WEBVTT - Rerun: How E3 Works 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to text Tuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:15.240 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:18.279 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio and 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.959 I love all things tech and I owe you guys 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:26.160 an explanation because I had intended to have a brand 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:29.160 new episode published today. It was going to be about 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:35.080 hard drives and solid state drives. But ironically, though not 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:38.040 really because it didn't involve my hard drive. I lost it. 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:42.240 There was a power issue as well as an internet issue, 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.720 and the combination of those meant that my audio file 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.800 was corrupted and I could not I tried to retrieve it. 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.960 Trust me, it was not finished when the issue happened, 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:56.120 and I wasn't able to retrieve it or recover it. 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:00.680 And the same is true for my notes. I was 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.960 saving directly to the cloud. I did not realize that 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:07.319 my Internet connection had dropped out, so I didn't have 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:11.280 a full version of my notes. I had an incomplete version, 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.520 which meant that I needed to you know, rewrite stuff, 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.080 so that put me behind schedule and I never want 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:22.240 to go without publishing an episode, so in order to 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:26.400 tide me over until Wednesday's episode, which will be the 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.200 hard Drive in Solid State Drive episode. I thought we 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.679 should listen to a classic episode, and when choosing, I 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.440 figured a good one would be how E three Works. 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:43.640 This episode originally aired on June twenty nine. Now. E three, 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:46.320 for those of you who do not know, is a 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:51.160 big trade conference that centers around video games, and of 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:55.480 course this year in twenty twenty, they canceled the physical 0:01:55.680 --> 0:02:01.800 conference fairly early on, uh not not too long after 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:04.440 it became clear that COVID was going to be a 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:10.200 really big problem, and so there was no physical conference 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:15.760 this year. Instead, companies released information, some around a more 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:19.000 virtual E three type schedule, but others kind of did 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:22.359 it just on their own, you know, their own timing, 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:25.640 And a lot of people have come up with some 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:28.680 ideas about whether or not this means E three itself 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.079 is a thing of the past, if it's ever going 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:35.959 to return. I'll talk more about that after the episode airs, 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:40.200 but first let's listen to this classic episode, How E 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:44.760 three works. E three and its history and its place 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:49.160 in video games. Um, it's something that if you've never 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:53.400 been and you only have followed the news that breaks 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.280 regarding E three, you may not be fully aware of 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.920 exactly what it's supposed to be. It is a trade show. 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:04.680 It typically takes place in Los Angeles, California, although it 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:08.400 has taken place in other locations throughout its history, and 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.400 it's uh like many trade shows, it's really meant for 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:18.200 companies to have lots of meetings and conferences, but also 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:22.240 to show off their products. In fact, it's largely become 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:27.360 a press oriented event where companies are unveiling big new 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.120 ideas to try and get a lot of buzz behind them. 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.840 Sometimes they do it a little too early and you 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.880 might end up losing momentum by the time something finally 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.480 comes out. Sometimes the things they announced never come out 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:45.440 at all, and I also can become a problem. But 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:48.480 I wanted to go through some of the history um 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:50.400 and it's gone through a lot of changes. It first 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:55.040 debuted back in nineteen So I'm gonna give a history 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:56.880 and evolution of the show, including some of the big 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:00.320 things that have happened during particular years. Don't worry, I'm 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.760 not gonna go through full details of every single year. 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.360 I'm going to give overviews of a lot of them, 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:09.800 but the early years I want to pay special attention 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:12.720 to because that was back when E three was kind 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:17.800 of finding its identity. Now, before E three, hardware manufacturers 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:20.640 and software companies would show off their stuff at other 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.720 types of trade shows, one of the big ones being 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.159 c e S formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Showcase. 