Home About us Products Services Contact us Bookmark
:: wikimiki.org ::
Jurassic Park (video Game)

Jurassic Park (video game)

Ever since the announcement of the 1993 Jurassic Park feature film, based on the critically acclaimed novel by Michael Crichton, developer Ocean Software, BlueSky Software and Sega of America were outsourced to produce games to be sold to coincide with the release of the film on the popular platforms of the time.

Jurassic Park - 1993

Ocean

As the film was released, Ocean released three very distinct Jurassic Park games optimised for the different platforms. Jurassic Park released for the NES and Game Boy were isometric action adventure titles, with various goals that loosely follow the plot of the film. Notably several levels were absent on the Game Boy version. Another variation was the SNES version of Jurassic Park, which incorporated isometric game play but heavily relied on traversing interior environments through a first person perspective as if looking through a pair of night vision goggles (that features in the film). Lastly a version of Jurassic Park was released for PC:DOS and Amiga, that incorporated some isometric and first-person shooter gameplay, with notably improved resolution and artwork than the console versions.

Sega

Two very different games appeared on the Sega platforms; On the Sega Genesis, Game Gear and Sega Master System a side scrolling platformer action game titled Jurassic Park was developed by BlueSky Software. Interestingly this game can be played in two modes, either as Dr. Alan Grant or as a velociraptor. Playing as each provides the user with an alternative story and level design. Notably the Sega Genesis version, due to being a more recent platform, had much higher detail and sophistication. A sequel was released using a new game engine and new artwork, (with some of the original art as well) entitled Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition. In it, Grant's helicopter (that he just escaped on in the first game) crashes. Now he must deal not only with dinosaurs, but InGen as well. A new raptor must also make it off the island as well. A very distinctly different game was also released for the Sega CD developed by Sega of America that was a point-and-click adventure game, with a strong emphasis on action sequences which require split-second timing. The game involved collecting dinosaur eggs around the park itself within a real time 12 hour time limit, much like Prince of Persia. It was played from a first-person perspective, giving the player a panoramic view of his surroundings as well as various tools to interact with it, and a trio of weapons to contend with whatever dinosaurs came into his path. Because none of the weapons (a stun gun, tranquilizer darts, and gas grenades) were lethal, each situation was in the form of a puzzle disguised as combat which required more than just shooting to survive. Sega also released a rail shooter in arcades under the name Jurassic Park which featured arcade style missions that involved protecting your vehicle by shooting any targets that appeared on screen, much in the style of Operation Wolf.

Continued success - 1994

With the film being released on VHS and the high level of success achieved by both the film and the video games, a second generation of games was ordered, limited to only the two most popular platforms of the last generation. A separately designed arcade game was also released that was originally going to coincide with the films release, but was pushed back until 1994, with Sega; the developer citing time constraints as the cause of delay. Ocean developed a simpler action side scrolling platform game titled Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues based on an original sequel story to the feature film. The game appeared on the SNES and the Game Boy. The story takes place one year after the events of the film and you play as a team sent in to eliminate the dinosaurs and their nests using a selection of weapons and items. Sega released an arcade game titled Jurassic Park like the previous generation of games, where players would be taken on an automatic tour of the park in the Jurassic Park tour cars (as featured in the films). The player equipped with a light gun must protect the vehicle from dinosaurs that appear onscreen. The game blends three dimensional polygons and two dimensional sprites to give the sense of movement. This was the first game of this genre to include 3D environments which paved the way for later Sega titles like Virtua Cop that included totally 3D environments. The game ran on the Sega System 32 hardware.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park - 1997

To coincide with The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the second film in the series the movie studio DreamWorks' utilised its internal software company, DreamWorks Interactive to create their own game. They released The Lost World: Jurassic Park, a side scrolling platformer, but portrayed in a totally 3D rendered environment for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn by Electronic Arts. The game featured five playable characters through many linear paths facing over 20 different dinosaurs. A sprite based version was ported to the Game Boy Color by Torus Games. Due to the large amount of animation each dinosaur possessed, controls were inprecise and made jumping and attacking difficult. This version, coupled with player feedback that not enough levels featured the Tyrannosaurus Rex, made EA go back and release a budget-priced special edition of The Lost World for the PlayStation that better balanced, but didn't completely eliminate the previous flaws. Another version was developed by Appaloosa Interactive and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis. A version developed by Tiger Electronics was released on their short lived handheld game console, Game.com. Also released was Chaos Island: The Lost World Jurassic Park, a Command and Conquer style strategy game for the PC. An arcade game also titled The Lost World: Jurassic Park was released. In 1998 a PC first person shooter game name Jurassic Park: Trespasser was released billed a sequel to the movie the Lost World. The game was highly ambitious and featured one of the first large scale physics engines in an action game. As a consequence many players felt the game was clunky and awkward to play, and the game did not fare well critically.

Jurassic Park III - 2001

To coincide with the third film in the series, Jurassic Park III, which was the first to be not based on a Michael Crichton novel and not be directed by Steven Spielberg had a number of software related merchandise for the PC, Arcade and Game Boy Advance released. A side scrolling platformer primarily aimed at a younger audience was released titled, Jurassic Park 3: Dino Defender developed and published by Vivendi Universal Games which was released for PC. The game possessed noticeably brighter graphics and a lighter atmosphere than the previous platformers in the series. A light gun game for arcades was released under the name Jurassic Park III. A number of games for Game Boy Advance were also released;
- Jurassic Park III: Island Attack was developed by Mobile 21, published by Konami Corporation and released prior to the films first screening. The game was an isometric action adventure game, where you play Dr. Alan Grant trying to escape the island by reaching the rescue boat on the other side by means of traversing the 8 different game environments. The game allows the player to choose to run from many of your encounters, or collect and use items to destroy them.
- Jurassic Park III: The DNA Factor was released on the 30 July to coincide with the release of Jurassic Park III. It was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Hawaii and was a side scrolling platformer with many puzzle solving elements. The game allows you to choose from a professional photographer or pilot to search the island for DNA of dinosaurs featured in the entire Jurassic Park series. Each level involves fighting dinosaurs while searching for all the DNA to open the exit. Then, using that DNA collected you must correctly create different species of dinosaurs, which becomes increasingly complex as the game progresses.
- Jurassic Park III: Park Builder was released on the 30 September by Konami Computer Entertainment. The game operated like many Sim or God games, such as Sim City and Theme Park where the user views the game from an omnipotent perspective tailoring an virtual amusement park, that includes building rides, shops, food outlets, dino facilities and more.

Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis - 2003

In March 2003, Vivendi Universal Games released a game developed by Australian company Blue Tongue Entertainment very much similar to the 2001, Game Boy game Jurassic Park III: Park Builder. The game titled Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis allows the user to recreate their own Jurassic Park featuring 25 dinosaurs and a multitude of rides, shops and other attractions. The game was released on Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PC.

External link


- [http://www.mobygames.com/game_group/sheet/gameGroupId,553/ Jurassic Park Licensees] at MobyGames Category:1993 computer and video games Category:Jurassic Park games Category:Computer and video game franchises Category:NES games Category:Super NES games Category:Game Boy games Category:Sega CD games Category:Sega Genesis games Category:Game Gear games Category:Sega Master System games Category:DOS games

1993

1993 (MCMXCIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003).

Events

January

Wikipedia:Categorization#Year categories.]]
- January 1 - Czechoslovakia divides. Establishment of independent Slovakia and Czech Republic.
- January 3 - In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
- January 5 - Washington State executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965)
- January 9 – Jean-Claude Romand kills his family and tries to burn himself with his home in France
- January 11 - First edition of WWF Monday Night RAW appears on the USA Network
- January 15 - Salvatore Riina, the Mafia boss known as 'The Beast', is arrested in Sicily after three-decades as a fugitive
- January 18 - For the first time, Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is officially observed in all 50 American states.
- January 19
  - IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992 which is the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history
  - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM inspectors to use its own aircraft to fly into Iraq, and begins military operations in the demilitarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait, and the northern No-Fly Zone. US forces fire approximately 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Baghdad factories linked to Iraq's illegal nuclear weapons program. Iraq then informs UNSCOM that it will be able to resume its flights
- January 20 - Bill Clinton succeeds George H. W. Bush as President of the United States of America
- January 25
  - Catherine Callbeck becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, becoming the first female Premier to be elected in Canada. (Rita Johnston was Canada's first female Premier but was not elected)
  - Mir Aimal Kasi fires a rifle and kills two employees outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, USA
- January 26 - Václav Havel elected President of the Czech Republic

February


- February 8 - General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigged two crashes showing that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the following day.
- February 11
  - Janet Reno is selected by President Clinton as US Attorney General.
- February 12 - 11-year-old boys Robert Thompson and John Venables kill 2-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool.
- February 17 - Ferry in Haiti sinks - 285 survivors of maybe 1500 passengers
- February 23 - Gary Coleman wins a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.
- February 26 - World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center goes off, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand.
- February 28 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest cult leader David Koresh on federal firearms violations. Four agents and five Davidians die in the raid and a 51-day standoff begins.

March


- March - First issue of Wired magazine.
- March 4 - Authorities announce the capture of suspected World Trade Center bombing conspirator Mohammad Salameh
- March 9 - Rodney King testifies at the federal trial of four Los Angeles, California police officers accused of violating King's civil rights when they beat him during an arrest
- March 11 - Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn-in the next day becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States
- March 12 - Several bombs explode in Bombay, India killing about 300 and injuring hundreds more. See Bombay bombings (1993)
- March 12 - North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea says that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites
- March 13 - The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Québec
- March 16 - The blizzard is reported to have killed 184, including many surprised and stranded people along the Appalachian Trail
- March 20 - Warrington bomb attacks: IRA bomb explodes in Warrington Town Centre and kills two children, Johnathan Ball and Tim Parry
- March 27 - Jiang Zemin becomes President of the People's Republic of China.
- March 28 - Gaullists win legislative election in France and Édouard Balladur becomes prime minister of France.
- March 31 - A bug in a program written by Richard Depew sends an article to 200 newsgroups simultaneously. The term spamming is coined by Joel Furr to describe the incident.

April


- April - The Kuwaiti government claims to uncover an Iraqi assassination plot against former US President George H. W. Bush shortly after his visit to Kuwait. Two Iraqi nationals, caught with smuggled hashish and alcohol inside Kuwait, confess to driving a car-bomb into Kuwait on behalf of the Iraq Secret Service [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/content/?020930fr_archive02]
- April 6 - Russian nuclear accident at Tomsk 7
- April 6 - HMS Richmond launched for the Royal Navy
- April 7 - Attack submarine ex-Queenfish completes being recycled
- April 10 -ANC activist Chris Hani assassinated in South Africa
- April 22 - In Washington, DC, the Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated
- April 22 - Murder of Stephen Lawrence, London, UK
- April 23 - WHO declares tuberculosis a Global Emergency
- April 24 - Bishopsgate Bomb explodes in the City of London - 1 dead, 50 injured
- April 30 - The World Wide Web was born at CERN

May


- May 1 - Former prime minister of France Pierre Bérégovoy commits suicide
- May 1 - A Tamil Tigers suicide bomber assassinates President Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka
- May 24 - Eritrean independence
- May 27 - A car bomb in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence - 5 dead - Mafia suspected

June


- June 6 - Mongolia holds its first direct presidential elections
- June 8 - Assassination of Rene Bousquet, the Vichy France police chief, at his Paris home
- June 9 – Los Angeles Police Department raids the home of Hollywood Madame Heidi Fleiss
- June 9 - Montreal Canadiens win their 24th Stanley Cup
- June 14? - Tansu Ciller becomes prime minister of Turkey
- June 18 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM weapons inspectors to install remote-controlled monitoring cameras at two missile engine test stands.
- June 22 - Japan's New Party Sakigake breaks away from the Liberal Democratic Party.
- June 23 - Lorena Bobbitt cuts off the penis of her husband John Wayne Bobbitt.
- July 23 - Candelaria massacre - police shoot number of street kids in Candelaria Church in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- June 8 - In Paris, Christian Didier breaks into the home of Rene Bousquet, banker and former Vichy France administrator and shoots him dead
- June 22 - Unabomber bomb injures Charles Epstein in Tiburon, California
- June 24 - Unabomber bomb injures computer scientist David Gelernter in Yale University
- June 25 - Kim Campbell becomes Canada's nineteenth and first female Prime Minister
- June 27 - US President Bill Clinton orders a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in the Al-Mansur District, Baghdad, in response to the attempted assassination of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush during his visit to Kuwait in mid-April
- June 27 - In Bad Kleinen, Germany, GSG-9 troopers arrest terrorists Birgit Hogefeld and Wolfgang Grams

