fighter 11 Turbo X. Te Jaguar wasn’ so well ofr software, tit id have the advantage ‘offeing cheap. At £229 it was £170 cheaper than the 3DO —andit id have Tempest 2000, and the excting-lookng Alen vs Predator to come per Stree More Strap-On Muscles Parly in an effort to prevent Mega Drive owners from upgrading to someone es's machine before they were ready, Sega had Isunched the 2X in time for Christmas. This £130 plug-in module bosted the Mega Drives graphics and processing power so that I€ could handle more advanced, but ub-Saturn, games. The frst 32X gues such as the com versions of Segas Star Ware and Virtua Racing coin-ops, were okay but nothing special, and Mega Drive owners who had been stung with the Mega-CD were waty of the 32K. Infact most gamers sw it for what it as stop-gap measure, and simply made do with their Mega Drives tnt the machine oftheir dreams turned up. The Mega Drive was far from dead anyoay, judging by the tite chat anpeared dui 1994, Mega Drive Via Racing, complete with Sega Virtual Processor, was impressive, even incorporating a split-screen two Player mod, bat i suffered from a £70 price tag, Just a8 good, anda lot cheaper, were the new breed of innovative platform games lke Sega's Dynamite Hea iy and Virgin's Earthworm Jim, Best of all, though, was Code Masters wonderfllypliyable Mier Machines 2, which came on « special 'T-Cart Those cart so four players could race against each other without the nesd fe any seditonal hardware [Nintendo developers were also doing their best to sported two extea joypad connectors make the most of the SNES hardware. Nintendo re ‘ovo more Super FX games, the 3-D comedy driving game, Stat Race PX, and the more sophisticated, and less entertaining, Vortex: Ubisoft had a Mario Kae-tike -D go-kart game called Steet Racer Which used an amazing splitscreen technique to It upto four players compete simultaneous, Nintendo's big game for Christmas, though, was 1994 — ¥ WEP 1994 Wolfenstein 30 was a 3-D maze shoot-em-up in which you played a American prisoner of war trying to Break out of a Nazi stronghold grab bing wespons and sustenance and gunning down any stormtroopers that got in your way twas no fo its fast3-D graphics that made the most ofthe limited PC hardware of the day, and also for its unashamedly Doody graphics oom was d'snext step along the tad to ht lead mayhem. This time you were cast asa lone space marine out to rd the moons of Mars from an invasion of demons, The plot wasnt as important asthe staggering realism of your sutzoundings. Texture-mapped polygon graphics were used to create vast complexes of granite-hewn cortidars, dimly stair and secret chambers ll crawling with zombie troopers an hideous betiemoths from Hades, all clamouring for your soul, Playing Doom could bea genuinely sary experience, but also a thoroughly exhilarating ioe because you were given range of mighty weapons to see of these armies of undead: shotguns, chainsaws, miniguns, rocket launchers, and ‘even a ray gun that disintegrated every fleshy object in sight. The on thing better than destroying droves of demons was Bleting your buddies ‘over a network, and sfstems managers in offices allover the word were \civen crazy by surseptitious Doom ‘Deathmatch slowing their com. puter systems down ta crv Des beyond the traditional teenage hoy market and roped in all sorts of play n was another game that extended the reach of video ga €r8. It also set a Woe new standard for shootem-ups generally and it proved that, with hardware prices coming down and software standards matching thebestof the Super Consoles, the PC was just as ready to make gaming history asthe consoles were For the fist time it appeared that the home computer market expensive as it was ~ could compete alongside the dedicated games ‘machines. The next few years would prove to be very interesting indeed! a CHAPTER 15: 1995 ith nothing else worth reporting on the Jaguar, 3DO and Ultra 64 (ovhich was stil shrouded in secrecy), the press spent the fist few months of 1995 following the birth pangs ofthe Playstation and Satur. ‘The enthusiastic previews encouraged early-adopting madmen to pay 4500+ for imported Japanese Playstations and Saturns, but the more level-headed punters were content to wat, Acthe start ofthe year there was no telling which ofthe two would end up in the driving set. There was very litle software avaiable to base «deci