The 16-bit wars: Who REALLY won???

wallydawg · Post by **wallydawg** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 11:18 pm

I had an SNES during the 16 bit war. I remember my dad telling me "Just wait a few months for the Ultra 64 to come out." (Glad I didn't obviously, cause it didn't come out for a long while later)

I never really played the genesis much until recently. I got a cheap one from ebgames (while they were still cool and not owned by crappy gamestop) for $5. It's so awesome.

I'm going to try and get every North American released title for it too.

Reploid Ayla · Post by **Reploid Ayla** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 12:37 am

Genesis won Europe. that is all that matters.

Gump-in-space · Post by **Gump-in-space** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 3:56 am

I have trouble with this question all the time...

SNES had lots of good games and better hardware...

Genesis also had good titles, and faster hardware...

Personally I like the Genesis becuase of all the action titles on it. I like Sonic more than Mario, and I hate RPGs. I like sports games. For me, Genesis won. But probobly for most other people, SNES won.

SNESguy · Post by **SNESguy** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:18 am

OK. Here's how I think of it.

Two reasons why I think that the SNES was better overall:

The game selection was gigantic! It catered to every genre with many, many titles, probably because Nintendo also had the support of many great developers, such as Rare and Square. (wow, it rhymes)

Lasting value. I work in a used video games and electronics store at the local fleamarket. The top selling systems are NES's and Super NES's. They don't last a week on the shelf(the market is open only on weekends) before being sold. I believe this is because of the great replay value of most SNES games.

That's my 2 cents.

-SNESguy

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 2:20 pm

Easy question--SNK won the 16-bit war. Nintendo and Sega pulled out of the fight long before the Neo-Geo did.

so I think Neo-Geo had pretty much 100% of the 16-bit market for close to ten years after everybody else left. In addition to staying power, they also still have the most loyal/insane fanbase, and about the most powerful 16-bit hardware ever given to a console. ("24-bit" my rear) Sure there was low game variety, but about the only way neo geo really failed was that they didn't get a system in every home--or any home, but it's hardly SNK's fault that perfection costs money and we were all poor losers.

"Mommy, I need a $650 game console" (~$975 adjusted for inflation)
"no Timmy, what you need is a severe beating"

sammy · Post by **sammy** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 8:54 pm

Sega started way earlier with 16 bit, so actually Nintendo has done really well to take the N1 position back 2 years. Games wise the Snes had much more to offer imo. There are no games with the quality of FFIII and Chrono Trigger on the Genesis.

But as far as sales go, a large portion of Sega's sales are from Brazil, where the Megadrive was a raging succes. It's like saying the Xbox isn't popular just cause you see the sales in Japan. It depends on the Country/Regio.

G-force · Post by **G-force** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:40 am

When I think of Genesis the words that come to mind are: fast, brutal, colorful, fun!

SNES: slow, enjoy, neat, mushy.

To me the Genny was better, just because the games were more of what I like(sonic, various street brawlers, mortal kombat, etc). I never really cared for the SNES with the Mario and Zelda type games as much.

Genesis was also my first gaming system that I got ever (found in the trash!!), so I hold it in high respect for starting me on gaming. It was also the only one I ever played at my friends house before I got my own.