Previous: 1985-1989: A new beginning
In 1990, the videogames business was becoming popular again. NES systems flourished in many American households. Arcade machines lived their finest moments. Computers were becoming more and more powerful, more and more gaming-friendly and opened new territories to game makers.
- The Megadrive
- A.k.a. Sega’s revenge on Nintendo.
In just a few months, all of this was going to change, but this time, for the better. Nintendo and Sega introduced successors to their popular console systems. New computers appeared on the market: heirs of the Atari and Commodore dynasty, the 520ST and the Amiga, new IBM-based PCs with never-seen-before graphical cards, and the revolutionnary new Apple MacIntosh.
- Gradius III, SNES, 1990
- A typical 1990 shoot ’em up.
Arcade machines were much more powerful than any home game system at that time and were pulling the industry forward, as it was still the impossible dream of every game creator to make the player feel as if they were enjoying one of the exciting new arcade games, such as Street Fighter II.
Consoles
- The Super Nintendo
- in its European glory.
While the SMS was technically stronger than the NES, it was never nearly as successful on the American market. But when Sega introduced their Genesis system in 1989, it finally had its revenge. Even the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), released a year later, and considerably more powerful, could not replace it in the heart of American fans. That was the first episode of the most impressive videogames battle in history.
- Sonic the Hedgehog, Genesis, 1991
- Sega’s mascot, the fastest hedgehog in the world, as he defies gravity.
Both systems had the kind of games that inspire a whole generation: Sonic, the ultra-fast hedgehog, was Sega’s mascott, while Nintendo relied on its tried-and-true surrealistic plumber, Mario, which now evolved in a compelling and consistent universe, Super Mario World.
- Super Mario World, SNES, 1990
- The SNES capabilities unleash the graphical style of the Mario universe.
Instead of copying each other, which had been the rule in the industry since the beginning, each console specialised in different areas: Nintendo had incredible platformers and RPGs, but Sega had fantastic sport and combat games. Nintendo still lived on the unforgetable series that it created in the NES area, like Mario and Zelda, but also Castlevania or Metroid,
- The Revenge of Shinobi, Genesis, 1989
- Ninjas and videogames usually go together well.
while Sega capitalized on the fascination that players had for the arcade, by bringing faithful conversions of its arcade hits: Shinobi, Golden Axe, Altered Beast...
- Super Metroid, SNES, 1994
- This odd mix of action/platform/RPG is typical of the era.
Controllers also became more sophisticated. Game console makers definitely adopted the joypad format, a departure from the joystick, typical of arcade games. While the Genesis joypad had a total of 4 buttons, the SNES controller had 8! OK, that was far less than a keyboard, but that opened new gameplay possibilities, while constraining game authors to remain simple.
- Kid Chameleon, Genesis, 1992
- Quite a difficult platformer.
The most popular genres of this era were, in order:
platformers, which were the standard by which the console was judged: the landmark Super Mario World (SNES), follow-up to NES hits Castlevania and Metroid (SNES), the ultra-fast Sonic (Genesis), the very difficult Kid Chameleon (Genesis), the colorful Mickey Mouse (Genesis)...
Arcade games, directly converted from arcade machines or strongly inspired by their type of gameplay. Among which, shoot’em up, such as R-Type or Gradius (SNES) or the ThunderForce series (Genesis),
RPGs, which could be either action-RPG, such as the seminal Zelda (SNES) or Sword of Vermillion (Genesis), turn-based RPG such as Final Fantasty Dragon Quest (SNES), and Phantasy Star on the Genesis, or strategy-oriented RPG, such as Shining in the Darkness (Genesis) or the brilliant Ogre Battle (SNES).
- Ogre Battle, SNES, 1994
- This great tactical RPG went largely unnoticed, until emulation gave it the attention it fully desserved.
It wasn’t until 1995 that the ancient NES was finally discontinued in the US, making it the longest lasting console in history - the SMS called it quit around 1990. During the 5 years period when the NES and the SNES coexisted, the Sega Genesis managed to dominate the console market.
Handhelds
In the eighties, there had been a lot of portable electronic gaming devices, among which the Game & Watch series by none other than Nintendo. But these were mere toys compared to what expected gamers today and were completely obsolete in that era of 16-bit power. There was still a need for portable gaming, but nothing to satisfy this.
Nintendo and Atari released portable game systems at around the same time. But while one would become the most popular game system of all times with well over 100 million units sold (100 millions!!!), the other would soon be forgotten, despite technical specs apparently superior.
How comes that the Lynx, a powerful portable color system was eclipsed by the ridicule and monochrome gameboy? The Gameboy had some brilliant games from day one, but that was not decisive: the Lynx had more than decent titles, and if it had gained more support, it would have been able to reverse the tide, and impose itself as the portable system of choice for developpers. No. The reason was that Nintendo understood better the needs of a good portable system.
The first Gameboy, which is still massive by today’s standards, was much, much smaller than the Lynx, which couldn’t fit in any pocket.
The battery autonomy of the Gameboy was also much higher.
Finally, the gameboy was better suited for multi-player action. Everyone Gameboy owner had at least Tetris, with which it was easy to set up quick and fun two-player games.
Computers
On the computer front, winds of change had been blowing since the late eighties. Around 1990, all new models of computers were equipped with a mouse. It was soon diverted from its office productivity usage to become a gaming tool of choice, especially for strategy games. Ever since the apparition of computers, games for console and for home computers seem to follow two slightly different paths. The apparition of the mouse made that distinction total - there were now computer games that could never be adopted for consoles, and likewise, there were computer gamers and console gamers, which seemed from now on to be two completely separate populations, with completely different gaming interests.
