What if Nintendo Stays in the Arcades (Reboot)

[MemphisC]

While the Astro board was doing very well in the arcades as their high end arcade hardware, the Jackbot board was built around the same time for a different reason and it was to be put into Nintendo's pinball machines and specialty arcade machines with gimmicks inside of it. the Jackbot board contained the same Intel 8085 CPU as what was in Astro board but that is pretty much the only thing they have in common as the Jackbot was very different as in terms of power as it was around the same as the Apple 2, with little to no sound generation, little RAM (4k) and little to no video generation as it is all done by the CPU. this system seems like a stupid idea to even make but there was one advantage that even the much more powerful Astro board couldn't do and it is expandability. the Jackbot board could be expanded easily for any reason. one example is the Pinball module in 1977 that adds all the microprocessors and RAM to deal with the early SS pinball machines and the Laserdisc Module that allows for FMV games to be made by Nintendo.

The Jackbot board was first used in November 13, 1977 with the Pinball machine called Saberman: Minotaur's Caverns and the first laserdisc games ever made called Kimba's Adventure and the Looney tunes game show released in the arcades. all three games were successful in their own rights and made the Jackbot board a priority to support with pinball machines, laserdisc games, and any other arcade machines that Nintendo made in the arcades. from 1977 till 1983; Nintendo made over 80 pinball machines, 25 laserdisc games, and 40 other arcade games by using the jackbot board. but by 1984 the Jackbot board started to become obsolete when Nintendo starting making much better dedicated boards for everything that the Jackbot board did (starting with the Laserbot board for laserdiscs in 1982 and then the Pinbot Pinball Controller board in 1983) were released and took all the importance of the Jackbot board and by late 1984 it was dead. but the Jackbot board would be an important part of pinball history and nintendo's history as it paved the way for the next generation of nintendo's specialty hardware to come.

next chapter will be about the first few years of the second generation (1976-1978).

 

[MemphisC]

The Beginning of the Second Generation of game consoles (1976-1979)

Video created by: The Gaming Historian​

The beginning of the second generation started in 1976 with the Fairchild Channel F releasing in Semptember 1976 in north America and early 1977 everywhere else. the Fairchild Channel F created some concepts that had never been done before (like the cartridge and the CPU based console) and the Fairchild Channel F sold well during 1976 holiday season. Nintendo saw the Fairchild Channel F as a great idea and started developing their own game console starting in 1976 with Intel as support; another company called Atari started development on their own system at the same time. 1977 was a good year for the Fairchild Channel F as it sold over 1 million units that year and over 25 cartridges released that year too and Nintendo is still developing their system as Intel created a New CPU called the Intel 8065 and the Quetzal Video chip; development was slow however but that would change when the Atari 2600 and the Bally Astrocade releases in the end of 1977 with big success (especially the 2600) as both consoles collectively sold 2.5 million units that Christmas season. this made Nintendo paranoid that if they took too long to develop their system they would have no chance of succeeding in the market, so Nintendo pushed the "Nintendo Entertainment system/Famicom" forward a lot so that the system would make it by Holidays 1978. Fairchild Channel F started to face competition and knew that they have to fight hard and compete with Atari to keep their throne that they had for the past 2 years; this attempt was not successful and Atari pretty much killed off the Fairchild Channel F by 1979; Fairchild quit and sold their console division to Zircon International corporation and kept the Fairchild Channel F alive till 1984 when it was officially dead, and Jerry Lawson was fired from his job and started his own company called Videosoft in 1985. Bally's Astrocade was pretty expensive compared to the Atari 2600 and was only a niche console. Atari's 1978 year was very successful as it dominated the year and anybody that joined in like the APF Imagination machine would get crushed by the Atari 2600 and it stayed like this till the end of 1978 Atari started getting competition with the Magnavox Odyssey 2 and the Nintendo Famicom/NES were released. the Famicom dominated Japan where Atari had little presence there and the Odyssey 2 was tied with the Atari in Europe. 1979 was another large year for the industry as we saw the start of the first third party company Activision make Pitfall and River raid, the NES/Famicom takes some market share, the Odyssey and Astrocade did the same, a new competitor called the Intellvision also joined in too, and Atari was starting to hit mass popularity with Warner Bros as a partner to Atari (Atari would never be bought up by Warner Bros). this era would be the most important of the gaming industry as it build up mass popularity to the gaming industry in general, many genres were created, and many innovative games would be created during this stretch of time called the second generation.

next chapter will be about the NES/famicom, and then the SABER/M. board.

edit: added text about Jerry Lawson and the fate of the Fairchild Channel F. and credited the guy who created the video.

 

[MemphisC]

The Nintendo Entertainment System (also known as the Famicom in Japan) was the first Nintendo console and one of the biggest competitors to the Atari 2600. The Nintendo NES/ Famicom started development all the way in early 1976 after hearing about the Fairchild Channel F; so Nintendo with the help of Intel started with the codename Viper. Viper development from early 1976 till around mid 1977 was fairly slow; the chipset containing the Intel 8065 was developed around this time and early prototypes were made as well. Project Viper was doing alright in development until Nintendo hears that one of Nintendo's biggest threats Atari were making their own console called the Atari 2600 and releasing in late 1977. this was big trouble for Nintendo as Atari one up-ed on Nintendo with the Atari 2600 and that the Atari 2600 with funding by Warner Bros. was doing very well during the Christmas season of 1977; Nintendo needed to increase RnD and speed up on development if they want to release Project Viper (now named the NES/Famicom) in Holidays 1978. these 15 months were pretty tough as they had to finish the specs, make games for it, and start mass production for the Christmas season launch; this was a tough ask for Nintendo's newly started hardware division but they were able to meet the deadline of November 18, 1978 in North America and Japan.

