If you look at the cover history of Game Informer from 1991 to 1996, you can really see a gradual trend toward "darker" or "edgier" covers in comparison to the innocent, cartoonish covers from their early days. At a time when most older games I think were buying PC games, the younger gamers were mostly playing console games. I generally regard 1993-1994 as really being the time when you started seeing more adult-oriented ads in video game magazines.

The popular console games from those days were games like Mario Kart, Sonic, and Bonk. These days it's Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. It is true that a few games pushed the envelope such as Doom and Mortal Kombat, but in terms of market share, it seemed that the kid-friendly games were the best sellers.

I think the CD technology opened the doors to edgier titles like Snatcher and Crime Patrol. The graphics on the NES and Master System just didnt lend themselves to more adult-focused games. They all looked like cartoons for the most part, and cartoons have always been geared toward children.

The 8-11 year olds playing SNES and Genesis were hitting puberty in the mid 90s and I think that is why you also see the shift toward games that are testoserone fueled killing fests. As noted before, the new technology really opened the doors to gamers who wanted "more."

Where am I going with this? I dont know. I guess I just find that gaming pre-1993 was a much more innocent time. Sure there were some porn games on the Atari and the NES but they were pretty obscure and I dont think they were exactly best sellers.

If gaming graphics never advanced beyond the 16 bit era, would killing hookers in GTA still be our favorite national pasttime?