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Which system had the biggest influence on the gaming industry?


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The Game Boy seemed kinda stale to me. I'm not really sure if it ever pushed anything other than its own niche?

Typically for Nintendo I guess, it was pretty underpowered when it released, and often got mocked for the lack of a color screen like its competitors had. But made it through on top thanks to other solid decisions, better battery life and better marketing. In a way I feel like that just stopped the handheld market right there, rather than moving it forward. The GB lasted an absurdly long time, and by the time Pokémon eventually came out "no one" really cared about it anymore, yet those games obviously revived its popularity and extended its life support for a few more years.

I think it took the DS to finally lift the handheld game market above the general idea of "low budget handheld versions of the console games you know"

Edited by Sumez
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Ahh cool, he probably did a fair job of that.  I just don't have time to sit through that.  They changed my work at the first of the year and I can't just casually leave stuff streaming right now until I can get some kind of a rhythm going, and even then, not sure since it's some core work that internal affairs in our space will potentially browse too.

 

Sumez I want to say I get that, but no, and to say that the Gameboy was just basically low rent is insulting.  Maybe it was at times when you had an influx of the early overly basic stuff, and swaths of time with barely worth anyones while licensed drek, but it did move the needle plenty from GB through GBC, but if you're also throwing GBA in there that's going too far.  The only thing it ever was soundly mocked for was being non-color, but games, no, it did a far better job than anyone else in the period in quality and variety, other than maybe the Turbo Express but that really was a console on the go.  If you feel GB stopped the market because they banked on battery longevity and games over a color screen, I both feel pity for you, but also happy that your side lost that argument.  Had color back then, and 2-3hours of time on like 6 batteries become normal, it would have proved that people cared more just about eye candy and didn't care if they were buying batteries by the bucket or charging more than playing which would have allowed that crap to persist.  Even when Nintendo went further, such as the DS you said, it too like GB got reamed for being out of date, but it too ran older visuals and long battery and that argument still won out crushing the PSP.

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I didn't really say any of the stuff you seem to imply I did.

The Game Boy was cool, and it did a great job at what it did, but it's a very self contained entity.
I'm not sure in what sense you could say it had a huge influence on the gaming industry. What did it influence outside of its own pocket niche, up until the GBC or GBA eventually dropped?

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On 1/9/2021 at 2:39 PM, Startyde said:

I answered why it was the most influential, because it brought gaming popularity to a whole new level. Even huge games like Mario 64 didn't resonate with non gamers. N64 sold less than SNES, and GameCube sold less than N64. Nintendo may be a household name but that was a far cry from universally popular. PS2 made the world take notice of gaming like never before. It's why 4 out of 5 of the highest selling home consoles of all time are Sony consoles. That's just unreal. (Albeit not I clouding portable of which Nintendo has always been king.)

It would also help to define what the parameters of influential are. I take it as the mark it left on the world, in which case I would still go with PS2 because I've never seen the world react to gaming than it did in the early 2000s with that system.

If you measure by the kinds of games gaming can create, Is lean towards Nintendo as they created the architype for many modern generas.

Of we go by hardware Is say Sega or Sony as they pushed what a console should include much more than Nintendo, at least on modern times, as they were the last to adopt disks, then DVD, then online, etc etc.

So the answer is going to depend on perspective. 

Well that's quite funny because bi never played a PS2 in my whole damned life, never heard such hype, and don't live under a rock. No offence or anything.

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At the end of the day, it’s not something you can have absolute objectivity on. Someone born today is unlikely to answer “PS1”, and someone born in the 90s is unlikely to answer “PS4”. 

I think the answer is loosely answered by asking which system was responsible for the biggest percentage jump in global sales of games or gamers participation? This is something we can perhaps objectively measure if enough time is spent on the research of gaming sales per system.

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4 hours ago, fcgamer said:

Well that's quite funny because bi never played a PS2 in my whole damned life, never heard such hype, and don't live under a rock. No offence or anything.

Genuine question, and I'm being sincere, how old are you and from what country? The entire world was talking about PS2 at the beginning of the century, it is the highest selling console of all time and the first widespread DVD player. News stories of people camped out for days in order to try and get one was everywhere, and was met with massive shortages as demand was higher than anything for gaming before. 

I could see if you were young in 2000/2001 how all of that could have flown by, but as a HS kid I remember it like it was yesterday. 

EDIT: Reading your posts, it sounds like youre from Taiwan, so the news may have been much different there. In the States, it was def an event, which brings another interesting point in the topic of "most influential" because that can be quite different geographically.

Edited by Startyde
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2 hours ago, Startyde said:

Genuine question, and I'm being sincere, how old are you and from what country? The entire world was talking about PS2 at the beginning of the century, it is the highest selling console of all time and the first widespread DVD player. News stories of people camped out for days in order to try and get one was everywhere, and was met with massive shortages as demand was higher than anything for gaming before.