July


- July 1 - Gian Luigi Ferry shoots 8 and injures 6 in "Pettit and Martin" law firm in San Francisco, then shoots himself
- July 5 - Iraq disarmament crisis: UN inspection teams leave Iraq. Iraq then agrees to UNSCOM demands and the inspection teams return
- July 12 - A magnitude 7.8 earthquake off Hokkaido, Japan launches a devastating tsunami, killing 202 on the small island of Okushiri, Hokkaido
- July 20 - White House deputy counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr commits suicide in Virginia
- July 23 - Candelaria Massacre ? Brazilian police officers kill 8 street kids in Rio de Janeiro
- July 29 - The Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.
- July 31 - Windows NT 3.1 has been released with the support of NTFS file system.

August


- August 4 - A federal judge sentences LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights
- August 6 - Louis Freeh is confirmed by the United States Senate to be the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
- August 9 - King Albert II of Belgium is sworn into office nine days after the death of his brother, King Baudouin
- August 21 - NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Observer orbiter three days before the spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit around Mars

September

Mars and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, with US President, Bill Clinton.]]
- September 13 - PLO leader Yasir Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin shake hands in Washington D.C., after signing a peace accord.
- September 13 - Norwegian parliamentary election, 1993
- September 23 - The IOC selects Sydney, Australia to host the 2000 Summer Olympics.
- September 29 - An earthquake centred on Killari, Maharashtra, India kills nearly 10,000 people.

October


- Polly Klaas is kidnapped at knifepoint from her home in Petaluma, California. She was later strangled by Richard Allen Davis
- October 3 - Large scale battle between US forces and local militia in Mogadishu, Somalia
- October 13 - Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.
- October 25 - Jean Chrétien and his Liberal Party defeat the governing Progressive Conservative Party in the Canadian federal election.
- October - Internal Revenue Service of the United States granted full religious recognition and tax exemption to all Scientology Churches, missions and social betterment groups[http://www.religioustolerance.org/scientol1.htm].

November


- November 1 - The Maastricht Treaty activates, formally establishing the European Union
- November 4 - Jean Chrétien becomes Canada's twentieth Prime Minister.
- November 9 - The Stari Most, or Old Bridge of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is destroyed by tank fire in the fights between Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Muslim forces.
- November 18 - In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.
- November 20 - Savings and Loan scandal: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his "dealings" with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating.
- November 24 - In the United Kingdom, 11-year-olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables are convicted of the child murder of 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool (they were sentenced to "indefinite detention")
- November 28 - The Observer reveals a channel of communications has existed between the IRA and the British government, despite the government's persistent denials.
- November 30 - US President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law

December


- December 2 - Shuttle program: STS-61 - NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair an optical flaw in the Hubble Space Telescope.
- December 2 - War on Drugs: Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is gunned down in Medellín when the police try to arrest him
- December 7 - Colin Ferguson opened fire with his Ruger 9mm pistol on a Long Island Railroad train, killing six and injuring 19. The event was dubbed "The Long Island Railroad Massacre."
- December 12 - Earthquake hits Flores, Indonesia - 2200 dead
- December 15 - Downing Street Declaration - United Kingdom commits itself to the search for an answer to the problems of Northern Ireland
- December 30 - Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations

Unknown dates


- The second World Parliament of Religions is held in Chicago, Illinois
- US President Bill Clinton sends 6 American warships to Haiti to enforce United Nations trade sanctions against the military-led regime in that country
- The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers flood large portions of the American Midwest.
- The Late Show with David Letterman premieres on CBS.
- Dominos Pizza Abolishes the 30-minute gaurantee on Pizza Delivery

Births


- March 17 - Julia Winter, Swedish actress
- April 3 - Dakoda Dowd, American golfer
- August 16 - Cameron Monaghan, American actor
- December 6 - Elián González, Cuban refugee
- December 8 - AnnaSophia Robb, American actress

Deaths

February


- February 5 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American writer, producer, and director (b. 1909)
- February 5 - Tip Tipping, American actor and stuntman (parachuting accident) (b. 1958)
- February 6 - Arthur Ashe, American tennis player and activist (b. 1943)
- February 11 - Robert W. Holley, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1922)
- February 18 - Jacqueline Hill, British actress (b. 1929)
- February 20 - Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer (b. 1916)
- February 24 - Bobby Moore, English footballer (b. 1941)
- February 27 - Lillian Gish, American actress (b. 1893)
- February 28 - Ruby Keeler, Canadian actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1910)

March


- March 8 - Billy Eckstine, American musician (b. 1914)
- March 11 - Adolph "Dino Bravo" Bresciano, Italian-born professional wrestler (b. 1949)
- March 17 - Helen Hayes, American actress (b. 1900)
- March 20 - Polykarp Kusch, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- March 24 - John Hersey, American author (b. 1914)
- March 31 - Brandon Lee, American actor (b. 1965)

April


- April 1 - Alan Kulwicki, American race car driver (b. 1954)
- April 3 - Pinky Lee, American children's television host (b. 1907)
- April 8 - Marian Anderson, American contralto (b. 1897)
- April 13 - Wallace Stegner, American writer (car accident) (b. 1909)

May


- May 1 - Pierre Bérégovoy, Prime Minister of France (b. 1925)
- May 8 - Avram Davidson, American writer (b. 1923)
- May 27 - Werner Stocker, German actor (b. 1955)

June


- June 7 - Drazen Petrovic, Croatian basketball player (b. 1964)
- June 9 - Alexis Smith, Canadian actress (b. 1921)
- June 13 - Deke Slayton, astronaut (b. 1924)
- June 15 - John Connally, Governor of Texas (b. 1917)
- June 19 - William Golding, English writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- June 24 - Archie Williams, American athlete (b. 1915)
- June 26 - William H. Riker, American political scientist (b. 1920)
- June 28 - Boris Christoff, Bulgarian opera singer (b. 1914)
- June 29 - Héctor Lavoe, Puerto Rican singer (b. 1946)
- June 30 - George "Spanky" McFarland, American actor (b. 1928)

