Who Owned An "Unpopular" System?

[Tempest]

Ok fess up. Who here owned an "unpopular" system back in the 80's? They made them, they sold them, we find them in flea markets, so someone had to have bought them. Everyone I knew owned either an Atari 2600, Atari Computer, Colecovision, Intellivision (although not many), or a C-64. I even knew one kid who had an Astocade, but it never worked.

 

So who here will stand up and proudly say "I owned an Arcadia 2001!" or "I actually bought a Fairchild Channel F!". I want to hear the stories on why you passed up the more mainstream systems for the uncommon ones.

 

Tempest

[joeybastard]

I feel that way about my Gamecube now. It's OK though, I still don't like the other 2 all that much regardless of their popularity.

[Adrian M]

I owned the Sega Saturn and 32X back when they came out. Talk about unpopular! Sony fanboys were constantly pointing out the fact that the 3D capabilities of the Saturn were feeble...but I didn't care. I had Sega Rally and Virtua Fighter 2.

[chadtower]

Same here, I was gaming it up on the Saturn while all my friends were telling me it was crap, playing their PS1s. I didn't care, though, I had Sonic, Nights into Dreams, Vf2, and Clockwork Knight 1/2.

[Saikyo]

Well I used to have a Dragon 32, that is until the tape deck broke

Ill have to try and find another one of these days!

[KaineMaxwell]

I had an Atari XE.

[The Eidolon]

We had a Channel F. Had quite a bit of fun playing that system. The

graphics weren't much, but they sufficed to make for some fun,

simple games.

 

Didn't own anything else really "unpopular", but having owned

an Atari 8-bit and ST, I definitely knew how if felt to own the

"minority" system. No wose than owing a Mac and GameCube now though!

 

--The Eidolon

[chrisbid]

i had an intellivision and a 32X in their days, but i guess they would still qualify as mainstream

[AtariLeaf]

It wasn't a video game system but I owned a Tandy Coco 2 and 3 back when everyone else had the Commodore 64.

 

They used to throw 5 1/4 disks at me in Data Processing class in High School. I'm still in therapy

[Ze_ro]

It's not 80's, but I bought a Jaguar and a JagCD back in the days.

 

--Zero

[MegaManFan]

I never owned a console of my own before college, but a friend did loan me his Sega Master System for a summer.

[NE146]

I guess the most unpopular systems I owned were maybe the 5200 (it seemed people thought of it less than the Colecovision back in the day) and maybe the 32x? But I dunno.. not that it'd make any difference to me. I like any console I own

 

My coworker tells a different story however. He's somewhat unaware of how much I'm into classic games, and so he was talking to me the other week about his childhood and how all the kids had Atari's.. But him? He had the ODYSSEY (he then asks me if I've even ever heard of an Odyssey to which I reply "I think so"). He then described how it had a membrane keyboard which he attempted to program with several times. But his games were so crappy... And that he was jealous of all the kids with their state of the art Ataris.

 

It was just funny hearing him rant about it. Incidentally the guy is one of the senior Network Engineers around here.. smart guy. But not too much into the gaming scene

[rc]

I was still playing the Atari ST when everyone else had NES. When my friends came over they did think Winter Games was pretty cool.

[Christophero Sly]

I had a TI-99/4A, but I don't remember it being unpopular back then.

[jeepnut24]

I had a PC clone instead of an Atari and NES. Not the "cool" choice, but it did end up as a profession.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

hehe..yeah...I had an unpopular system back in the late 80s. It was called the Atari 7800 Prosystem. All my friends couldn't believe I got one of "those" instead of an NES. Heck, I knew more people with SMS systems than 7800s. In fact, I knew of know one else at the time where I lived who even had a 7800. But there were others, because most of the really cool games I wanted at Toys R Us for the 7800 were always sold out for it.

 

But it wasn't easy being an Atari lover in the glory days of the NES...

[liveinabin]

Well I used to have a Dragon 32, that is until the tape deck broke  

Ill have to try and find another one of these days!

 

lol. My wife had one of those.You won't beat that for an unpopular machine! Imagine the playground arguments.

"My C64 had better sound than yours"

"Yeah? Well, my ZX Spectrum has 10 times as many games as yours"

 

"My computer is from Wales"

[Kialan]

I had a 3DO, but not when they first came out. It was around when the Playstation was out. Everyone I knew had a playstation, but I never liked them. The games were too "adult," or forced, or boring to me.

 

I remember when my friend rented Gex, and I was surprised that he had to enter like a password or something to use the remotes, when you don't have to do that with the 3DO version. So I thought 3DO was better Damn now I need to play it..

 

Then I got a Saturn, which I also thought was better. Who cares about the 3D (I never noticed it was worse?), gameplay is what matters. Nights, Fighters Megamix, House of the Dead, and Daytona USA CCE convinced me that Saturn was the better choice.

 

Today I still barely like the Playstation, and only have it so I can play the games my best friend and I used to play: a nostalgia factor. And I refuse to buy a PS2. I never will.

[privateers69]

Since we're naming computers within this thread I guess mine has to be a Timex/Sinclair 1000 with the optional 16k memory pack ahhh..

[Shortly]

Coleco ADAM. While the CV was popular, the ADAM, on the other hand, left a bit to be desired in the realm of popularity.

[glitch]

Most of the time growing up in the 80s we had the "unpopular" systems. Our first system was the original odyssey w/ the shotgun and the screen overlays you taped to the television. Since there wasn't a lot of compitition at the time I don't know if "unpopular" is the correct word for it. Our next system was the Bally Astrocade (ours always worked )because my father wanted a computer (definatly unpopular on both fronts). I still have it and it's still my fav system. We also bought a Video Brain just as they went under. After that we went the strict computer route for a while. The next system was an Atari 800 which seemed less popular than the C64 at the time, then an Atari 520ST which was losing to the Amiga & the fledgling PC. Still have all these systems (except the video brain ). Somewhere in there was a Timex Sinclair also. My first console I bought on my own was the Sega Genisis which was definatly losing to the NES at the time. I did buy a Gameboy (the first truely "popular" system I owned) although I wanted a Lynx but I couldn't find any local suppliers of games. In my normal fashion I jumped on the Dreamcast bandwagon just as Sega dropped it. My latest "unpopular" purchase appears to be the Gamecube which will probably be added to this list a few years from now by all appearences.

[Tempest]

We also bought a Video Brain just as they went under.

 

You're the first person I know to have actually owned a Video Brain. It's about the most obscure US system I know.

 

Tempest

[Vic George 2K3]

Timex/Sinclair 1000 with 16K expansion module

Intellivision II

Coleco Adam standalone system

Atari 7800

[Susuwatari]

A truely unpopular system are the one no one has talked about here yet. Not many people liked Game.com Not many people like Tiger's R-Zone. And I haven't heard any good thing about CD-i or CD32. Or even that Gameboy knockoff.. what was it called? Spectravideo or something.

 

Finally what about Pippin?

[Mr.FoodMonster]

I actually have never owned any oddball system. Have yet to, but I know as my collecting ideas grow, I will get the crazy systems.