The Rise of 3D Gaming: The History of 5th Gen Video Game Consoles

[@PyrosPelagics]

subbed. console wars of the 90s and early 2000s was epic, glad i was old enough to enjoy that time period.

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Right on!! Thanks for the sub. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@MaxAbramson3]

You should've seen some of the nuttier things that the 1980s brought out. We were all waiting for 3D!

[@OscarsBadFurDay]

Amen to that lol I was born in 86. 90s era was so great I really miss it sometimes…

[@Vegapedia]

I love it when the algorithm gets it right, you got a new subscriber! Get stuff and I can’t wake to binge watch your other vids.

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Thanks for subbing and watching. Great to have you on board. Next vid, and last of these, will come out the 29th. See you there!!

[@LITTLE1994]

As a kid during that time, it was indeed something new.

[@dedbattery]

Always great videos with the history. I have a couple of these and it's always interesting to see how long they actually were on the market.

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Thanks. Some of these were defiantly short lived.

[@dedbattery]

@@RetrogamerGenX right, so interesting how long some last or why they failed

[@MichaelODonoghueMOD]

That the 32x and Saturn were competing for access to the SH2 processors causing shortages is just pure incompetence. Obviously releasing the Saturn without telling most retailers is also ridiculous

[@rodneyabrett]

5th gen had a really rough start. I bought all of these, including the 3DO. From my perspective, it had to also do with 3d gaming using polygons and when that technology started to emerge as the true "next gen" gaming aesthetic. When the 3DO released, we were still in this weird transition period of 2d to 3d and everyone thought that "full motion video" was the next big thing, especially when the first CD-ROM devices came out and video compression was in its early days. It was only until I saw Virtual Fighter in the arcades that I thought to myself, "Ah! Yeah, that's probably what games are going to look like going forward"

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Yeah man, I totally agree. The 5th gen was just a weird generation trying to figure out this "new" technology. I compare it to the 2nd gen. When they were trying to figure out what a game console should be. Controller design, computer vs game system, keypads, etc...

[@Sinn0100]

When I saw Virtua Fighter for the first time in 1993, I was dumbstruck. I knew instantaneously that I was witnessing the future of gaming unfold.

[@rodneyabrett]

@Sinn0100 Funny how crude it looks by today's standards.. but I came to the same conclusion when I first saw the game and immediately knew this was the start of a new medium. The first game I saw in the arcades that used polygons was Hard Drivin', but that didn't really impress me all that much due to the poor framerates.. so I sort of brushed it off as being something video games would not really use as a standard. Now in 2025, we have character meshes that have hundreds of thousands of polygons(compared to the 1000 or so on Virtual Fighter)

[@nakdad]

well done brother

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Thanks bro.

[@j-morecoffeepls]

Good video, I enjoyed the content and information. I think it’s kind of strange that the Virtual Boy was included, I didn’t think it fit in with the other consoles. I think most of us would rather forget it existed. I never owned a Saturn back then, but these days it’s the fifth generation console I enjoy playing the most and go back to more than original PlayStation and N64. Great job on the video!

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Thanks brother. 🤣 Well technically it is a 5th generation console. Just wait until I start getting into the more obscure consoles on these videos. There's some really strange ones.

[@chrisducati26]

Great video! As a kid growing in the 90's i lived all those incredible moments, I always thought 3do was so overpriced but it was the first console of the way the things are getting evolved. At the end of 95 I finally got the Playstation and the rest is history... you forgot to mention the Amiga cd32

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Right on!! The Amiga CD32 and the CD-i will be added once I get their "A Look at Videos'" done. I have my viewers vote for the system they want to see the next "A Look At" on. The Amiga CD32 and CD-i have been on the polls, but have yet to win. So forgotten, lol no, just haven't gottn' around to them yet. Keep an eye out for the next poll on my community tab, should be up in the next week or so...

[@chrisducati26]

@RetrogamerGenX beautiful can't wait to see that,I forgot to say that I just subscribed to your channel

[@MrCalverino]

nice series 🥇

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@JeffisWinning]

$700 in 1993 is about $1,528 today. The Panasonic 3DO was an expensive console.

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Yeah it was.

[@Superdimensional]

Was the first thing I ever bought on credit.

[@archive3do769]

Had expensive new hardware inside. PS1 was $400 in 1994. Really should not be that surprising

[@lawrencemoody738]

I bought it when it came out. We had a good time with it. It was disappointing eventually, but had a lot of interesting games, not as disappointing as a jaguar piece of garbage

[@JesusChrist-is-not-MrNice]

Since it was possible to rent consoles at the video club store, we had fun with the 3DO for some weekend evenings.

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Right on!!

[@johnrickard8512]

Nintendo made a HUGE mistake by not double-checking their contract with Sony!

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Right!

