What was the worst system ever made?

[jman965]

On 5/2/2022 at 8:16 AM, CatPix said:

E5Frog showed it could do things right. I'm not sure the Channel F deserves to be called the worst, as it was the first. Early Atari games were barely better, and it's mostly only a lucky accident that the Atari TIA conception allowed for more graphic freedom than on the Channel F and the Videopac.

Also the Channel F worked with half of the Atari  RAM as well. In fact, it's quite impressive what they managed to make games for it, period.

The worst home console of the second gen has to be the RCA Studio II. Released later than the 2600, yet, games that were barely more impressive that PC -50X pong games, black and white, abysmal control scheme... it takes the cake. Even the 1292 APVS is better, as it had better graphics, real controllers (even if clunky ones ) and way more games.

I second the Studio II nomination. My grandpa actually worked for RCA and had a Studio II at his house (as well as a 2600), so I had plenty of experience with both when I was little. Studio II was terrible. No joysticks - just the numeric keypads built into the console. Black and white only. The sound is just beeps. Maybe ten games in the library, but you only needed one because they all looked the same with their crappy graphics.

 

Even at 5 years old, I was more interested in playing grandpa's copy of Bridge on the 2600 than I was in playing anything in the Studio II library. And I don't even like Bridge.

[pacman000]

There was an early game system which could only display letters & playing card symbols, & whose controller only had one or two buttons: the Unisonic Champion 2711. Meant to compete against new, cart-based systems from Atari, Fairchild, etc. I’d say this  sounds worse than everything, even the Studio II.

Edited May 12, 2022 by pacman000

[dkml]

While the Game.com is really bad I would argue the R-Zone was quite a bit worse.  Both were made by Tiger.

[+jgkspsx]

New to me: the Tandy/Memorex Video Information System, VIS, which Radio Shack employees said stood for “Virtually Impossible to Sell”. It was essentially a computer in a set top box, running a unique version of Windows, “3.1 Modular Edition 1.0”.

 

Here is the full list of games released for it:

 

Title	Publisher
The Adventures of Victor Vector & Yondo: Adventure No. 1 - The Vampire's Coffin	Sanctuary Woods
Kid-Fun	Mindplay
Links: The Challenge of Golf	Access Software
The Manhole: New and Enhanced!	Activision
Mosaic Magic	Kinder Magic Software
Mutanoid Math Challenge	Legacy Software
Mutanoid Word Challenge	Legacy Software
Playing with Language: Games in English	Syracuse Language System
Playing with Language: Games in French	Syracuse Language System
Playing with Language: Games in German	Syracuse Language System
Playing with Language: Games in Japanese	Syracuse Language System
Playing with Language: Games in Spanish	Syracuse Language System
Race the Clock	Mindplay
Rick Ribbit: Adventures in Early Learning	Tadpole Productions
Rodney's Funscreen	Activision
The Secrets of Hosea Freeman	Audubon
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. I	ICOM Simulations
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. II	ICOM Simulations
SmartKids Challenge One	Arkeo
Talking Stepping Stones: Bonus Pack	Computeach

The Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective games are pretty good on other systems, but I don’t know how well they play with an IR wireless controller.
 

I am mildly fascinated by the Secrets of Hosea Freeman, which seems to be a true exclusive and the only game ever published by the Audubon Society (???). (It is very poorly emulated in this video, so I’m not sure how much of the control problems are real and how much is emulator.)

 

But basically all of the games are children’s edutainment. You can probably guess from their covers how bad they are:

 

I seriously doubt that there is one game on this system worth playing that isn’t on other system’s. But if I ever do get MAME running I may take a crack at Hosea Freeman.

 

I kinda really want to try this PC port too:

 

 

Anyway, the system only sold 11000 units in over a year on the market, and didn’t have any wired controllers but only IR wireless controllers, and you know how fun those can be. This might be the worst ever.

 

Of course everything to do with it is piggishly expensive on eBay.

 

EDIT: the long out of print Video Game Bible 1985-2002 by Andy Slaven and friends has reviews of the whole library.

 

 

EDIT: OMG THIS PROMO VIDEO

 

Dad was right.

 

 

Looks like @swlovinist agrees that it may be the worst:

 

 

[Hwlngmad]

3 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

New to me: the Tandy/Memorex Video Information System, VIS, which Radio Shack employees said stood for “Virtually Impossible to Sell”. It was essentially a computer in a set top box, running a unique version of Windows, “3.1 Modular Edition 1.0”.

