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Thread: Yesterday's hardware manufacturers whose products flopped

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    Default Yesterday's hardware manufacturers whose products flopped

    We all know the story of how Sega exited the hardware business to go 100% software but what about other console manufacturers?

    I have noticed a lot of computer monitors and networking equipment with "NEC" on them. They manufactured the TurboGrafx16. It seems they are still making computers to this day.

    What happened the factory that produced the Jaguar? Goldstar who made the 3DO? Colecovision? Intellivision? Vectrex? Neo Geo?

    I remember seeing that one prominent developer went into the gambling machine business. I dont remember if that was Atari or Sega.

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    Quote Originally Posted by gbpxl View Post
    What happened the factory that produced the Jaguar?
    I'm not sure about the company but I remember the molds getting reused to make dental equipment at some point.

    Quote Originally Posted by gbpxl View Post
    I remember seeing that one prominent developer went into the gambling machine business. I dont remember if that was Atari or Sega.
    Wasn't it Konami with the pachinko machines?

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    Tons of Japanese developers are involved with gambling (pachinko and pachislot). Konami's been involved in gambling for a long time (they even have/had a huge building in Vegas that I saw while making a layover at the airport there), but they've focused on it more in recent years. Irem is another developer that focuses on gambling these days, and they actually got their start there before they shifted to video games.

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    Possibly but it wasnt the one I saw. It was at a local casino. Couldve sworn I saw "Sega" on it

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    Sega's in gambling too, yeah. They started with slot machines, and their gambling side grew a lot when they merged with Sammy, as Sammy was always more focused on gambling than video games.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gameguy View Post
    I'm not sure about the company but I remember the molds getting reused to make dental equipment at some point.
    Yeah, when Atari was going under they started selling everything they owned. A dental imaging company bought tho molds to the Jaguar and they even produced some replacement shells at one point. I was actually discussing this recently with someone who had a white Jaguar.

    But yeah, Atari started out as a hardware developer and as far as I'm aware made most of their own stuff.

    NEC is still around. They make a bunch of electronics hardware. I think they're still a chip manufacturer as well.
    "Game programmers are generally lazy individuals. That's right. It's true. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Since the dawn of computer games, game programmers have looked for shortcuts to coolness." Kurt Arnlund - Game programmer for Activision, Accolade...

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    The factory that made the Atari Jaguar was an IBM plant in, if I remember right, North Carolina? Jack Tramiel was insistent on having the Jaguar built in the United States, so IBM was contracted to make it. I'm sure that once the Jag was no longer being made they re-tooled it to build other IBM stuff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve W View Post
    The factory that made the Atari Jaguar was an IBM plant in, if I remember right, North Carolina? Jack Tramiel was insistent on having the Jaguar built in the United States, so IBM was contracted to make it. I'm sure that once the Jag was no longer being made they re-tooled it to build other IBM stuff.
    Hmmm... looks like your right about IBM. I could have sworn I read that Atari manufactured it like their earlier systems. But I did read that article about the dental company probably 10 years ago.
    "Game programmers are generally lazy individuals. That's right. It's true. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Since the dawn of computer games, game programmers have looked for shortcuts to coolness." Kurt Arnlund - Game programmer for Activision, Accolade...

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    Goldstar who made the 3DO?
    Goldstar is doing great. You may know them currently as LG Corporation. Seriously.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pr3tty F1y View Post
    Goldstar is doing great. You may know them currently as LG Corporation. Seriously.
    ::Looks it up:: Huh...no kiddin'. Makes sense- they made low priced/low end TVs, VCRs and such way back.

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