sion on, andall dhe information that was available was thatthe Satur had Virtua Fightr and the PlyStation had «fancier but less cool 3-0 et ‘emup called Toshi, The next major releases were both driving ‘games, Daytona USA on the Saturn and Ridge Racer on the PhyStation. “The two machines seemed 1 be matching each other blow-for-blow, but it was ail anyone's ight. ‘As the year went on and offical Inonch dates approached the Saturn stated to pull ahead, Seg’ atcade heritage was serving it well when it ‘ame to providing Saturn software, and Sega announced more shatp-look- Ing coin-op conversions. Virtua Fighter 2, Virtue Cop anc Sega Rally looked fantastic, and Capcom wa ls releasing its atest Street Figher-stpe fight ing game, X-Mon Childron ofthe Atom. Means, the PlayStation looked lstinealy underfed as far as good games went. Apart from Tosknde and Ridge Racer, and another 3-D beatem-up fom Namco called Teen, there were only a couple of old arcade conversions, Gybersed and The Raiden Project, neither of which were remoxely spectacuas ‘The 32-it Battle Begins Officially Sega launched the Saturn offclly on Jly 8, celebrating the event by pro jecting « huge Saturn advertisement onto the walls of the Houses of Palament in London, Th launch games were Virtua Fighter (the pack-in tame), an unusual 3D blister called Panzer Dragoon and Daytona USA. vats great machine with gretsftware,.and atoo-great price — £399 was 4 bit toe step for many playes liking. And no matter how great the ‘machine, most people have beter things to doin the height of sammer! Po lt sin eg ino ne wt trier aise rine By tr aad rey eh, ta 14 8 ga 1995 Foes et ee The Saturn look mote overpriced when Sony launched the off al PlayStation in September, priced at only £299, It wast a the low price was making up for some kind of deficiency ether, Suddenly the PlayStation semed to have acquired a wide selection of exe With plenty mote to come. Chief among them were two race games from De rout, with its incredie evn ition fturstic graphics and music by well-known ambient music acts was Poygnosi, Destructo yy and Wipeout. Wi (quickly identied a the best yume on the machine and it wis reported that, shortly afer its launch, « copy of the gare was being bought with very new PaStaion. Over the fist few months ofits oficial UK existence, eas outselling the Saturn by approximately seven to one. Sega hutiedy Aropped the price of the Satur to £528, then by Christm, £0 aystation 9 twas sila potent machine, though, and many pundits sl fncied i over the PlyStation purely onthe strength oft forthcoming range of eel coin-op conversions. t wasstill early days for both machines, though, and both had 2 huge suply of exciting-loking titles lined up for 1996, > The Also-Rans And what of te ther 32-bit consoles? The 3D0 had ben altering for most ‘of 1995, with a minimal range of decent sftwace tits aad 9 massive rice drop from £400 to under £200 over the couse ofthe yea SroetFigher Il EAs conversions of ot Maden Fotballand FIFA games worth hay rb, aclasy shooter by the name of Return Fre and Ar the tart ofthe yeu unhappy 30 owners must have been cheered hy news thatthe 3D Company werealready developing ite next machine, which would be available asa complete unit and as an oP which 300 claimed would out-do vine ‘cluding Nintendo's Ultra 64 with it almighty graphics engine, capable rae "Bulldog, or M2 asit came to be known, wae 64-bit specification FEE ews, 900 One fad aN peli ay 1d'e of enormous polygon-renderng power aswel as all sors of sophisticated 3D and colour paete effects, But by theend ofthe year things dda seem » 1995 to Matsushita Electrical Industries, leaving isl fret develop 20% ware rather than hardwate, Having paid an estimated $100 milion for [M2 there was no danger of Matnishits shelving it, but details were searce on when the system might appear n than the 3D0', More than year on fom tslaunch it stil had only two The future of Atari’ Jaguar looked even les cera ‘worthle games in it catalogue, and of those, only Doom wae capable of mast appeal. Tempest 2000 was a game for arcade nosalgies and video game purists, Alien » Predator be all atmosphere and not enough action, and Rayman was merely a petty patorm game with sub-Sonic ation, baad turned out [New releases were announced but rehashes of ancient arcade games such as Defender 2000 and Breakout 2000 weren't going todo it for Atel when ‘Soa had Soe Rolly and Sony had Tew and Ridge Racer The promised Jaguar CD drive didn’ tariveand nor did the VR helmet. By Christmas, the Jag wasin a sory state and was going fora mere £158, Wintendo Ultra 64 ~The Future is Revealed The wild amour of Nintendo canning the Ultra 64 because it would be tog expensive to produce were quashed when the machine was aly given its rst airing at the November Shoshitkai show in Japan. Nintendo gave the trade attendees hands-on experience ofthe new Ultra 64 hus proving tha, yest id exit and yes it certainly was the most powerfl ames 9ys- tem availabe. The preview also confirmed that Nintendo did intend to Hick to utng cartridges instead of CDs, although there was mck talk of ‘an add-on ‘Bulky Drive which would use special 150Mb magnetic disks Though most ofthe software was only visible on show-rel videos all ofthe games hada screen presence that was beyond anything that had been sce before, Charly the collaboration between Nintendo and Slicon Graphics to produce the Ura 61s graphics hardware was paying of and ‘nits lear tat console players would have some spectacular 3.D gamesto look forward t including Ulta 64 versions of someof the best-loved SNES seames,Plotwings 64, Super Maio Kart K, Legend of Zelda 64 and, best of all Maria 64, Nintendo als announced that work on the SNES version of the long-awaited Starfor IT had been cancelled in favour of Starfi 4, which was again being produced by Argonaut Software inthe UK. Itall looked mouth-wateringly good stuf, and Nintendo UK cleverly followed the exited magazine reports wit afll-page ad showing a pic ture of the Ultra 64 and advising potential PlayStation and Saturn buyers ‘hat they should "Wait fort." A European release dat atthe end of 1996 ‘was mentioned, but would it be met? ‘Time For a Change? ‘The potential upgraders were defintely getting itchy feet. Aer al, with programmers like Argonaut trading in thei SNES development kts for ‘Ultra 64 models this mean thatthe old 16-bit machines wee finished? 0 ae Isaaqatom are ess items seat eae ven age te ‘nae gn 1995 The Mega Drive was definitely losing its momentum, and Mega Drive players only ad a handful of good new games o choos from daring 1995 Sega's ig Christmas game a platformer based om the hit movie Toy Stor, sok well but dit have anything now apart from pre-rendered character raphics, which was what Nintendo had given Donkey Kong Contry the year before, There was tlk of Sega releasing an all-in-one Mega Drive and 32X system called"Neptune in September but apart fom an excellent con version of Virtua Fi {gaming world. By Christmas both the 52X and the Mega-CD were retailing A199 apiece The flow of SNES games ako slowed down over 1995, bt the m sill ha some ation int Kanaan International Superstar Sacer Deave was hile as ame ofthe best football games the word had exer sen, and Rate had ‘he sequal to Donkey Kong Country, Diy Ko’ Quest ae will at aconversion ofthe Uitra-Ot-based arcade fighting game, Killer Instinct. Nintendo thems selves had Yosh sand he latest Super Mario platform game, which ably lived up to its prestigious peigre, and there was a starting conversion of Doon which used the Soper FX chip to recreate a game tat had nese sv «ral hundred pounds worth of PC hardware the year before The PC Doom-Boom There was one section ofthe gaming community for whom Doorn was ok hat though. PC owners had played the game to death and had even taken to customising i with their own level design, new sounds and graphics Doon was 2 gaming phenomenon, and when Doon showed up inthe 8 with new levels and new monsters it Inked like the craze wou continue. Suddenly, everyone was producing 3-D shoot-em-ups in the _Doom sty, and though mest af them were hurvedly-produced banda fon-jumpers, some ataly improved ow the fo Derk Fores and Interplay’ Desces. ‘While imitators struggled to catch up, Software were working on a same that would set the gaming world ligt once more, jas as Door had in 1994. I would bea 3-D shoot-em-up more realistic and more bloody than anything seen before. And it would be called. Quake! ver the 32X bade really ontebuted anything to the ul, such as Lucas 1 CHAPTER 16: 1996 ‘this point it was hard to believe that commercial video games had pen around longer thaa lot ofthe kids who were playing them. It ‘was alo hard to believe that it was oa 16 years ago that everyone was hooked on