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[The Lunch Legend]

This is not to say the NES was a bad. It arguably saved the videogame industry and it is a great system, despite the graphics and sound being rather poor for the most part. What I wish to raise is the question, that by illegally forcing 3rd party developers to make games only for the NES:

Did Nintendo kill the 8-Bit era by having such a monopoly on the market? Thus not allowing many great games to be made for the Sega Master System .

I truly believe that had these games been made for the SMS, many of them would have been superior to their NES counter parts.

Also, we would have perhaps seen more games on the Mega Drive/Genesis, such as Squaresoft and Enix titles.

 

[Dream-Knife]

Sega, like Atari, only focused on hardware instead of software. They thought you could win by having the best hardware.

If anything, Nintendo prolonged the 8 bit era. Turbografix 16 and the genesis all came out before. Like today, Nintendo has the software.

Hardware is meaningless without the software to go with it.

 

[rabbity-thing]

Did Nintendo kill the 8-Bit era by having such a monopoly on the market? Thus not allowing many great games to be made for the Sega Master System .

I truly believe that had these games been made for the SMS, many of them would have been superior to their NES counter parts.

No. After the crash, an over-correction was needed. Nintendo did what was needed. I say this as a Master System owner, btw. I did, of course, lament not having some of the bigger titles, but I never felt like there weren't enough games for me to enjoy. It was coo. I didn't have Mario, but I did have Shinobi. And Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. To this day, I prefer the SMS version.

 

[RoboFu]

Nah, it was just economics.. Nintendo was where the money was at.

SEGA did their own ports of third party games for a long time .. well into the start of the megadrive.

They also didn’t create many variants of their carts where as Japanese third party could create their own famicon with their own mappers.

The PCEngine did very well during the famicon era. It was pretty huge in Japan. I just wish it would have caught on globally as I feel the hardware was wasted potential beyond a few games.

 

[Kilau]

As someone that owned a Sega Master System at that time.

 

[Azelover]

Nintendo made a closed system because of the crash. They needed to control the ecosystem to ensure there was nobody fucking up the customers behind their backs. Also there was no rating system for videogames at the time. Nintendo needed to protect their business.

 

[Fuz]

 

[AREYOUOKAY?]

Sega, like Atari, only focused on hardware instead of software. They thought you could win by having the best hardware.

If anything, Nintendo prolonged the 8 bit era. Turbografix 16 and the genesis all came out before. Like today, Nintendo has the software.

Hardware is meaningless without the software to go with it.

They should have invested in better sound. If anyone thought Genesis music had some bad stuff then their ears are in for some real pain with Master System stuff.

Though yeah you said it best when it comes to system selling software. It lacked the mascot star power which Nintendo had with Mario.

Sorry Alex

 

[crazyriddler]

What? The videogame industry was practically dead, with titles of very low quality, the nintendo seal of quality saved video games and the interest in them. So no.

 

[Vandole]

They should have invested in better sound. If anyone thought Genesis music had some bad stuff then their ears are in for some real pain with Master System stuff.

Growing up I didn't have the Master System nor did any of my friends. So the Virtual Console on the Wii was my first real opportunity to play these games and I was super excited for it... Right until I started playing them. And yeah it was pretty much nails on a chalkboard. I thought something was wrong with the emulation, but quickly I learned that wasn't the case.

 

[Badlucktroll]

Master System was badass, never owned one but there was one in the Perk room in elementary school

 

[Captain Toad]

I guess they killed it when they released the SNES and eventually stopped making NES games? They were the last one still supporting the 8-bit gen, so when they stopped, so did that generation.

 

[Sid Of Bee]

Literally the opposite is true.

 

[cash_longfellow]

Bruh….I’ve never seen a poll on Gaf with literally all the votes on one response, and nothing else…weekend confirmed

 

[deriks]

Everything changed, and technology is a fast constant. Also, people do 8 bit games to this day, and with the NES limits on mind, so...

