SNES, SEGA drop to $99
Robert keng
How sad that the video wars actually has gone this far. I paid
$200 for my SNES when it first came out: talk about a depreciative commodity...
So what's gonna happen in the next few months? SNES for a penny? Genesis free?
It's gonna happen again if they keep this up: that the general public will looseit's interests in videogames, like in '83-84 when the market came crashing
down. (just a thought, my opinion :))
What I'm seeing lately is a whole bunch (on both sides of the
Sega vs Nintendo war) of third party software makers rushing to bring out games,paying little, almost no attention to quality and playability. Oh, sure, there
has been some good titles coming out too, but it pales compared with the number
of lame softs that are constantly being pumped out. What's going on? What ever
happened to quality, originality, and playability? Mario XXIV? Sonic XXII?
Come on! What about games like Extra Innings, Rival Turf, Home Alone, Paperboy
II, Toki (genesis), Robo Army (Neo), Darius Twin, Super WWF Wrestlemania, Pit Fighter(SNES & Genesis), Xardion, Ys III, RPM Racing, and a whole bunch of other
games that could of been so much better if the manufacture/maker of the game
had put some more time and effort into them. (sorry, Nintendo and Sega fans, I
admit, the Mario and Sonic games has been great, but I'm not looking forward
to no Sonic XXVII or Mario XXIV...)
Wait! Before you guys bust out your flame throwers, please hear
me out! The reason that I'm saying all this is because I have spend alot of
money lately on some games that I thought were gonna be great, but turned out
to be real disappointments. It's just that I'm very irritated by the whole
"video war" thing, that's all. I did not intend to write this article to
offend anyone. I'm just expressing my opinions on a particular subject. But,
if I am to be flamed, please, flame me by e-mail. I can always put on my
trusty Asbestos BVDs :) Of course, I certainly welcome constructive
criticisms:)
And no, I'm not trying to be funny and/or an arrogant *&@#$!
primus
Send your comments, praises, flames, etc to pri...@netcom.com
Mike Whalen
wrote:
PK> How sad that the video wars actually has gone this far. I paid
PK> $200 for my SNES when it first came out: talk about a depreciative
PK> commodity...
PK> So what's gonna happen in the next few months? SNES for a penny?
PK> Genesis free?
PK> It's gonna happen again if they keep this up: that the general public
PK> will looseit's interests in videogames, like in '83-84 when the
PK> market came crashing
PK> down. (just a thought, my opinion :))
On the contrary, both those machines are the best there are. Lowering the
prices should bring in lots more buyers. In fact, I may even consider
jumping BACK in the bandwagon. The prices are very appealing.. I am sure
that someone who owns one machine.. always wanted to get the other one but
didn't because of the high prices.
PK> What I'm seeing lately is a whole bunch (on both sides of the
PK> Sega vs Nintendo war) of third party software makers rushing to bring
PK> out games,paying little, almost no attention to quality and
PK> playability. Oh, sure, there
PK> has been some good titles coming out too, but it pales compared with
PK> the number
PK> of lame softs that are constantly being pumped out. What's going on?
PK> What ever
PK> happened to quality, originality, and playability? Mario XXIV? Sonic
PK> XXII?
PK> Come on! What about games like Extra Innings, Rival Turf, Home Alone,
Well, those Sonic and Mario titles are a long ways off. You do understand
how the money machine works, eh? If you have a winning formula.. soak it
for all it's worth. Right now.. as long as they can be innovative with it,
Mario and Sonic should be around for awhile. I didn't particularly like the
original Mario but did like SMB4 on the SNES. Sonic I loved from the start.
I WOULD have bought Sonic II with no thought.
PK> Wait! Before you guys bust out your flame throwers, please hear
PK> me out! The reason that I'm saying all this is because I have spend
PK> alot of
PK> money lately on some games that I thought were gonna be great, but
PK> turned out
PK> to be real disappointments. It's just that I'm very irritated by the
Why not find some way of "trying before you're buying"? Fortunately, we
have a store down here that specialized in "in-house" play. So, I could go
there and try something new. What about renting?
Mike..
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Mike Whalen
wrote:
EH> I definitely agree with you here. After reading Larry's B's
EH> excellent
EH> CES summaries, I get the impression that the video game industry is
EH> fast running out of ideas. Sonic II? Come on, it was fun the first
EH> time but it was still Yet Another Mario Clone. And such games are
EH> STILL going strong--Joe and Mac for the SNES even duplicates the
EH> super spin attack of Sonic. And I'm definitely gonna puke if I
EH> see another fighting, driving, or scroll to the right and shoot
EH> everything game.
Once again.. if a formula sells carts.. they are going to go with it. If
you are completely dissatisfied.. there is always computer games.. which
tend to be more RPG-ish then anything.. but still there aren't as many run
and fight/jump/shoot/die games.