machines that could only display phosphor-buening white rectangles on black sesens and “boop... booop... boop” constituted soundtrack, And it was even harder to believe that people actually thought Space Invaders and Pac\ax were both terrific games. In dhose golden ays cf the ate 7s ven the mest ardent baioverin the fature ‘of video games would never have believed they would eventually be contol ling ful-eolur,photo-taisi, three cimensonal characters inthe comfort, oftheir own homes. Yet in 196 hat’ just the postion we ound ourselves in. This was year when the press repeatedly used the words "bes ever"10 Akescribe sme ofthe latest games. This was significant indeed, because within the sphere of video gates jouraliets these were regarded as sacred words that were once misused inthe survy same of hype, and rendered into cliche at some time between 1988 and 190. However, this time they were being used accurately and their meaning was thus restore. The new breed of consoles and computers provided a platform that allowed pro- smmers andl game designers to write the games they’ alays wanted to ‘Their imaginations had room to ron amok and they could now create the games weal dreamed of playing, Best Coin-Op Ever? ‘Most arcade development has vay ben hardvare-led and thas ofen been the technological advances thathave made new coin-ops exiting —why else ‘would anyone ave played Space Hariri nt tose the fantastic graphics and ride the haute chai? Now that home console hardware could do almost anything a dedicated coin-op could the emphasis had to be shifted ‘ack towards improving arcade software. Seas AM2 development team had sn-ups toa fine at, and it was widely thought gat much beter than Vira Figher 3 witht finely rendered characters andthe vast arty of techniques that players had to master, Sill the development of fighting gxmes continued though. Capcom, the company who revved the whole gene with Si Fghter I prepared Set refine the creation of beat that things Ser ie ston restarts ys PF es tio i Ai an aterm Se ego se eae p47 ne rte foie Su eatin ies SEN il 1996 Fighter I which would have more characters and more moves than exer before. Meanwhile Namess Tele tara bused themselves creating Tehker 3 ‘which they chimed would be beter than Virtua Fighter 3 Would it ever end? Best Racing Game Ever? ‘Thete were some terrific arade driving games launched over 1996, Sega's Manx TT and Namco’ Rave Racer among them, but some of the best rac ers appeared on consoles. Sturn owners had Sega Ral but PlayStation owners got an even heter deal when Psygnosi leased Forma One, Not only was it the Best console driving game, it was the biggest-selling CD tile fever and during is fst weekend on sale inthe UK 3,000 copies were snapped up by race-hungry punters. Formnula One was regarded as the best racing game on any home system though PC owners might have argued that Miroprose's Formula One Grad Pris put up some sil opposition. Though either ofthese could be regarded asthe all-time king of racing games, the ttle of Coolest Racing Game Ever Made had to goto another Paygnosis PlayStation te, Wipeour 2097 was a dream sequence in racing {game form. Is hyper-eal visuals and awesome special effects seduced the jes while che ambient soundtracks seemed to act on the subconscious mind unt the player's autonomic nervous system became synchronised 10 the pulsing ofthe has line. Oh yes. Best... Thing. Game Ever? PlyStation evners werent the only ones to have their senses treated, though. The creators of Sega's Sonic The Hedgchog games crested Saturn tame call NGHTS which defied categorisation. It was «soaring trip throug a surreal and beautiful 3D landscape where artificial life-forms lived and died and, if youd bother them, made up songs. twas so dit ferent from anything else tat Sega had t come up with a new contra pad just so Saturn owners could play it properly. NIGHTS — unique video gaming experience, Best Blast Ever! RAAR Everyone had Doom pegged as one of the best busting games wea id Software announced it yas working on something beter it was hard to imagine howe this was possible without some kind of tansdimen sional technology. But atthe start of 96, PC players got thei it taste of ‘Quake inthe form ofa fee three-level tes edition sd they went rad, cr, but Unlike Doom, Quake was a fll theee-dimensiomal game, with thre

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