Game-Teched

Occasionally I think it is appropriate to look back to see what past consoles have failed horribly, so that in the future we cannot/do not make the same mistakes, after all, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. I can't think of any better way to do this than compile a list of some of the worst consoles ever, or some that were amazing but overlooked because of bad marketing, or bad decision making in gerneral by the parent companies.

1.) Virtual Boy:

Oh my, the virtual boy, this thing was fun for about, 10 minutes, when the battery died. While it’s design and concept was revolutionary, it was poorly implemented and received badly because of it’s hindrances on the player. Not only did this thing take a lot of batteries to power, it chewed through those things like it was on its dying breath right out of the box. Next was the console’s design itself, with its bulky design, and flimsy bipod that couldn’t hold it up other than a perfectly flat, non-skid, hard surface and you didn’t make any type of sudden movements. This combined with the fact that the red led 3D system burned out your retinas causing unknown amounts of damage to the sight of thousands of children, the overall design choices by Nintendo were poorly and sloppily done. The media never really accepted this monster either, with it hardly making any profit for the company, and few ever circulating again like we see many others, most just ended up going to collectors who wanted it for it’s rarity and it’s nostalgic memories of that red tennis ball flying towards you after being hit at you by what looked like Yoshi, we couldn’t really tell, but that’s who it said it was.

2.) Sega Dreamcast

Ok, this one isn’t bad per se, it was actually quite amazing. When compared to the Playstation 1, this thing had better everything, other than the few huge games that the PS1 had that secured its place in most peoples hearts. The Dreamcast had it all, from good graphics, to fun games, to low technical problems, and to relatively cheap cost. The only problem with this was the poor timing, and the poor marketing.

I don’t think I saw a single commercial for this console, and I know I definitely saw some for the PS1. That combined with the fact that they didn’t really do much to distribute the system, with few models ever really popping up on shelves, their slowly release it to the gamers who will spread it approach didn’t really work when their opponents went and flooded every store with their system to make sure that everyone saw and had one. This machine not only did badly for the company, it led them to bankruptcy and eventual selling of the company to Nintendo just a few years after, (goodbye awesome sonic games *sob*). This was because of its high development cost coupled with the low sales records. This one makes me sad to put it on the list, but I must.

more coming soon... (list will go on for a while)