Favorite "failed" consoles?

[Rudolph]

So it seems like the history of video game consoles is full of video game consoles that just could not quite make it for whatever reason.

 

I am thinking of the Apple Pippin, the CD-I, the 3DO, the Jaguar the Sega CD/Mega CD, the Game Gear, the 32X, the Saturn, the Virtual Boy and the Dreamcast, but I am most likely forgetting many more. Alas, while I have heard a bit about them on YouTube and I am familiar with some of the games (e.g. Sega CD's SNATCHER, Lunar 1 and 2, the 32X, Jaguar and 3DO Doom ports, Jaguar's Alien Versus Predator), I never got to physically own the consoles themselves and as such I feel like I might have missed out, so I have to ask to those who did: what were your favorite "failed" consoles? What were your experience of them? Any titles that you recommend checking out or wish they could be made available again?

 

Please let me know!

Edited June 24, 2023 by Rudolph

[Captain red pants]

The Nokia N-Gage, for... many reasons... mostly due to the legend that it's layout was modeled on GOTSE by a disgruntled designer and was sent to production without any of the big wigs at Nokia noticing.

Is it true? who's to say, but... well... tell me you don't see it:

 

[Jayextee]

SEGA Saturn. Sure, it had a shit version of DOOM and more than a few conversions from PlayStation to the format were left wanting; but it had a whole slew of awesome arcade ports and original/exclusive titles that were more than worth the investment.

 

If only I still owned my old one. :(

Edited June 24, 2023 by Jayextee

[Individualised]

The Wii U. So many great games even if it was underpowered compared to the competition, most of the first party titles of which were fortunately given a second chance on the Switch. Its underpowered hardware, lack of a main Super Mario game, and a lack of a clear target audience (Nintendo kept saying they were focusing on core gamers yet advertised the console as some sort of family entertainment centre... Microsoft did a similar thing with the Xbox One) not to mention the confusion on whether it was a new console or an add-on for the original Wii) killed it. Not too dissimilar from the reasons the Saturn failed...

Edited June 24, 2023 by Individualised

[WorldMachine]

I'd count the Gamecube, apparently it had poor sales, which is suprising to me because the gamecube had some stellar games. Games that were very experimental aswell like a 3D Metroid, a Mario Kart were you control 2 racers, or a more light-hearted, cartoony Zelda adventure, things like that. And those games all managed to be some of my favorite games in their respective series! If you think about it, the reason Nintendo seemed to get so experimental is because of the Gamecube's poor sales, hints they've never done it with the Switch, a more than successful console.

[heliumlamb]

the 3DO interactive multiplayer is absolutely insane. its relatively open barrier to development, both for hardware and software, blessed us an amalgamation of multimedia sludge, small devs experimenting with full motion video (D, the incomprehensible Neo Organic Bioform), stuff that just wouldn't fly on anything but a home computer like The Life Stage: Virtual House, and grifter ghouls such as the founder of art data interactive. daisy chaining controllers??? Immercenary?????? only on the 3DO interactive multiplayer babey.

saturn and dreamcast i think would be my personal favorite as far as like, software quality goes. in terms of hardware quality (not performance), the saturn is on point. the saturn pad is the best to ever do it, no contest, it's like having an astro city control panel for your thumbs. absolutely silent disc drive. my favorite saturn fact is that it (just slightly) outsold the n64 in its home country, which is reflected by the quality of the ntsc-j saturn library.

[WorldMachine]

1 hour ago, Jayextee said:

SEGA Saturn. Sure, it had a shit version of DOOM and more than a few conversions from PlayStation to the format were left wanting; but it had a whole slew of awesome arcade ports and original/exclusive titles that were more than worth the investment.

 

If only I still owned my old one. :(

Sonic Jam was awesome!

[HavoX]

2 hours ago, Jayextee said:

SEGA Saturn. Sure, it had a shit version of DOOM and more than a few conversions from PlayStation to the format were left wanting; but it had a whole slew of awesome arcade ports and original/exclusive titles that were more than worth the investment.

 

If only I still owned my old one. :(

I remember seeing one as an exhibit at Six Flags nearly 23 years ago.. and it had a playable NiGHTS into Dreams... !

Edited June 24, 2023 by HavoX

[HavoX]

1 hour ago, WorldMachine said:

I'd count the Gamecube, apparently it had poor sales, which is suprising to me because the gamecube had some stellar games.

