The Hardware of 1998

After a long and hard fought battle for 16-bit console supremacy, Nintendo and Sega would finally transition from their old war-horses of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and the Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis for North American players).

The scene was set for the next generation of consoles, with a new competitor entering the world of video game hardware for the first time. 1998 was a mix of established platforms alongside brand new ones, a mix of optimising old hardware and of experimenting with new potential. Consoles would share the stage with increasingly sophisticated home computers and of course the thrilling coin-operated arcade machines that still sat at the cutting edge of video game hardware.

Sega Saturn

Release date: November 22, 1994 (Japan)

Sega was the first to usher in the next generation after a lengthy series of experimental hardware additions to their beloved Mega Drive/Genesis console. Sega had released the Mega CD (Sega CD in North America) in late 1991, and the 32X in 1994. While these were certainly exciting additions to the console, they weren’t a true ‘next gen’ experience.

Sega made the leap into a totally new generation with the Sega Saturn in 1994. The Saturn was an impressive, yet very complex console. Its future wasn’t helped by a somewhat disastrous launch in the USA. A misguided attempt to beat their competition to launch meant the console was sent to retailers much earlier than planned Sega pulled the American release date forward from the planned September 1995 date to May 1995. With insufficient stock, little marketing being ready, as well as a hefty price tag of $399, the console failed to capture much of the market despite the head-start. The console launched with only six titles.

Sega Saturn fared much better in Japan, partially thanks to the arcade smash hit Virtua Fighter launching alongside it as an exclusive game for the console. Saturn was the only place you could play Virtua Fighter outside the arcades, and it had a nearly 1 to 1 attach-rate with the initial shipment of Saturn consoles. The Sega Saturn would manage to hold a strong position in Japan, but by 1998 was all but dead in the West.

Indeed, 1998 would be the year the console would be discontinued in Europe and North America. Despite the poor sales, the Saturn had a cult following outside of Japan, and the success in Japan meant that 1998 saw some amazing titles released from Sega and third party publishers, even if many of them were Japan exclusive.

Sony PlayStation

Release date: December 3, 1994 (Japan)

Sony entered the world of video game hardware with a bang, coming to market with both a strong offering of product and fierce marketing in an attempt to beat both Sega and Nintendo at their own game. Sony had published games for other consoles in the past, and had been involved in two ill-fated projects to make CD based hardware in conjunction with Nintendo (a console that was never released, but also known internally as the PlayStation).

While the PlayStation was arguably the least powerful console on the market, it had the (very strong) advantage of being the cheapest to buy and easiest to program for. Sony also decided to focus on the emerging world of 3D video games, whereas Sega had still initially planned to focus on 2D games and Nintendo wouldn’t be ready to release their own 3D monster of a console until relatively late. These factors, coupled with Sony’s efforts to build strong relationships with third-party developers meant the console had by far the most support from external publishers and had the biggest library of games.

While the console initially was behind the Sega Saturn’s sales in Japan, it found great success out of the gates in the West. After a fiery E3 presentation in 1995, where they announced their price would be $299 at launch (undercutting the Sega Saturn by $100), the console launched in the USA later that year with a whopping seventeen games available at launch.

When comparing lifetime sales, the Sony PlayStation outsold the Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 combined. Sony had arrived in the video game market and remained a major force for many years. In 1998, the console saw some amazing releases that would establish the console and brand for decades to come.

Nintendo 64

Release date: June 26, 1996 (Japan)

Good things come to those who wait, and the audience indeed had to wait for the Nintendo 64. Launching a full year and a half after the Sega Saturn, the Nintendo 64 initially launched in Japan in June, with a release in the USA a few months later in September 1996. If you were European or Australian however, the wait was an excruciating one, with the console not launching until March of 1997!

But wait we did, and we were rewarded with a powerhouse of a machine capable of some of the best 3D effects of any console of the time. The console launched in Japan with only three games, Super Mario 64, Pilotwings 64 and Saikyō Habu Shōgi.

The Nintendo 64 was nothing if not unique, being the only one of the ‘big three’ consoles that still used cartridges instead of using CDs to store and distribute games. This came with its own unique set of challenges, as CDs could hold enormous amounts of data compared to a typical N64 cartridge. This led to some creative solutions and technical wizardry to accommodate larger video games, but also meant that the Nintendo 64 often missed out on ports of games designed with CD in mind. Likewise, the Nintendo 64 featured four controller ports instead of the standard two found in the Saturn and PlayStation. Not only this, but the controller for the Nintendo 64 to this day is instantly recognisable and somewhat bizarre. Featuring three prongs like a trident, it allowed for multiple ‘grips’ that would suit different styles of game better (a grip created for 2D games as opposed to a grip created with 3D games in mind, for example).

The console experienced moderate success in the West, but Nintendo failed to recapture the market in Japan where they had been so dominant with their Famicom (NES) and Super Famicom (SNES).

By 1998, Nintendo had already been through a ‘games droughts’ since launch, and were hoping that the release schedule would start to look greener. While they didn’t match the very high number of releases for PlayStation, Nintendo and third party developers had definitely started to get to grips with the hardware and were ready to shock the world with what the console was capable of.

Nintendo Game Boy Color

Release date: October 21, 1998 (Japan)

When the original Game Boy released in 1989, it was a phenomenon the gaming world rarely sees. A console so successful that it wouldn’t see a successor until nine years after it launched, an eternity in the world of video game hardware. By 1998, the console had sold over 64 million units worldwide.