EH> There are some good games occasionally. But a good many of these
EH> are marred by being pitifully easy (Actraiser, Desert Strike) and
EH> thoroughly poundable in a single weekend. It's not just me either;
EH> most video game players I know have been bored with things for
EH> quite a while now. I think the novelty of nifty graphics and
EH> audio kept many people going for a lot longer, but this seems
EH> to be petering out as well.
I kind of think that video games is in a transitional period. Many of
them are entrenched to do R&D on whether CD-ROM is going to be the way to
go. If it is.. then I think we'll start seeing some mega-blockbusters to
get people to BUY CD-ROM systems. Right now, it's all a little too shaky.
The success of TG's stuff is quite limited and the Mega-CD (which I have
seen and played) wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I found Heavy Nova to
be incredibly sluggish.
Once all this is set up, then we shall start seeing a little more.. but
it won't stop the run and jump scanarios.. they are formulas that work.
There is one thing to consider though.. the possibility that an all CD-ROM
machine might pull in older users exclusively which would demand better
quality. They would be competing with Computer games.. I think. This is my
opinion though.
James Hague
>
> What I'm seeing lately is a whole bunch (on both sides of the
>Sega vs Nintendo war) of third party software makers rushing to bring out games,paying little, almost no attention to quality and playability. Oh, sure, there
>has been some good titles coming out too, but it pales compared with the number
>of lame softs that are constantly being pumped out. What's going on? What ever
>happened to quality, originality, and playability?
I definitely agree with you here. After reading Larry's B's excellent
CES summaries, I get the impression that the video game industry is
fast running out of ideas. Sonic II? Come on, it was fun the first
time but it was still Yet Another Mario Clone. And such games are
STILL going strong--Joe and Mac for the SNES even duplicates the
super spin attack of Sonic. And I'm definitely gonna puke if I
see another fighting, driving, or scroll to the right and shoot
everything game.
There are some good games occasionally. But a good many of these
are marred by being pitifully easy (Actraiser, Desert Strike) and
thoroughly poundable in a single weekend. It's not just me either;
most video game players I know have been bored with things for
quite a while now. I think the novelty of nifty graphics and
audio kept many people going for a lot longer, but this seems
to be petering out as well.
--
James Hague
exu...@exu.ericsson.se
Tony Peacock
May I ask where is the SNES being sold for $99.00 at. Thanks.
Tony,....
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Ana M Rodriguez
de...@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man) writes:
> Super Nintendo and SEGA are both being reduced to $99. Feeling the
>heat from SEGA, SNES was the first to drop, then SEGA matched it.
How low will they go?? I wonder how the Dealer profit margins are being
hurt by these new price breaks. Is Sega and Nintendo compensating them...
> SEGA announced it's CD player, which attaches to the current SEGA 16
>bit console, will debut around Xmas for $299. (Though with the current price
>war, it may be closer to $200).
I think I would pay about that much for a Sega CD unit...
Will it include good software with the unit though?? No word yet...
> Nintendo, which doesn't have a CD version near production, could only
>claim to be bringing out "a better, cheaper" model sometime in the future.
I think most of the Tech people will agree: The Super Nintendo is flawed
with a wimpy processor. It is simply a 6502 processor with 16 bit data lines.
An 8-bit processor made to look like a 16-bit one is no big improvement IMHO.
> Now if they'd only drop the prices of games!
How is anyone going to make any money if the prices on software drops off.
The game war is on! Who will win?
Sean Michael Goller
Nintendo dropped the prices"...but didn't anyone notice the post about
it? It only comes with one controller and NO GAME....
I say BFD on that one. I'd buy SMW and another controller anyway, so why
not get the regular package? I mean, if you bought the econobox then
decided that you wanted to get SMW and another controller later, you've
lost money right there, 'cos there's no WAY Nintendo will let you buy
another controller and SMW for $40 total ($15 for the 'troller means $25
for SMW? Yeah RIGHT.)
I bought one system that didn't come with a game, the Turbo Express. I
like it, but I'm never doing anything like that again.
--
Sean Goller
sg...@andrew.cmu.edu
Douglas Rand
I think most of the Tech people will agree: The Super Nintendo is flawed
with a wimpy processor. It is simply a 6502 processor with 16 bit data lines.
An 8-bit processor made to look like a 16-bit one is no big improvement IMHO.
I think I qualify as a professional tech nerd. The processor is a
real 16 bit processor that is rumored to have only an 8 bit data path
to memory. Note that it is a custom chip with wide connections to the
graphics and sound chips, and (from memory) 256Kbytes internal RAM.
The internal RAM is presumably accessed as 16 bit data.
Video games just don't require an extreme amount of processing power.
