A few days ago, the valve threat made me question the other game companies. Like Sega.

Sega is one of the greatest ompanies ever. But it has always been underrated and i can't understand why.

WHY?

The company created the FIRST portable console in colors, it created the FIRST CD console and it created the FIRST 128bits console with with an 56kbps internet access inside the console. They created one of the greatest characters in gaming industry, Sonic. They are like gaming gods (along with Nintendo and ID) ! I think that they are one of the most revolucionary company in gaming industry. What's your oppinion?

Sega suffered from bad timing more than anything I'd say.

They certanly made some strange stuff over the years, anyone else remember Sega channel?

Of course the MD (Genesis) is much better than SNES!


Truth is that the Saturn never had a big support by fans/Company, but i think that what happened with the Dreamcast was a shame. It had potencial.. unfortunatly, it only last a year or so...

The saturn, as I recall, was also the first multiprocessor console. One of the reasons they had so much trouble finding developers. Arcade titles on the Saturn beat the PISS out of the Playstation equivalents.

The genesis/megadrive suffered from a lack of blending and scaling, but supported MASSIVE sprites, so that was a bit.. odd..

I'm not quite sure WHY the dreamcast bit it, it's entirely possible Sega finally decided that fighting over market shares for hardware wasn't economically feasible and went software only.

Granted, they worked with nintendo to develop the gamecube; now if only developers would stop using all that hardware to render cartoons...

I'd honestly like to see a unified console, then I wouldn't have to drop $700+ every freaking console generation. Sony has the right idea with backwards compatibility, microsoft has no clue what they're doing, and nintendo practically refuses to cater to anyone over the age of 15.

Bleh, rant rant rant.

I'd say Sega doesn't suck, but since dropping out of the hardware market, they don't experiment as freely. I miss the gaming heyday when it was still about innovation and not so much about "what features sell?"

Same here

I think atari had one before that, or thereabouts. And don't forget the 3do :b

Consoles have been falling in to their niche's for awhile. Sega and Nintendo had this big rivalry only because the market can really only HANDLE 2 competitors. Sony jumped in and took a lot of hints from Sega, thus knocking them out of the hardware market. And Microsoft is trying to follow suit.

However, Microsoft is attempting to take out not only consoles, but it seems they intend to replace PC's with Xbox equivalents at some point.

In any event, Nintendo has the children's and party games market all but cornered, Sony's got the action/rpg/arcade bit practically in the bag if they'd ever get over their hatred of sprites. Microsoft has.. Halo? The Xbox's library isn't that impressive.

As for the systems, Nintendo has opted for more powerful video hardware in lieu of CPU speed; Sony likes their CPU and tends to play catch-up with video hardware. Microsoft is still trying to build some strange franken-pc.

As far as controls go, Nintendo's controller is multipurpose, with a bit of a learning curve. Having grown up on the nes/snes/genesis/saturn/dreamcast controllers, the Playstation controllers don't fit my hands quite right. As a bit of a side note, the PS3 controller design looks like a bloody mess, I hope like hell it can use ps2 controllers. Microsoft shrank the xbox controller some, but it's still unwieldy.

I could honestly say I'd like to see Microsoft drop the Xbox. If Sega and Nintendo would continue working together on hardware, I think Sony and Nintendo could carry the console market quite well on their own, with just as many benefits for the consumer.

Ballmer's fond of touting development, but Microsoft is pushing just as hard as EA when it comes to getting their flagship titles out at key purchase points. Halo 2 during xmas, and Halo 3 is slated to release the same day the PS3 launches.

Someone needs to sack the marketing division and let developers finish the damn games.

As a gamer, I'm tired of putting up with the bullshit associated with games HAVING to be shipped at a certain date. I'm willing to wait if it means the resultant product is higher quality. I dread the day games become the equivalent of McDonald's Happymeal toys.

Cookie cutter, cheap as hell, and there's a new one seemingly every week.

Oh please. I cant see how any right thinking person can possibly say the Genesis had better games than the Super Nintendo. The Super Nintendo had Star fox, Donkey Kong country, Chrono Trigger, super metriod, The legend of zelda, Mario kart, Fzero and Super mario world while the Genesis had a long stream of  mediocre crap and ocasion gems like Phantasy Star 2 and landstalker.
 I own a Saturn and i think it has some of the most unique and well made games of any console. I think if more people had played games like Panzer Dragoon, Dragon Force and Nights they wouldnt be so quick to poopoo the saturn.

I don't think Sega sucks. I think it's exactly what Con said -- they had good ideas, but executed them poorly. The Gamegear suffered from horrible battery consumption, the concept of the 32x went right over most people's heads, and the Dreamcast just seemed awkward to many developers. The Sega Channel was a great idea -- so good that Nintendo actually opened a similar service for the Super NES over in Japan -- but largely fell on its face and ultimately robbed US gamers of a hard copy of a game titled Megaman: The Wily Wars. Suck.

But on that note, I think Sega did the intelligent thing. They figured, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" and went software-only. They teamed with Nintendo and Namco to create the Triforce arcade system, the Nintendo equivalent to Sega's own Naomi arcade system, which allows arcade titled developed on it to easily be ported to the Gamecube -- F-Zero GX and F-Zero AX received a simultaneous release as a result. The Sonic the Hedgehog series has not died. The Phantasy Star series has not died. Virtual Fighter is still around. I could probably keep going.

Somewhat :

Mario Party 6 and Donkey Konga are two of the most enjoyable, fun games I've played in a long time. Animal Crossing is as addicting as anything if you give it an honest try. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is a reminder of how much fun a simple go-kart racer can and should be. Those are just a few Gamecube titles I felt like mentioning -- I could go on for hours if I brought in the Gameboy Advance and DS.

Guess what? I'm 21. Nintendo does not "cater to the 15-and-younger crowd." They do not make "kids games." They try to create games that are enjoyable for anybody who's willing to give them an honest shot.

That's such a common argument that I didn't want to bring it up.

Don't forget the Fifa series, the Streets of Rage series, The Micro Machine games, Italia 94 (i think it's the correct name), etc...

I now see it. Sega joined Nintendo to kick Microsoft's ASS!
Gamecube, instead of betting in Internet multiplayer, bets on 4 player multiplayer and i think it was a good idea. The funny thing is that Microsoft is so stupid that it doesn't give acces to the internet service to all countries instead of the PS2. I don't even understand why they got in the console industry... maybye to show how low they are...   good.