Failed consoles you never heard of until *blank*

That stupid "debate" about SEGA Master System and seeing the Amiga thread gave me an idea. Popularity or lack of-of gaming system can really depend on region.So it's likely there are systems you never heard of until much much later or were taken by surprise when you saw a kid with the *blank* system.

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I will start with SMS. I stated this before but it wasn't until 1998 I even heard of it and even then saw it briefly on a retro game shop. I had no idea what it was but said SEGA on it. The clerk told me in 10 years it's the only one he had seen and until they got it in he wasn't even aware it existed.


3D0/CDi Wasn't until an issue of EGM 1998 I heard of them in a gaming magazine talking about past failures and other systems about to die.


Turbografx16 I didn't even know existed until the very early 90s when a friend owned one. We played Bonk and then in 1994 my teacher brought one to class and I played Vigilante. After that, I never touched one until I bought my own 6 years ago.


Various SEGA system offshoots. Wondermega, Mega Jet, and others. Not until I was a member of some SEGA game forums in the early 00s did I see mention of these.

I joined here about ten or eleven years ago, and at that point had never heard of some of the rarer MegaDrive offshoots (like the WonderMega). The Apple Pippin was totally new to me around two years ago, as was that weird one built into DVD players (bultje has one).

Also the Gizmondo, I read about it last year; that thing was quite ahead of its time. And I always remember seeing a Turbo Express in the movie 'Enemy Of The State' and wondering what it was, I thought they'd perhaps made it for the film.

lol, I remember the Gizmondo and the disaster it was. At the time it was hard for me to avoid the news. If you mean the Nuon, yeah EGM covered it when it was project X. A video game console built into a DVD player licensed out. I think less than 10 games cmae out and one of them was a version of Tempest.

The closest I can think of is the early consoles like Astrocade I had memories of, but could remember the name of or be sure I wasn't just thinking of something else. The internet helped me confirm that there really were so many pre-8-bit generation consoles.

Like Black_Tiger, my answer revolves around early, pre-crash consoles that I either never saw at all, or only have very fuzzy memories of reading about.

More specifically: I have a very vague recollection of reading about the Astrocade, and maybe the AdventureVision too, oddly enough. But as far as I know I never heard a thing about the Channel F, Studio II, Arcadia 2001, Microvision, or Vectrex until the 2000s when I joined AtariAge.

As for post-crash consoles, I knew about most of them thanks to gaming mags -- 3DO, Jaguar, etc. -- and BRE Software catalogs: "Neo Geo? What the hell kind of system has games that cost $199 each?" And I knew about the CD-i via its infomercial.

I remember being excited for the Gizmondo, especially since it had quite impressive specs for the time. Even the games were quite good looking, don't thing there was a bad looking one of the bunch. However the result was underwhelming and it didn't do too well either by poor advertisement or otherwise.

Well, It's hard to call the TG-16 a failed console since it did pretty well in Japan and still managed to have a small US presence (better than the SMS). But here in Europe it didn't even start and I never heard of the thing until I found out about this game called "Rondo of Blood". Thank you ROM sites and emulation for enabling me to try out such a wonderful little machine.

I somehow didn't know about the Amiga either, though unlike the TG-16 it was relatively well known around these parts.

Some that I had never heard of included the Bandai Pippin (or whatever name it goes by), FM Towns Marty.

And of course, the even more obscure ones. The likes of Super A'Can, Casio Loopy, etc.




http://i66.tinypic.com/9kp75i.jpg

I remember being surprised when I first came across home light gun games that predated the NES. I didn't know there were a handful of systems like that in the '70s. I was used to consoles like the 2600 and Intellivision, and I associated earlier stuff with Pong and Mattel sports games.

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Originally Posted by Kamahl

Well, It's hard to call the TG-16 a failed console since it did pretty well in Japan and still managed to have a small US presence (better than the SMS).

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I doubt the TG16 outsold the SMS in the US. SMS games have always been much easier to find in Canada (which is usually very similar for sales) and the US, in my experience.

Growing up, there were a number of gaming magazines that touched on all the consoles of the day. For example, I was a Gamepro subscriber in the early 90s, and they ran articles about all of the consoles of the time, even the ones from other regions or ones that have become relegated to obscurity over the years. Each issue was massively thick, probably 200 plus pages.

So, for the guys who were into video games in the late 80s/90s, it was easy to be aware of everything out there. I can't vouch for the earlier generations though. Not sure how the 70s kids kept track of the glutton of consoles back then.

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Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

I doubt the TG16 outsold the SMS in the US. SMS games have always been much easier to find in Canada (which is usually very similar for sales) and the US, in my experience.

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Probably not, but that's not necessarily what I mean by presence. Did Kanye West tentatively title an album Master System? Don't think so.

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Originally Posted by Kamahl

Well, It's hard to call the TG-16 a failed console since it did pretty well in Japan and still managed to have a small US presence (better than the SMS). But here in Europe it didn't even start and I never heard of the thing until I found out about this game called "Rondo of Blood". Thank you ROM sites and emulation for enabling me to try out such a wonderful little machine.

I somehow didn't know about the Amiga either, though unlike the TG-16 it was relatively well known around these parts.

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Saturn did well in Japan but overall PCE/TG16 sold 10 million worldwide and Saturn just over 9 million.

AFAIK the TG-16 only sold 6 million worldwide, which is still a respectable number.

Amiga CD32. I didn't know much about it until long after the fact. A console Amiga would have been loads of fun, but seriously it didn't have a chance in the console market against the comparatively well-entrenched Nintendo and Sega offerings of the time.

Atari XEGS. Another oddity I knew next to nothing about, until decades after its demise.

Does anyone remember the Tandy Video Information System? 'Cos I sure don't. XD

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kamahl

AFAIK the TG-16 only sold 6 million worldwide, which is still a respectable number.

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No, it's not. That is very much a failed console. 6 million is abysmal even for the time.