Do you collect for any "failed" systems?

[spacecadet]

I prefer to say "oddball" as opposed to "failed" since consoles like the Dreamcast are technically failures even though it is one the most highly praised consoles of all time and therefore doesn't really fit in with the conversation.

 

Well for me, ultimately I recognize that games and consoles are commercial products and their goal is to make money for their manufacturer. If they don't do that, they're failures. (Some systems, like the GameCube, technically were profitable but left the manufacturer in a weaker position than before their release.)

 

I absolutely love the Dreamcast - it's probably my favorite console of all time. *Creatively*, it was a massive success. But these companies aren't trying to make art, they're trying to make money. As a commercial product, it was definitely a failure.

[+madman]

I don't know that I'd consider the Gamecube a failed system, but that's just IMO. I do have an affinity for failed systems, however. I drooled over Lynx ads as a kid and finally picked one up when they were on closeout with the 4 pack-ins, I've since built a full collection. I imported a Japanese Virtual Boy before the US version was released and have a pretty decent collection, though I will never pay for the ultra rare titles. And I wish I had picked up an extra unit when Best Buy had them stacked on the floor at closeout prices. I bought a 32X for $20 at TRU and have an almost complete collection. Those are the only failed systems I bought back in the day and it wasn't to collect, it was because I had genuine interest in them. These days I also collect for the Vectrex and Jag. I now own a 3DO, but don't "collect" for it, I'm just picking up the games I'll play.

[Schizophretard]

Yeah the definition of "failed" is probably different for different people - I'd consider the Saturn an overall failure, so I don't know if the 4 years of first party support definition works for me.

 

How about this: I'd call a system a failure if it both lost in the market to its competition by any significant amount *and* sold fewer units than its predecessor. If it's the first system a manufacturer ever made, then just take the former criteria. (I know, define "significant amount"... but I'm not talking a difference of a few thousand units, that's obviously not meaningful.)

 

Domestically in the US, that would make the Sega Master System, Saturn and Dreamcast failures, along with the every Atari home system after the 2600, the Intellivision, Coleco Vision, Turbo Grafx 16, N64, GameCube, and Wii U. In handhelds, it would make failures of pretty much anything not made by Nintendo.

 

The ColecoVision didn't lose by any significant amount to its main competition(Atari 5200) and sold more units than its predecessor(Telstar Series). Also, according to this definition, that would make the NES and Wii the only successful home consoles Nintendo has ever sold. That just doesn't feel right to me.

 

When I think of failed console I think of a flop where the console manufacturer's successor to it isn't just about creating a new console to use against the competition but is also about addressing issues with their past flopped console to replace it like the 7800 addressing issues with the 5200, Switch with the Wii U, Dreamcast with the Saturn, etc. or where they move their efforts away from their flopped console to focus more on another like Sony focusing on the PS4 and not the PS Vita or Nintendo focusing more on their Game Boy line instead of the Virtual Boy. Or a console flopping by being discontinued not because it now has a successor but because it under-performed and is getting discontinued earlier than intended. Or a console that became a manufacturer's last console because it didn't perform well enough to keep them in the console business to compete with a successor. In other words, the kind of consoles that are the opposite of being a success by doing more harm than good at keeping a console manufacturer in the console market. Or another way to put it would be that a successful console is one that is putting up a good fight or at least holding its ground in the console war and the failed consoles are the lost battles or ones that lost the war completely.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Lynx (I actually had one bitd and actually kept the games from it after my system broke)

 

2014 was the year of the underdogs for me, when I got into Turbo, 7800, and SMS:

 

7800 (I got into it for the homebrew)

SMS (I don't own the actual console, just a handful of games through a Genesis adapter if that counts)

Turbografx (love this system; even without the CD addon, it's an incredible library between Turbo and PCe)

 

FTR, I don't consider any of the Nintendo systems (except VB) to be failures. Wii-U is misunderstood but has a strong library of first party titles. I do think Wii-U systems and games will be scarce heading into the future though. It's an underdog but not a complete failure.

 

Console I would love to own someday: Vectrex.

[high voltage]

I used to collect for Virtual Boy, that was a great little oddity that failed miserably. I enjoyed it a great deal, I could play that system for hours.

Mind you, selling it made me a shitload of money.

 

pic:

 

Sale price tag, $29.99

 

That Fishing Game was my very first item I purchased on ebay (US) in 1999

 

Also sold my complete (less Tank Command) Atari 7800, which I dearly regret nowadays, but I'm slowly re-collecting for it.

 

 

Completed systems like my Nokia N-Gage, Tiger game.com, Milton Bradley microvision, Magnavox Odyssey I'll keep. N-Gage wasn't a failure though.

Edited November 19, 2016 by high voltage

[spacecadet]

The ColecoVision didn't lose by any significant amount to its main competition(Atari 5200) and sold more units than its predecessor(Telstar Series). Also, according to this definition, that would make the NES and Wii the only successful home consoles Nintendo has ever sold. That just doesn't feel right to me.

