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The 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming

Posted by simoniker on from the dumb-dumb-dumb-dumb-dumb dept.

Gudlyf writes "GameSpy has a multi-part series this week titled The 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming, highlighting some of the biggest debacles ever to plague our beloved pastime. While only the first part of the series is present, I can already think of a few that the list wouldn't be complete without. Anyone care to offer their own picks?" Predictions for the Top 5 also welcome, we'll run another story at the end of the week to see how people did.

15 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. thats easy by ddd2k · · Score: 3, Interesting

    when they released starcraft and C&C for the console... what an atrocity that was... the horror... dragging units with a gamepad...

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    Great Atrocit
  2. Predictions... by Man+In+Black · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Some mention of the companies "Mystique" or "Playaround" must be in the top 5... these are the companies responsible for the X-rated Atari 2600 games, including Custer's Revenge, a game where you control Custer and rape an indian woman tied to a cactus. Why they even thought a game like this could work is beyond me... How can something even be erotic with such a low resolution?

    Although it's not as well known, Atari also made a video game called "I, Robot". In fact, it was the first game to use 3D filled polygons I believe. Unfortunately, the game wasn't accepted very well, and people couldn't figure it out I guess. So, out of the 1,000 machines they made, only 500 even sold. The rest were sitting in a warehouse. In order to get rid of them, Atari sent them to Japan... but none of the machines ever got there, as the crew of the ship were given orders to push the machines overboard on the way! I believe the point was to make sure that stockholders didn't see warehouses of unsold machines. In any case, this deserves at least a part in this list.

    And I didn't think the US Saturn pads were that bad... in fact, I like them better than Japanese ones. But then, my favorite controller ever was the enormous Jaguar controller, so what do I know?

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    -"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -EH
    1. Re:Predictions... by SheepHead · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I believe you can get your I, Robot fix in MAME, for those of you who are wondering how weird it really is. Stylish, for the time.

      some info, screenshot, and history of I, Robot at mame.dk

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      7d9e63e9501751ff4bf9307989d5623d *SheepHead
  3. Some that come to mind: by LordOfYourPants · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not in any order, but these ones cames to mind quickly...

    1) Intellivision II coming out and being non-backwards compatible with some of its own library in an effort to break Coleco's Intellivision releases.

    2) John Romero's magazine ad that ran pre-Daikatana that said "John Romero's going to make you his bitch." (I can't find the image, but I know it's kicking around somewhere on the net)

    3) Sega's "blast processing" commercial in which they claim Sonic the Hedgehog's fast scrolling is due to some neat-o feature in the Genesis' processor which the SNES lacks.

    4) Making a movie that's basically one huge commercial for the NES, the Power Glove, and Super Mario 3 (shamelessly savvy moment?).

    Those are about all that come to mind...

  4. I know it won't make the list, but by Dachannien · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...I'd like to see Sierra's decision to can the Babylon 5 game on the list. Then, I'd like to see, at the next "worst" position, Sierra's decision not to sell the completed portions of the game property to the developers (whom Sierra had earlier also canned) who were trying to pick up the game and finish it. Now it's all gathering dust, and the idea is being left up to the mod community and a few guys in Russia who have been working on a standalone game for some time now.

  5. ET not in top 5? by Kris_J · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I'm surprised that 2600 ET has popped up so soon. I would have thought that to be in the top 3. My other suggestions for the list are:
    • Releasing the Saturn in Japan at the same time as the 32X in the US.
    • Not backlighting the first GBA.
    • The CD32's cheap-arse construction.
    • The Xbox.
    • The N-Gage.
    • Selling the Amiga to Commodore.
    • Selling the Lynx to Atari.
    • Every time a marketing drone opens their mouth to announce a release date for a game not yet finished.
    1. Re:ET not in top 5? by Kris_J · · Score: 0, Interesting
      If the Xbox had been released by anyone else it would be dead by now. Only Microsoft's massive reserves of cash keep it alive. The 32X is a nice peice of hardware too, but it was a mistake in that it annoyed developers and to some extent users.

      I don't have everything Microsoft -- I've just ordered their overpriced Bluetooth keyboard an mouse. I prefer using Windows XP to Linux. But I still think that Microsoft don't have a clue what they're doing with the Xbox. Mind you, they only make a profit with Windows and Office...

    2. Re:ET not in top 5? by Kris_J · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Bad form, replying to my own post, sorry.

      Can someone unmoderate the +1 for the post above -- it isn't that interesting and it doesn't even answer the question it was supposed to. Here's why I believe the X-Box was/is a mistake: It's unimaginative and overpriced. Its promise of easy development because of its PC architecture and directX stuff will in fact be a problem as current PC performance pulls away from the Xbox. No doubt development houses are already finding that a project they're working on for the PC has problems running without major compromises on the Xbox. The same, of course, is true for any console but if you've brought developers in based on low porting costs it's a problem -- one that will only get worse. Sega thought that dual-processors in the 32X, or was it the Saturn, would be a good thing, but they were considered too difficult to develop for. Image what people developing for the latest DirectX 9 stuff are going to think about the amount of time it will take to scale detail back enough to play on the Xbox. And you can't just announce an upgrade for a console and start making games that require it straight away. Most of the current owners will not upgrade, therefore most of the developers won't write for the expansion. Chicken and egg.

