1986-1994 Games
From 1986-1994 the console wars were beginning full swing. All of the companies involved did some things right and some things wrong. Sega had some extremely popular advertising utilizing the Sega scream. A lot of people, even myself, would say the scream in random conversations. Sega and Nintendo both had mascots that were more recognized by children than Mickey Mouse. Not a single console on the market had backwards compatibility capabilities, which is an issue today’s market still struggles with. Magnavox, SNK, and Nintendo all released some amazing, ahead of its time hardware with the Odyssey 2, NeoGeo, and Virtual Boy. The cost and the lack of content caused those consoles to fail however. Nintendo learned from that mistake when launching the Super NES after the Virtual Boy. The library Nintendo had for the Super NES was much, much larger than that of the Virtual Boy. Sega basically put them selves out of the hardware game by releasing the Saturn and Dreamcast so close together. Software companies would not release as many games for the Sega Saturn since Sega’s actions proved the console was dispensable. Since content dictates the success of any console, the Sega Saturn rapidly failed. The Turbografx lacked proper advertisement so it dropped out rather quickly as well, being beaten by Nintendo and Sega.
Within this time period, I think the console that dominated them all was the NES. The NES was the first of its kind and allowed Nintendo to essentially dominate the market for quite some time. I’ve personally owned a NES, Sega Genesis, Super NES, Sega Saturn and Sega Dreamcast during this time period. The consoles that had the largest library in my house were for the NES and the Super NES. In fact, my favorite game of all time, Secret of Mana, was released on the Super NES. My Super NES I still have which is hooked up and ready, with a multi-tap, to play Secret of Mana. Other games I frequent on my Super NES are Street Fighter II, Super Mario World, Paperboy, the Lord of the Rings vol. 1, Starfox, Prince of Persia, and Mortal Kombat.
Kent, S. (2001). The ultimate history of video games. (first ed.). New York, NY: Three Rivers Press.
Blog link: http://fs-gamedesign.ning.com/profiles/blogs/console-wars-1986-1994-9
