Did you ever buy a console that was a failure?

[Funk, E]

The 3DO has some fantastic games, too. In fact it's got one of the best games of all time on it: Star Control II.

[latenitevacancy]

i think i owned a virtual boy. i remember really wanting one, but i was like 7 or 8 so i dont remember if i ever got it or not hahaha

[RadarScope1]

Let's see, I had a launch racing/battle game called Crash n Burn, which was OK but I recall being really impressed with the graphics and upgrade system. I had the SSF2T, which actually ran really well but totally sucked to play with a 3 button controller. I had Total Eclipse and Off World Interceptor, which mashed up racing with MST3K cut scenes - innovative and cool for the time.

But the hands-down best on the 3DO was fucking Road Rash!! It was so incredible for the time. SO much fun. Star Control 2 was also good, but I didn't own that one, however my friend did years later. That one should be ported to the current DL services.

[Funk, E]

There's already a fantastic freeware port of Star Control 2 out there called 'The Ur-Quan Masters'. Takes all the good of the PC version and all the good of the 3DO and mashes it together.

[GagaMan]

I recently bought a Amiga CD32, which was only on the market for a short while. I guess it only counts if you bought it back when it came out, though.

[ZeroAX]

yeah mate. now you're collecting you know what you are buying. back then you felt cheated and would hit your head in the wall for buying an useless console.

[RadarScope1]

yeah mate. now you're collecting you know what you are buying. back then you felt cheated and would hit your head in the wall for buying an useless console.

Got my 3DO in fall of 94 and felt really good about it until Xmas. That's when the PS1 came out in Japan. The magazines started pumping up the PS and saying how great it was, and that I would come to the US later in 95. I distinctly remember that feeling like all the games for 3DO dried up almost immediately after Xmas of 94. I suppose it was because all the third party devs hopped right onto the PS. And since 3DO had no first party development, that essentially left it dead in the water.

[mobiusclimber]

I don't tend to buy consoles like that. I almost always waited a year or more to see what games it had. I remember my dad being really impressed with what he had heard about the 3DO and we actually did come close to buying it, but we rented it from Blockbuster first (since it was a pretty big investment) and after seeing some of the games on it, we pretty much all came to the conscensus that it wasn't worth it. I'd love to own a 3DO now, but I'm really glad we didn't get stuck w/ one back then. The only other one I came close to getting was a Wonder Swan Color. Anyone remember when those came out? I'm almost positive either the WSC or the regular WS came out in America with a small handful of games and died within a year, but I can't seem to find much info on it (on Wiki anyway).

Oh yeah I also really wanted a TG-16. I think if money wasn't an issue, I would have been really happy with that tho. Failure? Sure. But a great one.

[shallowgamer]

yeah mate. now you're collecting you know what you are buying. back then you felt cheated and would hit your head in the wall for buying an useless console.

I put all my money into a TurboCD and TG-16 (at the bargain basement price of $200), right before they released the TurboDuo. Yes, I should have known that something was brewing when they were clearing out the TurboCDs. Anyway, I wrote a letter to Turbo Technologies, ranting about how I came home with an obsolete machine, etc. etc.; and they actually wrote back, offering me the upgrade card and game bundle at a discount price. Very classy of them.

More recently, I was all about the NeoGeo Pocket Color. I loved showing it off to Gameboy Color owners. They were blown away. That didn't last long.

[MrPopo]

Since I've always been a Nintendo fan I haven't run into this. However, my brother ended up getting a Dreamcast about six months before the release of the PS2. I kept telling him that he should wait the six months, since Sega had a bad history of not supporting its consoles. It's not a big failure like the 3DO was, but my brother still had the feeling of making the wrong choice.