Question about the next-gen consoles of the 90s...

[M-A-G]

No, no, I don't mean the next-gen consoles like the original Playstation, Sega Saturn, or Nintendo 64. I'm talking about the "supposed" next-gen consoles that first dared to threaten the 16-bit machines. I'm talking about the 3DO, the Philips CD-i, the Atari Jaguar, and, fuck it, I'll throw in the Neo-Geo, too. In retrospect, it seems easy to discard them as failures. None of them really made that much penetration in the market. It seemed like a bad idea to pick one up when the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis were the way to go. It wasn't like we were made of money. For the most part, you had to pick one console and stick with it.

However, that leads me to my question. Forgetting everything you know now about the ultimate fate of these machines and only going by what you saw back then and what you thought of them at the time, if you had the means, did any of these pique your interest enough that you would have purchased at least one of them, if not all? Remember, money isn't an issue in this scenario. Just imagine yourself as that rich motherfucker in your school that always had the latest shit. Let's hear what you think...

[Lock Jaw]

Originally Posted by M-A-G only going by what you saw back then and what you thought of them at the time

Didn't see or know anything of them at the time.

[M-A-G]

The only one I ever really saw advertised on TV was the CD-i. Hell, they had an infomercial about it. The other ones I would only see in print ads in comics and magazines. I have to admit, the informercial made it seem like the best thing ever.

[Fignuts]

Neo Geo for sure.

[ClockShot]

Neo Geo could have hung around if they did it right.

[Destor]

The Turbo Grafx 16 (aka the PC Engine) and the Neo Geo are the only consoles from that oeuvre that had good games. Didnt catch on in the states but the PC Engine was a big hit in Japan. Bigger than the Sega. It had a real shot at having staying power but its follow up console flopped big and that was that.

The issue with the others is the same thing thats plagued the xbox the last 7 years or so. There's nothing to play on them. Youve gotta have software.

[Emperor Smeat]

Only knew about those consoles in retrospect and not during their times.

The lack of quality and "killer app" type games hurt those consoles baring the NEO GEO from achieving greater success while the NEO GEO was doomed because it was just way too expensive to buy one and its games.

Until 1998/1999, the only non-Nintendo console I knew of was the Sega Genesis and only because of one of my cousins owned it and another cousin or friend of a cousin who also owned one during a trip to the Azores.

[M-A-G]

If nothing else, a Neo Geo would have been great if only because you could use the cartridges to fend off bullies and stray dogs chasing you.

[Emperor Smeat]

Trying to think where a Neo Geo would have been in my house had I gotten it back in the day.

For almost all of my childhood, I lived in smallish apartment buildings and shared my room with the rest of my brother and sisters.

Living room would probably be out of the question since while the old family tv looked somewhat similar to the photo below, the top would have had the cable box, vhs player and whatever knick-knacks my mom had at the time. Before getting the VHS player, my NES would have been right next to the cable box.



My room had one of those small black CRT TVs that would have been on top of a small tv stand that had enough room for a NES or N64 and controllers in the middle row and a small drawer for its bottom row that could hold a few things. I did have one of those old small while colored plastic coating metal portable racks but that was much later that probably could hold maybe 1-2 controllers and 4 games at max or just 1 controller and a game with whatever else I'd have on it.

[M-A-G]

OMG, that TV brings back memories. The main one our family had was even wider than that sucker because it had the speaker on one side and the control panel on the other. That thing lasted almost 3 decades before finally biting the dust. Hooking anything up to it was a chore.

[Emperor Smeat]

The old family tv didn't have that drawer underneath and had a large speaker right underneath the control section but other than that, it pretty much looked the same.

Might have even been a RCA brand tv as well.

That thing was a pain in the ass to move out of the old apartment and into the new house several years later. Wasn't until around 2010-12 that my parents finally got rid of it. They already had a flat screen LCD tv by then and the old tv was just used an extra stand to put stuff on top of it.

[M-A-G]

Holy shit, I think this is the model I was talking about.

[Sepholio]

I always thought the Turbo Grafx-16 seemed awesome.

Neo Geo too but the damn games were the price of a console. Like 2-300 bucks per game. I know you said money is no object but screw that. Never. I'll just play the one on display at the Sams Club.

Remember seeing stuff about 3DO as well at the time, and it seemed neat, but it was overshadowed by others pretty quickly.

Does the Sega 32X expansion count? Or Sega CD? What about the lolVirtual Boy?

[Sepholio]

Not on topic, but speaking of old video game systems, I have an ancient Pong stand alone console somewhere. Like one of the original ones. It's been a long time since it got pulled out but it still worked the last time around. Also have an old Atari 2600 with OG Pitfall that was still working last time we tried it.

[M-A-G]

Originally Posted by Sepholio I always thought the Turbo Grafx-16 seemed awesome. Neo Geo too but the damn games were the price of a console. Like 2-300 bucks per game. I know you said money is no object but screw that. Never. I'll just play the one on display at the Sams Club. Remember seeing stuff about 3DO as well at the time, and it seemed neat, but it was overshadowed by others pretty quickly. Does the Sega 32X expansion count? Or Sega CD? What about the lolVirtual Boy?

I'm not really counting the peripherals because they were just add-ons as opposed to a completely separate console. If you wanted one, I suppose there's no harm in including them. The Virtual Boy, though? I guess it sort of counts, but it was released so many years after these other ones that I don't really put them in the same bunch.

[M-A-G]

OK, my mom fixed my memory because she corrected me by pointing out our TV was a Magnavox, not a Zenith. And looking at it now, I have more clarity. I think I was confusing it with one that my cousins had. Either way, isn't it a lovely piece of hardware?

