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| game chronicle |
With the miserable failure of its 32-bit fifth-generation video game console Virtual Boy, Nintendo started all over, and released 64-bit game console Nintendo 64 in June 1996 in Japan, and features 3D graphics capabilities and built-in multiplayer for up to four players. The system’s controller introduced the analog stick. Nintendo later introduced the Rumble Pak, an accessory for the Nintendo 64 controller that produced force feedback with compatible games. It was the first such device to come to market for home console gaming and eventually became an industry standard. The N64 was released with two launch games, Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64, and a third in Japan, Saikyo Habu Shogi. The N64’s suggested retail price was US$199 at its launch and it was later marketed with the slogan “Get N, or get Out!”. The N64 sold 32.93 million units worldwide. The console was released in at least eight variants with different colors and sizes. An assortment of limited edition controllers were sold or used as contest prizes during the N64’s lifespan.
Of the consoles in the fifth generation, the Nintendo 64 was the last contender and the most technologically advanced. However, the console’s storage medium had limitations which harmed the market competitiveness. A significant limitation was the small capacity and high production expense of cartridge-based media instead of the Compact Disc format used by competitors. The limited capacity forced game designers to struggle with fitting game content into a constrained space, though the faster access time of the cartridge medium offered other advantages over Compact Disc media. Another technical drawback was a limited texture cache, which could only hold textures of small dimensions and reduced color depth, which had to be stretched to cover larger in-game surfaces.
A total of 387 games were released for the console though few were exclusively sold in Japan, in competition with around 1,100 games released for the rival PlayStation as well as both the NES and SNES having 768 and 725 US-released games respectively. However, the Nintendo 64 game library included a high number of critically acclaimed and widely sold games. Super Mario 64 was the console’s best selling game (selling over eleven million copies) and also received praise from critics. GoldenEye 007 was important in the evolution of the first person shooter, and has since been named the greatest in the genre. Marc Russo quoted The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as one of the greatest games of all time, and, in his words, remains “to this day … the finest game I’ve ever played across any platform or genre.”
The sixth generation era truly began with the launch of Sega’s Dreamcast in November 1998 in Japan and September 1999 in the U.S. As the the successor to the Sega Saturn, Dreamcast was the first entry in the sixth generation of video game consoles and was released in late 1998, before its contemporaries Sony’s PlayStation 2, Microsoft’s Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube.
The Dreamcast was competitively priced, partly due to the use of off-the-shelf components, but it also featured technology that allowed for more technically impressive games than its direct competitors, the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. An analog 56k modem was also included, allowing gamers to play multi-player games online on a home console for the first time, featuring titles such as the action-puzzle title Chu Chu Rocket, Phantasy Star Online, the first console-based MMORPG, and the innovative Alien Front Online, the first console game with online voice chat. The Dreamcast’s launch in Japan was a failure. Launching with a small library of software and in the shadow of the upcoming PS2, the system would not gain great success, despite several successful games in the region.
Despite problems with the Japan launch, the system’s launch in the United States was successful. In the United States alone, a record 300,000 units had been pre-ordered and Sega sold 500,000 consoles in just two weeks (including a record 225,132 sold during the first 24 hours). In fact, due to brisk sales and hardware shortages, Sega was unable to fulfill all of the advance orders. Sega confirmed that it made US$98.4 million on combined hardware and software sales with Dreamcast with its September 9, 1999 launch. Four days after its launch in the US, Sega stated 372,000 units were sold bringing in US$132 million in sales.
The Dreamcast is home to several innovative and critically acclaimed games of the time, including one of the first cel-shaded titles, Jet Set Radio (Jet Grind Radio in North America); Seaman, a game involving communication with a fish-type creature via microphone; a rhythm game involving the use of maracas, Samba de Amigo; and Shenmue, an adventure game of vast scope with freeform gameplay and a striking attempt at creating a detailed in-game city. Despite receiving critical acclaim, these titles failed to garner much public attention in the face of the upcoming PlayStation 2 launch. Faced with debt and competition from Sony and Nintendo, Sega discontinued the Dreamcast in North America in March 2001 and withdrew entirely from the console hardware business, making it the company’s final console.
After that, Sega Japan put out a press release confirming they were considering producing software for PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance as part of their “New Management Policy”. Then on January 31, 2001, Sega of America officially announced they were becoming a third-party software publisher. Despite its short lifespan, the Dreamcast had received cult status for its history and features. It was widely hailed as ahead of its time, and is still held in high regard for pioneering online console gaming—it was the first console to include a built-in modem and Internet support for online play. As of 2011, the console is still supported through various MIL-CD independent releases.
Game Mode On ( ^_^ )
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