Most of the work really is done by the graphics coprocessor, which is
plenty good on the SNES. Note that many of the recent games offer
very nice graphics and no interesting amounts of slowdown.
--
Douglas S. Rand <dr...@osf.org>
Snail: 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142
Disclaimer: I don't know if OSF agrees with me... let's vote on it.
Amateur Radio: KC1KJ
Larry J Brackney
>Practically everybody's been going on about "Oh geez, I got burned,
>Nintendo dropped the prices"...but didn't anyone notice the post about
>it? It only comes with one controller and NO GAME....
>
>I say BFD on that one. I'd buy SMW and another controller anyway, so why
>not get the regular package? I mean, if you bought the econobox then
>decided that you wanted to get SMW and another controller later, you've
>lost money right there, 'cos there's no WAY Nintendo will let you buy
>another controller and SMW for $40 total ($15 for the 'troller means $25
>for SMW? Yeah RIGHT.)
An excellent point, which many people will probably miss in the rush
to buy cheap consoles. Sega and Nintendo are not slashing prices to
provide a better deal for consumers. In fact, you'll find that to buy
all the components seperately, you'll be giving Sega and Nintendo a bit
extra to stash in their bank accounts. Fortunately, they'll still
be offering the bundled systems at their current prices.
The motivation for dropping the price below $100 is to eliminate
a psychological price barrier. People are more likely to spring
$99.95 for a game system than $139.95. The actual savings are not
that terrific, but most people will perceive them as such.
- larry
--
/ Larry J. Brackney | E-Mail: brac...@mn.ecn.purdue.edu \
|-------------------------| S-Mail: 3116 Hilltop Dr. W. Lafayette IN 47906 |
| Mechanical Engineering | Phone : (317)-463-1602 (Home) |
\ Purdue University | (317)-494-6552 (Office) /
Sean Michael Goller
$99 by Larry J Brackney@author.
>to buy cheap consoles. Sega and Nintendo are not slashing prices to
>provide a better deal for consumers. In fact, you'll find that to buy
>all the components seperately, you'll be giving Sega and Nintendo a bit
>extra to stash in their bank accounts. Fortunately, they'll still
>be offering the bundled systems at their current prices.
Exactly! When I bought my Sega Master System oh so long ago, There were
three sets you could buy, the base set (econobox), Master Set (I think)
which came with the gun, and the Power Set (Again, the name is from
memory) which came with the gun and the 3D glasses. The base was $99,
Master $119, and the Power set was $129. I saw people left and right buy
the base set 'cos it was cheapest. Yet for $20 more, you could get two
peripherals that individually totalled almost $80 for the pair! Gotta
love those marketing techniques.
--
Sean Goller
sg...@andrew.cmu.edu
Chinarut Ruangchotvit
The systems have dropped the the "double-digit" price and buying the system
looks more feasible to the average consumer. It's similar to the situation
with the SNES coming with two controllers. It may cost $20 extra but I know
there are people out there who don't weigh that heavily when choosing a
system to purchase. Some people just decide that the Genesis is cheaper. So
selling a system w/o an extra cont and cart probably won't be a big deal for
most people. Besides there are plenty of people who will buy the $99 SNES
system for SFII and can do w/o SMW! :)
--
Chinarut Ruangchotvit
<cr...@andrew.cmu.edu>
"Learning that we're only immortal - for a limited time"
-Rush, Dreamline
Steven J. Sobol
> The motivation for dropping the price below $100 is to eliminate
>a psychological price barrier. People are more likely to spring
>$99.95 for a game system than $139.95. The actual savings are not
>that terrific, but most people will perceive them as such.
On the other hand, for people who don't want Super Mario World and don't
necessarily need the extra controller, it might actually be a decent deal.
--
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Roy Kern
> Practically everybody's been going on about "Oh geez, I got burned,
> Nintendo dropped the prices"...but didn't anyone notice the post about
> it? It only comes with one controller and NO GAME....
>
(edited)
>
> I bought one system that didn't come with a game, the Turbo Express. I
> like it, but I'm never doing anything like that again.
>
I've bought 3 systems that came with games (TG16, Genesis, and Lynx) and I
could add all the time together spent playing those games and I wouldn't break
an hour. Were I to buy the SNES, the same would hold true since I don't care
for run and jump games. Personally I like the option, but you are right in
that it is not as big a deal as it would first appear.
Roy.
Neil Williams
>
>> Super Nintendo and SEGA are both being reduced to $99. Feeling the
>>heat from SEGA, SNES was the first to drop, then SEGA matched it.
>
>How low will they go?? I wonder how the Dealer profit margins are being
>hurt by these new price breaks. Is Sega and Nintendo compensating them...
Why would dealer profit margins be affected if their purchase from
Nintendo/Sega is now lower?
