The death of a system

[bangtango]

I haven't started an actual thread on this forum in about a week. I searched but failed to find this topic, unless it has a vastly different title. The topic isn't what you think. My systems are alive, well and powering up.

No real ground rules, just questions. Feel free to give a one word answer or a thesis. Just thoughts in general. Any era can be included, since I won't repost this in the modern gaming thread. :evil:

I'm disregarding homebrew games and diagnosing any systems I talk about as "dead." I don't mean that to offend anybody who makes or enjoys new games for some systems. Strictly from a commercial standpoint. Getting into a discussion about that might require a different thread. To me, if you can't find the games in a large chain department store or video store (aka: "better stores everywhere" as commercials used to say), that would be my definition of deceased.


A. What systems died a very quiet death?
(i.e. Turbo Duo)

B. What systems died a very ugly death?
(i.e. Atari 2600 & the "Crash")

C. What systems went out with a bang?
(i.e. Sega Saturn w/some of the finest games)

My thoughts:

A. The Turbo Duo, obviously. Being an EGM reader, it got to the point where they would review one game every 2-3 months. The ones that come to mind are the consoles that never sold all that well. Amiga CD32, Sega 32X.

B. I'd say the 2600, but I remember EGM ridiculing Nintendo month after month for releasing the top-loader design and Sega for redesigning Master System. In their yearly reviews, the systems always ended up getting 2's and 3's (out of 10) by the review crew and the new games received terrible grades.

C. Sega Saturn has stuff like Panzer Dragoon Saga, enough said. However, the Super NES was doing well enough that Nintendo was able to sit on the Ultra 64 (later N64) for a long time, resting on their 16-bit laurels. Sega Saturn may have been tanking, but I remember the Genesis was still thriving to some extent.






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[staxx]

A. Game dot Com - Wow did I see this system in the store ? (Thinks hard) Maybe I saw it for a few weeks and then kazaam, it vanished. The shelf life wasn't long for this system, if I recall reading, it only lasted a few months.

B. Sega Dreamcast - Sega not going to make any consoles !!! Shemmue 2 US release got cancelled !!!! Sega to develop games for Nintendo... Wow ask me that Sega will develop games for Nintendo in the 16 bit era, I would have lost a Million dollar bet with ya.

C. PC Engine - Near the end of it's life, they were porting Neo Geo fighting games to this dual 8 bit system. The conversions were excellent also. Last but not least Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire came out of nowwhere and had amazing graphics. Sapphire really pushed the PC Engine to the max.

[Zadoc]

A. Damn, someone already said Game.com! Seriously though, I'll go with Nintendo's biggest blunder, the Virtaul Boy. Virtually useless, virtually no one every bought one, virtually no playable games, will make you virtually go blind! - This is fun, I can go on.

B. 32X - The way Sega just dropped support after a stellar system launch was really a terrible thing to do for such an amazing and unique console with so much promise.

C. Sega Dreamcast - This is a system that was quality from day one up until the very end. I salute you Dreamcast.

[Kid Ice]

A. What systems died a very quiet death?

The Playstation went out very slowly, but surely. First runner up for me would be the Neo Geo.

B. What systems died a very ugly death?

Nokia N-Gage. What worthwhile systems died an ugly death? Vectrex and Dreamcast.

C. What systems went out with a bang?
Agreed, the Saturn. Looking here in the US or abroad, the very best games came along in the last year.

[kentuckyfried]

The poor Neo Geo Pocket, badly supported, no marketing, competing with against a Gameboy juggernaut, equaled an uncaring and unaware public.

A sad, quiet, little death.

[Snapple]

A - Playstation immediately came to mind. PS2 had already been out for years. Yet, as late as 2004, you could find the new copy of Madden for the PS1 sitting there on the shelf, looking lonely and unappreciated. Really just fizzled a slow, unnoticed death.

B - Haha. The Phantom.

C - SNES. The games only got better as the system wore on, and even once the 32-bit systems started coming out, the SNES still held its own until Nintendo just stopped giving us games for it.

[CRV]

B. I'd say the 2600, but I remember EGM ridiculing Nintendo month after month for releasing the top-loader design and Sega for redesigning Master System. In their yearly reviews, the systems always ended up getting 2's and 3's (out of 10) by the review crew and the new games received terrible grades.

You seem to imply above that the 2600 died with the crash. But it came back in 1986 and was sold for another 5-6 years.

[CosmicMonkey]

A - The NGPC. One day it was here, the next it'd dissapeared. Although it has made a very quiet reappearance in the form of Colour Pocket Arcade; NGPC & 4 or 6 games in a blister pack. Shame, as I personally think it's a damn fine machine. Best pad/jstick on a handheld ever and sooo much potential.

B - All the new handhelds.

C - Dreamcast. Yes, the world may have considered it dead, but I've been enjoying new games for a while. Radilgy, Under Defeat and a system re-release: cetainly a way to go out with a bang. Who knows, maybe UD isn't the last game. But still, 1998 - 2006 is a very, very good run.

[Mayhem]

A) NGPC, for the reasons given above. Poor handheld. Great system.

