History Of Videogames

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WonderSwan Review
2007-03-21 14:56:00
The Wonder Swan is a portable gaming system released back in '98 in Japan and a few other Asian countries. The WonderSwan is inexpensive, costs around 4800 yen ($50), about the price of a new game, and the games aren't much more expensive, and are around $35-40. Also, battery life is the longest of the portables I've played, so this is a good portable for a person that doesn't have much money, and want a portable gaming system.Size, Button Layout & Controls9/10The WS is a small system, at around 74.3 X 121 X 17.5 milimeters, it is smaller than the GBA, and will easily fit into a back pocket. If you use an AA battery, the size increases to a 74.3 X 121 X 24.3 milimeters, but it isn't much of a problem. The only thing that might be problematic is that there is an area that is protruding in the shape of a battery and it gets in the way of the grip, but you'll probably live with it.The button layout for the WS is odd, as there are two buttons and two D-pad like buttons. Most games ...
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Jaguar History - Technical Aspects
2007-03-20 02:18:00
In 1991, the Sega Genesis was at the cutting edge of videogame technology in America and enjoying strong sales. NEC's Turbografx-16 was a distant second, and the Super Nintendo was yet to be released. Rumors swirled about various new peripherals and consoles - Genesis and Neo-Geo CD drives, the Sony Playstation, and a CD drive for the forthcoming Super Nintendo. Another rumor to circulate in 1991 was that Atari was back with a new 32-bit console called the Panther that was set to debut against the Super Nintendo later that year. However, after the Summer CES that year, Atari announced that the Panther was cancelled so that they could concentrate on a new machine, the 64-bit Jaguar . Behind the scenes, Atari had actually been developing both systems at the same time, but the Jaguar had progressed at such a rate that it made sense to skip the Panther. Atari was very tight-lipped about its new machine at first, but then it began sending out press releases announcing the Jaguar with var...
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The Idea for 32X
2007-03-20 02:15:00
The idea for the 32X originally came from Sega of Japan and was handed to Sega of America to work on. SOA decided that it was better for the unit to be an upgrade to the existing Mega Drive rather than a separate console. This move would have the advantage of making the 32X more appealing to users who would rather upgrade their current hardware then buy an all-new standalone console. SOA went with the SOJ design plan to have twin 32-bit processors and a separate graphics processor. In November 1994, the 32X was released in the US, a month later in Japan (where it was called the Super 32X) and in January 1995 in Europe.At first, the 32X was a success. Sega was unable to ship the 1 million units it had promised and ended up shipping about half of that to retailers because of slow production. Nevertheless, the 32X sold out in many areas and Genesis owners were keen to get their hands on it in time for Christmas. With a non-existent library of games and none bundled with the unit, consu...
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32X History - 32X games and History
2006-11-03 09:06:00
The Sega 32X (Japanese: ????32X) is an add-on for the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis video game console by Sega.In Japan, it was distributed under the name Sega Super 32X. In North America, its name was the Sega Genesis 32X. In Europe, Australia, and other countries that use PAL, it was called the Sega Mega Drive 32X. Most gamers, for simplicity's sake, refer to it as just the "32X".Market historyWith the release of the Super Famicom in Japan and the Super NES in North America, Sega needed to leapfrog Nintendo in the technological department. The Sega Mega-CD, known as Sega CD in North America, had not worked as well, in a business sense, as Sega had wanted it to. Sega had various developments underway, named after planets. Some used System 16 technology, as the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis, as well as other arcade games, did.The 32X was released in mid-November 1994 in North America for $150, Japan on December 3rd 1994 for ¥16,800, and Europe in January 1995 for £170 / DM 400.Techni...
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Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
2006-11-03 09:01:00
From Geekcomix:The Nintendo Enter tainment System was released in America in 1985, after some limited success in Japan as the Famicom. Over the next few years, its user base would grow exponentially until the NES surpassed the Atari VCS/2600 peak set in 1982.6 As of 1990, there were over 19 million NES systems in the United States alone.5In addition to the tremendous success of the system, its games had a great deal prosperity. For example, Super Mario Bros. 3 released in 1989 grossed over $500 million just in America. In the field of entertainment, only the movie E.T. has made more revenue.3 Super Mario Bros. 3 would sell more than 7 million copies in America and 4 million in Japan, which is more copies than any other game in history. Sheff wrote, "By record-industry standards, 'SMB3' went platinum eleven times. Michael Jackson is one of the few artists to have accomplished this feat."9By 1990, the money earned from Nintendo's NES and its games allowed Nintendo to usurp Toyota as...
