What is Reddit's opinion of Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

It was an excellent console.

I just meant that a lot of Super Nintendo's more famous IP is still being used in new games today. On top of that you have games like Super Smash Bros. that incorporates so much of their IP. Sega really didn't have a lot of their own IP outside of Sonic and very little that's still being made today outside of it. It also doesn't help that the Sega CD, 32X, Saturn, and Dreamcast all failed so badly.

It's easy for younger people whose first Zelda game was Breath of the Wild to make their way to A Link of the Past than it is to Crusader of Centy even if the latter might actually have been the better game (albeit also a clone). Same with playing Ness in Super Smash Bros. today then playing Earthbound.

I mean just look at what SSB did for Earthbound. I'm ALWAYS amazed at how big of a following came out of nowhere. I played it came out when a neighbor brought it over and loved it but no one at school had any idea of what I was talking about when I mentioned it. For two decades it was the gem only I was aware of then people started exploring that Ness character and suddenly it's the internet's favorite RPG.

For those interested on the topic, Console Wars is a fantastic book about what was happening between the two companies.

"Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation"

https://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generation/dp/0062276700

its not a full recomendation, since its too focused on sega and has some "artistic liberties" either from the individuals telling their side of the story or the writer.

about 70% of the book is about the "Tom Kalinske" era of Sega management, some interesting insights of how everybody went during his time as CEO of Sega of America.

... but very entertaining if you enjoyed home consoles from the 8-16 bit era.

Saw a lot of that sort of East Vs West gaming-managment-culture in Console Wars, but that was Sega and the book ended with them so this would be really interesting both for being more up to date and with greater insight into Nintendo.
Somehow I doubt it tho. Reggie's quite the company man and I doubt he would show much of the darker/more secretive sides of Nintendo. But I expect lots of pleasant stories about how great Iwata and Miyamoto were. Definitely will buy.

Favorite book: Console Wars here is the link. It's a great book about the Nintendo/Sega rivalry during the 90s. If you grew up in the 90s and were a fan of either company, it provides some great nostalgia and some reasoning into why both companies made the choices they made to try and dominate the video game industry.

In Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation, it brings up the issue of Nintendo creating artificial shortages during the NES period.

Even in the Editorial Reviews, the second line is:

> The company’s strictures on third-party development and its policy of understocking retailers contributed to the stranglehold on the market.

Whether or not Nintendo continues to do this, I couldn't say. But it wouldn't surprise me.

I urge everyone who was alive during this period, or just in general has an interest in gaming history to read Console Wars. It's a fantastic book from the perspective Sega during their 90s rivalry with Nintendo. It chronicles the creation of Sonic to just about up to the dreamcast. It's a really engaging and fun read. READ IT.

Until 1994 Sega had 54 percent market share. Nintendo didn't catch up until 1995. This Play it Loud campaign emerged the same year. PlayStation also emerged the same year and Nintendo didn't have a 5th gen console to put up for another year.

The book Console Wars details Nintendo's thought process in creating more aggressive marketing, and how Sega's aggressive marketing helped to propel them to first place.

Buy a copy.

https://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generation/dp/0062276700

You might enjoy the book Console Wars ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062276700/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_rWkzxbGJ69PT3 ). It covers the 16-bit fight between Nintendo and Sega, but it gives an inside look at the relationships between the Japanese and American branches of both companies.

A great background can be found in book Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation.

It covers the strategy of each of the big 80s and 90s video console creators, their partnerships or lack thereof, and the choices made in technology. Basically everything in the comments but with depth and color!

If anyone is looking for a good read, I recommend "Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation"

Great behind the scenes non-fiction book about how Sega took on the giant that was Nintendo in the early 90's.

Cool video, thanks for sharing!

Definitely check out the book Console Wars - about the rise and fall of SEGA and it's rivalry with Nintendo during this time period. It's an easy read and I think you'd dig it.

