Word: bits
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...things are not going according to plan. The 16-bit market is winding down all right. Sales are expected to drop as much as 40% this year. But 32-bit systems from 3DO and Atari have been sitting on shelves in U.S. stores for nearly two years, and lately they have been doing only that, sitting there. Last Christmas millions of parents passed over all the competing video-game systems in favor of home computers that can play games and do productive work as well...
...before E3 that the hot new Ultra 64 machine it had promised to unveil later this year would be delayed until April 1996--after the critical Christmas buying season. Sega, which apparently was making its plans around Nintendo's original schedule, surprised everyone by announcing that its new 32-bit Saturn would be available immediately instead of in September. Sony, no stranger to the stratagems of consumer-electronics marketing, neatly parried with its own surprise: a pre-emptive price cut on the PlayStation--before the official list price was even set--to $299. That positioned the game system well below...
...companies are also engaged in a fierce fight on the technological front. Sony and Sega are following 3DO's lead, using 32-bit processors and double-speed CD-ROM drives with sufficient capacity to store VHS-quality video images and CD-quality stereo sound. Nintendo, striking out on its own, is opting for a higher-powered, 64-bit chip, and will store its games on high-capacity, plug-in cartridges instead of CD-ROM discs. Nintendo says this will enable it to offer both a lower-cost system and the blistering speed demanded by its target market: adolescent boys...
...power brings more than pace; it makes better theater on the screen. Conventioneers last week were mesmerized by a preview of 3DO's 64-bit chip (still in development) that can bathe surprisingly lifelike characters in a realistic-looking fog. Nintendo wowed viewers with a videotape demonstrating how its new computational horsepower can be used to eliminate the jagged lines in and around objects, wrap them in textures, or even zoom in and out without suffering the usual loss of clarity...
...prediction turns out to be true, the situation could play into the hands of Nintendo, which is gambling that there is still some life left in the underpowered 16-bit systems. With an impressive piece of programming, Nintendo has managed to get games developed for the Ultra 64 to play on the old Super NES. The first of these was Donkey Kong Country, which conquered vidkids last year with its clever play and striking three-dimensional graphics. DKC ended up outgrossing most Hollywood movies (total number of copies sold in the U.S. so far: 3.5 million...