consoles with tiny libraries

[NE146]

Simply build a large controller to compensate if your console has a small library. Easy!

[S1500]

There was a point when I stopped scrolling through loose 5200 cartridges, since the library of games seemed just microscopic. Most likely I already had the game.

[spacecadet]

Those who vote for "depends" thus consider the signal/noise ratio in the library or whether it has "usable" titles to determine what is a tiny library instead of going by absolute numbers, which itself is a positive thing if one is into video games in order to play them, not just put them on a shelf.

 

I don't disagree but I didn't choose that option in part because I actually don't think most consoles with a large enough library have appreciable differences in the quality of those libraries. I think you get more variation with very small libraries because of the very small sample size, in the same way two baseball players might be hitting .200 and .800, respectively, after just 10 at bats, but both are probably going to hit around .270 after 500 at bats.

 

So I think systems with larger libraries pretty much always have a larger total number of good games vs. systems with small, but supposedly higher quality libraries. I'd always rather have the larger library. (This is especially true because a lot of games considered "bad" really aren't, they're just not games that appeal to a broad swath of people. But some of them might be hidden gems to any given person, and you'd miss out on those with a smaller library.)

Edited August 29, 2018 by spacecadet

[Flojomojo]

Maybe another way to look at it would be number of developers, instead of number of games? A huge swath of the Odyssey 2 library was programmed by one guy. There were dozens of companies developing for the Atari 2600. What a difference!

[high voltage]

I went with 51-100. I've always felt like the Atari 8-bit cartridge games were pretty tiny. !

 

Atari 8-bit 'FAQ for cartridges list' shows approx. 500 cartridges

Edited August 29, 2018 by high voltage

[CatPix]

Depends of the era, me thinks.

 

Of course, some libraries that count less than 10 games will be tiny now and then, but, for example, the Videopac with a library of 64 games is, for it's era, a quite decent library; compared to the 28 games of the Astrocade, 113 for Intellivision, about 45 games for the Arcadia 2001, about 40 for the AVPS/Interton VC4000, 130 games for the Colecovision and 69 games for the Atari 5200.

Clearly, those figures shows that the Videopac/Odyssey2 did decently, even if it's not an amazing list.

 

If we compare those figures with consoles of the 90's, then the Jaguar with 50 games, despite being not much lower, is simply ridiculed even by the other outsider of that generation, the 3DO, that have 286 games released.

I mean hell, even the Watara Supervision has more games!

 

Of course, it's not only about generations, as some systems will always stand out, such as the Atari 2600, the Game Boy, or the PS2, consoles that were so popular that they get out of charts.

 

Or on the other hand, the more rare case of local or "exclusive" systems, such as the GX4000 or the Neo Geo, which are hardly comparable with other systems because they weren't sold on the same scale in two coutries for the GX4000; games that cost the price of a Super Nintendo for the Neo Geo).

A system like the MB Microvision was, at the time, so different and innovative in concept that again, even if the library is small, I don't think it's an argument to judge the system.

Or The Vectrex that happened to be released in the wrong time. Small library due to external events.

Quality can make up for a small library, but that is more a personnal taste, and appreciation.

Some people will never get into the Game Boy massive library due to the crude nature of the graphics.

Edited August 29, 2018 by CatPix

[masschamber]

Depends of the era, me thinks.

 

Of course, some libraries that count less than 10 games will be tiny now and then, but, for example, the Videopac with a library of 64 games is, for it's era, a quite decent library; compared to the 28 games of the Astrocade, 113 for Intellivision, about 45 games for the Arcadia 2001, about 40 for the AVPS/Interton VC4000, 130 games for the Colecovision and 69 games for the Atari 5200.

Clearly, those figures shows that the Videopac/Odyssey2 did decently, even if it's not an amazing list.

 

If we compare those figures with consoles of the 90's, then the Jaguar with 50 games, despite being not much lower, is simply ridiculed even by the other outsider of that generation, the 3DO, that have 286 games released.

I mean hell, even the Watara Supervision has more games!

 

Of course, it's not only about generations, as some systems will always stand out, such as the Atari 2600, the Game Boy, or the PS2, consoles that were so popular that they get out of charts.

 

Or on the other hand, the more rare case of local or "exclusive" systems, such as the GX4000 or the Neo Geo, which are hardly comparable with other systems because they weren't sold on the same scale in two coutries for the GX4000; games that cost the price of a Super Nintendo for the Neo Geo).

A system like the MB Microvision was, at the time, so different and innovative in concept that again, even if the library is small, I don't think it's an argument to judge the system.

Or The Vectrex that happened to be released in the wrong time. Small library due to external events.

Quality can make up for a small library, but that is more a personnal taste, and appreciation.

Some people will never get into the Game Boy massive library due to the crude nature of the graphics.