[Kalyx triaD]

I remember wanting a Neo Geo and Saturn because they were the only consoles that had near perfect arcade ports of fighting games (1:1 in the case of Neo-Geo). It wasn't super serious, I didn't hassle my mom over it but that was my only reasoning then.

CDi seemed really dumb to me. 3DO, no interest. Grafix or whatever no interest. I wanted to play AvP more than I wanted the Jaguar if that makes any sense. If I don't see a killer app or any kind of 'point' it didn't do it for me, even when I was young.

[M-A-G]

Yeah, don't ask me why, but I was fucking mesmerized by this son of a bitch....

[M-A-G]

Originally Posted by Destor The Turbo Grafx 16 (aka the PC Engine) and the Neo Geo are the only consoles from that oeuvre that had good games. Didnt catch on in the states but the PC Engine was a big hit in Japan. Bigger than the Sega. It had a real shot at having staying power but its follow up console flopped big and that was that. The issue with the others is the same thing thats plagued the xbox the last 7 years or so. There's nothing to play on them. Youve gotta have software.

The Turbo Grafx 16 really should've been a bigger player in that era. Stuff like Splatterhouse and Bonk were good shit. Plus the games coming on cards was pretty neat. No bulky cartridges to take up room.

[Frank Drebin]

I thought the 3DO had a great thing at the time where each controller had a port that you could plug another controller into and chain on after the other. Everything had the ability to be a 4 or even 8 player game but you'd need special adapters in order to do it. Seemed like a major hurdle at the time. The idea that you wouldn't even have to buy more controllers and your friends could potentially bring over theirs was a sweet idea

[Frank Drebin]

I knew one kid that had a Jaguar and it was....huge and not that good from what I remember. Whatever flagship game it came with had something to do with a ship that could change shape or something I think. In any case, it didn't last long.

TG 16 should have been bigger for what was already said here. Own array of games and good ones too.

I remember playing CDI once in a store (The Incredible Universe for those of you from South Florida) and thought the laser discs or whatever it used was sweet. Never knew anyone that had it though.

The Neo Geo was almost like an urban legend where you were always told that it was like having arcade level games at home but because it cost like $1 million bazillion no one had it. I still to this day don't know what one looks like so I guess I'll have to check it out now after all this time.

[M-A-G]

Originally Posted by Frank Drebin I knew one kid that had a Jaguar and it was....huge and not that good from what I remember. Whatever flagship game it came with had something to do with a ship that could change shape or something I think. In any case, it didn't last long. TG 16 should have been bigger for what was already said here. Own array of games and good ones too. I remember playing CDI once in a store (The Incredible Universe for those of you from South Florida) and thought the laser discs or whatever it used was sweet. Never knew anyone that had it though. The Neo Geo was almost like an urban legend where you were always told that it was like having arcade level games at home but because it cost like $1 million bazillion no one had it. I still to this day don't know what one looks like so I guess I'll have to check it out now after all this time.

That Jaguar game you're speaking of is probably either Cybermorph or its follow-up, Battlemorph. I still have magazines from that era where even then people were writing in to complain about having buyer's remorse from the console. The consensus seemed to be that Tempest 2000 was the best thing the Jaguar had to offer, but something like that could be done on the 16-bit consoles and it wasn't enough. It had a great port of Doom, but I was playing that on the PC already.

The CD-i is one of the few consoles that I haven't seen in person, but you brought up the 3DO's quirk with the controllers, and even though it's kind of weird, it's infinitely preferrable to the CD-i putting the second controller port IN THE FUCKING BACK! Who does that?

The Neo-Geo seems like it was the way to go and would've been worth the money...if any of us had some at the time. Fatal Fury was pretty good whenever I managed to give it a whirl on an arcade machine.

[Tom Guycott]

Because I was super into this shit, I remember them all. However, the only ones that seemed like they really had any sort of shot were the TurboGrafix-16 and the Neo Geo.

The main issue with them both at the time, however, were price. ESPECIALLY the Neo Geo. I mean, I understood WHY with the whole "you can continue an arcade session at home using this card slot" and basically being 1-1 with their arcade stuff at home (Sorry, Dreamcast, NEC kinda beat you to that), but even with 199X money, a $600 console wasn't cutting the budget.

TG-16 was more budget friendly, but it didn't have any real "killer apps" outisde of Keith Courage - which was just a superior looking platformer that was a dime a dozen elsewhere, the Bonk series, which got ported elsewhere, and Newtopia, the supposed "Zelda killer" that was basically a Zelda 1 reskin.

Biggest problem with all of them is that everyone seemed to be trying to out-gimmick Nintendo and Sega, while those two just kept pumping out games. Some were certified classics, others were shovelware shit, but most were middling yet enjoyable with some sort of appeal somewhere. All the new boys were either all "LOOK HOW THIS LOOKS!!!" with mostly wonky, forgettable games or "we are sooo beyond a gaming system" like CD-i with it's Brittanica and road atlas stuff.

[M-A-G]

The Jaguar ads were so try hard. The whole "Do the Math" campaign is especially hilarious in retrospect when know what exactly was happening under the hood. You had much better games on the 16-bit titles and they didn't look all that different from what the Jaguar was doing.

There was one huge pull out ad for the 3DO that I'll try to track down that did a pretty good sell job. It had a ton of titles pictured that looked interesting at the time and there were a bunch of verbal blowjobs from various magazines. It was even called the product of the year or some shit. I absolutely would've been a sucker and plunked down the cash if I had it...then my dad would've smacked the shit out of me for being an idiot.