Comments on: The worst game console(s) ever

Considering some of the worst video game consoles ever made.

[Levi1337]

you can't jugde a system solely by its numbers.

and I know you didn't, which is good. But there is much to say about the
Virtual Boy. I LOVED it, and proudly display it on my book shelves for
everyone to see and ask, "what is that thing on your shelf?" At this point,
they can't leave until they try it. Sure, it wasn't comfortable, and sure, it was
probably bad for your eyes, but it was damn cool. Wario, Red Alarm, Mario
Tennis, Maro Bros., all great games that you can't play on any other system
or emulator.

Sadly, due to its problems, and the general close-mindedness of the US,
unique designs like that don't usually see the light of day, when in reality,
they need to be pushed on consumers and supported even in their
weakness. I have not experienced 120hz 3d on the HDTVs that support it,
but if something like that was pushed into the main market as much as the
TV's themselves, we would find ourselves with a new and fresh gaming
experience unmatched by anything previousely.

[Icemann655]

Fair Enough

While I don't really agree that the Virtual Boy was a good system, I absolutely agree that it was a good idea but it needed way refining before the VB can be considered a success design wise. It was great that Nintendo tried to shake up the market and the Wii was their recent success of pushing new ideas but the VB doesn't fall into that category.

[OmniDeath76]

what about thePanasonic 3D0

that was pretty atrocious. anyone remember that bad Kirk Cameron game for it?

[Earthanoid]

Nitpicking

The earlier article said the worst "major" console. That probably doesn't include the Jaguar, Virtual Boy, and CD-i. They simply didn't sell well enough, or have enough exposure, to be considered "major."

Another nitpick, but Panzer Dragoon Orta wasn't really a sequel to Panzer Dragoon Saga/Azel. Orta is more of a sequel to Zwei, since Saga/Azel had entirely different gameplay.

[vicpf]

worst gaming system

I would have to name ColecoVision as one of the worst. Terrible controls and no quality control on their systems.

[Starfires]

Jaguar Wins the Award

The Saturn had it's good points, as this makes clear. But the original article was interesting in that it was choosing between the major consoles, not including these failed ones. It seemed to make clear that there were good games for it, just that it was too badly designed for it's time, being unable to do 3D well. But the fact it made it's way into being major itself makes it a success, so hard to really dismiss.

Jaguar was a terrible failiure for sure, as was the battery-hungry Lynx. Somehow, Atari lost the plot, in a way Sega never really did- they were just too swamped by competition. It probably is the worst console ever, it just couldn't do enough things well- though it seems to have some very colourful games.

[watsdamattau]

And now you brought in the Lynx

The Jag had some really good games. They were geared towards the mature audience. The Lynx, too, was geared towards the more mature audience than the side-scrolling, run and jump game. Just look at Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure game. It was a puzzle game to N'th level. No kid now days would have the patience to finish that. There were numerous games that were excellent, especially when linked up to other Lynx's. For example, Slime World was a blast to play with two people. A friend and I played that game on the train all the way from Baltimore to NYC. That's a long ride and it was quite entertaining.

[marcusjames]

It's Philips, no?

Isn't there just one "l" in Phillips [sic]?

[retfar4]

Neo-Geo??????

What were the sales figures of the Neo-Geo system? I seem to remember that having some deent titles, but it was priced so high that no one could afford it. It was out around the same time as Turbo Grafix 16 and Sega Genesis... I didn't know anyone who had a Neo-Geo...

[numerosiete]

2 part online Video series on Failed Consoles

The 32X has got to be the worst. ON Networks has a great online show on the history of video games (called Play Value) and they devoted two solid episodes to Failed Consoles.

http://www.onnetworks.com/videos/play-value/down-the-memory-hole

[cssyoda]

Worst Home Console

A previous poster mentioned ColecoVision as being the worst, but I disagree. It did have its flaws, and it was expensive, but it was far more advanced than the alternatives at the time. The arcade adaptations actually looked like the arcade versions (at least they were recognizable). Atari's answer to CV, the 5200, was an overpriced waste of circuitry who big feature was that you could pause some games.

The Emerson 2001 was a parenthetical player on the scene in the early 80's which was only OK if you were stuck at a relative's house in the boondocks with nothing else to do.

If you want to base a "worst" designation on the controls, then you'll have to include many others on the list as co-champions.

I liked ColecoVision, Intellivision, as well as the Magnavox Odyssey2 (C64 being a computer doesn't really count as a strict game console, though that's what it was used for 99.99999% of the time. It seems you could get away with playing "Strip Poker" because it was easier to make the case that you were performing statistical analyses of probability matrices on your 'computer'). Everything else was crap until Nintendo redefined home gaming.

[brianwolters]

Jaguar - Bad but...

I actually own two Jaguar's and the CD Add on. While the game selection was horrible, the good games were VERY good (Alien Vs. Predator, Temptest 2000) and I didn't have a problem with the controls.

With the exception of Mansion of Hidden Souls, Sega CD is the worst system/add on.

[ElmoKajaky]

Colecovision ruled!

