MILESTONES IN CONSOLE GAMING HISTORY

Atari 2600 (1979 - 1984) - First Home Gaming System to reach wide appeal. The Atari 2600 used ROM cartridges to store gaming information. Runners Up: Collecovision, Intellivision

The Great Video Game Depression (1982 - 1985) - During this time demand for console gaming systems truly fell off the map and few developers were making games. Console gaming companies were losing money on systems like the Atari 5200 sitting on shelves unsold. It wasn't until Nintendo's Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System in Japan and US respectively, did the industry start making an upturn by 1986.

The Nintendo Entertainment System (1985 - 1992) - Best 8-bit Gaming System. Achieved Long term appeal and widespread recognition. A true icon of the 1980's many kids grew up with the Nintendo, and it reigned supreme throughout this period, with over a thousand games to choose from, selling millions of systems and titles worldwide. The Nintendo reached massive appeal in America and hundreds of products addorned shelves with Nintendo characters, and video game themes. Runner Up: Sega Master System (1986 - 1989)

Super Mario Bros (1985) - First Most Popular Platformer. Super Mario Bros. came packed with every NES that shipped, and gamers loved the game. It was the best thing since sliced bread in 1985 and '86.

The Legend of Zelda (1986, 1987) - First Game to Save Progress on Cartridge. In 1986 Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto created the first extended adventure game where you could save your progress with an internal save battery. It was bold new technology for console video games and has become as reflexive today as pressing the start button to begin play.

The Power Glove (1987?, 1988?) - First Wearable Peripheral. My memory is a little faded on this one, but from what I remember there were a couple of games for this, like Klax, and you could use it with some other games, but it was truly not a mainstream item. I remember seeing it on TV and in video game magazines. I think I touched one once, but I can't remember for sure. I think it was very expensive at the time and my parents wouldn't buy me one. Nintendo released it with high hopes the gizmo would catch on, but it didn't and flopped horrendously, that I remember for sure.

The Legend of Zelda (1986, 1987) - First Most Popular Adventure Game. This game was hailed by gamers of the day as the most extensive exploration and item finding quest games. You could travel from screen to screen fighting enemies, meeting creatures in caves, powering up from fairies, exploring dungeons, and defeating large monsters. It became a classic and favorite by many and prompted the creation and release of Zelda II: The Adventures of Link with forward thinking rudimentary RPG elements. The popularity of Zelda sprang the series onto TV as a weekly addition to the Super Mario Brothers Super Show.

"Now You're Playing With Power!" (1986 - 1991) - Famous Slogan of Nintendo During the 8-bit Era.

"SEGA has what Nintendon't!" - (1989 - 1991?) - Famous Slogan of Sega during the 8/16-bit Era, went along with the whole "Blast Processing" buzzphrase.

"Welcome to the Next Level" (1991 - 1994?) - Another Sega Slogan appearing during the 16-bit to early 32-bit era.

Nintendo GameBoy - First HandHeld Gaming System - Now, there were a few others prior, but they didn't actually have removable cartridges or were as versitile as in the case of the gameboy. The system launched with 1 game, Tetris, included. It had a monochrome green screen. Many of Nintendo's NES premier titles had GameBoy counterparts. It wasn't until the late nineties that the GameBoy became colorful.

Super Mario Bros. 3 (1991) - First Most Widely Anticipated Game. By the turn of the decade into the early 1990's millions of Nintendo's had been sold worldwide and Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros 2 were commonplace commanding a huge following of young fans. Rumors of Nintendo making a new version of Super Mario Bros excited gamers and there was a great deal of rumormongering among the video game community about what Nintendo was putting forth. Approximately this time there was a movie called "The Wizard" starring Fred Savage devoted to video games, and Super Mario Bros. 3 was featured in the movie as the game at the World Video Game Tornament.

