When did the phrase "Next-Gen" really start?

[Anthony1]

It's so funny for me to look back at older gaming magazines, when new systems were coming out. Every time we get a new round of systems, people start talking about it being "Next-Gen". "That is the first Next-Gen System", "What is the most impressive Next-Gen game", "Who will win the battle for the Next-Generation?" Yada, yada, yada. Heck, even a magazine started up that used the name Next-Generation, and they actually started up right at the time of the arrival of the Saturn and Playstation, during a shift to the....Next-Generation systems.


The question I have, is when did this whole next-generation thing start? I mean I know that it's a generic phrase that could be used in all kinds of industries to talk about the next wave of product or new models of product, but in the video game industry, I think it almost takes on a connotation all it's own. The phrase "Next-Gen" is like a new standard phrase that is commonly thrown around, everytime a new gaming system is released. When did this originally start?


Did people talk about the Colecovision and Intellivision being "Next-Gen"? Did people ever say the Nintendo NES was "Next-Gen"? I'm pretty sure that people did say "Next-Gen" during the launches of the Sega Genesis and Turbografx in 1989. I'm just wondering if it started earlier than that.

[Yamazaki]

Well I'd say the jump from SNES, Genesis to PSX and SS was a real next-gen jump.

I mean it was from 2D to 3D as a regular graphic.

[atomicthumbs]

Seems to me I remember the phrase being used in school often shortly after the SNES (and just previously Genesis) launched.

[jajaja]

Ye, the jump from 2d (snes/mega drive) to 3d like PSX/N64/Saturn was big. Atleast in the console world.

[VG_Maniac]

I remember first hearing the phrase when the Genesis came out. It was always being labled the "Next Generation in Video Games", "Leader of the 16-bit Revolution", "The Next Level in Gaming"...and yada yada yada. To tell you the truth...I was to busy with my good ol' NES to pay any attention to it.

[sabre2922]

The whole "Next-Generation" thing has always been around in everything from TV,music to the human fucking race

Anyway as far as videogames go Ive been a gamer for over 25 years and I remember the phrase "Next Generation" being used a lot more in games magazines and TV ads with the advent of the 16-bit systems -Genesis/SuperNES- when being compared to the 8-bit systems -NES/Sega Mastersystem.

Of course all the kiddies think that this is the first "NEXT GENERATION" just as they did when the PS2 launched and the PSX before it

Its a definition that is used (as far as home consoles go anyway) as both hype and defining the difference between what is the current generation and what is looked at as being the next generation ITS VERY SIMPLE REALLY its just that with the PSX and especially the PS2 videogaming has become so mainstream that many of the casual gamers think that Xbox360,PS3 and Revolution are the first game systems to be called "Next-gen" just go over to the gamefaqs board or Gamespot to have a good laugh about it and you will see what I mean

[Zing]

ColecoVision "is the system of tomorrow". Does that count?

The phrase had to come into use with the introduction of the Genesis, since that was when the "next generation" started.

[Griking]

Star Trek: TNG?

[Cantaloup]

Did people talk about the Colecovision and Intellivision being "Next-Gen"?

I seem to remember the magazines of the time (such as Electronic Games) calling ColecoVision "third generation." I will search around a bit and see if I can find a specific quote.

Edit: The May 1984 issue of Electronic Games ran an article called "Inside Coleco's ADAM" by Neil Shapiro (p. 18) with a subtitle "Is This the Next Generation?" So the term was being used at least as early as 1984.

[ubikuberalles]

They may have borrowed the "generation" paradigm from the computer industry.When I was in college in the 1980's there was a lot of talk about the different generations of computers. That talk was fueled by the Japanese attempt to create a fifth generation of computers (it failed). If you look at the computer history books, we still only have four generations of computers (some books talk about next -still undetermined - computer technology as the fifth generation).