B) Dreamcast, because it was dead before its time.

C) Split between SNES and C64. C64? Here in Europe at least, the last three commercial games released for it were "Alien 3", "Lemmings" and "Mayhem in Monsterland" which were some of the best games released for the system (especially the last one).

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I'm not really sure I have an answer for A, but here we go with the rest:

B. Colecovision. This is a machine that could have, and should have, survived the crash with decent support. But instead, Coleco went and threw everything it could at Adam instead, dropping lots of defective units on the market unapologetically and tainting the rest of its electronics business in the process. Then they ditched video games and computers altogether and threw their lot in with the Cabbage Patch craze. Coleco had a nasty habit of promising short-term gains which were then negated by a lack of foresight.

C. Odyssey2. I would be the one to say this, wouldn't I? Third-party support was just finally starting to show up, and with decent games too (Imagic's two games, plus the largely above-average quartet of Parker Bros. games in Europe, to say nothing of the marvel that would've been Tutankham). In-house, some of the last Odyssey2 games were among the best that system ever produced (i.e. Turtles, Killer Bees, Power Lords). Admittedly, the O2 was in its twilight, but the very last batch of games for it were outstanding.

[drewbrim]

I only have an answer for question C. Since I think pretty much every system could fall under A.

The Turbo Duo went down fighting in its last year on the shelves with price drops, pack ins, and some of the best games ever released for the console. Including Bonk 3, Dungeon Explorer II, and Cotton, just to name a few.

[bangtango]

CRV:

"You seem to imply above that the 2600 died with the crash. But it came back in 1986 and was sold for another 5-6 years."

As I said, such a topic is subject to debate. While I don't know the sales figures, I can't imagine that many people bought a new 2600 between 1986 and the early 90's, it's like the joke Mike Myers used in Wayne's World to suggest, "Everybody owns 'Frampton Comes Alive.'. Everybody probably had a 2600, but your point is very well taken :D So I'll concede that one to you.

I'd say the Duo died quiet because I never knew it petered out. Gaming mags did a much better job of letting us know Sega machines (which often failed) were on the way out. Just the nature of the beast and of course, sales have a lot to do with it. As for the Duo, I'll agree that some fine games came out for it, can't go wrong with Capcom doing one of the "Street Fighter II" games for it.

[diskoboy]

A. Turbografx-16 and the Intellivision. I also have a feeling the Xbox and PS2 will die quitely now that the next-gen systems are starting to get all the attention.

B. Oh god... Every Atari console made died a painful death. Even the 2600. Actually... the whole early 80's atari debacle was painful to watch. It also hurt watching the Dreamcast die.

C. The Saturn and Dreamcast went out with a nuclear explosion. I still play my Dreamcast more than any other console I own.

[CreamSoda]

A. What systems died a very quiet death?

Nintendo 64, from late 2000 to early 2002. The system died a slow and ignored death. With only a small stream of solid titles that became less and less every month. And of course some overlooked gems(Perfect Dark, Banjo Tooie, Paper Mario, ect.) Which I remember all being overlooked by the majority. I guess it was just the hype and excitement of the Dreamcast,PS2,Xbox,GC and Nintendo pretty much abandoning the system that quietly did it in. Which I find quite sad, because I think the system could have easily survived a year or two more.

B. What systems died a very ugly death?

Sega Saturn, sadly it was pretty much doomed from the start in the US. I know the Saturn was always a quality system, with plenty of A+ games. Buy even in late '97/early '98 despite awesome releases, the amount of bad press/hate the Saturn was getting was terrible. I remember a sickening amount of bashing this system used to get in alot of the gaming mags at the time. :(

C. What systems went out with a bang?

Super Nintendo, if there ever was a system that actually got better at the end of it's life, this would be it! To me 1994 through 1996 were my favorite years for the system. Donkey Kong Country trilogy, Super Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario World 2:Yoshi's Island, ect, ect. That is a hell of a way to go out if you ask me! If only all consoles died this well. 8-)

[evildead2099]

The neo geo went out with a big, big bang: NG owners were treated to Samurai Shodown V Special. What a way to thank that system's many long-time supporters!

THe DC had some great games toward the end of its life (Bomberman Online, NHL 2k2, Virtua Tennis 2K2), but north american releases of such games as Rez and Shenmue 2 were regretably cancelled.

[segarocks30]

Heh, the funny thing is I still saw a few PS1 games left on the shelf in Wal Mart Not used. I was like, "Emmkayy..." It was like Madden 2005 and some other game. Kind of like a WTF moment. Anyways, I'm surprised no one said it, but Gamecube fits almost all 3. At alomst the end of it's lifespan, no one really cares about it, think it's too childish. The attention to it was just incredibly minimal. Plus, not many huge games released. It was kind of ugly because of some of the points I brought up before. But, it went and will go out with a bang because, there were some very good 1st party Nintendo Titles released at the end of the road. Plus even though I hate Zelda, Twilight Princess will be coming out. I love the Gamecube to death though. I wish It enjoyed a little more commercial success. At least Nintendo has the DS.