35, USA

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Important consoles in chronological order: 

Atari 2600-began the industry 

Commodore 64-first widespread gaming PC

NES-saved industry after the crash

Turbografx-CD - honorable mention, first disc based console

Gameboy-first successful portable console

PS1-first successful 3D console (at least in North America) and best of its generation.  Eventually introduced dual thumbsticks and the blueprint for modern controllers

Dreamcast-first with online play out of the box

Xbox 360-first HD console and first console to get online gaming right

Switch-first console/handheld hybrid 

 

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4 hours ago, LutherDestroysTheGond said:

Important consoles in chronological order: 

Atari 2600-began the industry 

Commodore 64-first widespread gaming PC

NES-saved industry after the crash

Turbografx-CD - honorable mention, first disc based console

Gameboy-first successful portable console

PS1-first successful 3D console (at least in North America) and best of its generation.  Eventually introduced dual thumbsticks and the blueprint for modern controllers

Dreamcast-first with online play out of the box

Xbox 360-first HD console and first console to get online gaming right

Switch-first console/handheld hybrid 

 

I think I'd probably go somewhere along the lines of this with my analysis too.

Maybe mention neo geo or maybe one of the 16 bits (SNES/Genesis) as first for bringing proper arcade action home.

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44 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

I think I'd probably go somewhere along the lines of this with my analysis too.

Maybe mention neo geo or maybe one of the 16 bits (SNES/Genesis) as first for bringing proper arcade action home.

That's a good call on the arcade experience at home.  There were a few titles that were great in the 16/32/64 bit eras.  I remember Dreamcast being the first console to be identical to arcades and not watered down ports

Edited by LutherDestroysTheGond
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8 hours ago, LutherDestroysTheGond said:

That's a good call on the arcade experience at home.  There were a few titles that were great in the 16/32/64 bit eras.  I remember Dreamcast being the first console to be identical to arcades and not watered down ports

You’re talking about arcade quality graphics. Then there’s the “arcade experience” and that was well and truly established with the 16-bit era. Arcade conversions in Golden Axe, Final Fight, Ghouls n Ghosts were near identical in the overall arcade feel. Then there’s games such as Turtles, Gunstar Heroes and Contra 3 which felt like arcade perfection in the comfort of your own home. 

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Well Ferris there nailed one, I read up that phenomena too and yeah the GB did a few things, one was bringing in women, girls in particular.  Another, grown men, because it had a solid dependable line up of adult forward games out of the gate and consistently after with all sorts of puzzles from the Tetris type to the slow/no moving types too, mahjong in there too for the home market(here much later to matter), and other thinking things.  Before handhelds almost exclusively were just meant for kids or a passing laugh with a dual function type thing (calculator, game & watch(and alarm), etc) making it more practical.

It was like the early 90s equal to the touch generations run with DS dragging in adults and older people into brain games, puzzles, touch based sports, etc...down to the weird cooking apps.

Gameboy also made it more than just (around that) a dumb toy on the go.  While it also was not the first, Microvision with segmented LCD in 1979 was), Gameboy was the first to mainstream portable cartridge gaming on the go and popularized it too.  I'm sure Tiger, Mattel, MGA came anywhere near the 110M+ units the GB-GBC 8bit era rolled in and the incredible amount beyond that in actual game sales too for those units.  Gameboy was the equal to the NES in mainstreaming gaming but on the go.  It also blew minds allowing TV like experiences, often also not diminished either for the convenience, something you could do away from the TV too.  It was real gaming, not segmented gaming on a set pattern on LCDs.  Having Castlevania II, Karnov, Batman, Gauntlet, Ninja Gaiden, Double Dragon, etc on segmented Tiger beepy LCD games is one thing, but having those same franchises if not actual game on Gameboy that played like an NES version was insane in the day.  It really moved the bar into new grounds, and did so in a way that it was inclusive of far more than just pre-teen kids.

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On 1/15/2021 at 6:56 PM, LutherDestroysTheGond said:

Important consoles in chronological order: 

Atari 2600-began the industry 

Commodore 64-first widespread gaming PC

NES-saved industry after the crash

Turbografx-CD - honorable mention, first disc based console

Gameboy-first successful portable console

PS1-first successful 3D console (at least in North America) and best of its generation.  Eventually introduced dual thumbsticks and the blueprint for modern controllers

Dreamcast-first with online play out of the box

Xbox 360-first HD console and first console to get online gaming right

Switch-first console/handheld hybrid 

 

I would consider Sega’s 16 bit console being the first major competitor to Nintendo (and even having a larger portion of the market share at one point) a highlight as well. It opened the door for others and really showed that the Big N could be contested. I think it also helped make Nintendo better.

As far as the Game Boy, I don’t know where I’d rank it in this regard but man I remember when I was young, my older brother’s friend let us borrow his DMG and copy of Pokémon Red one time on a vacation. This was before I had gotten my own. My brother and I sat in the hotel playing it one night. That pixelated Charizard was the best damn thing I had seen in my life up to that point.

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That's a good point I didn't cross the line into. It would be hard to argue it as happening without, but if there was no Gameboy there would be no Pokemon.  It relied largely on the portability and linkability of the systems to have such a game work like that.  And here we are 25 years later now, still with what a bunch of complainers called a stupid, asinine, and awful fad that needs to die.  Gameboy and Pokemon, it made portable multi-player gaming and competitive multiplayer portable gaming a thing.

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While none of them are my favorites, my picks go to NES, DS and Wii. The NES essentially bridged the gap from the old way into a new era that became the standard for the industry and basically crafted the hobby as we know it. For DS, the DS created many of the styles and gimmicks that have since become commonplace in phone games, and the Wii effectively created Gyro controls, pointer controls, etc, something games are still implementing today.

Many deserve props for their contributions but thinking about who created the root of something, it's more often than not Nintendo. Listing their contributions to the medium would be exhausting.

Edited by goldenpp72
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