Twenty Five years ago today, the Nintendo Entertainment System launched in the United States. Before its run was over with the release of Wario's Woods in 1994, the system became the bestselling video game console of all time (a mark that would not be passed for many years), the company's name literally became synonymous with gaming, and the NES' library had achieved a special place in the hearts and minds of gamers the world over. Even today, the system is usually recognized as the most popular of all retro consoles, and many gamers continue to collect games in cartridge format or play them via the Wii's Virtual Console or emulation.
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That success was far from guaranteed when the system launched in the U.S. on October 18, 1985. In fact, many onlookers felt dubious about the chances for Nintendo's console to succeed in the post-crash market of the mid-1980s. And even though the system had been moderately successful in the two years since it had launched in Japan (as the Family Computer), the kind of reception it would receive amongst American audiences was widely unknown. For this reason, the U.S. release was a limited one. The October 1985 date was for the New York City test market, and the full nationwide launch wouldn't be until February of 1986 after Nintendo saw some success in New York (and a few other markets).
Long before Metroid, Mega Man, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, or Contra became household names, Nintendo launched a product in the U.S. that had to convince a skeptical audience that it was worth investing in a new console. What was it like to purchase a brand new Nintendo Entertainment Center in October of '85 (or February of 1986)? What was the system launch like? Did those early decisions help the system achieve later greatness? Read on!
Part 1: The Games
The launch lineup consisted of eighteen games! This was almost twice the amount of games that launched in the U.S. with the Atari VCS, and half again as many games as had launched with the Colecovision. In some ways, this was a curious decision. While it afforded gamers a high degree of choice, it also served as a reminder that chief catalyst for the gaming crash a few years earlier had been a market flooded with low-quality games. Fortunately for Nintendo, their launch titles were not low quality. But, standing in a store 25 years ago, it might be hard for a gamer not to think that they were seeing more of the same practice that had killed enthusiasm and sales for Atari a short time ago.
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The launch lineup took cues from Atari. As we've covered previously, the Atari VCS launch featured games with very short, descriptive titles (Combat, Blackjack, Street Racer, etc.). This let consumers know what they were buying, whereas a game named after a character might not. For the most part, Nintendo followed suit. Roughly half of the launch games featured titles which made gameplay elements explicitly obvious (10 Yard Fight, Baseball, Duck Hunt, Golf, Kung Fu, Pinball, Soccer, and Tennis) and another set made it easy to guess what the game featured (Excitebike, Ice Climber, Stack-Up, and Wild Gunman). Unlike Atari, however, Nintendo did include a few of their well known IPs in the launch lineup: Mario (Super Mario Bros.) and Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong Jr. Math) both made the cut, only leaving gamers scratching their head over titles like Clu Clu Land, Hogans Alley, Gyromite, and Wrecking Crew. In any case, like Atari, Nintendo offered a wide variety of launch titles, the scope of which wouldn't be offered again until Sony's PS2 launch almost 15 years later.
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The launch lineup featured the system's iconic game (and character). The NES launch has several solid titles, but none were as important as Super Mario Bros. Mario was already a well known character based on the success of the Mario Bros. games and Mario's link to Donkey Kong, but Miyamoto's side-scrolling masterpiece was the game to define the console from day 1. Some of the launch bundles included the game, and it would go on to become the best-selling game of all time (a mark not passed until Wii Sports recently took the crown) . Few launch lineups in history have featured a game that made it into the all-time top 10, and all of them are games that launched with Nintendo systems.
Quality assured. In another nod to the video game crash, Nintendo included the Nintendo Seal of Quality on its titles to (hopefully) let consumers know that the games they were buying were bug-free, high quality titles. The seal may not have meant much in 1985, but by the time the NES was in homes across the country a few years later the seal came to represent an important departure from the flooded market that came to symbolize the latter days of the 2600's run.
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(Note: I plan to cover many of these games in the blog individually in the future, but in the meantime there is an excellent run-down of the basics of each launch game here: http://matwolf.com/blog/n...-original-18-nes-games-2/ I shamelessly stole their images of box art, too.)
Part 2: The System
The D-Pad. Nintendo was not technically the first console maker or video game company to include a standard D-Pad, but they certainly popularized it. Nintendo's games were designed with the D-pad in mind, and anyone who has tried playing a Super Mario Bros. or Zelda game with an arcade stick knows that the experience is lacking. The D-Pad also signaled that the console would be more than a platform for arcade ports (which used joysticks), but that plenty of new content produced specifically for the console and its controller would be coming.
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The graphics and sound. It is easy to forget that the NES once was a powerhouse system, as today when most of us look back on the 8-bit days we think about the simplicity of the visuals and sounds. Put simply, even Nintendo's launch games blew away anything that had been seen on a console up to that point, and rivaled some of the best computer graphics and sound of the era. Seamless scrolling, character RAM, 20+ colors, dedicated audio, and region-specific refresh rates all meant that the NES was a system that had both innovated and capitalized on the best of what was available in mid-1980s hardware. And while the launch lineup was impressive, the games in the system's later years would demonstrate just how impressive the processors inside the NES were.
