HuguesJohnson.com: Closing time, a tribute to the last calls of gaming

From age 21-25 my friends and I closed out many a bar, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I was usually the designated driver so I had the joy of performing the "drunken roundup" as I called it. It also meant that I saw closing time with a sober mind. Putting it into perspective, it was a slightly depressing time. The celebratory mood that filled the air a mere two hours ago was a distant memory. Throughout the evening the more desirable people trickled out the door. By the time last call was announced several people rushed to send off the night with a final drink. They'd look for a last minute hook-up then leave feeling dejected, sometimes angry. When closing time was finally called there was always that one lonely drinker still at the bar, trying to cling on until the last possible moment.

Video game systems aren't all that different. A console manufacturer starts hinting that they're working on a new system. There aren't any final specifications, release dates, or even potential names, just hints that something is coming. Game publishers who have good ideas in an early development stage hold-off until they know more. The selection for existing systems starts to grow thinner. The console manufacturer makes a grand announcement about their upcoming system, last call. The publishers work overtime to produce games for it. Projects already underway for existing systems get reassigned to the B, or even C, team. They're far enough along that scrapping or porting them wouldn't be worthwhile. Some are rushed out the door like the frenzy of last minute drinkers. Others sit in a stool, nursing their drink until the bitter end, closing time.

This article is a tribute to those games that were the final lonely patron of a once festive tavern on a Saturday night. While another three-way console war is reaching the height of its fury, let's reflect on the final days of systems past. Maybe we can even learn how these now hot consoles may spend their inevitable last days.

Notes: This article only looks at official licensed games. As much as I respect homebrew projects, they won't be considered. Only games released in the United States are listed as well. Systems had different life spans in different countries so I had to settle on one. Basically if you couldn't walk into a game store in the US and buy a copy, it's not on the list. This also leaves out the Telegames and Songbird Productions games, most of which were manufactured after a system's demise and only available via mail order. I'm sure some readers won't be happy with this but I had to apply a standard. There are obviously some systems missing from this list. Some were omitted because I couldn't find a definitive source for their last licensed title, Colecovision falls into this category. Others, like the Jaguar CD, sold too poorly or had too few releases to be considered relevant. See the Missing Systems section for a more detailed explanation on these.

Contents

Atari 5200 - Gremlins (1986)
Intellivision – One last Christmas (1987)
Atari 2600 – Secret Quest (1988)
Atari 7800 - Midnight Mutants (1990)
Sega Master System – Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
Sidebar - New Compact Design
TurboGrafx-16 – Bomberman '93 (1993)
NES - Wario's Woods (December 1994)
TurboGrafx-16 CD - Bonk 3 (December 1994)
Atari Lynx - Super Asteroids and Missile Command (1995)
Sega CD - Surgical Strike (December 1995)
Virtual Boy - Tetris 3-D (March 1996)
Sega 32X - Spider-man: Web of Fire (Spring 1996)
3DO - Casper (May 1996)
Sega Game Gear - Sonic Blast (1996)
Atari Jaguar – Fight for Life (1996)
Sega Genesis - Seconds left in the fourth quarter (1997)
Super Nintendo - Kirby's Dream Land 3 (November 1997)
Sidebar - Sega Genesis & Super Nintendo – Frogger (1998)
Sega Saturn – Magic Knight Rayearth (December 1998)
Game Boy - Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition (October 1999)
Sega Dreamcast – NHL 2K2 (February 2002)
Nintendo 64 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (August 2002)
Game Boy Color – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (November 2002)
Sidebar - Neo Geo - Samurai Shodown V Special [AKA Samurai Spirits Zero Special] (October 2004)
Sony Playstation - FIFA Soccer 2005 (October 2004)
Nintendo Gamecube - Madden 08 (August 2007)
Microsoft Xbox - Madden 08 (August 2007)
Concluding Thoughts
The Future?
Missing Systems
Sources

What better place to start than with a victim of the legendary video game crash of 1983? We all know the story, a deluge of awful games destroyed mainstream consumer interest in gaming. Atari was financially devastated and sold to the incompetent Jack Tramiel. The young Atari 5200 was canned in 1984, the year when Gremlins was developed. It was produced but sat in limbo for two years until the decision was made to clear out the remaining stock of 5200 games.

