thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
[AVGT: 5TH GEN (PART 0)]
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[DISCLOSURE]
*Certain AI tools (e.g Claude, Gemini, Deepseek) were used to help flesh out and refine technical aspects of various hardware featured in this series. This was done both to ensure realistic performance capabilities relative to BOM (Bill of Materials) pricing, and to help design unique architectural variety among system designs where, for those mainly modifications of existing real-world designs, stay true to the spirit and design philosophy of the original design (and related company/engineering teams) while making beneficial modifications.
*Certain AI tools (e.g Gemini, Deepseek, Open AI, Grok etc.) were used to help flesh out and expediate certain 3D renders for various hardware and peripherals contained within the posts of this series. However, all designs derive from initial sketches drawn/drafted by myself, which may have influence from design stylings of other real-world devices (e.g JVC Wondermega, NEC PC-Engine Duo R). These sketches will be contained with their relevant systems as proof.
*Certain simulated gameplay screenshots that are present throughout this series, have either been modified by myself in an image editing program, generated by an AI by referencing a sketch drawn by myself, or a combination of both. Footnotes to each image will provide the condition type of the image.
*And if not already obvious, yes, I have used AI to assist with certain aspects of this hypothetical timeline, but only mainly in regards to the data types already mentioned above. This was done to expediate parts of the project and help clarify certain ideas (particularly technical) that were beyond my realm of knowledge at the time. I am also only one person, and have other real-life responsibilities. There was zero chance I'd of made sufficient progress on this (after multiple rewrites, mind you) without some type of assistant for certain areas.
That said, the main bulk of everything pertaining to the timeline, i.e hardware & peripheral timeline developments, market performances, release dates, software concepts, most business arrangements, etc. and most importantly the final composition & presentation you are reading in these posts, were all done completely by me. Which will therefore require some period of weeks (maybe months) before this generation of the timeline is complete; a lot of what I have written down will have to be reorganized to a degree as I make these posts.
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[INTRO]
Hello all. For a while now, I've been working on an alternate video game timeline project, inspired by some of the ones I began reading on websites like AlternateHistory.com, where several of that website's community members have been coming up with various timelines for well over a decade, to various degrees of depth & completion. My original goal for this specific alternate timeline was to mainly focus on NEC/Hudson Soft in the 5th generation; however, over time it expanded to reach into future console generations (which will get their own threads similar to this one) and also throwing in a few new or reformed players that didn't exist in OTL.
The reason I started the timeline with the 5th generation (primarily; there are some development for the 4th generation as well, which most of you should be able to identify when you see them) is because IMO, that is the generation with the most amount of market volatility, at least tied with the (mainly American) gaming crash of the early 1980s. The volatility of the 5th gen (or mid-1990s to be more specific), however, represented magnitudes more opportunity for the industry, to go any number of ways. In hindsight, perhaps the industry would've been better off taking an offshoot direction, but that is neither here nor there.
I've attempted to give all the players involved in this a fair shake while also correcting some things I perceived as wrong or unfortunate in OTL, without getting too biased with it. Basically, every platform holder you will see featured in this series has their strengths and weaknesses, and over time as we move throughout the generations, each will pay some type of price for certain flaws & mistakes made at the time or earlier on.
My biggest goal with this series, at least at first, was to avoid the runaway effect of PlayStation with the gaming market (i.e PlayStation running away with the market from 1995-onward), and I feel that has been accomplished without doing anything too overly dramatic. I approached this and everything else you will see in this series with a high level of nuance, to both keep developments interesting and also to not end up biased towards one specific brand (and in the chance that seems to happen, don't let it happen for too long). You will still see major players enter and exit the main stage, just in matters different than in OTL.
This series (and those for future console generation installments) does get very technical in areas, particularly when fully divulging specifications of the various console hardware devices. Most likely, I will store downloadable links for PDF or TXT files containing the details in a given location, and those interested can download them from there to have as reference. If throughout the series there are any references to architectural features that sound alien, I would suggest pulling up those files and getting in-depth reads.
So, without further ado, I'd like to get things started. This series will be broken up into parts, parts corresponding to posts, so throughout the thread whenever you see a post from me that reads "[AVGT: 5th Gen (Part (N))]", just know that is an official part for the series, where things will be told in mostly sequential order. Otherwise, any other posts of mine ITT will just be regular 'ol posts. If possible, I'll hyperlink main entry posts so that people can jump along post entries for the series as they'd like, tho I'm not sure if GAF has such a feature built-in (I haven't looked yet nor have I tried it out).
Look forward to the first main post entry into the series, which should be around this weekend. While I might luck into having a post entry for the series on a weekday or two (really depends on schedule & complexity of the post), just know that at least one post entry each weekend will be a guaranteed lock going forward (or until further notice/an update).
Thank you for those who read the preamble; I'm excited to finally start posting this and see what ideas it hopefully gins up in the lot of you. Let's have fun reimagining the lifecycle of this industry (from the point of time where a majority of us here were likely kids)!