July


- July 3 - Don Drysdale, baseball player (b. 1936)
- July 13 - Davey Allison, American race car driver (helicopter crash) (b. 1961)
- July 28 - Reggie Lewis, American basketball player (heart ailment) (b. 1965)
- July 31 - King Baudouin I of Belgium (b. 1930)

August


- August 6 - Tex Hughson, baseball player (b. 1916)
- August 10 - Øystein Aarseth, Norwegian musician (Mayhem) (b. 1968)

September


- September 9 - Helen O'Connell, American singer (b. 1920)
- September 11 - Erich Leinsdorf, Austrian conductor (b. 1912)
- September 22 - Maurice Abravanel, Greek-born conductor (b. 1903)
- September 27 - Jimmy Doolittle, American general (b. 1896)

October


- October 11 - Jess Thomas, American tenor (b. 1927)
- October 12 - Tofik Bakhramov, Russian footballer (b. 1926)
- October 25 - Vincent Price, American actor (b. 1911)
- October 31 - Federico Fellini, Italian film director (b. 1911)
- October 31 - River Phoenix, American actor (drug overdose) (b. 1970)

November


- November 1 - Severo Ochoa, Spanish–born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1905)
- November 6 - Michael Vernon, Australian consumer activist (b.1932)
- November 12 - H. R. Haldeman, American Watergate scandal figure (b. 1926)
- November 21 - Bill Bixby, American actor (b. 1934)
- November 22 - Anthony Burgess, English author (b. 1917)

December


- December 1 - Ray Gillen, American singer (b. 1961)
- December 2 - Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord (b. 1940)
- December 4 - Frank Zappa, American guitarist and composer (b. 1949)
- December 7 - Wolfgang Paul, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
- December 13 - Vanessa Duriès, French novelist (b. 1972)
- December 31 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first President of Georgia (b. 1939)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Russell Alan Hulse, Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr.
- Chemistry - Kary Mullis, Michael Smith
- Physiology or Medicine - Richard J. Roberts, Philip Allen Sharp
- Literature - Toni Morrison
- Peace - Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk

Templeton Prize


- Charles Colson

Alternative


- Arna Mer-Khamis / Care and Learning, ORAP (The Organisation of Rural Associations for Progress) / Sithembiso Nyoni, Vandana Shiva, Mary and Carrie Dann
- als:1993 ko:1993년 ms:1993 ja:1993年 simple:1993 th:พ.ศ. 2536

Feature film

.]] A feature film is a term from the film industry uses to refer to a movie made for initial distribution in theaters. The term evolved from the days when the cinema-goer would watch a series of short subjects before the main film. The shorts would typically include newsreels, serials, animated cartoons and live-action comedies and documentaries. These types of short films would lead up to what came to be called the "featured presentation": the film given the most prominent billing and running multiple reels. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Film Institute, and the British Film Institute all define a feature as a film with a running time of forty minutes or longer, although most features today run over ninety minutes. Based on length, the first feature film was the 1906 release The Story of the Kelly Gang. The first European feature was L'Enfant prodigue (1907), although that was basically an unmodified record of a stage play; Europe's first feature adapted for the screen, Les Misérables, came in 1909. The first American feature was Oliver Twist (1912). Earlier features had been produced in America, but were released in separate one-reel parts, leaving the exhibitor the option of running them together. By 1915 over 600 features were produced annually in America. The best year of U.S. feature production was 1921, with 854 releases; the worst was 1963, with 121 releases. Between 1922 and 1970, the U.S. and Japan alternated as leaders in feature production. Since 1971, the country with the highest feature output has been India. The megaplex of the late 20th century and the digital-based production methods have transformed what "feature film" means. The advent of television led to the elimination of the short subjects in favor of trailers and TV-style advertising (though short films are still made for a non-mainstream audience). Today, "feature film" is used mostly to distinguish theatrically-shown films from those made for television or those which go direct-to-video. Category:Film production Category:Films by type

Michael Crichton

Dr. John Michael Crichton (born October 23, 1942, pronounced 'cry-ton' ) is an author, film producer and television producer. His best-known works are science fiction novels, films and television programs. His genre can be best described as techno-thriller which is usually the marriage of action and technical details. Many of his novels have medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting his medical training and science background. Crichton directed the film Coma, adapted from a Robin Cook novel, and there are other similarities in terms of genre and the fact that both Cook and Crichton are physicians, are of similar age and write about similar subjects.

Biography

Michael Crichton was born in Chicago, Illinois to John Henderson Crichton and Zula Miller Crichton and raised in Roslyn, Long Island, USA. He attended Harvard University, where he graduated summa cum laude in anthropology. He went on to teach anthropology at Cambridge in England, later returning to Massachusetts to gain an M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School. Crichton has admitted to once plagiarizing a work by George Orwell and submitting it as his own. The paper was received by his professor with a mark of "B−". Crichton admitted to plagiarizing when he was on the stand in the course of a lawsuit trying to defend the authenticity of Twister, a movie which one individual claimed was based on their story entitled "Catch the Wind". Crichton has stated that the plagiarism was not intended to defraud the school, but rather as an experiment. Crichton believed that the professor in question had been intentionally giving him abnormally low marks, and so as an experiment Crichton informed another professor of his idea and submitted Orwell's paper as his own. While in medical school, he wrote novels under the pen names John Lange and Jeffrey Hudson (under which pseudonym A Case of Need won the 1969 Edgar Award). He also co-authored Dealing with his younger brother Douglas Crichton under a shared pen name Michael Douglas. The back cover of that book contains a picture of Michael and Douglas at a very young age taken by their mother. His two pen names were both created to reflect his above-average height. According to his own words, he was about 206 cm (6' 9") tall in 1997 [http://www.adara-interactive.com/crichton/ow_transcripts2.htm]. "Lange" (adverb) means "for a long time" in German and Sir Jeffrey Hudson was a famous seventeenth century dwarf in Queen Henrietta Maria's court. Crichton has two sisters, Kimberly and Catherine, and a brother, Douglas. He is married to Sherri Alexander and has a daughter, Taylor, with ex-wife Anne-Marie Martin.

