What failed 90s console do you think had the most potential?

[dreama1]

What failed 90s console do you think had the most potential? And what direction do you think they would of pushed in if they lasted longer on the market? etc. Maybe the atari jaguar had longer what direction would it have pushed in?

[Warmsignal]

Dreamcast. Had they not rushed development, they could have foresaw the shortcomings that killed it, like the need to opt for DVD format media, with the capability of also playing movies. They would have been way ahead of the curb for the online game market, possibly might have kept them afloat for another generation. If that had happened, Xbox might not have ever came to exist. IMO, the Dreamcast had tremendous potential and was probably the most squandered product in game history.

[dreama1]

Dreamcast. Had they not rushed development, they could have foresaw the shortcomings that killed it, like the need to opt for DVD format media, with the capability of also playing movies. They would have been way ahead of the curb for the online game market, possibly might have kept them afloat for another generation. If that had happened, Xbox might not have ever came to exist. IMO, the Dreamcast had tremendous potential and was probably the most squandered product in game history.

Would of loved to have seen the offerings of sega for the dreamcast in 2003-2004, or what strategy they would of taken. But for sure the Gamecube and Xbox would be in much weaker positions in this timeline. Resident evil 4 running on dreamcast? Was it's power touched into, or was it underpowered? Makes me wonder.

[Warmsignal]

Dreamcast. Had they not rushed development, they could have foresaw the shortcomings that killed it, like the need to opt for DVD format media, with the capability of also playing movies. They would have been way ahead of the curb for the online game market, possibly might have kept them afloat for another generation. If that had happened, Xbox might not have ever came to exist. IMO, the Dreamcast had tremendous potential and was probably the most squandered product in game history.

Would of loved to have seen the offerings of sega for the dreamcast in 2003-2004, or what strategy they would of taken. But for sure the Gamecube and Xbox would be in much weaker positions in this timeline. Resident evil 4 running on dreamcast? Was it's power touched into, or was it underpowered? Makes me wonder.

Really I think mainstream support for the system started to die off in 2001. I know that Max Payne was under development for it. Would have liked to have seen that happen. I'm not sure what the hardware we got would have been capable of doing, but I have a feeling people underestimate it a bit.

[dreama1]

Dreamcast. Had they not rushed development, they could have foresaw the shortcomings that killed it, like the need to opt for DVD format media, with the capability of also playing movies. They would have been way ahead of the curb for the online game market, possibly might have kept them afloat for another generation. If that had happened, Xbox might not have ever came to exist. IMO, the Dreamcast had tremendous potential and was probably the most squandered product in game history.

Would of loved to have seen the offerings of sega for the dreamcast in 2003-2004, or what strategy they would of taken. But for sure the Gamecube and Xbox would be in much weaker positions in this timeline. Resident evil 4 running on dreamcast? Was it's power touched into, or was it underpowered? Makes me wonder.

Really I think mainstream support for the system started to die off in 2001. I know that Max Payne was under development for it. Would have liked to have seen that happen. I'm not sure what the hardware we got would have been capable of doing, but I have a feeling people underestimate it a bit.

In north america pretty much. The war lasted another year in europe maybe. I guess it was just delayed releases mostly.

[burningdoom]

Saturn. Had Sega left the 32X alone, and not released it, gamers wouldn't have felt overwhelmed. And had they launched the Saturn properly, rather than surprising retailers and game developers months too soon, the Saturn would have done well financially, I'm sure. It had the Sega name behind it, which back then Sony really didn't have a name in gaming. And it's performance in Japan shows that it was a system that could produce great games for many genres. (Japan didn't have the 32X or a botched launch.)

[dreama1]

Saturn. Had Sega left the 32X alone, and not released it, gamers wouldn't have felt overwhelmed. And had they launched the Saturn properly, rather than surprising retailers and game developers months too soon, the Saturn would have done well financially, I'm sure. It had the Sega name behind it, which back then Sony really didn't have a name in gaming. And it's performance in Japan shows that it was a system that could produce great games for many genres. (Japan didn't have the 32X or a botched launch.)

I wonder how far they could of pushed the 32X of course in a perfect world presuming it had a life, rather than the baby in the basket. The 32X versions of virtua fighter and virtua racing weren't inferior ports.