Part 3: The Launch
The bundles were a good deal, but the games were pricey. If you bought a new NES in late '85 or early '86, you most certainly wanted to buy a system bundle and probably didn't end up buying very many games off the bat. I haven't yet found reliable data, but some web searching suggests that in 1985/1986 NES games were priced between $40-$70 MSRP depending on where you lived. When their launch went nationwide, Nintendo sold two bundles for consumers interested in buying the system. The Control Deck bundle with 2 controllers, a zapper and Super Mario Bros. retailed for $130 and the Deluxe Set, which included R.O.B., a zapper, two controllers, Gyromite and Duck Hunt sold for $250. Adjusted for today's inflation, games cost around $100, the control deck cost about $250, and the Deluxe Set cost just shy of $500. This means that consumers in 1985 were getting the system and accessories for roughly $150 in today's money, and that R.O.B. could be valued at about $150 himself. That might seem high, until one realizes that robots were all the rage in 1985...
Robotic Operating Buddy. A Japanese newspaper in July of 1985 announced the upcoming U.S. release of the NES in an article entitled "Nintendo to sell video game player-robot combination in U.S." In the article, they discuss the strategy behind R.O.B.
Nintendo displayed the Family Computer this year at consumer electronics shows in Las Vegas and Chicago, and has carried out market research. The home video game boom in the U.S., dominated by Atari and Commodore International, peaked out three years ago, and since then the market has contracted with much underselling.
For this reason, the Family Computer, with its attached robot, is to be billed as a different concept from the conventional video game. The robot is run by a cartridge inserted into the computer, and both it and the video screen can be operated simultaneously. The robot measures 22.8 by 18 by 23.5 centimeters.
The robot contains three battery-powered motors which control such operations as picking objects up and putting them down, raising and lowering, and turning around and carrying objects. Commands are sent by a flashing signal from the monitor screen, which is picked up by a light sensor in the robot.
In Japan, the robot sells at a low Y9,800, with two types of cartridges prices at Y4,800 and Y5,800 respectively. In the U.S., the player, robot and cartridge will be sold as a unit for around $100.
From early on, the emphasis was on the robot, as evidenced again by a Guardian article from October of 1985 that mentions Nintendo's console as R.O.B.-centric:
Toy makers in Britain and North America have been predicting since January that 1985 would be the year of the robot. Or at least of the toy robot.
Nintendo - has its eyes on the toy robot market. Primarily a computer and video games company, it has invented an interactive robot to play some of their video games.
Using a light link to the television, the 10in tall robot adds a new dimension to the video game. Prompted by invisible sensory devices which read messages from the TV screen, the robot performs a variety of spontaneous interactive affect game play. Standing on its stationary 6in base, the robot can assume 60 different lifelike positions by rotating its arms and shoulders left or right, and up or down, and can lift and move objects. It can pick up screen messages from as far away as 15ft, adding tremendous challenge to play strategy.
Nintendo plans to offer four robot games packs with the initial introduction of the system, and up to four additional games will be developed by the end of the year. The robot costs pounds 100 and the games about pounds 15.
Again, today we often think of R.O.B. as an interesting afterthought or as a failed, largely gimmicky accessory for the NES. But in 1985, most of the press surrounding the launch of the NES focused not on its games, but on this accessory. This was by Nintendo's design, and suggested from the moment of their first U.S. console release that they were trying to attract interest from a broader population of consumers instead of just gamers. They would of course repeat this strategy with their most successful console, the Wii.
It was not marketed as a gaming system.Due in large part to the gaming crash of a few years prior, Nintendo marketed the console as a device that allowed for learning and other forms of entertainment beyond simply playing video games. Their ads focused not on the graphics, the game library, or the features often touted when a new console releases -- they focused instead on the interactive nature of accessories like R.O.B. and the Zapper. The first NES commercial in the U.S. is an example of this:
Another example is the 1986 Sears Wishlist catalog, which emphasizes that the NES was a
fully equipped video system with the most progressive components such as a robot and the light-sensing Zapper Light Gunplus...it's not just for kids.
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The art. As is the case with any new product, good art is important to help sell the attractiveness of the item to the consumer. Nintendo's emphasis in two areas - the game box design and the system box artwork - most certainly helped move units. The game box design (as seen above) emphasized the graphics of the games . A drastic departure from the Atari VCS or Colecovision game boxes before it, the NES game boxes showed blown up approximations o f the sprite art that players would find in the game. Even if the graphics weren't emphasized in marketing, they were certainly emphasized on store shelves. The art for the systems themselves featured a dark blue/black with stars background. The control deck set featured the system and hardware floating in space, while the Deluxe set emphasized R.O.B.'s head. At a time when there was still enthusiasm about the space program, sci-fi was seeing a renaissance in theaters, and robots were all the rage, the art reflected the broader interests of consumers.
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In retrospect, much about the NES launch seems strange today. Most launches haven't followed the same cues (e.g. test markets and a downplayed emphasis on games/graphics), the system itself is no longer known for many of the things that Nintendo chose to highlight at launch, several launch games are still regarded as among the best on the system, and one launch title continued to be the best selling game for the console throughout the system's life. Nintendo took a huge gamble with the release of the NES, and though their strategy seems a bit unorthodox today, it certainly paid off for them twenty five years ago.
Do you remember anything about the NES launch? Were you in a test market? What do you think of their strategy? I'd love to hear your stories and thoughts, so sound off below!
This is the second part of a five part series looking at those titles in the Ridge Racer series of games that have been launch titles. Part 1 covered the first Ridge Racer game, for the PS1. This entry covers Ridge Racer V for the PS2.
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The first Ridge Racer was arguably the highlight of the PS1 launch, being the only game featured as a launch title in all three major regions. It was also the only arcade-style racer released at that system's launch, and so for many it had helped to define Sony's first console from the very start as the place to go for arcade quality titles. Certainly Sony had high hopes that Ridge Racer V would live up to this legacy.
