Retro Console of the Month - April 2020

RETRO CONSOLE OF THE MONTH - APRIL 2020
NINTENDO WII
Hi guys,

I'm back at it again with another blog post, sorry for the delay, it's been hectic with coronavirus going on and uni being delayed, but I promise to be a bit more active. Starting with another retro console of the month, so let's dive into it!

This month's retro console is the Nintendo Wii! This console is one of the best of it's generation for the 7th generation. The Nintendo Wii was released in 2006 as a successor to the Gamecube and to compete with the PS3 and Xbox 360. This was one of the first consoles that introduced Motion Sensors to the controller. This made it easier for the player to move around with the console able to pick up the controller. The one downside to this console was the fact that the controller (or Wii remote) needed to be recallibrated every so often. The console was discontinued in 2013, to be followed by the Wii U

Geekette's Thoughts:
This console is one of my personal favourites as I grew up playing the Wii and having the black variant of the console. I still love to play the Wii to this day, as it still works. My favourite games on the Wii were Mario Kart Wii and Coconut Mall.

That's all for today, but stay tuned for future updates!
So until next time,

Peace Out,
Geekette

Retro Console of the Month - December

RETRO CONSOLE OF THE MONTH - DECEMBER
NINTENDO PLAYSTATION
Today I am going to talk about a console that almost was, but never released to the public. In honor of the PlayStation's 25th Anniversary, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about the console that started it all, the Nintendo PlayStation.


Cast your mind back to 1988. Sweet Child O' Mine was released by Guns 'N' Roses, Beetlejuice was released in cinemas and VHS tapes were still being used everyday. Sony had signed a deal with Nintendo to develop a CD-ROM add on for the SNES to move them away from the use of cartridges. Both companies wanted to develop a new age for games consoles, and using CDs was going to put them on the up and up. But why did this console not come to be?

One of the reasons was money. There was a dispute between Sony and Nintendo on how much money each company would get. Sony wanted to keep all of the profits made from the CD licenses, but Nintendo disagreed with this.

Another reason (which is speculated) is that Sony wanted to work with 32-bit processors and create 3D games, but Nintendo were less impressed with this idea and wanted to stick with the 16-bit processors.

By 1992, everything had fallen apart between Sony and Nintendo. When showcasing the console in 1991, Sony were left in the dark about Nintendo collaborating with Philips (the DVD player company) to continue pursuing the SNES CD-ROM. Sony and Nintendo parted ways starting the rivalry between them. Sony went on to release the PlayStation in 1994, with Nintendo following in suit with the N64 in 1996.

What happened to the prototypes made? Well for all we know, 200 prototypes were made. One of them was found in 2015, and shown to be fully working. But they do go for £89,000! (About $100,099.99).

What do you think of this retro console? Would it have been a success if released or an utter failure like the Sega Dreamcast (shudders)? Leave your thoughts below!

So until next time,
Peace Out - Geekette

Retro Console of the Month - August

RETRO CONSOLE OF THE MONTH - AUGUST
NINTENDO DS
I'm back with another retro console of the month and this month's retro console is the Nintendo DS! This was one of my first handheld consoles that I owned with a huge selection of games on it. So let's dive into the history.


The Nintendo DS, originally released by Nintendo in 2004, but it didn't come to Europe until 2005 (*insert sad face here*).  Talks about releasing the DS were dating all the way back from 2002, when the former head of Nintendo talked about releasing a dual-screen handheld console. The console's prototype was shown at E3 2004 and released in Japan and North America later that year.

Fun Fact: DS stands for Dual-Screen or Developer's System. Take your pick. It took me until today's research to find out what DS stood for (facepalm).

The best selling game for the DS was New Super Mario Bros, which sold 30.80 million copies :O.

The NDS had 3 different redesigns; the DS lite (I had 2 of these), DSi and DSi XL.

DS Lite

My favourite game on the DS is Professor Layton and the Curious Village. This has to be my favourite because I love the puzzle solving aspect of Professor Layton, although I did find a lot of the puzzles very hard to complete.

So that does it for this month's retro console! Join me for the retro game of the week and the next installment of my Harry Potter PS2 walkthrough :D Yay!

Until next time,

Peace Out - Geekette

Retro Console of the Month - July

RETRO CONSOLE OF THE MONTH - JULY
NINTENDO 64
I'm back with another retro console of the month. This long absence is due to more work that I am doing, but I will be attempting to return to a semi-normal schedule again.

The Nintendo 64, or as it was commonly known as, the N64 is the 3rd Nintendo Home console, which was released in the year 1996. The N64 was officially announced in 1994 as the 'Ultra 64'. It wasn't until 1995 when the Nintendo 64's hardware and games were officially announced. Nintendo decided to release the N64 as a competitor to the Sega Saturn and Sony's PlayStation.



