Video game systems that were DOOMED from the start?

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

The video does have only 7 systems. I think I originally intended to have 8. Thanks for pointing that out, goldenband.

[Gentlegamer]

Think it sold a million units all together, not sure I'd call that decent.

That's better than TurboGrafx-16.

[goldenband]

I had a CDi, my understanding was that they were profitable in the end since it held on for years after the US crumble into the PAL market it came from. For what it was, it was a nice research project and all around box that was fairly decent, just never fairly awesome at much of anything since VCD went down to DVD, and it wasn't great at buffering/streaming games.

I've got a CD-i now, and I have to say that in many ways it's a lot better than I expected. Of course, the games are largely mediocre or worse, but I'm surprised at the high quality of the presentation -- the AV itself looks and sounds great, and the graphic design of the splash screens & menus is light-years better than the cheap-looking ones you get on 3DO and Jaguar. It actually looks like they hired a real graphic designer, vs. the quick Photoshop hack jobs you often see on 3DO. And the FMV image quality is the best of its generation.

It's basically like an early '90s Performa Mac, complete with typical pack-in games. The library is comparable in quality and "tone", heavy on brain games, and (very) weak in action games. For someone who likes puzzle games and can enjoy a FMV game now and then, it's not a complete bust as a system -- but action-oriented gamers should definitely beware.

Sad as it is to say, I wonder if the Vectrex belongs on the list. Terrific system, but it had no real chance in the marketplace, especially with the crash. Or if you're restricting it to systems that are intrinsically bad -- there are plenty of alternatives. I'd say the Emerson Arcadia 2001, but clones of that actually did OK in Japan, didn't they?

[Tanooki]

I went in on one during Christmas the year it came out and I used it for years off and on. I was too cheap and lazy to ever buy a CD system, never had a dedicated one until this decade if I remember right and only because I read it was amazing and it was at a goodwill cheap. :P Because of that I used the CDI as an audio player for a very long time, even around having a PSOne mini system and a Saturn I still used that for it because the menu was stupid easy, fast to pop up, intuitive, and the audio was awesome on that CDi. There are a good deal of bad games on it, but equally so mediocre to your average internet based game fan but to a normal person or someone a little less uptight that were actually pretty fun, and of course there were gems on it as well. I had the gravis knockoff pad for it and the DV card as well. The FMV was nuts even in the games like the sultry somewhat changing mystery of Voyeur and also the 7th Guest was amazing on there too. I never bought into the VCD movies, limited kid budget and all, it went to the games, but it did come with that Manhole game which was cool too. I've listed the games I've had before from what I recall and they were solid, even the laughed upon Hotel Mario and Link Faces of Evil were fun (even if the Link FMV sequences are atrocious.) I think you nailed it fairly well with the Mac comparison, because even the Mac had a few solid action games but few and very far between, like the CDI with Mutant Rampage Bodyslam which was an awesome FInal Fight wannabe.

I think your nomination for the Vectrex is pretty fair. They had to have known it was a long shot at best and not likely to last with the very limited support their releases. It was a cool system, but fairly screwed like many of them in the early 80s.

[RP2A03]

Think it sold a million units all together, not sure I'd call that decent.

2 more: the Game.com and the N-Gage, the first because of the Tiger logo, the second because anyone with a quarter of a brain could tell just by looking at a picture of it that it would suck balls as both a phone and something to play games on, plus you could get a GBA and a phone that didn't make you look like a jackass for the same amount of money.

But sidetalking was just so awesome!


http://www.sidetalkin.com/

[Gentlegamer]

But sidetalking was just so awesome!


http://www.sidetalkin.com/

That is the website that time forgot.

[Tanooki]

That is the website that time forgot.

Which makes it perfect as the N-Gage is the useless gaming phone that time forgot too (for most people.)

