In the history of video games, thefourth generation of video game consoles, more commonly referred to as the16-bit era, began on October 30, 1987, with the Japanese release ofNEC Home Electronics'PC Engine (known as the TurboGrafx-16 in North America). Though NEC released the first console of this era, sales were mostly dominated by the rivalry betweenSega andNintendo across most markets: theMega Drive (known as the Genesis in North America) and theSuper Nintendo Entertainment System (known as theSuper Famicom in Japan). Cartridge-basedhandheld game consoles became prominent during this time, such as theGame Boy,Lynx,Game Gear, andTurboExpress.
Nintendo was able to capitalize on its success in thethird generation, and managed to win the largest worldwide market share in the fourth generation as well. However, particularly in the lucrative North American market, there was a fierceconsole war in the early 1990s, which eventually saw Sega taking a market share lead over Nintendo in North America by 1993. Sega's success in this era stemmed largely from its launch of its popularSonic the Hedgehog franchise to compete with Nintendo'sSuper Mario series, as well as a very stylized marketing campaign aimed at American teenagers. Several other companies released consoles in this generation, but none of them were widely successful. Nevertheless, there were other companies that started to take notice of the maturingvideo game industry and begin making plans to release consoles of their own in the future. As with prior generations, game media still continued to be distributed primarily onROM cartridges, though the firstoptical disc systems, such as thePhilips CD-i, were released to limited success. There was additionally competition with games on home computers such as theAmiga,Atari ST,Apple IIGS, andIBM PC compatibles, especially in markets like Europe. As games became more complex, concerns over violence in games likeMortal Kombat andNight Trap led to the creation of theEntertainment Software Rating Board.
The emergence offifth generation video game consoles, beginning around 1994, did not initially significantly diminish the popularity of fourth generation consoles. In 1996, however, there was a major drop in sales of hardware from this generation and a dwindling number of software publishers supporting its systems,[1] which together led to a drop in software sales in subsequent years.
The PC Engine was the result of a collaboration betweenHudson Soft andNEC and launched in Japan on October 30, 1987. It launched under the name TurboGrafx-16 inNorth America on August 29, 1989.
Initially, the PC Engine was quite successful in Japan, partly due to titles available on the then-newCD-ROM format. NEC released a CD add-on in 1990 and by 1992 had released a combination TurboGrafx and CD-ROM system known as theTurboDuo.
In the United States, NEC usedBonk, a head-banging caveman, as their mascot and featured him in most of the TurboGrafx advertising from 1990 to 1994. The platform was well received initially, especially in larger markets, but failed to make inroads into the smaller metropolitan areas where NEC did not have as many store representatives or as focused in-store promotion.
The TurboGrafx-16 failed to maintain its sales momentum or to make a strong impact in North America.[2] The TurboGrafx-16 and its CD combination system, the Turbo Duo, ceased manufacturing in North America by 1994, though a small amount of software continued to trickle out for the platform.
The Mega Drive was released in Japan on October 29, 1988.[3] The console was released inNew York City andLos Angeles on August 14, 1989, under the name Sega Genesis, and in the rest of North America later that year.[4] It was launched in Europe and Australia on November 30, 1990, under its original name.