GameGear (1991 - 1994?) - First Color Handheld Gaming System. I may be mistaken but, from what I remember Sega's GameGear was the first system to offer color on a hand held. It was an 8-bit system, and most of the colors were plain, but it was a bold step technologically for this time period. Although it was expensive, it was Sega's "In your face" answer to Nintendo's GameBoy. Perhaps it was Sega's playing second fiddle to Nintendo and their star cast of easily recognizable characters and developer loyalty that caused GameGear never to take off as big as GameBoy did, but it is my firm belief that GameGear was a better handheld for the time. Sega really did put it's foot forward at times but unfortunately there was always something waiting to step on that foot. And then there's the Atari Lynx. In the dusty closets of gaming and the back pages of my Electronic Gaming Monthly's I caught that it was a 16-bit color system back in the days of pea-green monochrome GameBoy. Problem was, I don't think there were many games for it. Too bad, Atari was so obscure by the early nineties, something like that would have went over well had they been more well known.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1991 - 1995) - Best 16-bit Gaming System. Hands down the Super NES represented a golden era during the early 90's, passing the torch previously held by the NES, and dwarfed the Genesis, and the TurboGraphix 16 in terms of appeal, quantity, and quality of games. Games of legendary status came from this era. Unforgotten titles include Final Fantasy II (IV), The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Street Fighter II, Secret of Mana, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Mario Kart, F-Zero, Castlevania IV, Mega Man X, Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy III (VI), StarFox, and Donkey Kong Country,

Sonic The Hedgehog (1987 - ...) - Best System/Company Mascot. What's not to like about Sonic, he was cool from the day he appeared, and exemplified mannerisms from the era when he was born. He was radical, way cool, and awesome, and his overall charisma far outshined that of the italian plumber from Brooklin. Sonic WAS SEGA. Even though he wasn't as widely known as Mario, he retains the crown as being the best Mascot character. Runners Up:Mario (Nintendo), Crash Bandicoot (Sony), Bonk (Turbographix 16)

Mortal Kombat (1992, 1993) - Most Controversial Game. When it originally debuted, Mortal Kombat fever gripped the arcades and eventually spilled into homes as the game released for the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo. Mortal Kombat was a very gory and bloody fighting game where you could dismember your opponent in a "fatality." This was the period when fighting games and first person shooters like DOOM, Duke Nukem, and Quake, became very popular and caused controversy reaching all the way to Captol Hill. Some Arcades were briefly ordered to verify age of players, but few heeded such ordinances. Nintendo opted to remove the blood from the game on the Super Nintendo version however Sega remaining loyal to teenage gamers kept the blood in the game with the option to turn it off. The fighting game fad wore off, and so too did Mortal Kombat's shock value. It disappeared from the congressional agenda but Mortal Kombat was a strong factor in the institution of the "Electronic Software Rating Board," those pesky fuddyduddies that put that pointless "T" on the game that no gamer pays attention to anyway. Runners Up:Grand Theft Auto (Playstation), DOOM (SNES, Sega 32X, Playstation, Sega Saturn), Conker's Bad Fur Day (Nintendo 64), Splatterhouse (Genesis)

"Get N Gear" (1994? - 1998) - Slogan Used by Nintendo during the mid nineties during the late 16/32-bit era into the 32/64-bit years.

Resident Evil (1995) - First Survival Horror Game. This game created a new Genre in console gaming of video games devoted to replicating creepy or gory circumstances where a player had to unwravel the mystery to escape from imminent death. Games Like Silent Hill followed in it's footsteps.