The Nintendo Entertainment System launched with 15 games at launch the biggest being the port of Saberman Stampede: Montezuma's Revenge and Dunk Hunt NES (most of the other launch games are simple sports game and arcade ports). the system specs wise was much more powerful than the Atari 2600 and around the same as the Intellivision console to release next year at $199.99. The Famicom dominated Japan utterly as Atari had little presence there and it sold over 20 million consoles in Japan alone and had the most support there. Europe was pretty good for Nintendo as it was third place only being behind the 2600 and Odyssey 2. America was where the NES faced the most competition as it faced so much competition there; but it was the second place winner that generation selling 5 million consoles before it's discontinuation in 1987; only being behind the juggernaut Atari 2600. the Famicom/NES also birthed the Carnieligan franchise, the Panel de Pon franchise, the Puzzle League Franchise, and the first console mario games. this system was very important as it also introduced the D-pad for the exclusively Saberman game: Saberman Stampede: the Wild lands in 1981 (the NES had Atari style joysticks at launch before this); something that will be very important for Nintendo's next generation console in the mid 80's. here are the specs.

NES/Famicom Specs:​

Release Date	November 18, 1978 (NA & JP) August 7, 1979 (Everywhere else)
Manufacturers	Intel, Nintendo
Developers	Intel, Nintendo
Cost	$199.99 at launch ($99.99 later models)
CPU	Intel 8065 (8 bit, 2 MHz)
VDP	Viper (1 MHz)
RAM	2 kB base RAM 32 kB with Floppy disk system add-on
Media	Cartridge (up to 32 kB; more can be used by bank switching) Floppy Disk (up to 128 kB; dual sided; 64 kB on each side)
Color Palate	up to 32 colors (advanced techniques can push up to 61 colors)
Sprites	6 sprites (2 colors) 3-4 sprites (4 to 6 colors) more can be used but they flicker)
Resolution	160 x 140 to 360 x 240
Sound Chip	Hawk (2 PSG channels; similar to Intellivision)
other features	capabilities similar to the intellivision
Amount of units sold	28.2 Million sold total (worldwide) 20.1 Million (JP) 5.7 Million (NA) 2.4 Million (EU)
Lifespan	1978 - late 1986 (JP) 1978 - 1987 (NA) 1979 - 1987 (EU)
Amount of games released	300+
Controllers	the NES/Famicom joystick (16 directional joystick with two buttons and a pause button, controllers sold with system or sold seperately) The NES/Famicom D-pad (Directional pad with the same buttons as the joystick; sold seperately) NES Zapper (same as OTL Zapper)
Add-ons	Famicom/NES Disk System (1980-1986)

​

next chapter will be about the S.A.B.E.R/M series board and some of the early games that released on it. then the other Nintendo arcade hardware around this time (1980-1983).

 

[Nivek]

. this system was very important as it also introduced the D-pad for the exclusively Saberman game: Saberman Stampede: the Wild lands in 1981 (the NES had Atari style joysticks at launch before this); something that will be very important for Nintendo's next generation console in the mid 80's. here are the specs.

For the best SMB in a joystick wouldn't be that comfortable, except for some atari veterans

 

[Ninja2006]

Cool!

 

[MemphisC]

after the success of the Astro board, Jackbot, and Project Viper (ITTL NES/Famicom); Nintendo started developing on another piece of hardware but without Intel this time as their project as Intel was too preoccupied on a another project with IBM to create the IBM PC platform in 1981. Nintendo instead had to get another processor manufacturer to help develop their new and more powerful arcade platform; they found one and it was MOS technologies with the MOS 6502 processor. this partnership started in 1978 and would last up till the mid 1990's. Intel was mad about this but Nintendo made a deal with Intel that gives them access to make the Laserbot platform and then later the super scaler's but that is another chapter for another day. but MOS technologies 6502 processors were significantly more efficient than the Intel 8085 that the Astro board used and were much cheaper than the 8085. MOS also around this time developing a video chip called "Saberman" and the early version of what would be the TTL's SID Chips used in the Commodore 64 and would be the basis for SNES/Super Famicom in the mid 80's. development on the Saber board would be pretty short lasting only 8 months as Commodore and MOS technologies were experimenting with this tech already and when Nintendo asked if they team up to make an arcade platform together, they had all the tech nearly ready they need in order to make a platform quickly. the Saber platform would be first shown off in late 1979 with two games; Radar scope and Popeye.

Popeye and Radar Scope (1979-1980)

two of the earliest games shown using the Saber hardware: Radar Scope and the Popeye game​

the earliest games shown on nearly complete hardware would be the games Radar Scope and Popeye. when these games were shown off in CES 1979/1980; it was very impressive to most people at the time and for the price at only $7,999 per cabinet could not be beat. Radar scope was the first game released using this hardware in February 1980 worldwide and it was fairly successful creating a new franchise along the way. Popeye was supposed to release in June of 1980 worldwide with a batch of early games and it did in Japan but the licenses suddenly changed in America last minute and Nintendo of America had a bunch of cabinets that they could not sell because of license disputes (it would take till 1982 when it finally released in America). 10 million dollars was on the line and they needed to sell it by October 1980 or they lose a ton of money. miraculously a fairly new employee at Nintendo called Shigeru Miyamoto created a game in a few short months that would give Nintendo two new mascots that would even overshadow that of saberman. this was Donkey Kong and Mario in the Donkey Kong arcade game.

Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. Plus (1980/1981)

gameplay of Donkey Kong and Mario Bros plus.​

when Donkey Kong released in the North American arcades in late 1980. it was a smash hit and made Mario and Donkey Kong superstars. while Mario already had a fairly successful game a year earlier; this game blew Mario bros out of the water and also did fantastic in Japan and it was further cemented by the extremely success remake called Mario Bros plus in 1981.