Scientific concepts

Crichton has been introducing breakthroughs in science and technologies with his books. Many of the ideas he used were novel to the average person, despite having quite a solid scientific base. Before Jurassic Park, Robert T. Bakker's theory of "warm-blooded" and athlete-type dinosaurs was unimaginable to ordinary people, who were accustomed to seeing stop motion clay dinosaurs crawling sluggishly over the volcanic prehistorical terrains. However, Crichton's version of highly intelligent man-eating dinosaurs was also criticized by scientists: : The scientific scheme is not completely outrageous; unless one looks too closely, ... Although they are dinosaurs ..., they could have been any death-dealing automata ... substitute hostile extraterrestrials, lunatic Nazis, or predatory androids and it would have been the same film with a different title -- Aliens, Raiders of the Lost Ark or Terminator 2: Judgment Day. (Henry Gee, "Jaws with Claws," Nature 363:681, 1993.)

Literary techniques

From time to time, Crichton has recycled a well-known story's structure for his own story. For example: The Andromeda Strain was influenced by H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. However, rather than reusing the early twentieth century plot devices, Crichton introduced the idea of an imaginary microscopic pathogen's evolution of virulence with his own story. Most of his stories tend to be somewhat open-ended, including Jurassic Park, Sphere and Prey. The use of author surrogate has been a feature of Crichton's writings since the beginning of his career. In A Case of Need, one of his pseudonym whodunit stories, Crichton used first-person narrative to portray the hero, a Bostonian pathologist, who is running against the clock to clear a good friend's name from medical malpractice in a girl's death from a hack job abortion. That book was written in 1968, long before Roe v. Wade of 1973, the landmark case that partially legalized abortion in the U.S. It took the hero about 160 pages to find the chief-suspect, an underground abortionist, who was created to be the author surrogate. Then, Crichton gave that character three pages to justify his illegal practice. Some of Crichton's fiction uses a literary technique called false document. For example, Eaters of the Dead is a fabricated recreation of the Old English epic Beowulf in the form of a scholastic translation of Ahmad ibn Fadlan's tenth century manuscript. Other novels, such as The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, incorporate fictionalized scientific documents in the form of diagrams, computer output, DNA sequences, footnotes and bibliography. In The Terminal Man, Crichton created a dialog between two computer programs, good-natured Saint George and evil-minded Martha, variations on ELIZA. In the end, the Charlie Brown–like Saint George shouts "GO TO HELL I WILL KILL YOU:::::::::::::: ..." at the provocative Martha, foreshadowing a killing spree conducted by the ill-fated hero, a nice person implanted with an experimental computerized device to control his epilepsy. Some novels, such as Jurassic Park, create a paradox within the plot. Crichton sets up a story in which something is implied to be impossible through technological means, but it is then contradicted. In Jurassic Park a theme park is created with every security measure taken. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician in the novel, says that the dinosaurs will escape. Later in the novel this happens in part, although the dinosaurs have not really escaped, they have reproduced and live beyond the designated areas. Sphere contains a similar dialog, in which a panicked scientist in an underwater lab tries to talk the omnipotent but innocent "extraterrestrial life" out of manifesting beautiful aquatic creatures that are harmful to human beings. A common criticism of Crichton's novels is that they are generally based on the conceit of a "false revolution": while the novels describe potentially world-changing concepts such as alien plagues, cloned dinosaurs, and time travel, the books always end with the threat destroyed or the scientific breakthrough lost. In other words, the events described in the novels might as well never have happened in the context of their fictional universes. This allows Crichton to avoid having to describe how, for example, time travel or cloning of extinct animals would change society.

Non-fiction

Apart from fiction, Crichton has written several other books based on scientific themes, amongst which is Travels, which also contains autobiographical episodes. As a personal friend to the "Neo-Dadaist" artist Jasper Johns, Crichton compiled many of his works in a coffee table tome also named Jasper Johns. That book has been updated once. Crichton is also the author of Electronic Life, a book that introduces BASIC programming to its readers. In his words, being able to program a computer is liberation: : In my experience, you assert control over a computer -- show it who's the boss -- by making it do something unique. That means programming it. ... [I]f you devote a couple of hours to programming a new machine, you'll feel better about it ever afterward. (p. 44) To prove his point, Crichton included many self-written demonstrative Applesoft (for Apple II)) and BASICA (for IBM PC compatibles) programs in that book. Crichton once considered updating it, but the project seemed to be cancelled. His non-fiction works are:
- 1970 Five Patients
- 1977 Jasper Johns
- 1983 Electronic Life
- 1988 Travels

Movies and television

Crichton has directed several motion pictures:
- 1972 Pursuit (a TV movie)
- 1973 Westworld
- 1978 Coma
- 1979 The Great Train Robbery
- 1981 Looker
- 1984 Runaway (movie)
- 1989 Physical Evidence Westworld was the first feature film that used 2D computer-generated imagery (CGI) and the first use of 3D CGI was in its sequel, Futureworld (1976), which featured a computer-generated hand and face created by then University of Utah graduate students Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke. Many of his novels have been filmed by others:
- 1971 The Andromeda Strain
- 1972 Dealing
- 1972 The Carey Treatment (A Case of Need)
- 1972 The Terminal Man
- 1979 The Great Train Robbery
- 1993 Rising Sun
- 1993 Jurassic Park
- 1994 Disclosure
- 1995 Congo
- 1997 The Lost World: Jurassic Park
- 1998 Sphere
- 1999 The 13th Warrior (Eaters of the Dead)
- 2003 Timeline
- 200? Prey
- 2004 State of Fear He has written the screenplay for the movies Extreme Close Up (1973) and Twister 1996 (the latter co-written with Anne-Marie Martin, his wife at the time). Crichton is also the creator and executive producer of the television drama ER. In December of 1994, he achieved the unique distinction of having the #1 movie (Disclosure), the #1 TV show (ER), and the #1 book (Disclosure, atop the paperback list).