 

Here is the full list of games released for it:

 

Title	Publisher
The Adventures of Victor Vector & Yondo: Adventure No. 1 - The Vampire's Coffin	Sanctuary Woods
Kid-Fun	Mindplay
Links: The Challenge of Golf	Access Software
The Manhole: New and Enhanced!	Activision
Mosaic Magic	Kinder Magic Software
Mutanoid Math Challenge	Legacy Software
Mutanoid Word Challenge	Legacy Software
Playing with Language: Games in English	Syracuse Language System
Playing with Language: Games in French	Syracuse Language System
Playing with Language: Games in German	Syracuse Language System
Playing with Language: Games in Japanese	Syracuse Language System
Playing with Language: Games in Spanish	Syracuse Language System
Race the Clock	Mindplay
Rick Ribbit: Adventures in Early Learning	Tadpole Productions
Rodney's Funscreen	Activision
The Secrets of Hosea Freeman	Audubon
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. I	ICOM Simulations
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. II	ICOM Simulations
SmartKids Challenge One	Arkeo
Talking Stepping Stones: Bonus Pack	Computeach

The Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective games are pretty good on other systems, but I don’t know how well they play with an IR wireless controller.
 

I am mildly fascinated by the Secrets of Hosea Freeman, which seems to be a true exclusive and the only game ever published by the Audubon Society (???). (It is very poorly emulated in this video, so I’m not sure how much of the control problems are real and how much is emulator.)

 

But basically all of the games are children’s edutainment. You can probably guess from their covers how bad they are:

 

I seriously doubt that there is one game on this system worth playing that isn’t on other system’s. But if I ever do get MAME running I may take a crack at Hosea Freeman.

 

I kinda really want to try this PC port too:

 

 

Anyway, the system only sold 11000 units in over a year on the market, and didn’t have any wired controllers but only IR wireless controllers, and you know how fun those can be. This might be the worst ever.

 

Of course everything to do with it is piggishly expensive on eBay.

 

EDIT: the long out of print Video Game Bible 1985-2002 by Andy Slaven and friends has reviews of the whole library.

 

 

EDIT: OMG THIS PROMO VIDEO

 

Dad was right.

 

 

Looks like @swlovinist agrees that it may be the worst:

 

 

Oh, the VIS is quite bad.  But, like the CD-i and the Commodore CDTV, it was a multimedia machine and not a dedicated video game device.  I gotta disagree with swlovinist a bit, signature and all.

[+jgkspsx]

On 7/21/2022 at 12:27 PM, Hwlngmad said:

Oh, the VIS is quite bad.  But, like the CD-i and the Commodore CDTV, it was a multimedia machine and not a dedicated video game device.  I gotta disagree with swlovinist a bit, signature and all.

You could say that the Mattel Aquarius is exempt from being the worst system ever because it was a computer. Most game consoles had multimedia interactive software as well as games. I don’t think it’s a fair distinction - especially since they’re clearly emphasizing the game aspect in that promo film.
 

The worst part is that they promised people good games:

 

 

[Hwlngmad]

4 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

The worst part is that they promised people good games:

 

 

[Bruce Tomlin]

On 5/2/2022 at 9:16 AM, CatPix said:

The worst home console of the second gen has to be the RCA Studio II.

Gonna have to agree, and I had one back in the day. I think it's probably even worse in hindsight, now that I know basically all its games ran in an "emulator" (chip8), but the 1802 is so primitive that you have to dedicate at least two of its sixteen registers for subroutine pointers just to make the CPU not suck. And then its only audio was a beeper with an analog effect to turn the beeps into chirps.

 

And I'm also going to agree about 32X CD. Nothing about the games that were produced justifies its existence. I think the 32X was a bad idea to begin with, and led to the downfall of Sega, but then they had to make some CD games just so Sega CD owners wouldn't feel left out.

[Mikebloke]

On 7/21/2022 at 5:27 PM, Hwlngmad said:

Oh, the VIS is quite bad.  But, like the CD-i and the Commodore CDTV, it was a multimedia machine and not a dedicated video game device.  I gotta disagree with swlovinist a bit, signature and all.

You can actually play a fair bit of games on both the CDTV and the CD-i though, both were marketed as systems that plays games, the VIS seems the same, though they weren't looking to push it too hard.

 

CDTV has a good version of SimCity, which I'm not going to say how much I paid to get all the hardware to actually play it properly! And its expanded library includes PD stuff that was shared across that and the Amiga CD32. The CD-i has its fair share of okayish games too.