Fix-It Felix, Jr, Donkey Kong Jr, and Qbert (1982)

Gameplay of Fix-It Felix Jr, Donkey Kong Jr, and Qbert​

1981 was a fairly boring year for the Saber board as aside from Mario Bros. Plus there was little else. this was about to change in 1982 with a successful sequel to successful and two new IP's created by a partnership with Pinball and arcade company Gottlieb. Donkey Kong Jr. was a successful sequel to DK1 and sold almost as many; but Qbert and Wreck It Ralph were Nintendo of America and Gottlieb creations. in 1980, the Pinball company Gottlieb started to jump into arcade games and Nintendo was the first ones to partner with them as Seymour was in no position to work with Nintendo after being bought by Phillips, Nintendo had decent relations with Gottlieb as they did compete with them in America, Nintendo also sold parts to Gottlieb and sold Gottlieb's pinball machines to the Japanese market. Gottlieb and NoA started on two projects together which was Fix-It Felix Jr, and Qbert. when both games released in 1982; both games would be extremely successful in the arcades and increase relations about the Gottlieb and Nintendo Partnership for the next few years.

now the system itself:
​

When the first generation of the saber board hardware released in February 1980 with Radar Scope; it was nearing cutting edge as it was more powerful than almost anything at the time showing thing this that OTL NES could do and even more. it was also pretty expensive at the time but was much cheaper than the earliest 16 bit hardware like Rally's Fission, Atari's Cannon board, and most hardware using Laserdiscs. the Saber board would be extremely successful having over 100 games released with many versions of the saber hardware contain many custom chips made by Nintendo like the Swan, Edsel, and Rocket microprocessors that added many new abilities/capabilities to the hardware during the consoles 12 year lifespan before being discontinued in 1992 for its 16 bit successor; called Venus. this family of hardware created franchises Donkey Kong, Punch out, Fix-It Felix Jr., Qbert, Panel De Pon, Dragon King, a good game based off Tezuka, and even more classics with the ten year lifespan it had. here are the specs of the Saber Board.

Release Date	February 1980 (Worldwide with Radar Scope release)
Lifespan	February 1980 - October 1992
Variants	many variations containing different custom chips for specific games
Manufacturers	Nintendo, MOS Technologies
Developers	MOS Technologies, Commodore, Nintendo
CPU	MOS 6502 series (8 bit 6502 at 1.75 MHz to a 16 bit 65c02 at 8 MHz)
VDP	VIC series (ranging from 1 MHz to 4 MHz)
RAM	ranges in version (anywhere from 32 kB to 256 kB)
Media	Cartridge (anywhere from 64 to 512 kB) Floppy Disk (anywhere from 64 kB to 1.44 MB)
Color Palate	ranges for version (64 to 4096 colors)
Sprites	ranges for version (16 to 480 sprites) (2 to 64 colors per sprite) (4 to 24 sprites per scanline)
Resolution	anywhere from 140x196 to 640 x 480
Graphics modes	Bitmap mode and Tile Graphics
Sound Chips	SID (basically the SID from OTL), 8-bit DAC, Yamaha YM2151, and Ricoh Swan sound chip
Custom Chips	Rocket (8/16 bit Blitter chip), Edsel (Faster RAM and VDP), and Ricoh Swan (10 PSG, 8 FM channels with 16 kB sound RAM)
other features/capabilities	depends on which version of the Saber board you have (minimum capabilities NES OTL, maximum capabilities OTL Amiga 1000)
Amount of Games Released	around 125 games (by 1992)

next chapter will be about the other Nintendo hardware at this time, and talk about the IP's at this time.

edit: changed Wreck it Ralph to Fix-It Felix Jr., added some text about Gottlieb and Nintendo's relationship. and added some text about what is happening next.
another edit: modified the specs and the amount of games the Saber 100 & 110 has.
Massive Edit: retconned the old specs for the Saber board and did this instead.

 

[Nivek]

Fix-It Felix Jr

Talk about self plagiarism , and at least qbert would not feel into that irrelevance limbo as otl

 

[MemphisC]

Talk about self plagiarism , and at least qbert would not feel into that irrelevance limbo as otl

honestly though it was more of NoA and gottlieb's creation that NoJ but it is still taking ideas from your own book and making something very similar to Donkey Kong. Fix It Felix Jr would kind of be a one and done series. but i will add to that pot in a another post.

edit: also Qbert would do better ITTL than he got IOTL.

 

[MemphisC]

i retconned the old specs for the last post and completely changed them do to new information; also added new text to the system itself section as well.

 

[MemphisC]

Nintendo during the this time was very successful in the Arcade with the Astro Board and the Saber Board at this time, they also had a fair amount of other arcade hardware at this time as well that was not as successful but has their place in Nintendo's Arcade History. i will talk about all of them briefly in a list.

1. Arcade Entertainment system; Codename "Roy": basically a NES/Famicom with much more RAM than the base console. it was pretty popular as it lasted from 1980-1986 before being dead and creating Space Firebird and Heli-fire as new franchises.

2. Laserbot: Nintendo's Sequel to the Jackbot's Laserdisc controller; Nintendo worked with RDI systems to create Dragon's Lair and Space Ace which were big successes in America which caused Nintendo to create more laserdisc games afterwards (Dragon's Lair and Space Ace is not owned by Nintendo ITTL; i was just funded ITTL). the Laserbot System lasted from 1981 till 1995 when it was officially discontinued and no more Laserdisc system's were created after this one.

3. Pinbot Pinball and Pachinko Controller: Nintendo's First actual Pinball hardware using Microprocessors; used in most of Gottlieb's and Nintendo's Pinball and Pachinko's Games. Similar to what Williams had in OTL. lasted from 1982 till 2000 as it was replaced by better pinball technology at this point. a ton of pinball machines were released on this system including some massive successful ones based on Mario and Batman.

4. System 1: Nintendo's first dedicated sprite scaler using the new 16 bit Intel 80188 processor running at 8 MHz and a custom 16 bit Blitter and VDP chips running at 6 MHz. used from 1982 till 1987. many Racing games came out on this system and the first successful Dillion Rolling Western and Valiant Heroes game were released first on this system.

5. Special/other: this contains the games that used specific hardware and no other games used it; this category contains three specific games; R.O.B. and the Monolithic Machine which along with I, Robot were some of the first 3d games with polygons. the second was Space Bomber which used vector graphics for the graphics and gameplay. the final one to mention was Dillion's Power Pinball that was a Pinball and Game Hybrid.

The next three chapters will consist of Nintendo's new IPs by 1983, the Game and Watch, and the rest of the 2nd console generation.

edit: added info about Dragon's lair.
edit: going to be new posts about some new hardware; the System 1 and the Nintendo Vector series.

