“What kind of challenge?” Nakayama asked.
“Something that uses technology to improve education,” Kalinske replied.
Nakayama’s eyes bubbled with questions until the president of Sega Enterprises blinked and suddenly they all went away. He then gave Kalinske a strange look, perhaps wistful and said, “I understand, thank you.”
And that was that, the end of Tom Kalinske’s time at Sega. After several years spent turning nothing into something only to watch it slowly be turned back into nothing once again, he would go on to successfully apply video-game technology to education throughout the rest of his storied career (at places like Knowledge Universe, Leapfrog, Blackboard, and many, many more).
“Hold still,” Karen said, trying to climb on her husband’s shoulders, but accidentally dunking him in the process.
“This is why I sent you away!” Tom exclaimed when he came up for air.
“Okay, I give up,” Karen said, floating by his side. “So now what?”
Tom didn’t respond right away, but as he looked at his wife a smile slowly grew across his face. This was his beautiful Barbie, the mother of his children, and the one who made his world possible. “Anything we want.”
This time, instead of trying to conceal his dislike for the beach, Tom Kalinske was up for anything. He had learned how to adapt, how to enjoy, and how much better it felt to smile and actually mean it. And finally, after all this time, he was getting to finish the family vacation that had been so strangely interrupted six years earlier.
EPILOGUE
When he returned from Hawaii, Tom Kalinske was pleasantly surprised to find a note waiting for him from his longtime rival at Nintendo.
Dear Tom,
I was saddened to learn that you are leaving Sega. You’ve done a great job over the last six years, both in dramatically increasing Sega’s market share (at our expense!) and also in representing the video game industry. You were the driving force behind the formation of the IDSA and the E3 Show. Neither would have happened without your leadership.
Let me wish you the very best of luck in your new venture.
All my best . . .
Sincerely,
Howard C. Lincoln
Chairman
Nintendo of America, Inc.
The letter was marked “Personal and Confidential” and, to this day, remains somewhere safe in Tom Kalinske’s home office as a lasting reminder of the epic battle between Sega and Nintendo.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book would not exist (nor likely would my writing career) without Julian Rosenberg, my mind-bogglingly wonderful lit manager. I’m still not sure how to properly thank you, but I thought that a good start would be to give you the one thing that those in Los Angeles covet above all else: top billing.
And while the globe is spun to Los Angeles, I’d like to extend a giant thanks to the fine gentlemen at Point Grey Pictures—Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and James Weaver—for believing in this book from the very beginning. In the Nintendo of my life, you three are my power glove. I am also forever indebted to Scott Rudin, whose talent for telling stories is second to none, and whose early confidence in my work is one of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received. Without you and the ever-brilliant Eli Bush, this book never would have reached the next level.
Thank you to my incredible attorney, Lev Ginsburg, and my fantastic agents: Jon Cassir and Dan Rabinow at CAA, and Alex Glass at Trident Media.
Thank you to my amazing editor, Mark Chait, and everyone at HarperCollins for your patience, positivity, and overall perfection.
Thank you to everyone who worked on the documentary based on this book, especially Jonah Tulis (my co-director), Matt Hamachek (our editor), and Seamus Tierney (our cinematographer).
Thank you to my pals who generously read half-finished thoughts and mangled chapters along the way: Josh Benedek, Frank Ceruzzi, Grant DeSimone, Andrew Hirsch, Dan Kim, Josh Kleinman, Dave McGrath, Brian Nathanson, and Jeremy Redleaf.
Thank you to my parents, Robin and Richard, for pretty much being the greatest people in the world (and for supporting my literary desires even after that racially charged novel I wrote in fourth grade).
Thank you to my brother, Dylan, for being the kindest person I know, and forgiving me for how I acted during our childhood (like a dick).
Thank you to Aunt Loren, Uncle Christopher, Jackson and Hunter; Aunt Erica, Uncle Bradley, Tyler and Amelie; and, of course, Grandma, for all those “amazing connections” over the years.
Thank you to Katie for being my daily inspiration. How you put up with me during the writing of this book, I’ll never know, but please never stop.
And second-to-last but not least, thank you to my incredible research assistants: Claude Bear, Kiki Bear, Baby Bart, Freggly, Tater Tot, Boots, and the one and only Pipstick. Without you rascals, life would be unbearable.
Finally, the biggest thanks of all must go to the people who populate the pages of this book. During the writing of this book, I interviewed more than two hundred former employees of Sega and Nintendo, as well as dozens of other individuals with various vantage points into the videogame industry from this era. Although I am grateful to every single person who shared with me their time and insights, there are a few individuals whom I’d like to mention by name whose above-and-beyond effort really shaped the scope of the narrative.
First and foremost I’d like to thank Tom Kalinske, who gave me the time of day back when I was just a kid with an idea. Actually, he gave me much more than simply the “time of day,” because that’s just the kind of guy he is. Over the course of our three-year relationship, he has never been anything less than the kind, clever, and cool guy described within the pages of this book.
In addition to Tom, I am particularly indebted to the following individuals: Sam Borofsky, Don Coyner, Cindy Gordon, Mike Fischer, Diane Fornasier, Jeff Goodby, Tony Harman, Karen Kalinske, Howard Lincoln, Brenda Lynch, Peter Main, Sean McGowan, Al Nilsen, Al Nilsen #2 (because he must have been a clone to be as omnipresently helpful as he’s been), Olaf Olafsson, Randy Peretzman, Howard Phillips, Arthur Pober, Larry Probst, Steve Race, Paul Rioux, John Sakaley, Gail Tilden, Shinobu Toyoda, Ellen Beth Van Buskirk, and Bill White.
Thank you all for letting me tell your story; it has been the greatest honor of my life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BLAKE J. HARRIS is a writer and filmmaker based out of New York. He is currently co-directing the documentary based on his book, which is being produced by Scott Rudin, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg. He will also serve as an executive producer on Sony’s feature-film adaptation of Console Wars.
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CREDITS
Cover design by Amanda Kain
Cover illustration by soulcld/Getty Images
Author photograph by Katie Wanner
COPYRIGHT
CONSOLE WARS: SEGA, NINTENDO, AND THE BATTLE THAT DEFINED A GENERATION. Copyright © 2014 by Blake J. Harris. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harris, Blake J.
Console wars : Sega, Nintendo, and the battle that defined a generation /
Blake J. Harris.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-06-227669-8 (hardback)—ISBN 978-0-06-227670-4 (trade paperback) 1. Video games industry—History. 2. Electronic games industry—History. 3. SEGA Entapuraizesu. 4. Nintendo
Kabushiki Kaisha 5. Video games—History. I. Title.
HD9993.E452H37 2014
338.7‘617948—dc23
2013050668
EPub Edition MAY 2014 ISBN 9780062276711
14 15 16 17 18 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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