If you like this video, are interested in sonic, played video games in the early nineties, are interested in an important piece of video game history, or just in general want to read a good book then stop what you're doing and get Console Wars.

It's about SEGA of America's CEO and how he took a nothing company and built Sonic and the SEGA brand into a juggernaut that could compete with Nintendo in just a couple years. It's fucking fascinating and Seth Rogan wants to make it into a movie.

READ IT.

EA has been fucking people and companies as long as EA has existed. They have cut every corner, and abused every possible avenue for getting ahead. I've for a long time thought they were a terrible company, then I read Console Wars and realized how far back their assholishness truly went. They've been bastards forever and have no intention of stopping.

It was the Genesis which allowed that though. If you exclude the Japanese market, where Sega was downright abysmal in the 16-bit generation, the sales numbers of the Genesis vs the SNES were actually fairly competitive. And up until the mid 1990s, Sega even overtook Nintendo in terms of sales figures at certain points.

But one thing to take into consideration is that compared to either Sony or Microsoft of the PS3/360 era, Sega was at a massive disadvantage starting out. During the mid 1980s through early 1990s, it was Nintendo or nothing. Nobody owned a Master System or even Genesis when it was released. Nintendo was becoming synonymous with video games. At one point, according to the book Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation, Nintendo accounted for 10% of Walmart's profits. Think about that for a second. That a company had such power, that they could impose their will on Walmart of where to place their items, and how much to sell their items for.

For Sega to come back and be even nearly as competitive as they were was nothing short of amazing. And they solved it the exact way as you stated the PS3 & 360 of doing, of creating demographics. Nintendo, or even video games in general, were for kids. Sure, arcades in the 70s and early 80s had teenagers in them, but you played your video games, and you moved on with your life. Sega targeted those children becoming teenagers, who grew up with video games, but now kept with video games. I'm part of that generation. I don't know many people, even just half a decade older than me, who play video games, but I know tons of people younger than me who do. That's not to say none do, rather, it's just far more uncommon.

And when I was in high school, more people I knew owned Genesis's than SNES's. It's sort of like the PSX vs N64. In terms of sales figures, the N64 was a massive disappointment and could be considered a failure. If you look at reddit threads though, the N64 is talked about with great reverence though while the PSX has moved into obscurity. In my opinion, a huge part is because things like the Genesis and PSX targeted the older generations who already grew up with video games. It wasn't their first love, thus didn't create many lasting memories or leave a huge impression on people. So, we forget about the true impact it actually did have.

It's technically ancient history, because it happened back in the late 80s/early 90s. They took Blockbuster to court and lost. Then they took BB to court again, this time over copyright infringement because BB was photocopying their manuals because customers would lose the originals, and that one got a settlement between Nintendo and BB. Most of the people who are gamers now days likely weren't old enough to care about that kind of thing going on (their parents might've seen it in the newspaper though), and most gamers now days don't try to learn this kind of history unless there's a reason.

Nintendo are absolute assholes. Between this, and their fucking over Sony back around the same time with the SNES CR-Rom, shows that they've always had a very strong history of being a control freak.

I try to bring both subjects up whenever I can, including recommending people read the Sega v Nintendo Console Wars book because it's also pretty interesting, but it's not something that's easy to get people to listen to unless something happens (like this whole ROM thing going on)

It's been a while since I read it, but I recall the book Console Wars as basically being huge praise for this guy and Sega in general.

The history of that question is a fun filled adventure. If you get a chance, check out Console Wars it’s a fun read on this cultural conflict of the 90s.

The Gamespite Journals and other books written by veteran games journo Jeremy Parish (of Retronauts and coining the term ‘Metroidvania' fame) are pretty good for this. The pieces inside vary in length from essay to blurb, and range from personal experiences and reflections to more historical detail. Not so heavy on interviews. While the articles were all published online, they can be bought in physical form on Blurb.