When I saw a newspost that Miyamoto said to Famitsu that the Gamecube made him "very sad"... I knew the console would be a failure.

Edited June 24, 2023 by HavoX

[Mr. Freeze]

Real 2000s kid hours

[indigotyrian]

3 hours ago, Jayextee said:

SEGA Saturn. Sure, it had a shit version of DOOM and more than a few conversions from PlayStation to the format were left wanting; but it had a whole slew of awesome arcade ports and original/exclusive titles that were more than worth the investment.

 

If only I still owned my old one. :(

 

Saturn had a bunch of really cool games. Nights, Clockwork Knight, Tomb Raider (originally a Saturn game!), Sonic R, the Panzer fuckin Dragoon games (which, imo, are better than Starfox), AMOK...

 

The Saturn 3D Pad also beat Nintendo 64 to market by a month with an analog stick. I honestly think that if Sega gave the Saturn some more breathing room to get a good launch lineup going and also pushed for the 3D Pad to get released with the game itself the Saturn would've done way better.

[eanasir]

1 hour ago, heliumlamb said:

the 3DO interactive multiplayer is absolutely insane. its relatively open barrier to development, both for hardware and software, blessed us an amalgamation of multimedia sludge, small devs experimenting with full motion video (D, the incomprehensible Neo Organic Bioform), stuff that just wouldn't fly on anything but a home computer like The Life Stage: Virtual House, and grifter ghouls such as the founder of art data interactive. daisy chaining controllers??? Immercenary?????? only on the 3DO interactive multiplayer babey.

saturn and dreamcast i think would be my personal favorite as far as like, software quality goes. in terms of hardware quality (not performance), the saturn is on point. the saturn pad is the best to ever do it, no contest, it's like having an astro city control panel for your thumbs. absolutely silent disc drive. my favorite saturn fact is that it (just slightly) outsold the n64 in its home country, which is reflected by the quality of the ntsc-j saturn library.

Maybe if all of the games on the 3DO weren't free, the console could've sold better, and there could've been more games on the 3DO than shitty doom (not because of the programmer) and some over FMV nightmares.

[Nikku4211]

I'm split between the Dreamcast, Wii U, and in my country, TurboGrafx-16.

 

The latter had some success in Japan, but not at all in the US of A.

 

Dreamcast is relatively easy to *ahem* make homebrew for if you still have a disc burner compatible with CD-R, and Wii U is easy to softmod now that you don't have to buy a Virtual Console game(not that you can in a post-March 2023 world). Running homebrew on the TurboGrafx-16 requires buying a Turbo Everdrive, Super SD System 3, or buying a TurboDuo-R and burning homebrew on CD, but if you just want to emulate, there's Mesen 2.0 and Ares.

 

I'd say Game Gear, but the Game Gear's screen and battery life are trash. At least SMSPower has some homebrew for both the Game Gear and Master System(which also failed in my country but enjoyed some success in some European countries). Running homebrew on those requires an Everdrive-GG for the former, and a Master Everdrive for the latter, but if you just want to emulate, Emulicious is top-tier quality.

[Azuris]

3 hours ago, Individualised said:

The Wii U. So many great games even if it was underpowered compared to the competition, most of the first party titles of which were fortunately given a second chance on the Switch. Its underpowered hardware, lack of a main Super Mario game, and a lack of a clear target audience (Nintendo kept saying they were focusing on core gamers yet advertised the console as some sort of family entertainment centre... Microsoft did a similar thing with the Xbox One) not to mention the confusion on whether it was a new console or an add-on for the original Wii) killed it. Not too dissimilar from the reasons the Saturn failed...

 

Love my Wii U, is still hooked up :)

Hmm underpowered compared to the PS3 and X360, i wouldn't say so

But soonly after came the next Generation :D

Still a little wonder how many Games are able to be streamed from Disc, Batman Arkham City, Mass Effect 3.

After playing Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on it and with Friends with the 3DS, i was sure Nintendos next Console will be a "Cross" Device, as its development Name slightly suggested^^

 

32 minutes ago, Mr. Freeze said:

Real 2000s kid hours

 

Wow, haven't seen that thing the last time 2000 something haha

What was the Feature? Can't remember it :D

Download only and PCish?