That's why I offered the it depends option

basically a system has to hit a stride, I mean the 2600 only had 9 games the first year, what 13 the second and like 10 the third right? 18 Even as late as 81 there were less than 100 games on the 2600 (if I'm not mistaken), funnily enough 82 was really the 2600's breakout year with more games released than the first 5 combined (not count sears variants) despite being 5 years old at the time.

[CatPix]

I think then, your choices might have been like in a percentage of the average of other systems of the era... even if that's much harder to put in and might require a whole post of explanation

We can agree tho that less than 10 games is tiny for any era.

[masschamber]

I think then, your choices might have been like in a percentage of the average of other systems of the era... even if that's much harder to put in and might require a whole post of explanation

We can agree tho that less than 10 games is tiny for any era.

Under 10 is definitely tiny no matter the era,

[BassGuitari]

When I think of "small libraries," I think of game systems like the Channel F, Studio II, APF M/P1000, and Arcadia 2001. Couple dozen titles max.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

also the atari 800 library has hundreds of carts, like over 200

Atari 8-bit 'FAQ for cartridges list' shows approx. 500 cartridges

Apologies, I was going by what I remembered from the last time I looked at http://www.pitfalljones.com/0800-med.htm. I guess there's actually like 200 and some games, but it always seemed like a tiny library since Atari computer games are pretty much non-existent in North American used game stores. I've never seen a single one in all the years I've been collecting retro games. Weirdly I do see complete in box TI-99/4A games around here every now and then though.

Edited August 29, 2018 by Jin

[pacman000]

I've seen a few XEGS carts in stores, mixed in with the stores' assorted 2600, 7800, INTV, & Coleco carts. >_<

[Video]

How about kid consoles. Vtech and the like. I imagine those are all small libraries.

[Lost Dragon]

I've personally never considered the Jaguar library to be small, it just lacks exclusives to the system and had large number of titles annouced that never appeared, but then again so did the 7800 and Lynx...

 

You got used to that as an Atari owner.

 

The Commodore C64GS is another oddity.

 

28 Games released of which only 9 were cartridge exclusives to the system.

 

Ages ago i complied a list of annouced, but unreleased titles for the system, for GTW, it gives the Atari systems a run for their money in terms of ratio of released titles over annouced:

 

Moonwalker Arcade (US Gold)

Turbocharge (System 3)

Putty (System 3)

Battlechess (Mindscape)

Ultima VI (Mindscape)

Crime Does Not Pay (Titus)

Wild Streets (Titus)

Greatest Hits (Thalamus)

Space Rogue (Origin)

Buggy Ranger (Dinamic)

Plotting (Ocean)

Addams Family (Ocean)

Puzznic (Ocean)

Hard Drivin’ (Domark)

Venus Flytrap (Gremlin)

Wrath of the Demon (Readysoft)

Armalyte 2 (Thalamus)

Hook (Ocean)

Barbarian 3 (Palace)

Golden Axe (Virgin)

Racing Game construction kit (US Gold) – Using Turbo Outrun engine

Kick Off 2 (Anco)

Gazza 2 (Active Minds) – Confirmed nothing started

Turrican 2 (Rainbow Arts)

X-Out (Rainbow Arts)

Spy Who Loved Me (Domark)

The Games – Winter/Summer edition (Epyx) – Confirmed nothing started

California Games (Epyx)

Subbuteo (Electronic Zoo)

Orcus (Electronic Zoo)

Prohibition (Infogrames)

Bubble Ghost (Infogrames)

Rick Dangerous 2 (Microprose)

Starglider 2 (Microprose)

Bloodwych (Mirrorsoft)

Falcon (Mirrorsoft)

IK Deluxe (System 3)

Vendetta (System 3)

Last Ninja 3 (System 3)

Battlestorm (Titus)

Crazy Bikes (Titus)

Crazy Cars 2 (Titus)

Dick Tracy (Titus) … thank god that didn’t make it…

Fire and Forget 2 (Titus)

Wild Streets (Titus)

Armalyte + Sanxion double pack (Thalamus)

Hawkeye + Quedex double pack (Thalamus)

Delta + Hunters Moon double pack (Thalamus)

Creatures + Summer Camp double pack (Thalamus)

Snare, Retrograde and Heat Seaker triple pack (Thalamus)

Pro Tennis Tour 2 (Ubi-Soft)

B.A.T (Ubi-Soft)

[carlsson]

The Hyperscan looks like a strong contender for worst console ever. At least the RCA Studio II is an interesting museum piece. It's kind of cool from a historical and collecting standpoint. The Hyperscan has nothing going for it.

 

Also the Studio II was designed in an era when video games were virtually unknown, got delayed due to management changes at RCA and probably released at last instead of scrapping years of work. Had it been released ~2 years earlier, it wouldn't have been any better but also nothing already on the market that was better. The HyperScan being so late on the market had decades of video games to look back at, if it was their desire to copy or be inspired by what anyone else already had made working.

