Games that failed because they were ahead of their time.

[J T]

The Power Pad and Power Glove are good examples of prototype technologies that later became popular after some adjustments.

I think the EyeToy for PS2 only scratched the surface of what it should be capable of and the PS3 EyeToy with wand and NATAL will probably pick up the slack. Still, Antigrav is a great game and Kinetic was exergaming before exergaming was cool.

Another game that I think has real possiblities is Lifeline. Konami's Lifeline uses voice recognition software to allow you to control a character through verbal command. Unlike Konami's NES voice activated failure Laser Invasion, Lifeline uses many more verbal commands than "Fire!". In the story, you are trapped in a surveillance room of a space colony hotel. Aliens have invaded and you are trying to find help. There is a waitress named Rio who has an earpiece and can hear what you say into a microphone. You must direct her through the ship and hopefully get her to rescue you. You can tell Rio to walk to locations, examine objects, fire at specific body parts of enemies, etc. Ultimately, the game technology fails due to a limited command vocabulary and some fairly frequent misunderstandings even when you try to restrict yourself to the game's available vocab. However, when you are getting the game to work, there are moments where you really feel like Rio is talking with you. It creates a greater sense of connection between you and a virtual character. If you were to marry Lifeline's voice activation with Scribblenauts degrees of freedom, and Mass Effects in depth voice dialogue trees, then this would be one hell of a game instead of the little known curiosity it is now.

[h8b1llg8ts]

NiGHTS, I can't imagine life without NiGHTS. I know people are going to come along and say Shenmue but Sega would not be around if they didn't not show something besides Sonic. And NiGHTS is it.

Yes, we got a poor sequel with the Wii but all 3D realm games owe a large page from Sega. Even though Mario 64 came out a couple days before in Japan I still love and breath NiGHTS and am running through Christmas NiGHTS just to get into the holiday spirit early.

i just picked up a sealed copy of something like Nights into dreams or something on the saturn that came with a nice 3d controller - is this the one you mean?

That too but to have boss battles where you can roam around and find the best option to beat them was very unique. But also ask any general gamer and they have no idea what NiGHTS might be ...

[Hobie-wan]

Unlike Konami's NES voice activated failure Laser Invasion, Lifeline uses many more verbal commands than "Fire!".

Haha, forgot about that, though it wasn't first either. The old Commodore 64 flight sim Echelon had the "Lip Stick" which worked the same. It was simply a fire button you talked at. See it on the box scan here.

[latenitevacancy]

psychonauts, ico, whatever everyone always talks about how groundbreaking they were haha

[shadobeni]

I don't think you can count the powerglove. I think ppl were receptive to the idea at the time. It failed because it simply did not work at all and was expensive. I know I had one, thought it'd be great to play punchout with. I couldn't beat glass joe with the darn thing.

Power pad on the other hand worked well and it was a blast to play the track and field game with a friend. However, there wasn't enough variety to that game so it was hard to justify buying a peripheral to play only one game.

[Ack]

The Power Pad and Power Glove are good examples of prototype technologies that later became popular after some adjustments.

I think the EyeToy for PS2 only scratched the surface of what it should be capable of and the PS3 EyeToy with wand and NATAL will probably pick up the slack. Still, Antigrav is a great game and Kinetic was exergaming before exergaming was cool.

Another game that I think has real possiblities is Lifeline. Konami's Lifeline uses voice recognition software to allow you to control a character through verbal command. Unlike Konami's NES voice activated failure Laser Invasion, Lifeline uses many more verbal commands than "Fire!". In the story, you are trapped in a surveillance room of a space colony hotel. Aliens have invaded and you are trying to find help. There is a waitress named Rio who has an earpiece and can hear what you say into a microphone. You must direct her through the ship and hopefully get her to rescue you. You can tell Rio to walk to locations, examine objects, fire at specific body parts of enemies, etc. Ultimately, the game technology fails due to a limited command vocabulary and some fairly frequent misunderstandings even when you try to restrict yourself to the game's available vocab. However, when you are getting the game to work, there are moments where you really feel like Rio is talking with you. It creates a greater sense of connection between you and a virtual character. If you were to marry Lifeline's voice activation with Scribblenauts degrees of freedom, and Mass Effects in depth voice dialogue trees, then this would be one hell of a game instead of the little known curiosity it is now.

Truthfully, I've actually been extremely curious of this title. I'm assuming one has to have the microphone to play, however. Is it worth checking out, especially for a survival horror nut like myself?

[J T]

Truthfully, I've actually been extremely curious of this title. I'm assuming one has to have the microphone to play, however. Is it worth checking out, especially for a survival horror nut like myself?

It's worth getting if you find it in a bargain bin. I think I paid around $5 for it. It is largely interesting for the novelty of using your voice to control. It's not as scary as other survival horror games unless you can get into the idea that you are observing everything from a surveillance booth and the girl you are trying to help is your only chance at getting out. Unfortunately, that illusion is frequently broken by the fact that she doesn't understand what you say or you can't think of the correct word that you might use to get her to do what you want. The game ends up being a big test of your patience and your knowledge of synonyms real quick. The horror aspect is just mediocre and others games provide more of a scare, but I like the concept, even if they didn't pull it off all that well.

[Pulsar_t]

I think JT gave me an idea.. Enhanced voice control+eXperiment's visuals+quality VA+a good AI model could potentially make for a decent adventure game.

[the7k]

I think the penultimate example of "Failed because it came to soon" is I, Robot.

To quote the Wikipedia article:

Released by Atari in 1983, I, Robot was the first video game ever to use 3-D polygon graphics, and the first that allowed the player to change camera angles. It also had gameplay that rewarded planning and stealth as much as reflexes and trigger speed, and even offered players the option, instead of playing the primary game, of selecting a sandbox mode called "Doodle City," where they could make artwork by playing around with the polygons. Today, I, Robot is frequently described as a game that was too far ahead of its time; polygon graphics, player-controlled camera angles, and even sandboxes are now commonplace, but in 1983 gamers and operators who were used to much more straightforward fare like Galaga and Pac-Man didn't know what to make of it, and it became one of Atari's biggest arcade flops as a result. Production estimates vary, but all agree that there were never more than 1500 units made at most.

[jfrost]

I think the penultimate example of "Failed because it came to soon" is I, Robot.

Penultimate means next to last.

(Sorry, it's a pet peeve of mine.)