DAILY MANIFESTO

Retro Revolution: The First E3

Posted on Friday, April 27 @ 13:17:27 Eastern by KevinS

Over the course of E3, many different visions of the future have captivated gamers around the world—new consoles, new game genres, hell for a while we even thought virtual reality headsets were going to be the new rage. And all of them were shown in the massive LA Convention Center in southern California. I was lucky enough to attend last year and see the spectacle first-hand, and from the horde of writers covering the event to the seizure-inducing neon pulses, I was unable to think about anything other than "it's so pretty" for three full days.

But while it was my first show, it was lightyears ahead of the original show in 1995. That was a pivotal year for the games industry, with Sony showing North American audiences their first glimpse of the original Playstation, Sega rushing forward with their release of the Saturn (much to the surprise of the journalists in the room), Nintendo showing both the great N64 console (then known as the Ultra 64) and the cheapo-Lasik device known as Virtual Boy, and Atari trying to showcase the Jag CD and promote their never-released Jaguar VR.

The footage I was able to find of the first E3 was amazing, a nostalgic nerd's dream: Nintendo's show was primarily on the SNES, showing titles like Donkey Kong Country 2, Killer Instinct, and the little gem known as Earthbound. There were still black and white Game Boy games being shown, namely ports of Killer Instinct and Street Fighter 2. 3DO was trying to build some excitement for their upgraded platform, with companies like PF Magic showing off games like Ballz: The Director's Cut, a poorly received fighting game that I somehow enjoyed.

Topping them all was Sega's booth, specifically the surprise launch of the Saturn (while still supporting the Genesis, Sega CDm and 32X) and highlights of the early big guns: Panzer Dragoon, Daytona USA, and the first two Virtua Fighter titles. The coolest thing in my mind was Sega's showing off the Neptune system… oh, haven't heard of it? It's just the two-in-one Genesis/32X system that never made it to shelves. It was one of the first in a line of prototypes to enter E3 but never to hit store shelves, along with the Phantom console, Star Fox 2 for SNES (also shown in 1995), and StarCraft: Ghost.

The 1995 show was, thankfully, a successful one. That one show cemented E3 as a press event unlike any other, bigger even than the Consumer Electronics Show and solidifying video games as a medium and not simply a hobby. And now, as I look forward to my second E3, I'm flashing back to my days of rifling through my magazines as a kid waiting for the new tidbits of awesome to look forward to until next year.

Do you have memories of E3? What are you looking forward to most from this year's show? Leave us a comment below, and let's get pumped for 2012!

Related Games: Killer Instinct

Tags: Retro Revolution, E3

Comments

TheJx4
Joined: Jun 2011

Posted: Apr 27th, 2012 at 1:51 pm
Halo 2.

(also, what is 1995?)

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Ranim
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Apr 27th, 2012 at 2:13 pm
I'll never forget the unveiling of the NES, because it turns out they remade the case for it 20 minutes before showing it off.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Apr 27th, 2012 at 2:23 pm
Tons of E3 history. I love the coverage. E3 is absolutely amazing.

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LinksOcarina
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Apr 27th, 2012 at 2:24 pm
Gotta love history.

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wildmario
Joined: Jan 2007

Posted: Apr 27th, 2012 at 2:44 pm
I don't really have a fond memory of E3, but I can imagine how the early E3s were all about hyping people up for games cause you never know what will be shown. Nowadays, people casually leak info left and right and people get pissed off if something they want to see at E3 doesn't happen, so it's like why have an E3 in the first place?

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Jobin_Wendy
Joined: Mar 2012

Posted: Apr 27th, 2012 at 5:08 pm
When I was eight, I picked up the '95 E3 issue of EGM at the grocery store while my mom was shopping. I was so transfixed by the articles about E3 that I literally sat down in the aisle and read everything I could. When my mom came to get me, I begged her for an advance on my allowance to buy it. I read the issue from cover to cover at least five times by the end of the week, and being completely amazed at the things that were coming out soon.

I don't think any game/console can produce that magic for me anymore, which is sad. What happened to all the risky, fun **** that game developers were trying?

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wildmario
Joined: Jan 2007

Posted: Apr 27th, 2012 at 6:52 pm
I wonder that too. Everything back then was new and unheard of and they were all great. Nowadays, it's about catering to familiar tastes for easy and safe profits.

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Jobin_Wendy
Joined: Mar 2012

Posted: Apr 28th, 2012 at 6:49 pm
It's the Hollywood curse. Once it becomes apparent that something has the potential to make millions/billions of dollars, that art form loses its soul. Film has about five extra decades, so it's instantly recognizable as a medium for artistic output, making it easier for independent work. Thankfully titles like Journey, Shadow of the Colossus, and even Red Dead Redemption are proving that video games can be artistic as well as entertaining.

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