      Microsoft are having a real problem getting the production costs down. The machine is too complicated. Sure, the hard drive will drop in price, but everything else is custom, yet farmed out to other companies. Who's going to put the time into reducing production costs?

      Based on the initial price to market, if it wasn't for Microsoft's pig-headedness, the Xbox would have already gone away. Meanwhile, no doubt people are enjoying it around the world, but I'll bet there are already people high up in Microsoft questioning the decision to produce the Xbox. Really they aren't a games company and they don't know what to do with games. Games Business isn't just another flavour of business. No matter how many successful games companies you swallow, making a good, popular, game is part art.

      Most companies in the games game have learnt a bit from the past, but only to the point where failures are in slow motion.

    3. Re:ET not in top 5? by nathanh · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Please, elaborite on why the XBox is one of the 25 biggest mistakes ever in gaming?

      Because it's not making a profit. No, sorry, simple as that, you can't argue. Games consoles are supposed to make a profit. The Xbox makes a huge loss for Microsoft. That's a mistake. In fact it would be a fatal mistake for almost any company except for Microsoft.

      Now we could argue all the little details. I think the original Xbox controller was shit. I think the original games lineup was worse; how many fucking snowboarding games did they have? The console itself is so big it could easily be mistaken for a moon of Jupiter.

      But those are just details and Microsoft has been correcting them. The new Xbox pack has a decent controller. The video and audio on the Xbox is far and away the best of the 3 consoles. The hard drive is a great idea even if it does cost more. The games lineup is now pretty damn decent.

      But the profit; that's a showstopper. There's no point in having a brilliant product that loses money hand over fist. Microsoft fucked up. Nobody can dispute that.

    4. Re:ET not in top 5? by nathanh · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Games consoles are supposed to make a profit.
      That's the first time I've ever heard that. Usually a console has to sold at a loss to the company just so they would have a big enough userbase to make money on the software.

      First thing when the revolution comes, shoot all the pedants. Don't be so damn literal. You could naturally assume that I meant profit from the whole franchise not just the bit of plastic that plugs into the TV. The "console as a loss leader" strategy isn't news to anybody on /.. Microsoft hasn't turned a profit despite having reasonable success in marketshare. Even Nintendo has turned a profit and apparently the Cube was also a loss leader.

  6. Oooh, a funny one by isorox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Nintendo's Japanese office received a telex from MCA Universal stating that the company had 48 hours to hand all profits earned from Donkey Kong over to MCA and destroy all unsold Donkey Kong inventory. The reason? MCA alleged that Donkey Kong infringed on Universal Studios' "King Kong" copyright.

    Unfortunately for MCA, Nintendo had a very good reason for refraining from a settlement: It had discovered that MCA did not own the "King Kong" copyright! Even more shockingly, in a previous lawsuit MCA Universal had actually gone to pains to prove that the "King Kong" property was public domain!

  7. BMX XXX by Alizarin+Erythrosin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's at #17. So I figured I'd post the obligitory Penny Arcade reference to BMX XXX

    Even my friend Jon, who's a pr0n fiend, said he would never think about buying that game.

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    There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
  8. Nolan Bushnell by robbway · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Don't know if it'll make the list, but:

    What began as what I consider to be a series of colossal mistakes, Nolan Bushnell sells Atari for a mere fraction (who knew?) of what it was worth and signs a non-competition clause for an ungodly time like 10 to 15 years. It probably hurt like hell to watch all that money he lost, but I'm sure it was really painful to stay out of the market when his mind was probably sharpest in the area of innovative video games.

  9. A couple of picks of my own by Gudlyf · · Score: 3, Interesting
    1. Bungie's Halo. Cool game? Oh yes. Released for the Macintosh first like Steve Jobs promised at MacWorld, causing Microsoft-based-OS gamers to squirm as they watched the Apple folks have all the fun? Nope. I remember staring in awe at the webcast of the MacWorld show a few years ago when Halo was announced, and was just a teensy bit jealous of Mac users when I saw what the game promised. It came through on the promises alright, all but one of course.
    2. Verant's Sovereign. I sort-of recall this game being announced not long after Everquest was released. We were going to see an awesome display of massive-multiplayer RTS, all by the fine folks who made the legendary MMORPG, Everquest. Screenshots were released here and there, but news of its advancement slowly petered out. Finally this year -- I'd say at least four years later -- the game was finally announced as dead. Now that I think of it, this might have been a smart move.
    The rest have already been mentioned, such as Nokia N-Gage, Daikatana's Ad Campaign, and Duke Nukem Forever. I don't need to go into details about those -- you know what they are.
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  10. More Predictions by Daetrin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So is the N64 sticking to cartridges going to show up later on the list? How about the poor support for 3rd party developers?

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