- The Dagger of Amon-Ra, PC, 1992
- The golden age of point-and-click adventure games, with gorgeous hand-drawn 2D graphics.
Beyond ergonomics, the most apparent new feature of modern computers were their neat multimedia features. While early home computers often had monochrome screens, or very basic graphical capabilities, that was no longer the case. IBM PC could now rely on the power of the EGA and then the VGA graphical card, the later being able to display 256 colors at once! Even more surprising, sound cards were not only introduced, but more and more common! the meaningless beeps of before were replaced by pleasant midi-music thanks to AdLib sound cards, and soon after, by real digitized sounds (SoundBlaster). That multimedia revolution contributed to making graphical adventures the king of genres of the time, with Sierra the most popular PC game developper.
In the early 1990s, PCs would become even more powerful. On one hand, the computing power of their microprocessor was following its predictable epxonential growth. That in itself didn’t affect games that much. But what made the whole difference was the generalisation of the hard disk. It was now possible to "install" games and benefit from the relatively quick access time of the first hard disks, which was infinitely better than the load time of floppy disks. But more importantly, game designers were no longer confined to the tiny space of the floppy, and could create games using as much as 10 or 20 Mb.
- Doom, PC, 1993
- Doom used revolutionary software-based ray tracing techniques to simulate 3D environments.
The hard disk drive also encouraged game developers to create, and massively distribute, demo versions of their software, hoping that people would buy the full version. This method of distribution made the success of Doom, one of the most influential game software ever written.
Games of that period
Generally, games of the nineties followed a whole different paradigm than their ancestors.
The arcade was still seen as gaming nirvana, and the period saw many conversions on all supports. But these versions had now a very distinct flavor. This was partly due to differences in hardware - it was still impossible to emulate the power of an arcade machine on any home system, but also because it now occurred to game developpers that home users were expecting, consciously or not, something else. Games still had specific (but useless) features of their arcade cousins, like high-scores and credits. But in general, difficulty was toned down.
- The Dig, PC, 1995
- This game forced the player to perform lengthy roundtrips in that oddly-shaped tramway...
Game authors of that age were faced with many questions, and sometimes found brilliant answers. If it is not possible (and maybe not desirable) to faithfully replicate the gameplay of arcade machines on home system, how to create the ultimate game? Hours of gameplay became the new universal criteria. A good game could keep a player busy for a long time. Games were filled with devices that inflated the time needed to perform this or that:
RPGs forced players to "level up", that is to spend time fighting boring battles in order to be strong enough to progress in the game (Dragon Warrior).
Graphical adventure games often forced the player to cross the whole world, one screen at a time,
- Rick Dangerous, Amiga, 1989
- Two seconds into the game, Rick must find a way to get rid of the huge boulder behind him!
because the last action of the player usually unlocked something to do at the opposite side of the game universe (The Dig).
Some games still relied on extreme difficulty, that required the player to "learn" the game by heart in order to progress. That was the case of the insanely difficult Rick Dangerous.
But while game innovation at that time was focused on increasing time of gameplay, it certainly wasn’t limited to that. Virtually every game of that era brought something completely new, something special, either
technically (sense of speed in Sonic, illusion of 3D in Doom),
graphically (intense new universe in Super Mario World with a strong graphical style, submarine splendor of Ecco the Dolphin),
or in terms of ergonomics (six-button action in Street Fighter).
Occasionnally, completely novel game genres emerged through one single game. Street Fighter above is a good example, which is the ancestor of probably around a hundred games and several succesful series (Tekken, Virtua Fighter, King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, Mortal Kombat...). Sim City, in 1989, which inspired many extremely innovative games... often by the same author, Will Wright. Populous and Civilization also each created a strategy sub-genre of their own. Doom would also redefine PC action games, and lead to the creation of the FPS genre.
Games of that time were still designed for what we would call today hard-core gamers, an audience that expects much from their games. Likewise, the games expected much from their players: they usually required long gaming sessions, the difficulty was still stiff by today’s standards. Game were also very focused and simple: a shooter was a shooter, an RPG was an RPG. Even genre-creating games had a well-delimited in concept. Finally, games didn’t make much of an effort to attract the non-gaming crowd.
1993-94: multimedia craze
By then, it was fairly obvious to all that the industry worked in cycles. Several competing consoles would be released within a short period of time, and the winner would be the one who could convince that its concept was the best. Theoretically, new entrants could dominate the game market if they came with a brand new idea, that would be accepted by customers as the new dominant paradigm. This was how Nintendo conquered the American market, after all.
Therefore, some hardware manufacturers bet on the CD-Rom. That included Nec/Hudson, the makers of the PC Engine family of consoles, which released a CD-Rom accessory as early as in 1988, Sega with its Sega CD (Sega Mega CD) in 1991, or Philips with its notorious CD-I device (1991).
CD-based games also made their apparition on PCs, as "streaming" was finally demonstrated possible by games like 7th Guest. Because large video or audio files were too large to fit in the memory of computers, and would take ages to load fully, streaming was the idea of continuously reading a tiny bit of the file from the media, without slowing the game.
While this was undoubtedly a technical advance, many games of that time felt empty - as if the developer was trying to fill the CD rather than add gameplay. The concept of multimedia convergence - a machine that could play music, games and video , all under a proprietary format, targeted at casual, home users, did not pick up at all. Eventually, all of these systems were forced out of the market by the Playstation.