Now we venture on my childhood years. Everyone immediately links 1990s to the entire grunge scene, like the 60's and hippies, and the 70s with the short lived punk years. However, the video game industry has developed fast and strong during this period. This is when it's hitting a lot of people and getting them addicted, hard and heavy, like a virus.
Let's start this somewhat time line off with neo-geo in 1990. However, the next year the commodore cdtv was released. This was when the industry starting putting their faith more in to cds, and letting cds become the future due to the cds having such a massive storage (at the time anyway).
Now in 1992, two amazing things came along, one was me, and the second was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System aka SNES. I adore the history of Nintendo, it's so colourful and strong. I did so much history research on this company when I was doing my fmp at college. This was a turning point, cause this period became the decline of arcades and the rise of handhelds, especially the gameboy. Like I touched upon on my last post, the industry has changed to suit it's audience, who wants these amazing box of wonders in their own homes and not arcade. Also, Sonic the Hedgehog was released for the Sega.
A sad point in 1993, as Atari releases their last console before going broke, the mother who had nurtured and sculpt video games came to a final rest. Atari jaguar was the last console. However, they are not forgotten, not by a long a shot, but it shows how something as powerful and influential as Atari can come to a rest in an industry as this. It shows that everyone is striking to survive and be as successful as they possibly can in this industry, with there being no limit of how much success is too successful.
The third biggest company at the moment jumped the bandwagon, and came out with the Playstation in 1994. Sony has joined the video game race, and they have put up quite a good fight so far, considering I am a Sony slave and loyal fan. However, it had the Sega Saturn to rival it, but to be honest, it's not as good as the mega drive.
Nintendo came flowing back with their newest console in 1996, the Nintendo 64 (yes, mine is bright orange and I do have the Pokemon and Zelda games for it, but golden eye, not yet, which came a year later after the console...), which was a massive hit. During this year, Resident evil was also born and spread in to the world, creating the survival horror genre. It's amazing how one game can create an entire genre in the industry just like that, and create an new opening in the market which the audience is hooked upon.
The most wanted Zelda game came to everyone's hands in 1998, with the Ocarina of Time. The entire game got a new art make over which created a new style that influenced a lot of other games and style (big eyes, point ears, cartoony faces that does not show much expression nor hard to draw really, does this remind you of any other style of art?), but it gave the games a new style that a lot of people enjoyed. It kept the audience happy, and the amount of sales of this one game can vouch for that. The dreamcast was released, which I wasn't too keen of, but it was a standing point. Atari already dropped out of the race, and Sega joined them by having this as their final console, due to the rival of the Playstation 2.
In the 2000, we have the playstation 2 released. As well as the rise of World of Warcraft which made the rise of online multi-player gaming grabs the attention of the video game industry's eye, and where they decide to go next with their goals. That's all for the 1990s folks.
The industry has evolved and development viciously the last couple of decades, so it seems like they have touched upon a lot of areas and achieve it, like hand held and the different remotes so it seems like you're actually playing golf. However, from the top of my head, they can explore more in to voice control (playing with your voice), 3D is becoming bigger especially with TVs, actually putting the gamer in to the game, and making online gaming bigger and get more people involved. Just a few suggestions, but the industry is under a lot of pressure to succeed, and to serve the goods of something new and exciting to keep the audience keen.
A lot of people I know from back home go by the phrase "originality is dead", and I would like to disagree. Mainly because they have no original thoughts or ideas themselves and follows the crowd loyally but because they are not part of an industry that is anything like game art, and they give up too easily. I feel like going in to this industry, I will have to be tackling that phrase a lot, and proving to everyone that originality is not dead, and it is still striving.
Currently listening to: Nirvana.
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