The First Great Console War

Since man first learned to make fig leaf underwear, humanity has barely lasted five minutes without starting a war. Whether it's for the land, religion, or to knock down a rotten egg-like Hitler and his cronies, we as a people are prone to letting our fists do the talking too often. Resources are usually the reason we go to war, whether those in power care to admit it or not. President Bush would like to tell you that he invaded the Middle East for the good of the people, but he just so happens that there is also a lot of oil there. When there isn't enough for everyone, everyone wants to make sure they get their share. As Tears For Fears once sang, 'Everybody Wants To The Rule The World'.

The video game industry isn't nearly as dangerous as the Normandy landing, but with a finite number of potential buyers with a finite amount of money to spend, console makers will do whatever it takes to sell their product satta to the masses. When Pong was first released in a home version, it had to face a series of knockoffs for market supremacy. Later came the Atari 2600, which dominated sales against largely forgotten systems like ColecoVision. After the 1983 North American video game collapse, it seemed like console games were over in the United States, but Nintendo and SEGA were about to enter the fray, and console games would change forever.

Nintendo was a card game company that had seen interest in board games and card games wane since the advent of arcades, and like any good company that sees the market changing, they adapted. Moving on to arcade games and toys, Nintendo found some success with its startups, and the next logical step was to enter the home video game market. Atari was the big name in gaming, but the crash of '83 had decimated the company, leaving the industry open for a new challenger to take over. In 1983, Nintendo launched Family Computer in Japan and, after a successful career in its home country, made plans to go international. In '85, the Famicom (as it was known) was renamed the Nintendo Entertainment System and launched globally.

Meanwhile, SEGA was primarily known for making coin-operated arcade machines, but they also tried to cash in on the home console market. Their SG-1000 console was actually released at the same time as the NES, but due in part to the aforementioned industry downturn in North America, the lack of games available for the system, and the fact that their machine had no enough power compared to Nintendo. console, the SG-1000 never really found a balance. These days, the SG-1000 is largely forgotten, leaving little more than a footnote in the pages of video game history.