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E3: The good stuff - A look back at the 12 showcases that shaped gaming

One strangely familiar game at the show was Ratchet & Bolt for Sega Genesis 32X, which boasted "the biggest videogame boss in known history" (apparently it was over 30 screens tall) and featured over 33 weapons. The game was eventually canned, which is a shame because it sounded pretty good...

!! So is that an early version of Rachet and Clank? Any media on it?
 
"...E3's hordes were hungry to sample what N64 would have to offer. Hour-long queues had to be endured by anyone who wanted to try out the system formerly known as Ultra 64. Despite many show-goers struggling with the radical analog controller, games like Super Mario 64, GoldenEye and Pilotwings 64 ensured that N64 was a genuine show-stopper."

that sounds eerily familiar
 
With the launch of PlayStation just months away, Sony turned up to the show with a confident swagger ready to get people pumped about its little grey box. It announced that the console would launch for the Saturn-busting price of $299 ($100 less than its Sega rival) and that by Christmas there would be 50 titles available for the machine.
If only Sony had the same pricing methodology now as they did then... things would certainly be a lot different.

That was the dealbreaking moment for them as well, wasn't it?
 
I hate how all the PC games get totally marginalised just because it's not seen to be taking part in the "console wars".
 
it's a role playing game... today you will be playing the role of a pinata.
 
One strangely familiar game at the show was Ratchet & Bolt for Sega Genesis 32X, which boasted "the biggest videogame boss in known history" (apparently it was over 30 screens tall) and featured over 33 weapons. The game was eventually canned, which is a shame because it sounded pretty good...

Whoa. Really?
 
Nintendo's big boss, Satoru Iwata, also casually revealed that GameCube's successor was already in development and would be out before any next-gen machine from either Sony or Microsoft.

:lol

few things:

2000- DC was totally upstaged by MGS2 trailer. that's all anybody remembers from that year

2001- "The GameCube impressed, but without Mario it just wasn't a party." are you kidding, the GC lineup kicked ass back then.
 
Zenith said:
:lol

few things:

2000- DC was totally upstaged by MGS2 trailer. that's all anybody remembers from that year

2001- "The GameCube impressed, but without Mario it just wasn't a party." are you kidding, the GC lineup kicked ass back then.

There needs to be more about how 2003 sucked ass for Nintendo.
 
levious said:
!! So is that an early version of Rachet and Clank? Any media on it?

sounds that way but no, Ratchet and Bolt has nothing to do with Ratchet and Clank. It was a game being developed in house by Sega in the US....

Michael Latham in an interview with sega-16.com said:
...The final one was my favorite and a real heart breaker when cancelled. The project was called Ratchet and Bolt. The idea was that in the future technology is so cheap and easy all people are tech savvy and bored, so crime becomes a common way of life. So average people are building giant building size robots to commit petty crimes. Imagine a giant-sized shopping lady robot, curlers and all, walking down a major city, ripping the tops off various shopping buildings to empty into her giant sized shopping bag. The problem is made worse by the fact the police are now a private organization and quite broke. They pay the most famous scientist to create an army of robots to be the police for this future, but he embezzles the money, and builds only two: Ratchet and Bolt. They are very special robots who can have special arms and legs attached, each with their own powers, and can be combined into combo attack for more unique powers.

The giant robots they go against had both outside and inside structures, and were 10x10 screens large at the smallest. Another fun idea was that damage caused the limbs to be blown off Ratchet and Bolt, who started looking human but underneath were metallic robots, and ended up as little micro-chips that could run at the most critical damage level. They would have to call their creator, who was spending his ill gotten gains for a long vacation, and purchase replacement parts from the money they got for the various arrests. The concept used every cool thing the 32X could do, and I'm sad it never got built, as the bosses would have made video game history for some of the funniest.

http://www.sega-16.com/Interview- Michael Latham.php
 
Sony had a lackluster show and, after the impressive PS2 demos of the previous year, there were disquiet grumbles at the quality of games for the new console. Luckily for Sony, Solid Snake rode to the rescue with Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. It was - again - considered game of the show, despite the fact that it did - again - only appear in movie form. It looked so good that Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima had to guarantee that he was showing "100% in-game footage".

It seems like history repeated itself for Sony this year . Most of this could be applied to the 2006 show if you replace PS2 with PS3 and MGS2 with MGS4. :lol
 
Haha, some of these old quotes are hilarious :lol

edit: And hopefully this feature will give people some proper perspective on things, especially those who can't remember Nintendo systems getting hype before the Wii (for whatever reason).
 
Sega looked more fragile than ever and - besides Panzer Dragoon Saga and one playable level of the ultimately doomed Sonic X-Treme - had very little to counter the Sony assault.

poor sega.
 
Nintendo's big boss, Satoru Iwata, also casually revealed that GameCube's successor was already in development and would be out before any next-gen machine from either Sony or Microsoft.

:D
 
Sony had a lackluster show... Luckily for Sony, Solid Snake rode to the rescue with Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. It was - again - considered game of the show, despite the fact that it did - again - only appear in movie form.

this only proves that MGS whores are really something -_-;

good read btw. too bad E3 is dead ;_;
 
_leech_ said:
edit: And hopefully this feature will give people some proper perspective on things, especially those who can't remember Nintendo systems getting hype before the Wii (for whatever reason).

This time will be different. Honest.
 
AniHawk said:
This time will be different. Honest.

Nintendo systems always get hyped, but with a $500-$600 competitor in Japan, and a chance to be a hit in the West Wii won't be the next Gamecube.
 
Azazela said:
Nintendo systems always get hyped, but with a $500-$600 competitor in Japan, and a chance to be a hit in the West Wii won't be the next Gamecube.
It'll be a new type of failure.
 
