Talk:History of video game consoles (fifth generation)

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[edit] Casio Loopy

It may not have had any major impact on console gaming, but it was a unique and interesting machine that should be mentioned.Alcy 04:39, 7 August 2006 (UTC)


Most of these console articles only focus on Western demographics. Do your research before writing an article. -marvelvsdc

In the article it says that the notion of describing consoles as x-bit comes from colour depth - isn't this rubbish? Surely the reason that they were called 8 bit consoles was because the word size of the processor was 8 bits, and 16 bit consoles had word sides of 16bits.

Case in point: For the mega drive/genesis (always called 16bit)

Main CPU: 16-Bit Motorola M68000 16 bit processor running at 7.61Mhz Palette: 512 Colors - 2^9 not 2^16!!!

For the NES (always called 8bit) CPU: Nintendo 2A03 8 bit processor based on MOS Technology 6502 core, running at 1.79MHz Palette: 48 colors and 5 grays in base palette; red, green, and blue guns can be individually darkened somewhat on a particular scanline - this is not 2^8!

I'm 100% sure I'm right about this, and unless anyone tells me otherwise I'll change all the x-bit articles to remove the rubbish about colour depth.


That is indeed total BS. The mega drive only 16 colours? LOL. It is due to the main processsor. Hence the reason there is no 128 bit. -josquius

"Tomb Raider featured a supposedly sexy female lead." -Disagree with supposedly, just an objective point, but this was basically the selling point of the game and Eidos did what they could with the polygons they had, gameplay was a secondary issue from the press coverage in the UK

  • Why not try "voluptuous" instead? Not everyone finds the same things sexy. Plenty of gamers aren't even attracted to women. Alcy 01:36, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Saturn is ignored on the Consoles of the 32-bit / 64-bit era section of the page, bout halfway down.

Yes, why is Playstation and Saturn not featured in the "overview"? Hornpipe2 (talk) 20:34, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Arcade Games

  • The Nintendo 64 was announced as "Ultra 64" and two arcade games (Killer Instinct and Cruis'n USA) were released claiming to use the hardware. A famous TV ad showed a gamer chainsawing open the Killer Instinct arcade cabinet so he could take out the N64 console inside. This caused many gamers to abstain from buying systems like the 3DO, Saturn, and PlayStation, because they saw that what they thought was the Nintendo 64 hardware was clearly superior to any of those systems. In the end, the system was completely different from that used for Killer Instinct and Cruis'n USA.

If I'm not mistaken, the commercial described was actually for the SNES. In fact both Killer Instict and Killer Instict 2 were released before the Nintendo 64.--AlphaTwo 19:16, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

My understanding is also that the above ad referred to the upcoming N64. The arcade games were created as "preview" type games so you could go to the arcade and play N64 titles before the release of the N64. I do believe a watered-down version of killer instinct was released for the SNES --Measure 23:32, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Market share

Does anyone know of a source we can use to verify what kind of market share each of these consoles got? Even just total units sold for each? The opening paragraph says the Playstation was the most successful console of the generation... is there a source to back up that claim? I'm positive the Playstation was the most successful, but can we verify this? I don't know where to look. --Measure 23:36, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

It's all bullshit. Don't believe the hype, we wanna see some figures.

I took some figures from the Console Wars page. Don't know the sources, but they're there.

[edit] Franchises?

Should we be listing PC-based franchises on this list at all? Unreal didn't come to consoles until the sixth generation, Diablo had a PlayStation version, but it isn't very important to the console market and Doom, besides its PC origins had had a console release on the SNES. Ace of Sevens 10:59, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mainstream

I think a major section that needs to be added here is that it was during the 32 bit era that computer games truly entered the mainstream.--Josquius 13:25, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

The sales data doesn't really support that. The 8-bit era sold approximately 80 million units. 16-bits were around 100 million. The PS1/N64 era sold around 130 million. Yes there's growth, but the probable explanation is due to natural population growth (example: U.S. increased from 200 to 300 million citizens; a 50% jump in potential buyers), rather than any sudden change in consumer habits.
Furthermore from my own observations over the last 30 years: nothing's changed. Gaming in the 1980s was a hobby mostly-populated by kids, teens, and young adults (20s/30s), and the same was true in the 1990s. The demographic didn't change.
In other words, "games entered the mainstream in the 90s" is an urban legend neither supported by Sales Data nor observation. - Theaveng 16:00, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] once again how are handhelds included in this

....and the game boy pocket is just a redesign its like saying the ds lite is a new generation of system...Owwmykneecap 18:34, 21 August 2006 (UTC).

It is a new generation of system! Two screen, touch screen, microphone and some dangley bolocks.