Sega built its marketing campaign around its new mascotSonic the Hedgehog,[5] pushing the Genesis as the "cooler" alternative to Nintendo's console[6] and inventing the term "Blast Processing" to suggest that the Genesis was capable of handling games with faster motion than the SNES.[7] Their advertising was often directly adversarial, leading to commercials such as "Genesis does what Nintendon't" and no scream at all.[8]
When the arcade gameMortal Kombat was ported for home release on the Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo decided to censor the game's gore, but Sega kept the content in the game, via a code entered at the start screen. Sega's version ofMortal Kombat received generally more favorable reviews in the gaming press and outsold the SNES version three to one. This also led to Congressional hearings to investigate the marketing of violent video games to children, and to the creation of theInteractive Digital Software Association and theEntertainment Software Rating Board.[9] Sega concluded that the superior sales of their version ofMortal Kombat were outweighed by the resulting loss in consumer trust, and cancelled the game's release in Spain to avoid further controversy.[10] With the new ESRB rating system in place, Nintendo reconsidered its position for the release ofMortal Kombat II, and this time became the preferred version among reviewers.[11][12] The Toy Retail Sales Tracking Service reported that during the key shopping month of November 1994, 63% of all 16-bit video game consoles sold were Sega systems.[13]
The console was never popular in Japan (being regularly outsold by thePC Engine), but still managed to sell 30.75 million units worldwide. By late 1995, Sega was supporting five different consoles and two add-ons, and Sega Enterprises chose to discontinue the Mega Drive in Japan to concentrate on the newSega Saturn.[14] While this made perfect sense for the Japanese market, it was disastrous in North America: the market for Genesis games was much larger than for the Saturn, but Sega was left without the inventory or software to meet demand.[15]
The Japanese & PAL version of the Super NES (first model)
Nintendo's fourth-generation console, the Super Famicom, was released in Japan on November 21, 1990; Nintendo's initial shipment of 300,000 units sold out within hours.[16] The machine reached North America as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System on August 23, 1991,[cn 1] and Europe and Australia in April 1992.
TheCD-i format was announced in the late 1980s, with the first machines compatible with the format being released in 1991. The Philips CD-i's main selling point was that it was more than a game machine and could be used for multimedia needs. Due to an agreement between Nintendo and Philips aboutan abortive CD add-on for the SNES (which eventually evolved intoSony'sPlayStation), Philips also had rights to use some of Nintendo's franchises. The CD-i was acommercial failure and was discontinued in 1998,[26] selling only 1 million units worldwide despite several partnerships and multiple versions of the device, some made by other manufacturers.
Released bySNK in 1990, the Neo Geo was a home console version of the major arcade platform. Compared to its console competition, the Neo Geo had much better graphics and sound, however, the prohibitively expensive launch price of $649.99 and games often retailing at over $250 made the console only accessible to a niche market. A more expensive version, retailing for $1999.99, did not include a memory card,pack-in game or extra joystick.
Nintendo, NEC and Sega also competed with hardwareperipherals for their consoles in this generation. NEC was the first with the release of the TurboGrafx CD system in 1990. Retailing for $399.99 at release, the CD add-on was not a popular purchase, but was largely responsible for the platform's success in Japan.[27] TheSega CD was released with an unusually high price tag ($300 at its release) and a limited library of games. A unique add-on for the Sega console wasSega Channel, a subscription-based service (a form of online gaming delivery) hosted by local television providers. It required hardware that plugged into a cable line and the Genesis.
Nintendo also made two attempts with theSatellaview and theSuper Game Boy. The Satellaview was a satellite service released only inJapan and the Super Game Boy was an adapter for the SNES that allowed Game Boy games to be displayed on a TV in color. Nintendo, working along withSony, also had plans to create aCD-ROM drive for the SNES (plans that resulted in a prototype version of theSony PlayStation), but eventually decided not to go through with that project, opting to team up withPhilips in the development of the add-on instead (contrary to popular belief, theCD-i was largely unrelated to the project).
The fourth generation was also the era when the act of buying imported US games became more established in Europe, and regular stores began to carry them. ThePAL region has arefresh rate of 50 Hz (compared with 60 Hz forNTSC) and a vertical resolution of 625 interlaced lines (576 effective), compared with 525/480 for NTSC. Because the simulation speed of contemporary game systems was directly linked to the outputframe rate, which was in turn synchronized with the TV's refresh rate, this meant that the game would run more slowly on a PAL television. The smaller number of vertical lines in the NTSC signal would also lead to black bars appearing on the top and bottom of a PAL television. Developers often had a hard time converting games designed for the American and Japanese NTSC standard to the European and Australian PAL standard.[citation needed] Companies such asKonami, with large budgets and a healthy following in Europe and Australia, readily optimized several games (such as theInternational Superstar Soccer series) for this audience, while most smaller developers did not.[citation needed]
Also, fewRPGs were released in Europe because the market for the genre was not as large as in Japan or North America, and the increasing amount of time and money required for translation as RPGs became more text-heavy, in addition to the usual need to convert the games to thePAL standard, often made localizing the games to Europe a high-cost venture with little potential payoff.[28][29] As a result, RPG releases in Europe were largely limited to games which had previously been localized for North America, thus reducing the amount of translation required.[29]
Popular US games imported at this time includedFinal Fantasy IV (known in the US asFinal Fantasy II),Final Fantasy VI (known in the US asFinal Fantasy III),Secret of Mana,Street Fighter II,Chrono Trigger, andSuper Mario RPG.Secret of Mana andStreet Fighter II would eventually receive official release in Europe, whilstFinal Fantasy IV,Final Fantasy VI,Chrono Trigger andSuper Mario RPG would be released in Europe years later on other consoles or formats outside of this generation.