>> Nintendo, which doesn't have a CD version near production, could only
>>claim to be bringing out "a better, cheaper" model sometime in the future.
>
>I think most of the Tech people will agree: The Super Nintendo is flawed
>with a wimpy processor. It is simply a 6502 processor with 16 bit data lines.
>An 8-bit processor made to look like a 16-bit one is no big improvement IMHO.
EGM says that the SNES CD will have a 21 MHz co-processor. Supposing
for a minute that this is true, it should solve many problems if the
base problem is indeed a slow cpu. If, however, the problem actually
lies in the tiny time-slice for cpu to video transfer (which is where
I personally think the SNES is flawed), then the fast processor
won't help much as much as people might think. It would be pretty
nice for filled-polygon and high-speed recalculations, though, such
as flight-sims and the like.
--Neil
--
Neil Williams: ne...@informix.com
Seen on my last trip on United: "If you are sitting next to an emergency
exit and cannot read this card... please notify a crew member immediately."
Grover Thomas
In a previous article, ne...@informix.com (Neil Williams) says:
>In article <36...@darkstar.ucsc.edu> an...@cats.ucsc.edu (Ana M Rodriguez) writes:
>>
>>de...@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man) writes:
>>
>>> Super Nintendo and SEGA are both being reduced to $99. Feeling the
>>>heat from SEGA, SNES was the first to drop, then SEGA matched it.
>>I think most of the Tech people will agree: The Super Nintendo is flawed
>>with a wimpy processor. It is simply a 6502 processor with 16 bit data lines.
>>An 8-bit processor made to look like a 16-bit one is no big improvement IMHO.
Actually, the chip is a 65816, like the one found in the Apple IIGS. It's
not a very modern technology, but it's capable. I think the bigger problem
is that Nintendo uses a very SLOW version of the chip, especially since there
are 11Mhz versions available.
>
>EGM says that the SNES CD will have a 21 MHz co-processor. Supposing
>for a minute that this is true, it should solve many problems if the
>base problem is indeed a slow cpu. If, however, the problem actually
>lies in the tiny time-slice for cpu to video transfer (which is where
>I personally think the SNES is flawed), then the fast processor
>won't help much as much as people might think. It would be pretty
>nice for filled-polygon and high-speed recalculations, though, such
>as flight-sims and the like.
Yeah, I also heard about an 8MB RAM upgrade of somesort. WHat about this?
--
__ __
(__) Grover Thomas InterNet: gro...@emunix.emich.edu (__)
(__) or bp...@Cleveland.Freenet.edu (__)
Rob Henry
And where exactly are the super nintendos 99 dollars at? Here in cleveland they
are going for as much as 160 still.
Ralph Barbagallo
>
>
>And where exactly are the super nintendos 99 dollars at? Here in cleveland they
>are going for as much as 160 still.
>
Christmas.
_____________________________________________________________________
( ( )
) Ralph A. Barbagallo III ) Co-Editor of (
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Stupendous Man
> In article <1992Jun17.2...@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> ah...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Rob Henry) writes:
>>
>>
>>And where exactly are the super nintendos 99 dollars at? Here in cleveland they
>>are going for as much as 160 still.
>>
> The prices haven't taken effect yet. I think the reductions start around
> Christmas.
>
I got the impression that it would be much sooner. They are already
down to $120 around here (Dayton, OH) at ToysRUs and Children's Palace. $130
at Meijer and $140 at K Mart.
SEGA and S-NES are either the same price or within a dollar or two at
these places.
You can always buy now, keep the receipt, buy a cheap one when they
drop to $99 and return it with the expensive receipt :).
{But I never said that!}
Brett
_______________________________________________________________________________
Proconsul Computer Consulting CHA-CHING!
Better, Cheaper, Faster (Pick any two :)
Disclaimer: NOT!
Stupendous Man
People keep asking WHEN?!
Corporations are out to make money. They want to first get rid of
systems at "higher" prices, so look for a gradual fall. Recently the prices
around here have gone from $149 and $199 to $129 for both.
As SEGA continues to pummel SNES, SNES keeps dropping the price. The
$99 announcement came as a result of SEGA thoroughly tromping SNES during Xmas
last year. Not looking for a repeat, SNES was announced to be cut to $99.
Whether this means soon (like around July 4th or Labor Day) or for Xmas of this
year depends on two things:
How much SEGA continues to outsell SNES.
How desperate for market share Nintendo gets.
Is $30 worth waiting until possibly Xmas? If not, buy one now. If it
drops within a month go back for an adjustment (take your receipt and ask for
the difference). If they won't give you one, buy a $99 one and return it with
the $129 receipt.
(I say this because most stores will adjust the price if it goes on
sale within 30 days, for those that don't, the receipt method works fine :)