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American Laser Games History
2006-10-29 11:11:00
American Laser Game s was a company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico that created a wide variety of light gun laserdisc video games. The company was founded in the late 1980's by Robert Grebe, who had originally created the system to train police officers, and later adapted the technology to more mainstream entertainment.The company lasted until the late 1990's, by which time it had begun making games for the 3DO and "games for girls" for the PC (under the moniker Her Interactive), beginning with McKenzie & Co.. In 2001, the development and publishing rights to all of the games that were produced by American Laser Games were purchased by Digital Leisure, Inc. Many of these games were then re-released for the PC and in DVD TV game format.The company also released a light-gun controller, the PC Gamegun, for home computer use. It proved unsuccessful, however, due to its poor accuracy.Laserdisc + Light Gun Arcade GamesMad Dog McCree Who Shot Johnny Rock? Gallagher's Gallery Mad Do...
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Ms. Pac-Man Trivia
2006-10-29 11:04:00
A Ms. Pac-Man machine has a storyline based around it in the Friends episode The One Where Joey Dates Rachel. The plotline revolves around Chandler entering rude words onto the game's high-score screen and then attempting to beat his scores (thus removing them) before Ross's seven year old son arrives. In reality, Ms. Pac-Man doesn't have a high-score screen, displaying only the single best score, and the game doesn't allow players to enter their initials. In one series of strips in Bill Amend's popular newspaper comic strip FoxTrot, Jason Fox, who is in fifth grade and still detests girls, has a nightmare in which he is romanced by Tomb Raider heroine Lara Croft. In one of these strips, Lara keeps trying to persuade Jason to play her game, and Jason declares that he'll never play a video game starring a girl. At this point, Lara says, "Permit me to reintroduce you to someone," and Ms. Pac-Man appears: "Hi, Jason. Remember me?" A Ms. Pac-Man unit appears in the 1983 movie "War...
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Activision History
2006-10-29 09:59:00
Prior to the formation of Activision, software for video game consoles was published exclusively by the makers of the systems for which the games were designed. For example, Atari was the only publisher of games for the Atari 2600. This was particularly galling to the developers of the games, as they received no financial rewards for games that did well, and didn't even receive credit in the manuals. After watching a number of games turn into multi-million-dollar best sellers, a number of programmers decided they had had enough and left. Activision became the first third-party game publisher for game consoles.[1]The company was founded by former music industry executive Jim Levy and former Atari programmers David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead. Atari's company policy at the time was not to credit game creators for their individual contributions; Levy took the approach of crediting and promoting game creators along with the games themselves. This was an importan...
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Sega 32X - Quick History and Specs List
2006-10-20 14:29:00
The 32x debuted in 1994. It was an add-on for the Genesis. It connects to the Genesis by plugging-in the unit into the Genesis's cartage port. It is said that the 32x increase the speed of the unit by 19x! This increase in performance is possible thanks to its 2 RISC based processors.The 32XThe Sega 32X added better color (finally), faster performance, and 3D graphics to the Genesis and Sega CD. The whole idea is sort of strange considering that when you get the Genesis and attach a Sega CD and the 32X you now have a huge chunk of hardware worth well over $400 with massive parallel processing power that still pales in comparison to say a Saturn. Still, the whole thing wasn't too bad with some great translations like Virtua Racing Deluxe and Virtua Fighter. The system had a few notable titles released before it's quick demise at the release of the Saturn and Playstation.The idea of emulating every aspect of the 32X is quite a challenge. You'd have to emulate both the Genesis and ...
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Pong TV Game - History
2006-10-20 14:22:00
The paleolithic ?pong?in the beginning, there was nothing. well, actually, there waspinball, some shooting gallery games, a few nickel peep-showmachines and those mechanical genies that would guess yourweight and give a glimpse of your future. but it was probablypretty hard trying to beat your buddies at who weighs less.(there was bell, there was edison, there was fermi. and then there was higinbotham)---'tennis for two' on an oscilloscopeworking at brookhaven national laboratory, a us nuclear researchlab in upton, new york, william a. higinbotham, a chain-smoking,fun-loving character and self-confessed pinball player, wants todevelop an open house exhibit at bnl that will entertain people asthey learn. his idea is to use a small analog computer in the lab tograph and display the trajectory of a moving ball on an oscilloscope,with which users can interact.missile trajectory plotting is one of the specialties of computers atthis time, the other being cryptography.along with technic...
