E3s of distant past (Patreon)

Hello, it's brandon! I had some time to reminisce about E3 during this summer of gaming trip, and remembered that my first E3 in 1999, I had written some things for an ancient website called hierographix. Unfortunately most of that was lost, or never published, because the website was frankly just one guy's fan project (I didn't quite realize as I was just coming out of highschool). But I did manage to find my "preview" of E3 2001, talking about what I might expect from the upcoming show. This would be a transitionary period for me - I still wrote something for the site out of thanks for them having gotten me into my first E3, but I would have JUST started insert credit, and 2001 would be the first year I'd go as my own entity. So here's a preview I wrote when I was 19 years old, already reminiscing about E3s past (ha ha). You'll have to forgive the prose, it was 22 years ago and I was a wee baby. Pretty funny to see my predictions, concerns, etc - and I wish I could find all that other stuff I said I'd written! Most of it was lost in various server moves but it's possible I've got some of it on an old harddrive somewhere. Would love to read why I thought sega stole the show in 2000, but are we surprised?? Likewise, are we surprised I wasn't impressed by the gamecube? the more things change, the more they stay the same. or maybe things straight up just don't change that much (as far as my feelings about video games go).

And here's the full link if you want to see the kind of stuff other people were writing on that site. Feel free to poke around and see if you find anything else I wrote. I mostly published under "sheffy" there but I changed it to Brandon as part of the insert credit ethos was to use real names (and I pretty much tried with "sheffy" since it's a shortening of my last name... they mandated nicknames there because that's how the magazines did it!). also please enjoy my misspelling of metroid.


Brandon:

This E3 is going to be one of the most important ever. I can say this because never have there been so many high end systems set in competition at the same time. There will be four major players here, Sega, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. It's a pivotal point in the gaming industry...are we headed for a period of competition and excellence in game software ala the struggle between the Genesis and SNES in the days of old? Or will the push towards multimedia "all purpose" set-top boxes leave us with an industry reliant exclusively on gimmicks, rather than games, to sell hardware? I'll break down what I think of each company, including a few software firms I want to keep an eye on.

SEGA: These cats have something major to prove. Their hardware was not received nearly as well as it should have been. Constant innovation and consistent excellence was apparently not enough to keep the Dreamcast competitive. Now that Sega has gone multi-platform, the companies that once scorned them welcome them with open arms. This shows something. Sony and Nintendo were well aware of the work Sega puts into their software, to the extent that Yamauchi himself praised their efforts in a recent press release. He doesn't praise *anybody*. Forgotten are the lawsuits and old grudges, now the whole world has the chance to play Sega soft. Sega has well over a hundred games planned for the next year, across six platforms, including the GBA and PC. Sega is in the position to become the most powerful software company in the world right now, while simultaneously supporting their own under appreciated hardware. I simply cannot wait to see what they do at this E3, since they stole the show last year. Games I'm looking forward to: Gun Valkyrie, Panzer Dragoon 4, Sonic Adventure 2.

SONY: The higher ups in the Sony camp have a few things to worry about. Currently they are the industry leader when it comes to home consoles, but there are two systems coming along poised to take that throne. They have to pull something major to make sure they stay at the top, and I expect them to do whatever it takes. The big trouble here is the difficulty many programmers are having with their hardware, even at this late stage. Sony needs companies like Square, Enix and Namco, who have banded together pledging to not support the X-box, and who have traditionally not developed for the Nintendo side (with the exception of Square, but it looks like things won't be mended with Nintendo for some time). Games I'm looking forward to: Dragon Warrior 7, Gran Turismo 3, Zanac X Zanac (shooter from Compile).

MICROSOFT: I've already written at great length about Microsoft here in the OMC newsletter, but suffice to say, they're definitely a company to watch. I do not approve of the way they tried to buy companies in order to get a foothold in the console wars, but nobody can deny the power and ease of development their system offers. This is a major contender for Sony, and their only failing is the Japanese software support, which is somewhat lacking. Time will tell whether an American system can once again rule the industry. We've come a long way since the 2600...though some would say we've regressed. Games I'm looking forward to: see the list in the Sega section, plus Koei's crimson sea.

NINTENDO: What can I say, the Gamecube does not impress me yet. I'm hoping to see something fantastic from Nintendo in this regard at E3. Sega's support is a very important key, but Nintendo does not tend to rely heavily on 3rd party developers, preferring to bear the brunt of the software production themselves. It's worked pretty well so far, so I can't blame them. Nintendo is the only true gaming company who will still be producing hardware this year, so I really hope they can get their act together. One big question on my mind is how the system will be marketed. Will it still target the under 18 demographic, or go for the more lucrative 18-24? And then there's the Gameboy Advance. I don't know anyone who is not looking forward to this system. With hard hitters from the 2D era like Sega, Konami, Capcom, Atlus, Hudson and Nintendo themselves working on software, there is no chance of failure here. And numbers don't lie, this baby has sold 1.5 million copies in japan in under 2 months of release. That's some hot property. Sporting backwards compatibility, and a chipset which makes SNES porting quite simple, Gameboy is not going to give up it's throne any time soon. Games I want to see: Metriod (if they mess this up...), Mario party (I've heard rumors...).

GAMEPARK: GBA may be the king, but there's no harm in trying to contest that. Korean company Gamepark has a 32-bit handheld of their own, sporting a wider screen and two styles of casing/button layout. While they lack in 3rd party support at the moment, their in-house games look truly fantastic, as the system has much more ram than the GBA and can really do a lot more. The sound chip is better, the screen is bigger and sharper, there's more RAM, so more possibility for giant sprites with great animation, this system, if any, could shake the roots of Nintendo's tree. I don't see that happening, to be honest, but I'm certainly going to buy one before they go under. For more info on these daredevils, hit up www.gamepark.com. Games I want to see: Dungeon and Guarder, Little Wizard, Showdown.

SNK: This is the biggest question in my mind. Will SNK even be here? They've shut down US operations, and have farmed KOF 2001 out to a Korean company that makes dance games. Will this be on Display? What of the planned Garou: Mark Of the Wolves for Dreamcast? Will they show anything? Will we see something from DIMPS, the team of ex-SNK employees? This is honestly just wishful thinking on my part, but SNK is a fantastic company and I'd hate for them to go.

WORKING DESIGNS: Will these guys actually get it together and release a game soon? Silpheed is planned for US release on PS2, co-developed by Game Arts and Treasure.

CAPCOM: Last year I saw Cannon Spike, Capcom vs SNK, and countless other titles which totally floored me. I expect to see the same this time around. These guys never disappoint me, and if they ever do I'll know it's time to end of my involvement with the game industry. What I want to see: Capcom vs SNK 2, Zero Gunner (I can hope), and their plethora of GBA titles.

Esofnet: This Korean PC game company completely took me by surprise last year with the high quality of their titles. Offering tons of demos with solid gameplay and great character art, these guys really know what they're doing. All they need is a decent translator! I hope to see: Corum 4 and Dragon Raja 2.

That's the long and short of what I'm looking forward to, and expect from this year's E3. We at OMC will be sure to let everyone know how everything turns out! Happy gaming everyone.