The Console Wars I

[Ayen]

In the 1990's two video game companies battled for supremacy in a world gone mad. Shipping out console after console, handheld systems, platformer trademarks and advertisements that made kids on playgrounds argue with each other non-stop about which was better. Otherwise known as the bit wars, 8bits versus 16bits, a bit war that would come to an end with the launch of the Super Nintendo, but the war was only getting started. And now I take you back to those years to finally decide which brand name will stand tall, and which brand name will fall! Without further ado...


49339
Color TV Game, NES, Game Boy, SNES, N64, Game Boy Color
Mascot: Mario

VS

49340
SG-1000, Master System, Megadrive/Genesis, Game Gear, 32X, Sega CD, Saturn, Dreamcast
Mascot: Sonic

BEGIN!

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I'm putting all of my money on SEGA right now. They'll be making consoles forever, I just know it!

[Pike]

Both systems were great and had a lot of gems on them but I have to give the slight edge to Nintendo for having slightly more gems on their system. I love love LOVE Sonic but I can't in good conscience put it above Yoshi's Island, Super Mario World, Super Mario RPG, DKC (especially 2), Uniracers, Tetris Attack, FF6 and so forth. Also had the better sound system. LOVE me some Genesis music but when you YouTube games that were released on both consoles and compare the music on them... that's when the SNES truly is what Genesisn't.

As an aside does anyone else remember when this console war was SERIOUS BUSINESS to us kids?

EDIT: Oh is this more than SNES/Genesis? It's Nintendo vs. Sega as companies? That's tougher; still gotta go with Nintendo I think.

[Ayen]

I decided to throw them all in there just for the sake of one major bloodbath. The introduction was just a bit of history.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

As a kid or whatever, SEGA not coming out with another system after the Dreamcast really was a shock. I couldn't imagine the gaming console market without Nintendo and Genesis.

Nintendo does get the edge as a company, though. Mainly for the reasons Pike listed above... In general, the Nintendo consoles just had more gems. Genesis had some great games, but not as many. Genesis also made some real marketing/decision making flaws which led to the downfall of the company.

[Mirage]

OOC: I think we should all keep in character and type as if we are actually in the year 1990, communicating on a BBS through dialup connections. No talk about things that are yet to happen!


Come on guys, what's PC doing on that list? Everybody knows that Amiga is where it's at when it comes to multimedia and games on computers. An immense amount of games, real multitasking operating system, dozens of peripheral equipment available, including a number of joysticks and gamepads to fit every true gamer's needs. Also, you can play a lot of older generation amiga games on the newest model, for those of us who are into more oldschool games.

[Pike]

I think we should all keep in character and type as if we are actually in the year 1990, communicating on a BBS through dialup connections. No talk about things that are yet to happen!

My dad works at Nintendo

[Ayen]

Nintendo wins it, and I would have said the same in 1999 (please note the consoles list goes as far as the Dreamcast which came out in 98) for one simple reason: Nintendo just has better games. Sega best point IMO was the Megadrive/Genesis and after that I can barely remember any of the games that came out on Saturn and Dreamcast and even with the Genesis a lot of the games on there you could also get on the SNES. The Dreamcast was a good system and ahead of its time but all of that doesn't mean much when you hardly have any games worth noting.

[Del Murder]

What sane person would think Sega won the console wars?

[Ayen]

I can't tell if you're joking or not (story of my life) but this thread is about which side you thought was personally better not who actually won.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Sega and Nintendo are pretty cool, but I've heard tell of another system called the TurboGrafx-16 (also known as the PC Engine elsewhere). I don't know nothing about NEC, but this thing is boasting 16 BITS!!! So many bits!

[Bolivar]

It's kinda unfair to compare the brands because Sega really struggled on almost every system except the Genesis. Of course Nintendo had the better enduring legacy. I never owned a game gear but when I finally emulated it the games were way ahead of their time compared to what I had on my gameboy.

As far as the Genesis and SNES, they both had such a deep and diverse library of classics, it's redundant to suggest that one of them had more. It's going to come down to which one you played the most regardless of any attempt to rationalize why.

[Ayen]

Welp, this was a gross miscalculation on my part. Should have stuck with my original idea of this being a SNES/Genesis thread or pit Nintendo against PlayStation, probably would have been more even.

Oh well, I'll wait a bit before making another one. There's still a chance someone from the Sega side will remind us the Virtual Boy existed.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

The Virtual Boy was ahead of it's time and a great piece of hardware. Nintendo is what Genesisn't.