[Steve W]

I'd have to agree to a point, the N-Gage was doomed by its design rather than its ideology. Having a game playing phone was an idea ahead of its time, but the design worked against it. Maybe they thought the "sidetalking" aspect made it stand out and highly visible to passers-by that they were using a cool new gaming phone, but then people mocked it instead. Having to remove the battery to put in a new game was an incredibly stupid idea. Using MMC cards rather than something custom meant that anybody could pop an N-Gage game into a USB card reader on their computer and break their security measures, making it painfully easy to pirate games. And launching the system with a bunch of almost decade-old PlayStation ports wasn't a great idea either. It put a bad taste in everybody's mouth and the gaming public wouldn't take it seriously. Once the remodeled N-Gage QD had come out, their software line-up was solid and diverse and the new phone fixed all the problems with the old design, but nobody was paying attention anymore.

I was always a fan of the N-Gage and I still have my N-Gage QD (no longer working after loaning it to my brother) and forty-something games for it, but I can understand how people would shit on it without trying it out for themselves. It was a nice little device for its time that nobody would take seriously after they got off on the wrong foot. They tarnished their image and they could never get the public back onboard.

Does Microsoft own the part of Nokia that holds the rights to the N-Gage? I could see a really powerful handheld phone from them being made in the same vein, but with all of Microsoft's resources from their Xbox division going into it. After all, the handheld console market is a pale shadow of the mobile phone market, and the biggest drawback to smartphone gaming (in my opinion) is the lack of physical controls. They could come up with a good design, pair it with their Windows Phone OS, they could finally take back a chunk of the mobile phone market. Who knows, it might even become the next big thing in smartphones, outpacing Android and the iPhone.

[JeremiahJT]

Atari 7800. Arguably less power than the 5200, old VCS sound chip, terrible controllers, and released way too late and at a time when Atari had lost most of it's brand recognition. Doomed!

That said if it was released a few years earlier it would have done well.

Atari sold like 4 or 5 millions 7800 consoles and the system kept them in the black for half a decade. I don't think you can call that a failure, much less doomed.

[ColecoFan1981]

Would these three do it here?

Coleco Adam
Atari 5200
Atari 7800

~Ben

[Gamevet]

Emerson Arcadia 2001. I believe my cousin had the console, after his parents picked it up in the bargain bin for dirt cheap. It was discontinued 18 months after its release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNoGYCMtmMU

[adolescent]

Atari sold like 4 or 5 millions 7800 consoles and the system kept them in the black for half a decade. I don't think you can call that a failure, much less doomed.

It was doomed because it was released after the NES already had a foothold on the US market. Had they released in 1984 it would probably have been different.

3.77m units in the US according to Curt Vendel's documents. Hardly a success compared to the 2600 which sold more than 30m and not even in the same ballgame as the NES which sold more than 34m in the same territory. All told the 7800 + software accounted for ~$100m of revenue over the 5 years. I doubt it was the 7800 that was keeping them afloat.

[adolescent]

Coleco Adam

Yep, the Adam was a disaster. Delayed, broken, and buggy. Of course I wanted one so bad anyways. The giant box was awe inspiring to my then 12 year old eyes. (My parents got me a Commodore 64 instead -- I think they made the right choice.)

[celerystalker]

Emerson Arcadia 2001. I believe my cousin had the console, after his parents picked it up in the bargain bin for dirt cheap. It was discontinued 18 months after its release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNoGYCMtmMU

Heheh, I have an Arcadia. It has the most flagrant ripoffs:


Totally not Space Invaders


Definitely not a snow speeder from Empire Strikes Back


What's a Milennium Falcon?

[Tanooki]

That bottom one without your comment I would have said Star Trek, looks like the Enterprise, even has a C up there it would have NCC-1701, appears to have the 2 nacelle pods in back, green dudes look much like klingons.

[wizardofwor1975]

It was doomed because it was released after the NES already had a foothold on the US market. Had they released in 1984 it would probably have been different.

3.77m units in the US according to Curt Vendel's documents. Hardly a success compared to the 2600 which sold more than 30m and not even in the same ballgame as the NES which sold more than 34m in the same territory. All told the 7800 + software accounted for ~$100m of revenue over the 5 years. I doubt it was the 7800 that was keeping them afloat.

