E3 1999 - 20 years later

[Ororo]

TechTV was amazing, most people got to know Adam Sessler later on but Gamespot TV was a lot of fun with Sessler and Kate Botello, Extended Play and X-Play were just never the same, especially when Morgan Webb joined during the Extended Play days. In a way the show got more popular but at the same time got dumbed down quite a lot.

There was also when they tried the 24 hour news cycle with Tech Live which was a failure but it meant we got full coverage of E3 2001 from everyone at TechTV including Leo Laporte and other techtv stars that didn't talk about video games much.

Back in the day i read about E3 in a Nintendo Magazine and then Nintendo Mania came out and Gus Rodriguez was our man in the show, firts time i saw it in action

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Nintendomania was a whole different beast in a way it's basically a bunch of youtubers into one show but back in the 90s, you had retrospectives, history lessons, previews, etc. Not even X-Play gave that sort of coverage and that was already the 00's.

 

[Irrotational]

I remember when 1999 was the distant future...

 

[Barrel Cannon]

The most interesting games of the show were Soul Calibur, Gran Turismo 2000, Perfect Dark, Shenmue, Max Payne, Crash Team Racing and Unreal Tournament.

Freelancer got the award "Best of show" and "Best PC game"

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That's a nice list of games to be excited about, and Freelancer deserved those awards. Phenomenal game that ended up being quite fantastic.

 

[Sign My Guestbook!]

Man... TechTV...

 

[Jerm]

lol I remember staying home for multiple days from school "sick" to watch E3 coverage

now I make $23,000/yr before taxes

 

[Big G]

Yup, that was back when I used to get my E3 info from magazines. 2001 was my first "internet E3".

 

[theSoularian]

I think I still have some gaming magazines from '99 somewhere.

 

[DM_Uselink]

Back in the day i read about E3 in a Nintendo Magazine and then Nintendo Mania came out and Gus Rodriguez was our man in the show, firts time i saw it in action

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I use to watch this show religiously back in the day. Many years later I got to meet Gus at E3, and he was a very nice fellow! I told him watching his N64 E3 stuff inspired me to get into the industry. :)

 

[tatotiburon]

Nintendomania was a whole different beast in a way it's basically a bunch of youtubers into one show but back in the 90s, you had retrospectives, history lessons, previews, etc. Not even X-Play gave that sort of coverage and that was already the 00's.

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and we never saw any rage video or this "industry sucks" or killing a game before it released, all the hate you see on any youtuber today...no, they just loved gaming, nintendo and everything around it...good times

 

[Green Yoshi]

That's a nice list of games to be excited about, and Freelancer deserved those awards. Phenomenal game that ended up being quite fantastic.

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Unfortunately I only played the demo when I was young and now it's not available anymore. I hope it will be on GOG someday.

 

[rein]

That "flames" visual effect did not age well.

Spoiler

Adam Sessler had hair?

 

[CRIMSON-XIII]

Been watching every E3 live since 2004! hype! G4 tv with attack of the show, X play and Cheats was awesome!

After they stopped showing it, I transitioned online!

 

[Barrel Cannon]

Unfortunately I only played the demo when I was young and now it's not available anymore. I hope it will be on GOG someday.

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Surprising that it isn't already there.

 

[El-Suave]

Here's some raw pretty unedited show floor footage from 1998 shot by a German game retail store for those that are interested:

 

[Sankara]

Good times. Simpler times.

Are there more retro videos out there? I love looking at the fashion back then

EDIT: Thanks El-suave!

 

[Ravelle]

I believe I only started following and watching E3 when Giant bomb started doing streams after I found them.

 

[pezzie]

I was at this e3!

It was the last month of my senior year in high school, and my friends sent me in to buy cheap Sound Blaster Live! cards from Creative Labs' booth.

 

[Billy Awesomo]

I was born in 97. Felt like I missed out on all the bants back then.

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Wow, man do I feel old now T-T

 

[Fuchsia]

Damn. Adam Sessler is a throwback. He was narrating the Gamespot video and said something along the lines of, "And of course we have The Big Three here in full force! Nintendo, Sony, and SEGA."

