The Good Old Systems

I was browsing though some of the sites I normally hit today, and I ran across a discussion of classic game systems, specifically those that didn't fare as well. I'm proud to say I have a couple of the systems on this list, cause, while anyone can have a Genesis or a SNES, few people have (or claim to have) a Virtual Boy or Turbo Graphix.

Yeah, I know most people wouldn't willing claim to having a Virtual Boy, but hell, I'll claim it. It was a good deal when I picked it up, and I got my money's worth out of it.

The article I read said what was good and bad about it, but like any article on a "mainstream" gaming site (as mainstream as that can be), they focused on general opinions of why it failed, and the article, while informative, wasn't personalized enough... So, I'll touch a few of the ones I like.

For starters, that grand flop of a system, the Virtual Boy. Yeah, who couldn't have seen this system tank? It's a groovy concept on paper, but when you use it, it sucks. I mean, it's supposed to be a follow up to the mega system, Game Boy, but unlike GB, it's neither as easy on the eyes (which is darn sad), nor nearly as portable (which is just stupid).

To use the Virtual Boy, you first have to find a nice flat surface. If it aint flat, the thing won't stand up right and will topple over in mid-use. Then you have to hunch over the device so you can view the two small screens embedded in the goggles of the system.

If you haven't seen the system, it looks more like something off the bridge of the 60s Star Trek than a gaming device. The games weren't bad, but they weren't great. About the only two I played that were passable were the VB Wario Land and Galactic Pinball. There was a revamp of Mario Bros called Mario Clash I would have liked to play, but I never found a copy.

Another tanked system... well systems really, was pretty well everything released by Atari after the game crash of '84 (and you know, every time I reference it, I always feel like someone talking about the Great Depression and how everything was so much brighter in aught-four). They had the 7800 which was supposed to compete with the NES, the Jaguar, which was to compete with the SNES, and the Lynx, which was to go up against the Game Boy. Do we see a pattern here? Atari went up against Nintendo in what was their heyday, and every time they got resoundingly defeated. I mean, until the N64, the only company that had any luck fighting Big N was Sega.

Most consider Dreamcast a failed system. It made that article, but tween you and me, while it wasn't a success, I don't think it was a total failure. Well, okay, I need to explain that one.

Yes, it was the last straw for the ailing Sega. Yes, it wasn't really able to find footing early in its life, and then failed when up against the current crop of systems. All this is true, but it still has a fan base of hardcore gamers that look on that little system with as much respect as the freaking SNES. Hell, the top three greatest systems to quite a few gamers are the SNES, Genesis, and Dreamcast. And even now, the Dreamcast still has some games coming out for it, even if they are just ports. That says something for it.

And there's the Turbo Graphix family of systems. Again, I'm not sure how big a failure you can call this. No, it certainly never was as big as the SNES or Genesis, which it went head to head with. It was also a tad expensive to get into. But the Hucards (which the games were stored on) were a great idea. The CD system is still a great collectible by collector's standards. And hell, it did have a follow system, even if it never made it out of Japan (the PC F/X I think was the name). That system really tanked.

Still, I had plenty of friends back when I was growing up that owned a TG16. That's gotta count for something.

Magazines and websites usually look at the bottom line. I've said this before actually, I think. For them it's all about money and how well a system competes with the current leader. By their standards, I'm sure Xbox could be considered a failed system. But if the system is beloved, does it really fail... Only in the case of the Virtual Boy, cause no one really loved that thing.