My Nintendo Love

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Happy 90th Ralph H. Baer (The Father of Video Games)

Happy 90^th Ralph H. Baer (The Father of Video Games)

That’s right, the father of video games Ralph Baer, who invented the Odyssey (the first home console), turned 90 last Thursday.

He started development of the “Brown Box” and several other video game prototypes in 1966 for the defense-electronics company Sanders Associates. It was then licensed to Magnavox in 1971, and was renamed the Magnavox Odyssey before being released to the public in 1972.

Even though for a time it was Sanders most profitable line, it still had many obstacles to go through. Video games at the time were a new thing, and many people didn’t know what to make of it, game development was even looked down upon be many people in the company.

Magnavox Odyssey Overlays

Even though the graphics were practically nonexistent, using overlays that cover the TV screen, the video game “fad” had started. No one back then could have predicted were that so called “fad” would lead to, as it turned out, it led to a great place.

Now video games and computers are so advanced, Ralph Baer’s Magnavox Odyssey is but a distant memory, but a memory that will live on in the hearts of gamers forever.

Thanks Ralph H. Baer for helping start the video game craze.

He Deserves That Medal

-Sources-

Ralph Baer's Wikipedia Page

The article that told me of his birthday

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Nintendo Sells 4.5 Million 3DS Units In It's First Year

It may of started out weak, but Nintendo's newest handheld the 3DS has sold 4.5 million hardware units in it's first year. That's quite an amazing feat, as the DS only sold 2.37 million in it's first year.

At first it looked bad for Nintendo as they struggled to sell there newest console, finally having to cut the price to increase sales, but after awhile the bigger games started to come out and it started selling fast.

This is a 3DS

With many more first and third party titles on the way, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime says that he expects a bright future for the glasses free 3D handheld. He also stated that there just getting started and that the platform was build for the long haul.

Some of the titles that helped boost sales where Mario Kart 7, Super Mario Land 3D, Monster Hunter 3G, as well as many others. With even more great title on the way it doesn't seem like this little system will stop any time soon.

The 3DS was released on March 27, 2011 so we got about two and a half weeks before it's first birthday.

The Nintendo 3DS also managed to sell 9 million software titles in it's first year, beating the DS's 5 million. Although even with the success of the console there are still people bashing on the success.

5 Super Mario videos you should watch

Mario: Game Over

Mario and Peach are having some problems after moving to the real world.

Title Logo

Mega Man Legends 3, known as Rockman Dash 3 in Japan, was announced by Capcom to come to Nintendo's 3DS handheld. It was to be developed not just by Capcom but by fans as well using the internet. There aim was to get players more involved in the development process by letting fans vote on things such as character designs and enemies to be used for the game.

Aero's Concept Art

It was indeed an interesting experiment, Capcom even prepared a demo called Mega Ma Legends 3 Prototype Version that was going to be a download title from the Nintendo eshop. Capcom said that they would use the profit from the sales of this demo to create the game, however neither the game or the demo were released.

On July 18, 2011 Capcom announced that the project was canceled, which disappointed a large number of fans who were looking forward to the game. Capcom said this was because they believed that the Mega Man Legends 3 Project had failed because not enough fans participated in the online Dev rooms.

Many fans didn't think this was an adequate reason to cancel the game and started a petition to get the game created. However the smarter fans knew that that wouldn't be of much use as that would only show who wants the game, not who are willing to help make the game. You see the projects goal was to get fans more involved with the development process, not to create a game.

However even though the project seemed to fail, Capcom could of done a little more such as say they needed more participants in the Dev rooms, and they could of still released the demo. Although I'm just speculating, Capcom probably understands more about this then we do.

Whatever the case the Mega Man Legends 3 Project has failed, but that doesn't mean we'll never get the game, we just won't get it from this.