The 3rd dimension the Final Frontier

So you may be wondering what that means.
Every game out now is in the 3rd dimension...and probably some newfangled one as will soon replace that.

Anyway back in yesteryear...1995 one company made a daring plan break out of the lame 2D world and into the futuristic awesomeness of 3D. What they came up with was the amazing failure known as the Nintendo Virtual Boy.

Now keep in mind at the time of its announcement every kid at my school literally exploded in enthusiasm...seriously it was a mess...

The system promised amazing 3D graphics, immersive games and worlds the like of which we'd never seen, and intuitive controls. What we got was an awkward goggle apparatus like thing, strange red and black graphics, and a lot of headaches.

Oh yea this is so 3D

The system was designed poorly and looked very similar to an 80s View-Master. It had to be played at a table, and you could only see the view screens by looking into the device. I say screens because the 3D was actually just two separate view ports, which displayed information on a separate level giving the illusion of 3D. You couldn't even see the controller while playing it was terrible.

The system ultimately failed, and was discontinued only three months later, and has since become a black spot in Nintendo's otherwise glorious history.

Interestingly enough they used similar technology in a future project called the 3DS, and the controller was reworked and adapted into the Nintendo Gamecube two systems with great commercial success.

 

Is this not the most terrifying thing ever?

I Survived the Console Wars

One could argue that this war wages today between the current heavy hitters Sony and

Microsoft...Sorry Nintendo I don’t think you count anymore...

Anyway, the console wars (also known as the bit wars) took place in the early years of the 90s. It was fought between Nintendo’s Italian Stallion, and Sega’s spiky haired fast talking (he didn’t actually talk did he?) rebel Sonic.

Ok so they didn’t actually fight, but oh boy the company’s sure did.

 For the most part Nintendo played a clean game akin to a politician that wants to win with honour, VS Sega’s aggressive mud-slinging with the “Genesis does, what Ninten-don’t” campaign.

Now back then video games were still highly thought of as “a kid’s toys” and as such if you were lucky enough to have a console at all, it was one or the other at the discretion of your parents.

What this did was turn lunch room discussions over which system was better into all out guerrilla warfare!

I wish I was kidding, I remember getting punched over a heated argument as to why Mario would win in a fight against Sonic...An argument I later proved correct 20 years later with a battle in Super SmashBros Brawl...

Ok I’m off topic sorry!

My point was you had one or the other, and people passionately defended whichever system they had. Games very rarely went multi platform either back then, so by having one limited your ability to play games so your choice mattered a lot more. Not like today when damn near everything gets released on everything...does it sound bad that I kinda hate that? I think it just takes away the whole experience.

Speaking of mascots does anyone remember what Sony’s used to be? ;) No Google, That’s cheating!

For more information about the console wars check here.