Gremlins is an enjoyable enough game. You control a sword-wielding Billy on a quest hack-up gremlins while preventing the fuzzy little Mogwai from joining their ranks. If you've seen the movie it makes sense.

The Atari 5200 has the dubious distinction of being the only system on this list that died before the system it was intended to replace. Although I suppose one could argue the 32X and Sega CD fit this criteria as well.

Mattel canned their electronics division in 1984 after the previously noted crash of 1983. A group of former employees formed INTV corporation and bought the rights to the Intellivision. When the NES was released in 1985 it sparked a resurgence in the game industry. Stores started carrying a limited supply of Intellivision and Atari games again.

In response, INTV corporation dusted-off a few unfinished games in time for the 1987 holiday season. Tower of Doom was one of the most advanced adventure games for the the Intellivision, even rivaling AD&D Treasure of Tarmin. OK, I guess there were only three adventure games for the Intellivision but they were all top-notch. Diner, which I actually owned at the time, was the sequel to Burgertime based on the code for an unfinished He-Man game. Dig-Dug was a so-so port of the arcade game. It was originally written, but not released, in 1984. As a result it was inferior to the more recently published Atari 7800 version.

The last three Intellivision games were produced in 1989. By then the system and games were only available through mail order. The Christmas of 1987 marked the last time new Intellivision games graced store shelves.

In a twist that almost seems scripted, the last Atari 2600 game was produced by long-departed-Atari-founder Nolan Bushnell. Secret Quest was a decent send-off for the venerable console, one of the better games created for it. It looks and plays like the offspring of Adventure and Berzerk. Maybe Escape from Castle Wolfenstein is a better comparison, you have to find keys and keep your ammo & life meters stocked with power-up items. It was a great game by Atari 2600 standards but couldn't touch the NES games released in 1988 like Metal Gear and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

1988 also marks the year that Atari unsuccessfully sued Nintendo for engaging in monopolistic practices. This was one of many bad decisions by Atari, a couple others will pop-up below I believe..

Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Master System isn't a port of the Genesis version. The levels are different, the enemies fewer, but the idea is the same. Technically speaking, it shows again that the Sega Master System could produce some high-quality games. Unfortunately for Sega in the 80s, the few outstanding Master System games couldn't hold back the flood of NES titles. The Master System was dead in the US by 1991 but still had a substantial following in Europe and Brazil. I suspect Sonic the Hedgehog was largely developed for sale overseas, it was easy enough for them to release a US version too. The combination of the low-cost Sega Master System II and Sonic the Hedgehog likely swayed a few parents who didn't want to drop $200 on the Genesis equivalent for Christmas.

The Sega Master System would enjoy another seven years of new releases in Brazil courtesy of Tec Toy. They continue to sell a licensed variant of Sega Master System with 131 built-in games (and if anyone from Brazil is reading this I'd love to know if you can help me buy one).

Note: An extremely generous person from Brazil did contact me and it turns out that between the cost of the system and shipping it would come to $150-$200. I'm leaving the original comment and this note up for anyone reading this that's also curious about the cost of getting one imported.

It feels like the TurboGrafx-16 was the shortest lived system on this list (the Virtual Boy earns that "honor"). 1993 was near the height of the 16-bit console war and the TurboGrafx-16 couldn't keep up with the Genesis and Super Nintendo (although the Japanese equivalent PC-Engine would survive until 1997). What ultimately killed the system was the near total absence of third party support. Hudson Soft was one of their few supporters and published the last game in the US. Bomberman and Bonk were the closest the TurboGrafx-16 had to franchise characters. In that regard, Bomberman '93 was a "safe" game to publish even while the system was faltering. The TurboGrafx-16 had a dedicated, albeit small, following that was practically guaranteed to buy X copies of a franchise title.

Bomberman '93 was marketed as a "party game", no surprise it was announced to be a launch title for Nintendo Wii Virtual Console.

I'll admit it, this game totally confused me. Maybe I should have read the manual or something. If I recorded commentary the first time I played Wario's Woods it would have gone like "OK, looks like I'm Toad. There's some weird puff things on the ground, am I supposed to pick them up or something. Oh look, some bombs. I'd better keep those away from the puff things I guess. OK, I stacked a bunch of bombs and they blew up but nothing happened, maybe I'm supposed to kill those cute little puff balls. Yup, that did the trick. Now there's an angry tree descending, screw you tree dude. What's with the pink Muppet in the corner. Doo do do-do-do, menomena! This game sucks."