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.840 In fact, the Nintendo Entertainment System debuted at CES back 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:36.359 in ve and uh a Natari computer debuted back in 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:40.920 the late seventies. Xbox, the original Xbox, debut in two 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:43.400 thousand one. That was even after E three was formed. 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:45.800 But the problem with c e S is that it's 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:50.279 really big and it covers the entire spectrum of consumer electronics. 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.599 Video games are just a tiny little spice of that, 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.039 so they would often be overlooked, and sometimes they'd be 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:00.680 put in really inconvenient spots on the show floor. And 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:04.640 for a while C e S and the Adult Entertainment 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:09.080 Expo we're running at the same time. There were times 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:12.640 where in order to get to the video game section 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:14.720 at c e S you'd have to walk through the 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:19.320 adult entertainment conference to get there, and a lot of 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.360 the companies that were working on video game systems and 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:26.839 software they didn't take too kindly to that. They didn't 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:29.520 like that they were being shoveled off to the side 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.360 or put in inconvenient locations. So there started to be 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:37.480 some discussion among various companies about what they might do 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:42.680 about that. So in some top video game publishers and 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:47.760 hardware manufacturers formed a new organization called the Interactive Digital 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:52.599 Software Association or i d s A. UH. This would 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:57.120 later on evolve into the Entertainment Software Association or e 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:02.160 s A. So in heart that association access an advocacy 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:05.320 group for video game companies fighting for stuff that isn't 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:09.800 always a benefit to consumers. For example, the e s 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:13.680 A has supported SOPA and PIPPA, which are two pieces 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.520 of legislation that a lot of people opposed, but they 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:20.880 also advocate for stuff that consumers appreciate, and one of 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:25.480 those things was how can we create an event where 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:27.640 we can have our own trade show and we're not 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:34.400 overshadowed by other types of technology. So in this association 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.200 partnered with a company called International Data Group that are 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.400 known as I d G to create a new trade 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:44.120 show centered in Los Angeles. The event took place from 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:49.040 May leventh to mayt at the Los Angeles Convention Center, 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:53.160 and the day before the show floor opened, CEOs of 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:55.760 some of the biggest game companies held a press conference 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.880 to talk about the future of the gaming industry. If 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:02.240 you follow the three today, you know that essentially the 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:06.040 same thing happens now where companies will hold a huge 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:10.480 press event before the show floor opens in order to 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:13.640 get as much coverage as possible and excite people and 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.560 convince them to come to their booth at the show 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:22.840 floor and cover their products. And sometimes these events are amazing, 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:27.400 and sometimes they are cringeworthy. You will sit through there 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:31.520 and you'll hear some of the worst forced humor, particularly 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:35.000 when you have executives who aren't really used to giving 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:39.200 a lot of public speeches, and they'll do terrible setups 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.360 and punchlines. I mean worse than mine, at least with mine. 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:44.960 It's a natural delivery. The jokes are bad, but I 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.640 know how to deliver them. So sometimes you get a 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:52.400 great presentation that's really compelling. Sometimes you get a presentation 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:56.720 that's pretty painful to watch. Usually the trailers help, the 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:59.440 movie trailers, or rather the video game trailers help. They 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.240 can move things along, even if the stage production part 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:06.160 is a little hard to watch. So what was like? 