it was Sega’s hail mary, tbh it was a miracle they got it out in the first place considering the financial position of the company. they needed it to do PS2 numbers out the gate and sadly there was a large PS2 shaped behemoth looming over the horizon.
i miss you Sega console maker.
I’ve been meaning to bring up anything about the Dreamcast. Not just the console itself, but some of its games felt like the future of console gaming - you had perfect arcade ports with fun features that made them the definitive ways to play those games, online multiplayer and even an MMO, portable mini games on the VMU, and VGA output, bro.
Truly ahead of its time and we never got to see its full potential.
Not exactly what I’d call cool now that it’s statu quo, but the Zeebo was conceived as an entirely digital console, with no disks or cartridges, in 2009. You’d purchase proprietary currency to download games on it through 3G.
Those mfs saw the future too early, bundled it with 5th-and-a-half-gen hardware, and shipped it. It didn’t work out!
Stop Skeletons From Fighting have done a few videos on the Zeebo (including going through most of its available library on real hardware) and they are a great watch. What a fascinating little failure, Ouya before Ouya.
I’m kind of mad that the Ouya failed and the Amico is a scam run by gaming’s second most prolific liar.
The idea of a low-powered standardized spec console, something easy for independents to develop for and distribute to, it’s something I want real bad. We deserve a console built around the promise of shorter games with worse graphics.
The PlayDate is that concept fully realized IMO. It’s a bit pricey up front but it comes with 24 free games and plenty more you can buy for cheap. Some are even made by notable indie devs like Bennet Foddy (Getting Over It), Lucas Pope (Papers Please), and Subset Games (FTL).
Problem is, I will never forgive the makers of Playdate the handheld for what they did to Playdate the conference over the name.
I don’t care one bit that it’s what I’m looking for, you don’t casually threaten legal action over a name that’s been in use long before your product was envisioned.
Sorry, but this is a particular grudge I’m probably never going to drop.
The Atari Jaguar’s controller and its keypad.
Why? Because of the keypad and the extra buttons with custom layouts.
I wasn’t actually aware of this. That sucks, sorry about that.
I was actually surprised how the Jaguar controller was nowhere near as uncomfortable as how it looked when I played it at CAX. And yes, I could imagine how that keypad would work for some games, especially Doom.
I said it up top.
https://theunderscore.xyz/t/cool-features-of-failed-consoles/285/6
