Nintendo had it rough going into the fifth generation of gaming.  Sega and Sony upstaged the big N with 1995 releases of their consoles.  What’s worse, Nintendo was clinging to more-expensive-with-less-storage cartridge technology instead of embracing the cheaper CD option.  Even Nintendo’s most ardent supporters were starting to wonder if maybe they shouldn’t just pack it up and throw in with the other crowd.  Screenshots and reports of all the awesome software coming weren’t having the desired impact.  Something had to be done, but what? “I know!” some enterprising ad designer said at the meeting.  “We must make dinosaurs fly!”  This was so bug-nut crazy that it just…might…work…

This ad showed up in gaming magazines everywhere, reminding loyal Nintendo followers that their pain was audible but soon they would be blessed with a magic box so powerful, so revolutionary, so 64-bit that it would make everything else look like koopa droppings.  The message was simple: the best things in life come to those who wait, patience is a virtue, don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched, etc…

Then again, there’s something to be said for not giving your competition a year’s lead time to bury you.  Yes, the N64 library boasts an array of incredible games like Goldeneye, Super Smash Bros., and Mario 64.  But was it worth the wait?  Maybe for some stuff.  Did competitors weep?  Sega left a trail of bitter tears all the way to the Dreamcast, but that had nothing to do with Nintendo.  Did dinosaurs fly?  Only in The Lost World, and these little features we like to call “Wacky Wednesday.”

Michael Crisman

In 1979, Michael Crisman was mauled by a radioactive Gorgar pinball machine. After the wounds healed, doctors discovered his DNA had been re-coded. No longer fully human, Michael requires regular infusions of video games in order to continue living among you. If you see him, he can see you. Make no sudden moves, but instead bribe him with old issues of computer and video game magazines or a mint-in-box copy of Dragon Warrior IV.


If he made you laugh, drop a tip in his jar at http://paypal.me/modernzorker


(If he didn't make you laugh, donate to cure his compulsion to bang keyboards by sending an absurdly huge amount of money to his tip jar instead. That'll show him!)