I think he's actually talking about the ds LITE compared to the DS.

Saying GameBy Pocket is of the fifth generation is like saying the DS Lite is one or two generations ahead of the normal DS. While there is in fact no real hardware change.

[edit] Emulation

It's not just FFV which made people want to emulate the NES and SNES during this epoch, but PCs finally became possible to emulate the 8 (and 16) bit processors of a generation before and the internet made it possible to find ROMs (or as I like to think of them, tape images.) The rise of emulators (eg jpp, z80, xspect for the ZX Spectrum alone) during this time has little or nothing to do with the fact that one particular game was popular because it was translated into English, but because people were bored with the same old crap gameplay with fancy graphics. I will edit the main article in a day or two to reflect this viewpoint, unless what I've just written can be proven incorrect.

[User: I'm not actually a user, but would like to believe in wikipedia. 01:50, 22 September 2006 (BST)

I think the explanation is fine at simply "PCs were now able to keep up with the games" and "the Internet made distributing ROMs much easier". No nostalgic opinionating required. Hornpipe2 (talk) 20:38, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Here's my question: the Xbox 360 is able to play 25 year old games? Is this through Live Arcade? Examples? 81.58.34.171 12:51, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ape Escape: a milestone?

I'm of the opinion that Ape Escape doesn't really deserve to be listed as a milestone game. It may have been one of the first "show off" titles for the DualShock but it wasn't remarkable in any other department and earlier games (e.g. Porsche Challenge) made effective use of both thumbsticks even if they were only really Dual Analogue titles. — ThomasHarte 18:30, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Panzer Dragoon Saga

As arguably the most significant saturn game as well as a pioneer of early 3D RPG's, I feel that Panzer Dragoon Saga deserves to be included in the list of milestone games. It was the last great piece of output for the console before the saturn fell into obscurity. Am I in the minority here? - Heihachi 17:38, 3 January 2007 (GMT)

I am going to insert PDS, though I will remove it if anyone has a valid argument against it or if there is a consensus against this decision Heihachi 01:24, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ape Escape

From the milestones section: "Ape Escape is the very first game to use the dualshock analog controller on the PlayStation. The games requires two analog sticks to play with. The left analog stick to move the character and the right analog stick to use the gadget." - I though Gran Turismo was the first game to use the dualshock feature. A.E. was the first game on the PSX to REQUIRE an analogue (or dualshock) controller IIRC (that is it didn't just utilise the analogue feature but could be played without it). Alexj2002 21:19, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 32-bit?

Are they really in the same 'generation' as 64-bit? I mean, 32-bit games were pretty durn separate from 64-bit, weren't they? I remember at the end of the 16-bit era, it seemed like there were all these new consoles coming out and none of them were showing up at anyone's house.. sega cd failed, sega 32x failed.. nintendo didn't even put one out.. it seemed almost like its own very short-lived crappy generation or something before 64-bit picked up again.

The PS1 was 32 bit, and it sold ~110 million units. Not exactly a "crappy" console. Furthermore, the Xbox & Gamecube also used 32 bit CPUs, and I wouldn't describe them as "crappy" either. - Theaveng 15:37, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GoldenEye and Perfect Dark

I can't believe that GoldenEye and Perfect Dark are not discussed here, these 2 were always in the top 3 or 5 games of this generation of consoles. And their impact on gaming in general, in particular the advancements to first person shooters and their multiplayer modes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.190.193.125 (talk • contribs)

Please start new discussion at the bottom and sign your posts.
Personally I didn't care for either of the games. They were popular but AFAIK newer FPS titles do not seem to borrow much from them.--Anss123 (talk) 08:07, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
I'd say there were some minor mood-related issues taken from Perfect Dark, but I can't find anything that was truly passed on from Golden Eye. That's not to say it wasn't an enjoyable game, just that it didn't change the industry. Doom brought us multi-player vs AND co/p LONG before these two games. Beyond their fan-base there isn't much more to say about them. Lostinlodos (talk) 00:03, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
GoldenEye, to its credit, is one of the few good games based on a movie. I’ve heard that the Splintered Cell and Rainbow games have similarities, but I didn’t care for those games either so I can’t say for sure.--Anss123 (talk) 05:36, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
GoldenEye was a HUGE success, one of the killer apps for the N64, and almost certainly worthy of a mention as it was one of the pioneering FPS games on a console. PD maybe not so much needing a mention except in passing - it was the sequel after all. Hornpipe2 (talk) 20:40, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
GoldenEye was pretty much the pioneer in objective-based FPS, rather than just run-and-gun, if I'm not mistaken. Useight (talk) 20:46, 29 May 2008 (UTC)