TBF, Mags, you have been doing a lot of the heavylifting for the quest, so this will be in good hands.
To be clear to everyone, this is just me burning out on imagination of the quest, since my muse has been hitting me over the head a lot with so many different ideas that I just can't find myself too interested in this.
I'll still hang out here, though, since this still does have a sepcial place in my heart.
I'd like to thank you all for making this a wonderful experience while it lasted.
I'd also like to thank @Magoose, @Fluffy_serpent, and @Martin Noctis for doing so much to help prepare and write this quest. I couldn't have done it without you all.
Honestly it's too early to say. It heavily depends on what that generation of consoles is like and if Microsoft thinks they can carve a niche for themselves or out compete one of the other consoles for their niche.
Honestly it's too early to say. It heavily depends on what that generation of consoles is like and if Microsoft thinks they can carve a niche for themselves or out compete one of the other consoles for their niche.
There are also other cosoles that might try their luck before them; The 3DO, the TurboGrafx-16, heck I would not count out the Commodore 64 either.
Here's the thing though, all of those consoles failed when facing OTL Nintendo, and right now they're facing a supped up Nintendo and Sega.
Point is, Microsoft might look at the results of trying to enter the market with both titans on the field, and might just decide "Fuck this! I'm going to make money selling to them both!".
Point is, Microsoft might look at the results of trying to enter the market with both titans on the field, and might just decide "Fuck this! I'm going to make money selling to them both!".
Everyone else: Microsoft must be intimidated by the fierce competition between LucasArts and Nintendo.
Microsoft:*Cracks knuckles as they prepare to use the secrets on the Nintendo handheld to unleash the first ever laptops onto the world, to carve their own niche in the world of gaming.*
One day, after putting a meatloaf in the oven, you wandered around the house just wanting to kill some time before dinner was ready.
"Daddy, will dinner be ready soon?" Mary asked, playing Bomberman in the living room.
"Just give it twenty-five minutes Mary." You answered sitting on the couch to rest for a bit, scratching a lounging Ginger.
"Hi Daddy!" George waved happily, sitting next to Mary and smash the buttons on a Genesis controller.
"Hi George." You smiled, just leaned back, then bolted up with a panicked jolt which made Ginger pounce on the pillow she was laying on in alarm. Right in front of your eyes, George was playing Bomberman with Mary.
"Oh dear God." You say with eyes widening, YOU HAD TWO GENIUSES! You didn't think you'd see a repeat of Mary and George seemed to have the slowest development of the Goslings, but he was talking pretty quick compared to the twins, and here he was, playing Bomberman...
You moved to crouch down by George, everything settling in with heavy magnitude. It's not like you were against having another genius like Mary, but you couldn't deny Mary had her own quirks and troubles growing up, and with her and George-
"Kitty!" George yelled happily, giving chase to Tigger who pranced in a cat and George chase the two liked to play. You looked back to the screen and saw that despite George leaving, the Blue Bomberman Mary had been playing against was still operating. You took another look at the controller, and followed it up, to see it disconnected.
Mary giggled, "Silly Daddy, did you think George was playing Bomberman?"
"How, wha-?" You asked, and then heard a heavenly chorus of laughter, turning around to see Carrie taping everything on the family camera.
"I can't believe it, I've been set up." You say, though with a smile.
"Don't blame Mary Bruce, it was my idea, though admittedly we got a little lucky you came in and didn't decide to do anything else."
"How did you two manage to get George to play though?" You just barely got him to follow storytime directions and the Gosling preferred improv.
"A few times when I or the Littles play Genesis, George tries to come in and steal it away and play, even though he doesn't know how to. So Mommy bought a controller when we went to Toys R Us, and if George wants to play when someone else is playing, I just give him the controller and he mashes buttons." Mary explained.
You contemplated what she said to which she followed with shrugged shoulders, "What? It's not a mean thing. George can't play at all so he shouldn't get real controller. This way he has fun with pretend play."
You smiled and hugged Mary, "And that's a very good big sister thing for you to do." You complimented, making her smile.
"Can I play quick games against you and Mommy?" Mary asked.
