History of Games Part Tray! 1990's

The 1990’s were a period where 3D graphics, texturing, CD-ROMs, soundcards and cheap and more powerful computer processors developed. Handheld Games became very popular during this period with a majority of this due to the Game Boy, however with new developments Arcade games gradually withdrew from the market as home consoles became more common and practical. With similar graphics and increasing ease of use that home consoles allowed. The era grew rise to The MMO and the ability for computer systems to interact and for players to interact in large virtual worlds.

One of the first consoles I played, the Sega Mega Drive was developed and its mainstream popularity was secured with Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991, becoming a mascot for Sega and another of the most recognizable video game character. It was becoming increasingly uncommon for people not to have played a form of video game and not to recognise brands and characters. In 1992 Dune II was developed and brought rise to the RTS genre not as the first Real time strategy game but laying the core mechanics of these games to develop into World of Warcraft and Command & Conquer style games.

CD-ROM consoles brought a new ease and the ability to create more complex and interesting titles. Alone in the Dark 1992 was a survival horror game that planted the seeds of what was needed to become a successful horror game. 1990’s brought the Sim’s to the playing field with Sim City, with a variety of titles leading to the most successful PC game of all time. Quake by Id Software in 1996 pioneered Internet game play and first person shooters over the internet and became a defacto requirement for FPS to have. Online play was soon adopted by Age of Empires, Starcraft and Warcraft.

Development of Plug-in’s like Java and Flash allowed for quick and simple browser based games to be played, Again making the industry very adaptive to what markets were available to it. Another platform that developed was Mobile phone’s when Nokia installed Snake onto its line of mobile phones in 1998. Although very limited this would no doubt create a very profitable market which emerges in the late 2000’s. Fourth Generation consoles 16bit and Fifth generation consoles 32 and 64bit developed all through the period and dominated the later section of the 20^th Century. The Play station emerged and the Nintendo 64 in 1996 along with Super Mario 64 became defining flagships of the era.

Capcom release of Resident Evil in 1996, Rare’s GoldenEye 007 (Which I must take the time to say was a mainstay of my childhood and was absolutely incredible!) brought along the innovation of Z targeting used in practically every game available today. Legend of Zelda in 1998, Final Fantasy in 1997 all became cornerstones and very popular amongst the consoles for the development and innovation, and plotted the course of my future career to some extent. By the end of the 90’s Sony became the leader in the video game market. The extent that games improved over the last 20 year’s becomes very clear, with consoles adopted more familiar settings and games becoming more familiar. The earliest extent of games on computer become a distant predecessor as Game push into a new century fully fledge 3D becomes a reality.