Why are local multi-player games becoming increasingly rare?
Mention split screen gaming to any gamer and most will immediately answer with Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64. I don’t think any game holds as much nostalgia as Goldeneye. Its release seemed to hit at the peak time of gaming when it was affordable, mainstream and socially accepted.
As more and more families started to have more disposable income Goldeneye burst on to the scene and captured a generation of gamers forever. I could wistfully wax on about this wonderful game but that is not the point of this article. I just couldn’t talk about split screen gaming without at least mentioning Goldeneye. Now I have got that out of the way I can focus on the job at hand.
What is Split Screen Gaming?
For those of you too young to know split screen gaming is the original multiplayer mode. Back in the 80’s/90’s there was no internet to speak of really so the only way to play with your friends was all in the same room together. Now multi-player games took many different forms, such as:
Co-Op : This is quite simple to explain. Co-Op games had two or more players on screen at the same time. Games such as Gauntlet, Smash TV, Streets of Rage. These games would have all the players on screen at the same time and controlling their characters independent of each other. Modern examples, often referred to as “Couch Co-Op”, Include the likes of Smash Bros, FIFA and Mortal Kombat. Couch Co-Op is often found in arcade or sports games.
Hot-Seat: This is another simple multi-player mode. Players would take turns playing the game. This was probably the most common form of multiplayer gaming back in the day. Games like Super Mario World, Psycho Pinball and Tiger Woods Golf would see player one take their turn until they lost a life, in games like Super Mario World, and then player two would have their turn. This form of multiplayer game works well with games such as golf or pinball because this is exactly how it works in real life.
Split-Screen: Split-Screen gaming was the high octane version of multiplayer gaming. The TV screen is split in two sections (normally horizontally) The upper section would be player one with player two the lower section. Some games like Micro Machines and Goldeneye would split the screen into FOUR sections and enable 4 players to play simultaneously. This would allow players to roam independently in the game world and often lead to cries of cheating. When hunting a player in Goldeneye you could just glance at their section of screen to see where they were hiding 😀
Multiplayer Peripherals
Has multiplayer gaming began to take it off it became obvious that new equipment was needed to enable multiplayer modes. The Sega MegaDrive, Super Nintendo, Sony PlayStation all had two controller ports. How the hell are you supposed to play four players with only 2 controllers? We gonna need some new equipment…
I remember getting Micro Machines 2 on the Sega Mega Drive and it absolutely blew my tiny little mind. As previously stated the MegaDrive only had two controller ports but Sega pulled out an absolute blinder with the release of the J-cart! (pictured above)
The J-cart is still one of my favourite innovations in gaming. It allowed multiplayer action without having to purchase any new equipment, Sega simply popped two extra controller ports directly onto the cartridge! Genius! Simple but Genius.
I often feel the J-cart is understated and forgotten in retro gaming. Although everyone seems to remember the design monstrosity which was the PlayStation Multi-tap (pictured below) The unique thing about the PlayStation Multi-Tap wasn’t that you plugged it into the player one port and could now connect 5 controllers ( 4 in player 1 and 1 in Player 2) but you could actually daisy chain them together!
I remember me and three friends all got a Multi-Tap one Christmas so naturally we hooked all four Multi-Taps into one PS1. One Multi Tap into each controller port and then a Multi-Tap into each Multi-Tap. This, in theory, meant we could now connect a whopping 14 controllers into my PS1!!!! I have no idea if it worked with 14 controllers. We only had 8 controllers between us and it still worked playing FIFA with daisy chained Multi-Taps. I also have absolutely no idea if there was any limit to the amount of Multi-Taps you could link together.
Why is Split Screen Gaming Disappearing?
Simple answer…..hardware limitations. That sounds mental doesn’t it? The 16 bit Sega MegaDrive and the 64bit Nintendo 64 could handle split-screen gaming but the behemoths of today, PS5, Xbox One X, can’t handle it at all.
How can a 30 year old games console do something that a modern day console that is 1000’s of times more advanced in every single metric can’t? The Games! Games today are so advanced, so big, they take full advantage of the power the systems have to offer.
When you play games in Split-Screen the console has to basically split the screen in half, run the game twice and run both versions simultaneously!
Today’s games are not just bigger worlds and more advanced gaming mechanics but have a million different processes going on around graphics that games like Goldeneye never had. Processes such as ray-tracing, draw and lighting. These create the mind blowing graphics that we are used to today. If we want to see a glorious return of Split-Screen gaming then we need to accept a substantial drop in graphics.
Split-Screen Gaming Today
A mixture of technology and gaming culture has meant that there really isn’t much of a market for Split-Screen multiplayer games anymore. Most Gamers play online now so why bother packing up your pad, going round to your mates house, sync your pad to his console, play the game then have to sync your pad to your console when you get home. When you could just hop online and invite your mate to join you in your game.
Online gaming has made gaming more sociable and removed the need for Split-Screen. Why have a console do the work of two when you can have a console per player?. This gets ramped up exponentially when you bring in MMO’s into this scenario.
This isn’t to say Split-Screen is completely dead in 2025. The spiritual successor to Split-Screen is Couch Co-Op. Games such as Moving Out, It Takes Two, Mario Party and Bullion – Curse of the Cutthroat Cattle are all designed to be played by a group of players locally on a single system.
Couch Co-Op games are great fun but they tend to take the form of party games or casual games. I am not knocking them at all! They have their place in the gaming lexicon and I love a session on Mario Party with my family. The Nintendo Switch is a fantastic system for Couch Co-Op………….But I do miss a 4 player Goldeneye deathmatch.
