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marurun
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Classic Gaming What If/Alternate History Speculation

by marurun Tue Oct 19, 2021 10:18 am

Hey folks, one thing we all do, but I do a LOT, is speculate about what might have or could have happened in classic gaming history. There's definitely OUT THERE stuff like "Dreamcast 2!", but what's most interesting to me is considering, instead of the impossible or implausible, more minor or possible changes to the gaming timeline that could have altered outcomes. What are some games we could have seen on consoles that never got them? What consoles might we have seen that were otherwise never meant to be? What are the "what if?"s that DON'T require massive restructuring of the flow of time?

I'll throw out a couple examples for one of my favorite little underdogs, the PC Engine. Telenet Japan released a port of Golden Axe on CD for the PC Engine. It was awful. Like, REAL bad. But the fact that Telenet released such a game indicates Sega was willing to license it. What if NEC Avenue had licensed it instead and released it on Super CD? NEC Avenue ports were generally pretty good. Another PC Engine "What If" is what if NEC/Hudson had released a ROM mapper sooner, enabling HuCard releases larger than 8 MB POWER? It would have been nice to see a port of Final Fight on the PC Engine, but I don't think the Super CD would have truly done it justice. That said, I think Nintendo probably would have discouraged that. But there are other brawlers that followed that were much better than the weak-sauce Riot Zone the PC Engine Super CD got that weren't otherwise politically encumbered.

What do you folks think? What are some of your favorite could-have-actually-happened What Ifs?
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Re: Classic Gaming What If/Alternate History Speculation

by Nemoide Tue Oct 19, 2021 12:49 pm

Another forum I post on (Insert Credit) had a whole thread dedicated to going back in time and saving Sega, which I thought was a really fun topic. Sega's definitely the company I'd most want to save!

My number 1 what-if would be "what if the Saturn was backwards compatible?"
It already has a cartridge slot, which makes it seem like Sega wanted that at some point. If it was backwards compatible with Genesis, Sega CD, and even 32X games, it would make those add-ons a lot more justifiable. Then if Sega of America was more willing to release 2D games, it could have appealed more to the niche audience that loves Saturn today.
I don't think the Saturn could have beaten the PS1, but if it at least did as well as the N64 in the US, it could have made the Dreamcast stronger, maybe leading to the Xbox being a collaboration between Sega and Microsoft rather than just a Microsoft product.
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Re: Classic Gaming What If/Alternate History Speculation

by marurun Tue Oct 19, 2021 1:52 pm

My opinion is that saving Sega falls a little more into the wishful thinking end of things. Killing off the 32x might have been within the realm of possibility, though.
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Re: Classic Gaming What If/Alternate History Speculation

by Gucci Tue Oct 19, 2021 3:14 pm

Something more recent is the Wii U. And if Nintendo were stubborn and stuck by the console rather than develop the Switch.

If it were marketed correctly and was successful maybe there’d be no Switch. A Wii U2 (heh).

However if it wasn’t successful and they didn’t pivot to the Switch so decisively, there was a chance Nintendo would have been the next Sega and go third party.
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Re: Classic Gaming What If/Alternate History Speculation

by marurun Tue Oct 19, 2021 4:59 pm

Gucci wrote:Something more recent is the Wii U. And if Nintendo were stubborn and stuck by the console rather than develop the Switch.

If it were marketed correctly and was successful maybe there’d be no Switch. A Wii U2 (heh).

However if it wasn’t successful and they didn’t pivot to the Switch so decisively, there was a chance Nintendo would have been the next Sega and go third party.


I think it would have taken more than 2 failures in a row, in part because Nintendo is sitting on assets, and the die-hards WILL buy stuff. Nintendo's like Apple in some ways. It would take literally years and years of disaster to displace them.
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Re: Classic Gaming What If/Alternate History Speculation

by Gucci Tue Oct 19, 2021 5:22 pm

Valid point. I heard that they were flush with a lot of cash from the Wii/DS generation. But sometimes those Japanese companies are run through emotion. Not saying that it’s a bad thing it’s just much different than some US based companies and stuff.

I think…

Maybe…

:roll:
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Re: Classic Gaming What If/Alternate History Speculation

by Sload Soap Thu Oct 21, 2021 3:45 pm

What if...Nintendo never lost the Popeye license and Mario didn't exist?

The Berlin Wall would stay up and Bernie Sanders would now be in his 11th year as Emperor of Space.
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Re: Classic Gaming What If/Alternate History Speculation

by marurun Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:35 pm

We would just punch Goombas instead of stomping them. Spinach instead of mushrooms.
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Re: Classic Gaming What If/Alternate History Speculation

by opa Thu Oct 21, 2021 10:58 pm

"Sorry Popeye, Olive Oyl is in a different dockside bar."
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Re: Classic Gaming What If/Alternate History Speculation

by marurun Fri Oct 22, 2021 9:32 am

I'm now constructing a very strange internal canon for this bizarre game.
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