[masschamber]

How about kid consoles. Vtech and the like. I imagine those are all small libraries.

that's a good question,

the ljn video art had like 10 game, so did the vtech socrates, the pico had like 20 (far more in Japan), leapster stuff and vsmile both seem to be around 40

I'm sure there are more

[carlsson]

The View-Master Interactive Vision (one of those VCR based systems) is listed with 7 titles on Wikipedia. The partially related Action Max has 5 known games, perhaps it was mentioned before. There were other VCR/VHS/CD/DVD based consoles The Nuon had 4 movies and 8 games.

 

The Playdia had a whopping 11+16+6+6 = 39 titles, so it defintely doesn't qualify as the tiniest. The Casio Loopy is listed with 10 games.

[CatPix]

Apologies, I was going by what I remembered from the last time I looked at http://www.pitfalljones.com/0800-med.htm. I guess there's actually like 200 and some games, but it always seemed like a tiny library since Atari computer games are pretty much non-existent in North American used game stores. I've never seen a single one in all the years I've been collecting retro games. Weirdly I do see complete in box TI-99/4A games around here every now and then though.

Plus, you only count the carts, which has no reason to be that. What about the thousand of games on floppies and tapes?

The ZX Spectrum count over 10 000 games. Sure, 9 000 of them are probably utter garbage, but still...

[masschamber]

 

Also the Studio II was designed in an era when video games were virtually unknown, got delayed due to management changes at RCA and probably released at last instead of scrapping years of work. Had it been released ~2 years earlier, it wouldn't have been any better but also nothing already on the market that was better. The HyperScan being so late on the market had decades of video games to look back at, if it was their desire to copy or be inspired by what anyone else already had made working.

yeah the studio ii's early release does warrant it some credit, definitely one of the worst consoles ever, but deserves credit for being so very early and if it had be a 74-75 release it would have been impressive.

 

but in contenders for worst and should have known better is Koei Pasogo, 4 games, all varients of go/challenges for go, I guess they were trying to fill a very high end niche (it was the equivalent of 300 or 400 USD at release in 96) that wanted to practice go, but still it was a terrible idea

[+Black_Tiger]

31 - 50 is plenty. Especially when there are enough enjoyable games.

 

The SuperGrafx library feels small, but the stand out games make it memorable. The 32X library may be a decent size, but I only care about a handful of games. 5200 feels great and fully fleshed out before considering homebrew.

[carlsson]

Speaking of the ZX Spectrum, it reminds me it got a library of exactly 10 games on cartridge, all very expensive to obtain plus that you need an Interface 2 to plug them in at all. So yes, while World of Spectrum has a little over 10000 games plus 2000 text adventures, if you would only count cartridges it got a fairly small library of 10 games.

 

Unless previously mentioned, the Bandai Super Vision 8000 had a library of 7 games. I found 6 games for Nichibutsu My Vision and another 6 games for Gakken Compact Vision TV Boy. The BBC Bridge Companion was cartridge based with 9 games, though all of them obviously play Bridge.

 

It appears the laserdisc based RDI Halycon only had 2 games before the system was abandoned: NFL Football: Chargers vs Raiders and Thayer's Quest. Another 4 games were planned for which there are screenshots/video clips but I don't know if the entire games are available in some form.

 

Perhaps we should compile a list by now.

Edited August 30, 2018 by carlsson

[Nebulon]

I'd say less than 20.

 

Back in the early days it wasn't totally awful for a console to only have around 30 games.

 

It wasn't until years later when the Atari 2600 had time to build up a collection (and when the NES showed up) that people started expecting consoles to have ginormous libraries.

[carlsson]

We could play a game: Pick your favorite console and compose a small library of what you think are the essential games. A bit like if you would make your own Flashback/Mini device and got to pick the library all by yourself. How small library can you reduce your selection to without making too many sacrifices, can you get down to 10 games? 8 games? 6 games?

[jhd]

The overall size of the library is definitely important, but so too is the breadth.

 

There are some systems that I would never consider purchasing simply because the genres of games that I like are entirely absent.

 

I would be very happy to buy a (hypothetical) console that had only 20 or 30 titles if all of them were RPGs and strategy games; if that same console had only fighting games or sports games, I would not look at it twice.

[CatPix]

Speaking of the ZX Spectrum, it reminds me it got a library of exactly 10 games on cartridge, all very expensive to obtain plus that you need an Interface 2 to plug them in at all. So yes, while World of Spectrum has a little over 10000 games plus 2000 text adventures, if you would only count cartridges it got a fairly small library of 10 games.

Which IMO is unfair, since the thread says "library" and doesn't specify the media.

Plus that mean if would eliminate the odd consoles with small libraries like that came on VHS (not the Action Max, one that actually had data on VHS in addition to video).

It would also remove tapes from early consoles, and it would be unfair for the Atari 2600 to remove the Supercharger games from the list because they are on tapes.

Or to amputate the Famicom from it's floppy library.

Also, wouldn't that remove CD consoles too?