Really good read thanks a lot up to 2003 currently

" Nintendo's dominance of the handheld market faced a new challenge as Nokia announced launch details of its heftily priced ($299) " :lol the ****? nearly 300 bucks for some poo doo system.
 
BTW, good E3 recap. It is good to see more historical 'sweep of time' of this industry even if it is just E3's history.

_leech_ said:
Haha, some of these old quotes are hilarious :lol

edit: And hopefully this feature will give people some proper perspective on things, especially those who can't remember Nintendo systems getting hype before the Wii (for whatever reason).

Actually, the proper perspective can be found in this following quote:

With the launch of PlayStation just months away, Sony turned up to the show with a confident swagger ready to get people pumped about its little grey box. It announced that the console would launch for the Saturn-busting price of $299 ($100 less than its Sega rival) and that by Christmas there would be 50 titles available for the machine.

Affordable price + strong library of games created the Playstation in the first place. The Nintendo systems rapidly lost momentum and never had a strong library of games (you know, all that talk about "no third party games" on N64 and Gamecube). So the questions we need to ask would be:

Is the PS3's price affordable or not? Is the PS3's library 'must not be missed' quality?

Ask the questions for the other consoles as well.

Is the Xbox 360's price affordable or not? Is the Xbox 360's library 'must not be missed' quality?

Is the Wii's price affordable or not? Is the Wii's library 'must not be missed' quality?

The answers to these questions are what keeps things in perspective. After all, this industry does revolve around the games. Spectacles never mattered. The spectacle around the PSP didn't ensure it to be the success as people thought. The spectacle around the Dreamcast also didn't ensure it to be the success people thought. The perspective should not be tamed by the spectacles but rather the prices of the machine and the library of games revealed at E3. The Playstation and Playstation 2 were made by affordability and vast library.

Is the PSP's price affordable or not? Is the PSP's library 'must not be missed' quality?

Is the DS's price affordable or not? Is the DS's library 'must not be missed' quality?

The answers to the questions about the handhelds can now be seen reflected in the sales charts. The answer you come up with for the consoles will also be reflected in the sales charts to come...
 
Michael Latham in an interview with sega-16.com said:
...The final one was my favorite and a real heart breaker when cancelled. The project was called Ratchet and Bolt. The idea was that in the future technology is so cheap and easy all people are tech savvy and bored, so crime becomes a common way of life. So average people are building giant building size robots to commit petty crimes. Imagine a giant-sized shopping lady robot, curlers and all, walking down a major city, ripping the tops off various shopping buildings to empty into her giant sized shopping bag. The problem is made worse by the fact the police are now a private organization and quite broke. They pay the most famous scientist to create an army of robots to be the police for this future, but he embezzles the money, and builds only two: Ratchet and Bolt. They are very special robots who can have special arms and legs attached, each with their own powers, and can be combined into combo attack for more unique powers.

The giant robots they go against had both outside and inside structures, and were 10x10 screens large at the smallest. Another fun idea was that damage caused the limbs to be blown off Ratchet and Bolt, who started looking human but underneath were metallic robots, and ended up as little micro-chips that could run at the most critical damage level. They would have to call their creator, who was spending his ill gotten gains for a long vacation, and purchase replacement parts from the money they got for the various arrests. The concept used every cool thing the 32X could do, and I'm sad it never got built, as the bosses would have made video game history for some of the funniest.

Oh man, it's a shame that never came out. Sounds really cool.
 
SantaCruZer said:
so it seems that they gave game of the show to movie only back then.

Yeah, this year it evolved into games only being played by the developers (BioShock, Army of Two and Mass Effect). If E3 had continued, in a few years we might actually have seen a game on the show floor voted Game of the Show.
 
chespace said:
Nice article, ferricide.

Instantly puts gamesradar on the map!
hey, i didn't write it. though i did edit out a lot of Us and turn Ses into Zs. since it was written in the UK, you see. ha.

...

yeah, it's a good piece, came out of left field and i'm really happy to have posted it.
 
SantaCruZer said:
Zelda has never been a launch title before. Neither has Metroid :D

Tbh, though. Zelda (and Metroid's no where close) doesn't really have the same selling power as a real Mario game at launch would.


2006 was awesome and all, though I wish Nintendo surprised the **** out of everyone at the last minute by showing SMG instead of shoehorning it between Metroid and Excite Truck. 2004 was ****ing awesome, by the way! :D
 
ferricide said:
hey, i didn't write it. though i did edit out a lot of Us and turn Ses into Zs. since it was written in the UK, you see. ha.

...

yeah, it's a good piece, came out of left field and i'm really happy to have posted it.


Oh, I know you didn't write it (unless you became Matt Cundy sometime in the past 6 months). Just addressing the compliment to you since you reprazent GR on the whole I guess.

Anyway, enjoyed it.

Ahhh, my first E3....

e3_1999--screenshot_large.jpg
 
Ninja Kn1ght said:
It seems like history repeated itself for Sony this year . Most of this could be applied to the 2006 show if you replace PS2 with PS3 and MGS2 with MGS4. :lol

Umm.. no, not even close, no comparison really. There were other great looking PS3 games this year and besides MGS4 had already been shown, back in 2000 MGS2 seemed like a dream and miles away from any other PS2 title graphically. There was no game like that on any console and a lot of the things that it was doing(like that rainstorm and all of the sea effects) seemed literally impossible, so Kojima had to explain it and still a big deal of people didn't believe it. There was the whole art direction of the trailer which was mindblowing for the time. You had to be around to know, or at least have a decent memory. It's not even comparable.
 
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