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"The Rise and Fall of Western Gaming- by neilc"

Hey people- this is a topic made in chat by a newbie called neilc. Since he's a newbie, he can't post in Prime, so I thought I'd put it here for him- it's very, very good!:

Gaming used to be such a bright place for the European and American developers. Having home brewed consoles ranging from the Spectrum to the Atari Jaguar as well as little input from the Japanese market, the Western game industry was set for great things.

Inevitably, things had to change. First came the wave of Japanese consoles- well supported with original games, these had no problem in undoing the Western manufacturers’ consoles. Companies like Atari- once the jewel of gamers all over America and Europe- died slowly into the night. So unimaginable was this collapse that Atari logos were seen all over futuristic films- most notably in the suburban wasteland of Los Angeles in Blade Runner.

And it was not only the manufacturers that were hit- developers were faced with tough opposition. Nintendo and Sega refused to grant many publishing right to Western developers, meaning that they couldn’t produce games on their consoles. It looked like the days of Western game development were numbered.

However, things were soon to change…

In a small development house, two brothers were hard at work on producing games for Japanese consoles, but printing them on their own carts. These two brothers were, of course, the Darling brothers- creators and owners of Codemasters. Of course, Nintendo and Sega didn’t like this- no longer could they control who made games for their consoles. So, they tried to sue the company on the basis that it was their hardware, and they should be allowed to control who made games for it. Both cases failed and Codemasters continued to make their own game carts.

This once again opened the game market to scores of Western developers. Massive publishers like EA grew and flourished, and began to dominate certain genres- like Sports games. Other developers led to huge innovations- inventing genres like First Person Shooters. Western game development was back at the top.

And it doesn’t just stop there. Now we see a complete circle with, for the first time in decades, a Western-made console being a serious contender to the dominant Japanese platforms. No doubt the Xbox will lead to yet more rejuvenation and interest in gaming in the West, and could well have Microsoft dominating the console market in the next generation.

For Western gaming the future is a very bright place indeed. Along with the strength of Western publishers and the massive amounts of Western gamers, we can now boast to be a serious contender in the console scene too… let’s just hope it stays that way!

neilc

Anyway, let's get back to the topic. We were talking about atari's comeback...

Well, I believe that this is a false rebirth- the only reason it is being done is because the Atari brand name has become very retro- with atari T-shirts coming into fashion.

The only way we could see a real Atari comeback was if the games with an Atari badge were hugely original, innovative titles... at the moment they seem to be run of the mill better-graphics-than-the-last-game type of mass market poop. If only they would actually make the original games again- they could become the West's first big original game maker for ages.

Sonic

Sibs wrote:
> oohhh.... you just wait till my 666th day!!! You'll be sorry then! And you'll
> pay! You'll ALL PAY!!!

*Sibs rantings fade into the distance*



Maybe
> you could write a story bout it Sonic...

:P


And win a GAD;)

Sonic

oohhh.... you just wait till my 666th day!!! You'll be sorry then! And you'll pay! You'll ALL PAY!!!

*Sibs rantings fade into the distance*



Maybe you could write a story bout it Sonic...

:P

Sibs wrote:
> And anymore of that, and you've lost my vote!

ooooooh- who's getting touchy. Just because I was ruler of the forums for a day :p

Sonic

And anymore of that, and you've lost my vote!

hey it wasn't based on what YOU wrote, just what various members (myself included I must add) wrote in a topic that just happened to be one you started!!!

:P

so there!

PS you've won enough GADs anyway! :D

Sibs wrote:
> Sonic would never accept the GAD for someone elses work...


Or would
> he?
;-)

Well, we all know about you sibs... wasn't your latest GAD win based on a story based entirely on one of my topics?? Oh, and it was even about me :p

Sonic

Sonic would never accept the GAD for someone elses work...


Or would he?
;-)

First of all, if this topic were to win GAD (and it's certainly of a good enough standard) then do you think I'd accept a prize for quoting someone elses work!? Of course not- the reason I posted it here was, as Sibs said, because Chat is full of rubbish, and I thought this topic was brilliant- better than some of the stuff I write (and it had a cool title- David Bowie neilc???)

Anyway, Western gaming has certainly had some turbulent times. After the fall of Atari it looked like Western gaming was all but dead.

Although I don't think that Codemasters had an impact as big as you say neil, there court case certainly showed Japanese manufacturers that they couldn't only allow Japanese developers to make games for the console- thus fueling their own interests.

Pb, I think you're right about the case against them printing "Game Genies", however, the case was centred party around the fact that Codies were making the carts for Ninty and Sega's consoles, as well as the fact they were eccentially "hacking" games.

Sonic

AfroJoe wrote:
> I agree. That was a good topic.

But why couldn't people just go to FOG (Chat)
> and read it themselves?


Peopel are so fickle...

and FOG chat is full of crap topics too, so this one would get less recognition than it has here...

...probably.