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2001 has spawned the year for a lot of technological advancements, controversy and innovation - there has never been a year like it. Some may say that 2001 was the “fish and chips” of gaming, where others argue that it’s all the fat and gristle left over from 2000. Whatever your opinion, whoever your preference, this is 2001: A Gaming Year in Review.
Demise of the Dreamcast
Just as the year began, Sega announced that production of the Dreamcast would cease, much to the heartache of thousands (and possibly millions) of disgruntled fans, including myself, who had only purchased said console 1 month earlier. The Dreamcast was the beholder for such classics as Shenmue, Soul Calibur and Virtua Tennis, so why this? Apparently, Sega’s annual gain was not high enough and their annual loss was too high. Sega did promise that models would be made by Pace, who are famous for manufacturing Sky Digi-Boxes - but I’ll have to get back to you on that one. Sega did not go out in a big bang, but fizzled out, by promising that at least 20 more titles would be released and they kept to that promise. Such long-awaited titles as Headhunter, Shenmue 2 and Virtua Tennis 2 are now available to avid gamers, who were not sure whether or not their beloved console would deliver. As the situation for Sega stands now, they are going to begin developing for future consoles.
N64 Buckles Under the Pressure
Not-so-long later, Nintendo announced the halt in production of the N64. It seemed as though gamers were having an attack of Déjà vu, because we all knew what happened to Sega’s beloved console, the Dreamcast, and Nintendo’s pride and glory couldn’t just fizzle out too. The console that had matured for 5 years was now gone? Well, not exactly. The last few games were released (Conkers Bad Fur Day, World Is Not Enough) and then, production simply stopped and everyone carried on with their lives. Last time I heard, Nintendo and their stockists are still trying to flog the last of their shipment!
New Medium for PC
Piracy had now run rampant, and no copy-protection programme could stop it. However, the creative control came up with a solution to piracy - an entire new storage medium - well, not completely! The next games on the shelves appeared in DVD cases, much to the disarray and surprise of gamers. At first, not many knew, but the more scientific of gamers attempted to pirate them and discovered that they were not able to be copied - pirates were miffed! It was soon announced that there was indeed a new storage for games, as suspected by many gamers. This new medium was DVD. Nowadays, everyone is accustomed to the DVD format in films, old and young, smart and…not so smart, but nobody had ever guessed that the creative control would think of this. I have heard through the grapevine that special ripping tools have enabled successful copying (or thereabouts) of DVD games, but due to special issues, key parts of the game (video, audio etc) would have to be edited and or removed from the illegal copy. The gaming industry for once had the leg-up on pirates. For a year, this system has remained unbreakable.
Nintendo Break One and Make One
After the burnout of the N64, Nintendo were already close to completion of their latest console: the Nintendo GameCube. Originally slated as the “Nintendo Dolphin”, it was revealed that Nintendo had been playing that title as a rouse to surprise gamers. Work on the GC began in 1999 (or so we know), and just 2 years later, the console has already been released in America, must to their appraisal. Sadly, we have to wait until 2002 to get our grubby mitts on it, but if the USA release has anything to go by, it’ll be a cracked. Some of the titles consist of Luigi’s Mansion, Halo, Zelda and many more. GC may the console to get.
Console War Begins to Take Effect
Microsoft soon revealed the X-Box, and no, it would not be geeks-galore gaming-fest, but an actual console - quite a surprise in it’s own right! We all know the quality of PC games, and so this has excited many, including yours truly. It was released in America about 2 months ago, and went off with a bang, but had to discomfort (or comfort for some) of having to compete with the GameCube. Heck, X-Box ran competitions in chains of certain shops nationwide to see which shop had the largest X-Box display. The winner won - yes, you’re guessed it - an X-Box. There are a few downers of it being made by Microsoft. Power-mad Bill Gates will be behind the wheel, which means mass advertisement, as seen in the USA. Also, expect the first X-Box model to be full of bugs, as we have become accustomed to with most Microsoft products (ME, XP), so it may be a wiser decision to purchase the 2nd model of the console.
GHZ
3 letters - simple. For years, PC’s had been using the old MHZ (megahertz) system to distinguish the speed of a computer. For years, speed had been increasing (at what seemed like a fast rate in the past few years), but they never reached 1000 MHZ…until now. A few months ago, speed of computers reached 1000 MHZ, and so a new measurement was made: GHZ (gigahertz). As soon as I saw 1000 MHZ/1GHZ in a magazine, my eyes almost palpitated from their sockets. I was never expecting this goal to be reached - or at least not for a few years, but as the technological world moves faster, so does the object that is implemented upon. I think that any more than 1GHZ is unnecessary - not that I’m complaining about the 1.4GHZ equipped with my next computer!