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Krisalis Software - Company Profiles
2006-10-17 20:19:00
Formerly known as Teque, Krisalis was a leading UK developer and publisher of quality strategy and soccer games. Here's a brief profile from the company's website back in 1996: "As well as producing games for Spectrum, Amiga, ST and many consoles, Krisalis was an ardent supporter of the slightly neglected Archimedes market. Krisalis brought major games created by other companies to Archimedes owners that they would have otherwise missed out on such as Chuck Rock, Populous, James Pond, Lemmings and Lotus Challenge. The number of people employed by Krisalis has continued to increase steadily over the years, and the number of staff on the Krisalis books now nears 40. As the numbers increased, so did the need for more office space, and so 1996 saw the expansion into adjacent buildings. As computers and consoles have come & gone, so Krisalis have evolved and looked to the next wave of machines. From development of games for Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC and MSX, through Amiga, ST, Megadri...
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3DO History
2006-10-16 21:29:00
Similar to the goal of the Phillips CD-I, a company called 3D0 set out to create a new standard in multimedia. Their creation became the 3D0 Interactive Multiplayer. It was capable of running 3D0 interactive software (games), Audio CD?s, CD+G, Photo CD, and Video CD?s using an add on. Rather then manufacturing their new system, 3D0 decided to make 3D0 Interactive Multiplayer a franchise. Sanyo, Panasonic and Goldstar all bought rights to manufacture the 3D0 system. Once produced and sold, 3D0 would claim a royalty for each system and $3 for each game sold.In October of 1993, Panasonic began sales of the first 3D0 Interactive Multiplayer. The systems capabilities were clearly quite ahead of it?s time. Although it was not the first 32-bit system in history, the 3D0 was the first 32-bit system in the United States. The images shown are of Panasonic?s 3D0 models FZ-1 R.E.A.L 3D0 Interactive Multiplayer, and FZ-10 3D0 Interactive Multiplayer. There are several more models established by ...
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US 32X Game List
2006-10-16 21:25:00
US 32X Game List Afterburner - 32X Version of the Sega Arcade ClassicBlackthorne - Enhanced version of the Rough-Tough Interplay Sidescroller.Cosmic Carnage - Stupid Futuristic Boxing Game 32X Style!Doom - 32X Version the PC Shooter (32X version doesn't even run full screen tho..)Evander Hollyfield 'Real Deal' Boxing - Beatdown by HollyfieldKnuckles Chaotix - 32X's Sonic titleKolibri - It's got a hummingbird on the cover.Mortal Kombat 2 - Better graphics than the SNES version, but terrible sound.Motocross Championship - Dirt bikin' fun, just like ESPN2!NBA Jam: Tournament Edition - Coo B-bal game, this version second only to Jaguar and PSX.NFL Quarterback Club - Football GameNight Trap (32XCD) - Cheezy FMV and a whip-cream bikini, woohoo!Pitfall: the Mayan Adventure - Sidescroll Adventure, the Jaguar version is better =)Primal Rage - Dino-Fighting!, by Atari, Jag CD version is also good.R.B.I. Baseball '95 - Sega Sports Baseball GameSlam City With Scotty Pippin (32XCD) - All F...

32X Games Reviews Part 1
2006-10-16 21:11:00
AFTERBURNER (1 PLAYER) 60%Afterburner is based on a late 80's arcade jet fighter game of the same name, you view the action from behind your plane, which is equipped with machine guns and lock-on missiles. Game play is strictly arcade and the graphics and sound are much better than the Megadrive version, (due to faster scaling and more colors) but gameplay is where it fails ... miserably, there is no skill or technique required for playing, the action is so fast and frantic that if you thinklook at what your shooting, you'll be dead! and you wont know what hit you. The only way to make any progress in the game is to, turn the difficulty right down, put your guns on auto fire, and wobble the D-pad around like a nutter! WHERE'S THE FUN IN THAT! This coupled with an over responsive cross hair, and hit or miss controls, seals the games fate.BBC RACERS (2 PLAYERS) 40%BC Racers is a Mario Kart style game set in the stone age, the characters are funny, colorful and well drawn, each have...
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Sega Dreamcast History
2006-10-16 21:01:00
The Sega Dream cast (Japanese: code-named "Blackbelt," "Dural," and "Katana" during development) was Sega's seventh & final video game console and the successor to the company's Sega Saturn. An attempt to recapture the console market with a next-generation system, it was designed to supersede Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo 64, and although generally considered to be "ahead of its time" (literally fifteen months before the PlayStation 2 and three years (based on original release dates, not U.S. release dates) before GameCube or Xbox) it failed to gather enough momentum before the release of the PlayStation 2 in March 2000. After the Dreamcast was discontinued, Sega withdrew entirely from the console hardware business.History When the time came to design the successor to the Sega Saturn, the new President of Sega, Shoichiro Irimajiri, took the unusual step of hiring an outsider. He hired Tatsuo Yamamoto from IBM Austin to head a skunkworks group to develop the next-generation consol...