Rumble Pak - First First-Party Force Feedback Device. The Rumble Pak was a device that plugged into the N64's controller and came packaged with Star Fox 64, or you could buy it separately. It required an additional AAA battery to operate properly. Sony later copied the idea of forcefeedback controllers and created the "Analog Dual Shock Controller"

Superman 64 (1998) - Worst Nintendo 64 Game. They way I see it, there is a close tie between two games for the N64 that truly suck. Superman 64 and Quest 64. Why the developer bothered releasing this shovelware is beyond me. This game has shitty graphics, terrible control, piss poor graphics, boring premise, and terrible sound (of what there is). Just rent this game sometime to see how truly horrible this is. You know, I think I could program something better in VRML. Many of the games for the N64 are in dire need of a refit but then again you can't do much with carts these days aside from fancy memory dancing and programming tricks like in Zelda 64 (think how many glitches were propagated from cutting corners in programming code, much of the glitch section of the Odyssey of Hyrule is a testimony to why carts are dead as a storage medium) and Majora's Mask. Runners Up: Quest 64, Pokemon Snap, Crusin' USA,

Final Fantasy VII (1997) - Most Influencial Game on the Sony Playstation. This game turned appeal toward the Playstation and sold millions of systems and copies of the game. Final Fantasy VII remains as one of the greatest games ever made for the system, and possibly the best 32-bit RPG ever made. It makes a very bold mark in video game history as the first game to truly create an experience using multiple gameplay elements, cutting edge graphics, and an incredible plot to weave a story that anyone who played the game will always rememeber as being the first time they truly felt like they were a part of something beyond just a simple video game or just another role playing game. There were games to follow in the footsteps of Final Fantasy VII, but none acheived the accolade that this title created. Final Fantasy VII beget the eventual production of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within a CGI film produced by Squaresoft. Runner Up: Metal Gear Solid

Aeris' Death (1997) - First Most Major Emotional Event in a Video Game. Perhaps part of the immense appeal of Final Fantasy VII came because it created such a seed of emotion in the player. One of the most dramatic moments in RPG history is the death of Aeris. This was the first time I shed a tear for a fallen character in a game. Players since this happened have mused and written about it, even attempted to foil it, to no avail. She always dies. She becomes the first tradgic figure in gaming history. This single event was so moving and successful in Final Fantasy VII that the entire game of Final Fantasy VIII was centered around the emotion of true love. Runner Up:Opera Scene (Final Fantasy VI)

Nobuo Uematsu (1987 - ...) - Best Video Game Music Composer. Truly the most sweeping scores in video games came from this composer. From epic overtures, to serene ballads, to intense techno frenzies, to melodic ambient music, he has done much to uphold the true effect of the Final Fantasy series, and much of the impact of Squaresoft's flagship series of games would have been lost had his music not existed in the background creating the emotion and the aural ambiance of the experience of Final Fantasy. I have dozens of his pieces of music all derived from the FF games, and the music is truly moving, and deserves merit among other great composers of antiquity. Runners Up:Yasunori Mitsuda, Koji Kondo

Hironobu Sakaguchi, Hideo Kojima, Shigeru Miyamoto - Best Game Designer (Tie). These names in gaming history that represent the great minds behind the progression of the entire industry are not only the founding fathers but continue to be a massive influence on the shape of games to come. It's these designers who have crafted entire experiences and made manifest their vision with their teams of devoted support personell. Shigeru Miyamoto could be considered THE major founding father and protagonist of video games, with his characters leaving their mark on kids of the 80's and 90's, from Mario, to Link, to Samus Aran, to Donkey Kong, and Fox McCloud, he not only made these household names, he ventured into new avenues of gameplay with each endevor he persued and led with innovation and style. What Shigeru Miyamoto lacked in narrative, Hironobu Sakagauci more than made up for with immense adventures and compelling storylines comparable to great epics of prior human history, and continues to open new gateways, unlocking fantasies of the imagination. Could you imagine if Hironobu Sakaguchi, Steven Speilburg, Stanley Kubrick (Too bad he died), Tim Burton, David Lynch, Oliver Stone, and George Lucas joined forces. Hideo Kojima in recent times has shown this desire to takes games beyond just interactivity to merge film and interactive computer generated media. Kojima's Metal Gear Solid series has stepped forward as the premier of interactivity and immersiveness coupled with storytelling in a cinematic style. Metal Gear Solid 2 is better than any action movie I've ever seen.