How does a company follow up on that kind of success? The Game Boy was able to out-sell its competition (the Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx) by having far superior battery life and a lower price tag, but this came at the expense of something. The Game Boy, unlike its competition, was a purely black and white display. As you might have deduced from the name, the Game Boy Color would rectify this, while keeping the same attractive price tag and long lasting battery life as its predecessor. It was also backwards compatible with the original Game Boy library, allowing gamers to play their old games and new adopters to instantly have access to a massive catalogue of existing titles.

While the Game Boy Color wouldn’t live up to the staggering success of the original’s hardware unit sales (a feat that only the Sony PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS would ever be able to surpass at time of writing), the handheld was a new frontier for portable games, with many notable releases of its own, and breathing new life into the existing Game Boy library.

Neo Geo Pocket

Release date: October 28, 1998 (Japan)

Going up against the Game Boy, the obscenely popular Nintendo handheld console that dominated the 90s, is no small task. Sega had tried and failed to topple Nintendo’s giant with their Game Gear, and Atari’s Lynx also failed to be a game changer. SNK decided to throw their hat into the ring in 1998 with the black and white screened Neo Geo Pocket. The Game Boy featured a monochrome screen, but managed to succeed against the full colour displays of the Game Gear and Lynx. Perhaps SNK thought that going black and white only would be the key to success, allowing for longer battery life and cheaper overheads to manufacture? The plan might have worked, if not for the fact that Nintendo released their new Game Boy Color just one week prior to the launch of the Neo Geo Pocket…

As such, the Neo Geo Pocket had a very short lived lifespan, being discontinued the following year in 1999. It would be replaced by the Neo Geo Pocket Color, which unsurprisingly, added a colour screen. Despite the short lifespan of the Neo Geo Pocket, it managed to receive ten games. The games were quality enough to warrant inclusion on any gamers list of games to watch out for in 1998 with many being excellent take-down versions of SNK’s popular arcade titles. More than most consoles on this list, here is one where quality is definitely more important than quantity.

Windows ‘98

Release date: June 25, 1998 (North America)

Okay, so this isn’t a hardware release, nor is it really a gaming platform, but this serves some representation for the vibrant world of PC gaming in the late nineties, and was an important release in its own right.

Microsoft Windows has been one of, if not the most, popular operating system for PC since its introduction in 1985 when it replaced the MS DOS system. Like the MS DOS system, the various iterations of Windows were a favourite platform for PC gaming and hosted a variety of highly acclaimed and commercially successful titles over the decades. With an install base of 15 million within one year of release, Windows ‘98 would become a hugely popular platform for gaming too. Most of the games released in 1998 would be compatible with multiple versions of Windows, but for many, Windows ‘98 would be the platform that is fondly remembered for the games of this era.

It’s worth remembering also that PC gaming in 1998 was very different to what PC gaming would become over the next twenty years. While now the vast majority of console games are available on PC and vica versa (and indeed many games are now developed for both PC and console simultaneously, largely in part to the similar nature of console and PC hardware), in 1998 PC games and console games had a distinct flavour unique to one another. While some of this was due to the control schemes, don’t forget that control pads were very rare to find on PC at this time. There was also a divide in the types of genres you’d find on PC or console. It was rare to find many platformers or arcade ports on PC for example, and likewise it wasn’t often you’d see a real-time strategy or isometric role-playing game on consoles. First Person Shooters? You basically needed a PC. Racing games? You wanted a console.

PC was also the platform of choice for sheer power, with graphics cards having come into their own, and allowing some polygon pushing power the likes of which hadn’t previously been possible in the home hardware world. In 1998 3dfx (a now defunct tech company) was leading the charge with both the Voodoo 2 and Banshee chipsets, pushing the capabilities of consumer PCs to new heights.

The year of 1998 saw a number of big releases for Windows PC gamers, providing unique gaming experiences from their console brethren

Sega Dreamcast

Release date: November 27, 1998 (Japan)

Sega may have suffered some painful results with their Sega Saturn, but they had one last piece of hardware left in them; the Dreamcast and would be released into an unwitting world in 1998. It just squeezed in, with only Japan being fortunate enough to see the Dreamcast in this year, with the rest of the world having to try and either import or wait until 1999 to experience this fantastic piece of machinery.

The Sega Dreamcast was the most powerful console in the world when it launched, sporting a 128 bit processor (compared to the 32 bit PlayStation, dual 32 bit Sega Saturn and 64 bit Nintendo 64). It left the competition in the proverbial dust. Not only was it a beast in terms of graphical capabilities, but had a number of innovations such as a visual memory card that not only saved your progress, but could double as a second screen when plugged into the controller. It could even be used as a rudimentary handheld device on its own, with games available to play on the go! While the Dreamcast wasn’t the first online-enabled console (consoles had some kind of online functionality for many years prior, even the Atari 2600 could connect to the internet with the use of GameLine, if we want to be pedantic), the Dreamcast was the console that really pushed online play and additional downloadable content in the world of consoles. It also allowed users to use the console to browse the internet!

Adopting some design cues from their own ‘3D Controller’ for the Sega Saturn, the Dreamcast controller was a curious one compared to the traditional looking Sega Saturn pad. It had a now-standard analogue stick on the left, but also introduced analogue triggers, allowing varying degrees of pressure to be applied. Perfect for genres such as racing games where you could apply a gentle touch to the brakes or vary your acceleration by varying the pressure on the triggers.

The Dreamcast would continue Sega’s legacy of bringing home their smash arcade hits, becoming home to many of the era’s top arcade titles. Indeed, the console was almost identical to Sega’s popular Naomi arcade board, meaning that porting those games was a relative breeze. Not only that, but the console would be home to a many number of original titles, with some truly bizarre, beautiful and thrilling games, sequels and original titles alike.

The console may have only launched at the tail end of 1998, but kicked down the door to the future, bringing gamers the first taste of what gaming would be like in the next millennium.