I actually have never played a Virtual Boy. I've always wanted to just to see how bad it really is.

What about the Atari Jaguar, everyone? 64 BITS!

[Ayen]

What about the Atari Jaguar, everyone? 64 BITS!

I like how together with the Jaguar CD it looks like a toilet.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Sega wasn't much better. With the genesis + 32x + Sega CD. It looked like an abomination, especially since all of those things had their own power supply you had to plug in.

Edit: The jaguar might as well have been a toilet, though.

[Ayen]

One looked like a toilet the other looked like it was on life support.

We only had the 32X at our house. It's how we were able to play Doom back when it first came out. Never had a Sega CD which apparently scared Nintendo so much they made that deal with Sony to make their own CD console which backfired and led to Sony making their own console with the PlayStation -themoreyouknow.jpeg-

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Didn't Nintendo also make a deal with Phillips for a CD add-on/system? I feel like that's why they were able to make their own Zelda and Mario games for the Phillips CD-i or whatever it was called.

[Ayen]

I have no idea, either way that was a terrible error in judgment that has led the way for some of the funniest YouTube videos ever invented.

There's no way the developers working on those games thought they were good, no way. CD-i were master trolls.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

After looking it up, I was indeed right. Phillips had the rights to do these things after Nintendo was partnering with them to create a cd add-on for the SNES which was never released. This was after the failed partnership with Sony I guess.

It's kind of crazy to think about how many systems got put on the market back then.

[Ayen]

I think the first couple of console generations had the most systems on the market out of all of them before it became mostly dominated by three companies. Well, I suppose Sony and Microsoft kinda have Nintendo beat in the market these days.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Now the real question is, when will we start seeing Microsft, Sony, and Nintendo making cartridge add-ons for their newer systems so we can start coming full circle.

[Ayen]

I'll get a hat just so I can eat it if Sony or Microsoft come out with a cartridge anything.

[Sephex]

Had both and a Turbo Grafx 16. Loved SNES the best, and I consider it the best console to this day.

[Hollycat]

Out of the two? NES wins.

Both lost to Sony the next two generations, Sega then died and was absorbed by Nintendo. Nintendo lost in terms of software sales the next generation, and is posed to lose entirely this generation.

[Ayen]

Both lost to Sony the next two generations, Sega then died and was absorbed by Nintendo. Nintendo lost in terms of software sales the next generation, and is posed to lose entirely this generation.

This depresses me.

[Hollycat]

Both lost to Sony the next two generations, Sega then died and was absorbed by Nintendo. Nintendo lost in terms of software sales the next generation, and is posed to lose entirely this generation.

This depresses me.

Chin up, in terms of Handhelds, Nintendo will keep winning for as long as Pokemon remains Nintendo Exclusive.

Unlike Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc. No one is brave enough to try and create a direct competitor to pokemon.

[Ayen]

-insert mandatory Digimon joke here-

[Hollycat]

-insert mandatory Digimon joke here-

Competitor in Show only.
It was a good show though.

[Shiny]

SUPER NINTENDO SEGA GENESIS when I was young I couldn't picture this. :colbert:

And I couldn't because I was poor.

But really, I had a SNES, my brother had a SNES and NES. Then later I got a Sega Saturn because I wanted to play Knights and a bunch of Sonic games. My fondest memories are on my Gameboy Color in which I spent countless hours playing Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow, and Gold. I loved PC games too and spent a lot of time with Sims, Quake, and Lucas Arts games, but PC gaming didn't become hardcore until around age 13-16.

[Ayen]

I'll never forget how I had to stop and go poop in Digimon World.

Poor Shiny, I'll hop in the TARDIS and give child you a SNES/Genesis. I only had the Genesis growing up thanks to my brother.

[Botchmun]

I owned both the NES and SNES while my cousin owned a SEGA Genesis. There was no grueling rivalry, they was no Smega and Nintendon't jokes, we just both like playing the videro garmez. Nowadays that cousin has about three Geneses and my still-functional NES went to my younger cousin, damn thing still works and its over two decades old.

Since I'm a 'both' guy I voted PC but Sega did win when it comes to advertising... Specifically advertising the white Sega Saturn:

Segata Sanshiro Sega Saturn Commercials - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIYDxmnKHY)

[Madame Adequate]

Sega does what Nintendon't, y'all Americans don't know shit about shit and should get out.

[Ayen]

Sega does what Nintendon't, y'all Americans don't know trout about trout and should get out.