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:11.680 What was that first E three actually like? Well, I 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.160 wasn't there, but I've read a lot about it. That 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:18.400 was a big year in video games. N That was 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:22.120 when um Sega was touting the Sega Saturn. That was 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:26.800 their attempt to try and rest the number one spot 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:32.520 away from the Nintendo uh, which ultimately actually would fall 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:38.200 on Sony's shoulders, not Nintendo are not Sega's shoulders. So 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:41.920 Sega had already launched the Saturn in Japan at the 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:45.240 tail end of nineteen, but it wasn't scheduled to hitch 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:50.199 store shelves until September two. However, during Sega's press conference, 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:53.720 the company surprised the audience by announcing it had shipped 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:56.560 the Saturn to a few retailers in the United States, 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.920 meaning it was available that day for the retail price 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:05.400 of three hundred nine dollars four hundred bucks in That 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:09.280 is not an insignificant amount of money, but it was 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:11.960 a pretty good mic drop moment to say, you know, 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:14.240 we thought about scheduling it so it would come out 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:19.920 in September. It's available now. The first Sony PlayStation had 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.560 also launched in the end of so it was still 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:25.920 new on the market in Japan, but it was not 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:29.120 yet out in the United States. So in Sony's press conference, 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:33.080 they talked about it debuting in the US, and Steve 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:37.120 Race of Sony said only one thing during the press conference. 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:40.760 Steve Race came out at the press conference, looked at 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:45.680 the audience and the only thing Race said was two dollars, 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:48.400 and that brought the house down. It was a hundred 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:55.199 dollars cheaper than the Sega alternative. Nintendo, for its part, 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:58.480 announced that it's next system, which would become known as 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:03.440 the Nintendo sixty four, would be delayed until nine, so 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:05.920 they didn't have any hardware to show off. They didn't 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.839 have an enormous press conference at E three, but they 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:12.319 did throw a big party before the show itself. Uh 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:15.080 and the company has done some similar things in following 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.319 E three throughout the years. In fact, there's some years 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:20.199 where Nintendo doesn't really have much of a presence at 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.440 E three, but will hold its own event just before 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:28.040 E three two, kind of piggyback onto everything. Nintendo also 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:30.679 had the largest booth on the exhibition floor space in 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:35.079 the main hall. The second largest booth belonged to a Claim. Now. 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:39.720 One of the things Nintendo showed off was the Virtual Boy. Yes, 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:44.840 the virtual Boy, the Migraine making machine that convinced us 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:50.080 that virtual reality was a long long way away. And 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.800 it also shows how unreliable my memory is. I always 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:56.600 associate the Virtual Boy as something that came out earlier before, 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.439 like in the late nineteen eighties. My associate with my childhood, 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.480 but actually I was I was older than that when 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:06.040 it came out. Maybe it was just a child at heart. 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:11.120 At any rate, the Virtual Boy was a big push 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:14.600 from Nintendo, and obviously that did not work out so 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.120 well for them. Meanwhile, you had a Claim that was 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:20.720 showing off licensed games like Judge Dread and Batman Forever. 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:26.760 But those games were not terribly great. They didn't look great. 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:29.240 It was it was clear that a claim was not 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:33.640 incredibly sure that this was alone going to pull people 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:38.000 into their booths. So they did something pretty innovative. You know, 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:41.520 keep in mind this is the first E three. So 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:43.800 what does a claim do for their booth. They get 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:48.880 hold of the motorcycle from Judge Dread and the batmobile 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:51.800 in Batman Forever and put both of those in their booth. 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:58.520 And they also hired a ton of models, uh young 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:04.439 ladies where ring revealing clothing to entice people into their booth. 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.440 So even at the very first E three there were 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:12.679 booth babes uh, which is not a great, you know label, 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:15.800 but that is what people tend to refer to, you know, 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:19.360 the ladies who have been hired to bring people into 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:23.920 the booth. Um. Also, at that time, the three d 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.840 O was still around. The three d O famously one 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:33.080 of the entertainment systems that never really got a good 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:35.800 foothold in the gaming industry, but it was still around 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:39.400 at that point, so get's the gecko was there. Three 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:44.680 d O also decided to get some ladies to try 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.559 and bring people into their booth. In that case, three 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:51.160 d O went with the San Diego Chargers cheerleading squad, 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:58.000 so subtle. Also Neo g O c D debut that 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.559 was from s N. K Uh. One of the people 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:06.160 in attendance a celebrity this is really classy, John Wayne Bobbitt. 