I grew up with the Atari 2600, then upgraded to the Colecovision as a kid, and I gotta say, Coleco had one of the funnest systems around back in the day. Donky Kong, Ladybug, Turbo, Venture, the list goes on and on. Plenty of fun for the buck.

[jasonkinnard]

How about the Bally Astrocade 1978?

My dad went to some open house at Cocoa Beach and came home with a free gift... the Bally Astrocade. This thing was such a p.o.s. that occasionally it would freeze up and the best way to bust it out of it's funk was to pound on it with my fist! As far as the Atari 5200 goes, I loved it! Rescue On Fractalus which was the first Lucasfilm games I can remember took up many hours of my time as did Berzerk and Joust. Sure the controller was a bit complicated but the analog control stick rocked... until the rubber surrounding the stick rotted.

[gsacks]

3DO - awful

Does anyone remember the gaming system from 3DO that relied on 3rd party HARDWARE manufacturers to build 3DO compatible systems?

That has to be failure head and shoulders above the jaguar.

[watsdamattau]

Some games were fun, but you're right

Overall the game system to end all game systems (that's what Trip Hawkins wanted) was a total bust.

[gumby8]

Blame the software, not the system!

Having owned at least a dozen systems over the years I can say one thing about the Atari Jaguar, it was the software, not the system that sucked horribly! Cybermorph had to be one of the worst pack-in games ever, but besides the previously mentioned Tempest and Alien vs Predator, I have to mention Iron Soldier, another great unsung game! I never had a chance to play the second version, so I'm not sure how that held up. I don't understand the criticism of the Jag controller, it was beefy like the original Xbox controller, but infinitely more comfortable... honestly! And how can you fault a controller by just mentioning that it has a keypad? Just because it wasn't effectively used doesn't mean that it intrinsically sucked...

[watsdamattau]

I agree with you

You're right that Iron Soldier was fun and the controllers were really good. I too don't know why he was ragging on it.

[IRONRME]

Neo Geo owner

retfar4,

The Neo Geo was a great system at the time but your right the games were very expensive. New cartridges were $199 to $250 when they came out. I remember when one of the big box store started selling the system and games, and within a few months decided it wasn't an item they wanted to continue to carry and proceeded to liquidate the inventory at @ $50 per game. I bought up a many titles as I could. (I was young and didn't have a mortgage.)

[watsdamattau]

You're completely wrong about the Jaguar

You're completely wrong about your assessment about the Jaguar. Most of the games appealed more to mature audiences than the Nintendo crowd. Like all game systems there were a few games that were terrible. Even the Xbox 360 and Playstation(s) have had some really bad games. I think currently, the Nintendo Wii takes the cakes for the worst games to ever come out. Just look at the your CNET ratings. There's only a handful of decent kiddy games that have reached above a 7 out of 10 rating. The Jag, on the other hand had a few games that were quite fun, from Aliens vs. Predator to Missile Command 3D to Defender 2000 to the best game on their list, Tempest 2000. There were numerous other games that were quite addicting. Because you probably never picked up any other game other than the lousy game that originally came with the system you wouldn't know. That's really too bad and quite sad.

[watsdamattau]

Why is Will Greenwald digging up the past?

Doesn't the author have anything better to do than to bring up past game systems to stir up trouble? Of course all the gaming systems did well or didn't do so well. There are going to be people that loved the system so stirring up this junk is likely to going to be fruitless anyway. If you want to read the "wars" go back in time.

It's 2008 and it's all in the past now. Why in the world would you want to do a "let's pick the worse game console ever!" If you want to start up the past wars, why don't you pick on the Japanese, the Germans, the Russians, the French, the Greeks, the Romans and such? It's stupid and it doesn't lead to anything other than making you look like a fool.

Instead of game consoles you should be focusing on something more contemporary like "what's the worse feature on an iPod?" Here's some starters:

Can't change a battery when it's depleted so you're left without a music system until you get home

Can't delete a song right then and there and you need to wait until you get home.

Can't record anything with PCM quality

Need to look like you're winding up the unit when you're searching for a song

[C433Z]

Did you even read the preceding articles?

[make_or_break]

Why are you so animated about the past?

You must be really fun at parties.

Oh...you don't GO to parties? Little wonder.

NEWSFLASH: you shouldn't post on blogs, either. Wet blanket.

[clumpkin]

Atari 7800

If we're going by the numbers I think the Atari 7800 wins the prize. I doubt more than 10% of your readers have ever even heard of the 7800 which was backwards compatible with the 2600 and never really had a selection of native games.

[planblove]

Hands down its the 32X

Why Sega even made that thing will forever be one of lifes mysteries. And could could you even even call it a true system? It latched onto the Genesis like bulky parasite. OK it did have 3 good games, Virtual Racing, Star Wars and Virtua Fighter. Thats all folks. Everything else that came after it was just a crude attempt at true 32-bit. And yes, I did own one. I think the Jaguar and Virtual Boy round out my top(or bottom?) 3 systems.

[joejoe_19]

Atari 7800 and 5200

I have to agree that the Atari 7800 was the worst of all time followed closely by the Atari 5200.

And I plead with you let's not beat up on the poor old Atari 2600 because without it who know when we would have had all of the others that followed. They laid the ground work. The problem was they souled out for money and money killed the creativity.