Xenogears (1997) - Most Profound Storyline. Ironically in the shadow of Final Fantasy VII Squaresoft released a video game that in many respects is unknown to gamers, but represents the most philosophical narrative I've ever encountered in an RPG or any RPG for that matter. Where Xenogears fell short in graphics and gameplay it excelled in crafting a convoluted and truly compelling plot filled with social commentary and theological referance. Runners Up: Final Fantasy VII, Chrono Cross, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Final Fantasy VI, Secret of Mana

Sephiroth (1997) - Coolest RPG Villan. This is entirely my opinion. I personally though Sephiroth was single-handedly the most psychologically disturbed and convoluted individuals to act as opposition in an RPG. Runners Up Kefka, Emperor Ghaleon,

Ganondorf (1986, 1992, 1998) - Coolest Adventure Game Villan. Ah, yet again my opinion here. Perhaps his best portrayal was in The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. Aside from obvious storyline irregularities between Zelda 64 and A Link to the Past, Ganon's previously ill-defined character was translated well. I hope he makes a reappearance.

Sega Dreamcast (1998 - 2001) - Most Underrated Game System. The Dreamcast trailblazed the next-generation of gaming systems in 1998 debuting with some of the best quality launch titles I had ever seen. Numerous A and B+ titles were made for the Dreamcast but it's ill-fated existence was short lived due to the launch of the Playstation 2, and production concluded in March of 2001. I liked many of the games on the Dreamcast, and it's a shame the system met such a dire fate. The Sega Dreamcast is SEGA's last console system and from this point onward they will focus on producing games for all the once competitor systems. All is not lost for those who skipped the Dreamcast though, some of the same developers are re-releasing the games for other systems as you read this. Great Titles Include: Sonic Adventure, Crazi Taxi, Soul Calibur, Grandia II, Skies of Arcadia, Jet Grind Radio, NFL2k, NFL2k1, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Ecco the Dolphin, Shenmue, Phantasy Star Online, and Seaman.

Sony Playstation 2 (2000 - ...) - Most Overhyped Game System. Seriously, if it wasn't Sony making insane claims about Polygon counts and total dominance of the gaming industry with it's unstoppable juggernaut "Emotion Engine" it was game magazines and websites drooling and cowering in subservience (hey, I'll admit I was somewhat taken in by the hoopla) to Sony's almightyness. They collaboratively created so much hype for PS2, and the lack of enough systems to meet demand at launch caused a shark feeding frenzy of angry gamers trying to get a piece of the action as well as Ebay bids as high as $1000. Most of the launch games were pretty lackluster (X-Squad, ugh! Eternal Ring, ouch!) and it's taken until this year to see truly decent efforts from developers appear on this system. Runner Up: X-Box (Microsoft)

Cel-Shaded Zelda (2001) - Biggest Let-Down of 2001. This prompted me NOT to buy the GameCube at launch in 2001. I boycotted Nintendo for this. It's quite possible the final production copy of the game will be nothing like the short 1 minute video and controversial screenshots but there's a huge difference between the what the series could become and where Miyamoto is taking it. I can't tell you how much I wish this game matched the true epic vision untouched upon by the developers yetsofar.

Gameboy Advance (2000 (J) 2001 (US) - ...) - First 32-bit Handheld System. There was the Sega Nomad, but it flopped, however Nintendo's Gameboy continued strong surprisingly throughout the late 1990's and into 2000, held firm by mostly kids and the incessant fever over Poke'mon. The GameBoy had been updated to become a color system in 1998, but it was LONG overdue for a total remake. Most likely with little competition, Nintendo wallowed in complacency with the GameBoy, and postponed development of a next generation 16 or 32-bit GameBoy. Nintendo, with a commanding lead finally brought forth GameBoy Advance at the turn of the century.