 

[Ninja2006]

Nintendo during the this time was very successful in the Arcade with the Astro Board and the Saber Board at this time, they also had a fair amount of other arcade hardware at this time as well that was not as successful but has their place in Nintendo's Arcade History. i will talk about all of them briefly in a list.

1. Arcade Entertainment system; Codename "Roy": basically a NES/Famicom with much more RAM than the base console. it was pretty popular as it lasted from 1980-1986 before being dead and creating Space Firebird and Heli-fire as new franchises.

2. Laserbot: Nintendo's Sequel to the Jackbot's Laserdisc controller; Nintendo worked with RDI systems to create Dragon's Lair and Space Ace which were big successes in America which caused Nintendo to create more laserdisc games afterwards (Dragon's Lair and Space Ace is not owned by Nintendo ITTL; i was just funded ITTL). the Laserbot System lasted from 1981 till 1995 when it was officially discontinued and no more Laserdisc system's were created after this one.

3. Pinbot Pinball and Pachinko Controller: Nintendo's First actual Pinball hardware using Microprocessors; used in most of Gottlieb's and Nintendo's Pinball and Pachinko's Games. Similar to what Williams had in OTL. lasted from 1982 till 2000 as it was replaced by better pinball technology at this point. a ton of pinball machines were released on this system including some massive successful ones based on Mario and Batman.

4. System 1: Nintendo's first dedicated sprite scaler using the new 16 bit Intel 80188 processor running at 8 MHz and a custom 16 bit Blitter and VDP chips running at 6 MHz. used from 1982 till 1987. many Racing games came out on this system and the first successful Dillion Rolling Western and Valiant Heroes game were released first on this system.

5. Special/other: this contains the games that used specific hardware and no other games used it; this category contains three specific games; R.O.B. and the Monolithic Machine which along with I, Robot were some of the first 3d games with polygons. the second was Space Bomber which used vector graphics for the graphics and gameplay. the final one to mention was Dillion's Power Pinball that was a Pinball and Game Hybrid.

The next three chapters will consist of Nintendo's new IPs by 1983, the Game and Watch, and the rest of the 2nd console generation.

edit: added info about Dragon's lair.

Cool!

 

[MemphisC]

by 1983, Nintendo has a lot of franchises under it's belt with Mario, Astroboy and Donkey Kong but there are a ton of new franchises that Nintendo has ITTL and i will discuss all of them that exist up to this point. (Not counting anything from OTL, Osamu Tezuka, and Popeye). here they are.

website used for scaling: https://vsbattles.fandom.com/wiki/Tiering_System
Addition: this does not count for media like Movies, TV Shows, Comic, Manga, Anime, and Animations; they can have much different levels of power and all the powers that is told about these series are for the video game canon.

Saberman Stampede Series: Saber Stampede would be one of if not Nintendo first major exclusive franchise that they made al the way in the 50's. the Major characters would be Saber, Montezuma, Enguarde, The Mountain King, and Quetzalcoatl. the games itself would play an lot like Montezuma's revenge and pitfall IOTL and be connected to donkey Kong and the Mario franchise later on.
- Saber's character would be an weird mix of Indiana Jones, Wario, Don Quixote, and hunter Van Pelt (from the 1995 Jumanji), he would be an famous hunter of magical beasts during the 19th century and finder of mysterious artifacts for cash, but also saving the world and the realms along with it.
- his main rival dreaded Quetzalcoatl: an powerful magical beast that can shapeshift, can manipulate ice, poison, electricity, and fire, can fly in the air and causes massive shockwaves by hitting his head onto the ground.
- the true villains of the franchise are Montezuma and the Mountain King; who are gods of magical beasts and the twelve Realms that would do anything to ruin humanity and create a society for the Magical Beasts
- Engaurde is a powerful magical beast that Saberman considers an ally and a worthy adversary who helps Saberman along the way to save the world from evil.
if we ranked the power of the Saberman Stampede Franchise by using VS. Battle Scaling (which i used for all of them i scaled); the Franchise would be anywhere from 9-A to 2-A if anybody wanted to know.

Canrieligan Series: the Carieligan Series would be Nintendo's magical girl franchise, Carnieligan would get many Manga and Anime adaptations some of which will eventually come to America. the game consists of Carnieligan an Royal magician who does an show at her home planet of Europa when an evil being called jevil starts taking over earth and the entire milky way to spread darkness and misery all over the galaxy, after the news is given to Carnieligan would changes form and be launched to earth making many friends along the way and stop jevil's and his gangs plans. the game would play very differently from almost any of Nintendo franchises ever did as it is both a musical and a traditional platformer series with varying levels of gameplay.
the power of this series would be anywhere from 11-C to 0.

Characters so Far: (Carneiligan, Jevil, Jexter, Mongolia, GameMaster, Piedmont, Hercules, Magni, and Alice)

the Puzzle League Franchise: A collection of many different puzzle games that be encompassed in one franchise aside from Panel De Pon.

Pinbot Series: the Nintendo Staple Pinball series containing a race of robotic Living beings called Pinbots that rule over galaxies and play pinball using planets and stars all day because of sheer boredom. Plays like pinball.
the power of the verse would be anything over 4-A.

Battle Shark: Nintendo's Submarine franchise. not much else to say.

Dillion's Rolling Western: A Pinball, Turn Based, and Speed Platform Western Game featuring Dillion the Armadillo and is one of nintendo's oldest series being supported; would later compete with Sonic during the 90's.
the power of this verse would be anywhere from 9-B to 6-A.

Sky Hawk: Nintendo's version of Afterburner and flight combat games.

Fix It Felix Jr.: Nintendo of America's And Gottlieb first truly successful game and introduces Felix Jr. and Ralph. Connected to the Mario Verse and plays like OTL Fix it Felix Jr. had some sequels but never was as successful as Mario but did well in Mario spinoffs.
power of Felix is 7-C/5-C while Ralph is high 7-A/4-B depending in game/franchise.

Nintendo Pro Rally: it would be nintendo's main simulation and arcade racing franchise. most similar to GT, Sega's Racing games and Forza.

Sheriff: Nintendo's adult western franchise featuring the sheriff (a nameless gunman) fixing and living the semi-steampunk wild west doing what he can to stop crime as well as not getting into crime himself. plays very different depending on which game it is.
power of this verse would range from 10-B to 6-C.

