Developer Diary #3: Guitars and Video Games...

The Ultra 64 (future Nintendo 64) was announced and I was dedicated to it. Suddenly, it came from nowhere: the Sony Playstation! All of my friends jumped ship and brought it. No way! I was really not buying those 3D graphics at that time. Frankly, it was just plain ugly. I didn't understand why everybody was so excited about it at that time... and I still don't understand. I get the technical innovation and the new way to program and handle a game. But to find it beautiful at that time was just silly!

Anyway, I was more into nice 2D pixel art and I really wanted to buy a Neo Geo. I went to a few arcade centers and these legendary games (Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Samurai Showdown, King of Fighters...) were like the Holy Grail... Then I discovered that there were nearly arcade-perfect ports of these games released on the Sega Saturn... So I brought the thing.

The Saturn was... a good console for 2D games. But with the 3D graphics craze, the developpers had to change side. But it was a complete failure. Maybe if they had stuck to 2D, the console woud have lived longer... Anyway, it was the time for my SNK craze. I would buy a game then finish it with every characters on the highest difficulty setting without using any continue. I became a King of Fighters beast.

Then I became a teenager and my interest for video games faded away. The Saturn died and I wasn't interested in the PS1. The Nintendo 64 came out but it was doomed from birth. Their choice to use cartridge instead of CD was THE mistake: less games and mort importantly less GOOD games. I had no major console and I switched to music and started playing bass and synthesizers in many bands...


Buma