Sins of the Silicon and Console Curios - The Bear and Badger

Blue Swirl

AJ wrote:

I suppose someone needs to post this:

I know Namcot. They made Ridge Rider and Tecken, right?

Diluted Dante wrote:

Because the Master System was fucking awesome.

o/\o

The Neo Geo Visual History book is a thing of beauty.

Blue Swirl

Not sure why the Neo Geo gets a "visual history" and the other systems get "visual compendiums" but hey ho.

AJ

Blue Swirl wrote:

AJ wrote:

I suppose someone needs to post this:

I know Namcot. They made Ridge Rider and Tecken, right?

That's actually the name Namco did their early home video game stuff under, weirdly.

AJ

Facts and rumours:

Namco, founded as it was by one man, is named only after him. He had a head start in the amusement business -- Masaya Nakamura's company began manufacturing kiddie rides in 1955, almost two decades before arcade gaming hit it big. In 1972, when it turned towards the arcade business in earnest (it would acquire Atari's Japanese operations two years later), Nakamura Manufacturing became Namco, short for Nakamura Amusement Machine
Manufacturing Company.

Collectors of vintage 8-bit import games probably own a few Famicom or PC-Engine titles branded "Namcot," instead of just "Namco." During the '80s, when Namco entered the console software publishing business in earnest, it created a separate division to handle those releases -- Namco Home EntertainmenT, at least according to some reports, was shortened to Namcot.

https://web.archive.org/web/20121104204559/http://www.1up.com/features/untitled_26?pager.offset=1

Blue Swirl

Huh. I assumed it was just a Chinese rip off or something. Interesting.

WorKid

How many did they sell?

Spoiler:

Blue Swirl

EDIT: Move along, nothing to see here.

Blue Swirl

OK, so a quick post, partly because this (I reckon, YMMV) is the coolest version of the Saturn, and I can't have the last post in the thread be me derping.

You could also buy an ickle wickle screen for it, a la the PSone (but a few years before).

If you were willing to drop a bit more cash on a GPS receiver, and find a way of mounting this in your car, you could use it as a satnav. Should you happen to fall through a rent in time and space, and end up in 1990s Japan, this could be a real life saver. Maybe.

RedDave2

My Saturn was primarily a 2d fight man machine which also played Sega rally. And I loved it for that.

retroking1981

Speaking of the Saturn, here's the Pluto.

A prototype Saturn with built in net features.

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dims?quality=100&image_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogcdn.com%2Fwww.engadget.com%2Fmedia%2F2013%2F04%2Fsegaplutoconsole.jpg&client=amp-blogside-v2&signature=646b3e2795b74fc486f4e2b2e706f70684f1ac56

Saw it on the latest episode of Did You Know Gaming.

g.man

That's one goofy looking console...

Blue Swirl

g.man wrote:

That's one goofy looking console...

DISNEY PUNS YUS.

Not heard of the Pluto, nice find. Mars was the 32X, iirc, and Neptune was the cancelled stand-alone version.

Blue Swirl

Yeah, found a list of the planet code names.

Mercury - Game Gear
Venus - Nomad
Mars - 32X
Jupiter - 32bit cart-based system that was abandoned in favour of the Saturn
Saturn - Saturn (duh)
Neptune - cancelled MegaDrive and 32X all-in-one
Pluto - Saturn with NetLink modem built-in, also cancelled

Yossarian

Was the Pluto cancelled when it was decided that Pluto wasn’t a planet?

Blue Swirl

Yossarian wrote:

Was the Pluto cancelled when it was decided that Pluto wasn’t a planet?

Ba dum, tish.

Diluted Dante

Pluto 4 Lyfe.

hunk

I like Uranus.

Blue Swirl

hunk wrote:

I like Uranus.

Ooh, you flirt.

LivDiv

While clearing things out this weekend I remembered I own a Wii Mini.