[@InsomniumX]

A huevo valedores a huevo 🥚!!! Es un BACILON de mamey pinches carnales pinches valedores locos están locos y además es de mamey el bacilon

[@viktorbosnjak2037]

Looking at sony and their games now they dodged a bullet.

[@amateurasian]

Nintendo lost but we all won for a time

[@segat-800]

Such an epic era of gaming. I ended up being on the losing side of the console war (Sega), but don't regret my choice as the Saturn was such an amazing console (especially if you include the Japanese library).

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Yeah I was the same way. I was a huge Sega Fanboy back then. Loved my Saturn, Genesis, 32, and Sega CD. Oh and let's not forget the power base converter. Lol

[@dankpelt]

Good video, but why you keep saying jag-wire over and over right after showing the US commercial correctly pronouncing it as jag-wahr

[@newsbender]

Haha, jag-wahr also sounds weird af to Brits. It's Jag-u-a!

[@dankpelt]

@newsbender over there, absolutely. Here is wahr. Much like here it's ah-loo-min-umm and not al-loo-min-ee-um

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Well in my native language (German) it's pronounced yag ware. lol I could have said it that way and blew all your minds. 🤣

[@newsbender]

@ not mine, I'm married to a German, have a German daughter and live in Germany 🙂

[@ecu4321]

Agree. Notice it a lot too. Kinda weird as this mis-pronunciation seems to be the trend with recent US youtubers.

[@ryanellison1044]

I truly believe that if it were Nintendo and Miyamoto that were in charge of the Saturn, they would have been able to create a good 5th gen Sonic platform game that took advantage of the Saturn's strengths. They could've pulled off a Crash type game with Sonic, but seems like they desperately wanted the Saturn to do a Mario 64 type game. Just can't imagine what kind of a headache it must've been working for Sega at that time, people nearly died trying to make Sonic go 3d. Sega just couldn't be realistic with itself. They get on my nerves, cause they should be doing so much better.

[@ClementBoucher-uq5or]

There was no Ken Kutagaree, but Ken Kutaragi. Also there was non Hiroshi Yamamuchee, but Hiroshi Yamauchi.

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Right. I'd love to see you guys pronouce my last name. Very, very German. No one gets it right. 🤣🤣 Unless your German.

[@ClementBoucher-uq5or]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@RetrogamerGenXWell it’s a little different from mispronounciation, but it’s ok 👍 btw it’s an interesting video

[@Crayolapup]

"Kunt engari" 30:30 Bro, where's the, "n" in Kutaragi? lololol

[@80s_Gamr]

You have so many facts either wrong or off by some degree. Probably the biggest one is saying that Nintendo announced they were working with Sony at CES but then changed... Sony showed up the first day saying there was going to be a big announcement the next day when Nintendo was there. The next day Nintendo showed up and announced the Phillips collaboration which was a total surprise to Sony. Sony also never demanded 100% of the rights to the games for the add-on. Also the story of Ken Kataragi is far different than the quick mention you make of it. EDIT - That sounded harsh and I didn't mean it to be. Once you moved on beyond what I talked about it was pretty much spot on and overall I do think this is a good video.

[@BalancedSpirit79]

A friend of mine briefly had the Goldstar 3DO, but we didn't play it much. He had a weird game called Captain Quazar which I couldn't get into, but there was another game we all liked called Twisted, which simulated a game show. None of us were very impressed by the system overall, though. I bought a 32X and a few games on the cheap from a friend and hooked it up to my Sega CDX. I had fun playing Space Harrier, Virtua Racing and Shadow Squadron on it, but ultimately it shouldn't have been made because Sega obviously needed to focus on the Saturn. It definitely qualifies as a failure. Seeing that intro vid from the Saturn demo CD made me feel like I was 16 again. It's a shame that this system never got the recognition it deserved. I know that there were a lot of chips inside it which weren't necessarily designed to play nice with each other without very precise coding, plus their devkit and documentation were lacking, but it was still an amazing system capable of great things. My two favorite games officially released in the USA were Guardian Heroes (a side scrolling beat-em-up) and Dragon Force (a war-sim/RPG hybrid). IMO more Japanese exclusives should've been officially released worldwide, but at least we could import them. A few of the good JP Saturn games were Last Bronx, Dead or Alive and XMen vs Street Fighter (the latter of which needed the 4MB RAM upgrade). I definitely liked the PS1 for 3D games, but I found it to be lacking for 2D games (take a look at the PS1 version of XMen vs Street Fighter, it's *AWFUL*). Some of my favs were Star Ocean: The Second Story, Dragon Warrior VII, Street Fighter EX+Alpha and Ehrgeiz. I had an N64 but I didn't feel compelled to play many games on it. IMO they should've made a CD based system instead of sticking with carts. Also, I didn't like the fact that there was no internal menu in the system firmware, which made save file management a chore. I had to constantly turn the system on and off, inserting a new game each time so all the files on my memory cart could be visible. Despite its flaws, I particularly enjoyed playing Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64 and Killer Instinct Gold. These vids are such a fun trip down memory lane. Can't wait for the next one!!