Awards


- Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allen Poe Award, 1969 (A Case of Need) – as Jeffrey Hudson
- Association of American Medical Writers Award, 1970 (Five Patients)
- Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allen Poe Award, 1980 (The Great Train Robbery)

Speeches

"Aliens Cause Global Warming"

In 2003 he gave a controversial lecture at Caltech entitled "Aliens Cause Global Warming" [http://www.sepp.org/NewSEPP/GW-Aliens-Crichton.html] in which he expressed his views of the dangers of consensus science and junk science—especially with regard to popular but disputed theories such as nuclear winter, the dangers of second-hand smoke and the global warming controversy. Crichton has been critical of widespread belief of ETs and UFOs, citing the fact that there is no conclusive proof of their existence. Crichton has commented that belief without a factual basis is more akin to faith. Faith alone is not a proper foundation for scientific belief.

Environmentalism as a religion

In a related and equally controversial speech given to the Commonwealth Club, called "Environmentalism as a religion" [http://cdfe.org/religion.htm], Crichton describes what he sees as similarities between the structure of various religious views (particularly Judeo-Christian dogma) and the beliefs of many modern urban atheists who he asserts have romantic ideas about Nature and our past, who he thinks believe in the initial "paradise", the human "sins", and the "judgement day". He also articulates his belief that it is the tendency of modern environmentalists to cling stubbornly to elements of their faith in spite of scientific evidence to the contrary. Crichton cites what he contends are misconceptions about DDT, second-hand smoke and global warming as examples (however these examples are heavily disputed in the scientific community).

Widespread speculation in the media

In a speech entitled "Why Speculate?" [http://www.crichton-official.com/speeches/speeches_quote03.html], delivered in 2002 to the International Leadership Forum, Crichton took the media to task for engaging in what he saw as pointless speculation rather than the delivery of facts. As an example, he pointed to a front-page article of the March 6 New York Times that speculated about the possible effects of U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to impose tariffs on imported steel. Crichton also singled out Susan Faludi's book Backlash for criticism, saying that it "presented hundreds of pages of quasi-statistical assertions based on a premise that was never demonstrated and that was almost certainly false". He referred to what he calls the "Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect" to describe the public's tendency to discount one story in a newspaper they may know to be false because of their knowledge of the subject, but believe the same paper on subjects with which they are unfamiliar. Crichton used the Latin expression "falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus", which he translated as "untruthful in one part, untruthful in all", to describe what he thought a more appropriate reaction should be. The speech also made several references to Crichton's by-now-familiar skepticism of environmentalists' assertions about the possible future ramifications of human activity on Earth's environment.

Criticism

Many of Crichton's publically-expressed views, particularly on subjects like the global warming controversy, have caused heated debate. As pointed out in Dr. Jeffrey M. Masters' review of the book,
[F]lawed or misleading presentations of Global Warming science exist in the book, including those on Arctic sea ice thinning, correction of land-based temperature measurements for the urban heat island effect, and satellite vs. ground-based measurements of Earth's warming. I will spare the reader additional details. On the positive side, Crichton does emphasize the little-appreciated fact that while most of the world has been warming the past few decades, most of Antarctica has seen a cooling trend. The Antarctic ice sheet is actually expected in increase in mass over the next 100 years due to increased precipitation, according to the IPCC (although recent findings by NASA call this result into question). Additionally, Crichton correctly points out that there has been no rise in hurricane activity in the Atlantic over the past few decades (a point unchanged by the record four hurricanes that struck Florida in 2004).

- [http://www.wunderground.com/education/stateoffear.asp# Dr. Jeffrey M. Masters – Chief Meteorologist, The Weather Underground]
- [http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/murray200412210839.asp Iain Murray – senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute] In September 2005 Crichton testified at a Congressional hearing on climate change, having been called by Senator James Inhofe.[http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1580590,00.html]

References


- Elizabeth A. Trembley, 1996, Michael Crichton: A Critical Companion, Greenwood Press, ISBN 031329414.

Notes

# - Crichton, Michael (2005). [http://michaelcrichton.com/foryoungerreaders/index.html "For Younger Readers"]. Retrieved Dec. 11, 2005.

External links


- [http://www.michaelcrichton.com/ Michael Crichton's Official Homepage]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/fivelive_aod.shtml?5L_michaelcrichton Recorded BBC Five Live interview with Michael Crichton]
- [http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/news/2004/story12-13-04b.html Earth Institute News, Columbia.edu Criticism of the science of State of Fear]
- [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000341/ Michael Crichton at IMDB]
- [http://snarkfest.9.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=712 Discuss Michael Crichton] Crichton, Michael Crichton, Michael Crichton, Michael Crichton, Michael Crichton, Michael Crichton, Michael ja: ko:

BlueSky Software

BlueSky Software or BlueSky Software Corporation is an American software company situated in California formed in 1988 and had a successful run for 12 years before closing down in March of 2001, when parent company Interplay was in financial trouble. The BlueSky trademark is still owned by Titus Software.

Games list

Atari 7800


- Basket Brawl (1990)
- Klax (1992/2002)
- Mat Mania (1990)
- Mean 18 (1989)
- Motor Psycho (1990)
- Ninja Golf (1990)
- Scrap Yard Dog (1990)
- Xenophobe (1989) Klax was canceled in 1992 when it was nearly completed. It existed only as a few prototype ROM boards until ResQsoft released it in 2002.

Atari XE


- Mat Mania (1989)
- Xenophobe (1989)

Atari Lynx


- Cyberball 2072 (1991)
- NFL Football (1992)
- Ninja Gaiden (1990)

Amiga


- Hare Raising Havoc (Disney 1991)
- PGA Tour Golf (Electronic Arts)

Commodore 64


- Arachnophobia (1991)
- Avoid the Noid (1989)

PC


- Arachnophobia (Disney 1991)
- ASSASSIN 2015 (Inscape 1996)
- Goosebumps: Attack of the Mutant (Dreamworks 1997)
- Hare Raising Havoc (Disney 1991)
- PC USA
- PC Globe
- Relativity (Segasoft 1998)
- Total Control Football (Philips Media 1996)

SEGA Master System


- Dick Tracy (1990)
- Joe Montana Football (1990)

SEGA Game Gear


- Ariel The Little Mermaid (1992)
- Joe Montana Football (1991)
- NFL '95 (1995)