Like the previous two entries, the NES finished it's run with a franchise title. Well, there's Toad and something that rhymes with "Mario" in the title so close enough. I don't remember it coming into Electronics Boutique when I worked there. By that time we only had a couple new NES games, like Startropics 2, stuffed into a single shelf below the Game Boy accessories. If we received Wario's Woods it would have been in displayed in the same low-profile location.

To paraphrase something I said about China Warrior: "if you like novelty-sized sprites, you'll love Bonk 3". If there was one thing the TurboGrafx-16 could do better than its competitors it was giant sprites. The third installment of the Bonk series illustrated this in grand fashion. Originally a Turbo-Chip game, Bonk 3 was ported to CD in December 1994. The differences were limited to the soundtrack which received a make-over.

The original Bonk game was a decent platformer. It was fun but not great. Bonk 2 was a significant improvement and could hold it's own against Mario or Sonic. Bonk 3 regressed a bit, the levels seemed to be ripped directly from one of the prequels. Very little was added to the game except power-up candies that grow or shrink the title character, ala Alice in Wonderland.

There's not much I can say about the Lynx that isn't common knowledge. It's capabilities blew away the Game Boy but it was never a serious challenger. Poor battery life, high-price, and abysmal third-party support were the culprits.

The Lynx was officially canceled in 1993 but the last licensed US release, Super Asteroids and Missile Command, snuck out in 1995. It maintains a small, loyal fan base and limited releases from Songbird Productions.

When the Saturn was announced Sega CD projects started dropping like flies. Seven months after the famous surprise launch the Sega CD was finished. I was a loser working video game retail that Christmas and let me assure you it was dead. It wasn't that every Sega CD owner switched to the Saturn in the previous seven months, it was that new Sega CD games completely stopped. I'd seen systems die out before, but not one with the resounding crash of the Sega CD. It went from one of it's best releases, Eternal Champions, to slamming into a brick wall in no time. When Surgical Strike hit the shelves we had already stopped carrying the hardware and practically every game.

If the Sega CD+32X is considered a separate platform then Surgical Strike was almost the last game for it as well. The box offered a free mail-in upgrade to the 32X version. However, it was cancelled (and never available in stores anyway thus disqualifying it from this list). For the record, I didn't bother researching the "Last Call" for Sega CD+32X because there were only six games published for it (tying the SuperGrafx). Although I believe Fahrenheit holds that distinction.

Shadowrun, the final release for the Mega Drive CD in 1996, was nearly the last American Sega CD game as well. However, the US version was cancelled leaving the honor to Surgical Strike.

Like the Lynx, there's not much to say about the Virtual Boy that hasn't been said a thousand times. It will go down as Nintendo's biggest blunder and one of the worst consoles developed.

Tetris 3-D would have been a great pack-in title for the Virtual Boy. Maybe Nintendo wanted to prevent people from thinking "Game Boy = Tetris". Whatever the case, this game didn't hit the stores until the Virtual Boy's final days. By then the system and game library were being cleared out for a fraction of the original price.

The poor 32X was always waiting for that one game that would turn it's fortunes. Should have been Mortal Kombat II, but it was released too late. In it's final months it could only manage ports of Space Harrier and Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure that were minimal improvements over the Genesis editions. Spider-man: Web of Fire had the potential to buy the 32X a little time. A popular comic book character starring in a well-reviewed game. However, it saw very limited distribution and was largely forgotten behind the ferocious Saturn vs. Playstation battle.

As 32X platformers go it's par for the course. It looks slightly better than the average Genesis game but worse than the average Super Nintendo one. The control is a bit wild and you spend a lot of time falling off buildings as a result. I'm a fan of the 32X for some reason but wasn't impressed with Spider-man: Web of Fire.

This game is now a rarity that fetches a hefty sum on auction sites.

We're only hitting the halfway mark for 1996, The Saturn and Playstation were in full-swing, the Nintendo 64 was on its way, the PC game market was reenergized by Windows 95. It's only logical that a great purging of old systems would occur in 1996.

