Early to Mid 1995

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pacman000
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Re: Early to Mid 1995

Postby pacman000 » February 19th, 2018, 8:21 pm

newmodelarmy wrote:Great, great article. What the hell were these people thinking. Of course this is Sam Tramiel (spelled?), son to Jack Tramiel the CEO of Commodore.


Just using prior business experience to make decisions. Not wrong per se, but the market had changed too much.

Sometime after this Sam Tramiel would have a heart attack, and his dad would take over the company again.

Yes, Tramiel's spelled that way; it's Polish.

Jack Tramiel was actually able to make Atari profitable again in the mid-80's. He was not, however, able to re-establish Atari's retail presence; too many dealers remembered bad dealings with him from Commodore. To fix this Atari decided to buy The Federated Group, a struggling electronics chain, in 1987. That did not go well; Federated was in worse shape than they let on. Atari lost over $100 million on that deal, alienated their remaining dealers, and spent so much time trying to save/sell off Federated that they weren't able to keep up with other tech companies.

ThePixelatedGenocide
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Re: Early to Mid 1995

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » February 21st, 2018, 2:28 pm

Worst generation ever? Compared to Pong, Pong, and more Pong? And no, Pitfall 2 and Metroid can't begin to compete with the depth and elegance of Symphony of the Night, Majora's Mask and Ocarina shame Adventure and The Legend of Zelda. and I'll never forget the magic of creating my own characters for the first time in a wrestling game. It was the dream of every 80's kid to play with your own characters in a game, and see them come to life.

This is the generation where racing games stopped stuttering frame by frame, and discovered The Need for Speed. It was Gran Turismo for those who wanted to learn how to drive, and Twisted Metal for those who wanted a drive by duel. I could fly an ever changing dragon or walk among the people below, in a world that was suddenly more than just a flat mosaic of tiles and sprites.

This was the generation that introduced me to new bads, in a time before it was all free on Youtube. This was the generation that let me feel like I was a rapping dog, trained by a talking onion, and in love with a flower.

This generation was the last generation that had no idea what it was doing, and that meant it had almost unlimited freedom to explore. Every day brought something exciting and new, and you never knew which developers won their games with the hardware until you read the reviews or finally played the demo after you exhausted all the possibilities on the demo disc you already knew you were going to love.

This generation was Doomed and we all accepted that fate and happily went to Hell together, just beyond a Silent Hill...

And sure, it all looked ugly as Hell, as pixels the size of bricks hit you in the face, while they warped and twisted between dimensions, or were lost in an ominous fog. But man, nostalgia aside, there was no better time to be a gamer in the US before then. All those 16 bit classics you still cherish to this day? Now remember the long wait between them, trying to make a bobcat fly...
Last edited by ThePixelatedGenocide on February 22nd, 2018, 3:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

jon
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Re: Early to Mid 1995

Postby jon » February 21st, 2018, 9:55 pm

First off, I'm not some 16 bit freak nut...... In fact, in 1994-1995 was balancing out my video game time with some amazing 3d computer games and arcades (Neo Geo is my 16 bitter). You know, like all those computer games that no one remembers because the PS1 put my favorite publishers out of business. So there was no better time to be a gamer before the 5th generation? Go look at video game magazines in 1998, you'll see only PS1 games with the occasional N64 game, because the N64 put out like 3 games a year that weren't kiddie crap. Yea what a great time to be a gamer with the PS1's hideous graphics and long load times, the likes of which the industry had never seen.

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Stalvern
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Re: Early to Mid 1995

Postby Stalvern » February 21st, 2018, 10:55 pm

Do you ever post about anything besides how much you hate the PlayStation? Do you even think about anything else?

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pacman000
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Re: Early to Mid 1995

Postby pacman000 » February 22nd, 2018, 9:54 am

In the past each new generation was exciting; I wanted to know what great things they were going to do.

Today I just worry about what they'll mess up. ;)

jon
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Re: Early to Mid 1995

Postby jon » February 22nd, 2018, 1:09 pm

This thread was started to reminisce about the time before the PS1 came out, a time when I was playing consoles of that era. I'm not the one that turned this into a debate as to the strengths and drawbacks of the Sony Playstation. The 5th generation, 20 years later, is usually referred to as a trial and error generation, because it was the beginning of 3d. The Playstation 2 generation was just fine if you ask me. It was actually a return to video games being fun. Just another reminder, this thread was about early to mid 1995, before the PS1 even hit the market.