SEGA Genesis


- Ariel the Little Mermaid (Disney 1992)
- College Football's National Championship (1994)
- College Football's National Championship 2 (1995)
- Desert Demolition Starring Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote (1995)
- Joe Montana Football (1991)
- Jurassic Park (1992)
- Jurassic Park Rampage Edition (1994)
- NFL Football '93 featuring Joe Montana (1992)
- NFL Football Sports Talk '94 (1994)
- Shadowrun (port 1994)
- Starflight (1991)
- Techno Clash (Electronic Arts 1993)
- The Ren & Stimpy Show: Stimpy's Invention (1993)
- Vectorman (1995)
- Vectorman 2 (1996)
- World Series Baseball (1994)
- World Series Baseball 95 (1995)
- World Series Baseball 96 (1996)
- World Series Baseball 98 (1998)

SEGA 32X


- Spider-Man: Web of Fire (1996)
- World Series Baseball (1995)

Sony PlayStation


- EvilZone (US and Europe port 1999)
- KazMania (Lightspan 1997)
- Superman (Unreleased 2000)

JAVA Applets


- Destroyer (2000)
- Flam (2000)
- Hole in one (2000)
- Power Grid (2000)
- Sky Battle (2000)

External links


- [http://www.skygames.com/ Official tribute Webpage] Category:Defunct computer and video game companies

Sega of America

:This article is about the video game company. You may be looking for the article on West Indian Ocean sega music. Sega (セガ) is a video game software and hardware developer, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. The company has had success in both arcades and the home console market, but in early 2001, they left the consumer console business and began concentrating on software development for multiple platforms. Sega's main offices, as well as the main offices of its domestic division, Sega of Japan, are located in Ota, Tokyo, Japan. Sega's North American division, Sega of America, is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States. It had moved from Redwood City, California in 1999. Sega's European division, Sega of Europe, is headquartered in the Chiswick area of London, England, United Kingdom.

History

1940-1988

Sega was originally founded in 1940 as Service Games in Honolulu, Hawaii, by Martin Bromely, Irving Bromberg, and James Humpert to provide coin-operated amusements for American servicemen on military bases. Bromely suggested that the company move to Tokyo, Japan in 1951 and in May 1952 "SErvice GAmes of Japan" was registered. In 1954, another American businessman David Rosen fell in love with Tokyo and established his own company, Rosen Enterprises, Inc., in Japan to export art. When the company imported coin-operated instant photo booths, it stumbled on a surprise hit: The booths were very popular in Japan. Business was booming, and Rosen Enterprises expanded by importing coin-operated electro-mechanical games. Rosen Enterprises and Service Games merged in 1965 to become Sega Enterprises. Within a year, the new company released a submarine-simulator game called "Periscope" that became a smash-hit worldwide. In 1969, Gulf and Western Industries purchased Sega, and Rosen was allowed to remain CEO of the Sega division. Under Rosen's leadership, Sega continued to grow and prosper. In the videogame arcades, Sega was known for producing Frogger and creating Zaxxon. Sega's revenues would hit $214 million by 1982 and in 1983, Sega would release their first video game console; the SG-1000 and also the first laserdisc game. In the same year, Sega was hit hard by the video game crash. Hemorrhaging money, Gulf & Western sold the U.S. assets of Sega to Bally Manufacturing Corporation. The Japanese assets of Sega were purchased for $38 million by a group of investors led by Rosen and Hayao Nakayama, a Japanese businessman who owned a distribution company that had been acquired by Rosen in 1979. Nakayama became the new CEO of Sega, and Rosen became head of its subsidiary in the United States. In 1984, the multi-billion dollar Japanese conglomerate CSK bought Sega, and renamed it to Sega Enterprises Ltd., headquarted it in Japan, and two years later, shares of its stock were being traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. David Rosen's friend, Isao Okawa, the chairman of CSK, became chairman of Sega. In 1986, Sega of America was established to take advantage of the expanding video game market in the United States. Sega would also release the first Alex Kidd game, who until 1991 would be their mascot.

1989-2001

1991 since 1991.]] With the introduction of the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1989, Sega launched itself internationally as the second largest vendor of consumer video game products, behind their main rival, Nintendo. 1990 marked a change in Sega's market focus, changing to an older audience than that of Nintendo and marketing their products as such with slogans such as "Genesis does what Nintendon't". Sega also rebranded themselves with a new mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. This shift led to a wider success for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and would eventually propel Sega to 65% of the market in North America. However, Sega's share of the market would plummet in 1994 to 35% after Nintendo released key franchise titles for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System such as Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, as well as bad public reaction in Sega's eventual business decisions. In 1994, Sega in association with TimeWarner launched The Sega Channel, a subscription-based cable network that provided video games to owners of the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. Sega also released the Sega Saturn in Japan in 1994 and later in North America in 1995. Although the Saturn performed well in Japan, it failed to captivate the North American audience and thus led to a long decline in the console market for Sega. With one last effort for Sega to redeem themselves from overwhelming debt they launched the Sega Dreamcast in Japan in 1998 and in North America later on Sept. 9, 1999 (with the marketing ploy 9/9/99). The Dreamcast, at the time became the fastest selling video game console until 2000's launch of Sony's PlayStation 2. Although the Dreamcast had a relatively successful release, it failed to gather a foothold in the market against the Sony PlayStation, the Nintendo 64, and the release of the PlayStation 2, which would dominate the market until Microsoft and Nintendo entered the sixth generation of video game consoles, although the PlayStation 2 would continue its market lead throughout the era. In 2000, Sega Enterprises Ltd. was renamed Sega Corporation. In 2001 Sega discontinued the Dreamcast and ended its run as a video game hardware manufacturer.