The firsthandheld game console released in the fourth generation was theGame Boy, on April 21, 1989. It went on to dominate handheld sales by an extremely large margin, despite featuring an8-bit microprocessor and a low-contrast, unlit monochrome screen while all three of its leading competitors had color. Three major franchises made their debut on the Game Boy:Tetris, the Game Boy'skiller application;Pokémon; andKirby. With some design (Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Light) and hardware (Game Boy Color) changes, it continued in production in some form until 2008, enjoying a better than 18-year run.
TheAtari Lynx included hardware-accelerated color graphics, a backlight, and the ability to link up to sixteen units together in an early example of network play when its competitors could only link 2 or 4 consoles (or none at all),[92] but its comparatively short battery life (approximately 4.5 hours on a set of alkaline cells, versus 35 hours for the Game Boy), and high price, resulted in the Lynx only selling 2 Million worldwide.[93]
The third major handheld of the fourth generation was theGame Gear. It featured graphics capabilities roughly comparable to theMaster System (better colours, but lower resolution), a ready made games library by using the "Master-Gear" adaptor to play cartridges from the older console, and the opportunity to be converted into a portable TV using a cheap tuner adaptor, but it also suffered some of the same shortcomings as the Lynx. While it sold more than twenty times as many units as the Lynx, its bulky design – slightly larger than even the original Game Boy; relatively poor battery life – only a little better than the Lynx; and later arrival in the marketplace – competing for sales amongst the remaining buyers who did not already have a Game Boy – hampered its overall popularity despite being more closely competitive to the Nintendo in terms of price and breadth of software library.[94] Sega eventually retired the Game Gear in 1997, a year before Nintendo released the first examples of the Game Boy Color, to focus on theNomad and non-portable console products.
Other handheld consoles released during the fourth generation included theTurboExpress, a handheld version of the TurboGrafx-16 released by NEC in 1990, and theGame Boy Pocket, an improved model of the Game Boy released about two years before the debut of theGame Boy Color. While the TurboExpress was another early pioneer of color handheld gaming technology and had the added benefit of using the same game cartridges or 'HuCards' as the TurboGrafx16, it had even worse battery life than the Lynx and Game Gear – about three hours on six contemporary AA batteries – selling only 1.5 million units.[95]
Garou: Mark of the Wolves (Arcade, Neo Geo AES) bySNK is considered one of the best fighting games, as well as the "swan song" of the generation. receiving praise for its hand-drawn graphics, and the game's tight and streamlined control scheme.[114]
Super Mario World (SNES) byNintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development (Nintendo EAD) and Nintendo, a SNES launch title showcasing the console's capabilities with enhanced graphics and sound, as well as introducing new gameplay mechanics and expansive level design. It is often considered one of the best games in the series, it became the best-selling game of its generation and is cited as one of the greatest video games ever made.[117][118][119]
Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis) bySonic Team and Sega was Sega's bid to compete head-to head with Nintendo'sMario franchise, played a critical role in the success of the Genesis, and received widespread critical acclaim as one of the greatest games ever made, kickstarting a successfulfranchise.[127]
Street Fighter II (Arcade, Genesis, SNES, TurboGrafx) byCapcom was the second game in the series to produce a lasting fanbase and set many of the trends seen in fighting games today, most notably its colorful selection of playable fighters from different countries across the globe.[128] As of 2008, it isCapcom's best-selling consumer game of all time.[129]
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) by Nintendo EAD and Nintendo courted popularity that was larger than that of its predecessors on the NES.[133][134] It was one of the few action-adventures to be released early in the SNES's lifecycle.Zelda II on the NES had been mostly action-based and was side-scrolling, whileA Link to the Past drew more inspiration from the originalZelda game with its top-down adventure format.[135][136][137][138]
^abAccording to Stephen Kent'sThe Ultimate History of Video Games, the official launch date was September 9.[17] Newspaper and magazine articles from late 1991 report that the first shipments were in stores in some regions on August 23,[18][19] while it arrived in other regions at a later date.[20] Many modern online sources (circa 2005 and later) report August 13.[21][22]
^Mega Drive games use the Z80 as a sound controller. The Power Base Converter effectively turns the Mega Drive into a Master System, giving control to the Z80 and leaving the 68000 dormant.