Also, Amazon has a fair few non-fiction books telling history and often drawing from first-hand sources and interviews - stuff like Console Wars by Blake J Harris, or Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier. Can probably find more googling "videogame history books" or some such.

I know this is no filter because it wasn't taken using Snapchat.

This should be under $15 CDN and its super awesome.

Merry Fridaymas! This weekend is going to be more of the same - job apps, gym, and trying not to disappoint my mother which is getting more difficult by the day. Bleh. I guess an exciting thing I may do is heat up that dairy free- gluten free almost paleo frozen pizza I bought on a whim last night. xD

/u/beautifullystrange89 Have I told you lately that you're strangely beautiful? ;)

This question really piqued my curiosity, because it reminded me not to take the things I know for granted. Being born in the early 80s, and having been introduced to videogames by older siblings and my parents in that decade, and then being involved with videogames either in the industry or as an avid enthusiast, the obscure (and most times useless) history of the medium is something I've taken for granted.

Recently, as older millennials and younger Gen X'ers have reached maturity (or middle age), there have been a surge in books, documentaries, and other materials about videogames... As they're seminal in many of our lives and so now we're looking back and writing these nostalgic retrospectives. Many are trash, even some of the best are still trash, but I'd recommend a few of them... The following are either entertaining, informative, or some balance of both:

• Blake Harris' Console Wars Amazon, a book released in 2014 that details the rise and fall of Sega of America. I think the writing is rough, at least, it tries to Aaron Sorkinize too much of the history and comes off insufferably cheesy at times, enough so that I just had to put the book down and shake my head with douche shivers, but because Harris' has one on one interviews and access to Kalinske, the head of SoA at the time, you get a lot of first hand details that just aren't available anywhere else.
• David Kushner's Masters of Doom Amazon, written in 2004 was one of the first contemporary books to get into the details of the videogame industry. This was mostly an untapped medium when Kushner was writing the book, as writing about a videogame company was just not in fashion in 2002 or 2003. Like Console Wars, the conversations are fictionalized but most match up to the actual events detailed in the book. It follows the origins and rise of id software, one of the most influential western developers who more or less invented the first-person shooter (even if they weren't truly the first, they certainly popularized the genre and most of what we take for granted in the first-person genre, id pioneered and introduced). id's fingerprints are on thousands of modern games, and the two founders of the company -- John Carmack and John Romero -- are often considered father's of modern action games, they also have a tumultuous relationship with one another, at the time often likened to John Lenon and Paul McCartney, and so the story of id software is also the story of their personal relationship.
• Gaming Historian YouTube Channel (google it, it should come up). Many of these videos are dry and some border on clickbait, but the majority are well researched and provide a good nugget of history into videogames.
• The King of Kong Documentary. It's not completely factual and it takes artistic license to make a better story, but it's probably the best videogame-focused movie ever made, even despite those inaccuracies. Why you should watch it? It's a great introduction into competitive gaming in the 1980s and how videogames worked. There are other materials that have informed this movie and you can start with the movie and just google questions, and because the movie was so popular there's a lot of interesting research that goes into the mechanics of it.
• NoClip, a Youtube Channel. NoClip has only been around for a year or a little more, but they're well funded and produced videogame documentaries... Most focus on some new aspect of gaming, but still walk back into the influences of the developers, which aren't cheesy... they're well informed and well made. Particularly, the interview with the developers of CD Projekt and how being under the heel of communism influenced how they built games and ultimately what makes a game like The Witcher so compelling.
• SuperBunnyHop YouTube Channel. Guy who does breakdowns of videogames and his informative retrospectives are some of my favorites. He introduced the concept of, "But what do they eat?" to me, which goes into a wider theory about creating realistic or believable game worlds. If you're in any game world, walking around, and there are creatures living there, if the game subtly answers the simple question "But what do they eat?" it makes the game world so much more believable because it's an indication that the developers/designers have really put more thought into the believability of their world. Most great games answer this central question or punt on it in a convincing way.
• Joseph Anderson YouTube Channel. His video breakdowns of games are just so good. He's probably most recently gotten notoriety by being critical of Super Mario Odyssey, at least, critical enough to say "the game isn't perfect..." And after playing Odyssey and feeling kinda meh on it after a while, I watched his video and it just felt so apt for me. He also does great analysis of mostly recent games, but most of those are informed by previous games, and goes into the mechanics of balance, pacing, mechanics, and the simple systems that inform most good game.
• RetroGame Mechanics Explained YouTubeChannel. These are typically technical breakdowns of how concepts in retrogaming worked, and are usually pretty involved. Not always light watching but informative.
• Mark Brown's Game Maker's Toolkit YouTube Channel. Breakdowns of videogame theories/concepts, largely.