==========================================
[DISCLOSURE]
*Certain AI tools (e.g Claude, Gemini, Deepseek) were used to help flesh out and refine technical aspects of various hardware featured in this series. This was done both to ensure realistic performance capabilities relative to BOM (Bill of Materials) pricing, and to help design unique architectural variety among system designs where, for those mainly modifications of existing real-world designs, stay true to the spirit and design philosophy of the original design (and related company/engineering teams) while making beneficial modifications.
*Certain AI tools (e.g Gemini, Deepseek, Open AI, Grok etc.) were used to help flesh out and expediate certain 3D renders for various hardware and peripherals contained within the posts of this series. However, all designs derive from initial sketches drawn/drafted by myself, which may have influence from design stylings of other real-world devices (e.g JVC Wondermega, NEC PC-Engine Duo R). These sketches will be contained with their relevant systems as proof.
*Certain simulated gameplay screenshots that are present throughout this series, have either been modified by myself in an image editing program, generated by an AI by referencing a sketch drawn by myself, or a combination of both. Footnotes to each image will provide the condition type of the image.
*And if not already obvious, yes, I have used AI to assist with certain aspects of this hypothetical timeline, but only mainly in regards to the data types already mentioned above. This was done to expediate parts of the project and help clarify certain ideas (particularly technical) that were beyond my realm of knowledge at the time. I am also only one person, and have other real-life responsibilities. There was zero chance I'd of made sufficient progress on this (after multiple rewrites, mind you) without some type of assistant for certain areas.
That said, the main bulk of everything pertaining to the timeline, i.e hardware & peripheral timeline developments, market performances, release dates, software concepts, most business arrangements, etc. and most importantly the final composition & presentation you are reading in these posts, were all done completely by me. Which will therefore require some period of weeks (maybe months) before this generation of the timeline is complete; a lot of what I have written down will have to be reorganized to a degree as I make these posts.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INTRO]
Hello all. For a while now, I've been working on an alternate video game timeline project, inspired by some of the ones I began reading on websites like AlternateHistory.com, where several of that website's community members have been coming up with various timelines for well over a decade, to various degrees of depth & completion. My original goal for this specific alternate timeline was to mainly focus on NEC/Hudson Soft in the 5th generation; however, over time it expanded to reach into future console generations (which will get their own threads similar to this one) and also throwing in a few new or reformed players that didn't exist in OTL.
The reason I started the timeline with the 5th generation (primarily; there are some development for the 4th generation as well, which most of you should be able to identify when you see them) is because IMO, that is the generation with the most amount of market volatility, at least tied with the (mainly American) gaming crash of the early 1980s. The volatility of the 5th gen (or mid-1990s to be more specific), however, represented magnitudes more opportunity for the industry, to go any number of ways. In hindsight, perhaps the industry would've been better off taking an offshoot direction, but that is neither here nor there.
I've attempted to give all the players involved in this a fair shake while also correcting some things I perceived as wrong or unfortunate in OTL, without getting too biased with it. Basically, every platform holder you will see featured in this series has their strengths and weaknesses, and over time as we move throughout the generations, each will pay some type of price for certain flaws & mistakes made at the time or earlier on.
My biggest goal with this series, at least at first, was to avoid the runaway effect of PlayStation with the gaming market (i.e PlayStation running away with the market from 1995-onward), and I feel that has been accomplished without doing anything too overly dramatic. I approached this and everything else you will see in this series with a high level of nuance, to both keep developments interesting and also to not end up biased towards one specific brand (and in the chance that seems to happen, don't let it happen for too long). You will still see major players enter and exit the main stage, just in matters different than in OTL.
This series (and those for future console generation installments) does get very technical in areas, particularly when fully divulging specifications of the various console hardware devices. Most likely, I will store downloadable links for PDF or TXT files containing the details in a given location, and those interested can download them from there to have as reference. If throughout the series there are any references to architectural features that sound alien, I would suggest pulling up those files and getting in-depth reads.
So, without further ado, I'd like to get things started. This series will be broken up into parts, parts corresponding to posts, so throughout the thread whenever you see a post from me that reads "[AVGT: 5th Gen (Part (N))]", just know that is an official part for the series, where things will be told in mostly sequential order. Otherwise, any other posts of mine ITT will just be regular 'ol posts. If possible, I'll hyperlink main entry posts so that people can jump along post entries for the series as they'd like, tho I'm not sure if GAF has such a feature built-in (I haven't looked yet nor have I tried it out).
Look forward to the first main post entry into the series, which should be around this weekend. While I might luck into having a post entry for the series on a weekday or two (really depends on schedule & complexity of the post), just know that at least one post entry each weekend will be a guaranteed lock going forward (or until further notice/an update).
Thank you for those who read the preamble; I'm excited to finally start posting this and see what ideas it hopefully gins up in the lot of you. Let's have fun reimagining the lifecycle of this industry (from the point of time where a majority of us here were likely kids)!
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