Game Boy Goes Advanced!
The Game Boy Advanced was announced many, many months before release, but seemed to be overshadowed by the other gaming affairs at the time. However, the launch of the GBA was nothing short of long awaited, despite the feeble advertising campaigns. In a nutshell, GBA is a handheld 32-bit console, in many respects similar to a PlayStation. At first, there were complaints that the screen was too light, but that problem seems to have somehow been eradicated now. GBA has been immensely popular - and I can see why too! With batteries running from 4-8 hours a go, they have really perfected handheld gaming with this little gem.
International Incident
On September 11 2001, 2 planes flew into the World Trade Centre, New York - 70 minutes later, over 2,000 innocent people were dead. At first glance, it may be difficult to see how this in any way coincides with gaming. Many games developed contain content that may seem suggestive to what happened on September 11th, be it pure coincidence or not. Thanks to the events on said day, many a game were delayed, in order to remove certain elements because they could be offensive. Grand Theft Auto 3 is a great example of this. Originally, plane jacking was going to be a feature put into the game, but this was removed. Sadly though, I feel that developers went overboard, delaying patches for Counterstrike and even delaying entire games, just because they had traces of terrorism in their lines. I can understand delaying plane games, but I think as a whole, they went over the top.
XP To the Power!
Finally, to close the year, Microsoft had to leave the year in a bang. Microsoft announced a matter of months before release that they were working on a new OS, named Windows XP. With this new version, we were promised new video editing features, a faster system and much, much more - we were not disappointed. There were 2 packages - firstly, the “normal” version - a run of the mill OS with no strings attached, at a price of £89.99. Then, there was the deluxe version - an OS with all extras included, which is worth £289.99 - quite a steep sum. Surprisingly, XP did not have as many bugs as expected and all parties walked away happy (in general).
This year has been quite a controversial but strange one. We have seen the unfortunate death of the Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo 64, but we have opened the doors to so many prospects in the Microsoft X-Box and the Nintendo GameCube. It will be interesting to see what happens. I hope you had a good year 2001 and have an even better 2002. Take care.
To the future and a happy one for all!
Demise of the Dreamcast
Just as the year began, Sega announced that production of the Dreamcast would cease, much to the heartache of thousands (and possibly millions) of disgruntled fans, including myself, who had only purchased said console 1 month earlier. The Dreamcast was the beholder for such classics as Shenmue, Soul Calibur and Virtua Tennis, so why this? Apparently, Sega’s annual gain was not high enough and their annual loss was too high. Sega did promise that models would be made by Pace, who are famous for manufacturing Sky Digi-Boxes - but I’ll have to get back to you on that one. Sega did not go out in a big bang, but fizzled out, by promising that at least 20 more titles would be released and they kept to that promise. Such long-awaited titles as Headhunter, Shenmue 2 and Virtua Tennis 2 are now available to avid gamers, who were not sure whether or not their beloved console would deliver. As the situation for Sega stands now, they are going to begin developing for future consoles.
N64 Buckles Under the Pressure
Not-so-long later, Nintendo announced the halt in production of the N64. It seemed as though gamers were having an attack of Déjà vu, because we all knew what happened to Sega’s beloved console, the Dreamcast, and Nintendo’s pride and glory couldn’t just fizzle out too. The console that had matured for 5 years was now gone? Well, not exactly. The last few games were released (Conkers Bad Fur Day, World Is Not Enough) and then, production simply stopped and everyone carried on with their lives. Last time I heard, Nintendo and their stockists are still trying to flog the last of their shipment!
New Medium for PC
Piracy had now run rampant, and no copy-protection programme could stop it. However, the creative control came up with a solution to piracy - an entire new storage medium - well, not completely! The next games on the shelves appeared in DVD cases, much to the disarray and surprise of gamers. At first, not many knew, but the more scientific of gamers attempted to pirate them and discovered that they were not able to be copied - pirates were miffed! It was soon announced that there was indeed a new storage for games, as suspected by many gamers. This new medium was DVD. Nowadays, everyone is accustomed to the DVD format in films, old and young, smart and…not so smart, but nobody had ever guessed that the creative control would think of this. I have heard through the grapevine that special ripping tools have enabled successful copying (or thereabouts) of DVD games, but due to special issues, key parts of the game (video, audio etc) would have to be edited and or removed from the illegal copy. The gaming industry for once had the leg-up on pirates. For a year, this system has remained unbreakable.