2001 and beyond

2001 would see a major shift in focus for Sega as they would move out of hardware manufacturing, at least in the home console market; the arcade Sega NAOMI units are still being produced. The company has since evolved primarily into a platform-agnostic software company that creates games that will work on a variety of game consoles produced by other companies, including Nintendo's GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS, Sony's PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, and Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360. In 2003, Sega fell on extremely hard times, and after the death of CSK founder Isao Okawa in 2001, who spent over US$40 billion to help Sega, CSK put Sega on the auction block. The first suitor was Japan's Sammy who discussed a merger, but plans fell through. Discussions also took place with Namco, Electronic Arts and Microsoft. In August 2003, Sammy bought the outstanding 22% of shares that CSK had, and Sammy chairman Hajime Satomi became CEO of Sega. With the Sammy chairman at the helm of Sega, it has been stated that Sega's activity will focus on its profit-making arcade business rather than its loss-making home software development. During the middle of 2004, Sammy bought a controlling share in Sega Corporation at a cost of $1.1 billion, creating the new company Sega Sammy Holdings, one of the biggest games companies in the world. Sega recently bought the rights to all output from Sports Interactive, makers of Football Manager (the old Championship Manager). On January 25, 2005, Sega sold Visual Concepts, a second-party developer known for many Sega Sports games including the ESPN NFL Football series (formerly NFL2K) to Take Two Interactive for $24 million. The sale also came with Visual Concept's wholly-owned subsidiary Kush Games. Take Two subsequently announced the start of the publishing label 2K Games because of this purchase. On March 9, 2005 Sega acquired developer Creative Assembly best known for their strategy games Medieval: Total War and Rome: Total War. On September 12, 2005, It was announced that Sega would be working with Petroglyph to create a Modern Military/Sci-fi Real-time strategy game for PC[http://www.petroglyphgames.com/press/segaann.html].

Consoles

Early consoles

Real-time strategy Sega entered the video game console market in 1983 with the introduction of the SG-1000 in Japan after having test marketed it there since 1981. The SG-1000 was never released in North America, however, it was released in Australia, New Zealand, and many European nations such as Italy and Spain. In 1984, Sega released an updated version of the SG-1000 called the SG-1000 Mark II and a computer version called the SC-3000. Games for the SG-1000 Mark II were compatible with the SC-3000 and vice versa - provided the player also had the keyboard accessory that came with the SC-3000. The SG-1000 and the SG-1000 Mark II, while having some minor success were both overshadowed by Nintendo's Famicom, which was released in Japan in 1983.

Master System

Famicom In 1985 in an attempt to compete with Nintendo's popular Famicom, Sega updated and released the SG-1000 Mark III in Japan. The system would be redesigned and introduced in North America as the Sega Master System. Although technically superior to the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom), the Master System never achieved the same popularity due in part to the overwhelming third-party support Nintendo had. The Master System was also released two years after Nintendo's NES and had a hard uphill battle. The Master System was discontinued in 1992 in Japan and North America, having never achieving any real foothold on the console market in these regions, however, in Europe, the Master System did exceptionally well, even having a larger market share than Nintendo's NES because it was marketed in countries that the NES wasn't. Due to its success in Europe, Sega supported the Master System there until 1996. Additionally, Sega also released the Master System II and Master System III, which were less-expensive and less popular retooled successors to the Master System. The Master System III was only available in Brazil.

Mega Drive/Genesis

Brazil Brazil In 1989, Sega released its most successful console worldwide, the Sega Mega Drive also known as Sega Genesis in North America. The Genesis was a 16-bit console created to rival the TurboGrafx 16. In 1990, Nintendo released the Super Famicom (or Super Nintendo Entertainment System—SNES), which was Genesis' major rival throughout the 16-bit era. Even though the Genesis was released earlier than the SNES, Sega had a hard time overcoming Nintendo's dominating foothold on the video game console market, which in the late-1980s was 95% in North America and 92% in Japan. By 1992, Sega slashed Nintendo's market by garnering 55% (going as high as 65% in 1993) of the market in North America. The Genesis also did well in Brazil, Europe, and Australia, however, it failed to put a dent on Nintendo's market share in Japan. In 1993, the Genesis was redesigned and released as the "Sega Genesis 2". By 1994, Nintendo had regained a lot of its lost market share by slashing Sega's share from 65% to 35%. In 1996, Sega discontinued support for the Genesis. But in 1998, Majesco released a budget version of the Genesis, called "Sega Genesis 3". Throughout the lifetime of the Genesis, Sega had developed and launched two unsuccesful well-known add-ons, the Sega 32X and the Sega CD. It also released the peripheral, Sega Meganet, which was a modem for the Mega drive. It was only released in Japan.

Saturn

modem In 1994, Sega released the CD-based Sega Saturn in Japan and later in North America in 1995. Its main rivals were the Sony PlayStation released in 1995 and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System until 1996 when Nintendo released the Nintendo 64. In North America the Saturn was a failure partly due to its initial high $400 price tag (compared to $300 for the PS1 and $200 for the N64), its programming difficulties, and perhaps because of the poor support for previous Sega Genesis add-ons, the Sega 32X and the Sega CD. Though Sonic Team did happen to create Burning Rangers, it was never really a success. The system's highest points are its numerous arcade ports from their Model 2 hardware, NiGHTS Into Dreams, Dragon Force, and the Panzer Dragoon series. The Saturn never received a proper game from their mascot, Sonic, since Sonic Xtreme was canceled after a long and troubled development process. Also, many strong titles were not brought overseas from Japan. This is partly why the Saturn did relatively well in Japan, and more or less failed commercially in other markets. Another popular explanation for the Saturn's poor performance in markets outside of Japan may have to do with the system's hardware architecture. Many programmers found the complex hardware (including dual Hitachi SH-2 central processors) difficult to master and instead opted to develop games on the Playstation. Unlike Sega, Sony made programming libraries readily available to third party developers. Thus, developers found the Playstation a more attractive machine to develop for. In some cases, popular games like Tomb Raider looked better on the Playstation and the Saturn gained a reputation as a graphically inferior machine. Though this is not true, we can conclude that both systems were capable of doing some things better than the other. Either machine, in the right hands, was capable of impressive graphical feats for the time. Enthusiasts remember the Saturn as a console that failed because of poor business decisions and a changing market.

Dreamcast

Sonic Xtreme Sega's final video game system, the Sega Dreamcast was released in Japan in 1998 and in the United States on September 9, 1999. Considered to be "ahead of its time", the 128-bit Dreamcast rivaled the 32-bit Sony PlayStation and the 64-bit Nintendo 64. The Dreamcast, however, failed to recapture Sega's lost market share that it once held during the lifespan of the Genesis prior to the major release of Sony's PlayStation , and other "next-gen" systems inc Nintendo's N64. This was in part due to a lack of faith in the system after the 32X and Saturn systems. The release of the Sega Dreamcast expanded on the PlayStation's popularisation of video games by offering the first out-of-the-box Internet service. For many people who only had g