3DO development came to grinding halt when the M2 was announced in 1995. The few companies that still supported the 3DO moved their projects to the eventual vaporware platform. A trickle of games would be finished and released in 1996 for the rapidly fading 3DO with Casper being the last to see daylight. Just what we needed, another mediocre game based on a mediocre movie. Looking back, I'm surprised the 3DO didn't have many of these bad movie spin-off games.

In 1996 Sega dropped support for anything that wasn't the Saturn. The Game Gear was a victim of this process. Despite being technically superior, it never kept pace with the Game Boy. Sega finally threw in the towel in 1996 but still snuck out one last game, Sonic Blast. Don't let the name fool you though, this is not a port of the Sega Genesis game. It's your typical 2D, side-scrolling Sonic game.

The Game Gear would be briefly re-released in 2000 but no new games were published.

There are a lot of obvious statements that can be made about the ironic title of this game. By 1996 the Atari Jaguar was by no stretch fighting for life. With consoles slashed to $50 and cleared off store shelves it was dead. Fight for Life was merely a tombstone marker.

There were grand plans for this game, it was to be Atari's answer to Virtua Fighter. Virtua Fighter 2 was selling a lot of Saturn systems, even to gamers left skeptical by the the Sega CD and 32X. Atari hoped this 3D fighter would breathe new life into the system. However, it came out too late to have an impact. Stores had relegated the Jaguar library to the clearance bin and wedged-in a full-price Fight for Life by default.

Fight for Life was a dreadful game and belonged in the clearance bins though. Like every other game Atari made for the Jaguar, it had that weird polygon-abuse look with unbearably slow animation. Atari's thought process must have been "people loved Hard Drivin' in 1988, let's make everything look like that!" Fight for Life suffered the same problems as the majority of the Jaguar library and ultimately is just as forgettable.

The Sega Genesis and EA Sports line enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. Without the strong sports library the Genesis would have gone the way of the TG-16. Without the Sega Genesis EA Sports may not exist today. In the late 80s Electronic Arts wanted to enter the console game market. However, they found Nintendo's licensing terms too restrictive and opted to develop for the Genesis. Sega conceded to some of EA's requests such as allowing them to manufacture their own cartridges and packaging. The EA Sports division became a game publishing powerhouse. Nintendo would ultimately loosen their licensing policies allowing EA to develop for the SNES. However, without the Genesis there's a good chance EA would have abandoned all thoughts developing for game consoles. How did EA ultimately thank Sega for this? By acquiring exclusive rights to nearly every sports league, thereby destroying the entire Sega Sports division.

It was only fitting in this way that EA published the last three licensed Genesis games. John Madden Football '98, NBA Live '98, and NHL '98 all hit the stores in the early fall of 1997. I'm sure it wasn't a great effort for them. Take the '97 version, update the rosters, add a few bells 'n whistles, bam! '98 version complete. OK, I'm sure I'm oversimplifying the development process but not by much.

My only complaint about these three games is that you have to go through 87 menu screens before you can play. To this day they can't seem to merge "select team" and "select which player controls which team" into a single menu.

The death of the Super Nintendo marked the end of 2D console gaming. Sure, there are some 2D-style platformers and shooters released from time-to-time. Let's face it though, since the Super Nintendo the focus has been almost entirely on cranking-out 3D graphics with wicked shading effects and kewl-@ss textures. You can have your Halo 3; I'll take Zelda: A Link to the Past or Super Metroid over it any day.

I've never been a fan of the Kirby series though. The original NES game seemed too kiddy so I never gave the sequels any thought. Even when researching this article I couldn't bring myself to try it. I groaned when I saw the title screen for Kirby's Dream Land 3. There's Kirby, some hamster dude, a fish, an angry purple bird, and the other Pokemon-looking guys. Maybe it's a great game but I'll never know.

I was introduced to Working Designs by a game called Cosmic Fantasy 2 on the TurboGrafx-16 CD. I was instantly a fan of their games and built a library of their 16-bit CD selections. Unfortunately I couldn't afford a Saturn or Playstation back in the day so I missed out on their 32-bit games. They now sell for an astounding sum on auction sites.