Nintendo Break One and Make One
After the burnout of the N64, Nintendo were already close to completion of their latest console: the Nintendo GameCube. Originally slated as the “Nintendo Dolphin”, it was revealed that Nintendo had been playing that title as a rouse to surprise gamers. Work on the GC began in 1999 (or so we know), and just 2 years later, the console has already been released in America, must to their appraisal. Sadly, we have to wait until 2002 to get our grubby mitts on it, but if the USA release has anything to go by, it’ll be a cracked. Some of the titles consist of Luigi’s Mansion, Halo, Zelda and many more. GC may the console to get.
Console War Begins to Take Effect
Microsoft soon revealed the X-Box, and no, it would not be geeks-galore gaming-fest, but an actual console - quite a surprise in it’s own right! We all know the quality of PC games, and so this has excited many, including yours truly. It was released in America about 2 months ago, and went off with a bang, but had to discomfort (or comfort for some) of having to compete with the GameCube. Heck, X-Box ran competitions in chains of certain shops nationwide to see which shop had the largest X-Box display. The winner won - yes, you’re guessed it - an X-Box. There are a few downers of it being made by Microsoft. Power-mad Bill Gates will be behind the wheel, which means mass advertisement, as seen in the USA. Also, expect the first X-Box model to be full of bugs, as we have become accustomed to with most Microsoft products (ME, XP), so it may be a wiser decision to purchase the 2nd model of the console.
GHZ
3 letters - simple. For years, PC’s had been using the old MHZ (megahertz) system to distinguish the speed of a computer. For years, speed had been increasing (at what seemed like a fast rate in the past few years), but they never reached 1000 MHZ…until now. A few months ago, speed of computers reached 1000 MHZ, and so a new measurement was made: GHZ (gigahertz). As soon as I saw 1000 MHZ/1GHZ in a magazine, my eyes almost palpitated from their sockets. I was never expecting this goal to be reached - or at least not for a few years, but as the technological world moves faster, so does the object that is implemented upon. I think that any more than 1GHZ is unnecessary - not that I’m complaining about the 1.4GHZ equipped with my next computer!
Game Boy Goes Advanced!
The Game Boy Advanced was announced many, many months before release, but seemed to be overshadowed by the other gaming affairs at the time. However, the launch of the GBA was nothing short of long awaited, despite the feeble advertising campaigns. In a nutshell, GBA is a handheld 32-bit console, in many respects similar to a PlayStation. At first, there were complaints that the screen was too light, but that problem seems to have somehow been eradicated now. GBA has been immensely popular - and I can see why too! With batteries running from 4-8 hours a go, they have really perfected handheld gaming with this little gem.
International Incident
On September 11 2001, 2 planes flew into the World Trade Centre, New York - 70 minutes later, over 2,000 innocent people were dead. At first glance, it may be difficult to see how this in any way coincides with gaming. Many games developed contain content that may seem suggestive to what happened on September 11th, be it pure coincidence or not. Thanks to the events on said day, many a game were delayed, in order to remove certain elements because they could be offensive. Grand Theft Auto 3 is a great example of this. Originally, plane jacking was going to be a feature put into the game, but this was removed. Sadly though, I feel that developers went overboard, delaying patches for Counterstrike and even delaying entire games, just because they had traces of terrorism in their lines. I can understand delaying plane games, but I think as a whole, they went over the top.
XP To the Power!
Finally, to close the year, Microsoft had to leave the year in a bang. Microsoft announced a matter of months before release that they were working on a new OS, named Windows XP. With this new version, we were promised new video editing features, a faster system and much, much more - we were not disappointed. There were 2 packages - firstly, the “normal” version - a run of the mill OS with no strings attached, at a price of £89.99. Then, there was the deluxe version - an OS with all extras included, which is worth £289.99 - quite a steep sum. Surprisingly, XP did not have as many bugs as expected and all parties walked away happy (in general).
This year has been quite a controversial but strange one. We have seen the unfortunate death of the Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo 64, but we have opened the doors to so many prospects in the Microsoft X-Box and the Nintendo GameCube. It will be interesting to see what happens. I hope you had a good year 2001 and have an even better 2002. Take care.
