Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy manual

Trigger Happy

Already by this stage a great number of teenagers were more interested in videogames than in pop music. And Nintendo and Sega inspired fanatical loyalty. They were the Beatles and Stones of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Nintendo was the Beatles: wholesome fun for all the family, with superior artistry but a slightly “safe” image; Sega, on the other hand, were the snarling, street-smart gang, roughing it up for the hardcore videogame fans.

As videogaming culture grew and the games became ever more complex and adventurous (with ever larger profits to be made), the hardware companies realized that technology had to keep pace with the designers’ ambitions. The seemingly unassailable Nintendo, having seen enormous success with the 1989 launch of the handheld Game Boy, decided to soup up the SNES by adding a CD-ROM drive. CD-ROMs hold a lot more information than cartridges, so the games could be even bigger in scope. But Nintendo had no expertise in that area of hardware, so they hooked up with the Japanese audio giant Sony, manufacturer of hi- fi and inventors of the Walkman. It seemed like a marriage made in heaven.

But after various behind-the-scenes shenanigans, Nintendo pulled out of the deal. It was to lose them

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