ColecoVision was also competing against the Intellivision and Atari 2600, which were all on the market at the same time. Even if you want to argue that the 2600 was too old to be considered direct competition by that point, the Intellivision most certainly was and it outsold the CV by about 1 million units (and that at a time when that represented probably about a 30% difference). You could say the CV was pulling away in late 82-83, but of course we all know what happened next.

 

I actually consider the Intellivision to be a more debatable failure, mostly because I don't really know how it sold vs. the 2600 in 1980-83.

 

That said, it's hard to really call any console that led directly into the crash of 1983 a "success". That's kind of like calling the 1986 Challenger launch a "success" because it cleared the tower before blowing up. I realize that's not really consistent with my own criteria, but 1983 is kind of a special year in gaming history, with its own rules.

[goldenegg]

I have a complete US Virtual Boy collection and sizable Jaguar and Game.Com collections.

 

I own other failed systems too, like the N-Gage and CD-I, but I don't have much of a game library for those.

[StopDrop&Retro]

I used to collect for Watara Supervision. Still have most of my collection, including some boxed units and a preproduction unit that once belonged to a magazine that was testing it out before it came here to the US. I don't collect games for it like I used to. I think one of the big factors in that is while I can reseal a cardboard box, the games come in those plastic blister packs that are destroyed when you get the game out and they don't have cases to put the games back in so you always have loose carts unless you keep the games 100% MIB. I'm the type that prides himself on having a very 'playable collection' so I only have a handful of MIB games, the rest are always ready to play.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I used to collect for Watara Supervision. Still have most of my collection, including some boxed units and a preproduction unit that once belonged to a magazine that was testing it out before it came here to the US. I don't collect games for it like I used to. I think one of the big factors in that is while I can reseal a cardboard box, the games come in those plastic blister packs that are destroyed when you get the game out and they don't have cases to put the games back in so you always have loose carts unless you keep the games 100% MIB. I'm the type that prides himself on having a very 'playable collection' so I only have a handful of MIB games, the rest are always ready to play.

Just like with Amiibos, I chuck the blister packs in the recycle bin when I'm done with them.

[Newsdee]

I have a Virtual Boy that I happened to find in the wild. I always wanted to try it but was worried at the condition, so this was a good way to get it.

 

I also have a Supergrafx, which I always liked and use it for RGB with Hucards (for CD I have a Duo R).

Edited November 20, 2016 by Newsdee

[adamchevy]

I'm thinking about collecting for the Sega CD. Something about Sega makes you think failure. I collect for the Vectrex and Odyssey 2 at the present. The Vectrex is particularly fun to collect for with its tiny library and awesome Homebrew titles. The Vectrex definitely doesn't feel like a failed console.

[Stage_1_Boss]

I'm thinking about collecting for the Sega CD. Something about Sega makes you think failure. I collect for the Vectrex and Odyssey 2 at the present. The Vectrex is particularly fun to collect for with its tiny library and awesome Homebrew titles. The Vectrex definitely doesn't feel like a failed console.

I have a hard time thinking about getting rid of my Sega CD just because of things like Heart of the Alien, which is the only way you can play Another World's "sequel" or Dark Wizard.. which is an awesome tactical RPG.

[Seob]

Guess it also depends where you live if a system was populair or not, and may be considered failed.

Here in the Netherlands, back when the 2600 was on the market, the second biggest system or maybe the bigger system, don't have sales figures but this is based on my own experience, was the Philips Videopac. In other parts in Europe it was hardly sold. On the other hand the Vectrex, Colecovision and Intellivision hardly sold here.

On the computer side the MSX was maybe as big as the C64 here. While i hardly come accross any Atari 400/800 stuff. I have found more Ti 99/4a here then ZX spectrums.

Handheld wise the Supervision sold pretty well here due to it's low price. But also did the Gameboy, the Lynx isn't seen very often here, less then the Sega Game Gear. But the NeoGeo Pocket hardly sold any systems here.

The CD-i is also very often seen here where i live, but i live near Eindhoven where Philips had they're headquaters, so a lot of systems where bought here cheap by employees.

So yes it all depends on where you live if a system was populair or not.

[Asaki]

I don't really collect, but the Sega CD and the Saturn always held a special place in my heart. There's just something about that era, how gaming was just starting to become mainstream, so we'd start to get these really junky games, and a lot of really weird stuff...also a lot of stuff where they tried to fit as much as they could on the disc, so there'd be FMVs, CD audio, etc. I had friends/relatives who owned them, so I'd only get to experience a small taste, and it always left me wanting more. Same with the 3DO, but I don't have one of those yet.

 

I have a Dreamcast because it's one of the most awesome consoles ever with one of the best libraries.

 

I've got a Virtual Boy because why not? And the price was decent.