^30.75 million sold by Sega worldwide as of June 1996.[81][82] 1.5 million projected byMajesco Entertainment of the Genesis 3 in 1998.[83] 3 million sold byTectoy in Brazil as of 2012.[84][85]
^Kent, Steven L. (2001).The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. pp. 424–431.ISBN0-7615-3643-4.
^Kent, Steven L. (2001).The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. pp. 434,448–449.ISBN0-7615-3643-4.
^Kent, Steven L. (2001).The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. p. 405.ISBN0-7615-3643-4.
^Kent, Steven L. (2001).The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. pp. 508, 531.ISBN0-7615-3643-4.
^Kent (2001), p. 434. Kent states September 1 was planned but later rescheduled to September 9.
^Campbell, Ron (August 27, 1991). "Super Nintendo sells quickly at OC outlets".The Orange County Register.Last weekend, months after video-game addicts started calling, Dave Adams finally was able to sell them what they craved: Super Nintendo. Adams, manager of Babbages in South Coast Plaza, got 32 of the $199.95 systems Friday. Based on the publication date, the "Friday" mentioned would be August 23, 1991.
^"Super Nintendo It's Here!!!".Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 28. Sendai Publishing Group. November 1991. p. 162.The Long awaited Super NES is finally available to the U.S. gaming public. The first few pieces of this unit hit the store shelves on August 23, 1991. Nintendo, however, released the first production run without any heavy fanfare or spectacular announcements.
^"New products put more zip into the video-game market".Chicago Sun-Times. August 27, 1991. Archived fromthe original(abstract) on November 3, 2012. RetrievedMarch 5, 2010.On Friday, area Toys R Us stores [...] were expecting Super NES, with a suggested retail price of $199.95, any day, said Brad Grafton, assistant inventory control manager for Toys R Us. Based on the publication date, the "Friday" mentioned would be August 23, 1991.
^"Super NES".Classic Systems. Nintendo. Archived fromthe original on July 14, 2007. RetrievedDecember 4, 2007.
^"Yearly market report".Famitsu Weekly (in Japanese) (392): 8. June 21, 1996.
^Zackariasson, Peter; Wilson, Timothy L.; Ernkvist, Mirko (2012). "Console Hardware: The Development of Nintendo Wii".The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future. Routledge. p. 158.ISBN978-1-138-80383-1.
^Stuart, Keith (2014).Sega Mega Drive Collected Works. Read-Only Memory.ISBN9780957576810.Finally with regards the launch of the 32X Shinobu Toyoda of Sega of America recalls, "We had an inventory problem. Behind the scenes, Nakayama wanted us to sell a million units in the US in the first year. Kalinske and I said we could only sell 600,000. We shook hands on a compromise - 800,000. At the end of the year we had managed to shift 600,000 as estimated, so ended up with 200,000 units in our warehouse, which we had to sell to retailers at a steep discount to get rid of the inventory."
^Bauscher, Dave."allgame ( Sega Game Gear > Overview )".Allgame. Archived fromthe original on July 17, 2012. RetrievedSeptember 21, 2008.While this feature is not included on the Game Boy it does provide a disadvantage – the Game Gear requires 6 AA batteries that only last up to six hours. The Nintendo Game Boy only requires 4 AA batteries and is capable of providing up to 35 hours of play.
^Kent, Steven L. (2001).The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. pp. 407–410.ISBN0-7615-3643-4.
^Kent, Steven L. (2001).The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. pp. 466–80.ISBN0-7615-3643-4.
^Kent, Steven L. (2001).The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. pp. 428–431.ISBN0-7615-3643-4.
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