Failed game consoles from the 90’s

CharlieBearCharlieBear
edited September 2023 in General

The 90’s was a great time for gaming, and we saw some historic console wars with Sony ultimately winning after both Nintendo and Sega chose to not integrate Sony’s cd drive into their consoles (ushering in the age of the PlayStation).

We saw Sega rise and fall, and witnessed Nintendo struggle to maintain their dominance in the console space while also destroying their competition in the handheld market. But there were also a few other consoles released during that time that tried and failed to catch on.

I have been building my own console collection and have been slowly acquiring these more obscure consoles/add-ons. There were quite a few of them released, but the ones most notable to me are the Virtual Boy, Sega 32X, Sega CD, Panasonic 3DO, Atari Jaguar, and Phillip’s CD-i. I have been able to get my hands on all of them with the exception of the CD-i, and having now played them, I am very glad I never had these as a kid (with the exception of the Sega CD because at least it has some games worth playing…oh and the Virtual Boy which I did own at the time and was one of the dozens that actually loved it). I am curious to know if anyone here had them, and if so, what were your favorite games.

Bonus: If you had other consoles, such as the Neo-Geo AES, Neo-Geo CD, Amiga CD32, FM Towns Marty, Atari Jaguar CD, etc I’d love to hear about them as well.

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Comments

  • PixiePassionsPixiePassions

    Slightly unrelated-ish, but I appreciate the shout out to all those consoles.

    I was grateful for my blue N64 still working back in January during a particularly bad breakup. I locked myself in my room, smoked a pre-roll, and played Conker's Bad Fur Day for like 13 hours. I still love my N64. I unearthed my Sega Genesis, too, I just need to buy an extra cord for it. Can't wait to play it again. (When I find the blessed time. 🥴)

    I think I played with a Virtual Boy once. ONCE. Wish it had been more.

  • Jova114Jova114

    I saw this once in a store at the mall for a good price and never saw it again...
    The Super Boy.
    It was a portable system for SNES games.
    I still have my SNES with a few games

  • MegaSnugglezMegaSnugglez

    Reading about all of these make me think of those countless number of “the angry video game nerd” episodes I have watched over the years.

  • lonelytauroslonelytauros

    I have owned all of the consoles mentioned in your post. The only one that I never owned was the FM town‘s Marty, which I wanted to get solely for afterburner. The two consoles that were the biggest disappointment would’ve been the Amiga CD32, and the Atari jaguar, even with the CD attachment. the 3do was pretty decent. I liked it. the 32X was OK. The Sega cd was also OK. I’m actually playing shining force cd on it right now. Another system worth considering even though it was a computer at the time was the sharp X 68,000.

  • Mike403Mike403

    The Atari Jaguar CD looks like a toilet.

  • ShaneSchruteShaneSchrute

    Wow @Mike403 i thought it looked so futuristic and cool; but now all I see is a really uncomfortable looking toilet with a sloping floor on 3 sides. Thank you. :)

  • CharlieBearCharlieBear
    edited September 2023

    @PixiePassions I LOVE the Nintendo 64 and the Genesis. I have been playing games on both recently. My virtual boy is busted for the third time because they have notoriously faulty lenses, but this time I got a mod that will permanently fix that issue, thank goodness 😮‍💨

    @Jova114 i never had the Super Boy but I do have the Sega Nomad (portable Genesis). I have my SNES hooked up and just played through A Link to the past for the 100th time.

    @MegaSnugglez Haha I have AVGN on in the background whenever I am doing anything tedious in games (right now that would be leveling in Diablo IV). I am currently watching his videos on the horrendous Zelda games on the CD-i.

    @lonelytauros My man. I love the shining force series soooo much (2 is my fav) and I am going to play the Sega CD games because I still haven’t. That’s so cool you had some of the Japanese consoles. I heard that Amiga CD32 was not good… I just watched a video on the Jaguar and why it did so poorly. Very interesting and sad to see Atari go out like that. I have not yet gotten to the computer systems though considering the $$$ investment with the consoles and kidding them, I may go the emulation route for them.

  • CharlieBearCharlieBear

    @Mike403 Haha I am going to stick with just the Jaguar. I cannot justify the purchase of the Jaguar CD. The mental gymnastics I already had to do to convince myself to get a Jaguar…

  • Jova114Jova114

    @Charlie_Bear
    A Link to the Past is one of my Top 5 fav games all time!!

  • CharlieBearCharlieBear

    @Jova114 That game is perfection and has aged like fine wine. It really is one of the greatest games ever made across all console generations.

  • DaveFromSussexDaveFromSussex

    I don't remember owning any of these apart from (briefly) the SEGA CD. Think I played the Game Gear as well once or twice. I was fine with the SNES/Megadrive combo.

    I do however remember owning this monstrosity. Not technically a console but still

  • Jova114Jova114

    @Charlie_Bear
    I agree 100%

  • JubalJubal

    I used to have the Sega Genesis with the CD console attachment. Only games that I recall truly enjoying on that were Sewer Shark and Dark Wizard.

