Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network
Show Name: From Pong To Pixels
Episode Title: A Turning Point
Episode #4
You are listening to From Pong To Pixels the podcast with your host Andrew.
In this episode of From Pong To Pixels the Podcast we discuss: the creation of Sonic The Hedgehog, a lot of Mario games and a certain fighting game, and Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow.
Hello everyone, my name is Andrew, and welcome to another episode of From Pong To Pixels. If you remember last episode, I had invited two guests on to talk about probably the biggest decade and gaming history, the 80’s. If you didn’t watch that episode, make sure to go check it out. But enough about the past, let’s talk about, well, the past. This episode is going to focus on the 1990s, another crucial decade when it comes to discussing video games. I’ll be covering important games, companies, and turning points for the gaming industry, so make sure you sit tight, and enjoy. While technically starting in the 80s, the 90s marked the start of fourth-generation consoles. Now I don’t think I’ve covered this in my other episodes, but blank generation consoles, in this case fourth, just state what years they were developed in. Such as first-generation consoles being created in the early 70s to the early 80s, and second-generation consoles being made from the mid 70’s to early 90’s. Fourth-generation consoles were mostly dominated by the rivalry between Nintendo and Sega. Some consoles released during this time were the Sega Mega Drive (more commonly known as the Sega Genesis in North America), the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (or SNES), and handheld consoles such as the Nintendo Game Boy. Nintendo was able to profit off of their success in the third generation, after releasing the Nintendo Entertainment System, and won the largest worldwide market share in the fourth generation. Sega did however manage to become extremely successful after releasing their first Sonic The Hedgehog game, trying to compete with Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros series. But make sure to not go anywhere, they’ll be more on that speedy blue hedgehog, after this. Welcome back, sorry for the break, just had to go replay all the Sonic games to refresh my memory. So, if you didn’t already know, Sonic The Hedgehog is a series of games published by Sega, with the first game being released in 1991 for the Genesis. Sonic The Hedgehog is an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog with supersonic speed, hence the name Sonic. The game follows the adventures of Sonic and his quest to collect all six of the chaos emeralds after the main antagonist, Dr. Robotnik, stole them in order to harness their power. Sonic went on to become an extreme success, becoming America’s number one best-selling game for months in 1991, outselling Super Mario. After its release in June, it had sold nearly one million cartridges by Christmas in the U.S. By the end of the year, it had claimed its title as the best-selling home video game of 1991, with two million copies sold worldwide. It even managed to win game of the year in three different award shows, The Golden Joystick, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and The European Computer Trade Show awards. Sonic The Hedgehog has solidified its legacy and reputation as one of the most popular video game franchises, and still has a massive fan base to this day.
