MEMORY LANE
A look
at great, and not so great, video game systems of yesterday!
This page is under construction, and will be so until we have covered every game system ever made!
If you have any material you'd like to add, or if we missed a crutial system please contact us! We'd love to hear from you!
Atari
2600
Released in 1977, the 2600
was the king of all kings in video games. This was the system I
cut my teeth on. I just loved it. Nobody could come even close to
competing with this system. Sure, the Oddesey (Released 1978),
and the Intellivision (Released 1980), had better graphics, but
they couldn't come close to Atari's impressive library of games,
or the great arcade conversions (Well, at least great for that
era). Of all the game systems ever made, I was most impressed
with this system.
Oddesey 2
Released in 1978, the
Magnavox and Atari began to compete. I remember this system quite
well. I had an Atari, and my neighbor had the Oddesey. It was a
quarter mile walk to my friends house, but I made the trip often
just to play this system. The graphics are almost laughable now,
but back then they were astounding! Worlds ahead of the Atari. I
loved the system, and my friend made it quite clear he was the
better man because he owned such a technical wonder. Maybe that's
why I feel the need now to "out own" everyone I know as
far as games are concerned. I now have 17 Systems, and thousands
of games. HA HA!! Who's the better man now!!!
Microvision
Released
in 1982, this was one awesome handheld system by Milton bradley.
Here's a system that I owned, but had completely forgotten about
until I read of it in another gaming magazine. It didn't take
long for the memories to come flooding in. Compared to today, the
graphics are really crude. It was all one color pixels that made
a game. Yet, although crude looking, the games were sure fun!!
Pinball, Bowling, Blockbuster, Baseball, ect.. True gaming on the
go. Man, I sure wish I could play it again. Actually, it's not
too far behind the Nintendo Lame B....Opps, I mean Gameboy. It
was really ahead of it's time. If you ever get a chance to get
ahold of a this system, you really should do so. It's a real
classic!
Atari 5200
Released in 1982, the
Atari 5200 offers arcade perfect graphics, at a affordable home
price. Terrible controls, and eventually poor software support
killed this system early. Speaking from my own point of view, I
loved the system. This was the first game system I owned that I
really felt had arcade perfect graphics. They were usuallly older
games, like Pac-Man, Joust, ect.. but were none-the-less perfect.
I just wished the control was better. Playing Pac-Man was nothing
like the arcade because you could rarely get it to turn properly.
It's too bad! This one could've made it.
NES
Released
in 1985, the NES was one of the most popular gaming systems of
all time. I was a late bloomer with this system. Most of my
friends owned one, while I owned the Atari 7800. It seemed to me
there were two different types of systems then. One, the Atari
7800, that had great arcade conversions of older non-scrolling
type games. The other was the NES, which had many technically
advanced scrolling type games, but not many arcade conversions.
Eventually the Nintendo won the marketplace with great games like
Super Mario Bros. , but I still perfered the older arcade style
of the Atari. It must be noted though, I was definately in the
minority as gamers were going NES in droves.
Atari 7800
Released in 1986, Atari
attempts to gain back some of it's lost popularity by releasing a
system that was compatible with the older 2600 games. Well, the
attempt failed miserably. The public lost so much trust in Atari,
that this system never had a chance. Especially since the NES was
released only a year earlier. My personal opinion of the system
was good. Everyone I knew had a NES, while I owned a 7800. I
liked the 7800 because most of it's games were arcade conversions
(and pretty good ones at that). The 7800 had almost exact
translations of all my favorite arcade games (well, at least the
older ones). Pacman, Joust, Dig Dug, ect.. all were on the
system, and all were good. The only thing I really didn't like
about the system was the awful controllers (Something they never
got better at).
Turbo Grafx-16
Released
in 1989, this system was the only real competition to the Genesis
for several years. This was a great time for video game players.
We finally moved away from the 8 bit systems and were definetely
on a new level now. The talk of the day was: "What is the
better system? The Genesis, or the Turbo Grafx?" I tell you,
I liked both equally, but the slightly stronger Genesis finally
won the race. If you don't have one of these, and can get ahold
of one, please do! This was one great machine, and will always be
remembered well.
