History of video game consoles (fourth generation)
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In the history of computer and video games, the fourth generation (more commonly referred to as the 16 bit era) began on October 30, 1987 with the Japanese release of Nippon Electric Company's (NEC) PC Engine (known as the TurboGrafx-16 in North America). Although NEC released the first fourth generation console, this era was dominated by the rivalry between Nintendo and Sega's consoles; the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (the Super Famicom in Japan) and the Sega Mega Drive (named the Sega Genesis in North America due to trademark issues). Nintendo was able to capitalize on its previous success in the third generation and won a dominant market share in the fourth generation as well. Sega was also successful in this generation and began a new franchise, Sonic the Hedgehog, to compete with Nintendo's Mario series of games. Several other companies released consoles in this generation, but, with the exception of the Neo Geo, none of them were widely successful. Nevertheless, several other companies started to take notice of the maturing video game industry and began making plans to release consoles of their own in the future.
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[edit] Home systems
[edit] Launches
The PC Engine, the result of a collaboration between Hudson Soft and NEC, was launched in Japan on October 30, 1987 and was followed by the Sega Mega Drive on October 29, 1988. Both consoles were launched in North America during August 1989 (the PC Engine was released in North America as the TurboGrafx-16, and the Mega Drive as the Sega Genesis) and the Mega Drive was launched in Europe and Australia on November 30, 1990.
As the market quickly transitioned to the newer hardware, Nintendo saw the erosion of the commanding market share it had built up with the Famicom (called Nintendo Entertainment System in North America) and responded with its own fourth generation machine, the Super Famicom on November 21, 1990. The machine reached North America on the 1st of September, 1991 and in Europe and Australia in April, 1992.
Although initially popular in Japan, the PC Engine failed to maintain its sales momentum or to make a strong impact in North America, where it was unavailable by 1994.[citation needed] As a result the market was largely divided between Sega and Nintendo, who acted as direct competitors.
[edit] Marketing
[edit] NEC
Initially, the PC-Engine was quite successful in Japan, partly due to titles available on the then-new CD-ROM format. NEC released a CD add-on in 1990 and by 1992 had released a combination TurboGrafx and CD-ROM system known as the Turbo Duo.
In the USA, NEC used Bonk, a head-banging caveman, as their mascot and featured him in most of the TurboGrafx advertising from 1990 to 1994. The platform was well received initially, especially in larger markets, but failed to make inroads into the smaller metropolitan areas where NEC did not have as many store representatives or as focused in-store promotion.
The TurboGrafx-16 and its CD combination system, the Turbo Duo, ceased manufacturing in North America by 1994, though a small amount of software continued to trickle out for the platform. NEC released the 32-bit PC-FX console the same year in Japan. Plans were underway for a North American release of the PC-FX, but an already flooded market of platforms, including the more powerful 3DO and Atari Jaguar systems, caused TTI, who by then had the US rights to the TurboGrafx platform, to halt its North American release plans.
In Japan, a number of more adult titles were also available for the PC-Engine, such as a variety of strip mahjong games (such as the Super Real Mahjong series), which set it apart from its competitors.
[edit] Sega
Beginning in 1991, Sega built their marketing campaign in all regions around their mascot Sonic the Hedgehog, pushing him as the "cooler" alternative to Nintendo's mascot Mario and using his games as demonstrations of the technical capabilities of the system.
In the USA, their advertising was often directly adversarial, leading to commercials such as "Genesis does what Nintendon't" and the "'SEGA!' scream".
When the arcade game Mortal Kombat was ported for home release on the Mega Drive/Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo decided to censor the game's gore, but Sega kept the content in the game, hoping to position their console as the more "mature" product. Sega's gamble paid off, and its version of Mortal Kombat received generally higher and more favorable reviews in the gaming press. As a result of this, Nintendo reconsidered its position, and when Mortal Kombat II was ported to the SNES, all of the violence was intact.