When the PS2 launched ten years ago this month (October 2000 in the USA), the gaming landscape was markedly different from what it had been when Sony's PS1 hit stores five years prior. The second golden age of the arcade (the mid 90s) had ended, arcade style racing games were losing market share to driving simulation games such as Gran Turismo, and gamers had become accustomed to graphically polished and in-depth experiences from the racing genre. They had also become accustomed to choice, as there were probably a dozen racing franchises in active production at the turn of the millennium. Fortunately for Namco, Ridge Racer Type 4 had been quite successful and so hopes were high for Ridge Racer V. Nonetheless, V certainly had to contend with a different context than its PS1 launch game predecessor. How did it fare? As a launch title, it is significant for several reasons:
Ridge Racer V
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It was the only traditional racing game at the PS2 launch. The PS2 launch had no shortage of opportunities for gamers to drive fast . On launch day, Smuggler's Run, Wild Wild Racing, Midnight Club: Street Racing, and Moto GP offered racing fans a wide selection of titles that could address their need for speed, but only Ridge Racer V offered the option to drive a racing car around a traditional track in an arcade style racer. This seems like it was probably a deliberate choice by Sony, as they did this with the first Ridge Racer game at the PS1 launch and would repeat this model with the PS3 launch.
It was a return to the series' roots. In an often criticized move, Ridge Racer V stripped away many of the additions the series had seen over the years in terms of gameplay, car selection, customization, and other more simulation style racing enhancements. The main track is similar to the one featured in Ridge Racer 1, and all the tracks are quite similar to one another. The main gameplay mode is a Grand Prix mode for trophies, but there are only a few interesting rewards for doing well. In other words, it is very much like the first Ridge Racer.
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Ridge Racer Type 4 shipped as a special edition with this Namco JogCon force feedback controller. The controller could also be used in Ridge Racer V.
It was a showcase for PS2 graphics...but not in a good way. Graphically, Ridge Racer V is a competent title and arguably looked better than the previous entries in the series with the possible exception of Type 4. The tracks have more shading, lighting is better implemented, some nice spark effects are used, and the menus are slick. But, the game features lots of flickering and aliasing problems (or "jaggies") which were a major concern at the PS2's launch. One argument that some Dreamcast owners made was that their games featured a smoother look than those on the PS2, and Ridge Racer V was a common punching bag for these criticisms.
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An example of the "jaggies" found throughout the game.
It was really hard. Well, at least I thought so. I can do pretty well in most of the Ridge Racer games without running into many problems until the latest levels. Not so with V. I've struggled with this game from some of the very earliest stages - in part because of the looser steering, in part because of some of the issues with graphics, but mostly because of the cheap AI and unresponsive controls. It isn't that I can't drive the cars, but there often seems to be a disconnect between what I want the car to do and what it actually does. This is certainly one of the more punishing games from the PS1 launch.
It failed to showcase many of the PS2's best features. The audio CD-swapping trick, the unlocakables, and the mini-game features found in the original Ridge Racer all showcased the capabilities of the PS1. There is nothing about Ridge Racer V which suggested the PS2 was a machine that could do new things or do old things better. Part of the reason the PS2 sold well out of the gate was because it was a DVD player and because DVD-based games could hold much more information. Ridge Racer V shipped on CD and didn't really feature very much content compared to some of the earlier CD-based titles in the series. Furthermore, it didn't provide surround sound, use the new ports found on the system, or really push the hardware the way that some of the other launch titles did.
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It would be the only PS2 Ridge Racer game. Perhaps all you need to know about Ridge Racer V's ability to hook people on the PS2 or get them interested in future racing games comes from this fact. Whereas the PS1 had seen four Ridge Racer titles in five years, the PS2 turns ten this year with only one Ridge Racer game to its credit.
In retrospect, even though Ridge Racer V offered a fully fledged arcade racing experience, it seemed like a rushed and incomplete project that failed to distinguish itself amongst the PS2 launch lineup the way that the first game in the series had on Sony's first console. In future installments, we'll explore whether or not the series' other launch titles addressed these shortcomings.
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Ah, the late August of 1991! Bryan Adams' song from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves was burning up the charts, Terminator 2 was blowing up the box office , and eager Nintendo fans were getting a chance to finally buy the console that had gone on sale in Japan as the Super Famicom almost a full year earlier.
The North American launch of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was a bit surprising in several ways. For one, the unit was the last of the fourth generation of consoles to launch in the United States, launching more than two years after the release of both the Turbo Grafx-16 and the Sega Genesis. By contrast, the original and highly successful Nintendo Entertainment System had been the first major console to the market in both Japan and the United States. Many observers felt that interest in gaming was starting to dwindle, as it had towards the end of Ataris market dominance. Sales of NEC and Segas machines were modest compared to the sales the NES had seen during the height of its popularity, and clearance price NES carts and systems on store shelves suggested that Nintendos time, like Ataris before it, had perhaps passed.
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In an article from Time Magazine a few months before the August 23, 1991 release of the console, writer Philip Elmer-DeWitt penned that
Sometime in the next few months, an argument is going to break out in the 30 million families infected by the Nintendo video-game craze. The kids, primed by saturation advertising, are going to tell their parents they gotta have the awesome new 16-bit Nintendo system for Christmas. The parents, remembering the hundreds of dollars they have invested in the old 8-bit Nintendo, are going to say, "No way."... The machine will also be backed by a $95 million nonstop marketing blitz designed to convince every American preadolescent that life without 16 bits wouldn't be worth living. It's not going to be an easy sell.
