ABSTRACT
The arcade scene in the mid-1990s was where consumers saw a surge of games utilizing 3D polygon graphics. Sega pioneered the genre with Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter, and Virtua Cop. The renaissance period would only last for so long. Despite producing more than 30 titles on its F3 arcade hardware, Taito closed its US offices in 1995. In addition to arcade games becoming more expensive, home video game rentals became more popular and 32-bit home consoles were right around the corner. Every console could now display millions of colors on screen, shifting players’ “tech specs” focus from on-screen colors to polygon counts. Not since the second generation were so many home consoles available to the public, with certain systems only being released in Japan with a limited library of games. There were close to a dozen consoles released during the fifth generation, with five key systems that would define the 3D era.