A1Ie1-X-xdL._SX385_.jpg

Feature wise it is limited to say the least, no internet access, no GameCube, manual disc drive. It is closer to a Slim PS2 than a normal Wii. With Wiis being cheap and available it seems an odd choice that Nintendo would even bother. Especially as it launched after the WiiU.

Normally these stripped down versions are built with regions like South America in mind, see the super slim PS3, but as far as I'm aware this only came out in Canada followed by Europe then very late on U.S.

Despite its limitations I like the look of it, it looks retro and there are some famicom influences there. It was marketed alongside the Wii Selects range making it feel like a limited yet pure gaming experience.

I got mine cheap at about 40 quid complete boxed, as it was the cheapest way to get a motion plus Wiimote and nunchuck at the time.
Looking now they are similar prices if not less.
A curio worth picking up now, I can't imagine there will be many moving around in the future.

I think it is great looking. I have seen suggestions that it should be hooked up to a CRT and treated a sa retro console.

cockbeard

AJ wrote:

Facts and rumours:

Namco, founded as it was by one man, is named only after him. He had a head start in the amusement business -- Masaya Nakamura's company began manufacturing kiddie rides in 1955, almost two decades before arcade gaming hit it big. In 1972, when it turned towards the arcade business in earnest (it would acquire Atari's Japanese operations two years later), Nakamura Manufacturing became Namco, short for Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company. Collectors of vintage 8-bit import games probably own a few Famicom or PC-Engine titles branded "Namcot," instead of just "Namco." During the '80s, when Namco entered the console software publishing business in earnest, it created a separate division to handle those releases -- Namco Home EntertainmenT, at least according to some reports, was shortened to Namcot.

https://web.archive.org/web/20121104204559/http://www.1up.com/features/untitled_26?pager.offset=1

I reckon the M was for Amusment Machine not Manufacturing, every firm is manufacturing something

Diluted Dante

Its definately not, because that name is wrong. They were originally Nakamura Seisakusho Co., Ltd, which became Nakamura Manufacturing Co., Ltd in 1959. They began to use the NAMCO name in 1971 before it was officially changed in 1972.

Amusement Machine has never been part of the name. The NA comes from Nakamura, the M from Manufacturing.

https://www.bandainamcoent.co.jp/corporate/history/namco/index.html

Blue Swirl

LivDiv wrote:

While clearing things out this weekend I remembered I own a Wii Mini. (...) I think it is great looking.

Good call on the Wii mini, totally agreed about the looks. It might end up being mildly collectible in future, there can't be as many as 'normal' Wiis.

As for it coming out after the Wii U, that's not too uncommon. Well, I certainly remember PSone getting games after the PS2 came out, same for Master System/Mega Drive. I don't think either came out after their successor, though. Didn't Mega Drive 3 come out after the Saturn launched? The Wii gets the last laugh, though: Just Dance 2019 is coming out for Switch and Wii, but not Wii U.

Diluted Dante

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/just-dance-2019-wii-u

AJ

The updated NES came out a couple of years after the SNES.

Blue Swirl

Diluted Dante wrote:

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/just-dance-2019-wii-u

Welp, I'll shut my whore mouth. In my defence, TV ads I saw for the game showed Switch and Wii. I'm guessing because both of those have bigger install bases than the Wii U. (Probably by an order of magnitude in the Wii's case.)

AJ wrote:

The updated NES came out a couple of years after the SNES.

NES Jr.? Well remembered.

davyK

I may be wrong but I believe the Wii mini is composite out only which is a bit shit.

ChopperByrne

It is.

Even if you only wanted a Wii for on disc, offline, Wii games, you're still better off with a regular one, as it looks gorgeous via component cables.

retroking1981

All Nintendo home console revisions are shit.

NES - RF only
SNES - composite only
Wii - composite only, no wifi/online

RedDave2

The Wii U revision was good though. I love my Switch

retroking1981

Oh snap!!!

Howdy, Stranger!

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