It seemed that Nintendo was facing a tough road, and it is debatable whether a launch day full of some questionable decisions did much to brighten the initial outlook for the SNES. Though the unit would go on to be quite successful, there were several notable and, in retrospect, perhaps poor launch day decisions.
There were only three games available on launch day, and only two on shelves. Super Mario World was packed in with the SNES, and while the game remains one of the standouts of the SNES library, gamers looking for variety in other titles were left with little to choose from. Given the length of time that the console had been out in Japan and the depth of the library that had been built up by mid 1991, it seems that Nintendo should have had more options for the earliest adopters.
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2/3 of the launch day games weren't representative of popular genres or franchises. While both F-Zero and Pilotwings (the other two launch games) are strong titles in their own right and showcase some of the SNES hardware capabilities, neither flight sims nor futuristic racing games were especially popular in late 1991. It seems odd that the SNES didn't launch with any titles geared towards fans of action games, sports games, RPGs, puzzle games, or any number of other genres. In fact, given the popularity of the arcade and the success of arcade conversions (such as shmups and beat em ups) on the TG-16 and Genesis, Nintendo missed an opportunity to show how well their system could handle some of the most popular genres. Given the widespread popularity of many first and third party NES games, the lack of a launch day Metroid, Zelda, Contra, Tetris, or Mega Man is surprising.
There was a lack of hype. Today, a console launch is issued in by major announcements, extensive gaming and mainstream press coverage, midnight releases, and an overall media blitz. Though Nintendo did put aside almost $100 million to market the unit in the US, one need not look much further than its own Nintendo Power to see that the console was still playing second fiddle to Nintendo's earlier NES and Game Boy at the SNES launch. The issue of Nintendo Power that coincided with the SNES launch featured a cover story on Super Mario World, but only about 25% of the issue touched on titles for the new system. Most other major gaming publications dedicated even less space to the console's launch, perhaps because there just weren't many games to cover!
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The console was not backwards compatible. Many of the reviews and reports surrounding the SNES pointed to the fact that it would be unable to play NES or Game Boy games. Considering the rather large NES cart library that many families had built, this seemed like quite the oversight. By contrast, Sega's Genesis console was compatible with the earlier games for its system (via a converter) and the Atari 7800 had been compatible with 2600 games. So, Nintendo's decision not to include support seemed out of step with what consumers wanted. The Super Game Boy wouldn't see release until some three years later (1994), after the console had already become popular.
Despite these oversights, Nintendo did do a few things right on launch day.
The launch package was a good bundle deal. Though its $200 price tag (a little over $300 adjusted for inflation) put it at twice the cost of a NES and made it a bit more expensive than its contemporary competitors, Nintendo packaged in two controllers, two kinds of AV cables, Super Mario World, and a coupon for $50 off a future game purchase. Considering SNES games regularly cost $60-$70 or more, this was almost the equivalent of giving buyers a second game .
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The pack-in game was a killer app. Considered by many to be the best SNES game, Nintendo took a gamble that Super Mario World would be enough to bring NES owners into the SNES fold. And to some extent, they were correct. Nintendo didn't take many risks by including this title: they didn't reinvent the Mario franchise, they didn't hedge their bets on an unknown character or IP, and they didn't choose a game that would later look dated compared to the technology seen in future SNES titles.
They had it where it counted. Nintendo's machine was attractive not only to gamers looking for the next Mario fix, but also to those excited about hardware specs. The SNES outperformed either the TG-16 or Genesis in almost every technical category. In an era where graphics were central to much of the advertising surrounding games and systems alike, Nintendoc clearly had the upper hand by entering he fray late.
Overall, the SNES launch wasn't the brightest moment for a console that would eventually go on to win the 16-bit console wars. Nonetheless, all three of these launch games are still considered some of the top titles for the system, and Nintendo quickly rolled out more games in a variety of genres so that by the holiday season, they had begin to build an install base.
I mentioned in the premiere post for this blog that I will be focusing on the games released at the beginning and end of a system's life. And while I have a lot of interest in the games on either end of that spectrum, part of my motivation for the "Transitions" title of the blog stems from an interest I have in major shifts in gaming history.
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Even though home consoles have only been around for 30+ years, there have already been several important and defining moments in gaming history where significant sea changes occurred, altering how consumers view games. For example, the video game crash in the early 1980s taught developers the importance of releasing a quality product and signaled that consumers were becoming more discerning when making their purchase decisions. A recent major transition for the industry would be the development of downloadable games on home consoles. That change has so far resulted in a renaissance in indie development, bigger rewards and less risk for the introduction of innovative gameplay, and a number of other ongoing shifts in how we choose games.
There is one transitory period in gaming history which, for me, has always been the most interesting: the period between (approximately) 1993-1996.
Several interesting things happened at this time:
1) Developers began to market games for adults instead of for children.
Research concludes that todays average gamer is in their early-mid 30s, which is where I personally fit on the demographic scale. 15 years ago, many of us were making the transition from childhood to adulthood, and as we were going through those awkward late teenage years, gaming was going through its own growing pains. Recognizing that 14-18 year olds might be outgrowing cute mascots and cartoony sprites, developers started shooting for more realism in games, introduced mature themes, emphasized cinematic presentation, and included more sex, violence, and other "adult" elements.
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2) A revolution in graphics and gameplay took place.