"Better play your father Mary, that way you'll get a couple wins before we eat." Carrie teased.
"Hey!"
NES Sales: 9,426,720 Consoles sold
Genesis Sales: 5,283,859 Consoles sold
With the one year anniversary of both the Genesis and NES launches having passed, the third generation of games, there's some good signs all around for Sega. Sega had originally hoped for a goal of two million consoles sold by the first year, and they had gone more than twice that number with a proud 5 million Genesis sold in North America and Japan; all the while distribution was starting to spread in Europe and greater East Asia later this year. The video game industry, once seen as a dying husk, was now being reborn with consoles and cartridges being competitive retail products, though in some frustrating respects it's still seen as a "Kids toy" than an all ages console like you've been aiming for. Some of your most popular video games were entering mainstream discussion, and there was even talks within Dreamworks of various adaptations like a Final Fantasy anime or Bomberman movie.
Against this immense success however, Nintendo was STILL taking the global lead and had formalized its replacement of Atari's leadership in spite of its inferior hardware. The gap had closed since March, but they were still four million above and would likely break ten million consoles before the Summer was over. Even more surprising was that somehow Mario and Samus had become the twin mascots of the medium as a whole, two halves of the possibilities of fantasy and adventure through a video game. Bomberman was the only Sega character who could be said to be a peer, though after Metal Gear's release you fully expect Solid Snake to be Sega's counterpart to Samus Aran.
Good news at least to the rivalry was that last month finally saw Sega Genesis sales outpace the NES in North America, making Sega the go to console for the domestic market after the recent ad campaign started by you and Mary. Though in return Japan thoroughly dominates Japan where even your rising sun fandom cannot contain the Nintendo tsunami. At least Nintendo is largely conceding the arcade market to Sega where the Sega Saloons and Sega Land just couldn't be matched in pure market space, though this doesn't mean that Nintendo has withdrawn completely as evidenced by reports of a Nintendo-operated arcade being established in Orlando down the street from Disney World.
Speaking of, the movie studios are all taking a serious look at video games and are exploring possibilities with them. You would have liked to live in a world where Hollywood is completely absent from gaming, but tinseltown isn't a bubble and there's only so many times they can just ignore Lucasfilms' success until they realize that maybe they should follow your trends and jump into new waters. Disney was the first, forming "Walt Disney Software" as an in-house video game division. While they do want to develop games, it's gonna take a couple years to train a decent team so right now they're focusing on publishing titles and right now are speaking with Lucasarts representatives over making a Genesis game, likely hoping to play Nintendo and Sega against each other.
Columbia is looking to make a video game publishing division parallel to DC comics, to represent DC's adaptation into gaming which is likely inevitable considering Marvel and Sega, along with instituting quality control to prevent another Superman Atari disaster, though considering that game is what killed video games the first time, Alan is in no hurry to be active in gaming.
Paramount, or more accurately their parent company Gulf and Western was the most invested in entering the market. The normally chill conglomerate seems to have taken the sale of Sega to you and its immense follow-up success, often called one of the "Worst Business Decisions in History" as a major slight and wants to do everything it can to rectify such a major mistake and obtain what they could have had with Sega. Their most high profile attempts are ongoing talks with Bally Manufacturing for a buyout for its arcade presence and failed attempts to takeover Commodore, the latter being the hottest tech stock on the market. Perhaps given time Gulf and Western might lose its obsession and back off from consoles, but considering their continued strategy of diversification, it's something that you'll have to wait and see. For now at least, Jeffrey Katzenberg is leading cooperation with Nintendo for a line of Star Trek games for the NES.
At the very least, Universal isn't going to participate in video games for some time. They were already opposed to Sega simply for the traditional Lucasfilms-Universal rivalry, but for some reason Sid really went out of his way to just piss off Nintendo and treat them worse than what they did to you and George. They had sued Nintendo two years ago for Donkey Kong somehow being a copyright violation of King Kong and wanting millions from Nintendo. They handidly lost the first case, especially when their previous lawsuit with RKO bit them back to further prove King Kong was public domain, but somehow Universal was still deadset on winning the suit, having started an appeal case two months ago. So far, the public was generally on Nintendo's side for the whole thing being ridiculous overreach and both Lucasfilms and Disney were firmly backing Nintendo with aid in legal cooperation and research, the former for creative brotherhood and the latter to prevent any horrible copyright precedent from retroactively poisoning the Disney Vault. Nintendo is by and large expected to win, and in the meantime there's not gonna be any games for a Universal property on an NES or Genesis. Smooth moves Sid.