[edit] Nintendo
Despite stiffer competition from Sega's Mega Drive console, Nintendo nevertheless remained the industry's leader and by the end of the fourth generation, the SNES was the clear winner in terms of both hardware and software sales.[citation needed] Nintendo's market position was defined by their machine's increased video and sound capabilities, as well as Sega's early falling out of the 16-bit market in favor of their next generation machine, the Sega Saturn.
[edit] Rise of franchises
While many of them originated in the 8-bit era, many of the major franchise titles came of age and solidified their grip on the market in the 16-bit era. Metroid, Zelda, Star Fox, Kirby, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Seiken Densetsu (Secret of Mana), Sonic the Hedgehog, Donkey Kong, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Mega Man X, and many others had either their first releases or some of their most popular titles during the 16-bit era.
Sonic the Hedgehog was Sega's bid to compete head-to head with Nintendo's Mario franchise. Sega came up with the idea of a character that they hoped would surpass Mario in many ways and the character ended up being Sonic the Hedgehog. Debuting in 1991, Sega's marketing of the Sonic franchise was key to Sega's success in the video game market during the early years of this generation.
Metroid was released in 1986 and quickly established itself as one of Nintendo's premiere titles. Super Metroid, released in 1994 on a whopping (at the time) 24 megabit cartridge for the SNES, was the third game in the series, after the original game and the Game Boy version that came out in 1991. Super Metroid still is regarded by many gaming organizations as one of the "best games of all time."[1]
Zelda's first game of the fourth generation, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, courted popularity that was larger than that of its predecessors on the NES. It was one of the few action-adventures to be released early in the SNES's lifecycle. Zelda II on the NES had been mostly action-based and was side-scrolling, while A Link to the Past drew more inspiration from the original Zelda game with its top-down adventure format.
Dragon Quest, although none of its installments were published outside of Japan during this era, remained the best-selling RPG franchise there. Two main installments came out for the SNES, as well as remakes of the first three games originally released for the NES and a dungeon crawler spin-off: Torneko's Great Adventure, which started Chun Soft's popular Fushigi no Dungeon series.
Star Fox was the first SNES game to feature the Super FX chip. This game also marked the first quest at stopping the evil Andross from taking over the Lylat System (which would later be reprised on its sequel Star Fox 64 for Nintendo 64 in 1997). There had been a Star Fox 2 with new characters in development for the SNES, but this game was canceled in the beta stages because of the approaching release of the N64.
Final Fantasy, although only two of the three FF games produced for the SNES were published in North America, both with their original numeration shifted (which still generates some confusion to this day), was very successful in Japan. However, it was not until the release of Final Fantasy VII on the PlayStation that it reached blockbuster status outside Japan.
Seiken Densetsu, although originally conceived as a "spin off" action adventure for the Game Boy ("Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden" in Japan, and "Final Fantasy Adventure" in the US), the series was reintroduced to Europe and North America in the form of Secret of Mana. The series has continued with Sword of Mana on the Game Boy Advance, Legend of Mana for the PlayStation, and Children of Mana for the Nintendo DS.
Street Fighter, which had already been widely successful as an arcade game, was released on the fourth generation consoles as Street Fighter II. Although the game did not suffer a significant loss of quality or features, there were a few changes. Sprites were decreased in size and the backdrops lost a bit of their flashiness, but for the most part it was a faithful recreation that sold voluminous copies. It is worth noting that, while the original Street Fighter was deemed innovative and fairly popular, it was the second game in the series that produced a lasting fanbase and set many of the trends seen in fighting games today, most notably its colorful selection of playable fighters from different countries across the globe.
Phantasy Star was Sega's RPG franchise that was established 1987 on the Sega Master System. It was the first console RPG game to reach Europe; almost a decade before Final Fantasy VII. Three sequels were released to the Mega Drive. With its sci-fi theme, the franchise was unique from fantasy-themed Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
Thunder Force was released on several computers in Japan in the mid-80s, but it was on the Mega Drive the series set new visual standards and musical high strides. [1] Thunder Force II, III and IV were all released for the Mega Drive, but the third game never reached Europe and the fourth was called Lightening Force (sic) in the US.
