The evolution of the console market over time

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Mandalore76 said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

I put the Genesis in column 1 to highlight that it was much more of an arcade console than the SNES. (And really for every generation Sega is more on the arcade side than Nintendo is.)  There were lots of arcade ports on the Genesis including quite a few by Sega.  I struggle to think of one arcade port on the SNES that was developed by Nintendo.  

On the other hand, you have a point in that Genesis is not a Neo Geo either.  Sega was making other types of games too like RPGs.  What it didn't really do so much was make "arcade evolution" games.  Either they made an arcade game or they made an RPG.  Meanwhile Super Mario World was an action platformer with an overworld and save files.  Sega wasn't really making too many games like this, "arcade evolution", but that was the focus for Nintendo.

Once Nintendo was able to get their arcade games directly into people's homes, their arcade division became more about porting Nintendo arcade type games from NES/SNES to coin-op rather than developing them the other way around.  See their VS. and Play Choice 10 coin-ops, Dr. Mario, F-Zero, etc.  Sega was more rooted in developing both coin-ops and home console games.  Sega has actively developed coin-ops from 1966 to today while their home console division came and went in less than 20 years (SG-1000 released in 1983 to the discontinuation of the Dreamcast in 2001).  But, that's not to say they didn't evolve their home console games of the time with the changing hardware.  Sonic 3 didn't have an overworld, but it did have save files.  Outside of platformers and previously mentioned RPG's, Sega developed strategy simulation games like Advanced Daisenryaku: Deutsch Dengeki Sakusen, Super Daisenryaku, The Hybrid Front, Ninja Burai Densetsu, Bahamut Senki, etc. all featuring battery backup saves.  Also, compare a Sega developed sports title like Greatest Heavyweights to an arcade ported boxing game like Punch-Out!!  Greatest Heavyweights featured a Create-a-Fighter, a Career Mode (featuring 30 fighters to box until you win the title followed by 8 title defenses against real life legendary boxers), and a battery back-up.  These are the reasons I wouldn't label the Genesis/Mega Drive as strictly an arcade system.

Our views on this are not that different.  Sega definitely made a lot of great games for the home over the years.  However, they never abandoned pure arcade gaming.  The Genesis, especially, was probably when their arcade games were at their peak.  (Not to mention third party arcade games on the Genesis like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, etc...).

Nintendo basically did abandon arcade gaming in the middle of the NES/Famicom era.  This was about the time that they developed the Famicom Disk System (FDS), which featured games like Zelda 1 and Metroid 1.  After a while, they stopped supporting the FDS, but it changed their game design philosophy forever.  They stopped making pure arcade games after that.  Even Nintendo made games that could be ported from SNES to an arcade are fairly uncommon.

So, where to place the Genesis?  I put it in a pure arcade column to highlight that it was much more of a pure arcade machine than the SNES was.  If a person in the early 90s wanted a console for arcade gaming I would recommend the Genesis.  I would even recommend the Genesis over the Neo Geo, because Sega made better arcade games than SNK did.  The Atari 2600 didn't only have arcade games, but it has more of an arcade focus than the Genesis.  The NES actually had a lot arcade games, but the most memorable NES games tend to be from Zelda 1 and later rather than before Zelda 1, so it barely makes it into the arcade evolution column.  I'd put the Genesis just slightly more arcade than the NES.  Maybe it belongs in column 1.5 rather than column 1 or column 2?  But I chose column 1, because it's arcade focus is significant compared to the SNES.  In fact, every Sega console has more of an arcade focus compared to its Nintendo counterpart, because Sega never really left the arcades, while Nintendo left the arcades in the middle of the NES era.