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Consoles M.I.A.
1up is running a piece looking at four game consoles missing in America. These pieces of consumer technology historia just never made it to the states, for one reason or another. Usually, good reasons. From the article: "The Xbox was not Microsoft's first console venture. Nor was Dreamcast's WinCe operating system. No, Mr. Gates' first foray into the console arena happened more than 20 years ago, hand-in-hand with current nemesis Sony. Sounds like madness? It's not. The MSX wasn't precisely a console, either...it was more like a computer that could play cartridge-based games ... So why didn't MSX make it to the U.S.? Though the standard was conceived by a Microsoft executive, it was a Japanese initiative. In America, the company supported the IBM PC standard." Reminds me of our TI computer. Hunt the Wumpus indeed; the MSX got Castlevania (Vampire Killer).
Good thing there isn't a link, I almost read the article!
A slashdot first, I'm sure.
Reminds me of our TI computer
Yeah, but we (I had a TI 99/4A) got great games like Parsec, Munch Man, and Tombstone City!
Nor was Dreamcast's WinCe operating system.
So if Microsoft was behind the Dreamcast's OS, was that why the Dreamcast ran so hot?
4 bad systems (ok the wonder swan had potential, and MSX did have metal gear). Anyone who knows a little about those systems though knows even if they came to america, they would be Jaguar/3D0 of the era, they were ok at best.
:)
Btw, Hunt the wumpus was freeware, (hell it was a basic game). Why don't you compare commander keen to castlevania, apogee software wins with ID backing them up
The MSX wasn't precisely a console, either...it was more like a computer that could play cartridge-based games
So it wasn't a console, then. There's nothing about ROM-based media that keeps them from being used in computers. I'm pretty sure there were other computers that accepted cartridges, but my knowledge of obsolete non-x86 computers is a bit rusty so I can't name any.
BTW, the most notable game for the MSX was definitely Metal Gear 2. The real Metal Gear 2.
Rob
Very few games, such as Saga Rally 2, actually used WinCE + DirectX 6. Most games used Sega's own OS and graphics libraries, which ran much faster.
Now that was a great game, and also made great use of the voice synth long before voice synth really worked well.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Summarization of missing out on these MIA devices: We didn't miss out on much. Just early releases, cool devices, and things that would add to the madness of holiday shopping.
----- You know you have ego issues when you register a domain in your name.
I had one.. :) .. And its predecessor - the Spectravideo SVI-318/328. Back then Microsoft was still a bit of a rebel against the then predominant IBM. Funny how positions change overtime.
BTW.. On the subject of cartriges - let me remind you that the C-64 also had a cartridge slot and games delivered on cartriges.
$HOME is where the
-- silver_p
I just want to go on record as saying that the TI-99/4a version of Hunt the Wumpus was amazing. I just wish I could find a decent version for Palm.
The consoles, since apparently Microsoft's MSX is so outrageously interesting that there's no use mentioning them in the summary:
MSX - Manufacturer: Various - Date: 1983 - Region: JP, UK, US (limited)
- Set-top box with keyboard and some games whose sequels were future successes
X68000 - Manufacturer: Sharp - Date: 1987 - Region: JP
- $4000, and it sure looks like a PC wannabe to me. (Phantom 2k-13?)
PC-FX - Manufacturer: NEC - Date: 1994 - Region: JP
- 'Sequel' to the TurboGraphx-16
WonderSwan - Manufacturer: Bandai - Date: 1999 - Region: JP
- A B&W handheld most talked about in the U.S. because of it's Final Fantasy ports
I'm old enough to remember the MSX machines.
They promised to standardise games & software, giving a capable microcomputer kinda like an IBM PC but much cheaper.
At that time IBM PC's were hideously expensive, the average joe could only afford a Commodore 64/128, Ti etc but they had no interoperability of software at all.
Here in OZ importers/wholesalers advertised them a fair bit in computer magazines but not the main stream press.
Retailers did'nt pick up the ball.
Consumers could'nt find the games or software for them.
They fizzled out. The end.
Seriously. Check out the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSX
The specs on the graphics hardware were simply INCREDIBLE for that time. The MSX 2, especially, was easily more powerful than the Amiga was (for games, anyway).
Do Google search for some screenshots of some of those games, especially the Konami tiles (Salamander, Vampire Killer, Metal Gear). The MSX machines were unrivaled gaming machines until the SNES was released.
Pretty awesome, actually.
I didn't realise that MSX never made it to the States. You lucky, lucky people.
I remember when those machines came out in Britain. The computer magazines were the only happy people, since it meant there was always at least one new machine a week to review and because so much of the machine's behaviour was the same they can't have needed to do so much work! Not like reviewing those computers where everything was different, such as the Jupiter Ace.
And those MSX machines were terrible - I don't think I knew a single person who bought one, and I had a couple of computer club colleagues who bought Orics, for pity's sake.
No, count yourselves lucky - MSX sucked. You were spared some truly awful computers.
Dunx
Converting caffeine into code since 1982
Two of the four "consoles" reviewed were really general purpose computers that got popular because of games thanks to their specialized multimedia hardware. They're basically the Japanese equivalent of the Commodore 64 and the Amiga.
Its lovely little chiclets taught me to touch-type, its sucky Basic pushed me towards assembly, and its lack of games gave me all the inspiration I needed to write my own software .. and .. most important of all .. the Atmos is still one of the nicest looking machines, ever!
.. now *that* was total integration .. ;)
I had an MSX for a while (Yamaha), but only for the superlative MIDI support
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
I recently did a review of MSFTs Gaming Division.. From the research that I did, the MSX was a "total failure" in the Japanese Market for a single reason - It had no 3rd party support. It's game selection was pathetic at best and as such, failed miserably.
When the console was created it was deemed Microsoft's way of taking it to the "Japanese console manufacturers" and they lost millions on it.
It just goes to show how important games are to the consoles that are developed - over the years every console has shined and/or failed (other than the PS2 - I think I found a statistic that said nearly 60% of the consoles were originally sold due to the DVD player capability) because of a weak selection of games, or 3rd party developers abondoning the systems for a "Next Gen" console.
I know this is slightly OT, but that's the reason I think MSFT is really going to take over the Industry over the next few years... Their development tools on the XBOX and XBOX360 are just plain superior for developers in comparison to Nintendo and PStation (unless something has significantly changed in their tools for the Wii/PS3.) It keeps developer costs lower, makes the game easily portable to Windows as a second outlet for sales, and with the XNA coming out the potential for the system just skyrockets in the Indie realm.
They have made a LOT of mistakes, starting with the MSX and going all the way up until Age of Empires was successful (I think it's recognized as their first REAL success in the industry and spurred a lot of the company's gaming division growth in the late 90s) but it's pretty obvious that they are learning and doing what they can to not repeat them.
Its Deluxe, son. Deluxe!
What - no mention of the Bandai Playdia? http://www.vidgame.net/BANDAI/playdia.htm/
The console looked like Fisher Price designed it and the titles were nearly all anime games. It probably wouldn't have been much of a success in the US.
At ten years old, I had a MSX2 HBF 700F from Sony with Microsoft system and Konami games: Vampire Killer (Castlevania) and Nemesis (Gradius). With two cartridges slots that give you special stuff if you put two different games sometimes. I can program it to make my own stupid games and store them on a floppy disk. Macadam Bumper and S.E.U.C.K. where also on this machine. Games where you can create. As a consequence, I am now running a video game studio.