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Sega 32X - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2006-10-16 20:48:00
The Sega 32X (Japanese: ????32X) is an add-on for the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis video game console by Sega.In Japan, it was distributed under the name Sega Super 32X. In North America, its name was the Sega Genesis 32X. In Europe, Australia, and other countries that use PAL, it was called the Sega Mega Drive 32X. Most gamers, for simplicity's sake, refer to it as just the "32X".Market historyWith the release of the Super Famicom in Japan and the Super NES in North America, Sega needed to leapfrog Nintendo in the technological department. The Sega Mega-CD, known as Sega CD in North America, had not worked as well, in a business sense, as Sega had wanted it to. Sega had various developments underway, named after planets. Some used System 16 technology, as the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis, as well as other arcade games, did.The 32X was released in mid-November 1994 in North America for $150, Japan on December 3rd 1994 for ¥16,800, and Europe in January 1995 for £170 / DM 400.Techni...
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Nintendo 64 - Ultra 64 - Brief history (Wikipedia)
2006-10-16 20:41:00
The Nintendo 64 (Japanese: ????????????? Nintend? Rokuj?yon), commonly called the N64, is Nintendo's third home video game console for the international market. The N64 was released on June 23, 1996 in Japan; September 29, 1996 in North America; March 1, 1997 in Europe/Australia, September 1, 1997 in France, October 15, 1997 in Brazil (the system also saw a release in Latin America, albeit an unofficial one). It was released with three launch games in Japan (Super Mario 64, Pilotwings 64 and Saikyou Haniu Shogi), and two in North America and PAL region (Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64). The Nintendo 64 cost $199 at launch in the United States.The N64 was first publicly introduced on November 24, 1995 as the Nintendo Ultra 64 at the 7th Annual Shoshinkai Software Exhibition in Japan (though preview pictures from the Nintendo "Project Reality" console had been published in American magazines as early as June 1993). The first published photos from the event were presented on the web ...
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Sega Saturn History - from Wikipedia
2006-10-16 20:36:00
The Sega Saturn (??????, Sega Sat?n?) is a 32-bit video game console, first released on November 22, 1994 in Japan, April 27, 1995 in North America and July 8, 1995 in Europe. Approximately 170,000 machines were sold the first day of the Japanese launch. 5,000 were sold in the weekend following the United Kingdom launch.At one time, the Sega Saturn held second place in the console wars, placing it above Nintendo's Super Famicom in Japan and Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in North America and Europe, but the Saturn slowly lost market share to Sony's PlayStation and, outside Japan, the cartridge-based Nintendo 64.The Japanese Saturn was rushed to the market, just a few weeks ahead of its rival, Sony's PlayStation. This led to very few games being available at launch.The system was supported in North America and Europe until late 1998, and in Japan until the end of 2000. The last official game for the system, Yukyu Gensokyoku Perpetual Collection, was release...
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History of Nintendo Super NES
2006-10-16 20:33:00
The release of the Mega Drive and Turbografix-16 consoles in 1989 meant that Nintendo too had to come up with a 16-bit machine to stay in the game. It did not release the SNES in Japan until November 1990, known there as the Super Famicom, in the US in September 1991 and in the UK in April 1992, simply because the NES was doing well and new games were still being released for it. When it finally hit the market though, it proved to be a powerful and impressive competitor to Sega's Mega Drive and NEC's Turbografix-16.The SNES had a much slower processor then the Mega Drive, but it really excelled when it came to its graphics processor. It could produce 32K colors, 256 of which could be displayed on screen at the same time, and had special hardware modes that allowed for effects such as scaling, rotating and transparency. This was the SNES's strong point.Animation effects in games that involved scaling objects (i.e. zooming in and out of screen) or rotating them required lots of gra...
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Sony Playstation history
2006-10-16 20:30:00
The history of the Playstation begins in 1988 when Sony and Nintendo were working together to develop the Super Disc. The Super Disc was going to be a CD-ROM attachment that was intended to be part of Nintendo's soon to be released Super Nintendo game. However, Sony and Nintendo parted ways business-wise and the Super Disc was never introduced or used by Nintendo. In 1991, Sony used a modified version of the Super Disk as part of their new game console - the Sony Playstation. Research and development for the PlayStation had began in 1990, headed by Sony engineer, Ken Kutaragi.Only two hundred models of the first Playstation (that could play Super Nintendo game cartridges) were manufactured by Sony. The original Playstation was designed as a multi-media and multi-purpose entertainment unit. Besides being able to play Super Nintendo games, the Playstation could play audio CDs and could read CDs with computer and video information as well. In 1994, the new PlayStation X (PSX) was rele...