That really caught me off guard with Sega being one of the Big Three. Damn. Was waiting for Microsoft. But of course it was only 1999. Makes me feel old.

 

[Ororo]

and we never saw any rage video or this "industry sucks" or killing a game before it released, all the hate you see on any youtuber today...no, they just loved gaming, nintendo and everything around it...good times

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well NIntendomania did shill very hard for Nintendo and recommended bad games lol but at least they were ahead in other ways

 

[Kaeden]

Crazy seeing that 3dfx logo in there. I miss my Voodoo2 cards. I think I had one from Diamond?

edit: yeah this beast with that 4MB frame buffer bumping up to a whopping 800x600.

 

[Starwing]

I was 5 and I didn't even know what an E3 was till I was 10 or 11. The only games I cared about was whatever SNES and PS1 games we had around.

 

[Tom Nook]

12 turning 13 in 1999.

 

[Rygar 8Bit]

So many Gamespot E3 videos watched.

 

[jstevenson]

Man I forgot how great Sessler's hair was.


99 was the last E3 I didn't go to... My 20th E3 next month.

 

[ScreamingMadden]

Hell yeah Star Wars Episode 1 Racer! Crazy to think that is 20 years old now!

 

[TaySan]

I was too young to remember that E3 :(. The Earliest i remember was E3 2005, those were amazing times and I was so hyped for all the new consoles coming out.

 

[Pixels]

My first E3! I remember an N64 wrestling game crashing. Dreamcast was incredible. PS2 was mostly showing off DVD playback with The Matrix. I remember nearly all the PS2 games were early and had bad framerates.

 

[ManaByte]

I remember the hysteria at the Nintendo booth since they had Jake Lloyd there to play Episode 1 Racer.

 

[Jonnykong]

I was born in 97. Felt like I missed out on all the bants back then.

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We get it Jesse, you're young!

 

[Deleted member 54320]

We get it Jesse, you're young!

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None can stop me.

 

[MrNewVegas]

I was born in 97. Felt like I missed out on all the bants back then.

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I can't even imagine missing all the amazing stuff over those years.

 

[Tainted]

All those tube TVs, those poor workers.

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Coming from someone who worked in IT setting up alot of offices in those days carrying around CRTs...yes, it sucked :(

 

[pswii60]

Enjoyed the video in the OP, Gaben at 17m.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

I can't even imagine missing all the amazing stuff over those years.

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Yep. I hope some of these Gen Z'ers here will at least buy a Genesis/Mega Drive Mini. Sega (as a console maker) is a major area they missed completely.

 

[Etrian Oddity]

This... loved TechTV / G4TV and really enjoyed the early days of Adam Sessler... in the waning years I though the G4TV show X-Play lost what made it so good and instead tried to hard to be about entertaining.

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It breaks my heart that most people perceive Adam Sessler as a buffoon from X-Play, and only dozens of us saw his talent on Extended Play.

EDIT:

TechTV was amazing, most people got to know Adam Sessler later on but Gamespot TV was a lot of fun with Sessler and Kate Botello, Extended Play and X-Play were just never the same, especially when Morgan Webb joined during the Extended Play days. In a way the show got more popular but at the same time got dumbed down quite a lot..

Click to shrink...

Nah, Extended Play was still great, it was a news-like show at the Metreon. Webb didn't start until X-Play, where from the very pilot episode they turned it into more of a dialogue/skit-driven show.

Gamespot TV was kinda more like a talk show between Adam and Kate. X-Play was like a shitty MadTV with him and Morgan. But Extended Play was like an NPR show starring The Sess.

 

[AcridMeat]

I've seen this video a few times now, but I didn't start following game coverage until around 2002-2003 on Gamespot. That said, I remember that podracing game very well.

20 years...my goodness.

I also highly recommend checking out the documentary on SEGA from 1993.

 

[skeezx]

in the waning years I though the G4TV show X-Play lost what made it so good and instead tried to hard to be about entertaining.