If there's one thing Working Designs was (in)famous for it was taking forever to develop games. I can respect that. I'd rather wait for a high-quality game than play another uninspired me-too one. The downside of course is that sometimes you can take too long to finish a game. Such was the case for Magic Knight Rayearth. The Saturn collapsed around its third birthday but Working Designs was still working on games for it. Lunar: The Silver Star Story, a potential savior of the system, was scrapped. Magic Knight Rayearth was close enough to completion that Working Designs published it in time for Christmas.

I have no idea what Pokemon is nor do I have any desire to find out. The fact that there are males my age into it leaves me speechless.

In 1999 Nintendo was trying to wean gamers off the B&W Game Boy and onto the backwards compatible Game Boy Color. Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition was a re-release of Pokemon Yellow with some support for the Game Boy Color built it. Yeah, every classic Game Boy game worked in the Game Boy Color but there were some tricks to make games look better in the newer system. This was a way for Nintendo to support both systems while giving people the hint that they should upgrade, similar to their Twilight Princess strategy.

I've received some feedback noting that several Game Boy Color games were compatible with the original Game Boy. This was the last game made specifically for the original Game Boy and it's perfectly debatable whether the Game Boy Color games "count". For the sake of completeness, the two Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 titles, released in September 2001, earn the distinction of being the final Game Boy compatible games.

Dreamcast, we hardly knew you. Although it was technically on the shelves for three years it felt like it was only a few months. Well, maybe I just feel that way because I bought it for $99 when it was cleared out in 2001. I still have troubles understanding why it wasn't competitive. Graphically, I can't see the difference between it and the PS2 or Xbox. I'm sure some PS2/Xbox fanboys will foam at the mouth at this statement. Whatever. I think the Dreamcast more than holds its own against the other systems of its era. The Dreamcast, like its grandfather the Sega Genesis, ended with a hockey game. For a sport that gets lower ratings than poker it's amazing that hockey video games sell. Of course I doubt 90% of the people who buy hockey games can name a single player in the league. Unless Wayne Gretzky is still playing I'm in the same boat (well, except the last hockey game I bought was the original NHL Hockey for Genesis at a garage sale for a cool buck).

Like the Sega Genesis, the Dreamcast called it quits with an update to a sports franchise. Unlike the EA '98 releases for the Genesis, NHL 2K2 was a notable improvement over it's predecessor. The initial NHL 2K was so poorly received that they passed on releasing a 2K1. The result was a more refined 2K2 sequel. Unfortunately it was released more than a year after Sega ceased production of the Dreamcast.

Lately I've heard a few comparisons between the Nintendo 64 and Playstation 3. The Nintendo 64 was released a year after the Playstation and faced an uphill battle. The Playstation had it's second generation games hitting the shelves while the Nintendo 64 was showcasing launch titles. The technical specifications between the consoles were close enough that it was irrelevant. The same conditions exist today as the Playstation 3 tries to catch up to a hot Xbox 360. If the Nintendo 64 is any indication, the Playstation 3 will face difficulties.

Still, the Nintendo 64 managed a six-year run and produced some of the most critically acclaimed games of all time. It's final release, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, is among the top-rated titles.

In an interesting footnote, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam was a launch title for the Nintendo Wii.

The Game Boy color was an unnecessary system in many ways. It was released in 1998 when Nintendo had long vanquished their competitors in the portable market. The Game Boy Advance was presumably in development at the time. For all intents and purposes the Game Boy Advance is a held held Super Nintendo while the Game Boy Color is only a souped-up NES. Certainly Nintendo could have slid by with the black & white Game Boy for a couple more years.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is one of those variety games where you do something different in each level. There's a flying stage, wand shooting stage, exploring stage and so on. Most games of this type can be labeled "jack of all trades, master of none", Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is no exception. That's not a knock on the game, it's meant for kids and serves its purpose.

I'm doing some quick math and the 9-year production run of Sony Playstation games ties the NES. I think they were equally important systems. The NES rebounded the entire video game industry, the Sony Playstation expanded it beyond the core market of kids and nerds. Like the NES, the Playstation had several years of new game releases after its predecessor was out.

The FIFA series began on the Sega Genesis and was an immediate hit. Like Hockey, I think more people buy FIFA soccer than watch it on TV. I'm not going to launch a big "soccer is boring" rant but let's just say FIFA soccer is 1000x more exciting than the real thing (same for hockey). I was a little surprised when I saw Madden 2004 for Playstation on the shelves in 2003. Given EA's record of releasing updated games for dead consoles it wasn't too big of a shocker though. However, it was quite surprising to learn that FIFA Soccer 2005 was released for the Playstation in October 2004 while passing on Madden 2005. Of the two I'd expect Madden to greatly outsell FIFA, even to a diminished Playstation market.

