/vr/ - Retro Games

Yeah pretty much

>>7694013
yes

>>7694013
It's not like Nintendo suddenly got cheaper and lazier with Wiis and Switches. They were always subpar hardware mogged by other companies but consoomer loyalty and "family-friendly" branding wins people over.

>>7694019

Given their history as a literal toy company, you really shouldn’t be surprised that they are sticking with what they know best. That business model might not scratch the itch that Sega or NEC/Hudson may have, but it isn’t “bad” that it had more longevity than catering to the arcade market. It was solid at the time, but there was plenty of non-arcade market share that Nintendo’s suite of software catered to directly.

I’m definitely more of a Genesis/PC Engine guy for the 16-bit generation, but it’s pretty easy to see why Nintendo won out eventually, even outside of the ridiculous amount of revisions and add-ons their rivals squandered their resources on.

>>7694013
Yup. Though, initially, the NES was supposed to be closer to the PC Engine in terms of specs. Probably woulda killed the company stone dead if they'd rolled something like that out.

>>7694013
Yeah, which made them affordable and also easier to develop for. The Gameboy would actually be straight up sold at a cost, because they knew that would make the system more attractive, and because they knew they would make such an incredible amount on software sales.

>>7694013
Yeah, the only good system they ever made was the Snes and even then yeah wasn't as powerful as the Megadrive.

>>7694019
Hilariously the family friendly stuff gets more and better quality porn than coomer games.

>>7694013
Anon, the Gameboy was in black and white, what do you think? But raw specs don't make a great console, Nintendo nailed exactly what the market needed at the time.

Hardware power in the very early days barely mattered. What was important initially was market share and accessibility. Because having hardware that can theoretically output something with more memory or colors doesn't mean that the hardware itself will attract more games or developers. The development industry was very different 30/40 years ago. Games needed to be snappy and accessible and they were exclusively made by very small teams. I'd argue that hardware power still doesn't matter very much.

I don't think there was ever a console generation where the most powerful/capable hardware was the most successful

>>7694013
Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpei_Yokoi#Lateral_Thinking_with_Withered_Technology

>>7694013
Yes, and this was actually a huge factor in the GameBoy's success.

sml108 View Profile More options Dec 11 1989, 5:05 am

On the subject of choosing a video game.....my five cents....

Personally, I think the Nintendo is a piece of right wing garbage akin to the IBM PC. Slow, out of date, but heavily marketed so that mindless dweenies will think it's the hottest thing since Zelda had her first period. I have yet TO SEE A SINGLE GAME ON THE THING SUBSTANTIALLY BETTER THAN STUFF I PLAYED ON MY OLD ATARI 800 SEVEN YEARS AGO.....Yes, there are some nice games, but they do not do anything extraordinary and in fact clearly show the glaring limitations of the thing's inferior pre-VLSI hardware.

>>7694019
Only Squaresoft mogged them.

No, average SNES game looks better than 2D games on the So_y Gaystation, Genesis could only display 16 colors and looked like robot vomit. Nintendo had best hardware until Wii and then still had better controller hardware.

>>7694013
It's called Lateral Thinking of Withered Technology. Gunpei pioneered the practice at nintendo to use old and mature technology instead of cutting edge technology because it's cheaper. When you look at a lot of failed consoles like the Vita or Virtual Boy they used cutting edge technology but were very expensive. Even consoles that didn't fail like the PS3 were severely held back by being too complex and expensive. New technology requires a significant capital investment and it can be hard to keep costs competitive. That the reason why Nintendo has to add gimmicks that are never fully utilized in their consoles. There is little appeal in buying their underpowered consoles compared to the competition. This strategy lets them undercut their competition so they can attract a larger user base to sell software. This really tells you everything you need to know about Nintendo. It even explains why they develop their games from the gameplay up because they can't sell their games on graphics. They have to build the game around a mechanic.

As with all consoles, it all comes down to the games, baby.

>>7694315
Mega Drive actually displayed 61 colors at once, and there was some trickery devs eventually found to work around the limit a little, like swapping the CRAM mid frame.

>>7694303
I guess being an utter faggot is a timeless quality.

>>7694310
>I KNEEL in reverence to the brilliance shown by the programmers at Square
kek

>>7694139
Living in Australia, the SNES appeared to be much slower than the mega drive, which had blast processing and was able to run at a fast speed. I know this, because my dad worked for nintendo and told me that they were losing sales to SEGA.

The genius of the SNES is that it skimped on raw horsepower because that could be off loaded onto the carts that needed it while things like a quality PPU can't. They didn't just make things cheaper universally. They were judicious in where they made cuts. Sega wasn't dumb either. The Genesis was a scaled down version of their arcade hardware at the time.

the Famicom was quite capable for the early 80s when it was developed. it had a decently large color palette, hardware scrolling, and a high amount of sprites. the sound hardware was also quite capable and it supported expansion via cartridge hardware.

>>7694279
Came here to post exactly this.

>>7694013
Another anon mentioned it but hardware scrolling was pretty damn advanced. PC couldn't do it until John Carmack figured out a working hack for it called adaptive tile replacement, and that wasn't until 1990.

>>7695029
Yeah I think the consensus in the UK was that the snes was for kids and the megadrive was cool, my dad got a snes for christmas when he was 17 and hated it as it wasn't a megadrive.

>>7694019
why is it important to have cutting edge processing capability? isn't this /vr/ where our claim is that games that run on 386 etc are better?

>>7694078
I think that was more a trial balloon to try and salvage the north american market by selling it as more a PC than a console

>>7694279
Underrated post

>>7694013
Yes especially the game boy. Compare it to the game gear that didnt come out that much later

>>7694013
Of course they weren't

The Master System had 4 times the work RAM, 8 times the video RAM, a Z80 processor that was 3 times faster than the NES's 6502 clone, and twice the amount of colors that could be displayed on screen. The only advantage the NES had was audio.

And without even getting into technical specifications, everyone knows the Gameboy was technologically inferior to the Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear. But that didn't matter, because the Game Boy's cheaper price, lower battery usage, smaller size, and better library compensated for the lack of color.

>>7694279
this

>>7698742
(cont.)
Unlike say, Sega, who in the 90s focused more on innovation and embracing new technology as fast as possible, Nintendo preferred to use older technology they were already familiar with. Both to reduce manufacturing cost and to allow designers to focus more on the creative aspect rather than first attempting to get past technical hurdles and get used to unfamiliar systems.

This is called 枯れた技術の水平思考 (Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology). and originated from Gunpei Yokoi, the creator of Metroid, Kid Icarus, the Game and Watch, the Game Boy, and the Virtual Boy.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1097830.pdf