In this period, many companies moved from making 2D games to making early 3D games and/or Full Motion Video titles. Cheaper and more powerful hardware meant that game designers could introduce players to gameworlds that were simply not possible in 2D. Many of these early 3D titles were clunky, had infuriating cameras, imprecise controls, and were easily surpassed by superior games in the late 90s. That didn't stop consumers from buying them anyway, and well done 3D titles such as Virtua Fighter and Wipeout spawned franchises that continue to this day. For all its faults, Full Motion Video served a purpose in making designers consider cinematography, storytelling, and basic things like lighting and sound in ways that they hadn't previously. The legacy of these innovations is clearly seen in contemporary gaming.
3) Between October 1992 and September 1996 at least twenty consoles or add-ons were released.
The Sega CD, The Atari Jaguar, The Sega 32X, the 3DO, the Playstation, the Saturn, the Virtual Boy, the PC-FX, The Amiga CD32, the FM Towns Marty, the Apple Bandai Pippin, the Atari Jaguar CD, the Casio Loopy, the R-Zone, the Pioneer Laser Active, the Playdia, the Neo Geo CD and CDZ, the Supervision, the Mega Duck, the Nintendo Stellaview and still others were all published in roughly four years. This is a staggering amount of new technology flooding the game market, and it is remarkable that only Sony really managed to steal a major piece of Nintendo and Sega's dominance from earlier in the decade. (Also of note: during this period the NES saw its final release in Wario's Woods.) While many of these systems have deservedly stayed obscure, the sheer number of consoles and handhelds put to market suggests there was a belief that the games industry was a place where companies could make a lot of money. While there had been previous periods in gaming history with a variety of competing consoles, this period's only close competitor for the sheer number of choices available would be the very early proliferation of standalone Pong machines.
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4.) 16-bit platforms saw some of their strongest releases.
The transition period wasn't just about the introduction of new consoles and technologies, but was also about many of the best games from the dedicated 2D consoles from the early 90s. About 2/3 of gamerankings.com's best Genesis/SNES titles were published in this period when 2D level design, gameplay, chip music, and sprite work really reached a state of the art. While many gamers were looking towards the possibilities offered by upcoming hardware, developers were perfecting their craft on older machines.
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There were, of course, other important developments during this period: the growth of used game sales/retail stores, the revival of and then retreat from the arcades, the development of a comprehensive rating system (the ESRB was established in 1994), the shift from cartridge to disc format, and other changes that help make this perhaps the most interesting period in gaming history.
Because of the rich history offered in this transitory period , I have made it a point to collect many of the games from this era. Towards that end, a few years ago I completed a Sega 32X library and recently finished off a PS1 longbox set. I have more Jaguar games than I need, and have played my share titles for systems like the 3DO and the Neo Geo CD.
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I occasionally get asked about why I would collect games that are often rudimentary, painful to play, lacking in production value, and generally inferior to the great 2D games that came before or the better 3D games that came later. My answer is always that understanding something about those transitory periods, the awkward moments in gaming history, undeniably gives you a better appreciation for the best games and the history of the industry as a whole. Coupled with my own recollections about how I grew up as gaming was growing up, these titles are an interesting reminder of my own transitions in life.
What do you consider to be the most interesting period in gaming history?
Although homebrew console games are a phenomenon that have been with gaming for decades, the relatively recent popularity of emulators and the web itself have created a rich environment for an ongoing renaissance in self-made games. Almost every classic game system has enjoyed an assortment of wonderful homebrew games over the past decade, including those that have seen official releases in formats original to the systems that they are created for. Since this blog attempts to chronicle games released both at a system's launch and a system's end (and beyond), these games are a natural fit.
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Last Hope is an especially interesting candidate, as it is not only a "last" game for one particular console, but for three. Developed in 2006 by NG:DEV.TEAM for the Neo Geo, Neo Geo CD, and Dreamcast, Last Hope is a horizontal-scrolling shooter that borrows obvious inspiration from games like IREM's R-Type and Aicom's Pulstar. More polished and better produced then a majority of homebrew games, NG.DEV.TEAM's game was generally well-regarded by consumers and reviewers alike. Furthermore, the most common complaints about the game (the difficulty, the tough-to-discern appearance of various objects, etc.) were addressed in an updated 2007 release for the Dreamcast entitled Last Hope: Pink Bulllets.
One of the most impressive feats of this release is that NG:DEV.TEAM made an effort to mimic the standard packaging for each of the ports of the game. This adds to the overall sense of high production quality found in the game itself, and rounds out the full package nicely. Because the AES carts were prohibitively expensive to produce, only 60 were made and sold, for around $700 each. Because of the rarity, prices for the game have gone upwards of $1000+ in the time since. The Neo Geo and Dreamcast versions were available for closer to $30-$50 each, depending on whether the standard or limited edition (with a soundtrack) was purchased. All versions of the game were region free, so they could be played on any system.
Here you can see what each version looked like (sorry for the watermarks, but I don't have my own copies of these.)
[img width=480 height=298]http://mortal.shang.free.fr/images/neo-geo/last_hope_aes.jpg[/img]
The Neo Geo AES cart, box, and manual
[img width=500 height=375]http://www.ngdevdirect.com/images/lhngcdcover_used.jpg[/img]
The Neo Geo CD case, disc, and manual
[img width=606 height=600]http://www.stnowak.info/collection/images/DC/DC.LastHope.JPG[/img]
The Dreamcast case, art, and manual
The version I own is the aforementioned Pink Bullets update for the Dreamcast. For this release, NG:DEV.TEAM opted to go with a pink DVD-style case instead of a standard jewelcase. I can't say I am a big fan of the redesigned packaging since I like my Dreamcast games all to look the same on the shelf, but the general quality of the paper, printing, etc. is still high.
