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In the history of computer and video games, the 32-bit / 64-bit era was the fifth generation of video game consoles. It featured both 32-bit and "64-bit" consoles, and the market was dominated by three consoles, the Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Nintendo 64 with Playstation being the most successful. Demographics in console sales varied overall but these consoles defined the System wars of this era (see section below). The 3DO and Atari Jaguar were also part of this era, but failed to make an impact like their competitors. This era also saw three updated versions of Nintendo's Game Boy: Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Light (Japan only).

Ridge Racer was one of Sony's launch titles for the PlayStation; it was a port of the Namco-made arcade game.

Bit ratings for consoles largely fell by the wayside during this era, with the notable exception of the Nintendo 64. The number of "bits" cited in console names referred to the CPU word size, but there was little to be gained from increasing the word size much beyond 32 or 64 bits - performance depended on more varied factors, such as processor clock speed, bandwidth, and memory size.

The 32-bit / 64-bit era was also the era where the rise of console emulation happened. The first fan translation project, on Final Fantasy V, was released to the emulation community during this era.Transition to 3D

The 32-bit / 64-bit era is most noted for the rise of 3D games, which largely replaced the traditional 2D games of the 16 and 8-bit eras. The Nintendo 64 launch title Super Mario 64 perhaps best exemplifes this, as it was the first console game to steer the industry's focus away from side-scroll and rail-style titles to generating truly 3D environments in which the player has an unencumbered range of motion.

Super Mario 64, the best-known Nintendo 64 game. It pioneered 3D platformer gaming and was an example all others have strived to follow ever since.

'New school' gaming

It is the era that followed the 16-bit era. It is the birth of what some video game players call "new school" gaming, which uses 3D computer graphics. The Sony PlayStation was released in Japan near the end of the 16-bit era in 1994, and in the United States in 1995. The Nintendo 64 was released in Japan and the United States in 1996. Many critics, some of whom call themselves old school gamers, call this the beginning of an industrial revolution of video gaming, and think that SNES games are more amusing than 32-bit / 64-bit era video games and today's video games. Fundamental gameplay changes between the old school and new school era include gameplay actions revolving around more true-to-life animation (which had already been tried with Prince of Persia, but really brought to the fore with games like Tomb Raider and Tekken), instead of the quicker, cartoon-style action typical of titles like Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog. Another fundamental change was the widespread adoption of CD-ROM technology which allowed more storyline content into games, possibly focusing the developers away from developing gameplay content. Storylines also started to get more complex and featured mature stories and characters, examples being Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII. The 32-bit / 64-bit era was also the time console emulation started to become popular. NES and SNES ROMs have been easier to find during the sixth generation era than they were during the 32-bit / 64-bit era.

System wars

The Atari Jaguar disappointed people, for various reasons.

More so than with any other era however, the 32-bit / 64-bit era was the paramount staging ground of the "system wars". The "system wars" were a phenomenon in which people would attempt to evaluate the upcoming hardware of a system and purchase the system for that reason alone, speculating that the best games must be made for that hardware. Since the length of time systems spent in development had been steadily growing since the 8-bit era, and since a growing consumer awareness was making the development process more public than at any time in the past, consumers were left with a lengthy period of time in which to speculate about the strengths and weakenesses of the consoles to be released in the next generation. Many events transpired to mislead gamers during this era, further causing controversy and bitterness over the process:

• Despite massive third party support and an unprecedented amount of hype for a first-time entrant into the industry, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer's $700.00 pricetag prevented it from reaching the demographic of more casual gamers who chose instead to purchase one of the 3DO's more affordable contemporaries.
• The Sega 32x, an upgrade for the Sega Genesis and Sega CD that was enhanced for 32-bit gameplay, was released a year prior to the release of the Saturn, which angered consumers into buying it and then having to buy a Sega Saturn right after the 32x eventually failed and died.
• The Atari Jaguar was released in 1993 with a surprisingly successful start, but quality software for the platform arrived few and far between, with only Tempest 2000, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Alien vs. Predator being standout games. The system itself being 64-bit was also controversal.

NiGHTS Into Dreams is one of the most popular Sega Saturn titles, known for its experimental concept and unique gameplay.

• The Nintendo 64 was announced as "Ultra 64" and two arcade games (Killer Instinct and Cruis'n USA) were released claiming to use the hardware. A famous TV ad showed a gamer chainsawing open the Killer Instinct arcade cabinet so he could take out the N64 console inside. This caused many gamers to abstain from buying systems like the 3DO, Saturn, and PlayStation, because they saw that what they thought was the Nintendo 64 hardware was clearly superior to any of those systems. In the end, the system was completely different from that used for Killer Instinct and Cruis'n USA.
• Video game magazines constantly did side by side hardware-specification comparisons of the systems using dubious statistics. Console makers routinely boasted theoretical maximum limits of each system's 3D polygon rendering without accounting for real world in-game performance when using game AI, lighting, and texturing).
• There were more competing consoles in this era than in any era since the video game crash of 1983.

In the end, Atari, already on shaky ground, was permanently removed from the console industry, and Sega's failure in North America set itself up for a similar fate in the next round of console wars. The manufacturer was already in debt from past marketing faults.

CD vs Cartridge

During the 32/64-bit era, Nintendo's somewhat controversial decision to make the N64 a cartridge based system like its predecessors, while most every other contemporary system (Jaguar was more or less gone by then) was moving to the new CD-ROM technology. This sparked a bit of a small scale war amongst gamers as to which was better. It was mainly played out between Nintendo and Sony.