Characters of this franchise so far: (Sheriff, Chimero, and El Macho)

Radar Scope (includes Space Firebird): Radar scope would be Nintendo's overhead shooting franchise, the gimmick would that you can use enemies weapons and there would only be speed and bomb powerups so if you want the laser weapon you have to kill the enemy and collect the weapon to use it. Space Firebird would act kind of like Sinistar in his game.
the power of this verse is 8-A to 3-B.

Dragon King: Nintendo's Premier Fighting game franchise until a certain video game crossover comes out in 1997 for the N64. plays a mix of the crossover and Street Fighter.
Power of this verse range from 10-C to 5-A.

Characters for Dragon King so Far: (Joe Marshall, Manchu, the Dragon King, Spring Jack, and Skipper).

Valiant Heroes: Nintendo's Superhero beat-em up franchise; plays differently based on if it is the 2d or the 3d games.
power of the verse would range from 10-C to 5-C.

Characters of this verse so far: (Samson, Oko, BoomBastic, and Megadroids).

Q-Bert: basically OTL but more popular and lasts longer.

Heli-Fire: Nintendo's Helicopter game franchise. not much else to say.

next three chapters will be about the Game and Watch, the Second gen in general, and the video game crash of 1983.

Edit: changed some of the stats for the power and mentioned some characters for some of the new franchises described below, added info about the verses.

 

[Nivek]

next three chapters will be about the Game and Watch, the Second gen in general, and the video game crash of 1983.

interesting, especially the last details, and nice for summing up the franchises

 

[Ninja2006]

by 1983, Nintendo has a lot of franchises under it's belt with Mario, Astroboy and Donkey Kong but there are a ton of new franchises that Nintendo has ITTL and i will discuss all of them that exist up to this point. (Not counting anything from OTL, Osamu Tezuka, and Popeye). here they are.

website used for scaling: https://vsbattles.fandom.com/wiki/Tiering_System

Saberman Stampede Series: Saber Stampede would be one of if not Nintendo first major exclusive franchise that they made al the way in the 50's. the Major characters would be Saber, Montezuma, Enguarde, The Mountain King, and Quetzalcoatl. the games itself would play an lot like Montezuma's revenge and pitfall IOTL and be connected to donkey Kong and the Mario franchise later on.
- Saber's character would be an weird mix of Indiana Jones, Wario, Don Quixote, and hunter Van Pelt (from the 1995 Jumanji), he would be an famous hunter of magical beasts during the 19th century and finder of mysterious artifacts for cash, but also saving the world and the realms along with it.
- his main rival dreaded Quetzalcoatl: an powerful magical beast that can shapeshift, can manipulate ice, poison, electricity, and fire, can fly in the air and causes massive shockwaves by hitting his head onto the ground.
- the true villains of the franchise are Montezuma and the Mountain King; who are gods of magical beasts and the twelve Realms that would do anything to ruin humanity and create a society for the Magical Beasts
- Engaurde is a powerful magical beast that Saberman considers an ally and a worthy adversary who helps Saberman along the way to save the world from evil.
if we ranked the power of the Saberman Stampede Franchise by using VS. Battle Scaling (which i used for all of them i scaled); the Franchise would be anywhere from 9-A to 2-A if anybody wanted to know.

Canrieligan Series: the Carieligan Series would be Nintendo's magical girl franchise, Carnieligan would get many Manga and Anime adaptations some of which will eventually come to America. the game consists of Carnieligan an Royal magician who does an show at her home planet of Europa when an evil being called jevil starts taking over earth and the entire milky way to spread darkness and misery all over the galaxy, after the news is given to Carnieligan would changes form and be launched to earth making many friends along the way and stop jevil's and his gangs plans. the game would play very differently from almost any of Nintendo franchises ever did as it is both a musical and a traditional platformer series with varying levels of gameplay.
the power of this series would be anywhere from 11-C to 0.

the Puzzle League Franchise: A collection of many different puzzle games that be encompassed in one franchise aside from Panel De Pon.

Pinbot Series: the Nintendo Staple Pinball series containing robotic beings called Pinbots that rule the galaxy and play pinball using planets and stars all day because of sheer boredom. Plays like pinball.
the power of the verse would be anything over 4-A.

Battle Shark: Nintendo's Submarine franchise. not much else to say.

Dillion's Rolling Western: A Pinball, Turn Based, and Speed Platform Western Game featuring Dillion the Armadillo and is one of nintendo's oldest series being supported; would later compete with Sonic during the 90's.
the power of this verse would be anywhere from 9-B to 6-A.

Sky Hawk: Nintendo's version of Afterburner and flight combat games.

Fix It Felix Jr.: Nintendo of America's And Gottlieb first truly successful game and introduces Felix Jr. and Ralph. Connected to the Mario Verse and plays like OTL Fix it Felix Jr. had some sequels but never was as successful as Mario but did well in Mario spinoffs.
power of Felix is 8-A/5-C while Ralph is high 7-A/4-B depending in game/franchise.

Nintendo Pro Rally: it would be nintendo's main simulation and arcade racing franchise. most similar to GT, Sega's Racing games and Forza.

Sheriff: Nintendo's adult western franchise featuring the sheriff (a nameless gunman) fixing and living the steampunk wild west doing what he can to stop crime as well as not getting into crime himself. plays very different depending on which game it is.
power of this verse would range from 10-B to 6-C.

Radar Scope (includes Space Firebird): Radar scope would be Nintendo's overhead shooting franchise, the gimmick would that you can use enemies weapons and there would only be speed and bomb powerups so if you want the laser weapon you have to kill the enemy and collect the weapon to use it. Space Firebird would act kind of like Sinistar in his game.
the power of this verse is 8-A to 3-B.

Dragon King: Nintendo's Premier Fighting game franchise till a certain video game crossover comes out in 1997 for the N64. plays a mix of the crossover and Street Fighter.
Power of this verse range from 10-A to 5-A.

Valiant Heroes: Nintendo's Superhero beat-em up franchise; plays differently based on if it is the 2d or the 3d games.
power of the verse would range from 10-C to 5-C.