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felt like in the end it was like 70% commercials and the rest "content". maybe there was nothing abnormal about the ad time but for some reason it felt like i wasn't even watching a show anymore, like some kind of red eye programming block splintered with snippets of "check out these awesome games, dawg"

 

[Flavius]

It breaks my heart that most people perceive Adam Sessler as a buffoon from X-Play, and only dozens of us saw his talent on Extended Play.

EDIT:


Nah, Extended Play was still great, it was a news-like show at the Metreon. Webb didn't start until X-Play, where from the very pilot episode they turned it into more of a dialogue/skit-driven show.

Gamespot TV was kinda more like a talk show between Adam and Kate. X-Play was like a shitty MadTV with him and Morgan. But Extended Play was like an NPR show starring The Sess.

Click to shrink...

The only way one could perceive Sessler as a buffoon, even from the X-Play days...would be if their only knowledge of him came from old clips. He was pretty clearly playing it for laughs, and his game critique was still thoughtful and pretty well articulated.

Definitely miss The Sess...

 

[ManaByte]

I can't remember, was this the year Nintendo started to have that Pokemon VW Beetle filled with toys that they eventually had to stop brining because people were getting seriously injured fighting over the toys when they threw the toys into the crowd?

 

[jstevenson]

The only way one could perceive Sessler as a buffoon, even from the X-Play days...would be if their only knowledge of him came from old clips. He was pretty clearly playing it for laughs, and his game critique was still thoughtful and pretty well articulated.

Definitely miss The Sess...

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Sessler is smart, loves games and understands them, and is a really great human being and friend.

He gave me a super big break at E3 2001 when I met him and was just a 17-year-old high-school kid doing the press conference circuit for the first time. I met so many people and got into things I shouldn't have thanks to him.

 

[Lindsay]

Dun think I even knew what a E3 was back then. Started following it in the mid-00's for a few years before quickly learning to not care about it lol. It sure was a cool time to be a gamer in '99 with the Dreamcast being around the corner an the promise of super amazing arcade graphics coming home for reals! Seriously, the Saturn/PS1/N64 couldn't even dream of what arcade machines were doing at the time!

 

[Treestump]

I was 10 at the time and didn't know what E3 was until 2001-02. Crazy to look back at it like this.

Man I forgot how great Sessler's hair was.


99 was the last E3 I didn't go to... My 20th E3 next month.

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So uh... any hints or...?

 

[Verchod]

....When games weren't shit

 

[Guybrush Threewood]

I went to E3 1999. Jake Lloyd did the podracing game on the giant screen. I shook hands with Randall Cunningham who was signing autographs. Pokemon was everywhere. The PS2 was in this weird pyramid thing.

And I was a month shy of my 21st birthday, so, I couldn't even party in LA. :(

 

[KodaRuss]

I'm getting too old for this shit. 1999, 20 years ago....

 

[Efejota]

Back in the day i read about E3 in a Nintendo Magazine and then Nintendo Mania came out and Gus Rodriguez was our man in the show, firts time i saw it in action

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It was entertaining and interesting how much they wanted to promote the virtual boy. Didn't expect that people out there knew about Yokoi those days. Thanks for sharing~

 

[Dynamite Cop]

As much as Adam Sessler's spastic and overzealous tendencies annoyed me on Tech TV and G4.. I kind of miss that honesty now that we've got spineless shills shedding tears over egomaniac game directors while they host "The Game Awards" popularity contest.

 

[Oozer]

E3 1999 was the official debut of Halo, though behind closed doors. And Bungie only called it by the codename Blam!

 

[Flavius]

Sessler is smart, loves games and understands them, and is a really great human being and friend.

He gave me a super big break at E3 2001 when I met him and was just a 17-year-old high-school kid doing the press conference circuit for the first time. I met so many people and got into things I shouldn't have thanks to him.

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That's super cool. I've never met him, but I knew plenty of people who did back when I moderated the G4 forums -- never heard a bad story about the guy, but I heard many positive ones similar to yours. Thanks for sharing. Always good to hear good stuff from industry folks like this. :)