So for the near future it looks like Hollywood and video games may form a strong symbiosis, another symptom of the decade where the film studios were forming multi-media conglomerates to rule over everything...a trend you may be guilty for starting. Honestly, this and the Nintendo rivalry has been pretty exciting to be involved in, even if your participation is more loose oversight and acting as a spokesman for Sega and Lucasarts. Out of all of your business ventures, it's video games where you've truly built an industry from the ground up and writing the history of a new medium. You wonder if this is how the first filmmakers felt in the 1910s.
For the near future, Lucasarts is really hyped to begin making adaptations of Lucasfilms movies and shows with the end of George's prohibition now that they proved themselves fully capable of creating original titles. Though what Kojima has shared of the brawls to create a Star Wars game are a bit worrying. The first third party games for the Genesis are set to release this summer and really proliferate throughout the fall and winter, making the console more than just a Lucasarts sandbox, and some of the games being made have gotten you really excited. There's also talks of porting the arcade games to Genesis versions with Sega being strongly set on having a Genesis Tetris.
Lastly, Mike was pretty set on having Lucasarts become integrated into Sega proper with a general consolidation of the various video game companies and projects into a single subsidiary, arguing for effeciency in consolidation like Dreamworks instead of the current horizontal model. You think Lucasarts is doing fine as is, though perhaps it would be best to create a singular vision and leadership for the industry, especially since Gavin shared plans from Apple on making a gaming PC to release in 86 or 87.
Wacky Races Director: Kazunobu Shimizu
Game Developer: Lucasarts Entertainment
Published by: Sega
Release: April 1984
Quality: D100 => 44+200=244
Audience D100 => 71+200=271
Critics: D100 => 28+200=228 Release Sales: 388,028 Copies
Ah the Wacky Races, one of Hanna-Barbera's best shows through their fun take on the sport of motorcacing. It was a genuinely great show and reruns were still pretty popular both on LucasTV and syndication. You were surprised when this came up as sort of the first show to break George's rule, but Lucasarts had been pretty insistent on it as it would be the best and most fun way to try a racing Genesis game. Hanna-Barbera was also heavily on board as it was both a nice test to see if they could produce a Wacky Races sequel later on, but also stir more interest in the company ahead of Laff-a-Lympics, their most ambitious show yet.
The game was sort of a straight adaptation of the show, the Wacky Racers competing against one another in various tracks from the episodes, though with a more flat plane and limited environmental wackyness, though there were some pretty neat shortcuts and tricks that could be done. The main gimmick which made it stand out was its various power ups that could be collected to boost the racers, and their unique abilities which could help shift the tide. This helps to make racer selection somewhat strategic and offers very fun replay value. When it came down to the family, your favorite racers were Pat Pending and the Gruesome Twosome for Mary, Army Surplus Special for Joseph, Penelope Pitstop for Sarah, the Red Max for Carrie and for yourself Dick Dastardly. It was fun to have the devious villain win, though this did cause everyone to comically gang up on you when it was their turn to face off to prevent Dick from winning, as it should be they say.
Wacky Races is a really fun racing game that keeps the spirit of the show excellently, and even outside of the comedy it's a fun racing time in general. Gamers really enjoy it as the first of its genre and it's a fun selection at party games, though critics like to point out that it's more a case of chance than skill. Still, sales are strong, and Hanna-Barbera has become intrigued at the option of getting a proper Wacky Races sequel later this decade.
