THE games console battle hotted up at the weekend when the Nintendo 64 went on sale across Europe, amid industry speculation that it will lead to a price war. Virgin Megastore's Dublin branch had a mere 14 of the £250 machines on Saturday, though they hope for a further dozen next week.
The long awaited console, with its 64 bit processor, has been four years in development. Launches in Japan and the US last year resulted in near riots as gamers stripped the stores of the new machines. In Japan alone, 300,000 were sold on the first day, while Americans bought 1.7 million units in the first three months. Altogether over four millions units have been sold in the US and Japan.
Marcus Hawkins, editor of Games Master magazine, said he expected a repeat of the "Buzz Lightyear syndrome" in toy shops last Christmas, when thousands of parents searched in vain for the elusive toys from the hit film/video Toy Story.
But the N64 will probably appeal to older games players rather than young children -particularly as each game costs £50-£70.
A Nintendo spokeswoman in Britain admitted there would be initial shortages. "The volume in sales in America and Japan has been so great that they just cannot make them fast enough " she said. "They are now on maximum overdrive to meet the expected sales levels."
Competing systems operate on a 32 bit system, but the N64 uses as its name suggests 64 bits This means it can handle more information more quickly. Silicon Graphics, which specialises in providing specialist graphics computers, was closely involved in the development.
The N64 costs around £50 more than its nearest rivals, the bony Playstation and Sega Saturn, and unlike these CD based systems it uses cartridge technology. Cartridges are more robust and give faster access speeds to the game, but they are also more expensive to produce.
Consoles stand or fall on the quality and quantity of their games. Sony and Sega both have a head start in this respect with libraries approaching 200 titles. The N64 makes its debut this week with only three games, although another 40 are in the pipeline.
The acid test will be how quickly the faster machine is supported by a more extensive software library. The Plumber, Star Wars Shadows of the Empire, and Pilotwings 64 will be followed by Wave Race 64 (in a month) and Super Mario Karl 64 (the summer).
The N64 has an innovative control pad, the first to use a thumb sized joystick as well as buttons. This has been designed to make it easier to navigate around the complex 3-D virtual worlds that feature in most games nowadays. The console includes four controller ports for multiplayer gaming. This should be some consolation to gamers who fail to get their hands on their own N64, in the forthcoming shortages here and in Britain.
Sony's Playstation took the lead in the British and Irish markets on its release in 1995, and Sega's Saturn was pushed into third place. The N64 is a determined effort by Nintendo to regain the lead.
In a campaign against foreign computer games, China is pushing a new home grown line of games with "patriotic" themes such as Chinese fighter pilots downing US planes during the Korean War. The authorities have complained recently about Japanese games that Beijing says glorify Japan's conquest of Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. In December, Chinese authorities fined a Japanese funded company for manufacturing such games.