This is by no way supposed to be an exhaustive list, just a list of stuff that I enjoyed and others might too... Part of these videos/movies/books is video game theory, part is history, part is just sheer entertainment value, but I think anybody who is into videogames enough to talk on 'True Gaming,' would probably enjoy most of those.

TV Show: Vikings Show is just fantasic, well acted, well written, engaging enough that my wife, which is not into that kind of stuff got excited and emotional during a couple episodes and looks forward to the next episode every week.
Favorite Game: Warsong Series game is so engaging, mediocre/bad gfx for the time, but story is decent, lots of different options for characters/classes, and good replay-ability. Easily hands down the best TBSRPG ever.
Favorite book: Console Wars I grew up as the only Sega fan of all my classmates, and this book really took me by surprise at how mismanaged, and pushed down Sega of America was. It always gets me to thinking of "what if" situations.

I'm not sure how old your husband is or what kind of games he likes, but i'd recommend these, they are mostly non-fiction but completely captivating and, I believe, right up his alley. I've found really good non-fiction to be a good gateway into reading because if you're already interested in the subject material its easy to get involved quickly.

Console Wars - This is the story of SEGA in the early/mid 90s and their rivalry with Nintendo. If your husband was alive during this time, or enjoys Mario or Sonic games, he will love this. It's really, really interesting even divorced of an interest in video games. Supposedly Seth Rogan is going to make this into a movie.

Masters Of Doom - This is the story of "the two John's" who created DOOM and WOLFENSTEIN- they pioneered the first person shooter genre. Once again its great irregardless- two passionate young guys pushing the envelope in a new industry. It's a fantastic read.

How Star Wars Conquered the Universe - I'm going out on a limb here and assume he likes Star Wars on atleast some level? This is a really thorough book about how the original movie (and to a much lesser extent its sequels through the prequel trilogy) got made. But it's not a collection of 'behind the scenes trivia' it follows Lucas through film school and the Star Wars explosion, really insightful look into how he kind of stumbled onto this cultural touchstone. Like the others, this is great regardless of having an interest in the source material.

Mistborn Trilogy - This is the only fiction book i've listed. Fantasy novels with a really well developed universe and magic system. Really easy to read, engaging right off the bat, great world building.

Fwiw. This was a really good read.

https://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generation/dp/0062276700

Have you read Console Wars?

There's a book and a movie coming out starring seth rogen:

http://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generation/dp/0062276700/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450203413&sr=8-1&keywords=console+wars

Console Wars by Blake J. Harris.

Done in a narrative style, but with relevant facts and information. great read. it's being made into a movie as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generation/dp/0062276700

You should read Console Wars

http://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generation/dp/0062276700

ive been sega over nintendo for a long time but i remember buying this book about 2 years ago and yeah i knew i had been on the right side this whole time they took the steps and lengths and risks no one else did and they played a risky game but they played that shit damn right but yeah then Sony and the rise of DVD came and yeah shit fell to pieces.

https://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generation/dp/0062276700

SEGA was struggling even before the SNES, they never stood a chance.