  • CSnMUS87CSnMUS87
    edited September 2023

    @Charlie_Bear
    Out of all of the ones you listed, the only one I had was the 32X, of which the only game I owned was Knuckles Chaotix. It was a bit of a pain to get the 32X all set up and working.

    I also had a game gear that I loved to play all the time. (had to get rechargeable batteries for it though)

  • friendlyhuggingfriendlyhugging

    Sega Game Gear handheld device was good. Basically, it was better than Nintendo game boy in graphics. I enjoyed it, but there were not many games and it didn't catch on, so it wasnt something to chat about at school. I had the tv antenna add-on, which gave you access to TV channels to watch on the Game Gear. I thought that was amazing, but in reality the channel reception wasn't great. I had the magnifier as well, which was a bit pointless, the games should be good enough to play on a handheld device without one. After a couple of months I must have picked up a new hobby because I can't remember using it so much.

  • Mike403Mike403

    @friendlyhugging - Don't forget that it also needed six AA batteries and that beast drained them in a few hours.

  • friendlyhuggingfriendlyhugging
    edited September 2023

    @Mike403 I think I had to keep it plugged in to a wall socket, which defeated the portable functionality. It was also too big to fit in your pocket. Sonic the HogHedge and Columns (a tetris ripp off) were good games on it.

  • I_Am_Not_A_CatI_Am_Not_A_Cat

    I had a bunch, but my favorite system was TurboGrafx 16/Turbo Duo. It did extremely well in Japan but poorly in the u.s. When the games were clearanced I bought pretty much any game I could find that was cheap. I remember counting once, I think I have about 120 of the 150 or so games that were released in the u.s.

  • Minestrone101Minestrone101

    @I_Am_Not_A_Cat Bonkers! I know the Japanese version had four player games too. and super dodgeball was underrated !

  • CharlieBearCharlieBear
    edited September 2023

    @DaveTheBrit
    Haha omg I have never even seen that one before.

    @Jubal
    Oh I will have to try those!

    @CSnMUS87
    Sadly my Sega CD will not fit in the shelf I have my consoles in, though thankfully I have a workaround for that and can play them with a cartridge attachment.

    @friendlyhugging
    I modded my Game Gear to have a backlit screen and batteries I can charge via USB-C (photos from my IG; I’m proud of it haha)


    @I_Am_Not_A_Cat
    The TurboGrafx 16 is too big to fit in my console shelf so I play from the CoreGrafx instead 😎

  • lonelytauroslonelytauros

    @Charlie_Bear your game gear looks super awesome! Please message me if you’re selling any of your modded systems!

  • CharlieBearCharlieBear
    edited September 2023

    @lonelytauros
    Haha I don't plan on selling any of them, or at least I hope I am not in a position to need to sell them lol. I am gonna take some nice photos of all of them though like I did that one so I will be happy to share in case it's something you will want to do as well. Most of them have mods available that can modernize them, such as HDMI output, though I am going with RGB mods so I can have some crispy component video output because I play them on my old CRT television. Playing old consoles on an analog display just hits different. I have them all emulated as well, but it just doesn't compare to the original hardware on a CRT.

  • lonelytauroslonelytauros

    @Charlie_Bear alas, it is the answer that I expected since I know you are a purist! Unfortunately, I’ve gone down a different path, the path of emulation lol

  • CharlieBearCharlieBear

    @DaveTheBrit
    The next video I will be watching... :)

  • CharlieBearCharlieBear
    edited September 2023

    Also, any fellow gamers remember this scam contest in all the video game magazines back in the day? I'd love to watch a documentary on this one...

  • PixiePassionsPixiePassions

    @Charlie_Bear - Yay for mod fix!

  • JohnR1972JohnR1972

    @Charlie_Bear
    Growing up we had a first generation (1972) Atari console on our TV so we could play Pong with dial based controls built into the console (in the dark ages before joystick controllers). We eventually upgraded to a newer version Atari that used cartridges and joystick controllers.

    While it wasn’t considered a console, some of my favorite games were played on a Texas Instruments “TI-99 / 4A” home computer that accepted gaming cartridges.

  • CharlieBearCharlieBear

    @PixiePassions
    I am so stoked to get it fixed hahaha. I had jailbroken my Quest 2 headset (but then reverted cause I was scared Meta might ban me) but during that time I had a virtual boy emulator on there and it was light years better than the actual console. When the Quest 3 comes out maybe I'll wipe my Quest 2 and put a different account on there so I can use it for emulation.

    @JohnR1972
    Oh man I had heard of both of those. I am installing an image on a Raspberry Pi 4 that should have that TI-99 on it so I will check out those games!

  • stormydaycuddlestormydaycuddle

    I know it’s not a 90s baby but can we talk about how much the Vita sucked next?

  • Mike403Mike403

    @stormydaycuddle - What was wrong with the Vita? I thought it was a good system.

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