Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

[Nerroth]

This week, I read the paperback version of Blake J. Harris’ Console Wars – Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation.

While the main focus of the book is on Tom Kalinske during his tenure at the head of Sega of America, the book also takes a look at certain key events which helped shape this generation: from the long-lasting effects of Nintendo’s efforts to resurrect the North American video game industry almost single-handedly after the great crash of 1983 (be it on competitors, third-party developers, various retailers, and even the Seattle Mariners) to the ongoing tension at the heart of Sega’s internal divide between its Japanese and U.S. offices; and from the added public scrutiny which spurred the creation of the ESRB to the mistakes made by both Sega and Nintendo when each opted to ultimately spurn an alliance with a certain other Japanese company.

I wonder what happened with those guys…

There are two live-action projects in the works based on this book, though I’m not sure how much confidence I’d have in how well either or both of those works may turn out.


There’s another book I’d be curious to look into – Sam Pettus’ Service Games: the Rise and Fall of SEGA (Enhanced Edition). I mention the Enhanced Edition in particular, since it apparently corrects a number of issues which were reportedly in the original printing, as well as adding more detail on Sega’s operations in Europe.


Has anyone here read either book – and if so, what are your thoughts on either (or both) of them?

 

[eastman23]

Re: Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Genera

I've read Console Wars a couple times, most recently a few months ago. Although I've been a Nintendo fan since the NES and the book is mostly focused on Sega, I still enjoyed it. It was a fascinating look at the "enemy" (as Sega was to Nintendo kids of the era ).

Actually, I though it was a nice compliment to a book I read a few years earlier called Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children (yeah, the title's a bit of a mouthful) that was essentially a history of Nintendo, ending in the early 90s.

 

[SPCTRE]

Re: Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Genera

If you're into inside basebally type literature on the industry, I heartily recommend Dean Takahashi's books on the original Xbox and the Xbox 360.

They do wonders to your understanding of Microsoft as an entity (alien to the industry in a lot of ways).

 

[martok2112]

Re: Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Genera

I never owned a Nintendo Entertainment System. It wasn't a matter of choice. It just never crossed my radar.

When I was in the Army, I owned a Sega Master System (Sega's 8 bit machine at the time) and an Atari XE (think an Atari 800XL 64K computer that doubled as a video game console...for those of you old enough to remember the Atari/Commodore wars back then.....in fact, I couldn't remember if Commodore computers were still around and selling back in '88....this was when megabytes were the big deal in computer memory).

Later on down the road, I eventually got both a Super Nintendo and a Sega Genesis. (I was an early adopter of the "don't give into the console wars" philosophy. I loved GAMES, and if you wanted the best, you owned both systems....if you were monetarily available to do so, and I realize that was not a choice everyone was able to make, so I say that with all due respect.)

I could see the strengths and weaknesses of both systems, and chose accordingly.

Now, when it came to the advanced versions of Street Fighter II, I bought both Street Fighter II Turbo for SNES, and Street Fighter II Championship Edition for Genesis.

Advantages of SNES version: Clearer sound quality, more fluid animation.
Advantages of Genesis version: Tighter control, faster speed.

My friend who taught me how to play the SF II games only owned an SNES. I never really was good with a control pad for either game (I was used to the arcade sticks once I started playing SF II Hyper Fighting in the arcades). So, I bought fighter stick controllers for both SNES and Genesis. I got purdy durned good. When I would go to his house, I would take my fighter stick.

However, when he came over to my house, we would play on the Genesis, simply because of the faster speed and tighter control. However, he was not comfortable with the six face buttoned Genesis controller. But I am an accommodating sort. There was a third party company that had made a controller configured like an SNES controller (four face buttons, two shoulder buttons and the D-pad). So I bought it for my friend to use. All was well in the world.

The fighting stick for the SNES also gave me an advantage in Star Trek StarFleet Academy when we would play the game's two player combat mode. I would fly the Klingon K't'inga, while my friend would ususally play Federation ships. The nature of the way I would use the cloaking device by the way the fighting stick was configured game me a serious ability to cloak/fire/decloak with such rapidity (in the process, not in how often) that my friend angrily accused me of entering a cheat code that allowed me to fire while cloaked. I had to demonstrate to him that it was not a cheat, and it was not a turbo setting (I never liked turbo settings on controllers anyway...they did little to help in games, and were often a hindrance). He shrugged his shoulders and accepted my demonstration.... and the battles were on again.

When it came to the latter consoles, I got around to owning a GameCube and a Sega Dreamcast. A PS2 and an Xbox. Then a PS3 and an Xbox 360.

In this current console war though, I have only the PS4. I'm biding my time to make sure Microsoft doesn't backpedal and do the things they initially wanted to do with Xbox One that pretty much sunk the console at the start of this current generation. Once I'm convinced, I might get one. For now, my Xbox experience remains with original Xbox and Xbox 360.

 

[Moviefan2k4]

I bought the hardcover of this book several years ago, and read about two thirds of it. After a while, I got fed up, and never went back. I still have it, so maybe I'll eventually finish it. Who knows...

 

[jenji120]

I bought the hardcover of this book several years ago, and read about two thirds of it. After a while, I got fed up, and never went back. I still have it, so maybe I'll eventually finish it. Who knows...

IDK about the book but betting against Nintendo during that era was never a smart plan. When the Gameboy was out I had an Atari Lynx which was full color and wayyyyy ahead of its time but it was trampled by Nintendo. The only Sega I ever owned was the Dreamcast (their last console) which was pretty great except for the fact that the controller was painful with extended use due to these hard spikes on the thumb sticks. I stayed with my GameCube and wave bird (Nintendo had an amazing wireless controller tha gen).

Back then was much more a multi console era but I feel like SEGA in particular made a mistake that Sony and Microsoft didn’t. Sega tried to out Nintendo, Nintendo. They were the family and friends console. Whereas PlayStation and Xbox came after young adult gamers and adult gamers which was a market Nintendo wasn’t serving in that era at all (there were maybe a handful of games on GameCube that were mature both in rating and interest). And the Wii doubled down on the Disney Era of Nintendo which gave Sony and MS the perfect opportunity to grab the older market.

I had drifted to PC gaming during all this. Mainly for 2 reasons, 1. I really didn’t like what I was hearing in terms of console culture (Xbox live sounded like signing up for abuse as a female gamer) 2. Morrowind finally let me be me. I got to create a character (a girl even! in my own image —not the OP girl in Street Fighter created for males (I used Ryu anyway) or any of the other dumbass Damsels or oversexualized jiggle toys.

And PC modding meant that even in other games I could make games better which is something I fell in love with.

And I suppose there’s a third reason… for a long time PC gaming was more mature in game choices and in online communities and multiplayer.