Drunkards In Combat

HOW SOON IS NOW?

A guide to modern videotronics

A Feature News Article By:  BIRD

Photo’s and layout By: Padgo

Part Two: King of the Castle

"Console Wars"

During the later part of the 1980's and going into the 1990's it was Nintendo verses Sega at every step of the way. Both companies waged war in producing and outdoing one another in an effort to be the first manufacturer to release to the public the latest ground breaking games hardware and software

So, when Nintendo released the 16 bit NES, Sega released the Sega Master System. When Nintendo released the Super NES, Sega released the Sega Mega-drive. These new and improved home entertainment consoles were 32 bit cartridge fed systems. Software developers now were able to compete on an even playing field, with the public being the real winners. For the most part, Nintendo dominated with a host of games titles that appealed to a more broad range of people, age groups and lifestyles. Nintendo’s flag ship game titles were centred around a little known Italian plumber and his crazy adventures, thus spawning the game “Mario Brothers”.

HOW SOON IS NOW?

A gamers guide to modern videotronics

A Feature News Article By:  BIRD

Photo’s and layout By: Padgette

 Part One: In the beginning there was the command line

 "And to think our fathers used to build hot rods…."

Since the advent of the video game the video game industry has changed quiet alot since it's humble beginnings in the arcade. Industry pole position itself is a constant battle as one leader in the video gaming industry is quickly sidelined and made obsolete only for another to quickly rise to the top to take its place. For the consumer, the world of video games has been a slow build.

From parlour games to pinball, from pinball to Pong, from Pong to Space Invaders, it's the X generation that has seen the birth of video games grow into a massive world wide culture.

Over the years I've been a sucker for the media hype surrounding the big blockbuster titles, the whole aggressive advertising campaign and yeah I've even doled it out myself.
Unfortunately we don't always back a winner and you get wiser the longer you've been a PC gamer.
Given I got back into PC games around late 2000 and spending my spare time in LAN Cafes and on consoles it's taken me some time to understand the trends, to be able to see the changes and to ride the wave in their cycles.

I think we can all agree that franchise gaming is not going away and whether it's EA or Activision who's out their peddling a franchise until it's done to death, we just need to be equally careful as to which horse we back.

I could never have foreseen the Battlefield and Call of Duty franchises being as they are today. They're both equally guilty of churning out their titles like clockwork every 12 months and just when we're growing tired of the same old thing Bam! they hit with another title - only this one has more guns and more gear. The thing I notice is that the support quickly evaporates within 6 - 12 months after that new release and this is not only because publishers and developers want money, they also want quick turn arounds for the lifespan of the title. Most publishers of today don't believe in building communities around their title, the independents like Trip Wire Studio's with their indie smash hit Red Orchestra are the rare exception, but most other publishers like Infinity Ward with their Call of Duty franchise want to serve you up something new every 12 months and for you to simply put aside the old one.

Maybe this is why console gaming is best suited to some franchise publishers business model.
They get you with the hook that this is latest thing, everyones playing it, trade in your old game for this one and this is disposable gaming at it's worst.
It might also be argued it's why we see articles every few months that PC gaming is dead telling us to go console, where it's okay to be a nerd, in fact it's very cool.
Not true.