[img width=448 height=298]http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq17/dsheinem/lh1.jpg[/img]
The inside of the Pink Bullets edition of the game
As an "end game," there are several things worth noting about Last Hope:
The old-school look and feel. Since the game was designed for the Neo Geo and then ported to the Dreamcast, the game retains the style and appearance of other shooters from the early 90s. What that means is that the Neo Geo ports are some of the better looking shmups available for the system while the Dreamcast port is one of the least visually impressive shooters available for that console. The game also plays like those other "tactical" shmups that inspired it: it is a tough game that will leave even veteran gamers muttering obscenities at the screen.
[img width=304 height=224]http://www.dreamcast-scene.com/uploads/Main/LastHope_08.p.jpg[/img] [img width=304 height=224]http://www.dreamcast-scene.com/uploads/Main/LastHope_04.p.jpg[/img]
The soundtrack. One aspect of the game that received almost universal acclaim was the soundtrack by composer Rafael Dyll. Full of creatively employed, sweeping synthesizers and strings, the game is a joy to listen to. Since the Dreamcast version was published on a CD-ROM instead of a GD-ROM, it can be listened to on a CD player. Dyll has since gone on to produce the excellent soundtracks for both Soldner-X games.
[img width=336 height=358]http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq17/dsheinem/lh3.jpg[/img]
Dreamcast features are listed on the back of the box
The extra touches for the Dreamcast. Since I only have the Pink Bullets edition, I can't comment on how well the game takes advantage of the tech available on the Neo Geo systems. What I can comment on is the ways in which the game includes features that highlight the strength of the Dreamcast. For one, the game includes VMU support as some graphics are displayed on the screen and scores can be saved. It also supports the use of a VGA box, something that wasn't true for all DC games. Perhaps most importantly, the game provides support for a Dreamcast arcade stick should the player wish to use one. I found that the standard DC controller worked well as you could use the L and R triggers to rotate the pod on the outside of the ship clockwise or counterclockwise, something that feels awkward on an arcade stick but natural on the DC controller.
[img width=448 height=335]http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq17/dsheinem/lh2.jpg[/img]
The Dreamcast manual
Last Hope is not ever going to be mistaken for one of the greatest shooters ever, but it is one of the best post-system life-cycle shooters I have come across thus far. It seems that NG:DEV.TEAM is dedicated to producing high quality work and the success behind a release like this will help keep the Neo Geo and Dreamcast viable as platforms to receive new games. And while it is technically a homebrew game, it is presented very much like a licensed title. For me, those little touches make a big difference.
The team that created Last Hope have gone on to produce other post-life cycle games (they recently released another AES cart). Here's hoping that we see another Dreamcast port!
Some of you may instantly recognize the title of this post, others of you may be curiously scratching your heads. If you don't recognize the quote, those are the immortal words uttered by the in-game announcer at the start of every race in the very first Ridge Racer game for the Sony Playstation, one of the system's ten launch titles and one of its best known racers. Many things can and have been written about the Ridge Racer series of games published by Namco, but they are interesting for this blog because five of the eleven games in the series have been in a console launch lineup. The launch titles were:
[img width=639 height=202]http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq17/dsheinem/fba68463.jpg[/img]
This five part series of blog entries will look at each launch title in the Ridge Racer series and what, if anything, they did to showcase the new capabilities of each system.
Ridge Racer - Sony Playstation
 [img width=320 height=240]http://www.gamesetwatch.com/rr.png[/img]
The Playstation's U.S. launch in September of 1995 featured only one game that had also been released when the system premiered in Japan the prior December: Ridge Racer. In fact, Ridge Racer was the only launch game featured in all three major game markets (JPN/NA/EUR ). It seemed clear from the start that Sony was banking on Namco's arcade hit to help sell systems.
In the U.S., Ridge Racer was one of two racing games that new console buyers could choose from when entering their favorite game or electronics store on that Saturday morning in September. The other, ESPN Extreme Games, featured an assortment of X-Games events such as street luge and mountain biking. Only Ridge Racer provided a traditional automobile racing game. So, new buyers looking to take the arcade racing experience home were faced with little choice but to buy it on launch day. As it turns out, they couldn't have done much better: Ridge Racer is an absolute gem of a racing game that accomplished many technical feats fifteen years ago and holds up well to this day.
Arcades in the U.S. were still doing quite well in 1994 and 1995, and though the focus for many players had shifted from fighting games to racing games, there was a lot to choose from in coin-ops around the country in the mid-90s. Increasingly, the best arcade games were seeing high profile ports for home consoles. During the period of time that the Saturn, Playstation, and N64 were released (between May 1995 and September 1996) each console had a racing game associated with it, a game that promised to push the limits of the console. For Nintendo, that game was Cruisn' USA (though the game didn't make the N64 launch). For Sega, the game was Daytona USA. For Sony, it was Ridge Racer.
