Lizard
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Post by Lizard on Sept 13, 2022 5:43:18 GMT
As a small child I remember being hyped for the Saturn and Playstation, but I also remember the glut of other companies either trying to get into the market, or desperately clinging on in the face of Sega and Nintendo dominance - the CDI, 3DO, Jaguar, CD32, PC-FX etc.
Even though I was young I could see that most of them were pretty shit, and I remember mocking my friend for wanting a CDI when the rest of us were obviously keen to progress from Megadrive to Saturn. The only thing that ever looked vaguely interesting to me was AvP on the Jaguar.
Did anyone here ever have any of these machines? If I'd had disposable income, I can imagine impulse buying one of them and regretting it shortly afterwards.
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Post by elstoof on Sept 13, 2022 6:15:57 GMT
My cousin had a Virtual Boy which was about as shit as it’s famous for being
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Post by Resident Knievel on Sept 13, 2022 6:18:24 GMT
But the Saturn was a failed console~
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Lizard
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Post by Lizard on Sept 13, 2022 6:33:54 GMT
But the Saturn was a failed console~ I guess, but still in a completely different league. Plus it has a heap of worthwhile games, I'm not sure that can be said of the also-rans... Also amazed to find out the Saturn outsold the N64 in Japan. |
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Post by dfunked on Sept 13, 2022 6:41:13 GMT
I don't know about that. I had a friend who got a PSX at launch and one who got a Saturn. Guess who soon regretted his choice.
It had some banging games, but pretty weak third party support.
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Post by djronz on Sept 13, 2022 6:46:42 GMT
I had a 3do, it was stupidly expensive (about £400) but it was a huge step up from the 16 bit consoles. Need for speed, killing time, fifa and street fighter II were brilliant but there was a lot of weird stuff on it too that wasn't great. I didn't regret buying it, even though it quickly faded out once the PlayStation came about.
Not strictly a console but i did have a mega cd before that, great piece of kit but Sega sadly got caught up in the FMV craze and underutilised the hardware in it.
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Post by LegendaryApe on Sept 13, 2022 6:48:08 GMT
I have fond memories of the Barcode Battler
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Lizard
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Post by Lizard on Sept 13, 2022 6:48:24 GMT
The 3DO was a weird one, I remember thinking the games looked like crap, but it actually came out two years or so before the Saturn and Playstation, so maybe young me was being harsh.
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Post by djronz on Sept 13, 2022 6:56:24 GMT
The 3DO was a weird one, I remember thinking the games looked like crap, but it actually came out two years or so before the Saturn and Playstation, so maybe young me was being harsh. There was some really good stuff on it, but it didn't have the support from 3rd parties and for those brought up on Sega and Nintendo it lacked almost all of the franchises that people knew. But I don't see it in the same light as the CDi or jaguar or cd32 |
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cubby
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Post by cubby on Sept 13, 2022 7:04:35 GMT
The 3DO was also weird with that franchise aspect it had, there was the Panasonic version that was the most popular (I think they may have made 2 versions? ) but I saw a couple of other ones were available and found that really confusing.
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darkling
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Post by darkling on Sept 13, 2022 7:08:19 GMT
I sure was jealous of my nextdoor neighbour's Atari Lynx at the time, but he must have spent as much on batteries as games.
Was the Atari Lynx a failed console? All in all, it probably was.
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Post by drhickman1983 on Sept 13, 2022 7:16:00 GMT
I never had one, but the story of the 3DO Doom port is quite something. Here's an interview with the dev who got brought in to try and make it work. nodontdie.com/rebecca-heineman(Doom stuff is later in the interview). Basically the guy who bought the rights to Doom had no idea about game development. He got friends to draw mockups in Photoshop and thought it would be easy to just insert the image into the game to make a new gun. And had no idea about costs or lead times. |
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Post by clemfandango on Sept 13, 2022 7:23:05 GMT
I had an Atari lynx and yes it cost a fortune in batteries. Had some good games and graphics for the time though.
I also bought the 32x which I loved as it gave me Star Wars arcade and arcade perfect versions of outrun, after burner and space harrier. Plus I thought the doom port was great at the time. Didn’t have much else though
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Post by Vandelay on Sept 13, 2022 7:28:51 GMT
For those interested in this sort of thing, I can very much recommend the Twitch channel Retro Pals. A fun couple that take a look at all sorts of retro games, including stuff from these and other obscurer consoles. They have definitely done streams playing through the complete catalogue of Jaguar games. They also regularly used to do a Multimedia Monday stream, which often featured the CD-I and the bizarre things that came out on that.
I would have been gaming on my Amiga at the point of these consoles, before transitioning to PC for the rest of my childhood/teens, so they all passed me by. Can't say it seems like I missed out on much, although the history behind these machines is really interesting.