For the sake of thoroughness I'll note that NFL Gameday 2005, released in August 2004, was still available new in stores until late 2006 after FIFA 2005 was generally gone.

I know it's atypical but the Nintendo Gamecube is my favorite of the "last generation" systems. It offered a return to the basics, to simplicity, while the others tried to make games more epic and complicated. Looking back, it was preview of Nintendo's direction to come with the DS and Wii.

Unlike Nintendo's previous entries, production of new Gamecube games halted almost immediately after the replacement system was available. Porting Gamecube projects to the Wii is apparently simple given their similar architecture. Even easier is slapping a new roster on an existing game engine. With little publicity, EA Sports produced a Gamecube version of Madden 08 along with all the "next-gen" editions. Some retailers declined to carry it, making it tough to find in stores, but it was there for anyone looking hard enough.

Power Rangers: Super Legends was almost the final Gamecube game. It was scheduled for release in November 2007 but quietly cancelled. Adding to the confusion, several online stores are still taking pre-orders for it.

Like the Gamecube, the last newly published game for the Xbox is Madden 08. The reviews say it's indistinguishable from Madden 07, which is not surprising. There's a very healthy base of Xbox owners who haven't upgraded to a newer console and Madden 08 will be a hit with them. The bad news for them is that this is the last new game they'll see unless you want to count repackaged "Platinum Hits" titles.

I suppose there's still a 1%-5% chance another sports update will be squeezed out for the original Xbox. It's relatively easy for a powerhouse like EA Sports to crank out another annual update. If the install base stays high enough they'll keep doing it. Go into any game store and you'll see that the original Xbox has a greater presence than what's left of the Gamecube.

I have a strong suspicion that Madden '08 is sign of how most future consoles will end. It would not shock me in the least if the next three entries I add below this some day are all Madden sequels as well.

While writing this article I learned that "Last Call" games fit into one of four categories:

Franchise Games: Sonic the Hedgehog, Bomberman '93, Wario's Woods, Bonk 3, Super Asteroids and Missile Command, Tetris 3-D, Sonic Blast, Kirby's Dream Land 3, Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition, Samurai Shodown V Special. Call it "going out on your own terms". Instead of letting the system die with whimper there's one last game featuring a favorite character or title. Of all four, this is my favorite way to see a system wrap things up. It also seems to be Nintendo's trademark.

Yet Another Sports Update: EA '98 line for Genesis, NHL 2K2, FIFA Soccer 2005, Madden 08. Again, updating an existing sports game with a new roster isn't rocket science. Low production costs + guaranteed sales of established brand = generous profit. They'd be stupid not to do it.

Last Ditch Effort: Intellivision Christmas '87, Secret Quest, Spider-man: Web of Fire, Fight for Life. Sometimes a publisher will try to resuscitate a failing system with a "killer app". They think they can get out that one game that will turn the tide. In the process they may produce a memorable title, but not the desired turn-around. Sometimes, as with Fight for Life, they illustrate exactly why their system failed. Using the bar analogy, they're the guy dumping coins into the jukebox when everyone else is leaving.

We've Come This Far, We Might as Well Finish: Gremlins, Midnight Mutants, Casper, Magic Knight Rayearth, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Game development is an expensive and time-consuming effort. When a new system is released game companies need to take a hard look at ongoing projects. Their options are: port the game to the upcoming console, cancel the project, or finish for the soon-to-be-discontinued platform.

There's a book I'd recommend titled "Collapse". In it the author answers the question "what was the Easter Islander who cut down the last tree thinking when he did it?" The answer is that the deforestation of the island occurred over such a long period that he had no memory of the lush forests once there. Not to trivialize the destruction of an entire population, but an analogy can be made to gaming. When someone saw Wario's Woods in the shelves in 1994 they probably never thought "is this really the last NES game?" Gamers have a short attention span and by December 1994 it already seemed like the NES was ancient history. The days of its dominance were long-forgotten.

