Then there was Simon. I’ve got Pocket Simon. Rubbish. Simply a jumped-up memory game. Christ, you only have to look at picture of kids on box to know type who went in for this anathema of amnesia. Just staring at four colours was confusing enough. That was without trying to remember order in which they flashed before depressing buttons in correct sequence. One kid I remember was unbeatable at this. But then he wore specs and didn’t find smell of UHU fascinating. Unfair advantage really.

Juxtaposed with Simon travesty was game I always wanted. Galaxy Invader 1000. Though shade of yellow is what I can only describe as Renault Clio yellow, don’t let that put you off. Distributed by CGL (Computer Games Limited) shape was, in retrospect, merely a forerunner of penis extension. The E-type Jaguar of playground world.

These were games I remember most fondly from school. I’ve got a couple of others. I have Safari (Bambino). This comes in a yucky™ green but I don’t remember it at all. But this might have something to do with fact that you spend around 10 minutes boxing animals in before it dawns on you that you ought not to bother quite frankly. Obviously some kids must have owned it but never bought it in to school for fear of ritual humiliation.

And I now have Firefox F-7 (Grandstand, licensed to Tandy/Radio Shack). I don’t remember this one either but I don’t know why. Someone must have had this one and it makes Astro Wars look like Safari. Or Simon. (Now there’s a put down.) It’s kind of like Star Wars. Only you’re not at cinema and things … Buy it, still in its box and you’re talking around £85.

And writing this, it is now 25th anniversary of Space Invaders appearing in video game format. Hand-helds were now just new Pocketeers™. The local chippy would never be same again.

© Copyright Holmes Charnley mmiv

While ActRaiser may have had best game soundtrack, best graphics belonged to Donkey Kong Country. Using Advanced Computer Modeling (ACM), Rare, game developer, was able to display graphics on a 16-bit system that looked better than most 32-bit Playstation One games. ACM allowed fully-rendered graphics allowing objects to actually look 3-dimensional. Crisp, bold graphics were accomplished with ACM and Donkey Kong Country went on to sell 8 million units.

In terms of graphics and sound, SNES had biggest leap in quality as compared to other later Nintendo console versions. In fact, next-generation systems set for release in 2005 and 2006 will probably differ little as far as graphics and sound capabilities are concerned. The early game machines however, saw huge leaps in processing power.

Sure SNES had one big flaw - slowdown! While Genesis was publicizing its faster processor speed of 7.67 MHz, which they coined "blast processing," Nintendo's processor was only capable of speeds up to 3.58 MHz. When too many sprites appeared on screen at one time in games such as shooters like R-Type III, action would slowdown (although at times this was actually a helpful feature for many shooters instead of a hindrance because these games are so frantic and intense).

Now debate is whether Super Nintendo actually won biggest game system war ever. Based on numbers, Nintendo sold twice as many SNES units as Genesis and even though Sega was able to cut into Nintendo's market share (peaking at 65%), it was Nintendo that had regained over 60% from its original 95% market share of NES days when Sega began not supporting Genesis in its later cycle life days with quality games like SNES enjoyed.

Ironically, Nintendo initially planned for original NES console to be a 16-bit machine, but price for components were too high at time. Think about how that could have altered SNES/Genesis war. Would have Sega released a 32-bit Genesis instead? Would we now be playing on a 512-bit PS2 instead of a 128-bit console?

The SNES had an assortment of games from every genre. Nintendo should learn from its success of SNES. The N64 and GameCube are really lacking in RPG and shooter games, for example, that were abundant on SNES.

While GameCube's game selection is improving with Square Enix finally back supporting a Nintendo home console, Nintendo will need to recreate those precious days of SNES with lots of exclusive, top quality franchises for its game machine if they want to regain their market share against Sony's Playstation consoles.

The SNES is last Nintendo game console that gamers truly supported. N64 and GameCube sales pale in comparison to NES and SNES days. The Super Nintendo is also only console in history to have biggest game franchises on one machine: Metroid, Final Fantasy, Contra, Donkey Kong, F-Zero, Super Mario Bros., The Legend Of Zelda, Star Fox and Castlevania. No other console has these games on only one game system.