History of video games (Sixth generation era)
Categories: History of computer and video games
| History of… |
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| Computer and video games |
| Console games |
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Video game crash of 1983 |
| Arcade games |
The sixth-generation era refers to the current crop of computer and video games, video game consoles, and video game handhelds. Prominent platforms of the sixth generation are the Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2, and Microsoft Xbox.
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Growth of handelds
During the sixth generation era, the handheld market had a sudden explosion with the introduction of a number of new handheld devices from many different manufacturers. Nonetheless, Nintendo maintained their large market share of the handheld market with the release in 2001 of the highly upgraded Game Boy called the Game Boy Advance. Two redesigns of this system followed. The first, the Game Boy Advance SP in 2003 and the second, the Game Boy Micro in 2005. Also introduced was the Neo Geo Pocket Color in 1998 and Bandai's WonderSwan Color launched in Japan in 1999.
A major new addition to the market was the introduction of features not exclusive to the video game industry. Everything from cell phones, MP3 players, portable movie players, to Palm Pilot-like features. The first of these was Nokia's N-Gage, which was released in 2003 and doubled primarily as a mobile phone. It subsequently went through a redesign in 2004 and was renamed the N-Gage QD. A second handheld, the Zodiac from Tapwave was released in 2004 and was based on the PalmOS; it added numerous features typically found in PDAs.
With more and more PDAs arriving last generation, the difference between consumer electronics and traditional simplified and cheap console technology grew. Multi-task PDA's are said to be the Computers of handheld gaming because of their multi-purpose capabilities and dominant computer hardware. New console technology was reinstituted when Nintendo DS hit the market by introducing portable "32-bit era" last generation console technology as an affordable item for the consumer. As of last generation, the video-game market had only rendered "16-bit era" graphics to target the gamer as opposed to the business man. PDA's and Palm Pilots were ahead of the market in sheer graphical power but lacked affordable and new software franchises to back their hardware up.
With more and more handhelds arriving towards the end of this generation, it gets harder to locate exactly where the sixth generation ends and where the new seventh generation begins. It is believed that the seventh generation began in late 2004 with the introduction of Nintendo's Nintendo DS and Sony's PlayStation Portable.
Controversies
- Main article: Video game controversy
The sixth generation era is the most controversial in the history of video games. It features criticisms of "objectionable" content such as sex, crime, violence, profanity, and drug use as well as topics of debate such as religion, politics, feminism, and economics. It should be noted, however, that much of the criticism of video games on these grounds comes from people who grew up without video games, and such controversies are hardly unique to the sixth generation, and go back at least as far as 1994 with Mortal Kombat and Night Trap. The earliest occurrence of such public outcry was in 1976 with the arcade game Death Race.
The sixth generation also began just prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, which had a huge impact on the entertainment industry as well as the video game industry forcing many games to be toned down. Most notably Metal Gear Solid 2, which prior to its release depicted the destruction of the Statue of Liberty and a good portion of Manhattan.
Emu and Retro gaming
- Main article: Console emulator
Due to the increase usage of emulators and the increasing ease of finding ROM images of previous video game consoles. Most notably the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Master System and the Sega Genesis, the sixth generation of consoles coincided with the rise of emulations.
It is also a time when an increasing number of retro games are being enhanced or redistributed on newer systems. Enhanced remakes occur mostly on consoles, while redistributions occur mostly on handhelds. While the enhanced remake idea was actually devised during the 16-bit era with Nintendo's Super Mario All-Stars, it was popularized during this era. Examples of the redistribution idea include Nintendo's introduction of a line of "classic" NES and SNES games for their Game Boy Advance handheld. Examples of the enhancement idea include Wild ARMs: Alter Code F, Square Enix's Final Fantasy Origins, and Nintendo's Metroid: Zero Mission. Also an increasing number of third-party developers releasing anthology collection games such as Midway Games, Capcom, Namco, Atari, and Sega, even though Atari and Sega both released new, enhanced versions of their retro titles. Additionally, this is also a time when certain video games or video game series that were originally confined to Japan came to North America and Europe.
Number of bits no longer significant
Bit ratings for consoles largely fell by the wayside after the 32-bit era. The number of "bits" cited in console names referred to the CPU word size, but there was little to be gained from increasing the word size much beyond 32-bits; performance depended on other factors, such as processor speed, graphics processor speed, bandwidth and memory size.
The Sega Dreamcast, known as the first of the "128-bit" consoles, has a 64-bit CPU, GPU, and data bus although the geometry sub-processor GPU can perform internal math on 128-bit words. One of the PlayStation 2's many processors is known as the "128-bit Emotion Engine" but has a 64-bit core; the graphics synthesizer has a 2560-bit DRAM bus. Finally, the Microsoft Xbox uses a 32-bit CPU and 256-bit GPU, a configuration that is becoming standard in many desktop computers. The importance of "bitness" in the modern console gaming market has thus decreased due to the use of components that process data in varying word sizes.
Video game systems
Video game consoles
Video game consoles released during the sixth generation era include:
 Sega Dreamcast |
 Sony PlayStation 2 |
 Nintendo GameCube |
 Microsoft Xbox |
Note: First year of release is the first year of the system's availability in the world.
Video game handhelds
Video game handhelds released during the sixth generation era include:
Neo Geo Pocket Color |
Bandai WonderSwan Color |
 Nintendo Game Boy Advance |
 Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP |
Nokia N-Gage |
 Nokia N-Gage QD |
Game Boy Micro |
Note: First year of release is the first year of the system's availability in the world.
Video game franchises established
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Milestone titles
- Halo is the reason for the successful launch of the XBox in the US. A culture phenomeon amongst college students.
- Grand Theft Auto III brought violence and other "objectionable" content in video games back into the mainstream spotlight, thus reviving the video game controversy. It remains the highest selling franchise in the US for the past 10 years. It signalled the prominence of mature gamers in today's market.
- Super Smash Bros Melee became one of Nintendo's greatest titles, featuring a trophy mode in which players had access to information on Nintendo's most memorable franchises from it's long video game history.
See also
| Major video game consoles |
| The first home video games |
|---|
| Magnavox Odyssey | Coleco Telstar | Pong |
| Pre-crash 8-bit systems |
| Atari 2600 | Magnavox Odyssey² | SG-1000 | Intellivision | Colecovision | 5200 |
| 8-bit era |
| NES | Master System | 7800 |
| 16-bit era |
| SNES | Mega Drive/Genesis | TG16 | Jaguar |
| 32-bit / 64-bit era |
| Nintendo 64 | PlayStation | Saturn |
| Sixth generation era |
| Dreamcast | GameCube | PS2 | Xbox |
| Seventh generation era |
| PlayStation 3 | Revolution | Xbox 360 |