I knew I could count on you.

[Sephex]

Sega does what Nintendon't, y'all Americans don't know shit about shit and should get out.

Nintendo is what Geneisn't. ;)

IT WASN'T CALLED THAT IN TEA AND CRUMPETS LAND BLAH BLAH BLAH

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Sega spawned Sonic which spawned the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon.

Nintendo spawned Mario which spawned the Super Mario Bros Super Show.

The Sonic cartoon was clearly better. Sega does what Nintendon't.

Seriously though, I think I do like Sonic over Mario when it comes to the SNES/Genesis days. But when it comes to other games outside of our two mascots, I still say Nintendo has the edge for me personally. This is simply due to nostalgia factor, I'm sure. I played more NES/SNES/GB games as a kid than I played Genesis/Game Gear games. My family simply owned more games for the Nintendo systems. I think all I really had going for me for the Genesis was the 3 Sonic games and Quackshot Starring Donald Duck. I may have even had more Turbografx games than Genesis games.

[Quindiana Jones]

All these awful puns are Mega Driving me up the wall.

[Botchmun]

Sega spawned Sonic which spawned the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon.

Nintendo spawned Mario which spawned the Super Mario Bros Super Show.

The Sonic cartoon was clearly better. Sega does what Nintendon't.

Which Sonic cartoon? 'Cuz something tells me that someone touched you in a way or in a place that makes you feel uncomfortable. that's no good!

[Scotty_ffgamer]

If I was talking about that particular cartoon, I would have called it The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.:colbert: I will admit that I like that one a lot more than I should, though.

I just hate using the identifier SatAM for the good Sonic cartoon.

[Botchmun]

considering that Robotnik will always be the best sonic character, just call it "Jim Cummings featuring Sonic" or "Long John Baldry featuring Sonic" to tell SatAM from YTPSonic.

[Jiro]

I got a real soft spot for SEGA. I only dabbled in Nintendo through the Gameboy and occasionally playing SNES/N64 at friends' houses. SEGA still have some good stuff, and Nintendo is a little bit whack these days, but back in the day I was betting on the wrong horse all the way :p

[Psychotic]

Amiga for life :colbert:

I think in Britain, Sega beat the fuck out of Nintendo, with the former being seen as for REAL COOL DUDES and Nintendo being seen as a console for GIGANTIC NERDY DWEEBS. Either way, I had neither.

[Ayen]

Yeah, I know the Master System in particular did real well in Europe and other parts of the world. It just wasn't able to capture the market in the US for one reason or another.

[Slothy]

Sega does what Nintendon't, y'all Americans don't know shit about shit and should get out.

Sega was bigger on your continent as I understand it. Nintendo didn't really like Europe, I assume because of the french.

Anyway, if we're going to talk about who won the console war, we might as well look at each generations best systems.

NES vs. Master System: NES is kind of the obvious winner here. Massive library of games, kicked off the game industry not being dead anymore, and sold more. A lot more.

SNES vs. Genesis: Much closer in terms of sales. Genesis had strong support in Europe and a nice library of it's own. I barely give the SNES the edge though because Nintendo was putting out some amazing first party stuff, and a lot of real classics were released for it, but if someone were to tell me they thought the Genesis was better I wouldn't blame them. Sadly it's peripheralitis kind of screwed Sega later on.

N64 vs. Saturn: The N64 is the obvious choice. As a console for 3D games it was just better. As in it wasn't even a competition. The Saturn was also mired by a surprise early launch and high price that meant early support sucked. It did have an excellent controller for 2D games though, and some excellent, arcade perfect, game ports. It had a lot more potential than I think most companies got out of it, but Sega really misjudged the market quite a bit and suffered from it, while the N64, which didn't do that well either to be honest, did have an excellent 3D console with some great games.

Gamecube vs. Dreamcast: The Dreamcast is basically the greatest console ever made and the Gamecube... well... it's not even close. Third party support for the Gamecube basically disappeared, while their first party games were largely worse rehashes of N64 games. Meanwhile the Dreamcast, while it lasted, had the single greatest launch library in history, and some of the best games ever made came out later. Hell, it's launch library isn't even just good for a launch library. Most launch games kind of suck or are decent games but more tech demo's than anything. But the games released on Dreamcast were just plain amazing games.

So Sega had some closely fought battles going on, but was mostly on the losing side every generation. But since they're the only ones who can lay claim to the title of best console of all time, I'm inclined to give them the nod overall. :)

[Del Murder]

Why do you always say the Dreamcast is the best? What are these great games for it? If it is so good then why did it tank?

