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This is a bit of a silly topic, but every now and then I bust out my old NES and play those games from the exciting era of the 1980s. Strangely a lot of stuff was predicted to occur in the current 'era' by these games back in the day, most of it vastly overestimating the average level of technology available today.

For example, all the events in Mega Man 1-4 were supposed to have occurred during 200X.. alas, we don't have any humanoid robots of any kind, much less a Mega Man that can destroy and absorb other robot powers.

Clash at Demonhead was supposed to have occured during 199X, and Street Fighter 2010 .. well.. let's just say I'm a little disappointed.

Obviously these are not really predictions, but I do think it's interesting to muse over what people 20+ years ago thought might be enough of a plausible near-future that they would actually put the year in a videogame. What are some other ones you guys know of?

(http://www.ferricide.com/garbaggio/crystalis-endday.gif) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystalis)

One of the early Mega Man games took place in the year 200X. The later (original series) ones switched it to 20XX, though.
EDIT: Okay, yeah, that was mentioned in the first post. Whoops.

Also, didn't Astro Boy take place in the year 2000? I don't know if it counts, but the video games released in 2004 still used that as the date, which was awesome. I have no idea if the more recent movie and licensed games did the same thing or not, though.

Phubans already got the one I was going to use.

EarthBound is the first one I always think of.

(http://imgur.com/ci29e.jpg)

(http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb/GamesRadar/us/Features/2009/04/Top%207%20Greenest%20Games/CT_Lavos--article_image.jpg)
the day of Lavos -- 1999 A.D.

Day of Lavos never happened because Crono and friends interfered.

We still don't have dome cities, though.

That's because they changed the future to one without dome cities.

Why did CT have domed cities on Earth, anyways? Did the quality of the air become inhospitable to life? Or was it to contain pollution? Also, why hasn't the development of the cities sprawled out to remove the forests and fields? It all looks relatively contained...

Heh, didn't Earthbound come out during the 90's? and took place in the 90's? why would they need to use the futuristic X there?

Maybe they don't know they are domed, and thought that was all there was. Maybe it's to keep them from spreading, and to contain and filter pollution.

Maybe the designers just thought domed cities = futuristic.

Civilization.  :durr:

Akira Toriyama was the main artistic designer of CT :)
If you have ever watched Dragon Ball, you know there are tons of capsule/dome things everywhere. (http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100213162036/dragonball/images/thumb/5/55/CentralCity.png/300px-CentralCity.png)

It is a pretty well established fact that people in the future live in domes and wear silver jumpsuits.

It's basic science.

Pollution. It's remarked on by the player characters, IIRC...

The silver jumpsuits haven't happened yet, either.  Shame, that.

I think games are a lot more careful about these predictions that movies are, or more intentionally disconnected from reality.  One of the two.

The silver jumpsuits are possible, it's just that they're DIY at the moment.  I remember going as a "space man" one Halloween, and my parents made me a pretty sweet silver jumpsuit complete with a badge of a planet with a spaceship going around it.

BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD!

Deus Ex, released in 2000: In New York circa 2050, the Twin Towers (left out of the game due to texture memory limitations) have been destroyed by terrorist attacks.

Wait..

whoa wait are you serious

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex_(video_game)#Real_world_parallels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex_(video_game)#Real_world_parallels)

Yep... quite freaky!

Actually, as regards Chrono Trigger, the original Japanese version wasn't supposed to have any connection to any commonly-used year system at all, hence why "1000 AD" has modern building techniques and steamboats and such. I've forgotten the original, but something tells me it was C.E.

...Which, of course, doesn't make any sense either, but WHATEVER.


Also, Crono 'n Friends didn't change to world to be one without dome cities; as of Chrono Cross, all their work was just kind of erased. Lavos still got taken care of, though.

....(Although the bit about the robots who take over the world and incinerate humans might still be in store. Whoops.)

chrono cross's story was really cool until it starts talking about chrono trigger at which point it is complete garbage

but yeah chrono trigger's world doesnt really apply to ours sadly

Unfortunately, even in 1960, there were still no underwater cities filled with genetically enhanced mutants.

Sin and Punishment was released in Japan in 1997, and at one point in the batshit insane storyline the characters get transported to the futuristic New York city in the year... 2007! Weirdly enough, the game was brought to American shores via Virtual Console in 2007. Sadly, we did not have to deal with giant mecha monstrosities, the seas turning red, or any number of spiky haired teenagers saying things that make no sense.

you haven't met me yet did you

Some good stuff in here.. another one I stumbled on today, again from the Mega Man series:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-OKIlcLDgk

Take a look at the memory readouts in the intro to Mega Man X. Apparently Mega Man X (or his capsule?) has thousands of Terabytes of memory but only 512KB of primary data cache.

Oh, I didn't realize that when I posted... Silly me.

Still, I guess "1999 is the Apocalypse" was something even in our world, no? Like a prediction by someone from centuries ago.

Wow, I wonder if Osama played this game sometime between 2000 and 2001...

It's not a video game, but I always enjoyed looking at Space 1999 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_1999). I think BBC2 actually re-broadcast it in 1999 itself!

The moon's been blasted out of the Earth's orbit by a nuclear blast, and now hurtles through the galaxy like some kind of giant Starship Enterprise/Starbug made of rock.

Quite glad the nuclear explosion never happened in reality, as well as the revival of 70's haircuts.

(http://www.starkeith.net/coredump/wp-content/uploads//2010/04/chrono-trigger-but-the-future-refused-to-change-300x225.jpg)

I'm pretty sure hotlink blocking is one profecy that came true.

The year is 1999. Television has adapted to the more violent nature of man. The most popular form of television remains the game show. One show in particular has dominated the ratings. That show is SMASH TV. The most violent game show of all time. Two lucky contestants compete for cash and prizes. Each contestant is armed with an assortment of powerful weapons and sent into a closed arena. The action takes place in front of a studio audience and is broadcast live via satellite around the world. Be prepared. The future is now. You are the next lucky contestant!


 :( Never came true.

The sequel did, to an extent.

But in place we have reality tv ... much worse!

vs.

(http://shigi.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/durian.jpg)

See what I mean... doesn't Lavos totally look like a Durian??

I must agree, that is a far more horrifying outcome than a prime-time death arena.