Console Graveyard...

So the Virtual Boy thread got me thinking about all the different systems that have come out over the years and been buried by history. Some like the Dreamcast are remembered fondly, while others like the Jaguar or N-Gage have been swept under the rug and forgotten. So which major system failures have you had the pleasure of playing and what were your thoughts on it? Let's also try to stick to actual console failures and not turn this into a thread about your hatred of a console that financially and commercially did well but you hated.

Sega Game Gear.

It was big and clunky but technically better than any nintendo handheld at the time! It wasn't heavier than a WiiU tablet controller though so maybe it was just ahead of its time.

Does the Sega Saturn fall into this category? I don't know how it did in Japan but it didn't fare well here in the states at all, and I know Sega had to discontinue it pretty early on in it's console generation and suffered hundreds of millions in losses from it.

I had one though, and it had some very cool games that you couldn't play on anything else at the time. Many of the first RPGs I played were on the Saturn and have seemingly faded into obscurity. Albert Odyssey, Dragon Force, Lunar, Grandia. They were all quite grand. It also had many of the best versions of multi-console games at the time, especially fighting games. One thing the Saturn had over the PlayStation and the N64 was it's ability to flawlessly duplicate Arcade fighting games of the time. Samurai Showdown III/IV, Primal Rage, Mortal Kombat 2/Trilogy, they were all flawless on the Saturn. There were also several anime series (Such as Sailor Moon Super S, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Magic Knight Rayearth) that got video games based on them, but hardly anyone knows they exist because they were only on the Saturn.

Aside of that though, I never really owned any other failed consoles. Everything else I own was continually supported for years to come until a proper successor was released.

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TALKING.

I remember my brother had a SegaCD. He never got too many games for it, I think just Sonic and Area 51. I thought it was soooo cool when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade.

Is it ok to talk about one I haven't played?

I'm with DMKA and bert. Sega's failures seemed to give me the most entertainment before they died. I can't say anything nice about things like 3DO or Jaguar or CDi or anything. But damn did I love me some Snatcher, Sonic CD, Shining Force CD, Dragon Force, Shining Force 3, Albert Odyssey, Panzer Dragoon, etc.

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Originally Posted by Depression Moon

Is it ok to talk about one I haven't played?

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Go for it.

Honestly I don't consider the Sega CD or Saturn to be failures, okay maybe the Saturn... but both systems were actually really popular in Japan and certain regions. I don't really consider the Dreamcast a failure as well as much as a system Sega bet too much money on after years of poor management sent them into third-party oblivion.

The 32X on the other hand... :erm:

I remember playing the Atari Jaguar at my friends house and we would check out Aliens vs Predator and try to figure out why the damn system had so many buttons. I also remember the Atari Lynx as well. I did regret never getting to spend as much time on the TurboGrafx-16 because Air Zonk and Bonk's Adventures always looked pretty cool in the old GamePro issues I read.

The Turbografx didn't have too many standout games I think, but I still have a lot of fun with the system.

I never had a Turbo, sadly, and never saw one in the wild. So from my experience it was probably a failure. But from what I see online, it thrived pretty well and was generally wholly loved. I'm actually playing the old Ys games on my Wii these days, and am super saddened I didn't get to experience the console in its hayday

I had a 32X and enjoyed it, but I can't think of anything stand out about it.. Probably would have been different if any RPG had ever been developed for it. Or if they finished making Symphony of the Night for it

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

Honestly I don't consider the Sega CD or Saturn to be failures, okay maybe the Saturn... but both systems were actually really popular in Japan and certain regions. I don't really consider the Dreamcast a failure as well as much as a system Sega bet too much money on after years of poor management sent them into third-party oblivion.

The 32X on the other hand... :erm:

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I'd consider the Sega CD a failure. Sure, it may have done kind of well in Japan, but not really in the US, and in it's lifetime it only sold around 2.7 million units I believe. It was a CD peripheral launched at the ludicrous price of $299 (making it more expensive than the actual consoles at the time by a wide margin and better CD systems starting releasing within three years of its launch, so news of them would have started hurting it well before that). It was released at a bad time, and if the price is any indicator, probably lost them a lot of money since it never really took off.

The 32X doesn't really need mentioning. That was just bad. But the Saturn, while certainly not a bad console in some ways and something that had some good games, it really had to hurt Sega. They released it at $100 more than the PSX, and they made it a surprise release. They didn't tell anyone it was coming out until it happened, and most of their games weren't even ready for it. It didn't end well for them, especially with some of the retailers who weren't part of the early release. Some dropped the Saturn completely.

Now the Dreamcast I wouldn't say was a failure, largely because it had a great library and sold half as many units as the Gamecube and Xbox in the short time it was around. That's pretty awesome actually. But they weren't really in a position to be crushed by Sony again financially, and their North American marketing kind of dropped the ball immensely.

And speaking of the Turbografx/PC-Engine, it had some smurfing amazing games. My best friend and I spent most of last fall playing a ton of them. Sadly most came out in Japan and not North America. That said, I believe it's surprisingly easy to mod a Turbografx to play import games (but not easy to mod a PC-Engine to play American games oddly).

The 32X and Sega Saturn are the only ones I played personally. I only ever played Doom on the 32X, and I can seldom remember any of the games I played on the Saturn.

Game Gear, if for no other reason than Dragon Crystal. I don't know why I love that game, but I do. The Game Gear was a highly underrated system. The only downside for me was the terrible battery life.

Annnddd, I just saw that Dragon Crystal was released on the 3DS virtual store all the way back in 2012, so now I have to get a 3DS. Great.

I only played Shining Force Gaiden Final Conflict, on a Game Gear emulator. It was awesome. Made me wish I had one when I was a kid.

I think Sword of Hajya was the only one released in the west if I remember correctly. I know Final Conflict never made it out of Japan. I'm not entirely sure if the first Gaiden did or not. I never saw it in stores when I was young. I did have Sword of Hajya though. But those two were excellently redone on Sega CD. Shining Force CD is awesome. I wish they'd have put Final Conflict on it