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Post by Trowel 🏴 on Sept 13, 2022 7:52:31 GMT
Hanging out in Dixons on a Saturday afternoon was the thing to do, not just for catching the football full times on the Grandstand vidiprinter (or on Ceefax if you could find a remote), but also for messing about on whatever consoles and computers they currently had set up to demo. This I'm pretty sure is the only way 99% of Amstrad GX4000 consoles were ever played, and we all played Burnin' Rubber (which to be fair was a pretty good adaptation of WEC Le Mans).
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Lizard
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Post by Lizard on Sept 13, 2022 8:01:44 GMT
I had a Game Gear which I guess failed. Alien 3, Fantasy Zone (hard), Desert Strike, Columns and Sonic 2 (fuck the first boss).
Eventually sold it to pay for a Gameboy. Always wanted the TV tuner. And it absolutely smashed batteries.
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Post by One_Vurfed_Gwrx on Sept 13, 2022 8:05:17 GMT
The only one of those I bought as a new console was the CD32, having just got my first job and feeling flush I grabbed it on day 1. It had some interesting stuff on it like a decent version of Wing Commander and stuff like Labyrinth of Time and Liberation, but a lot of stuff was Amiga ports with an FMV intro...
I got a 3DO years after its death as it had a lot of cheap decent stuff on it. I never personally bothered with a Jaguar but my wife bought one as a youngster as ger first console purchase (possibly after it dropping to about £50) for link up Doom with her brother.
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KD
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Post by KD on Sept 13, 2022 8:08:12 GMT
Rumbelows outside my school always had the unusual consoles in store and ready to try, 3DO, Atari Jaguar and Phillips CDI come to mind.
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Post by Dougs on Sept 13, 2022 8:08:39 GMT
I had. Sega Master System. Despite it being more successful than the NES, I do feel a bit cheated. It was worth it for Out Run alone though.
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dmukgr
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Post by dmukgr on Sept 13, 2022 8:15:02 GMT
I too went the Master System -> Mega Drive route and only discovered Mario as an adult.
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dmukgr
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Post by dmukgr on Sept 13, 2022 8:15:58 GMT
As for failed consoles, I worked on creating the Dreamcast and wish it had been far more successful and made me rich.
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Post by retro74 on Sept 13, 2022 8:19:36 GMT
Master System Wonderboy was awesome, worth it for that. The later one (Wonderboy III?) where you changed into the different animals was amazing
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Lizard
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Post by Lizard on Sept 13, 2022 8:23:27 GMT
Rumbelows outside my school always had the unusual consoles in store and ready to try, 3DO, Atari Jaguar and Phillips CDI come to mind. Rumbelows, that's a blast from the past. Radio Rentals and Tandy too. I never saw any of these consoles for play in shops, maybe because I grew up in a smallish town. |
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dmukgr
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Post by dmukgr on Sept 13, 2022 8:28:35 GMT
I had to get the bus most Saturday mornings, into town, just so I could do the 10 print... 20 goto nonsense in WHSmiths.
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Post by retro74 on Sept 13, 2022 8:29:04 GMT
I remember seeing the CD32 in Sheffield Virgin Megastore when I was a uni student there. I still had a Megadrive and SNES so didn’t buy any of the wacky new consoles
Went from MD/SNES to PlayStation
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Post by simple on Sept 13, 2022 8:59:32 GMT
One of my mates had a Lynx. It was pretty cool but a bit clunky to get around compared to Game Boy.
I really wanted a Jaguar just because AVP looked like the best game ever at the time when I saw it in GamesMaster Magazine
My parents were more astute and bought a PlayStation the first Christmas it was out as they thought it would keep us going for years to come.I still have it and its still great.
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Psiloc
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Post by Psiloc on Sept 13, 2022 9:13:33 GMT
I remember that my first encounter with the Jaguar was seeing piles and piles of them on sale on the floor in Game in my local shopping centre. I'm certain it was under £50.
Ironically they're worth £350 - £400 now.
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KD
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Post by KD on Sept 13, 2022 9:24:55 GMT
A small used games stall in the market near me had a pile of Mega CD's going for tenner each sometime around 2002, wish I bought the pile. Lizard My store was in a small town but only 100yds from my school so guess they wanted to tempt us all into buying them as they let us in on break time to try them. |
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Post by clemfandango on Sept 13, 2022 9:43:03 GMT
I had. Sega Master System. Despite it being more successful than the NES, I do feel a bit cheated. It was worth it for Out Run alone though. To be fair the Master System was loads better than the NES when you take away Mario and Zelda. Also the graphics were a lot better too. It got a lot trickier with the Megadrive and SNES (so I had both) |
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Post by UltraPyper777 on Sept 13, 2022 9:46:19 GMT
On my weekly trips to Comet I saw the CD32/Jaguar and didn't think much of them, I owned a Mega Drive/Amiga at the time. I switched to PlayStation rather than Saturn as it had MK3 and Ridge Racer looked better than Daytona.
In 2000 I bought consoles I never had super cheap (Saturn/Jaguar/Lynx/VirtualBoy/NES/2600).
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