[Hwlngmad]

21 minutes ago, Mikebloke said:

You can actually play a fair bit of games on both the CDTV and the CD-i though, both were marketed as systems that plays games, the VIS seems the same, though they weren't looking to push it too hard.

 

CDTV has a good version of SimCity, which I'm not going to say how much I paid to get all the hardware to actually play it properly! And its expanded library includes PD stuff that was shared across that and the Amiga CD32. The CD-i has its fair share of okayish games too.

No doubt games could played on all three machines.  But, I would argue that they weren't dedicated home video game consoles, and therefore cannot be considered in the discussion.  Granted, the CD-i eventually got marketed as a video game console (of sorts).  However, that wasn't what it was primarily designed for, so I don't think it should be counted and/or considered.

[Hwlngmad]

2 hours ago, Bruce Tomlin said:

Gonna have to agree, and I had one back in the day. I think it's probably even worse in hindsight, now that I know basically all its games ran in an "emulator" (chip8), but the 1802 is so primitive that you have to dedicate at least two of its sixteen registers for subroutine pointers just to make the CPU not suck. And then its only audio was a beeper with an analog effect to turn the beeps into chirps.

 

And I'm also going to agree about 32X CD. Nothing about the games that were produced justifies its existence. I think the 32X was a bad idea to begin with, and led to the downfall of Sega, but then they had to make some CD games just so Sega CD owners wouldn't feel left out.

Yeah, the Studio II (despite some charm) definitely is in the running as the worst of all time.  It definitely is a bit of a stinker.

 

Regarding the Sega CD and 32x.  While they were video game dedicated gaming devices, they required the use of the Genesis/Mega Drive, and are "Add-Ons".  I don't know if they would necessarily qualify.  Also, both wouldn't get my vote for the worst of all time.  They were both very capable pieces of tech when they came out, and both have some games and a general library worth playing and exploring.  However, I can see how some would put them as the worst as neither one lived up to the hype to what they would, could, and/or should have done.

[CatPix]

Or at least, consider it as it was. It's like comparing machines like the V-smile or the Mattel Hyperscan to a Playstation 3 : sure, all those are console sold around the same time, but their price bracket and market were so different the comparison makes as much sense as comparing a "My first computer" to a last-gen gaming rig.

Of course it doesn't mean that you can't point issues at those machines, but you have to remember the goal and building of those machines.

 

For example, you can argue that the CD-i, as a multimedia machine, didn't needed more than two action buttons. But...

Let's see about the 3DO, that was sold as both a console and a multimedia machine.

Especially the gamepad :

So, the gamepad double as a media controller, something that is familiar to later generations of consoles as well. If we remove the "game buttons", we're left with the D-pad and Play/Pause. Like the CD-i. BUT...

Here's something you rarely see in video about the CD-i controllers :

Yes, all CD-i IR controllers feature at least 8 buttons in addition to the D-pad and Two action buttons! (if you are unfamiliar with the CD-i, on those remotes, Button 1 is mirrored. On the Megadrive-like pads, there is a Third button but it works by pressing button I and II at the same time)  Let's not forget either that on the CD-i, for the multimedia side, the D-pad is dedicaced to moving the pointer on screen, it isn't used to fast forward or anything.

Let's say that it does, in fact; that's 6 buttons off, but that leaves us with 2 extra buttons. One of them is a CDi/TV switch, so let's remove this one. It's still one extra button! The CD-i could have featured one more action button (but really, that's more like 7 extra buttons!).

And that is, regardless of the machine's power and original planned use, a serious shortcoming.

Edited July 29, 2022 by CatPix

[BassGuitari]

The Studio II's technology and library are so incredibly limited that one is practically forced to call it one of the worst systems ever.

 

But there's still fun to be had with it IMO--even if much of it is derived from novelty and bemused curiosity--and it's so early that it feels a little unfair to beat up on it so much (especially when you consider that it was derived from a series of computers dating as far back as 1971). It may be not be much next to the Atari, Odyssey 2, or even the Channel F, but the Studio II is a refreshing change of pace next to the myriad dedicated consoles that defined home videogaming at the time.

 

And there are honestly plenty of other systems I'd rather play less.🤷‍♂️

[Frozone212]

Having grown up with it: Tiger games

Not even going to quote the AVGN here, it's not worth it

they sucked

they even made a wristwatch version

[Flojomojo]

Even the worst of those overpriced “multimedia” things made it to retail and got a few games published. My pick for worst facepalm-worthy game player had a lot of empty hype, high prices, broken promises, and never came out. Tarnished an old brand name too. 

