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

[sin2beta]

I would not count any of the big 3 as failures for a more interesting answer. For that, I would pick the 3DO. It was one of the first multimedia consoles. Kind of the forerunner to what the PS2 ushered. It would have been interesting to see this started more successfully by a multi-manufacturer system such as the 3DO. Would the new entrants of Sony and Microsoft opted to become 3DO manufacturers instead of new ones. Microsoft probably wouldn't. They were building up direct X. But Sony would be interesting. 

[stlgamer75]

Saturn & TG16 are the easy answers and both systems were overshadowed at the time by other consoles but today gamers see what could have been.

3DO had the hardware to be the PlayStation two years before the PlayStation was released. Just not the software and CD based games were still met with skepticism thanks to FMV.

[abicion]

Game.com totally had it going on.

[tripredacus]

I will say any CD based console that failed solely because they invested heavily into FMV and FPS games.

[burningdoom]

This isn't technically a console, but it sounded really cool.

Do you guys remember those Fingerhut catalogs in the 90s? The ones that had all the weird, cool shit you could order that you couldn't find at a normal store, like Hollywood masks, singing fish, and other novelty stuff?

Well there was this one machine that promised "lucid dreaming". What this machine did, is that it would detect when your brain entered dream-sleep. Then it would inform you. Once you realized you were dreaming, the idea was that you would be able to control your dreams.

Sounds awesome, right? Never got to try it out.

[rayne315]

This isn't technically a console, but it sounded really cool.

Do you guys remember those Fingerhut catalogs in the 90s? The ones that had all the weird, cool shit you could order that you couldn't find at a normal store, like Hollywood masks, singing fish, and other novelty stuff?

Where there was this one machine that promised "lucid dreaming". What this machine did, is that it would detect when your brain entered dream-sleep. Then it would inform you. Once you realized you were dreaming, the idea was that you would be able to control your dreams.

Sounds awesome, right? Never got to try it out.

ive had a few lucid dreams before and I have to admit, although they are awesome to have, the dreams I have normally are more interesting because stranger things happen in them.

im far less creative consciously then unconsciously.

[jacosta24]

Virtual boy

[crystaldan]

sorry to bring up a dead thread but to add to the convo...

Besides the common replies (I always felt sega was a step or 2 ahead of nintendo and could have made some insane moves if they took their time)

The one 90s console that I think had the most potential would be the neo geo. Right around the time arcades were huge, you could play games from the arcade at your house. Outside of the "Big 4" (nintendo, microsoft, sony, sega) I think the neo geo was one of the most under-rated systems out there

[burningdoom]

^ If you read about the history of the Neo Geo, it really didn't fail, though. SNK knew they weren't gonna be "the" mainstream console. And they said as much. They said it was catering to a niche market that could afford such an expensive high-end machine. And to that end, it was a success. It's lifespan even lasted a whopping 14 years, from 1990 to 2004.

[crystaldan]

^ If you read about the history of the Neo Geo, it really didn't fail, though. SNK knew they weren't gonna be "the" mainstream console. And they said as much. They said it was catering to a niche market that could afford such an expensive high-end machine. And to that end, it was a success. It's lifespan even lasted a whopping 14 years, from 1990 to 2004.

hm that is interesting, I had no idea they were trying to fill that niche.

[zenimus]

^ If you read about the history of the Neo Geo, it really didn't fail, though. SNK knew they weren't gonna be "the" mainstream console. And they said as much. They said it was catering to a niche market that could afford such an expensive high-end machine. And to that end, it was a success. It's lifespan even lasted a whopping 14 years, from 1990 to 2004.

True, the home system was never really marketed at the masses. It's the Neo Geo arcade machines that were a big financial success for SNK. Those big red cabs were everywhere. It's pretty cool though that SNK never dropped support for the home system throughout the entire lifespan. Official home carts even continued to be released after the original SNK's demise in 2001 or so.

You could probably put the Neo Geo CD as a failed console though. By the time it released, the Saturn and PlayStation were already on the scene, so it got passed by in the hype for blocky, low-poly 3D games.

[oldgamerz]

Hello I'm new to this forum and I would like to say. fist and foremost the Atari Jaguar because if It had better games for it it would have been fun to play. I heard it  had a vary small library we should know  that always can make or break a console.

 second I would say the Sega Saturn because I think it suffered similar fate as the jaguar. I read somewhere that the Sega Saturn was vary hard for companies to program due to it's duel processor and few programmers could code the games made for the Sega Saturn as a result. About the best 2 games on the Saturn ID say was Virtua Fighter 2 and Daytona USA or something USA I forgot.

third I'd say the Dreamcast. I never played a Dreamcast before only seen one for sale but It don't interest me much. I heard it had fantastic games for it not sure because I don't know much about that 6th generation console

[marvelvscapcom2]

Neo Geo CD

[oldgamerz]

this is a vary interesting thread so I brought it back to life

I still know nothing about the Sega Dreamcast could some care to describe there experience with a Sega Dreamcast? I heard a lot of the Dreamcast disc lasers died due to using bootleg games. and the fact that their hard to find in working condition

[sworddude]

Dreamcast

i'll give the 2nd spot to the saturn

I personally don't see any future in the atari jaguar.

it had some impressive 2d grapics in say rayman and was nice with games like alien vs predator but that's it. I don't think atari devs could make very interesting games compared to the devs working for nintendo or sega at that time. days of simple pacman and pitfall where over. animal kartz zool all poor attempts to clone other iconic series. if it was actually succesfull I'd think it will have subpar games compared to sega or nintendo but people liking simple stuff as tetris kinda stuff wich I'm not interested in as far as succes goes or maybe realistic sport and racing games.

Saturn and especially dreamcast had tons of lost potential plus even in their less succesfull years with sega losing money getting quality stuff on the market. if sega was as succesfull as during the 16 bit days those libraries would have been beefed up by allot.

dreamcast was an absolute arcade machine and the saturn was a 2d powerhouse. those consoles could have surpassed the genesis in pretty much everything and even in their current state for certain genre's they have. quite a shame for 2d game fans I'd say could have been more interesting than it is today because sega wasnt doing to hot in those era's

yes the atari jaguar could have had some decent games if where only looking at console specs

However imo you should look at the devs that where creating games for these systems. I don't think atari jaguar had great devs for them games and i could only imagine a library with very subpar games. subpar games do sell tons of sports racing or movie license games on sega and nintendo after all. good or bad they make money.

atari jaguar not having konami treasure nintendo sega taito capcom etc devs. devs > console specs.