Electronics: PlayStation 1 & Sega Consoles

This will be our last blog about 90’s electronics, and today we will talk about the PlayStation 1 from Sony and the Mega Drive & Dreamcast from Sega.

The PlayStation1 (PS1) was designed by Sony in Japan and was released in Europe in 1995. Almost every console of the PlayStation series has three different versions; an Asian, Northern-American and European version, this is because there are also different television outputs in these different parts of the world. The PlayStation was the product of a failed collaboration between Sony and Nintendo; they initially agreed to make a cd add-on for the SNES but Nintendo ended this agreement because Sony would have all the rights to the games that would be on this cd, and that would not be profitable for Nintendo. Because the development of this add-on was in such an advanced stage, Sony turned to Phillips and they created the cd-i, which is placed in the PS1. The PlayStation dominated the 32-bit and 64-bit era, this was partly because the cd’s for the PS1 were relatively cheap and it was fairly easy to play illegal copies on it. The PlayStation 1 had a market share of 70,4% (in comparison: Nintendo had 22,7%). 

 

Sega released the Mega Drive in Europe in 1990 (In America it was called the Sega Genesis). The Mega Drive wasn’t very popular in homeland Japan, but it was very well received in America and Europe. The Mega Drive was technically better developed than then the NES, which give Sega a head start to Nintendo at the time. Sega released some add-ons and new consoles like the Sega-Mega CD, Sega X32 and the Sega Saturn, but when Nintendo released the SNES, the popularity of Sega and the Mega Drive dropped quickly.

Let’s see what the Angry Video Game Nerd has to say about a Mega Drive game:

The last console Sega released was the Dreamcast (1999 in Europe). The Dreamcast was one of the first consoles that allowed users to play online on SegaNet (America) and Dream Arena (Europe). The Dreamcast wasn’t very popular because similar consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo that released in the next decade had better features. This meant the end for the Sega consoles, and in 2001 they announced that they would retreat from the hardware market.

This concludes our week about electronics! We hoped you have enjoyed it and next week we will talk about Pokémon and everything that is related to it!

Electronics: SNES & N64

Scroll down to download a SNES or N64 emulator on your pc!

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was released in Europe in 1992 and was the second successful series of Nintendo gamecomputers after the Nintendo Entertainments System (NES), which was released in the 80's. The SNES was the best-sold gamecomputer of the 16-bit era. Between Nintendo & Sega, another gamecomputer manifacturer, a big "game war" was fought. Sega produced more fast and cool games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, whereas Nintendo released more child-friendly games like Super Mario World. In the end Nintendo won the "game war". The SNES is still very popular today, especially collectors and retro gamers still like to play the old SNES games.

Here you can download an emulator, so that you can play the original SNES games on your computer : Click here to download a SNES emulator

Some of the most well-known SNES games are: Castlevania, Donkey Kong, Final Fantasy and the Mario series.

The Nintendo 64 (N64) was the successor of the SNES and was the 3rd successful series of Nintendo gamecomputers. The N64 was released in Europe in 1997 and was a 64-bit gamecomptuers, which was the last series of gamecomputers which used game cartridges instead of cd-roms and dvd-games. Game cartridges had some advantages over cd-roms and dvd-games, such as that it is more difficult to copy cartridges, are very reliable, are scratch-proof and they load very quick. But the disadvantages seemed to be greater than the advantages in the end and therefore it was the end for the game cartridge. Because the N64 had an original shape and a new type of controller, it was a moderate success with 30 million sold copies (even though they had to compete with the 1995 Sony Playstation). 

Some of the most popular N64 games are Super Mario 64, Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong 64 and Super Smash Bros.

Here is a link were you can download the emulator for the N64 games:  Click here to download a N64 emulator

This was all for now, but don't go anywhere because next time we will talk about the Playstation 1 and the Sega Mega Drive & Dreamcast!

Electronics: gameboy

Hi!

This week we will talk about different electronics that were trends in the 90's. Today the topic is the Gameboy. We believe that the Gameboy deserves a whole post because it was such a fad!

Admit it:

We all have been through this moment

In Japan, Nintendo created the original 8-bit gameboy in 1989. There were many succesors to it; Nintendo Super Gameboy (not portable), Gameboy Pocket, Gameboy Light (only in Japan) and the Gameboy Color (first gameboy that used colors in the screen). The gameboys after the color all came out in the next decade, so we won't mention them here.

Most gamecomputers did not have worthy succesors, but this isn't the case with Gameboy. The cartridges from the first 1989 Gameboy can still be played on the 2001 Gameboy Advance. Similiar gameboys from other companies proved not to be as succesful and were distroyed by Nintendo.

Some of the most familiar gamepacks for the Gameboy were Super Mario, Pokémon, Tetris, Donkey Kong and Final Fantasy.

Super Mario

Pokémon



Tetris

Donkey Kong

Final Fantasy

Funny Fact: The "Gameboy-thumb" is an acknowledged form of RSI!

All in all we can conclude: Nintendo FTW!

Next time we will talk about the Nintendo consoles: Super Nintendo (SNES) and Nintendo 64 (N64). We will also give you a link to a site where you can download a emulator, so that you can play all the old Nintendo games on you computer, in original style!