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:10.200 He was famous for um well, there's no reason to 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.120 go into it on this show, but he was there, 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:16.440 and he was promoting a company that created interactive porn software, 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:21.320 so a very unsettling kind of thing for some of 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.200 the other companies. They weren't so sure that they wanted 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:30.319 to have this kind of entertainment included with video games. 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:33.160 So they actually designed the show floor so there was 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:38.120 a bordered off section away from general traffic, so that 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:41.720 it wasn't just incorporated directly into the exhibition hall with 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:46.000 everybody else. Seka had the biggest booth at the South Hall. 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.160 Sony also had a very large booth. Sony's was particularly 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:54.720 flashy and expensive. Sony threw a big party, and the 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.760 biggest news about Sony's party was about someone who attended 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:01.679 the party just to play games, my Chael Jackson. H 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.920 And at that time, Atari was starting to fade from 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:09.840 the home console market. The Jaguar had underperformed in the market, 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:11.720 and so the company only had a small booth at 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:14.400 E three. And if you're wondering what sort of big 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.880 games were shown off in that year, in they included 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:23.240 classics like Twisted Metal and Mortal Kombat three. Uh. The 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:28.000 next year in E three was a different story. First 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:33.280 of all, Sega Saturn had completely flopped in the market, 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:37.480 and Nintendo's Virtual Boy also was a failure, so both 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:42.360 of those companies were nursing their wounds. In nine, Sony 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.320 PlayStation was actually starting to gain some traction and become 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:50.120 competitive in in Nintendo's space. It hadn't overtaken Nintendo yet, 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:52.840 but it was on its way, and no one was 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.360 really sure at the video game industry was doing well 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:58.240 or not. There were a lot of fears that with 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:00.560 all the different video game systems of the market from 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.760 all the different companies, that the industry was heading toward 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:08.240 another console crash, like the video game Crash of Night three. 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:13.600 So Nintendo that year announced the in sixty four at 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:16.720 the show. Remember the previous year they had to delay it, 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:19.440 So they announced the in sixty four. They're saying it 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:22.880 would cost two fifty dollars. They also showed off Super 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:25.480 Mario sixty four and that got a great response. When 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:30.000 people saw that Mario could move and three dimensions, it 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:33.080 blew everyone's mind, which is kind of funny to think 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:36.280 about now, but at the time it was huge. Nintendo 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:38.600 also announced a game that's widely considered one of the 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.800 best of all time, Golden I, which is based off 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.640 the James Bond film. Now, they just sort of announced 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.040 it and showed a little bit of concept art and 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:49.160 stuff like that. They didn't really go into much detail. 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:53.040 That would come later the next year. They also showed 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.440 off a slim down game Boy called the game Boy Pocket, 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.360 and at the Nintendo party they had circud the sole 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.760 a performer is performing stunts and walking on stilts and stuff, 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:05.160 which was a little weird from what I understand. Again, 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:08.000 I wasn't there this one either. We'll be back with 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:10.640 more about E three and just a moment, but first 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:21.560 let's take a quick break. Sony announced that the PlayStation 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:26.480 would drop in price to a Now this was controversial 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:30.920 because the various presidents of the companies had kind of 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:34.400 come to an understanding that no one was going to 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:38.600 go to the press event and drop a bombshell that 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:43.840 would adversely affect the other companies. So why did Sony 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:46.680 come out and say the PlayStation was going to drop 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:51.520 to bucks. Well, this is because the person who was 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:54.840 in charge of Sony at that time was newly in 0:16:54.960 --> 