Brawl Brothers Director: Jaime Lee Evans
Game Developer: Lucasarts Entertainment
Published by: Sega
Release: May 1984
Quality: D100 => 91+200=291
Audience D100 => 41+200=241
Critics: D100 => 29+200=229 Release Sales: 758,052
Jaime Lee Evans latest fighting hit, Brawl Brothers was a pretty interesting evolution from Karateka. Instead of fighting one on one duels, Brawl Brothers had the player choose one of five characters as they set out on a quest to defend the streets from a drug gang where usually they would be assaulted by a mob of 3-6 characters and have to fight them down in rapid succession through their unique movesets or using a temproary weapon. It's a pretty fun beat them down session and the game carries on the same fluidity and fun combo gameplay as Karateka, aided by each character having pretty great designs and interesting playstles that make them stand out and offer multiple run throughs. Probably your favorite feature is how the game supports two players, meaning no one has to play alone and usually any session of Brawl Brothers in the house sees two O'Brians on the Genesis. For yourself you like playing Rick, Joseph likes Lord J, and the girls all love Wendy Milan as a pretty badass wrestling gal.
Honestly the only flaw you'd say for the game is that there's not much to do beyond the playthroughs, but it's a nice journey even if the story is as simple as can get. It was a major hit thanks to Jaime's newfound prestige from Karateka, but weirdly the game doesn't seem to have much mental staying power and few are crazy over it, Brawl Brothers being just simple fun. Lots of critical voices bemoaning violence in video games AGAIN, though the fact that the group is fighting to clear the streets of drugs prevents any real controversy from being gained. You wonder if Jaime is going to dedicate herself to making this a series, especially when Lucasarts Japan wants to make a similar game called "Streets of Rage".
Tommy Lasorda Baseball Director: Naoto Oshima
Game Developer: Lucasarts Entertainment
Published by: Sega
Release: April 1984
Quality: D100 + 150 => 249
Audience D100 + 150 => 210
Critics: D100 + 150 => 191
Release Sales: 215,346 Units
The latest Genesis sports game, Tommy Lasorda Baseball was a simulation of Major League Baseball, brought to you by World Series winner, Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda (Frustratingly the Yankees treated the Manager position too much like musical chairs to get them on the cover). The game was probably the most advanced of the sports titles yet, having a 30 game season leading up to a playoff system and the World Series, and simulating errors and environmental hazards. Coolest of all was how you could manage the team's roster, place characters in and out of the season based on their stats, it was awesome!
As a baseball fanatic, you loved this game as one of your favorite Genesis releases to date and it was fun playing one on one games with Carrie to pass the time on some nights after a tiring day. This was also the first video game your Dad had played, and it was a great memory to play a Dodgers vs Yankees game the first time he came over. The girls were non-chalant, though Joseph as usual LOVED the game and he wanted to play it with you as much as he could, though it was lesser to Showtime and USFL only because Carrie didn't own a team. Sales are a bit slow, but as the baseball season goes you can see it picking up steam. You just wonder why the critics were a bit harsh with everything.
Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf Director: Alexandra Jones
Game Developer: Lucasarts Entertainment
Published by: Sega
Release: May 1984
Quality: D100 + 150 => 152
Audience: D100 + 150 => 166
Critics: D100 + 150 => 173
Release Sales: 17,080 Units
Oh boy, this was a bit of a stinker. Not close to Atari Superman, but probably the worst game that Lucasarts has put out, which in a way is still a compliment. A golf simulator endorsed by Golf pro Arnold Palmer, it's basically as it's described, a simulation of golf, either in tournament mode of 12 rounds with 18 holes, or just a single round of 18 with a friend. To the game's credit, the graphics are pretty great and it's once again a nice showcase of how Genesis can portray sports in 18 bits. The problem is that the animation can be a little bit stilted, and the game's progression system of procuring different golf clubs, contingent on not only completing tournament rounds but also getting a certain score is pretty brutal. Not to mention that the save mechanics only work with a save after each game, meaning a player has to wait somewhere of 20-40 minutes to save progress, and for some copies there will be a glitch where the password won't work, making it frustrating to some. When the game works it's decent, but not spectacular like USFL.