To the future and a happy one for all!
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greedy....
Very good post indeed. It was fun to read, and everything was explained just right.
Very well done Salevaa, and Happy New Year.
The New Year is looking great for you already...2 fantastic GAD wins in 17 days - CONGRATS!
Very well done Salevaa, and Happy New Year.
The New Year is looking great for you already...2 fantastic GAD wins in 17 days - CONGRATS!
POP - I really should start making my posts longer, but I just can't be bothered nowadays.
Let me think...
I think this year has seen a huge increase in console sales, it is now a time in which the 'computer nerd' no longer exists and when it's not 'sad' to play on consoles anymore. We have seen some ace films, great games and amazing graphics. Although every year we'll probably turn around and say "This has been the best gaming year blah blah" because of the dramatic increase in graphical ability and the more adventerous the games designers become, I think you can say that about this year.
We've eventually seen the PS2 kick off, and what a nice year it has been. We've had all the discussion about 'Console Wars' and who is gonna win it. We've just had XMas and made Sony VERY VERY VERY rich. Then, we've had two of the biggest films of all time. We've seen Sega go busy, Bill Gates get hacked, SR screw up and lots of newbies bringing terror to the forums.
Not bad going for a year.
Let me think...
I think this year has seen a huge increase in console sales, it is now a time in which the 'computer nerd' no longer exists and when it's not 'sad' to play on consoles anymore. We have seen some ace films, great games and amazing graphics. Although every year we'll probably turn around and say "This has been the best gaming year blah blah" because of the dramatic increase in graphical ability and the more adventerous the games designers become, I think you can say that about this year.
We've eventually seen the PS2 kick off, and what a nice year it has been. We've had all the discussion about 'Console Wars' and who is gonna win it. We've just had XMas and made Sony VERY VERY VERY rich. Then, we've had two of the biggest films of all time. We've seen Sega go busy, Bill Gates get hacked, SR screw up and lots of newbies bringing terror to the forums.
Not bad going for a year.
An informative look back at the year 2001. Very nice.
Oh damn, another reply. Oh well, here we go again!
Ok, I'm gloating but:
AfroJoe said: "Good contender for GAD..."
Mjswere said: "GAD on the way I say"
The Obnoxious Snowplow said: "sure fire GAD winner..."
Gangsta Hamster said: "GAD contender..."
BB Scotty said: "A GAD Contender..."
Kid Rock said: "GAD contender..."
6 out of 13 think I can win and some of the others sounded a little suggestive.
Well, I'm done gloating - time to darken another topic for definite this time!
Ok, I'm gloating but:
AfroJoe said: "Good contender for GAD..."
Mjswere said: "GAD on the way I say"
The Obnoxious Snowplow said: "sure fire GAD winner..."
Gangsta Hamster said: "GAD contender..."
BB Scotty said: "A GAD Contender..."
Kid Rock said: "GAD contender..."
6 out of 13 think I can win and some of the others sounded a little suggestive.
Well, I'm done gloating - time to darken another topic for definite this time!
"9 replies here have contained the words GAD and contender. :-)". Well, make it 10, or 11, as I just posted it in my topic.
Ok, I'm gloating but:
AfroJoe said: "Good contender for GAD..."
Mjswere said: "GAD on the way I say"
The Obnoxious Snowplow said: "sure fire GAD winner..."
Gangsta Hamster said: "GAD contender..."
BB Scotty said: "A GAD Contender..."
5 out of 12 think I can win and some of the others sounded a little suggestive.
Well, I'm done gloating - time to darken another topic!
Ok, I'm gloating but:
AfroJoe said: "Good contender for GAD..."
Mjswere said: "GAD on the way I say"
The Obnoxious Snowplow said: "sure fire GAD winner..."
Gangsta Hamster said: "GAD contender..."
BB Scotty said: "A GAD Contender..."
5 out of 12 think I can win and some of the others sounded a little suggestive.
Well, I'm done gloating - time to darken another topic!
this was the thing you were showing me on MSN yesterday wasnt it?
i remember the first to paragraphs any way.
GAD contender.=)
i remember the first to paragraphs any way.
GAD contender.=)
9 replies here have contained the words GAD and contender. :-)
Nice post there Salevaa. A GAD Contender indeed.
Really gopod post, i think PS2 will out sell the rest of them but they'll still do good
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