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Thanks brother. And thanks for sharing. I love to hear other people's thoughts and memories of these awesome machines.

[@SeijuroHiko-vx3lw]

I remember another Bandai console, the Playdia.

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Oh yeah. The kids console. Kinda like what Sega tried with the Pico. Well like I said at the beginning of the video. This is a work in progress. As I do the "a look at" videos for these systems they're added into these videos at the end of each year. So maybe next year my friend.

[@atm94404]

You say in your 3DO section that up until that point, consoles were sold at a loss. Nope. There weren't any that did that at launch because the "razor blade model" wasn't really applied to relatively expensive electronics at that point. When consoles launched, they were often at a high price and sold at a profit, after a year or so on the market they would sell them NEAR cost, but never below except for very special promotions or closeouts. The Jaguar didn't cost $250 to manufacture so it obviously wasn't being sold at a loss (unless you count the fact that it took tens of millions to build the factory that made them but they only sold 250,000 units). It wasn't until the Playstation that Sony (in a move meant to seize a large chunk of the market as revenge for Nintendo embarrassing them at CES by dropping Sony as their CD-ROM maker for Philips) sold the console for below cost, Which is why the PS1 didn't have a pack-in, built-in memory, and had non-standard AV ports necessitating a separate Sony-specific cable purchase for anything but RF. Sony's move was so blatant that Sega petitioned the FTC to charge Sony with anti-trust and dumping. "Selling below cost" for consoles didn't really start until Sony and even then Nintendo never did that with the exception of maybe the N64. As for the business model, it's the same as VCRs, DVD players, etc. And Microsoft has turned profits in their game divisions many times (360 did).

[@JesusChrist-is-not-MrNice]

But I didn't want another year with my Sega Genesis 😂 I spent more time gaming on the PC of my older brother back then, waiting for the next generation console. I wanted Doom-alike games to play in my room hehehe.

[@RetrogamerGenX]

🤣 I hear ya bro.

[@TheHybridRules]

The price of the 3DO was really off putting! The only killer app was the original Need for Speed which was absolutely mind blowingly amazing to look at and play. Most of the other games available were not good or were playable on other machines so it was always going to be a hard sell. As for the Jaguar, it was doomed to fail. Screaming 64 bit but not showing anything that made us go… wow64 bit!! …at a time when 16 bit consoles were still popular was never convincing the market to take the leap. Games sell systems, not technical details and it’s the reason why these systems failed. Microsoft still hasn’t learned this. Nintendo learned this after the GameCube and it’s one of the many reasons they never bothered with the generation war anymore and have trod their own path because they know games should be fun and fun sells.

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Yeah I remember when the Jaguar came out and thought to myself, "Atari is still making consoles??" Lol

[@lawrencemoody738]

@@TheHybridRules Road rash is great on 3D o.

[@joesaiditstrue]

3DO had quite a few decent to good games. You failed to mention Road Rash, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Crash N Burn, Off World Interceptor, Total Eclipse, Gex.

[@TheHybridRules]

@@lawrencemoody738It was but my point was Road Rash was playable on other machines. The Need for Speed was only playable on the 3DO initially until they converted it to PC and eventually PlayStation and Saturn.

[@TheHybridRules]

@@joesaiditstrueMy point was there was a lot of games like Road Rash and SF were playable on other machines. The only games I played which stood out was Return Fire and Need for Speed but I never had one because of the price tag.

[@lsdowdle]

You said "OpenGPL" when referring to the SGI / Nintendo development system... but I think you meant OpenGL.

[@SeijuroHiko-vx3lw]

It's funny how the Americans systematically forgot the Amiga CD 32. I know it was never released in the USA, but Commodore was still an American company.

[@RetrogamerGenX]

I love how everyone assumes I'm American. I'm German and live in America. I grew up with commodore and Amiga. I ask my viewers in polls on my YT community tab which system they want to see next. I've put the Amiga CD32 on a few of those polls and it hasn't won yet. Keep an eye out for my next poll and vote for it.

[@NYYanks2003040506]

It can never be understated how freaking stupid the 'leadership' at Sega was at this time.

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Yes sir!!