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Nintendo SNES - History
2006-10-16 20:22:00
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES or SNES) was built by Nintendo in the 1990s. It was the sucessor to the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States and Europe. It was the major rival of Sega Megadrive/Sega Genesis.Market Hist ory 1988 Nintendo executives at first were not interested in making a new system when rival Sega announced that they would release their 16-Bit Sega Megadrive/Sega Genesis in 1988. However, the executives were quick to see the Genesis taking over the market in North America, due to its large library of sports games and arcade ports, as well as its superior technology. The NES did not do well in Europe, and the Megadrive surpassed the SNES there as well.Hiroshi Yamauchi, the Nintendo CEO at the time, had put Masayuki Uemura in charge of designing the console. They had originally planned for the Famicom/NES to be 16-bit systems, but those components were too expensive at the time, and so they were 8-bit systems. With the components being ...
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Specifications of Atari Jaguar
2006-10-15 20:35:00
A. Physical dimensions:Size: 9.5" x 10" x 2.5"Controls: Power on/offDisplay: Programmable screen resolution. Horizontal resolution isdependent on the amount of scanline buffer space given to the"Tom" graphics processor. Maximum vertical resolution variesaccording to the refresh rate (NTSC or PAL). Reportedly, astock Jaguar (without additional memory) running NTSC candisplay up to 576 rows of pixels.24-bit "True Color" display with 16,777,216 colorssimultaneously (additional 8 bits of supplimental graphicsdata support possible)Multiple-resolution, multiple-color depth objects (monochrome,2-bit, 4-bit, 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit) can be usedsimultaneouslyPorts: Cartridge slot/expansion port (32 bits)RF video outputVideo edge connector (video/audio output)(supports NTSC and PAL; provides S-Video, Composite, RGBoutputs, accessible by optional add-on connector)Two controller portsDigital Signal Processor port (includes high-speed synchronousserial input/output)Controllers: Eight-directional j...
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Jaguar Cartridges Available
2006-10-15 20:31:00
Jaguar Cart ridges1. CyberMorph (Jaguar 3D pack-in)2. Trevor McFur (in Crescent Galaxy)3. Dino Dudes (Fun, frustrating fun)4. Raiden (You can't beat arcaders)5. Tempest 2000 (Adrenaline rush)6. Wolfenstein 3D (classic, updated)7. Brutal Sports Football (bizarre)8. Alien vs. Predator (Sooo scary)9. Dragon (Bruce Lee Story- karate)10. DOOM (Special Edition- superb)11. Club Drive (Polygon car driving)12. Checkered Flag (Jag 3D Racing)13. Iron Soldier (Smashing fun- 3D)14. Kasumi Ninja (A 2D beat-em-up)15. Bubsy (in Fractured Furry Tails)16. Zool 2 (The fastest platform fun)17. Val D'Isere Skiing/Snowboarding18. Cannon Fodder (War goes sensible)19. Syndicate (strategic action sim)20. Troy Aikman (NFS Football sim.)21. Theme Park (strategic simulator)22. Sensible Soccer (Best footy out!)23. Double Dragon 5 (kids' beat-em-up)24. Hover Strike (hovercraft at war)25. Pinball Fantasies (4 cool tables)26. Super Burn Out (Motorbike Racing)27. Flashback (cool platform adventure)28. White Men C...
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Atari Jaguar Console - Brief History
2006-10-15 20:27:00
In 1993 Atari Corp finally returned to the home video game console market with its advancement 64 bit multimedia entertainment system called the Atari Jaguar 64. This system featured high resolution graphics, superb stereo sound and DSP expansion capabilities which made it the perfect platform for a whole new generation of video games and accessories. However, Atari Corp's short lived re-entry back into the market would not last long, with Sega's Saturn and Sony's Playstation consoles looming on the horizon and Jaguar 64 sales not meeting expectations the plug was pulled on both the Jaguar 64 and Atari Corp itself in 1996 when Atari allowed itself to be reverse merged with JTS Corp, a little known hard disk manufacture who was hungry for a fresh injection of fast cash and an easy route to becoming a company with publicly traded stock. ATC ceased to exist on the stock exchange and JTS took its place. The stock then proceeded to nose dive from $3-4 per share to .65 cents per share ...
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