Q-Bert: basically OTL but more popular and lasts longer.

Heli-Fire: Nintendo's Helicopter game franchise. not much else to say.

next three chapters will be about the Game and Watch, the Second gen in general, and the video game crash of 1983.

Cool franchise ideas!

 

[MemphisC]

updated my current chapter to add some new characters, new details, and changed some details for the New Nintendo franchises in this TL.

 

[MemphisC]

this chapter will be a pretty short chapter because of the topic it focuses on.

The Game and Watch series of LCD games were started by Gunpei Yokoi during the late 70's as an idea to make portable gaming available to the masses by using LCD watch technology to make simple high score based games. this started with the Game called Ball released in 1978 in Japan and 1979 everywhere else to high success selling over 1 million units in it first year. this was due to the low price and the pick up and play nature of the game (Plus it was a clock and it had a fantastic battery life). more games would come out in the Game and Watch line with different form factors and models for each LCD game.

The line started with the Silver Series in 1978 with the game Ball and lasts for 2 years before being replaced by the Gold Series which was largely the same to the Silver Series. the Wide screen in 1981 was largely the same to the Silver and Gold Series but with wider screen. Most of the Game and Watch models afterwards were practically the same as the Wide screen models though with six exceptions.

- 1981: The Vertical Multiscreen Variant was one of the most popular versions of the game and saw the birth of the D-pad and was the influence for the DS platform 20-ish years later.
- 1981: The Horizontal Multiscreen Variant was similar to the Vertical one but have two screens side to side instead of top to bottom (not as successful as the Vertical variation)
- 1982: Table Top variant looks like a portable Arcade Machine.
- 1983: Panorama Variant is a modified table top variant with the ability to display widescreen graphics.
- 1984: Super Color is a version that had a color vertical aspect ratio.
- 1985: the Micro Vs System is a Multiplayer variant of the Widescreen variant.

the Game and Watch line would finally be discontinued in 1990 by the Nintendo Game Boy Handheld which made most LCD games outdated and obsolete due to the portability and power of the original Game Boy. the Game and Watch line was a massive success selling over 75 million in it's lifetime and starting Nintendo's Dominance in portable gaming for the next 30 years.

next few chapter is about all the other home console players during this Generation and the video game crash of 1983.

 

[Nivek]

this chapter will be a pretty short chapter because of the topic it focuses on.

The Game and Watch series of LCD games were started by Gunpei Yokoi during the late 70's as an idea to make portable gaming available to the masses by using LCD watch technology to make simple high score based games. this started with the Game called Ball released in 1978 in Japan and 1979 everywhere else to high success selling over 1 million units in it first year. this was due to the low price and the pick up and play nature of the game (Plus it was a clock and it had a fantastic battery life). more games would come out in the Game and Watch line with different form factors and models for each LCD game.

The line started with the Silver Series in 1978 with the game Ball and lasts for 2 years before being replaced by the Gold Series which was largely the same to the Silver Series. the Wide screen in 1981 was largely the same to the Silver and Gold Series but with wider screen. Most of the Game and Watch models afterwards were practically the same as the Wide screen models though with six exceptions.

- 1981: The Vertical Multiscreen Variant was one of the most popular versions of the game and saw the birth of the D-pad and was the influence for the DS platform 20-ish years later.
- 1981: The Horizontal Multiscreen Variant was similar to the Vertical one but have two screens side to side instead of top to bottom (not as successful as the Vertical variation)
- 1982: Table Top variant looks like a portable Arcade Machine.
- 1983: Panorama Variant is a modified table top variant with the ability to display widescreen graphics.
- 1984: Super Color is a version that had a color vertical aspect ratio.
- 1985: the Micro Vs System is a Multiplayer variant of the Widescreen variant.

the Game and Watch line would finally be discontinued in 1990 by the Nintendo Game Boy Handheld which made most LCD games outdated and obsolete due to the portability and power of the original Game Boy. the Game and Watch line was a massive success selling over 75 million in it's lifetime and starting Nintendo's Dominance in portable gaming for the next 30 years.

next few chapter is about all the other home console players during this Generation and the video game crash of 1983.

Nice,the venerable g&w was such nice device ,the update it deserved it

 

[MemphisC]

Nintendo was doing well in the Second Generation with the Game and Watch line and the Famicom/NES was doing well as it was the second best selling console that generation. Nintendo's arcade output was also second to none in this era as well. but who was the First in the race and who was some of the other players this generation.

This is part one of a four of posts briefly describing all the other major players during the Second Generation; this first part will be about the Atari 2600 and 5200 platforms this generation.

Atari:​

Atari 2600​

The Atari 2600 with the main controllers and the Atari 2600 Jr.
​

The Atari 2600 platform was the most successful Home Console this generation selling over 40 million units over it's 15 year lifespan. this was such a successful platform for three reasons. one was the low price of the system and the power in it; while it was power of the system a joke compared to the later Colecovision and the Bally Astrocade. it was more powerful than the Fairchild Channel F and for the price of 199.99 it was a no brainer to get a Atari 2600. another reason that it ahead of most of the competition by a year and more compared to Atari which allowed them to develop many great games that would give the consumer better reason to go with Atari rather than the NES or the Intellivision. the third reason that the Financial Backing of Warner Bros. While Nolan Bushnell does stay as the CEO of Atari and is the CEO of Atari's new subsidiary Chuck E. Cheese; Warner Bros owns a large stake of Atari that is around 25 to 33 percent. the reason that Warner Bros doesn't buy Atari is because the meeting with Nolan Bushnell about Atari goes mixed to where they saw a purpose in working with Atari but not enough to actually buying them along with his Chuck E. Cheese project too; so they partner up instead and with this backing from Warner Bros during the early years of the 2600 this gave the Atari 2600 a massive marketing budget and licensing rights for IPs like Superman and the Looney Tunes. the Warner Bros support for Atari would end by 1984 due to the video game crash as the WB would sell all of its shares from Atari and would move over fully to Nintendo with support.

the console had such a long lifespan was that all their successors were never as successful as the 2600. the 5200 and 7800 were somewhat successful but were heavily overshadowed by the SNES and the Master System. the Atari 2600 in it's later years was still supported with games like Klax and the Atari 2600 Jr was the lowest end options for poor families way to play video games. though support for the Atari 2600 would officially end in 1992.