I think the bar analogy is still the more apt one though. Some game systems, like the NES and Playstation, were the club with a line out the door. The really trendy, free-spending, patrons left at the first sign of an even trendier establishment. Everyone else soon followed. Other game systems, like the Jaguar or Turbo-Grafx 16, were the dingy tavern with a dozen depressed drinkers. A few "cool" people would stumble in but leave after seeing the rest of the crowd. When closing time rolled around the few customers left were more depressed than when they entered.

I wrote this article because I thought it would be fun to chronicle these final games. In a way it turned out to be almost sad. These systems gave gamers countless hours of escape from their worries. These final games consumed months of development effort only to be instantly obscure. In the end they couldn't avoid the fate that every video game system will suffer.

We're not that far from seeing the final release for the Playstation 2 now. I know it's outselling the Playstation 3 by a huge margin but I imagine Sony is going to put the clamp down soon. I think the PSP will die sooner than most expect. Even the seemingly invincible Game Boy DS and venerable GBA will see their last call. Let's take a gaze into the crystal ball to see what the future holds for today's systems..

Playstation 2: It's not a bold prediction to say the last Playstation 2 release will be John Madden Football. The question is which year? By late summer of 2008 the Playstation 2 selection should be pretty dry, but expect to see a Madden '09 anyway. It wouldn't even be surprising to see a Madden 2010 sitting all alone on a shelf in a few years given the Playstation 1 release of Madden 2004. My prediction: Yet Another Sports Update, probably Madden 2010.

Nintendo DS / Game Boy Advance: It will be a good long time before support for these games will die. The actual hardware will vanish someday. Nintendo will replace these systems with some new, slimmer, brighter, handheld. It's almost a guarantee that this theoretical system will be compatible with one or both of these lines. However, with no known plans for such a system these will see new titles for years to come. Even with the DS being the "unofficial replacement" for the GBA, there's still a healthy supply of GBA titles hitting the shelves. My prediction: Too Early to Call.

Xbox 360, Wii, Playstation3: Obviously it's too early to tell where these systems will end up. Of the three, I think the Wii will have the longest shelf-life. Microsoft will eventually release the Xbox 720 (or something with a similar name), at that point the 360 will see the same rapid decline the original Xbox experienced. The Playstation 3 seriously has the potential to bomb. There are enough rants out on the internet about this that mine isn't needed. Let's just say I'm wagering on it tanking. Nintendo is marketing the Wii like the DS. It's not the most powerful system but even your Mom can play it. It has the potential to be a fixture in homes for 8-10 years. On the flip-side, the gamble on motion sensor controls and cutsey games could totally backfire and send the Wii to an early demise.

Although this article is already incredibly long, I would like to expand it further. There are a few systems missing from this list for a plethora of reasons. For the sake of completeness I'd like explain why certain systems are missing. A few of these I'd like to include if I can track down a definitive "last call" for them (I'm always open to contributions in this area). Most don't make sense to include though.

Anyway, enough rambling. Here are the missing systems in mostly chronological order:

Odyssey/Odyssey2: It's nearly impossible to find accurate release dates for Odyssey/Odyssey 2 games.
Colecovision: This absolutely should be on the list but I can't find anything that points to what the last release was.
Vectrex: The shelf life for the Vectrex was just barely over one year. It's very popular with collectors today but its actual impact on the game market was minimal. It's unlikely I will go back and add this system.
Philips CDI: "Game" system is a stretch for the CDI. It was more of an educational system that happened to have a few games. It was never really a serious player in the game market. I'll probably end-up including it some day if I can hunt down enough information though.
Sega Pico: This is borderline in the relevancy department. It was carried by major game retailers but marketed at young kids. My three year-old loves the one we found for $1 at a rummage sale at least. I might add it just for fun.
Sega CD+32X: I have a difficult time considering this a "unique" system. Yeah, a few games were made that required both the Sega CD and 32X. Most of them were also made for the Sega CD too though. The Sega CD and 32X already have their own sections and that's good enough.
Atari Jaguar CD: The game library hovers below twenty and were stocked by a small number of stores. The few game retailers who carried the Jaguar CD only offered a 2-3 games. This is also from my personal Electronics Boutique recollection of the time. We briefly had the Jaguar CD and a couple major games like Dragon's Lair. Well, "major" in the sense of name recognition. For whatever it's worth, my gut feeling is that Highlander was the last game for this system.
Amiga CD32: This system was only carried in niche computer stores. At least, the only time I ever saw one was in a now-defunct Amiga store. Not "Amiga Store" like "Apple Store" but a computer store that just happened to specialize in the Amiga.
Game.com: This handheld had a very short shelf life and an even smaller library. The last three releases for the system are documented but in no particular order. I may put together something like the Intellivision "Last Christmas" section for this niche handheld.
Neo Geo Pocket/Neo Geo Pocket Color: The relative obscurity argument can be used here. I follow video games fairly well and didn't even know this existed until I saw it on clearance at a Toys 'R Us.
Nokia N-Gage: It's a tad tough to say when, or even if, they've stopped making games for the N-Gage. Last I read, Nokia was planning to use N-Gage technology in phones but not marketing it as a standalone device. Kinda like buying a phone with Java installed I guess. So if I decide to go back and add this I'll have to go with whatever the last N-Gage cartridge was.