 

 

[Steven Pendleton]

I'm still going with HyperScan.

[Frozone212]

There's a list on Cracked.com that covers this

[+jgkspsx]

Just now, Frozone212 said:

There's a list on Cracked.com that covers this

It’s complete nonsense, though. Apparently put together by somebody whose only exposure to video games was through the Angry Video Game Nerd (who is in reality neither angry nor a video game nerd).

[vrocko]

Too funny. I saw this and thought gee I bet I've got some of the worst consoles on here. Yup, got a Game.com, the big grey one and the "back light" version, it's smaller and you can get it in different colors. I think I have a blue on and a purple one, yes I have two of those. I've got the R-Zone system that was supposed to be a Game Boy look-a-like. I've got a CD-I and a Hyper-Scan too. Of those I'd say the R-Zone is the worst. At least with the Game.com, CD-I and Hyper-Scan you can play games, not well, not really that much fun, but they are playable and look kind of like other game systems. R-Zone is just a mess. Nothing like a Game Boy, not even like the Game.com. Figures and symbols that look to be printed on the screen/cart? that light up when you make a move, a least that's near as I can figure the carts are. Not real graphics like on a console system. I suppose they thought because it was cheaper and easier that people would buy it for their kids and they wouldn't notice, or care. Used to have some old Tiger games too. Vindicators I know I have and a racing game that I can't remember the name of. Yeah some of the worst consoles ever made and I've got them. Suppose it's like my collection of B-movies. Some so bad, they're good! LOL. My collection of B-Game systems, or should they be F-Game systems for failed, failed really bad.    

Edited August 18, 2022 by vrocko

[Tanooki]

@vrocko The R-Zone is what's called a segmented LCD game, Tiger did those well back into the 1980s.  This was just upgraded a bit to fake 3D as a poor mans virtual boy with a really shitty monocle headstrap then with a nice handhel that used a mirror and light pass through for the game cards, then finally a big tabletop kind of a projector joke with a light that went black & white vs red.  They're playable as any segmented title, some of them super playable and pretty good, but even I who had one 6mo ago decided to cut that from my stash as I got disgusted with the prices for the cards (it's turned into a shark pit where even the bonafide worst one was $20+.)  The Game.com actually I'd consider worse as the screen renders it basically unplayable.  You do remember Tiger handhelds of arcade, nes, licensed stuff right?  That's the R-Zone without the red.

 

I refuse to fall in with Deathadder who through ebay I ended up buying a system of his, one he considers awful with no value at all other than research and jokes.  I got a Watara Supervision finally, weird thing, basically the old DMG Gameboy but more basic, mostly due to low rent HK region coders, but it's nice, for as I called it, a beta gameboy, but I can see why people would have contempt.  Compared to a R-Zone tough or any segmented LCD game it's far nicer.

[+jgkspsx]

12 hours ago, Tanooki said:

This was just upgraded a bit to fake 3D as a poor mans virtual boy with a really shitty monocle headstrap then with a nice handhel that used a mirror and light pass through for the game cards, then finally a big tabletop kind of a projector joke with a light that went black & white vs red. 

The SuperScreen actually came out before the XPG, and a final aborted version that turns the cartridges into ordinary black and white LCD games came last but appears to have only had a few hundred units made.

 

People make a lot of the similarity to the Virtual Boy, but it is largely accidental. Their marketing pitched it as a slightly virtual experience but the reasons for its existence were solid and good: the cartridges could be sold more cheaply than the whole handheld, the old LCD handhelds couldn’t be played in the dark, having the unit separated from the controller allowed the player to be sit more comfortably while playing, and the cartridges allowed them to release future improvements.
 

Unfortunately the headset requires you to squint your other eye or use an eyepatch. I bet they originally planned to make it center mounted like the XPG but either the marketers or accountants made them change it to save costs or make it look “cooler”.