[kashell]

The Sega Saturn. That surprise launch was kind of like an omen to it's slow decline. Things were already off to a rocky start and it just got worse as time, and the PlayStation, went on.

[bikingjahuty]

Dreamcast, hands down. It is still having new games developed on it and still has a rabid fan base. You can still log into private servers and play many of the games online still as well.

[Flashback2012]

Saturn. Had Sega left the 32X alone, and not released it, gamers wouldn't have felt overwhelmed. And had they launched the Saturn properly, rather than surprising retailers and game developers months too soon, the Saturn would have done well financially, I'm sure. It had the Sega name behind it, which back then Sony really didn't have a name in gaming. And it's performance in Japan shows that it was a system that could produce great games for many genres. (Japan didn't have the 32X or a botched launch.)

Japan did have the 32X. Sangokushi IV (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) was a Japanese exclusive. 

Saturn and Dreamcast are the obvious answers but I think the Turbografx/DUO could have been something good if it was handled properly.

[blurks]

Defo the Saturn. It was a great console with great titles. Pity it wasn't that successful outside Japan.

[robert89]

Atari Jaguar

[scraph4ppy]

I'm going to go ahead and count all of the Big 3's systems as being successful, even stuff like Saturn, N64, Dreamcast if you count it as 90s, etc. I think that the two logical contenders for "most potential" among the rest are TG16, which had a massive library in Japan but did not sell well outside of it, and 3DO which had a lot of big names behind it, western 3rd party support and was definitely noticed by its competitors at the time but once again did not sell well. Ultimately the 3DO's Achilles' heal from the retro perspective is that early CD games just generally are not fun while Turbo seems to have an out-sized presence (bigger than Genesis?) among people I talk to. But boy did 3D0 have a lot of releases- way more than Turbo got in the US- but of a much lower quality.

I noticed some people saying Jag but I think people pretty much got what they were going to get out of that from a consumer perspective. Iffy controller, cartridge based, limited foreign support and a company in financial difficulties did not make for a bright future. I'm not being disparaging here either, out of all these "failed" systems it managed to live up to potential and none of the others did. And of course nobody bothered to even mention the CD-I so far, which had all of the 3DO's negatives (well, I don't think it was quite as expensive) but none of the positives.

[dreama1]

Saturn. Had Sega left the 32X alone, and not released it, gamers wouldn't have felt overwhelmed. And had they launched the Saturn properly, rather than surprising retailers and game developers months too soon, the Saturn would have done well financially, I'm sure. It had the Sega name behind it, which back then Sony really didn't have a name in gaming. And it's performance in Japan shows that it was a system that could produce great games for many genres. (Japan didn't have the 32X or a botched launch.)

Japan did have the 32X. Sangokushi IV (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) was a Japanese exclusive. 

Saturn and Dreamcast are the obvious answers but I think the Turbografx/DUO could have been something good if it was handled properly.

Wonder what a 3d system would look like for the turbografx/DUO or what direction it would of headed 1995+ onwards.

[dreama1]

I'm going to go ahead and count all of the Big 3's systems as being successful, even stuff like Saturn, N64, Dreamcast if you count it as 90s, etc. I think that the two logical contenders for "most potential" among the rest are TG16, which had a massive library in Japan but did not sell well outside of it, and 3DO which had a lot of big names behind it, western 3rd party support and was definitely noticed by its competitors at the time but once again did not sell well. Ultimately the 3DO's Achilles' heal from the retro perspective is that early CD games just generally are not fun while Turbo seems to have an out-sized presence (bigger than Genesis?) among people I talk to. But boy did 3D0 have a lot of releases- way more than Turbo got in the US- but of a much lower quality.

I noticed some people saying Jag but I think people pretty much got what they were going to get out of that from a consumer perspective. Iffy controller, cartridge based, limited foreign support and a company in financial difficulties did not make for a bright future. I'm not being disparaging here either, out of all these "failed" systems it managed to live up to potential and none of the others did. And of course nobody bothered to even mention the CD-I so far, which had all of the 3DO's negatives (well, I don't think it was quite as expensive) but none of the positives.

I heard the Jaguar never touched into it's real power because it was mostly ports.