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pacman000
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Re: Early to Mid 1995

Postby pacman000 » February 22nd, 2018, 4:20 pm

But... the PS1 was released in '94 in Japan... ;)

Have a PlayStation. Love it. Would love an N64, Saturn, Jaguar, or a 3DO. I'd even love a CD-I, CD32, Pippin, VIS, or PCFX.

This was an era of balancing features and price, similar to the early home computer era. We got 3 major systems (PSX, N64, Saturn) all capable of 3D, but with different strengths and weaknesses. You can have fun with any of 'em.

It was also one of the last eras where it seemed a new comer could potentially make a major impact. Technology leaped forward; 3D became the standard instead of the rare treat. Hard Drivin', Star Fox, Woolfenstein 3D wowed folks in the early 90's simply because they were in 3D; newer games needed more. Experimental? Sure, but fun, almost like the early 80's.

ThePixelatedGenocide
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Re: Early to Mid 1995

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » February 22nd, 2018, 4:22 pm

Okay. Sure. I'll play. It was a wonderful time to be a gamer, back before the Playstation days. Sega released the Saturn early, to our shock and surprise. And if you jumped in early, Virtua Fighter was there in all it's untextured glory, with naked polygons clipping in and out of view. Daytona introduced us all to the pop-in of the future, and who needs Sonic when you've got a Bug and all his dung beetle friends to play with?

But at least there was Panzer Dragoon.

The 32X helped Genesis fans experience all the thrills and excitement of owning an Atari Jaguar, but with a slightly better frame rate and a far worse Doom. The 3DO showed us the way FMV could look, and it only cost as much as a good computer. When would you be able to play a good game on it? The world was waiting with baited breath for the thrills to come.

But at least there were decent next gen gaming to be found, if you could afford them all. They were far from being a CDi or an Amiga 32. Sorry about that, everyone who was taken for a ride.

Dracula X came to the Super Nintendo! Who needs a PC Engine CD? It had the same main character sprite and the same title. And spikes! They both had spikes! And bats that could suddenly fling you into spikes too. And Dracula too. What else did Castlevania fans need?

But there's there's no need for a small consolation prize here. Earthbound and Chrono Trigger were everything most RPG fans were hoping for. Yoshi's Island was a platforming dream. And if you were a Nintendo fan, you didn't even need to care that the gaming industry was in a very bad place.

Even the Virtual Boy was still exciting and new.

There was so much good to experience, if you were willing to look to forgive a few flaws. I could finally afford a Sega CD and a Game Gear, thanks to Sega's pain. Road Rash and Fatal Fury Special on the go and Lunar waiting at home? As I said, it was a wonderful time to be a gamer...but only as long as you looked to the past.

Almost everything good was on sale, and almost everything new was better skipped anyways.

I don't miss it at all. And thank God we look back on 1995 now, with such bittersweet memories.

It's ironic - in an industry that's often obsessed over bigger and better graphics, who ever would have ever thought it would be Sony of all people, and its odd ugly duckling of a grey console, that saved us?
Last edited by ThePixelatedGenocide on February 23rd, 2018, 7:21 am, edited 2 times in total.

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pacman000
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Re: Early to Mid 1995

Postby pacman000 » February 22nd, 2018, 6:12 pm

Another 1995 Sam Tramiel Interview

https://archive.org/stream/EDGE.N018.19 ... 3/mode/2up

From Edge Magazine. Covers most of the same ground as the Next Gen interview. The interviewer asks if Atari will buy Commodore or sue other companies besides Sega.

jon
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Re: Early to Mid 1995

Postby jon » February 22nd, 2018, 11:59 pm

I'll sum up my response in three words: PS1 RPG fanboyism. Just because (and trust me I'm not a scholar on this topic) there were some popular RPG's (of course the sales figures are minimal compared to platformers, sports games, and action games) doesn't make the PS1's graphics a work of art.


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