[General Discussion] Generation6: 128-bit Memories (Cue the Toe-Tappin' Music)

And as the 128-bit generation close, the battlefield that was once fought by the 3 surviving combatants quieted down. 1 of the competitors died early, leaving the epic battle between 3 juggernauts, all of which had refused to follow the same fate as the first victim.

Now that times have moved on and technology is rising, we should look at the era that was and commemorate those who had fallen, those who are still fighting and how there were during the great big 128-bit Console War known as The Battle of Generation6.

Now this thread isn't to flame others or start arguments. No. This is a memorial thread to the era which, arguably ended on November 19th with the arrival of Nintendo's newest weapon, the Wii (which came after Sony's launch attack of it's new PS3). Sure, the Xbox, Cube and PS2 will still be around but as mentioned earlier, technology has rapidly advanced. The Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii are now the main players in the battlefield.

Now, here's my thoughts on the times that were: the 128-bit generation.

Dreamcast: 1999-2003
Ahh... One of the most prominent veterans in the gaming wars, Sega initially found itself in an uphill battle. With ground lost during the great PSX 64 wars, Sega released the system with a system that looked to be unbeatable: great specs, awesome triple A lineup and a revolutionary online service. How could anything possible go wrong?

Unfortunately, the hill was too steep. Though initally Sega managed to scale a great deal of the mountain, the hype and imminent arrival of the PSX's successor, the PS2, was too much for Sega and they started falling. Eventually Nintendo, Sega's greatest rival, came it with it's Gamecube and a new force, Microsoft, ambushed all parties with it's funkily named X-Box. Sega crash and fumbled, eventually falling the summit.

However, though Sega is still technically dead, some of its soldiers rally on and continue giving their services for the purpose of gaming. Some are in the Microsoft camp, others in the Sony camp and few in the Nintendo camp.

Though on paper Sega should've succeeded, their timing was not the greatest and this may have been one of their biggest mistakes. One that cost them to forfeit the console wars. However, the spirits and some surviving soldiers of Sega still exist today, and they all still fight for the purpose of developing great games for the common man: games that take the gamer away to another world.

Playstation 2: 2000-
Coming off in the best position after it's highly successful and well known inflitration into the Sega Vs Nintendo war, Sony's weapon of massed destruction (PSX) lifted Sony to becoming a gaming powerhouse, therefore allowing them to invest in creating new technology earlier than their competitors. This allowed them to strike first and with reports that the PS2 could shoot missiles, Nintendo (caught off-guard that the rookie was evenly matched) desparately tried to counter-strike the impending force from the once-puny juggernaught.

Sony seemed to be on high water with their missiles devastating the Nintendo camp, but seemingly from nowhere, Sony would face it's now biggest rival, Microsoft. Using ambush-like tactics, Sony, Nintendo and poor old Sega underestimated this new challanger and eventually, the celebrated veteran Sega met its doom. Sony was once more forced to play the game seriously and managed to hold off the seemingly endless battiions of soldiers led by their monopolistic leader, Bill Gates.

Sony still holds the lead in the console wars, but with Microsoft using Sony's tactics that allowed them to devastate Nintendo, the upcoming battle will be an epic one of Sony. Using the X-Box 360 early, Microsoft manged to create a huge dint in Sony's fortress giving them a chance to infiltrate the castle and gain leadership in the console wars. However, Sony's most well-known and efficient weapon the PS2 manged to hold the defenses well enough for Sony to create it's counter weapon: the PS3.

Gamecube 2001-2006
Nintendo knew that they had a fight in their hands. After some absolutely stupid and arrogant mistakes, Nintendo came to terms with their decisions and started developing a weapon that would not only make up for lost ground, but exceed the technology that Sony had implemented in their PS2. This conceived the Gamecube.