Seeking to follow the example of the above titles, several more franchises were born during this era, many of which have not survived to the present day. While game sequels were far from uncommon during the 8-bit era and even before, it was at this time that the potential for continuing series games was realized.
[edit] Add-ons
Nintendo, NEC and Sega also competed with hardware peripherals for their consoles in this generation. NEC was the first with the release of the TurboGrafx CD system in 1990. Retailing for $499.99 at release, the CD add-on was not a popular purchase, but was largely responsible for the platform's success in Japan. Sega made two attempts: the Sega Mega-CD (renamed Sega-CD in North America) and the Sega 32X, neither of which were very successful[citation needed]. The Sega CD was plagued by a high price tag ($300 at its release) and a limited library of games. The 32X faced a number of problems, primarily technical and commercial: the peripheral would occasionally not work with some consoles, and some retailers were not able to meet the initial demand for the add-on, leading to shortages[citation needed]. A unique add-on for the Sega console was Sega Channel. Sega Channel was a subscription based service hosted by local television providers. It required hardware that plugged into a cable line and the Sega.
Nintendo made an attempt with their successful Satellaview and Super Game Boy. The former was a satellite service released only on the Japanese market and the latter an adapter for the Super Nintendo that allowed Game Boy games to be displayed on a TV in color. Interestingly, Nintendo, working along with Sony, also had plans to create a CD-ROM drive for the Super NES, similar to the Sega CD, but eventually decided not to go through with that project, opting to team up with Philips in the development of the add-on instead. Sony decided to go ahead with the CD-ROM development and used the name "PlayStation" for their own stand-alone CD-based console, overseen by former SNES sound-chip engineer, Ken Kutaragi. The PlayStation went on to badly hurt CD-i sales, and Philips dropped the product line in 1998.
[edit] Gallery of add-ons
[edit] European and Australian importing
The fourth generation was also the era when the act of buying imported US games became more established in Europe, and regular stores began to carry them. This was especially popular with SNES games, due to several reasons, including the fact that the PAL region has a refresh rate of 50Hz (compared with 60Hz for NTSC) and a vertical resolution of 625 interlaced lines (576 effective), compared with 525/480 for NTSC.
This fact meant that a game designed for the NTSC standard without any modification would run 17% slower and have black bars at the top and bottom when played on a PAL television. Developers often had a hard time converting games designed for the American and Japanese NTSC standard to the European and Australian PAL standard. Companies such as Konami, with large budgets and a healthy following in Europe and Australia, readily optimised several games (such as the International Superstar Soccer series) for this audience, while most smaller developers did not.
Also, few RPGs were released in Europe because they would have needed to been translated into many different languages. RPGs tend to contain much more text than other genres, so one of the biggest problems was simply fitting all of the full translations into one cartridge. The cost of creating multiple full translations was also prohibitive. Only the UK and Australia saw any number of RPG releases, and even then the number was a fraction of what was being released in Japan. For the Mega Drive, there were numerous PAL releases of RPGs. Example includes Phantasy Star II, III and IV, Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force and its sequel, Sword of Vermilion, Super Hydlide, Landstalker, Story of Thor, Soleil and Light Crusader. Many of them received French and German translations [2].
Popular US games imported at this time included Final Fantasy II (known in Japan as Final Fantasy IV), Final Fantasy III (known in Japan as Final Fantasy VI), Secret of Mana, Street Fighter II, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG.