[@tarstarkusz]

MPEG decoding was just not a big deal in 1994. Adding a dedicated MPG decoder would have added substantially to the price. The 603 was a really crappy processor. A 601 at the same clock speed was faster. The clock speed of the 603 was stuck pretty low. The 603 wasn't used long in Macs. The 603e was the one used in most Mac machines. The Pippin was one of the worst ideas in the history of gaming. It combines all the worst parts of a Mac with all the worst parts of a console and wraps them up into one awful product that isn't very good at either being a console or being a computer. How anyone thought this was a good idea is a mystery to me. The Tandy/Memorex VIS system was also a total failure. Only this awful idea came out in 1992. Bandai should have known what a bad idea the Pippin was. At least the VIS was based on DOS and Windows and not Mac OS. Though Windows 31 was not a good game system, the Mac OS was even worse. This is why Macs were so far behind in games.

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Makes you wonder why it was one of the worst, if not the worst video game console of all time. But the geek in me still wants one. lol

[@BalancedSpirit79]

I remember getting a VIS product showcase on VHS in the mail when I was a kid. It was just a minimalistic 286 PC with zero wait states.

[@tarstarkusz]

@@BalancedSpirit79 It's even worse than that. There are a ton of good games that will run a 286, but the VIS cannot run any of them. It can only run VIS software on CD.

[@ezg8448]

MPEG decoder wasn't a big deal, but it was computationally expensive at the time and generally needed an accelerator card to do at full speed. Though admittedly, that need was unnecessary 1 or 2 years later.

[@tarstarkusz]

@@ezg8448 Yes. 94 was a tiny window with only 256 colors. Even by 96 it wasn't that much better. But by 99, there was some pretty good codecs.

[@Superdimensional]

Never heard of a Pipin until a few years ago, and mind you I’m 50 years old and was big into gaming, owned a turbo duo, a 3DO and other rare consoles. That’s how much a fail that was.

[@archive3do769]

Pippin sold less than 50,000 if I recall. Not many at all.

[@EndlessDream]

To think Sega would shoot themselves in the foot. All because they were so desperate to beat Nintendo (with the numerous add-ons) and Sony (by trying to get ahead of release dates)

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Yep. Spent my life working at a huge tech company (not anymore🥳🎉), and I can tell you being first to the market with a new product line that the competition is investing into as well, can be a death sentence. Or it could be what makes your product stand out and sell more, it just depends on if you want to take the risk. Which Sega did a lot of. 😂 But also competing with themselves (Saturn Japan Team Vs. 32X US Team). Atari competed with themselves. lol Imagine having three consoles out at the same time, 2600, 7800, XEGS. You could maybe include the 5200 in there too because it was recently discontinued at the time. Sega did do it to themselves. PI$$ poor management once Tom Kalinske left. If they would have only listened to him, Sega might still be around as a console maker.

[@BubblegumCrash332]

Great video but it's a myth that Sega Saturn added another VDP late in development. They added a second CPU. I know it's reported on in alot of sources but interview with Sega's ex president proved this wasn't true

[@GreplayTv]

Nintendo 64 was a good console, if only had a CD drive ....... !!!!

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Well technically it did as an addon, the 64DD. But it was not successful and never made anywhere else other than Japan.

[@johneygd]

Sega did what nintendon’t, coming up with a sega cd addon for the genesis and a CD based 32bit system wich nintendo all just didn’t🥲🤣

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Too funny.🤣🤣 But in the meantime created their biggest competitor.

[@awakenedsoul2638]

I LIKE THAT YOU MADE A HISTORY OF THESE CONSOLES so the old timers and new generation specially young children and teenagers will know that there was many consoles made in the past! What I do not like in your narration is you pronounce many names wrong! Kitaragi you said, katagari, Kalinski you pronounced as Kalanski, Hitachi you pronounced as Hatachi! Man this will make you bad narator!

[@RetrogamerGenX]

Thanks that's the goal. As many complaints as I've gotten over this I'm contemplating getting AI to narrate the script from now on. 🤣

[@awakenedsoul2638]

@@RetrogamerGenX NO DO NOT RELY ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE! To somethings you can rely with it but on narration, your voice & the way you talk will attract more subscribers!

[@Vectorman2X]

project reality or ultra 64 was the biggest flop ever, remember those robotech crazy graphics that show to the world that was never happened

[@RetrogamerGenX]

🤣 Right!

[@eS._Te]

apple was always about scamming people, they still do it 🤪

[@RetrogamerGenX]

I would agree. The prices for Apple products are just staggering. Even back in the beginning, they were very pricey. I've always said, owning Apple products is more of a status symbol. Kind of like owning a BMW instead of a Chevy. 🤣 They both get you to point a to b, but the BMW gets you there in style.😁

[@georgefloroiu452]

Well youre not saying Kutaragi wright!I was not a fail attempt with Nintendo,was Nintendo betrayal!

[@lawrencemoody738]

If you want to be taken so seriously check your pronunciation of important words.. Like COMPILATION ffs

[@thikeyan7636]

Another Nintendo fanboy.🎉