Nintendo seemed to believe in the Gamecube. On paper, it had the potential to take back what was theirs. Not only that, the soldiers in Nintendo's camp managed to find the Gamecube easy to develop for, allowing near-instant professionalism and proficiency. Furthermore, Nintendo finally utilised optical disk technology, which allowed for efficient development of weapons and information gathering (among other tasks). Along with other established weapons (such as The Mario, The Zelda and The Pokemon, a biological weapon of MASSED destruction), Nintendo could have recovered ground lost during the PSX 64 battle. T'was not to be, however.

One of the mistakes they did not consider was it's way of decision making. Nintendo still hadn't learnt it's pig-headed ways which to its competition was childish and too traditional. Nintendo's image was so severe, Sony had a period of time where they did not even take Nintendo seriously, seeing them as child-like, misguided pups. Rookies, even (ironic, as Nintendo viewed Sony during the PSX 64 era as rookies).

The decisions were many. The design of the Gamecube, the lower army forces and less weapons storage space, Nintendo did not have the means to take on the increasing power of Sony abd at the same time counter the ambush set up by another juggernaut, Microsoft. Nintendo barely survived the fate that came to it's old rival and last-minute ally, Sega.

Coming into the next gen-wars in the worst position, Nintendo eventually changed leaders in 2003, which reinvigorated them and put them in a position where they would devise and unorthodoxed and unconventional weapon to blow away the competition. Using the success of their new line of grenades (the Nintendo DS) as well as emotionally-provoking speeches (the concept of a revolution) Nintendo managed to sign up a new large army force and they seem to be back on track in the next-gen wars. Sony and Microsoft still regarding Nintendo as the little ant. but as many know little ants have the power to take out elephants.

X-Box 2001-
Starting out as a humble processor company, Microsoft soon became the most lucrative business in the whole world, lead by the man who had been there all along, Bill Gates. With technology rising and great demands for computers, Microsoft managed to virtually own the computer industry by creating a simple Operating System that many still prefer even to this day (though now Microsoft is facing competition from the new-looking computer veteran, Apple).

With almost nowhere to expand, Microsoft looked to new markets in order to expand their stunning success only to realise that they had the potential to succeed in the gaming market. And so they devised a plan. A plan so grand, that it would allow them to successfully infiltrate the war between Sony and Nintendo, and devastate the gaming leader Sony.

Their ambush on both parties worked, with Nintendo retreating and Sony stumbling. However, even with the all powerful Xbox that Microsoft had, Sony's numbers were greater than Microsoft, which eventually subdued the vicious attack. Even with the most powerful weapon in the Generation6 War, Microsoft was unable to take control of the gaming battlefield.

Regardless of the outcome, Microsoft was able to position itself in a very good spot, and this lead them (using the revenues from their computers departments) to quickly develop a new and uberly powerful system, designed to overtake Sony and devastate their once seemingly unbreakable fortress! Can this new force hold their small lead from the upcoming and equally as powerful weapon the PS3?



So there you have it. My thoughts and analysis of the The Battle of Generation6. Any thoughts, ideas, memories of the War that was?

(Sorry for the long read -_-')

Jam it back in, in the dark.

It was a great time with many great games and in the end, gamers were the real victor. I look forward to the next generation with eager.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Dreamcast - This system did a lot in the short time it was out. I was annoyed to see it go out as fast as it did, but I didn't realize Sega's financial situation was as bad as it was or that it did as poorly as it did in Japan or how important EA was.

PS2 - Still going strong. Might end up being the best system of the following generation as well if support continues for it.

GC - Ugh...I rooted for Nintendo for awhile, but they really did botch the way they handled this system. The spotlight was on the idiotic GBA connectivity idea, while Microsoft and Sony were showing off their online features. Brilliant. They basically threw in the towel when that idea tanked (highlighted by Final Fantasy and Zelda titles failing to lure people into it). Not nearly enough new 3rd party software and I didn't care for much of the 1st party stuff either, with the various Mario Sports games and Mario Party games becoming downright annoying. They might as well have killed this sytem off at the start of 2005...It hasn't done a thing since (except tease people with a Zelda delay...a good idea regarding the Wii though).

