Something I think about from time to time, and have had dreamy conversations with friends, but never got around to starting a topic on, is how I see the video game industry from roughly 1988-1993.
Most on this board would be aware of the fatal mistake, concerning Nintendo and Sony with the SNES CD add on. I personally believe that Nintendo could have made a better decision, before the SNES was even brought to fruition.
If Nintendo had done an upgrade to the NES, in the exact manner of what the TG16 is, then there would have been no concern with competing with Sega. Create a new NES with 200+ colors on screen, and make it compatible with all previous games. Considering everything was going perfectly well for Nintendo in 88-89, there was no reason (quite yet), to move on to a new system.
There will be varying opinions here, but here is my reasoning for this idea.
I would have loved to see a SMB4, to the tune of a sequel to SMB2, also with a full map. Zelda 3 done similar to part 1, and Zelda 4 to continue where part 2 left off. With these two series in particular, I remember with a friend of mine, we drew out all kinds of maps for our Zelda 3 concept. This was in late 1989, and some of the ideas were actually in LttP. I had the idea of several floors, similar to Swords and Serpents on the Intellivision, and an overworld and underworld, similar to Festers Quest . Then there was the artwork we did for our concept on a sequel to SMB2. Our idea consisted of 5-8 levels, and 18 worlds total. Then there was our idea for a SMB5, which would have been almost the same as SMB1 with no maps, but with a minimum of 50 levels.
Other then my dreamy ideas of what could have been produced on the NES, there is the loss of many titles that were never localized, especially FF2 and FF3. I feel like the NES got cut short at the peak of developmental ability. The same is felt concerning the SNES, with great titles coming out from 94-96, many more of which never got localized.
The video game industry took a turn I didnt care for, and I didnt care for 3D graphics, or the primarily violent direction in some of the games. From the mid 90's through the early 00's, I had lost interest in most games. GBC and GBA brought me back into gaming, with the exception of scant PS1 games. It was mostly NES and SNES all along, and it wasnt until early 2006 with DQ8, that I had fully completed and fully enjoyed a 3D game. DS and 3DS have titles since then, that produce the library I like for gaming.
Some of this is opinion about the gaming industry. Some of it is because I love the quality from 1985-1995 primarily. Then there is the fact that I went downhill around 93 with partying, so gaming became sporadic. Not that bad decision making on my part, is of anybodys concern, but it does play a part as to why I primarily like the style of games from that era. 1987-90 with the NES, and 1994-96 with the SNES, is where the magic was with each system. I would have loved to see the NES go strong til 1995, and the SNES all the way through 2005.
One can dream right...