The Atari 2600 had a lasting legacy that very few could match as it ushered the Home Console Industry and made them popular in the first place and had some legendary games like Pitfall and YARS Revenge; here are the specs.

Release Date	NA: Semptember 1977 EU: 1978 JP: January 1981
Cost	$199.99 at launch ($49.99 for the Atari Jr.)
Games released	over 500 officially (thousands more were unlicensed)
Specs	Basically OTL 2600: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600#Hardware
Sales	40.8 Million by 1992 28.2 Million in NA 11.8 Million in EU 800,000 in JP
Lifespan	1977 to 1992

Atari 5200​

the Atari 5200 plus the Atari 5200 controller
​

The Atari 5200 was the true successor to the Atari 2600 and was based off of the Atari 400 computer released in 1978. when it was released in 1981 it was one of the most powerful consoles of that generation only being beaten out by the Colecovision, the Fairchild Ultravision, and the SG-1000. the Atari 5200 had backwards compatibility with the Atari 2600 gave the 5200 a large amount of software at launch. along with some good arcade ports would have made the 5200 a success right. it was for two years till the video game crash of 1983 ruined everything as the 5200 as for 16 months the game industry was at a crawl and when it was over; the Super Famicom/SNES was coming and people were saving their money and waiting in anticipation for it's launch in Japan and North America. so the Atari 5200 would be shelved by Atari for the rushed Atari 7800 in order to compete with Nintendo and that is how the 5200 was for the rest of its life until it's discontinuation in 1989.

a add-on that came out in 1983 was the Disk add-on that allowed the 5200 to become a low-end Atari 400 computer; allowing for full backwards compatibility for the 400.

the system lasted till 1989 when it was officially discontinued for the 7800 and the Panther. the lifespan of the 5200 was long and short as while it was supported till 1989, the Atari 7800 released only three years later and cannibalized all the 5200 sales due to it having 2600 and 5200 backwards compatibility. though to this a few stand out games like the best version of joust and a new IP called Crash Bandicoot released late in it's life. here are the specs.

Release Date	August 18, 1981 (NA) March 7, 1982 (EU)
Cost	249.99 at launch
Specs	Basically a 400 with 4 kB of memory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_8-bit_family#Design
Games Released	300 officially by 1989
Sales	3.66 Million total (NA and EU)
Backwards Combability	Atari 2600 (normally) and Atari 400 (though add ons)
Lifespan	1981 - 1989

the next part of this chapter will be about the Fairchild Channel F, Fairchild Ultravision; then it will be the Magnavox Odyssey 2, Odyssey 3, and the Mattel Intellivision.

edit: fixed and added some text with the Atari 5200 and Warner Bros reason to not buy Atari. fixed the Atari 2600 dates too. changed what you'll see next chapter; going to be focused on Fairchild. added text about add-ons for the 5200.
New Edit: Retconned Sony buying Atari in 1992. something else changes now.

 

[Ninja2006]

Nintendo was doing well in the Second Generation with the Game and Watch line and the Famicom/NES was doing well as it was the second best selling console that generation. Nintendo's arcade output was also second to none in this era as well. but who was the First in the race and who was some of the other players this generation.

This is part one of a six/eight parts of posts briefly describing all the other major players during the Second Generation; this first part will be about the Atari 2600 and 5200 platforms this generation.

Atari:​

Atari 2600​

View attachment 889082 View attachment 889083
The Atari 2600 with the main controllers and the Atari 2600 Jr.
​

The Atari 2600 platform was the most successful Home Console this generation selling over 40 million units over it's 15 year lifespan. this was such a successful platform for three reasons. one was the low price of the system and the power in it; while it was power of the system a joke compared to the later Colecovision and the Bally Astrocade. it was more powerful than the Fairchild Channel F and for the price of 199.99 it was a no brainer to get a Atari 2600. another reason that it ahead of most of the competition by a year and more compared to Atari which allowed them to develop many great games that would give the consumer better reason to go with Atari rather than the NES or the Intellivision. the third reason that the Financial Backing of Warner Bros. While Nolan Bushnell does stay as the CEO of Atari and is the CEO of Atari's new subsidiary Chuck E. Cheese; Warner Bros owns a large stake of Atari that is around 25 to 33 percent. this backing from Warner Bros during the early years of the 2600 gave them a massive marketing budget and licensing rights for IPs like Superman and the Looney Tunes. the Warner Bros support for Atari would end by 1984 due to the video game crash as the WB would sell all of its shares from Atari and would move over fully to Nintendo with support.

the console had such a long lifespan was that all their successors were never as successful as the 2600. the 5200 and 7800 were somewhat successful but were heavily overshadowed by the SNES and the Master System. the Atari 2600 in it's later years was still supported with games like Klax and the Atari 2600 Jr was the lowest end options for poor families way to play video games. though support for the Atari 2600 would officially end in 1992 after Atari was bought off by Sony for 1.8 Billion Dollars.

The Atari 2600 had a lasting legacy that very few could match as it ushered the Home Console Industry and made them popular in the first place and had some legendary games like Pitfall and YARS Revenge; here are the specs.

