The Fifth Generation of video game consoles, Nintendo 64

Now we're up to the 5th generation of consoles which lasted from 1993-2002. This era was the beginning of in-home gaming consoles utilizing compact disc technology for video games. Before this, all games were produced using cartridges, which were both expensive to produce and limited in their storage capacity compared to the emerging CD technology.

Notable systems of the era were Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation, and Nintendo 64.

The Playstation was by far the market success story, with the Saturn and the Nintendo 64 losing market share to the new competition Sony.

The Nintendo 64 was far less successful than the Playstation, mainly because it still relied on cartridge technology, limiting its capacity to store information, in an age where game producers' developing needs were climbing astronomically.

It only saw 368 games released on it, in comparison to Playstation's 1100, as developers who used to support the older Nintendo systems cut down, and sometimes completely cut off production for the N64.

Though this drawback hit them in the beginning, the N64 is still held in high regards as the 10th best video game system ever made (IGN) and Time Magazine named awarded it the 1996 Machine of the Year Award.

Recap, and game library lists of the great systems we've covered so far!

As the title states, this is just a recap of the systems we've touched base on, as well as links to the vast libraries of games which came out on all of these systems during their multi-year reigns.

First off, we have the original Arcade games, there really are too many to include all of them, so I will just post the VAPS (Vintage Arcade Preservation Society) top-100 ranked games list URL:

http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/statistics/most-collected-videogames.php

Then came Magnavox Odyssey, which flopped before it really got started, but still should have a game library listed too. However, it was responsible for Pong's release to the masses, and the craze that followed:

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg70-odyssey.htm#page=games

The Odyssey only had 28 games released on it before it flopped.

Next we go to the Atari 2600:

http://www.listal.com/list/complete-atari-2600-game-library

This link also provides great little tidbits of information on a few of the games.

Next, to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) (Famicom) I know this list is Wikipedia, but is a very complete list complete with release dates and developers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_Entertainment_System_games

Then under 16-bit revolution we had the Sega Genesis and Super NES:

Sega Genesis titles, which totaled a staggering 986 titles!

http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Sega_Genesis_games

Super NES games, there are some overlaps as developers for the first time began developing games for two consoles at once, 725 SNES games released in North America, according to GameFAQs:

http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Super_Nintendo_games

The 16-bit revolution

Sega Genesis proved to be the first main competitor to Nintendo's stranglehold on the market. While Nintendo still was focused almost primarily on keeping their NES developers on board, Sega Genesis took the chance to upgrade the market's expectations.

NES was a rather good 8-bit system, but the Genesis boasted 16-bit technology as well as a staggering 7.2 MHz processing power. In 1989 they launched, and quickly gobbled up Nintendo's former market share wresting Nintendo's 7-year dominance over the video game console market.

Here's a very in-depth article about the rise of the Sega Genesis:

http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?view=ConsoleMuseum.Detail&id=36&game=11

Nintendo finally answered the 16-bit demand with their release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in late 1991, almost two years after Sega Genesis's emergence. The SNES was slow to gather developers of games for their new system, and Sega continued its dominance in the 16-bit realm for another 2 years.  In 1993, Nintendo finally closed the gap in regards to developers for their system, but not soon enough to weaken Sega's hold on the market.

Through 1994-97, there was a huge battle between both video game superpowers over dominance, with Sega retaining the upper-hand for the greater portion of the Genesis's almost eight year existence.


Other resources found during research:

http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Super_NES

The revival of the in-home video gaming systems.

After Atari and Intelivision nearly died and marked the ultimate demise of the video gaming franchise, out of the ashes emerged a new spark of life.

Nintendo [Famicom (Family Computer)], which began as a Japanese card manufacturer took the leap to practically single-handedly revive the video game console industry with the establishment of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

In 1983, it released this system under the Famicom nominer, and later released the NES in the U.S., selling a total of 62 million units! This figure of sales was despite just a few years prior marked the single largest crash in the industry's history.

In 1985, Nintendo released what soon became the staple icon of its franchise, Super Mario Bros. which sold over 40 million copies, and held the title for most sales of any video game title until 2008. My math isn't that great, but I figured that span of time (with the aid of a scientific calculator, mind you) as 23 years. That's quite a span of time to hold such a title. It exceeds the amount of time Mike Tyson held the Heavyweight boxing title, both World Wars combined, and all the conflicts the U.S. has been involved in within the Middle East since Desert Storm.

Not bad considering.  The design of the system still has components of it that still live on to this very day.

The controller, for instance. Controllers on the current PS3 and PS4 systems as well as Microsoft's X-Box systems still mimic the basic layout of the NES controller.  Both of these "new and improved" systems still have the directional keypad on the left side, with the buttons on the right. The Start and Select buttons still exist even today, and are placed, you guessed it, in the center of the controller. And they still are designed to fit in a two-handed grip comfortably.

Granted, controllers now have overcome the dilemma of left-thumb video game blisters/calluses, which were the badge of shame and tell-tale sign of hard-core videogamers, and made it much more difficult for us to come up with clever excuses of why we weren't able to finish our homework over the weekend... You know as well as I the reason it didn't get finished!

The NES dominated the markets for a staggering five years, and in that time accumulated a library of over 500 games, including some classics that go hand-in-hand with video game knowledge even today: The Legend of Zelda (which laid the foundation of the RPG gaming genre), Super Mario Bros., Excite Bike, Tecmo Bowl (Pre-Madden days!), Metroid, and so many others.

Another neat factoid:

In a study done at the time showed children were as or more familiar with Mario as with Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny. (Nintendo's corporate history page: http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Corporate/Nintendo-History/Nintendo-History-625945.html

An article revolving around the 30th anniversary of the system which revived the nearly deceased video gaming industry:

http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/15/nintendo-famicom-30th-anniversary-nes/

Again, the video game industry was recovered from the fate of so many ventures who rise and fall throughout the hazardous realm of commerce, by a Japanese playing card manufacturer!

Here is an interesting timeline I found in my research.