At the time, I was a die-hard Sega fan and insanely jealous of my friends who were able to enjoy their copies of Daytona USA at home. Sure, the Daytona USA port didn't look arcade perfect, but it seemed close and impressed me nonetheless. When I couldn't play on a friends' Saturn, I would still frequently pump quarters into the Daytona USA arcade machine as my home racing was limited to Virtua Racing for the Genesis for several more years (an excellent game in its own right). By the time I finally joined the 32-bit generation and picked up a Playstation in late 1996 (skipping the Saturn altogether!), I was anticipating the release of new racing games for the PS1 (most notably Gran Turismo) and passed on picking up Ridge Racer. I'd had my fill of racing with Daytona and Crusin' and decided to pick up games for other genres in the interim.
So, I only recently acquired the classic PS1 launch game, and now wish I had done so a decade ago.
[img width=235 height=314]http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq17/dsheinem/rrcase.jpg[/img]
Early PS1 games didn't feature many of the icons on the back indicating compatibility with memory cards, number of discs, etc.
As a launch title, the game is significant for several reasons:
The graphics. There's no denying that an important draw for purchasers on launch day is graphics horsepower. The graphics put out in the PS1 port of Ridge Racer are simply better than they were for the Saturn port of Daytona USA. The polygons are less blocky, the sense of speed is faster, and the scenery is more diverse. There are usually more things happening on the screen at any given time, and aside from the poorly designed menus, the interface is quite polished. Daytona may have been better in the arcades, but if these racing games were meant to show off what the system could do, Ridge Racer was an early harbinger of the doom of the Saturn. Ridge Racer's graphics are bright, pop in is quite good for a first-gen title, and the scale of the landscape surrounding the courses is impressive.
It allowed you to choose your own music. Once the game was loaded and a race started, you could swap out the Ridge Racer CD for your own favorite disc. The game would then randomly select tracks on your CD to play while you raced and navigated menus. Since Daytona USA was a frequent point of comparison at the time this game came out, I should note that I also prefer Ridge Racers original music over Daaaaay-tohhhhhhh-nah's ( especially given the "classic" nature of the latter's songs). That said, nothing beats choosing your own musical selection. In playing the game again for this post, I chose the era-appropriate Beck album "Mellow Gold." Hearing track 11 playing over the credits was a sweet bit of randomness. In an age where CD sales were really catching on, this was a nice way for the Playstation to showcase its versatility.
[img width=314 height=235]http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq17/dsheinem/better.jpg[/img]
Place this in the CD drive to make Ridge Racer unplayable.
It featured a mini-game with a generous reward during the only loading screen. Popping Ridge Racer into a console usually meant a few resets until all the enemies in this one screen version of Galaxian were cleared. Clearing all the enemies in the limited time granted you access to three times the number of cars that would be available otherwise. Not only did you have more options, but many of these were better cars. Furthermore, the game only loads once at the very beginning, a welcome change from the frequent and frustrating waits experienced by owners of many other CD-based consoles at the time. The fact that the loading screen is a game itself was icing.
The game featured a hefty amount of unlocakbles. There were certainly games with unlockables in the previous generations, but Ridge Racer was one of the first CD-based games to offer multiple versions of tracks to unlock, cars that could be won, and other goodies for the devoted player to discover. The ease of saving data on a memory card (times, unlocked tracks, etc.) meant that you could take these unlocked items with you, one of the key selling points for Sony's console.
[img width=314 height=235]http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq17/dsheinem/rrback.jpg[/img]
The back of the manual provided alternate cover art.
Taken as a package, it is easy to see why Sony pushed for Ridge Racer to see a release in every major region on launch day. Better racing games would eventually come, but compared to racers on other consoles that preceded Ridge Racer, Sony clearly had the upper hand and could better capitalize on the ongoing arcade craze. The game is far from perfect; it is single player, some of the drifting feels too loose, the various tracks are all variations of one main track, the announcer voice is annoying, and the difficulty ramps up considerably in later stages. However, the game is still worth playing today despite these weaknesses, if only to appreciate how different it was compared to what had come before. The game would go on to see huge sales and win numerous awards in the next year. It would also become Sony's first pack-in game.
Ridge Racer spawned over 10 sequels. We will revisit some of those games in future installments.
Next Up: an "end game"
Easily the most popular early cartridge based system, the Atari Video Computer System (a.k.a. Atari 2600) would forever change entertainment in the home. This entry takes a quick look at what gamers encountered when picking up the system almost 33 years ago.
[img width=300 height=154]http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq17/dsheinem/heavysixer.jpg[/img]
The VCS launch itself was a delayed event, held up due to some legal issues between Atari and Magnavox. Magnavox (makers of the Odyssey 1 and 2) owned the rights to publish Atari games through June of 1977, and so even though a working version of the VCS was ready in 1976, Atari waited until that contract was over so they could publish their games for their own system. In June of 1977 the contract expired and Atari brought the VCS to the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago (which, incidentally, was the same show that introduced VHS to North America).
A few months later, on October 14, 1977, the console was released for $199 (or $249, depending on which source you read) in the United States. This initial VCS unit (later nicknamed the Heavy Sixer for its weight and number of switches) launched with nine titles. Surprisingly, the system had trouble maintaining sales, failing to sell all units shipped in 1977 or 1978 (it wasnt until a home port of Space Invaders hit in 1980 that the system really started moving off shelves).
The nine games released for the VCS at launch were Air-Sea Battle, Basic Math, Black Jack, Combat (as a pack-in game), Indy 500 (with driver controllers packed in to a big box), Star Ship, Street Racer, Surround, and Video Olympics. Customers browsing store shelves on launch day that October had these titles to choose from:
[img width=375 height=510]http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq17/dsheinem/2600-launch.jpg[/img]
Launch games were sold in gatefold boxes (they open up like a book, similar to Odyseey2 boxes), a packaging style which was discontinued after the first year of (relatively poor) sales for the system.