Release Date	NA: September 1977 EU: 1978 FRA: 1982 JP: October 1982 (Atari 2800)
Cost	$199.99 at launch ($49.99 for the Atari Jr.)
Games released	over 500 officially (thousands more were unlicensed)
Specs	Basically OTL 2600: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600#Hardware
Sales	40.8 Million by 1992 28.2 Million in NA 11.8 Million in EU 800,000 in JP
Lifespan	1977 to 1992

Atari 5200​

View attachment 889085
the Atari 5200 plus the Atari 2600
​

The Atari 5200 was the true successor to the Atari 2600 and was based off of the Atari 400 computer released in 1978. when it was released in 1981 it was one of the most powerful consoles of that generation only being beaten out by the Colecovision, the Fairchild Ultravision, and the SG-1000. the Atari 5200 had backwards compatibility with the Atari 2600 gave the 5200 a large amount of software at launch. along with some good arcade ports would have made the 5200 a success right. it was for two years till the video game crash of 1983 ruined everything as the 5200 as for 16 months the game industry was at a crawl and when it was over; the Super Famicom/SNES was coming and people were saving their money and waiting in anticipation for it's launch in Japan and North America. so the Atari 5200 would be shelved by Atari for the rushed Atari 7800 in order to compete with Nintendo and that is how the 5200 was for the rest of its life until it's discontinuation in 1989.

the system lasted till 1989 when it was officially discontinued for the 7800 and the Panther. the lifespan of the 5200 was long and short as while it was supported till 1989, the Atari 7800 released only three years later and cannibalized all the 5200 sales due to it having 2600 and 5200 backwards compatibility. though to this a few stand out games like the best version of joust and a new IP called Crash Bandicoot released late in it's life. here are the specs.

Release Date	August 18, 1981 (NA) March 7, 1982 (EU)
Cost	249.99 at launch
Specs	Basically a 400 with 4 kB of memory:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_8-bit_family#Design
Games Released	300 officially by 1989
Sales	3.66 Million total (NA and EU)
Backwards Combability	Atari 2600 and Atari 400
Lifespan	1981 - 1989

the next part of this chapter will be about the Fairchild Channel F, Odyssey 2, and the Mattel Intellivision.

Cool!

 

[MemphisC]

this is part two of four talking about the Fairchild Channel F and Ultravision.

Fairchild Channel F​

Console design​

The Fairchild channel F was the first of the Second Generation home consoles released in September of 1976. created by Fairchild Semiconductors, Jerry Lawson, and his team. The Fairchild channel F was an very important and fairly successful console for its time; inspiring the Atari 2600 and all the rest of the major players and everything afterwards. this pretty much killed all the Pong-soles coming out during this time. for $199.99 in 1976; it was a good deal and for a year it was the top of the town. until Atari announced and then subsequently released in 1977. this would cause a short war against Fairchild and Atari that lasted from 1977 - 1979. Fairchild put up a good fight and released some great games with the limited hardware but by 1979; they saw that they could not compete with all the new competitors coming out like Nintendo NES, Magnavox Odyssey, and Mattel Intellivision and sold their Fairchild Division to Zircon International and they kept it alive till 1984 when it was fully discontinued. Jerry Lawson and all his team would be fired from Fairchild and would Move on to Atari and then in 1985 Jerry Lawson would start a new company called Videosoft that will be pretty important later on.

the importance of the Fairchild channel F can not be understated as it was one of the most important consoles of it's time due to creating the cartridge concept and helping to start the second generation. here are the specs.

Release Date	September 1976 (NA) 1977 (EU & JP)
Cost	$199.99 at launch
Specs	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Channel_F#Technical_specifications
Games Released	around 200 by 1984
Sales	around 4 Million by 1984 (Worldwide)
Lifespan	1976-1984 (NA) 1977-1984 (EU & JP)

Fairchild Ultravision Video Arcade System​

Console Design
​

Fairchild's Reintroduction into the console industry was a ballsy move for Fairchild Semiconductor but it made some Sense as they had decent success with the Fairchild till they gave up in 1979. in 1981 they developed a powerful CPU and VDP called Big Ben for the CPU and the Analytical Engine for the VDP. Fairchild tried to sell the chipset to companies like Atari, Intel, and Apple; but all declined. the only two showed Interest for the chipset were Ultravision who wanted to develop games for it and Texas Instruments who wanted to use it for a true 16 bit computer and a home console. development started on the Ultravision in late 1981 and was finished in 1983 right before CES. the CES 1983 show was surprisingly well as the people were impressed with the power of the Big Ben CPU and the impressive looking games that gave the also shown early SNES prototypes and arcade stuff a run for their money. but the price of the console was almost 800 dollars; though this was because it was also a home computer and had a Television built into the system. when it came out in October 1983 for 799.99; it initially did okay and then completely dropped off because of the Video Game Crash of 1983. this would be the biggest failure of Fairchild and this would made them bankrupt in late 1984 after Texas Instruments Computer quit it contract with Fairchild after disagreements with Texas Instuments percentage of the profits being too low for them. after this happened Fairchild was Bought out by RCA and the Ultravision was discontinued in January 1985. the Ultravision Game Company also shut down by 1985 due to the failure of the system and the video game crash.

it's main legacy today would be that of failure and massive ambitions that were never reached. it was only released in North America due to the failure of the system. it was also known for being super impressive for the time but being a bastard to develop for due to the architecture being very foreign to most developers and the 2 VDPs having weird RAM relationships and the Mathematical Engine being added late in development (like OTL Sega Saturn). here are the specs.

Release Date	October 18, 1983
Lifespan	1983 - 1985
Cost	$799.99 at launch
CPU	Big Ben (16-bit, 4 MHz)
Developers	Fairchild Semiconductor, Texas Instruments
Manufacturers	Fairchild
VDPs	Analytical Engine (12-bit, 2.5 MHz) Mathematical Engine (15-bit, 3.66 MHz)
RAM	32 KB of Main RAM 32 KB of VDP RAM (Shared) 16 KB of Sound RAM
Media	Cartridge (up to 64KB) Cassette and Floppy Disk (up to 195 KB)
Graphics Mode	Bitmap Mode only
Sprites	32 Maximum (4 colors) 64 (8 colors)
Color palate	64 colors
Resolution	anywhere from 160 x 120 to 320 x 240
Sound chip	2x General Instrument AY-3-8910
Amount of Games	86 officially released by 1985
Backwards compatibility	Atari 2600, Intellivision, Channel F, and TI-99 4/A via Adaptors
Amount Sold	about 100,000 by 1985

next part of this chapter will be about the Odyssey 2 and 3. then the ColecoVision, Astrocade, Intellivision, SG-1000, Vetrex, Microvision, and the RCA studio II. and then the final chapter will be about all the minor consoles that came out that generation from 1976-1983. and we will talk about the Crash of 1983.

edit: added the price to the specs of the Fairchild Ultravision.