Critics give some strongly worded reviews with 5s-7s across the board and low word of mouth along with the gamers just not being interested in golf in general, gives it weak release sales, so hopefully this can at least get some money back over the long run. The kids are pretty meh on the whole experience after playing together once, and it's pretty damning when Joseph the Jock doesn't really feel motivated to go back after a few casual tries. Not the best showcase for Lucasarts, but honestly such was bound to happen, and at least it was over a golf game.
Bruce O'Brian Punch-Out! Director: Keiichi Yamamoto
Game Developer: Lucasarts Entertainment
Published by: Sega Corporation
Release: June 1984
Quality: D100 + 150 => 230
Audience D100 + 150 => 221
Critics: D100 + 150 => 215 Release Sales: 120,961 Units
However, perhaps the one game that the whole family got in the most with hours of fun leading up to Batman's production was "Bruce O'Brian Punch-Out!" The latest sports game to take advantage of your career, the game in spite of its title didn't star you, rather an up and coming Italian-American boxer named "Little Mac" from Brooklyn. The game follows Mac's Rocky like career through the world of boxing against 15 very colorful and somewhat cartoony opponents. Admittedly, it's far from realistic as Mac likely being a Lightweight or Welterweight means he shouldn't be able to face against most of his opponents, but overall it's a fun underdog tale. It's not the most accurate simulation of boxing in pure gameplay either with the Olympics game arguably being more faithful. What Punch-Out is though is very fun with the game being far more difficult than the Olympic Boxing and needing a mastery of combos and speed in order to push Little Mac to victory against an ever increasing roster of foes.
The game has a really nice balance of difficulty with fun where it's just hard enough that you can't be casual and have to put in the effort (Even easy requires some work), but just balanced enough where anyone can learn with the right time and once someone masters it, then the game really becomes a blast of plays and counterplays. You especially love how it added the 90 degree stance changes from the Olympics to give lots of manuverability. The story mode is really fun with lots of funny diegetic storytelling through the character designs and the two player versus mode outside of it is a pretty good place to practice as well as to bring up for party games.
Though the highlight and what earns the game its title is at the very end of the tournament when Little Mac faces none other than yourself as the Champion which he needs to get the title. This is what drew people to the game, and the kids absolutely LOVED the concept of getting to face their Dad in a video game and from day one tried to grind their way to the finish. You were the first one to reach well...yourself, but damn do they make you a hell of a fight. Obviously it's a compliment, but it says something when the first time you tried to face you, you got absolutely clobbered in quick order with your powerful punches, and everytime Punch-Out you gets knocked down, you just come back with some sort of crazy super move to put Mac back in his place. It truly is one of the greatest challenges in gaming, one that makes Gray Bomberman look tame and easy. After several days, none of you could really surpass Punch-Out You, though only you and Mary were able to get to the final stage on your won as Joseph and Sarah had hard times clearing through the courses.
But then, when all hope seemed lost and perhaps the game would be put on hold, Carrie took the game one afternoon at the insistence of the twins who begged their mom to help them complete the game. Carrie had played a few times before, but for this one she was really in the zone and managed to clear the stages without any lives lost. Somehow, when she got to you for the first time, she was perfectly in the zone, knowing just all the right combos to land and memorizing your pattern from earlier, and after a grueling five minute match, managed to knock video game you down with a clear knockout, making her the first O'Brian to beat the game to the roaring cheers of the house. Guess the only way to beat a Bruce is with a Carrie.
For the most part, audiences and critics seemed to enjoy it, but it's not the highest rated Genesis game, likely due to both sides frustration at the difficulty level. Still, it's a pretty good game, just one whose sales are modest and heavily overshadowed by the MASSIVE success of Metal Gear which was the focus of your fandom as technically you were Solid Snake as well. You have full faith in Punch-Out though, perhaps Rocky IV or your next boxing adventure can get it across a million. For now you're just happy at fulfilling your objective again, creating great memories with your family.
At least our flop was on a golf game instead of something more creative. Nintendo's still way a head of us but for a period where we mainly focused on arcade games we made damn good progress. Those commercials helped a lot.
Hopefully putting some of our focus on Genesis games, the first batch of third party games and Sega Europe drumming up sales across the pond will put a further dent in the sales differences.