0:17:01.480 charge of Sony's video game market. So his excuse was, hey, 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.200 that was an agreement that my predecessor made. I never 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:07.480 made that agreement. So Sony says, hey, we're gonna drop 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:11.919 the price to that kind of put the pressure on 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:15.760 Nintendo and Sega, both of which would at the same 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:19.159 event announced that their new consoles would come down to 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.119 UM So that was that was a big deal. That 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:28.760 put a lot of pressure on those companies. That was 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:31.000 also the year Microsoft first showed up to E three 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:36.119 N but it wasn't too promote a console idea. It 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.760 was to pitch Windows as a gaming platform. Now, that 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:43.640 might blow your mind that in ninet Microsoft is saying, hey, 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:47.320 let's have more developers create video games for Windows. But 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:49.439 at that time there were a lot of games that 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:53.520 were still based on or using DOSS as the operating 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:59.800 system of choice. So, uh, this was an uphill battle, 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.280 or at least it seemed that way for Microsoft. It 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.679 turned out that before too long it would be impossible 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:07.840 for you to find a game that would run on DOSS. 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:11.920 You had to get a Windows installation on your PC 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:13.800 if you wanted to play games, because all the games 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.359 were made for Windows. I remember at the time I 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:23.280 was particularly perturbed by this because I was a Doss boy. 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:27.200 E three changed venues. It actually went to the Georgia 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:30.399 Dome in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. Didn't get to 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:32.480 go to this one either. At the time, in ninety seven, 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:35.160 I was not working at How Stuff Works, so I 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.359 was not in the technology field. I would have loved 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:42.840 to have attended, but I wasn't qualified. Uh. E three 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:46.280 I should have mentioned earlier is an industry only event. 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:48.520 It's only been open to the public a couple of 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:53.160 times and um. Otherwise you have to be either in 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:57.879 the video game industry or in journalism specifically covering video games. 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:01.600 Otherwise you are not supposed to go. A lot of 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:04.320 people end up getting passes to go for various in 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:06.760 various ways, like maybe they work in marketing, maybe they 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.840 work for a video game retailer, like a retail store. 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.960 But in general, you're not supposed to just have anybody 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:16.840 show up to these things. They have to have some 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:23.119 the credentials required to get in so Georgia Dome. The 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:27.239 trade show held some conferences, some actual panel discussions, not 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:31.840 just press events and game demos. They actually held discussions 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:34.520 about emerging trends and video games, including a strange new 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:40.919 world of online gaming, something that was relatively young in Also, 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:45.160 there was a type of video game that was really 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:49.840 starting to get incredibly popular, first person shooters. They had 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:53.200 been around for a few years several years actually, um 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:57.040 since Wolfenstein three D came out in the early nineties, 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:00.520 but they were starting to get some real action, and 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:04.760 so there were conferences held about first person shooters, particularly 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.920 for the consoles. So why did the company show off? 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:11.320 Nintendo showed off Golden Eye Double O seven. This time 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.600 they showed a much more detailed demo, and that really 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:17.480 impressed the E three audience. The four players split screen 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:21.520 approach was a big innovation for console games. Nintendo also 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:25.479 showed off a cute game called Conquers Quest about a 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:28.920 fluffy squirrel, and it was meant for kids, and this 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:32.119 game would never come out, but it would mutate into 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:36.359 a totally different, crude and appropriate game called Conquers Bad 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:38.680 for a Day. More on that in a little bit. 