I have actually been surprised at the extent to which there wasn't even much of a fight in America during the NES era... it seems that if people are talking about games pre-1990, it's exclusively Nintendo, and the Master System was all but unheard of. Even after that, Nintendo seemed to dominate to a far greater extent than I was aware - I don't know the figures for the PAL territories, but it always seemed to me that the sides were about equal.
I'd be very interested in your reactions to Commander Keen, actually, as I went through a couple of those again recently and was really surprised by how short and simple they were - I wonder if someone coming at them anew would have the same reaction. When I was younger, they seemed so huge because I was squeezing every last piece of unnecessary exploration and experimentation I could out of them without even knowing it - that and perhaps I was just slightly less good at them at that time.
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I'd be very interested in your reactions to Commander Keen, actually, as I went through a couple of those again recently and was really surprised by how short and simple they were - I wonder if someone coming at them anew would have the same reaction. When I was younger, they seemed so huge because I was squeezing every last piece of unnecessary exploration and experimentation I could out of them without even knowing it - that and perhaps I was just slightly less good at them at that time.