[Ayen]

What are these great games for it?

I'd be curious to see the answer to this. For me it felt like Sega didn't have many games that grasped your attention after you left the Genesis for the Saturn and Dreamcast. With the Dreamcast I can only remember Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Space Channel 5 Part 2, Sega Bass Fishing, WWF Attitude (which was multiplatform but did have slightly better graphics than the PS1 and N64 ports) Legacy of Kain (which was also multiplatform) and Resident Evil Code Veronica before Code Veronica X came out for the PS2.

As for the system itself I think one of the major things that hurt it was the hype for the PS2 overshadowing its existence as well as the planned introduction for the Nintendo Gamecube and Microsoft making a bid to enter the console race with the Xbox.

[Slothy]

Why do you always say the Dreamcast is the best? What are these great games for it? If it is so good then why did it tank?

I say the Dreamcast is the best because it is legitimately one of the best consoles ever made. What were the games it had? Let me list a few:
Sonic Adventure
Soul Calibur
Grandia 2
Skies of Arcadia
Power Stone
Power Stone 2
Space Channel 5
Crazy Taxi
Crazy Taxi 2
Shenmue
RE: Code Veronica
Dynamite Cop
The House of the Dead 2
Virtual Tennis
Virtual Tennis 2
Marvel vs. Capcom
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
Street Fighter 3 (pretty much every variant)
Metropolis Street Racer
Samba De Amigo
The Typing of the Dead
Jet Grind Radio

And I'm probably missing quite a few. Hell, I didn't even name great import games like Ikaruga. I'd have trouble naming that many good games for a lot of consoles that lasted a lot more than 2 years. The Dreamcast library was truly amazing.

As for why it failed, try releasing two failed peripherals for the Genesis, having the Saturn fail miserably, and then see how well you do when Sega of America fails to properly support and market the console. There were a lot of things that went wrong and lead to the Dreamcast failing. The console and the game library were not two of those things.

[Botchmun]

Amiga for life :colbert:

this. We Amiga kids were experimenting with 3D and playing hardcore psygnosis titles back when Sega and Nintendo were just figuring out 8 bit consoles. Even in the 80s there was a PC master race.

[Vyk]

For my part, SEGA always accepted the idea of more mature gamers. Nintendo always wanted to be for kids. SEGA encouraged experimentation and innovation, especially on the Dreamcast. Nintendo always wanted to play it safe. So I really had a bit more respect for SEGA in the day, and for a long time after their failings. So I'd give the point to them in the long run. But these days I care very little for either company. Nintendo's played it too safe to interest me much at all anymore and Sega is all but dead these days.

[Del Murder]

Nintendo played it safe with the Wii, WiiU, DS, and 3DS?

[Bolivar]

With their target demographic and some of their franchises in their mid-20s I'd say so.

[Del Murder]

I don't know what that post means. :confused:

[Bolivar]

I don't know what that post means. :confused:

Their target demographic is still kids, to the point that the latest entries in their longest running franchises are being dumbed down more than they've ever been. Vyk has criticized them for catering to children while the rest of their competitors have been willing to mature with their players, and this unwillingness to branch out is certainly playing it safe.

And when they're on the 11th Zelda and 17th Mario game it's hard to say they're taking risks, especially when the big selling points on a lot of those recent games is a return to their older formats!

I do understand what you meant about the hardware risks, though.

[Elskidor]

Chin up, in terms of Handhelds, Nintendo will keep winning for as long as Pokemon remains Nintendo Exclusive.

Unlike Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc. No one is brave enough to try and create a direct competitor to pokemon.

Pokemon is still a thing? Wow. I still don't even know what a Pokemon is. I went to the movie in the 90's and couldn't get into it so I just chatted with a friend. I'm surprised it's still around, it seemed to be dying off and people got made fun of in my high school for liking.

[Jiro]

How do you not know Pokémon? Wow! I thought that was one of those things that just pervasive in pop culture.

Also the Dreamcast probably would've been an excellent console had it been released later. It was just trying to do too many things that technology didn't support yet. "Before its time" is perhaps one way to put it. Certainly gave the PS2 free reign after that though.

[Pike]

I highly recommend that anyone who hasn't played Pokemon do so. It's not "too late" to jump into it and I know first-timers who have fallen in love with the recent iteration X/Y. Even if you missed the initial bandwagon it's still a great little RPG.