The year is 1991 and the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo are battling it out in North America in the bloodiest brawl in video game history. It is becoming obvious to gamers that the Genesis is just a tad inferior to the SNES in terms of grahpics an sound.

Even bigger problems for Sega are developing in Japan
with the release of NEC's PC Engine CD-ROM system.

This prompts them to act, and soon the hedgehog-driven company counters its enemies with:



The Sega Mega CD is released to counter NEC's PC Engine in Japan and, at first, it suceeds. As the months roll by, Sega of America prepares to release the Sega Mega CD (renamed to Sega CD) to the North American market, but there is a problem; the PC Engine CD (aka Turbo Grahpix CD) has almost no following in North America. Eager to get ahead of Nintendo in terms of technology however, Sega releases the Sega CD in North America anyway, and the new CD-ROM add-on system is forcecd to compete with the Super Nintendo.

Patience may have won Sega the war here, and it is possible that we would all be playing "Sega CD-3" systems right now had the company not made several huge blunders in the days to come. Nintendo takes the threat of the Sega CD seriously, and begins work with electronics giant Philips to develope its own CD-ROM system for the SNES.

Much to Sega's dismay, sales for the Sega CD in Japan slowed dramatically as the hype from its arrival died down and sales in North America were sluggesh as well. The SNES and Sega Genesis were still relatively new in North America, and gamers were not ready to sink $400.00 into a next generation system just yet. This caused Sega to panic, and they began their next scheme to get a more affordable edge over the SNES.

The big blunder that followed next was known as the 32X. Had Sega stuck with the Sega CD and maintained FULL support for the Genesis while gradually lowering the price of the CD-ROM add-on, it could have been the dominate game hardware company today. Here's why:

1.) Nintendo's deal with Phillips fell through. Apparently things got pretty nasty between the two technology companies. It would not be until 1995 that Nintendo reentered the console market with the cartridge based Nintendo 64. In the land of video gaming, that is quite a stretch of time.

2.)By the time Sega began its hurried work on the 32X, the Turbo Grahpix and TG-CD had already fell flat on its face in North America, and Panasonic's new 3DO was so ridiculously expensive that no casual gamer even considered it. That would have given Sega several years dominate the CD-ROM game market without any real competition. Even though only about 10% of Genesis (MegaDrive) owners in Japan bought the Sega Mega CD, it was still logical for Sega to plunge ahead while the Sega CD established itself around the rest of the world.  Did they honestly expect to sell it to EVERY Genesis owner over night?

3.) By using the Sega CD as its flagship during the early 90's, Sega could have been the big player in the CD game market. Sony would have had to lure gamers away from an established CD system when the Playstation arrived, and that is not an easy thing to do. While it's competetion strived to gain a foothold, or, in Nintendo's case, play catch up, Sega would have the time it needed to ensure that its next big release, the Saturn (or Sega CD-2 perhaps) was not bogged down by bugs or needlessly complicated hardware issues.

Well, that is not the way things turned out. At least with the Dreamcast Sega was allowed to go out with somewhat of a respectable bang. Their final system proved they had learned from their mistakes, but it was, sadly, too late. I hope you enjoyed my little history lesson/rant. Please come back next week for more pointless banter.

Among the many successful game systems that we have seen over the years, there have been even more that have failed or never even seen the light of day. I invite you to join me as I take a trip through time to take a look at some of the more notable failed game systems...


Panasonic 3DO
Panasonic's 3DO debuted in the summer of 1993 with a hefty price tag of $699.99. SEVEN-HUNDRED-DOLLARS!!! Can you believe it? In 1993, that was more than most average americans made in two weeks of full time employment! How did Panasonic justify such a hefty pricetag you ask? Well, they boasted that the 3DO was not just a game system (despite the fact that it was) but rather a "high-end audio-visual system."

Demise:
Unfortunately, most consumers at the time had little use for a high-end audio-visual system, and decided they would rather wait and take their chances with Sony's Playstation or Sega's Saturn instead, which ultimately lead to the end of the 3DO.

Little known fact : The 3DO version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo was superior to even the arcade version, and featured an impressive CD audio soundtrack.



Nintendo Virtual Boy
The Virtual Boy arrived in summer of 1995, touting the fact that it was the first game console capable of displaying TRUE 3D graphics. The system used parallax effects which created the illusion of 3D images similiar to those seen in 3D films. Like its distant cousin the original Game Boy, Virtual Boy was only capable of displaying monochrome graphics. Players seated the Tron-like visor piece of the Virtual Boy on their heads and were presented with 3D games seen entirely in shades of red and black.

Demise:
Soon after its release, Virtual Boy earned an unfavorable nickname as "Nintendo's headache helmet." The Virtual Boy was also never able to overcome its image problem as nothing more than an expensive toy, and soon faded into the background when Nintendo began to hype the approach of its true next-gen system, the Nintendo 64.


Phillips CD-i
The CD-i was an early CD based video game console and multimedia player. Much like Panasonic did with the 3DO, Phillips marketed the device as "so much more than a video game system." In 1991 the first CD-i hit shelves with a pricetag of $700. Over the course of the CD-i's lifespan, Phillips began a partnership with Nintendo to develope a CD-ROM drive add-on for the SNES. During this time, Phillips was allowed to develop and release several Legend of Zelda and Mario games exclusively for the CD-i.

Demise:
With it's high price tag and poor marketing, the CD-i eventually met the same fate as its rival, the 3DO. The deal between Nintendo and Phillips to develope the SNES CD-ROM eventually fell apart as well, which drove Phillips out of the game console market entirely.

Join me next week as I take a look at three more massive failures from gaming history! Do you have a failed system of your own that you feel is worth mentioning? If so, speak up!

Amidst the many reader reviews of World of Warcraft, you will find mine one of the most recommended.  Every day the number of users in agreement with my scathing review grows.  Thank you for reading it!  I am flattered!

44 ( and counting ) Gamespot users agree with me : World of Warcraft : The Burning Crusade is about as much fun as a Tetanus shot.