Console Wars
From the Forward... Nintendo was king of home videogame entertainment systems, then Sega came in and was a contender for the crown. Sega almost toppled Nintendo with their subversive and more adult-oriented games, and these games have led us to a world where GTA and Call of Duty are the top games, and the next step is to have the games incorporate stuff about us and our personal lives, and then sentient technology will inevitably disassociate from mankind and some robot like Skynet will rise up and destroy us all. Hence: the “Console Wars” between Nintendo and Sega is what began a series of events that will lead to the end of humanity as we know it.
Stats for nerds
16recommend
41mentions
34people
2014–2026years
46% recommend41% neutral12% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- If you’re interested in David Rosen’s story or Sega history in general I highly recommend Console Wars by Blake Harris. https://amzn.to/4q3YaOl
- I really enjoyed Console Wars by Blake J. Harris. It doesn't go into very deep technical details but there were some details about how some of the technical decisions were made.
And it was very nostalgic read for anyone growing up with video games in 80s and 90s.
- One of my favorite genres!
Any book by Steven Levy is great, he is the master! He wrote multiple books about Apple, and also about Google, Facebook,…
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- I never realized how influential King Kong was until I read Console Wars (https://amzn.to/3TnSFws)
The game essentially saved Nintendo of America and introduced some of the most valuable characters of all time.
- https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sony
and the book “Console Wars”. This is probably the most dramatic betrayal story you can get in business history.
- Yeah this is very much how I’d describe as well. Nintendo had captured ~90% of the console market in the late 80’s/early 90’s while consoles were basically THE way most people played video games.
There’s a great book called Console Wars if anyone is curious about the rise of Nintendo, Sega, etc. It can be a tad dry at times but overall the stories behind these companies are often compelling in their own right. It does a GREAT job of explaining early gaming at universities and how certain programs proliferated. The 70’s were fascinating - people saw what games could be but were all tripping over each other trying to figure out how to get there.
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