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.359 That same year, Sony announced Metal Gear Solid, which was 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:46.440 technically a sequel to Metal Gear and Metal Gear two 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:49.960 Solid Snake. Metal Gear Solid would become the foundation for 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:55.000 an extremely popular franchise that um, as far as we know, 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:59.640 has concluded since the creator has left the company that 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:02.560 was publishing these But that's a that's a story for 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.280 a different day. That would be an entire podcast all 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.399 on its own, and in retrospect, many people felt that 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:10.720 the thirty three was kind of a letdown after the 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:13.600 first two and that the Georgia Dome was probably not 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:17.119 the best venue for the event. Uh that it just 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:20.440 made the event to spread out too difficult to navigate, 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:24.920 and it just wasn't ideal for showing off these games 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:27.840 and the companies. And another black mark for this E 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:32.280 three this was the E three where Duke Nukem Forever 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:36.399 was first announced. Now that game would become synonymous with 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:40.440 the term vapor ware, and eventually Duke Nukem Forever would 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:44.080 emerge out of development hell in two thousand eleven. So 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:47.920 announced in but it wouldn't be until two thousand eleven 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:51.119 that it comes out, more than a decade later, and 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:54.120 the response at the time was pretty negative. People were 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:58.080 not impressed, especially considering that the game was spending more 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:01.800 than ten years in development. So it would be really 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:04.040 crazy for me to go into this level of detail 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:06.720 for every single year, for every E three, so I'm 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:08.560 not going to do that. I'm now going to kind 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:14.640 of give you just some highlights of each year moving forward. Um, 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:17.879 and if you want to learn more about any given 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:20.560 E three, I can always do a full episode about 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:24.280 specific year if there's something that you think is particularly interesting. 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:27.080 But for now, let's look at some of the highlights. 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:32.200 So in n E three was still in Atlanta, had 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:34.320 grown into a pretty major trade show with something like 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:40.240 seventy thousand attendees, and companies were going all out. They 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:43.680 were getting some some big name bands to play their 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:46.960 parties like in ninety eight and included the Food Fighters, 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:50.960 UH and the B fifty twos at industry parties, and 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:53.320 again I'm very sad that I wasn't able to go in. 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:58.320 Sega ended up showing off the Dreamcast, which was, in 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:02.760 my opinion, one of the rate consoles of that era. Sadly, 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:06.240 I don't think Sega ever had a good idea of 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:09.280 how to market it, how to leverage it, so despite 0:23:09.320 --> 0:23:13.119 the fact that it was a legitimately good contender in 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:17.320 the console space, it never really got the the market 0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:20.800 support and needed to be a real competitor against Nintendo 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:25.320 and Sony. Also shown in ninety eight was an early 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:29.080 version of a little game called Half Life, and it 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:34.919 is an ongoing joke in video game journalism about whether 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:38.879 or not Valve will announce Half Life three at the 0:23:38.920 --> 0:23:42.160 next E three um. Half Life is one of those 0:23:42.160 --> 0:23:44.879 games where people have been waiting for the conclusion of 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:47.040 the story for quite some time, and there has been 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:51.800 no word on if Half Life three is in development, 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:54.320 and even if it is, you know when would it 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:57.760 possibly come out, But there's no word on an even 0:23:57.760 --> 0:24:04.440 existing period, so it remains one of the uh the 0:24:04.440 --> 0:24:09.120 the snipes that were hunting in video game journalism circles. 0:24:10.160 --> 0:24:13.719 Also at Nintendo showed off a game that was the 0:24:13.800 --> 0:24:17.080 legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, one of the um 0:24:17.560 --> 0:24:23.639 highly highly critically claimed Zelda games that came out in 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:28.440 that time that in uh the Mask one was in 0:24:28.480 --> 0:24:30.720 Major's Mask. I think, so that's the next one. But 0:24:30.760 --> 0:24:32.479 oh Green of Time, that was a game that I 0:24:32.560 --> 0:24:36.480 also had um and a lot of people thought that 0:24:36.480 --> 0:24:39.439 that was sort of the right direction for Nintendo to 0:24:39.480 --> 0:24:44.280 move in. E three came back to Los Angeles, so 0:24:44.320 --> 0:24:47.560 it leaves Atlantic goes back to l a uh Sega 0:24:47.600 --> 0:24:52.400 announces that the Dreamcast launch date will be nine nine, 0:24:52.520 --> 0:24:58.120 so September, and we'll retail for one dollars, so it's 0:24:58.280 --> 0:25:01.960 pretty cute. Nintend Know held a press conference that unveiled 0:25:02.040 --> 0:25:07.119 Project Dolphin. Project Dolphin would eventually become the GameCube. They 0:25:07.160 --> 0:25:10.480 also showed off Donkey Kong sixty four, another game that 0:25:10.560 --> 0:25:13.520 was on display was Quake three. Final Fantasy eight was 0:25:13.560 --> 0:25:15.960 also shown off that year, So some big names in 0:25:16.320 --> 0:25:21.240 computer and video games in two thousand there were. It 0:25:21.320 --> 0:25:25.720 was pretty much a game heavy year. Um The PlayStation 0:25:25.840 --> 0:25:31.000 two was announced by Sony. It had already launched in Japan, 0:25:31.080 --> 0:25:35.840 so announced rather for the US shelves because the game 0:25:35.880 --> 0:25:38.480