[edit] Comparison
| Name | TurboGrafx-16/PC-Engine | Sega Mega Drive/Genesis | Neo Geo | Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Console |   |
 |
 |
  |
| Launch prices (USD) | US$249.99 | US$190.00 | US$649.99 | US$199.99 |
| Release date | JP October 30, 1987 NA September 1, 1989 EU 1990 |
JP October 29, 1988 NA September 15, 1989 EU November 30, 1990 |
JP 1990 NA 1991 |
JP November 21, 1990 NA August 13, 1991 EU April 11, 1992 |
| Media | Data card CD-ROM (add-on) |
Cartridge CD-ROM (Sega CD add-on) |
Cartridge CD-Rom (Neo Geo CD - was also released as separate system) |
Cartridge |
| Best-selling games | Unknown | Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 6 million (as of June 2006)[4] | Unknown | Super Mario World, 20 million (as of June 25, 2007)[5] |
| Backward compatibility | None | Sega Master System (using Power Base Converter) | None | None |
| Accessories (retail) |
|
|
||
| CPU | HuC6280A (modified 65SC02) 1.79 or 7.16 MHz |
Motorola 68000 7.67 MHz (7.61 MHz PAL) |
Motorola 68000 12 MHz |
Nintendo-custom 5A22 (based on 65C816) 3.58 MHz (3.55 MHz PAL) |
| Memory | 8 KiB work RAM 64 KiB video RAM |
64 KiB main RAM 64 KiB video RAM 8 KiB audio RAM |
64 KiB main RAM 74 KiB video RAM 2 KiB audio RAM |
128 KiB main RAM 64 KiB video RAM 64 KiB audio RAM |
[edit] Other
 Amiga CDTV |
[edit] Worldwide sales standings
- See also: List of best-selling game consoles
| Console | Units sold |
|---|---|
| Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom | 49 million (as of August 4, 2007)[7] |
| Sega Mega Drive/Genesis | 29 million (as of May 15, 2007)[8][9] |
| TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine | 10 million (as of May 4, 2007)[6] |
| CD-i | 570,000 (as of May 4, 2007)[6] |
| Sega 32X (Mega Drive/Genesis add-on) | 200,000 (as of May 4, 2007)[6] |
[edit] Handheld systems
- See also: Comparison of handheld game consoles
[edit] Comparison
| Console | Game Boy | Atari Lynx | Sega Game Gear | Watara Supervision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image |  |
 |
 |
 |
| Launch price | ¥13,300 US$109.99 |
US$189.99 | ¥14,500 US$149.99 AUD $155 |
£585.00 |
| Release date |  April 21, 1989 August, 1989 1990 |
September 1989 1990 |
October 6, 1990 1991 1992 |
 January 13, 1992 |
| Media | Cartridge | Cartridge | Cartridge | Cartridge |
| Top-selling games | Tetris, 33 million (pack-in / separately).[10] Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green, approximately 20.08 million combined (in Japan and the US) (details).[11][12] |
Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
[edit] Other handhelds
 Game Boy Pocket |
 TurboExpress |
[edit] Software
[edit] References
- ^ 100 Games Of All Time. gamers.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-03.
- ^ http://new.guardiana.net/
- ^ Santulli, Joe (2005). Digital Press Collectors Guide. USA: Digital Press. ISBN 978-0970980700.
- ^ Daniel Boutros (2006-08-04). Sonic the Hedgehog 2. A Detailed Cross-Examination of Yesterday and Today's Best-Selling Platform Games. Gamasutra. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
- ^ Edge (2007-06-25). 1990. The Nintendo Years 2. Next-Gen.biz. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
- ^ a b c d Blake Snow (2007-05-04). The 10 Worst-Selling Consoles of All Time. GamePro.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-28.
- ^ Super NES. Classic Systems. Nintendo. Archived from the original on 2007-07-14. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ Greg Orlando (2007-05-15). Console Portraits: A 40-Year Pictorial History of Gaming 21. Wired News. Retrieved on 2007-09-08.
- ^ Ken Polsson. Chronology of Sega Video Games. Retrieved on 2006-12-01.
- ^ Did you know?. Nintendo. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
- ^ Japan Platinum Game Chart. The Magic Box. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
- ^ US Platinum Videogame Chart. The Magic Box. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
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