 

I always forget that the GameCube was a failure, but I've had one of those and a WiiU since not long after they launched. GC had a lot of great games during an era when games were REALLY bad, and they'll all play on the Wii, so I'm happy to grab them when I find them.

 

WiiU is pretty disappointing because I really love the console itself, it has a lot of great features. There's still a lot of games I need to pick up for it, but it's getting more difficult with Nintendo products going "out of stock" so quickly these days.

 

 

 

On a somewhat related note, how about console revisions that were failures? The NES model 2, the Game Boy Micro, and the AGS-101 are pretty highly sought after these days (and yes, I have one of each).

[lazzeri]

I really have a weird tenderness for pre-crash videogames so basically what I do is collect failed systems.

 

I got rid of some (I once had a great, boxed Interton VC4000 that I sold years ago, gotta find me a new one), but that´s still my primary focus. Got a complete USA and French Microvision set (yeah, not a great achievement), and almost complete Brazilian Odyssey2 (believe me, that´s a hard feat to accomplish), RCA Studio II, Channel F and Vectrex commercial sets. I´ve been looking for APF MP-1000 games for a while but sh*t those babies are hard to find.

 

The fact that i´m down here in Brazil makes it even harder. It is pretty much plain impossible to find these "in the wild". I mostly have to use eBay and forums to fill the blanks. But I´ll keep on trying.

Edited November 20, 2016 by lazzeri

[high voltage]

Yeah I sold more than I should've but I guess that's the way it goes.

[+madman]

I'm thinking about collecting for the Sega CD. Something about Sega makes you think failure. I collect for the Vectrex and Odyssey 2 at the present. The Vectrex is particularly fun to collect for with its tiny library and awesome Homebrew titles. The Vectrex definitely doesn't feel like a failed console.

The biggest problem w/Sega CD collecting is those cases. Some enterprising person should contact a plastics company and see if they can't create new longbox cases. In any event it's interesting that in the last few years (or maybe longer) the Sega CD has had a bit of a following as people realize there's more to it than just crappy FMV games. Even as a kid that's all I thought was on the system aside from a few other titles like Sonic CD. There is definitely a lot of fun to be had w/the Sega CD. Unless you have deep pockets you'll probably want to skip the RPGs.

[Austin]

Yeah, the Sega CD has a lot of great stuff to it outside of the FMV games. Of the truly "failed" systems, I'd say that's the best one to look into for good games.

[adamchevy]

I have a hard time thinking about getting rid of my Sega CD just because of things like Heart of the Alien, which is the only way you can play Another World's "sequel" or Dark Wizard.. which is an awesome tactical RPG.

Glad to know that you have so much fondness for the Sega cd. It makes me feel less stupid for wanting to collect for it. Also, I love tactical RPGs. Thanks for the info.

[HoshiChiri]

For me, there's two things that have prompted me to pick up failed systems after the fact- opportunity and curiosity. If someone offers you a pile of free games or a console with games for $20, you take it- even if the system wasn't something you really planned on owning. That's the logic behind my Dreamcast and Sega CD, respectively. Sometimes it's a great way to inadvertently discover some favorite games youd've never tried at full price.

 

For curiosity, I've encountered people here or elsewhere on the internet discussing some system/game(s) I wasn't familiar with, and it simply intrigues me. Nintendo made a stopwatch sized handheld that only plays Pokémon spinoffs? That sounds odd, I'd like to try it. There's a game where you play a ninja playing golf? That sounds fun! Interestingly, my Fairchild is around for both reasons- I saw one in a local shop, went home and looked it up, and immediately made plans to buy it.

 

For most of my 'failed' systems though, it really doesn't factor in- I bought them new, before they were 'failed', because they had games I liked- just like any system I bought new. For example, it's hard for me to think of my Vita as a 'failed' system (even though I suppose it qualifies)- it's a good system! That's why I bought the damn thing in the first place! Just because no one else thought so isn't my fault... *grumblegrumble*

[high voltage]

Maybe I'm gonna get one of those Ouya consoles

[Schizophretard]

Maybe I'm gonna get one of those Ouya consoles

 

I don't think you can log into one without having an old account and it is a brick without logging in.

[lazzeri]

For those who like really obscure and failed platforms: Have you ever heard of Zeebo?

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeebo

 

It might one day be very collectible.

[Schizophretard]

How is the SEGA CD even a console that could have failed? It is a SEGA Genesis add-on like the 32X. So, collecting for it is collecting for the SEGA Genesis which wasn't a failed console.

[Austin]

How is the SEGA CD even a console that could have failed? It is a SEGA Genesis add-on like the 32X. So, collecting for it is collecting for the SEGA Genesis which wasn't a failed console.

 

That's one legitimate way to look at it. That said, I think some tend to classify the Sega CD as its own thing for one reason or another (despite requiring a Genesis to function, unless you have a CDX or X'Eye). I'd guess the CD audio, FMV and added hardware scaling does in many cases make Sega CD games feel fairly different from Genesis ones.