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| Burning Ranger 1701th Post
  
Tailored Carpet V.I.P- Platinum Member
 
    
    
    
    
|  "Video Games in the Fringe Alternate Universe" , posted Sun 29 Jan 04:19  
For those who've never seen the show Fringe, it's about a team of FBI and scientists who investigate scientific anomalies and instances of "Fringe science" (like the X-files, but without aliens). One of the running plotlines is the existence of a parallel universe that is similar to the regular universe but has significant differences. For example, the World Trade Center never collapsed, President Kennedy was never assassinated, air travel occurs in blimps, the Statue of Liberty is brown, etc.
It got me thinking: what would video games be like in this alternate world? Events that never happened in our world could have easily happened over there.
Any thoughts? I'll go first:
- Super Mario Bros 2 was released both in Japan and the US; the US version of SMB2, a port of Doki Doki Panic, never existed
- In 1994, Nintendo releases the Nintendo Playstation, a joint collaboration with Sony
So much to do so little time...
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| chazumaru 861th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member++
| "Re(10):Video Games in the Fringe Alternate Un" , posted Tue 31 Jan 16:11
2001: Capcom comes back as Capcom Rollmore. You mean Trollmore, amarite 
Here are three parallel universes I find interesting.
1. EA supports Dreamcast
Interesting for Europe because it happens right before the explosion on PES. Much more interesting in the US because it begs the question of how Dreamcast would have survived the first two years of PS2, but also would have not required EA to go through an exclusive deal with the NFL, which means somebody else might have tried their luck as a competitor later on (THQ? Take-Two?). Also, no 2K series means no NBA 2K, which means a very different situation for the sports game scene right now. And possibly, this would have altered Peter Moore's career. Most importantly, I am curious how much Madden+Dreamcast and FIFA+Dreamcast would have sped-up the adoption of online among gamers. It might have created a very different eco-system, further inciting Microsoft to swallow Dreamcast into their XBox project.
2. Final Fantasy The Spirits Within is a smash hit
Final Fantasy becomes the most valuable multimedia franchise after Star Wars,No Square-Enix fusion, no Wada in 2012, no Sakaguchi departure, no Blue Dragon as flagship title for Xbox 360's shortlived Japanese career, Lost Odyssey becomes Final Fantasy XIII, The Last Story disappears, no control from Kitase, better handling or worse handling of FF12, more FF movies and who knows what happens to Enix and Dragon Quest, which means who knows what happens to Level Five. I really thought that was the most interesting theoretical parallel universe in "recent" memory, until I remembered...
3. The SegaBandai merger
That should have happened in 1996. Sega's only year as a market leader in Japan, making tons of money from arcades and especially the Purikura boom, hitting it big with Evangelion, against a struggling Bandai looking for solutions. Then, when everyone thinks they are going to combine in order to face Nintendo (they had both confirmed advanced talks), Tamagotchi becomes a phenomenon and Bandai gives up the merger.
Let's think what this changes for a second. No more NamcoBandai of course, but maybe SegaBandai absorbs Namco at a later point. Or Namco finds someone else (Microsoft? Merger with TakaraTomy?). More importantly, suddenly Sega is a much bigger brand and the synergy with Bandai provides them enough contents to trouble Nintendo in the kids market. Wonderswan does not exist but maybe Yokoi creates a new Sega handheld. Maybe Sega drops from the home console race after a few years, but most likely, they focus on the Japanese market and make a good living there, changing the direction of Dreamcast (probably as a crappier machine).
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| Nekros 411th Post
Gold Customer
| "Re(3):Re(10):Video Games in the Fringe Altern" , posted Wed 1 Feb 02:37:
Woah, Fringe-sploitation here!
Kinda dig the first two seasons but from the third and the crappy-forced-love-triangle the whole thing bombed hard to me. Recently I'm rewatching X-Files and I find it better in many ways.
Let me try with this parallel universe thing:
Is anyone excited by the new Sega Kirin coming? It will be unveiled ad E3, it is rumored to be supported by many interesting developers and Sega itself promises us a new Shing Force and -finally!- Panzer Dragoon Genos. It will support most of the games from 16-32 bit era, now remastered in HD such Streets Of Rage 4, Segasonic, Gunstar Heroes Neo, Eternal Champions vs Virtua Fighter and so on.
And SNK is launching a portable version of the NewWave system, compatible with most of their licensed dumps.
I'm still plugging my PCEngine2000 during the wait, I can't stop playing Bomberman'08!
Oh yes, recently Capcom announces a new version of Street Fighter 3 playable online, assuring that will be arcade perfect port, like the Katana one (still exclusive except for the NG port on Nintendo Station 64). And they assured that Street Fighter 4 is coming but they keep it secret. The only things sure are all the cast from 3rd Strike returning and that will be in 2D hand drawn sprites. Probabibly it will be something with the beautiful graphic engine of Vampire Requiem and Dirge Blade (aka Crude Blade in the US, the sequel to Warzard).
Some casual gamer may argue that this generation is poor in terms of party game and fps, but there's a MediaStation (remember when they were called PC? "Personal" no more sadly!) to play them, so don't complain to us console gamers.
Too bad the Jaguar was a failure even in a parallel universe (cart versus CDs? Compete with Saturn and HyperNes? Lol!)
[this message was edited by Nekros on Tue 7 Feb 23:27] |
| sfried 753th Post
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| "Re(2):Re(10):Video Games in the Fringe Altern" , posted Wed 1 Feb 07:42:
quote:
2. Final Fantasy The Spirits Within is a smash hit
Final Fantasy becomes the most valuable multimedia franchise after Star Wars,No Square-Enix fusion, no Wada in 2012, no Sakaguchi departure, no Blue Dragon as flagship title for Xbox 360's shortlived Japanese career, Lost Odyssey becomes Final Fantasy XIII, The Last Story disappears, no control from Kitase, better handling or worse handling of FF12, more FF movies and who knows what happens to Enix and Dragon Quest...
Around that period, Tetsuya Nomura is relegated from being a character designer to an overworld and scenario artist. One has to wonder why all of his settings resemble Shibuya though...
[this message was edited by sfried on Wed 1 Feb 07:43] |
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"Re(10):Video Games in the Fringe Alternate Un" , posted Tue 31 Jan 14:19