XBOX - It did okay. It didn't really have the exclusive (or Japanese) content of PS2, but the online features were the best of the consoles this time around. I got one mostly for online fighters, but it's also nice having the better versions of most multi-console games. Fine for a rookie console attempt.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by chaofan

Dreamcast: 1999-2003

You just made a fool out of yourself by saying that the DC died in 2003, in case you don't know a new DC game is sheduled for released next month.
Oh you meant since 2003 there hasn't been any other games asides shmups? Well, yeah...

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

The Dreamcast was released waaaaaaaay too early. 1999, I think. Yeah, definitely the middle to end of 1999. Even the PS2 didn't come out until 2001, so there's a 2 year advantage in development of the console. Anyway, Sega pulled the DC because ultimately they were going bankrupt, and developers were more interested in the PS2 at the time.

Unfortunately when the Dreamcast died, so did my incentive in games. The PS2 did extremely well due to the absurd amount of developers and as the console was easily accessible to them, they could get their games out faster.

The Gamecube always had quality over quantity, and I love Nintendo for it. But there wasn't enough quality to counter the PS2's quantity. There's a few gems, say, 5-8 games, but there just wasn't enough attention towards the console (disregarding first and second party) to keep it alive, so it suffered losing the console war.

I didn't like the xbox at all bar a few games, to be honest. There was still a great amount of appeal towards the console and it's games, as it was easily accessible to developers much like the PS2. Of course seeing as how the xbox was more powerful, some games were only released exclusively for that console. That's what forced me into buying it. But really I only use it for emulators and stuff like that because most of the games don't interest me.

Oh, and the xbox bombed in japan. I've rarely seen a good japanese xbox game or a good japanese sales record of the xbox at all. It's pretty much targetted at a western audience exclusively, and that's why it couldn't keep up with the PS2.

The PS2 had appeal worldwide and it wasn't by Sony's hand that it became a success. No, it was the developers and their games which brought attention into the console. I think versatility > quality, in this case.

It would have been great if Nintendo kept up the quality games with the Gamecube, but the price of quality is time. Still, it has some real great games, as do all of the consoles in this generation.

I always think the Dreamcast is excluded, simply because it didn't have much of a chance. It didn't get off the ground, and like I said it was released before it's time. Seeing Soul Calibur in 1999 was an amazing thing.

Even though there's still the odd Dreamcast game being made, it's basically just a beta-testing console which developers (such as Milestone, makers of Radirgy and Chaos Field) can test their games on, and possible gain some profit towards the final project. I don't know what they're doing though, since both of these games are on the Gamecube which is also dead.

I'm looking foward to the next generation but the future's uncertain. As many times as Sony fucks up, they'll attempt to fix the problem. Or try to. The same goes for Microsoft, which have corrected their mistakes and are making progress. Nintendo haven't made very many mistakes, and there'll always be those loyal fans.

We'll see what happens.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Megalixir

The Dreamcast was released waaaaaaaay too early. 1999, I think.

Dreamcast was released in November 1998.

Originally Posted by Megalixir

Unfortunately when the Dreamcast died, so did my incentive in games.

Word on that

Originally Posted by Megalixir

I didn't like the xbox at all bar a few games, to be honest. [...] But really I only use it for emulators and stuff like that because most of the games don't interest me.

Me too, NeoGenesis (for Megadrive) + Zsnexbox (for SNES) + FBA-XXX (for arcade goodness) + XBMC (for most media center needs) == badass console! And Project Gotham Racing 2 of course, best racing game ever.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I'm unhappy with the Xbox portion. The original Xbox is dead, isn't it? No new games are coming out for it, or have come out for more than a year.

Also, Microsoft didn't start out as a processor company. They started as a software company.

