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My favorite failed tech is the Pioneer LaserActive: Some genius at Pioneer decided that LaserDisc based arcade games needed a home console, and came up with this. See those two disk drive looking things on top? Those are the modules you need to play the games. You need BOTH of them, because some games only work with one type of module. Also, they're from Sega and NEC respectively and you can play Megadrive/Genesis and Turbografx-16/PC Engine games on them (and I think you could also hook up a Sega CD or Turbografx-CD too). The system failed miserably because it cost a fortune to own one PLUS you needed the modules for its games, which ranged from arcade titles like Road Blaster to rail shooters like Vajra and Pyramid Patrol with fancy backgrounds generated by the LaserDisc player. Oh, and in Japan it had some porn stuff released on it.  Pictured above: Rocket Coaster It also had 3D glasses that worked with some games, plus they used the same tech as the Sega Master System goggles and were interchangeable with them as a result (which if you're fortunate enough to own one of these beasts is probably a good thing because the 3D glasses for LaserActive are probably expensive as all hell). There was also the 3DO, which was an attempt at a multimedia game console in 1993/1994 conceived by Electronic Arts' Trip Hawkins that fell flat on its rear end because it cost too much and the controllers on the first model were complete and utter poo poo due to requiring the screws on the back to be loosened in order to make diagonal movement work.  It did have some decent games like Super Wing Commander and a decent Super Street Fighter II Turbo port, but it also got some FMV junk like Sewer Shark, Night Trap and the abysmal Plumbers Don't Wear Ties which no one should ever be subjected to ever. Zeether has a new favorite as of 15:07 on Jul 4, 2013 |
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Jul 4, 2013 15:00
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Light Gun Man posted:I have one with the Sega PAC. I also just remembered the Nuon:  (Don't ask about the N64 controller) Hey kids, do you like DVDs and video games? How about having a DVD player that ALSO plays video games? Ambitious idea, yet it completely bombed and only 8 games ever came out for it, including Jeff Minter's Tempest 3000 which was more psychedelic than 2000 and probably the only worthwhile game on the system.
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Jul 4, 2013 15:18
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Jedit posted:The number of consoles of which it could be said that Minter's Tempest x000 was the only worthwhile game on the system cannot easily be reckoned. No matter how obscure, there always seems to be a version of it. Trailer for the Multisystem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgkOLfcRWYA Short video of the AMC port: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yN2CrhO93A Zeether has a new favorite as of 19:00 on Jul 4, 2013 |
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Jul 4, 2013 18:56
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When I visited relatives once in the UK I came across Ceefax: It was basically a teletext system that let you look at news, weather, sports, etc while accompanied by some nice loungy music that some people have actually gone to the effort of recording (much like how some people record music used on The Weather Channel). It got shut off last year because of the digital switchover and because no one cared about staring at teletext when the Internet existed. There was also videotex which instead of sending data in one direction did it both ways and resulted in poo poo like Viewtron in the US which didn't last very long:  Not gonna lie, though, Ceefax seemed like a cool rear end thing to have on in the background.
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Jul 28, 2013 21:45
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I just found out via Wikipedia that the BBC still does a teletext thing called Red Button but it's digital. So I guess teletext still exists in a way, but Ceefax is long gone.
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Jul 28, 2013 21:59
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There was a specific car model I've seen that had "disappearing" doors as stock which would just sink down into the chassis. Wish that had caught on. Also, the S2000 has an awesome digidash. The rev meter looks like it's out of Gran Turismo 4: 
Zeether has a new favorite as of 20:36 on Aug 14, 2013 |
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Aug 14, 2013 20:29
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Amiga also had Video Toaster, which got used for video effects on Red Dwarf and a few other TV shows. I kind of want to find an old rig with it installed just to mess around with it. That and it had Turrican II, which is goddamn amazing. The fact that Giana Sisters got a new game makes me hope someone will take a stab at a brand new Turrican at some point.
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Oct 26, 2013 12:28
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Lazlo Nibble posted:The second half uses Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Rydeen". YMO's videos from Solid State Survivor were drenched in Scanimate graphics. 
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Oct 28, 2013 02:07
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Did anyone mention the Acorn Archimedes? The technology in it is outdated but this thing pioneered the same ARM architecture that smartphones use today. It's pretty amazing. Also, it has the best version of the game Elite on it.
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Nov 28, 2013 00:47
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Since people are talking about outdated musical instruments I may as well mention the Casio VL-Tone: If you've heard the song "Da Da Da" then you probably know this was used for it (or you watched Homestar Runner a lot). It's a keyboard and a calculator combined.
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Jan 6, 2014 17:47
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Nostrum posted:One of my friends had this and when the iPhone came out, he got SUPER defensive about it and showed people how his phone could do anything an iPhone could. Except with you know, a lot more pain and frustration. I remember Maddox had an article on why his Nokia kicked the poo poo out of an iPhone because of some of the features back when it first came out.
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Jan 20, 2014 00:19
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I was looking at stuff about Tiger Electronics and remembered HitClips, which were these little cartridges you put inside these miniature audio players and they'd play 1 minute of a song in really terrible quality. Despite making Tiger a ton of money due to Radio Disney pimping them nonstop they went out of fashion fast because nobody wanted to hear 1 minute of Hoku or the A*TEENS cover of Dancing Queen in ultra low quality when they could just buy the loving album or get an MP3 player. Why yes, I would love to hear a one minute tinny version of "It's Gonna Be Me" over and over, thanks Tiger! 
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Jan 20, 2014 03:57
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I used to have some kind of Sony portable CD player with that weird "W" logo on it they started using around the early 2000s. Listened to the hell out of Weird Al and the Digimon movie soundtrack on it.
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Apr 19, 2014 04:32
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Collateral Damage posted:Tin Toy? (made in 1988) The loving baby in that is on the horrifying side of the uncanny valley  In fact I have to wonder if that's Sid from Toy Story as an infant, what with Pixar's knack for throwing in references to their other stuff/previous movies and the fact that he abuses the hell out of his toys. I really want to mess around with Lightwave and Video Toaster one day. I don't think it's possible with emulation to use VT, sadly. Zeether has a new favorite as of 07:10 on Apr 29, 2014 |
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Apr 29, 2014 06:44
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Video of a guy with an old modem from 1964: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9dpXHnJXaE
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Jul 19, 2014 21:38
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That red keyboard is a Famiclone (one of those sloppy NES on a chip deals), probably with some knockoff Windows-esque software on the cartridge.
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Jul 22, 2014 14:15
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The talk about copying games on C64 reminded me of "cracktros". If you got a hacked C64 game more than likely you'd get something like this before the actual title screen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS2spUhKc9k It originally started as people hacking their names into high score boards, then it grew into elaborate intros, then finally people realized the intros were way cooler than the games and started the demoscene, which is a bunch of people doing crazy poo poo with computers and game consoles.
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Mar 1, 2015 17:09
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My sister had a Beauty and the Beast Tiger handheld and I remember trying and failing to beat it several times. Also the Internet Archive has a bunch of those emulated and the Zaxxon one Bandai did is actually pretty legit.
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Aug 19, 2020 22:48
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