 

[DrinkyBird]

Has anyone said Wii U yet? Plenty of quality games, it birthed the greatest franchise humanity has seen and will ever see, the GamePad was suepr comfortable to use and a pretty good gimmick, it had Miiverse which was a thing that existed, and also it's easy as hell to hack.

Unfortunately nowadays Miiverse is dead, the eShop is dead, Splatoon and MK8 aren't dead but have been in limbo for almost four months now, and most of its quality titles have been ported to Switch so there's little point in using the Wii U now. But it was great when it was current.

[Loud Silence]

Not really console, but gaming service N-GAGE 2.0. I managed to get it to work on my Nokia C5-00 5MP (officially not supported by N-GAGE 2.0). Reset Generation is most fun game i have ever played.

[Herr Dethnout]

Edited June 24, 2023 by Herr Dethnout

[Noiser]

Atari Jaguar and 32x are pretty good with 2D games imo. I would also mention the Atari 7800, it have a great homebrew scene.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Noiser

[Individualised]

1 hour ago, Azuris said:

 

 

Hmm underpowered compared to the PS3 and X360, i wouldn't say so

 

The Wii U was an 8th generation console.

[YeOldeFellerNoob]

Would the Amiga count? It's more of a PC but the damn thing could fucking RAY TRACE (Though through primitive means) for a fraction of a price than most PC's during that era.

[Individualised]

1 minute ago, YeOldeFellerNoob said:

Would the Amiga count? It's more of a PC but the damn thing could fucking RAY TRACE (Though through primitive means) for a fraction of a price than most PC's during that era.

The Amiga wasn't a failure at all though? Also "PC" refers to IBM compatibles and their descendants, it's not a catch-all term for all home computers.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Individualised

[Rudolph]

6 hours ago, Captain red pants said:

The Nokia N-Gage, for... many reasons... mostly due to the legend that it's layout was modeled on GOTSE by a disgruntled designer and was sent to production without any of the big wigs at Nokia noticing.

Is it true? who's to say, but... well... tell me you don't see it:

I do not, actually, but that is because I am not sure I understand what you are talking about. What is GOTSE?

 

5 hours ago, Individualised said:

The Wii U.

Oh, right! I cannot believe I forgot about this one.

 

2 hours ago, indigotyrian said:

The Saturn 3D Pad also beat Nintendo 64 to market by a month with an analog stick. I honestly think that if Sega gave the Saturn some more breathing room to get a good launch lineup going and also pushed for the 3D Pad to get released with the game itself the Saturn would've done way better.

That... is one odd-looking controller. It kind of reminds me of the Miranda-class from Star Trek. :o

 

But you are telling me that it was a good controller nonetheless? 

[Kabal9955]

The PS1

[indigotyrian]

1 hour ago, Rudolph said:

That... is one odd-looking controller. It kind of reminds me of the Miranda-class from Star Trek. :o

 

But you are telling me that it was a good controller nonetheless? 

 

It's honestly quite comfy! I have one myself, and I use a Saturn-to-USB adapter to plug it into my PC. It also works great for N64 emulation because most buttons are present and in a configuration similar to an N64 controller (you'll have to ditch the L button but almost no game uses that so...).

[act]

Gotta go with the Ouya tbh

[Wadmodder Shalton]

The 3DO, obviously it was a better version of the Jaguar with better third-party support.

[Rudolph]

I have found pictures of the 3D Pad under different angles and it really does look like a Miranda-class!

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E3-umKCWEAIxz9b?format=jpg

Edited June 24, 2023 by Rudolph

[Ash4ash]

8 hours ago, Captain red pants said:

The Nokia N-Gage, for... many reasons... mostly due to the legend that it's layout was modeled on GOTSE by a disgruntled designer and was sent to production without any of the big wigs at Nokia noticing.

Is it true? who's to say, but... well... tell me you don't see it:

 

I'm literally writing an album about that legend lol

[Herr Dethnout]

2 hours ago, Rudolph said:

I do not, actually, but that is because I am not sure I understand what you are talking about. What is GOTSE?

 

It refers to GOATSE (A famous shocking image and also a well know meme on Doom community, mostly due IMPSE), and his design layout being based on it, and it looks like it lol

 

[BigBoy91]

I love my TurboGrafx-16. Lots of underappreciated titles on that console. It's pretty unique experience. You'd never see stuff like Bravoman on a mainstream console in the US.