Atari Lynx
Released in 1989, the Lynx was a high power, low cost handheld
system. I really don't understand why this system failed. It was
an excellent product, and I really liked it. It seemed to have
everything: Graphics, cost, cool effects like scaling, ect.. It
sure was a sight better then the Sega Game Gear, and the Nintendo
Gameboy. The only other handheld that could even come close was
the NEC Turbo Express. And it cost 3 times as much!! It's funny:
As I write this in early 1998, the Lynx has been dead for many
years, and the Gameboy is still going strong. The Lynx is
outdated, but still "State of the Art"! Leave it to
Atari.....
Neo Geo
Released in 1991, the
game system easilly beat the Genesis and Turbo Graphics. The
graphics were worlds ahead, the sound was much better, and games
were many times larger. At the time a very large Genesis
cartridge weighed in at 16 Mega bit. An average Neo Geo cartridge
at the time was around 200 Mega bit. They didn't fill the games
with FMV either! It was all graphics and sound. This was
definetely the system to own!! Problem was that the system, as
well as the cartridges were very expensive. The average cartridge
price alone was over $200.00. Another problem was that the games
were mostly fighters. They were good fighters, but nonetheless
fighters. Only a handful of other games ever surfaced. The system
was eventually killed by cost, but I feel the library had a
little to do with it too.
Sega CD
Released in 1992, this add on to the Genesis promised to huge
leaps in performance. At the time a large Genesis game was about
16 Mega bit, and a CD could hold about 500 Mega Byte. Gamers
expected games to increase to Hollywod proportions. And they did,
sort of. Lots of FMV (Full Motion Video) was added, and the
graphics got a little better. Sound took a 100% performance leap!
Yet, it never really met our expectations. Most of the extra
space was used for unwanted FMV, rather then something to really
enhance the game. Still, I grew to like it, and so did many
people I know. I'll remember it well.
Atari Jaguar
Launched in 1993, this
was the worlds first 64 bit system. Despite the critics, the
Jaguar was a 64 bit system, and it was a good one. When launched,
the Jaguar was clearly the most powerful system around. The main
downfall of the Jaguar was that it was plagued by Atari's past.
Nobody trusted the company, because they have failed so many
times before. As a result software support was weak, and media
coverage was less then positive. Had the media left Atari alone,
and let the system stand on it's own merits, it probably could've
made it. Even the release of a powerful CD add on in 1995
couldn't save it. It's too bad it failed, because this one was
even "Made in America".
Sega 32X
Launched in 1994, this was the worst effort I have seen from Sega
to date. I bought mine for $159.95, and feel I was totally ripped
off. Very few games came out, and the ones that did weren't much
better then the 16 bit games I was already playing. The 32X
promised to upgrade your Genesis to 32 bit, without all the
expense of purchasing the soon to be released Saturn. The system
was a total flop. If you ask me, the system was only designed to
increase revenue before the launch of the 32 bit standalone
Saturn, in which Sega be taking a loss on the initial hardware
sales. I don't believe Sega ever had a long term commitment to
support this system.
Sega Saturn
Launched in 1995, the
Saturn promised to truely bring the Arcade experience home. Well,
it didn't. At least not at first. As a suprise move Sega of
America decided to launch the Saturn several months before the
Playstation would be launched. Many believe this move to best
Sony was the main reason for Saturn's demise. The initial games
available were very graphically poor, and looked rushed. The
gameplay was there, but many took to the Sony camp due to the
unimpressive looks alone. Over time, Sega repented and changed
their games. Their later efforts (At least internally developed
games), are sights to be held. I just love the system! It's too
bad a few marketing mistakes had to hold it back.
Sony Playstation
Released in 1995, this is the current leading system as I write
this in early 1998. Nintendo 64 is getting closer, but cannot
match the Playstation in software support. It will be interesting
to see what happens as Nintendo increases it's library of games,
but don't expect Sony to be out of the race anytime soon.
Personally, I see nothing on the horizon that could possibly
upseat Sony. There are new systems in the works, but Sony's got a
good foothold now. The way I see it, even long after the newer
64+ bit systems arive, Sony will still be in top spot.
