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Dismal Console Failures
Anonymous Howard writes "Shacknews' jason bergman has written an article that looks at some of the biggest failures in console gaming. It's a great read, and spotlights stuff like the Halcyon, a $2500 (!) laserdisc system with only two games and Nintendo's Virtual Boy, a stereoptic system that had red-on-black simulated 3D graphics."
As an owner of an Atari Jaguar CD system, I must say that I am disgusted that this fine unit was omitted from the list. I mean, when installed, the thing looks like toilet...
I could never get the infinite lives cheat on Sonic 3 to work on the Sega MegaDrive.
My childhood... RUINED!
-Mark
I still can't speak the word "Saturn" (hahahahahahahahaha) and keep a straight face.
I had a friend who plunked down 400 college-dollars (those of you who have been poor college students and then gotten good-paying jobs understand the difference here) for one of these things and ended up buying only a few games, and even those were pretty much junk. The PlayStation was such a better system.
Okay.. now someone reply to this and give me some sob story about how the Saturn was supposed to be a 2D system that was hacked at the last second to try and do some 3D..
Meanwhile, I'll be laughing..
There is one event which is guaranteed to signify the destruction of a console as a viable platform -- Jeff Minter writes a game for it. Happened to the Jaguar, happened to the Nuon (an interesting recent stillborn console). And now he's in the process of writing a game for the Gamecube. Oh well. :)
I bought a VirtualBoy along with several games a few years ago just to keep around. I'm a sort of fan of early 3D efforts and still have lots of old 3D comics and magazines with the red/blue glasses, and some of the early hologram efforts, ViewMasters, etc.)
I have to say, that these days, my 8-year-old and his friends can't get enough of Mario Tennis, Virtual Baseball and other 3D games on the VirtualBoy, even though they all have the latest GameBoy Advance, GameCube, Playstation 2, X-Box, etc.
There's still enjoyment to be had in the VirtualBoy. Plenty of units and games are up for grabs on eBay, too.
Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.
Those who forget the past are doomed
$5k!! I hope your processor has gold connectors on it or something!
Damn.
I own 2 Virtual Boys, and the best ways to play it that I found were to lie on the floor on your stomach and look into it (screwed up your neck after a while) and to lay on your back and rest the unit on your head (worked good if you put a little foam tape or something inbetween the eye pieces, otherwise it cut into your nose).
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
$5k!! I hope your processor has gold connectors on it or something!
Nah, but it has a wing on the back and one of those mufflers that goes 'Bzzzzzwwweeeeeeeee'.
I own 2 Virtual Boys, and the best ways to play it that I found were to lie on the floor on your stomach and look into it (screwed up your neck after a while) and to lay on your back and rest the unit on your head (worked good if you put a little foam tape or something inbetween the eye pieces, otherwise it cut into your nose).
I hear the next version of the Virtual Boy required you to hold your breath while fully submerged in hot pudding. Doesn't sound too much more painful of a gaming experience than what you are describing.
:P
Motion tracking? You're giving the Virtual Boy far, far too much credit. It was a pair of red GameBoys strapped to your face.
Motion tracking... Next thing you are going to tell me they did something productive with that 175 dollars!
This Sig is a mnemonic device designed to allow you to recognize this author in the future.
They used lasers for the display? No wonder I wear glasses now. heh... : )
seriouslyexcited.net
I am a huge fan of the Nintendo Virtual Boy. In fact, I just got done doing some homebrewn work for the system. There should be a port of good 'ol GCC for it soon.
:-(
The system really had immense power, the CPU is faster and more powerful than that on a GBA. (The VB actually has a divide instruction and floating point opcodes!)
I think this author is exaggerating the effects of Virtual Boy and just running on speculations. I NEVER have known anyone in real life to get sick or loose their vision from playing one of these things. I always have friends give my system a try, it is actually quite fun to play, especially Wario Land and the Japanese niche game Space Squash.
The biggest shame is that the finest games - Bound High, Dragon Hopper, Zero Racers (F-Zero), et. al were never released.
ACTION MAX