[Tanooki]

Oh I know that, it very much so was accidental given the time, announcements of either, it's a nice fat coincidence really, but when it came down to it, it ended up having the appearance of a poor mans virtual boy, and given the budget needed to own one or those segmented games it fits.   It was quite smart, you buy a unit for like $50 and you can get the games for like $10 a piece or so, vs buying a more bulky $20-30 dedicated handheld they did.  You make a more complicated handheld or head piece, then you just need an unpowered view window and a super cheap basic board and pinout to send that data to the device so it would be more profitable in that sense.  You're probably right about the lame one eye system setup being caused by bean counters, because even they realized it was a dumb move and ditched it for the revisions after not too long.  The XPG was really nice and I did like it, but I grew fed up with it sitting around with nothing new to play, or I'd have kept it.  When an utter turd like Indy 500 was going for $20-30 on ebay, that was my end of interest because the good stuff went up to like $50-100 a pop, notably higher for the rare to find stuff like Apollo 13, etc.  You'd have to be mentally ill and dedicated to eat that.

[Chinese Cake]

 

On 5/7/2022 at 12:04 PM, Austin said:

That was the one that basically only used motion controls, right? Primarily for sports games? I remember that being around when it was new. Never heard anyone talk about it. It seems like it was pretty limited in scope.

  

On 5/7/2022 at 11:43 AM, pboland said:

My vote for worst system is: XaviXPort:

 

 

I remember this was pushed hard for about one year as a competitor to the Wii. I'm actually surprised no one has mentioned it yet.

This came out a year before the Wii actually, with some similarities. Released in 2004. It actually had functioning games and if you were a casual who loved Wii sports it was just as good except you had the sports equipment shaped controllers instead of the Wiimote. I remember a discussion back in the day someone found a Chinese article claiming it sold a million and I saw it still in stores in 2010 so they must have been selling to have been on the shelf that long. 

 

  

On 5/1/2022 at 2:36 PM, CatPix said:

but early CD consoles like the 3DO, PS1, and even the CDi and Neo Geo CD had 1X CD players.

All those had 2X CD drives except the CD-i, which had 1X CD and 2X CD-I drives early then got 2X CD drives, and then got 4X drives for late models.

 

On 5/2/2022 at 9:59 AM, zzip said:

Channel F?   It's a few months older than the Atari 2600, yet it seemed way more primitive.   Or at least the games did.   Maybe talented programmers could have done more.

 

I remember people being more impressed with Fairchild games over Atari games early on until end of the the very late 70s when the better funded Atari was able to get developers to squeeze more out the box. 

 

 

[Chinese Cake]

Anyway i think people forgot about this R-zone by Tiger, who is one of the most innovative companies out there with ideas ahead of their time, but their implementation always results in shit every single time:

 

 

 

Not only was it awful with games that have aged like crap, that aren't fun to play and control like crap, the graphics are also crap, the audio is crap, the VR aspect is crap, it makes you look like crap or from a bad low budget 70s sci-fi movie, and can actually make you sick. Makes you think you caught some disease only nerds get.

 

The idea on paper is genius. But instead of being VR 1.0, it's more like VR 3.1 (little windows joke there) the idea of having a consumer level, affordable VR was a great plan. How they did it and what the specs and color (or lack of) were was not.  Nintendo also made a pretty crummy VR system but Tiger actually got the portability right, but ended up making the systems much worse than the bad Virtual Boy. That's the part that makes this not only the worst systems imo, but also the one that makes me the most angery and want to strangle someone. If the R-zone was even just a bit more competent those would have resulted in empty shelves. 

 

Like the Game.com great idea on paper, executed like an alcoholic working at a car mechanic shop. 

 

[+jgkspsx]

The R-Zone was intended to solve two real problems, and it did it decently. Eventually.

 

- LCD games were too expensive for some families at $15-$20. R-Zone carts were $10.

- LCD games couldn’t be played in less than perfect lighting. R-Zone games could.

 

Unfortunately, the Tiger marketers and bean counters always won out over the engineers, who did some pretty remarkable work. There was never any VR component to the R-Zone - it was red because red LEDs were the only reliable and cheap ones at that time. But marketing saw an opportunity to cash in on the Virtual Boy craze, so it became a headset.

The original R-Zone was only playable if you closed one eye or played in pitch darkness. The R-Zone XPG solved this problem and should have been what they released in the first place.

 

As for the games, they vary greatly in quality. None of them are as good as Game & Watch classics, but more than half are at least some fun, and some like Panzer Dragoon, Daytona USA, Road Rash, and Apollo 13 are downright impressive. Unfortunately most of the videos on YouTube are either garbage video quality, garbage emulators, or garbage playing by people who don’t know how the game works. Someday I am going to fix that.

 

I grew up with Tiger handhelds as well as with “real games”, and I will say that I always enjoyed the challenge of figuring out what the designers wanted you to do. They‘re all kind of puzzle games in that regard.