[img width=240 height=200]http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/feature/3551/atari_6.jpg[/img]
I had some difficulty tracking down prices for new games, but based on what I found $20-$30 seems like a reasonable guess. Adjusted for inflation, that is $70-$105 a pop today! Purchasers could console themselves with the fact that they got multiple games, or modes, per purchase. With the exception of Blackjack, each game offered between 8 and 50 different games in each package, with the number displayed prominently on the box.
I plan to look more closely at some of these games in future installments of the blog, but there are really only a few titles that seemed to have much staying power through the life of the console or today. Combat is the obvious gem, but Indy 500 and Video Olympics both made this informal poll of AtariAge readers Top 100 2600 games of all time . Past those three however, the rest of the launch games are a mixed bag. Air-Sea Battle and Star Ship both offer some fun shooting, and the latter actually shows off some interesting graphics for a launch game. Surround is more or less a Tron cycle style game, and Blackjack is, well, blackjack (a very tough version played with a paddle controller). Woe to the poor kid whose parents brought home Basic Math or Street Racer, both of which were low points in fun for the launch lineup.
If you wanted to pick up four titles with your new system, you would be looking to spend about $300-$350 in 1977, or about $1000-$1200 today. By comparison, a 60GB PS3 at launch with four games and an extra controller would have cost about $900.
A few things stand out about the system launch.
For one, the titles of most of the games were very basic and descriptive, a strategy also used by Nintendo when they launched their NES in the U.S. some seven years later (with titles like Tennis, Kung Fu, Baseball, Golf, Pinball, Duck Hunt, etc.). This simple naming practice, paired with what continues to be some of the most imaginative box art ever produced , allowed for shoppers to easily identify what kind of game they were buying.
[img width=350 height=378]http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/2600/VCS-AD.JPG[/img]
Also notable is the lack of any well known arcade games, games based on movies, or any other connections to popular culture of the mid-late 1970s (the first arcade port would be the aforementioned Space Invaders a few years later). Atari basically had to launch a system featuring games with no known properties, something that has not been done since.
The inclusion of a pack-in game, a practice that has fallen out of favor with many of the more recent system launches, is significant. Not only did it give purchasers the illusion of extra value at the register, but unlike pack in games for some other systems (Super Mario Bros., Altered Beast, etc.) Combat doesn't have a single player mode. This sent the message to consumers that the VCS was meant to be played with others and that multiplayer gaming was the foundation for the console. This message was reinforced by the inclusion of two joysticks, another practice that has unfortunately dropped out of most system launches.
[img width=166 height=186]http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq17/dsheinem/atari_2600_indy500_big-box_1.jpg[/img]
Indy 500, which was released with the driver controllers in a bog box, is also an important title for its inclusion of accessories. While pricing information is scarce and unreliable, Indy 500 most certainly would have cost more than a standard game because of its inclusion of these controllers. Like modern console manufacturers, it seems Atari recognized that money could be made selling additional hardware, controllers, cables, and other add-ons for their system (the 2600 would see many accessories over the years). Starting customers out on launch day with some extra hardware made good fiscal sense.
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As a whole, it seems that the launch of one of the most successful game consoles in history did some things right (pack-ins) and some things wrong (no known IPs). Fortunately for Atari, they did enough right to sustain the VCS for a few years until it really became popular with the addition of licensed titles. Tracking down the original launch games and the Heavy Sixer itself in the original boxes would be quite a daunting task today (the Heavy Sixer alone fetches a hefty premium over the other models on eBay), but I'd love to hear from anyone who has done so or who remembers the launch itself.
Inspired in part by some of the guys over at the Racketboy.com forums, I've decided to enter into the wide world of gaming blogs. So, I am proud to introduce "Transitions: The Launch Games/End Games Blog."
One of the things that I've always found to be interesting about collecting games and learning about gaming history is the beginning and end of a system's life span.
[img width=350 height=219]http://images.pcworld.com/news/graphics/120156-Jossle-Richard.jpg[/img]
There is usually so much excitement and anticipation at the launch of a new system that gamers are overwhelmed with the choices put before them. If you are like me, you've usually been very limited in your purchasing power on launch day and have to very carefully pick just one game or two from the launch lineup. Often, the other launch games get forgotten as newer, more hyped, and often more advanced games are released. This blog will look back at those launch games and highlight titles that were released when systems hit store shelves (primarily in North America). Sometimes these launch games represent some of the untapped potential for a new system. Sometimes they were highly polished versions of games released for a previous generation. Sometimes they introduced a new franchise, other times they faded into obscurity. Whatever the case, this blog will highlight them.
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On the other side of the coin, this blog will also highlight those games which are released at the end of a system's lifespan. These are the games that come out when most people are playing games for the next generation of consoles and are thus frequently overlooked. Some of these games represent the pinnacle of development for a system, while other titles are cheap shovelware published as a quick cash grab. These "end games" also include those new games released by individuals and small companies well after a system's games have stopped appearing on store shelves. Games like Beggar Prince for the Genesis and the upcoming The Goonies 'R' Good Enough for the MSX are fascinating post-lifespan releases that bear further attention.
So, I hope you enjoy this blog. I can't make any promises about how often I'll update (I already spend plenty of time generating game related content for the Racketboy podcast), but I can promise that you'll learn about some games you may have never heard about, forgot existed, or didn't know much about.
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