I must preface my comment by 1st saying I absolutely love my Atari 7800. I completely understand Atari's decision to use the old VCS sound chip in an effort to be backwards compatible with its enormous 2600 game library. However, I do think they would have been more successful had they used the POKEY sound chip in more of its 7800 game cartridges. I think a reasonable argument could be made that the 7800's version of Commando which had the POKEY sound chip was arguably a better arcade port than the NES version. In any event given the 7800's release date I don't see a scenario where it could have competed on even ground with the NES. POKEY sound chip or not the NES was destined to come out on top in this matchup but I still love my 7800. Also, I'm glad your parents got you a C64 it is by far my favorite 8 bit computer. My Vic-20, C64, SX64, and Amiga 500 are hands down my favorite computers in my collection. Picked up PHM Pegasus today for the good old C64, very stoked.

[7th lutz]

It was doomed because it was released after the NES already had a foothold on the US market. Had they released in 1984 it would probably have been different.

3.77m units in the US according to Curt Vendel's documents. Hardly a success compared to the 2600 which sold more than 30m and not even in the same ballgame as the NES which sold more than 34m in the same territory. All told the 7800 + software accounted for ~$100m of revenue over the 5 years. I doubt it was the 7800 that was keeping them afloat.

1984 would have made somewhat a difference, but Nintendo still would have prevented the 3rd Japanese developers and Publishers Nintendo had from doing Atari 7800 games. That also would affect getting the license rights for arcade ports once the NES hit North America. The 7800 would be to get American and European developers and Publishers or get license rights from those those companies.

Atari Corp was able to keep afloat and the 7800 exactly did play a role in that since it was a combination of things. The 7800 in the US market sold over a million game systems each year in 1987 and 1988 based on Curt's documents.

Curt's US figures from 1986 to 1990 had the XEGS not much of a rule for Atari Corp. at all and it was a flop. The document had shown the 2600 played a role in Atari keeping afloat.

The ST was Atari Corp's Money Maker in Europe for a time based on what I read in the past although I don't know how much of a money maker the 8 bit computer line in Europe was in the late 80's.

[BlastProcessing402]

Actually, I'd say the Dreamcast is the perfect example, and the original post's reasoning for why it's not is actually in fact the reason why it's such a perfect example. No matter how well it sold, it wasn't enough. It couldn't ever have been enough. Sega had already screwed themselves over so badly in the previous years that the thing could have printed money and given blowjobs and still would have wound up off the market when the generation was just getting off the ground.

Has anyone mentioned N-Gage yet? That thing was an abomination, no too little too late redesign could save that hot mess.

[Tanooki]

Yes a few posts have brought up the N-Gage, and one low key line brought up the even more deserving Game.com which really had it coming the moment it hit the market.

I have an idea, this I didn't see come up and I owned this one too and it's super deserving of this thread -- Neo Geo Pocket Color.

Much like the Dreamcast, it came out as a very nice thing, had some very nice games, and didn't last a very long time at all. In both cases corporate ignorant and mismanagement of resources doomed it to the death pile even before it hit the market. The NGPC came out to some good initial press including print and TV ads, but then it was this huge mismanaged fizzle. The games ground to a trickle, and third parties basically threw it under the bus. SNK's ignorance never gave it more TV spots to see and didn't run the existing, and magazine/online ads faded away too. It's like they didn't care or stupidly like Sony with the PSP just figured, they know our name it'll sell on that alone, and it sure as hell didn't. I really did love that handheld as it had some really choice stuff, but the total lack of enough games even with Japan thrown in the picture (or translated in UK stuff like Faselei and Last Blade), set it up to end up being boring pretty quick and not being used. I feel weak once in awhile and want to mess with it again, but I know I'd be throwing my money away.

[celerystalker]

The NGPC is what finally made me open to both handhelds and Ogre Battle. Bio Motor Unitron got me hooked, but Ogre Battle and Card Fighters Clash really got me... then Dark Arms: Beast Busters, Faselei, the Metal Slugs, Delta Warp, Crush Roller, Capcom vs SNK, Rockman Power Battles... I hold onto mine, mainly for that bad ass Ogre Battle, but some of those unique puzzlers and Metal Slugs are still very worthwhile.