 

[Ozzie666]

Once Nintendo lost its monopoly and companies figured out the loop holes, gaming was better in 1993 during the 16 bit era.

Sega and any other company could have licensed any arcade game and made conversions for the master system. Some did this. But the damage was done for units sold.

Almost any master system version would have been better than the NES.

If not for NES iron grip, Sega might have done better. So if anything Nintendo held back Sega at the cost of better SMS versions.

Nintendo didn’t hold back the European 8 bit revolution though the crash so mostly American.

Nintendo saved gaming but their monopoly and strong arm tactics should have ended in 87 or 88. Gaming would have been better off.

 

[Chastten]

The topic title and your OP don't match.

What you're asking essentially is, did Nintendo cripple SEGA? And the obvious answer to that is yes. But I'd say that was a plus for the generation and actually saved it. I mean, whenever SEGA had some success, they immediately crippled themselves by dubious decisions, terrible management and unwanted hardware.

 

[Kataploom]

For better of for worse, that control was necessary to put some order in the gaming industry.

They took more than they should tho, but it's an example of hard and unpopular measures after hard times for the sake of progress and better times.

Like... Literally the gaming market was in the shit, consumers didn't trust publishers thus games were not selling anymore.

The Nintendo "Seal of Quality" IIRC was created to help overcome that situation, it was a proof for consumers to trust that the software was actually working (whether it was a good or a bad game was irrelevant).

That's my understanding at least.

 

[Sgt. Pinback]

Nintendo didn't 'save the video game industry'. That's a very US-centric perspective. 8-bit microcomputers were thriving across Europe and Oceania, and had a far larger presence than the NES in systems like the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum.

 

[sinnergy]

Yes, when the super nes arrived

 

[Seider]

Yes!

 

[the_master]

What? The videogame industry was practically dead, with titles of very low quality, the nintendo seal of quality saved video games and the interest in them. So no.

The industry was dead only in the states, USA!=The World

 

[Fess]

Nah I didn’t even have a NES during the 8-bit days, I played on Commodore 64 which was much more popular in my area.

 

[cireza]

Thus not allowing many great games to be made for the Sega Master System .

Master System has a ton of fantastic games, and it sold more units than the NES in Europe. It ended being perfectly fine despite Nintendo's illegal strategies.

SEGA supported the console until 1994 or 1995 I think, which is quite late honestly, as well as the Game Gear until 1997 if I am correct. They had two excellent 8 bits consoles.

 

[Hudo]

Nintendo didn't 'save the video game industry'. That's a very US-centric perspective. 8-bit microcomputers were thriving across Europe and Oceania, and had a far larger presence than the NES in systems like the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum.

Even in Japan, there was a fairly healthy home computer market between NEC, Sharp and Fujitsu (among others). And these things also had good games and were a sizable market to make money off of. Falcom started as a home computer dev, for example. So did Enix.

 

[nkarafo]

Wait, i thought Nintendo saved the game industry in America with it's 8 bit machine. Or at least that's what i heard 1000 times, i wouldn't know, i'm from Europe.

Also, i had a Master System.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Kill the market is a bad way if framing it, because they certainly didn’t kill it.

They did kill any chance of competition in the market, which arguably kills consumer choice. Nintendo made themselves the only option despite Sega offering a more powerful console.

 

[Operations66]

Despite being so loved by so many, Nintendo was actually quite an evil company in the 1980s. They used every dirty trick to crush their competition, and they really screwed their customers by doing things like creating fake shortages of games.

 

[Knightime_X]

Should have been super obvious 16bit killed 8bit

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

It all depends where you live.

In the USA, for shure. In Europe, Nintendo never won any "war" in the home market, neither in Brazil, or neither in Australia If I remember. In Japan, it were also a very deferent story with lots of computers, the NEC PC Engine as a flamboyant 2nd and Famicom everywhere.

 

[MarkMe2525]

They didn't kill it, they brought it to life and forced Sega to step up it's game with the Mark III

 

[Madserb2023]

The Mega Drive did. Launched a 16 bit system probably two years too early.