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1985-1989:
FOURTH GENERATION (Post-Crash 8-bit era)
Two things
happened at this time:
- The reduction
in cost of Dynamic RAM (DRAM) chips allowed programmers more
memory than conventional RAM and accessed at much higher transfer
rates than magnetic disks.
- The production
of high power 8-bit processors lowered the prices of the previous
chips. This made the two technologies easily accessible to video
game companies.
These innovations
were ideal for the production of home game consoles that could
compete with the ability of arcade machines. Increased activity
in independent game development also took place at this time,
and this brought high complex games in the realm of general
purpose PCs, whose population, IBM- and MAC-based, exploded
over time.
Sega was the
first of the Japanese companies to try a new system. When DRAM
chips and inexpensive 8-bit processors became available in 1984,
Sega, headed by Hayao Nakayama, entered the home console market
with its Master System. The Sega Master System sold very
well, but its success was short lived. While they had produced
several very popular arcade and home video games over the years
(Frogger, Buck Rogers, Congo Bongo), the Sega Master System was
the first system that Sega had released in America. Unlike the
other systems during this era, the Sega Master System (SMS) had
two cartridge ports: one had the standard cartridge configuration,
while the other accepted small credit card-shaped cartridges.
These "card" games, limited by their size and memory, were typically
much cheaper than the normal size carts and sold reasonably well
for the system. The system was capable of utilizing both ports
at any given time, and Sega used this feature to produce 3-D glasses
for use with certain games. The glasses used small LCD screens
that would alternately flash opaque and clear. When choreographed
with similar flashings on the screen, this process turned some
games into an early "virtual-reality" experience. The 3-D glasses
worked quite well, and in a side-by-side comparison of the SMS
and NES, it was obvious that the SMS had more potential than the
NES. However, the NES had many more games developed than the SMS,
which would never be able to attain any significant popularity
in America. In Europe, on the other hand, the SMS sold so well
that Nintendo of Europe would have to license some of their games
to them to stay afloat.
- Year:
1984
- Company:
Sega
- Program:
Sega Master System
- Type:
Home Version
 
Nintendo of
Japan entered the video game market in the seventies by joining
with Coleco, an American video game company. Nintendo achieved
moderate success through such arcade games as Donkey Kong and
Mario Brothers. They also produced a majority of games
for the Third Generation system Coleco Vision. But the gaming
market crash would destroy several companies, including Coleco,
leaving Nintendo's future in video games uncertain. Upon learning
of the success that other companies such as Sega were having in
the U.S., Hirosi Yamauchi, a descendant of Fusajiro's, pressed
Nintendo engineers to design their own home console. Yamauchi
told his engineers to leave out all extraneous frills to save
money and speed up production. The system was rushed by the pressure
Yamauchi placed on his designers and was released no more than
six months after the release of the Sega Master System. The first
shipments were riddled with defects because of the short design
period, thus making many retailers very upset. However, using
the marketing data already established by competing companies,
Nintendo executives channeled nearly all of the company's resources
into advertisements. These advertisements hit the American and
Japanese consumers at exactly the right moment, making the Nintendo
Entertainment System (NES) the highest selling system in history
but also the most notorious.(12)
Over the next
few years, its user base would grow exponentially until the NES
surpassed the Atari VCS/2600 peak set in 1982. As of 1990, there
were over 19 million NES systems in the United States alone. In
addition to the tremendous success of the system, its games had
a great deal of success. For example, Super Mario Bros., released
in 1989, grossed over $500 million in America alone. In the
field of entertainment, only the movie ET has made more revenue.
Super Mario Bros. sold more than 7 million copies in America and
4 million in Japan, which is more copies than any other game in
history.
By 1990, the
money earned from Nintendo's NES and its games allowed Nintendo
to usurp Toyota as Japan's most successful company. In the entertainment
business, Nintendo netted as much as all of the American movie
studios combined and more than the three television networks had
in the previous two years. In the five short years since the system
was released, the NES could be found in more than a third of the
households in America and Japan.
- Year:
1985
- Company:
Nintendo
- Program:
Nintendo Entertainment System
- Type:
Home Version
 
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