Around 388 games were released for the Nintendo 64 with games such as Donkey Kong 64 and Mario Kart 64 being some of the more noticeable games. There were some games which uses high praises from the critics such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time using 3-D graphics to it's advantage. The games for the N64 were on the form of a cartridge, like the GameBoy games.



One of the more noticeable features of the Nintendo 64 is the controller for the console. The controller had 10 buttons on it and it was in the shape of an 'M'. This controller became an instant recognisable feature of the N64, which makes it a part of the legacy.

The N64 was discontinued in 2002, when Nintendo released their GameCube, which took mini-DVD's instead of the Game Cartridges that the N64 used. Across the globe, 32.93 million units of the N64 were sold.

So there's today's fun facts about the N64 and stay tuned until next time.
Peace Out - Geekette

Retro Console of May

Yes, I'm back everyone. After a long break due to college and work, I'm back and to kick things off, I'm starting things off with Retro Console of May.

RETRO CONSOLE OF MAY... GAME GEAR

This month's Retro Console goes to the underrated Sega Game Gear!

The Game Gear was released in October 1990 by the games company Sega. The Game Gear was rushed to the games market and it's primary competitors were the Nintendo Gameboy and Atari Lynx. One reason why the Game Gear did so well was that it had a unique game library which many users loved. However, it's short battery life was a major downfall for the console.



The Game Gear was originally known as 'Project Mercury' and when it actually came to being released, it was being sold for £99.99 in Europe. The game that came with the console was a game called Columns which was a version of the Nintendo game, Tetris.

One benefit of the Game Gear is that it was one of the first handheld consoles which uses colours. The Sega Game Gear used around 4000 colours. The idea of the Game Gear was that it was able to port over to the Sega Master System (the home console which was out at the same time). However, the Game Gear only lasted 5-6 hours (with 6 AA batteries) whereas the Game Boy (it's main competitor) lasted up to 30 hours (with 4 AA batteries).

The most popular game for the Game Gear was Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic is Sega's mascot and his game for the Game Gear was released 1991. This version of Sonic the Hedgehog is the simplified version of the Sega Genesis console game. The game itself sold 15 million copies (Genesis and Mega Drive versions included).

I had one of these consoles when I was younger (fully functioning unlike now) and personally, I loved it. One of my all time favourite games for the Game Gear was Ninja Gaiden. Ninja Gaiden was a game released in 1991 for the Game Gear. The main style for this game was a platform jumping game. Even though I was a bit too young to understand the game, it was fun enough to play.

Sadly, the Game Gear was discontinued in 1996. But fear not! Nintendo announced in 2011 that some of their eShops on the Nintendo 3DS would have some Game Gear games on them, available for download.

So that does it for today, so until next time...
Peace Out - Geekette

Retro Console of November

RETRO CONSOLE OF NOVEMBER... PLAYSTATION
Yes that's right, this month's retro console is Sony's Original PlayStation. So let's dive into this.

The PlayStation was originally released by Sony on the 3rd of December in 1994. Originally, the PlayStation was a joint venture between Sony and Nintendo, which would have a SNES port, so the user could play SNES games on the PlayStation. However, in 1993, Nintendo and Sony ended their relationship and the PlayStation also was known as the PSX when they announced the end of the business partnership.

The PlayStation was released on the 3rd of December in 1994 in Japan and almost a year later, on the 9th of September 1995 in North America. Europe did not get the console until the 29th of September 1995. In Japan alone, the PlayStation sold 2 million units within the first six months of it being on sale.

The PlayStation was seen as huge success. A slim line version of the console was released and it was known as the PS One. The main competitors of the PlayStation was the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Saturn.


The PlayStation did not originally have dual analogue sticks, that was introduced in 1997. This allowed the PlayStation to work with PS2 games when it got released. This was known as backwards compatibility. It was the allowance of playing PlayStation games on the PS2.

The best-selling game on the PlayStation is Gran Turismo. This was a racing game that was released in 1997/98. It was created with 3D graphics and it was seen as revolutionary. There were two modes to this game, arcade and simulation. The simulation mode was seen as a career mode and the aim was to earn credits and to get different drivers licenses. The arcade mode allowed the user to select the level that they wanted to play and the vehicle that they drive.

The PlayStation was discontinued on the 31st of March on 2005.

I personally loved the PlayStation as it was always one of my favourite consoles to play on. My favourite game that was on the PlayStation was Medal of Honor. This was a first person set in WW2 about being a US spy in Nazi Germany.

Stay tuned for more updates!
Peace Out - Geekette

Introduction

Hi there,
I'm Geekette and this is my blog about everything relating to gaming. I will aim to upload a new post every week and I will include things like;

• Retro Console of the Month
• Game of the Week
• Retro Game of the Week
• Reviews of new games
• Reader's poll result
• Industry Insight

If anyone else has any suggestions, just leave one in the comments below. So stay tuned for more gossip and views on the gaming world.

Peace Out - Geekette