Other than that, fun read! I liked it

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by devilmaycry

You just made a fool out of yourself by saying that the DC died in 2003, in case you don't know a new DC game is sheduled for released next month.
Oh you meant since 2003 there hasn't been any other games asides shmups? Well, yeah...

I meant in terms of Sega stopping production on March 2003 (I think.) As you can tell a few of my facts are a bit muddled up but neh, I'm human.

I really agree with everyone. Nintendo did have an opportunity to capture some more gamers but with decisions like Connectivity and (no matter how much you deny it) Wind Waker, they really blew.

Xbox, with or without Japanese success, still ended up second place. That's quite a feat.

With the outlook looking bleak, Sony might have to face some tough attacks from Microsoft. Oh yes, it's going to be exciting indeed.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by chaofan

I meant in terms of Sega stopping production on March 2003 (I think.) As you can tell a few of my facts are a bit muddled up but neh, I'm human.

They stopped production in March 2001, regardless of that Dreamcast is being a bastard and just refuses to die. Yet another new game... a shmup (who could've guessed? ) is due to release in February 2007, it's a port of an arcade game called Triggerheart Exelica. You know what? Xbox, PS2 and GC will be burried 6 feet under and DC will still have new games being released 3 times a year.


EDIT: Funny game this one, instead of shoot like a madman you pick up enemy ships and throw them against each other in a sort of shmupping wrestling. Of course you can also shoot the ships down :P

Jam it back in, in the dark.

LOL, I like how you presented each console and company as if they were in a real world war (and not just a competitive, business one).

My opinion on this is that, yeah, the DC came out too early, and died an early death unfortunately. For a detailed (but really, really long) account of Sega's rise and fall, check this out.

As far as the Xbox, I'm still of the opinion that HALO is the sole reason why it managed to survive through it's turbulent early history. Really, just about all the other first-gen (and even most of the second gen) games out on it weren't very fun, and were it not for that single game, gamers would've given up on it, and Xbox could've went the way of the Dreamcast as well.

Yes, I know, Xbox does have some great games on it, like Knights of the Old Republic and Mech Assault 2, but if Xbox sales were much poorer (and yeah, it bombed in Japan, which is why Xbox 360 had so much emphasis/focus in Japan this time around), those games may not have seen the light of day. HALO held Xbox gamers on long enough until more quality games could come out.

I like Gamecube, and own one still, but good games for me were few and far between. I hope that the Wii will give Nintendo a bigger share of the market again (their system almost sounds like a last-ditch effort to remain a console company kind of like Sega with the Dreamcast, so if it fails this time around, we may start seeing Mario games on PS3 or Xbox 360. Of course, this is just my opinion, and I hope I'm wrong, cause I would love to see Nintendo survive, having "grown up" on Nintendo games).

As for the PS2, I'm just mad that I bought one for $300, then like two months later they dropped the price (I bought it about a year after it came out). But I love mine to death, and I loved that it doubled as a DVD player as well (which is probably what helped boost sales, because it was a "cheap" DVD player. When the PS2 first came out, I think DVD players were like $400-600, and nowadays you can pick up a DVD/VCR combo for like $150). I hope that PS3 being able to play Blu-Ray DVD's right out of the box will help bolster sales (I hate how Microsoft is charging $200 for an adapter to play HD-DVD. They basically shot themselves in the foot right there in terms of the new format wars being waged parrallel to the console wars).

On that off-topic note, I hope we get a winner soon. I'd hate to buy HD-DVD or Blu-Rays and find out that the format went the way of the Betamax.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by ramoth

I'm unhappy with the Xbox portion. The original Xbox is dead, isn't it? No new games are coming out for it, or have come out for more than a year.

Far from it. Most 360 titles still have Xbox versions too and there's been a bunch of stuff released over the last year. Unlike the GameCube which was effectively removed from the shelves of UK shops sometime in 2004.

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