Nintendo's choice had several advantages:

1. ROM cartridges have very fast load times in comparison to disc based games. This can be observed from the loading screens that appear in many PlayStation games but are mainly non-existent in N64 versions.
2. ROM cartridges are difficult and expensive to duplicate, thus resisting piracy (albeit at the expense of lowered profit margin for Nintendo). While unauthorized interface devices between the N64 and PC were later developed, these devices are rare when compared to a regular CD drive as used on the PlayStation.
3. It is possible to add specialized support chips (such as coprocessors) to ROM cartridges, as was done on some SNES games.
4. Most cartridges store individual profiles and game progress on the cartridge itself, eliminating the need for separate and expensive memory cards. Storing data required a cartridge battery whose energy would diminish over time, though the battery generally lasted for years.

Graphically, benefits of the Nintendo cartridge system were mixed. While N64 games generally had higher polygon counts, the limited storage size of ROM carts limited the amount of available textures, resulting in games which had a plain and flat-shaded look. Later cartridges such as Resident Evil 2 featured more ROM space, which demonstrated that N64 was capable of detailed in-game graphics when the media permitted, but this performance came late in the console war and at a high price.

The cost of producing a cartridge was far higher than producing a CD: one gaming magazine at the time cited average costs of twenty-five dollars per cartridge, versus 10 cents per CD. As a result of this, N64 games tended to sell for slightly higher prices than PlayStation games did. While most PlayStation games rarely exceeded $50, N64 titles could reach up to $70-$75. As well, the cheaper manufacturing costs and distribution costs resulting in lower costs to third party game publishers. As a result many game developers which had traditionally supported Nintendo game consoles were now developing games for the competition because of the higher profit margins found on CD based platforms.

The cartridge vs. disc debate came to an infamous climax during the release of Final Fantasy VII. Despite the fact that all six previous Final Fantasy games had been published on Nintendo systems, the series' producer, Squaresoft (now known as Square-Enix), chose to release Final Fantasy VII on the Sony PlayStation. This incident provided a highly-publicized denunciation of Nintendo's cartridge-based system which caused negative publicity for Nintendo.

Consoles of the 32-bit / 64-bit era

Commodore Amiga CD32 1993-1994: U.S., Europe	Laseractive 1993-1996	FM Towns Marty 1993-199?: Japan	3DO Interactive Multiplayer 1993-1995
Atari Jaguar and Atari Jaguar CD (add-on) 1993-1996: Japan, U.S., Europe	Sega 32x (add-on) 1994-1995: Japan, U.S. 1995-1996: Europe	Sega Saturn 1994-1999: Japan 1995-1998 U.S., Europe	Sony PlayStation 1994-2003: Japan 1995-2003: U.S., Europe
PC FX 1994-1997: Japan	Bandai Pippin 1995-1997: Japan 1996-1997: U.S.	Nintendo 64 1996-2002: Japan, U.S. 1997-2001: Europe

Handheld Consoles

Virtual Boy 1995-1996: Japan, U.S. (Dubiously marketed as a portable console)	Game Boy Pocket 1996-2000: Japan, U.S., Europe	Neo Geo Pocket 1996-1998 Japan	Game.com 1997-2000 U.S.
Wonderswan 1997-2000 Japan	Game Boy Light 1998-2000: Japan	Game Boy Color 1998-2003	Neo Geo Pocket Color 1998-2001 Japan: 1999-2000 U.S., Europe

Video game franchises established

Tomb Raider was a well-known franchise and released for PlayStation, Saturn and PC. (This screenshot is from the PlayStation version.)

Milestone titles

• Doom The game that made the first person shooter genre mainstream.

• Diablo The world's first Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game and first game in the Action RPG for PC

• Super Mario 64 was the first game released for the Nintendo 64. It helped prove that analog controllers were almost a necessity for 3D games, as opposed to the D-pad (the Playstation ran into this problem quickly). It was also the first major game to feature expansive 3D environments.

• Final Fantasy VII is the first game in the series to make use of FMVs (full motion videos), and it opened the door of the mainstream US market for Japanese RPG's. It signaled the convergence of film and interactive media and raised the bar in terms of production value for games. "Final Fantasy" is now one of the biggest franchises in video gaming.

• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time and one of the most influential action/adventure games ever. It smoothly transfered the playing mechanics of the previous 2D Zelda adventures.

• Tomb Raider featured a supposedly sexy female lead. It brought the video game industry the mainstream spotlight and Lara Croft became one of the most recognisable video game characters created in recent years.

• GoldenEye 007 arguably transformed the first-person shooter genre across console and PC systems alike. Offering a more cerebral experience than genre founders and leaders (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake et al), GoldenEye 007 combined stealth and slaughter with pioneering animation and physics. Its multiplayer aspects influenced the later hugely successful Halo series.

• Pok?on was the biggest money-maker for Nintendo. It created a cultural phenomeon amongst young children that brought a huge amount of Pok?on trading cards and assorted merchandising. Its TV show was also very popular and led to several movies. It paved the way for Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh.

• Metal Gear Solid was released on the PlayStation in the Fall of 1998. It received critical acclaim for its involved storyline, believable voice acting, and cinematic presentation.

• Unreal Tournament The first widely accepted online deathmatch game for PC. Brought Capture the Flag and Assault to the first person shooter genre.

See also

• Nintendo