Anything not listed here should be filed under the "not relevant" category. This would include semi-educational cartridge-based systems aimed at kids, various short-lived obscure consoles from 1980-1984, computers marketed as game machines (Atari, Sega, NEC, and Commodore all made things like that), and several other handhelds that didn't break into mainstream retail.

Researching this article was a bit tougher than I expected. I thought a simple Google search for "last game released for [INSERT SYSTEM NAME]" would suffice. Nope. A lot of this information had to be dug out of FAQs and conflicting release lists. I don't promise this is 100% accurate but if it's not it's darn close.

I would respectfully ask that you review these sources before sending any potential corrections. I am extremely open to feedback, and will gladly update anything that's incorrect here. However, the vast majority of the feedback I receive is in the form of "Hey moron, I saw [game X] in the store after you said [game Y] was released, your entire article is totally wrong". Unfortunately personal accounts are not a valid source of fact. I'll use the example of the 32X: Space Harrier was released before Spider-Man: Web of Fire and was available new at stores for several months after Spider-Man. The overall rarity of Spider-Man made it highly unlikely many people saw it at all. To most shoppers Space Harrier was the de facto last game available for the 32X. As recently as summer 2007 I saw brand new PSOne games on the shelf at my local Best Buy. However, they were all published before FIFA 2005. People may interpret "last game for system X" differently and they're free to do so. I've tried to define a set criteria and offer support for the games listed here. Still, I am open to corrections based on documented sources.

Below are the sources for this article and the rationale for why certain games were considered the "last" releases for their respective consoles:

[1] Wikipedia says Spider-man: Web of Fire was released in 1996, the Sega 32X Game List says 1995. I opted to go with 1996 based solely off memory. My personal recollection (for what it's worth) is that this game had a very limited distribution. I concede that it may "technically" have been released in 1995 but most stores didn't see it until 1996 (if at all).

[2] MobyGames and the SNES Rarity Guide and US Games List both list Frogger as the last SNES release in the US. The official SNES game list from Nintendo.com does not have this title listed. The SNES list has NBA Live '98 as being the "last" SNES release in March 1998. The other guides have NBA Live '98 as being a 1997 release which seems more likely as the titles of EA Sports games are typically a year ahead. Kirby's Dream Land 3, definitely released in November 1997, was considered the "last" SNES release for this article.

[3] MobyGames lists Aerial Assault as being released in the US in 1992. The Sega Master System Game Guide and Sega8bit.com place it in 1990 (which is the copyright year on the title screen but may not correspond to the release year). The Sega Master System Game Guide also lists Arcade Smash Hits as being released in the US in 1992. Sega8bit.com lists this as being released in Europe only. Sonic the Hedgehog, listed as a 1991 US release by all sources, appears to be the most accurate selection.

[4] Support for the Lynx is listed as ending in 1994, Super Asteroids and Missile Command was apparently released in 1995.

[5] Casper is listed as the last 3DO game by Digital Press. Google groups (usenet) archive was also used to verify this based on conjecture. I stopped working at Electronics Boutique/Waldensoft in August 1996 and don't recall this game being released, however our location had largely discontinued the 3DO.

[6] Some sites incorrectly list Gremlins for 5200 as being released in 1984, they are likely confusing it with the 2600 version which was released in 1984.

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