Diluted Dante wrote:

To be fair, when the DS was announced it was this weird looking thing that even Nintendo didn't have confidence in. Remember this was apparantly a third pillar to stand alongside the GameCube and the Game Boy. The PSP was the sexiest console ever made, and looked like a true successor to the GBA.

Ha, yeah, that "third pillar" stuff. Then it turned out to be bigger than Jesus and Nintendo dropped the Game Boy sharpish.

davyK wrote:

I want that Nintendo cassette player.

It's epic.

Luckily, if you're so inclined, you can get the Famicom Datarecorder. It's not as good looking, but it is a tape deck with Nintendo written on it.

Someone Is Selling Nearly Every Console Ever Made On eBay For 1 Million Dollars

https://kotaku.com/game-collection-ebay-nintendo-sega-sony-microsoft-1849481394

Indeed. It’s a huge amount of money but I’m also thinking it might actually be low if it is true that it includes practically every console.

It's just 50 versions of each of these main ones, really? Rather than actual niche devices? Seems a bit dull given you only need one of each to actually play the games? Decidedly meh IMHO!

That's cool. 

Not $300 cool though.

This episode of Retro Man Cave about the history of the 3DO sent me down the rabbit hole.



Apparently, there were plans to make a 3DO system that would work in a car. This made me think of the Hitachi Hi-Saturn Navi, a flattened version of Hitachi's version of the Saturn. (I told you it was a rabbit hole.)

Hi-Saturn Navi

Gotta be the coolest looking Saturn. I love the PSone-esque attachable screen. (Yes, I know the PSone came later, and the PC Engine had a similar screen before, but y'know.) Sadly the screen was sold seperately and is now even harder to find than the host machine.

Hi-Saturn


The video says the only other console-for-a-car he knows about is the FM Towns Car Marty, which I'd never heard of. Doing some digging, it's a smaller-and-blockier version of the FM Towns Marty, which itself was a FM Towns computer in a console-shaped case. (It was Famitsu's attempt to compete with NEC's (reasonably) successful (in Japan) PC Engine). Simply stuffing a high-end PC in a smaller case resulted in the Town Marty costing $HOWMUCH?, and no one bought one. Stuffing it into an even smaller case so you could use it in your car... had the same problem. But more so.

FM Towns


FM Towns Marty


FM Towns Car Marty


Unrelated to the console-for-a-car thing, but discovered during the same link hopping session, the Bandai Playdia. Bandai's attempt to compete in the fifth generation, the plan was to make it low-powered and low-cost, and appeal to kids. Hence the awful colour scheme, I guess. Sadly, they forgot to make it actually good, and no one other than Bandai made games for it.

Bandai Playdia

Trying to imagine how well a CD based console would work in a car.

I'd love a hot dog maker under the gearstick

Dark Soldier wrote:

I'd love a hot dog maker under the gearstick

One of the rolling metal bar ones like at the cinema?

EvilRedEye wrote:

I'm still umming and ahhing about getting a WOWCube.

Uhhh, guess I probably should have ordered one before the pound crashed against the dollar...

Found this by accident, while looking for PC Engine mini controllers. If you're a fan of the PC Engine (and if not, why not?), then you'll be familiar with the CD-ROM2 add-on. (Officially pronounced "CD rom rom". No, really.)

PC Engine


CD-ROM2


By our powers combined...



While the FM Towns Marty above was an example of using PC technology to make a console, here we have an example of using console technology to add to a PC.

The NEC PC-8801 MC released in 1989, a year after the CD-ROM2 add-on made the PC Engine the first console to use CDs.

Here's the standard "Model 1" version. Check out the dual floppy drives! Phwoar. The future is now!


Here's the upgraded "Model 2" version.


Check out that optical drive. Yup, it's the CD-ROM2 sitting where the cover used to be. Although this time it's just called CD-ROM, because PCs are serious business, I guess? Model 1 users could buy the optical drive seperately if they wanted to.

Sadly, if this website (fed through Google Translate) is to be believed, the console and PC versions of the CD drive aren't quite the same, so they couldn't be used interchangeably.

Console version left, PC version right.


With the correct hardware (middle right in the image below), you could use the drive with other NEC desktops, albeit not quite as elegantly.


You can imagine the meeting at NEC headquarters. They need a desktop PC with a CD drive to keep up with the competition. To save money, they just take the one they already have and tweak it a bit, rather than desigining a new one from the ground up.

"Johnson, that's why we pay you the big bucks."

retroking1981 wrote:

I got a PC Engine Mini, such a shame it doesn't seem to be hackable as there's so many games in its library I'd like to play.

It makes up for it by being perhaps the best mini console. (IMHO, YMMV.)

Two things struck me about my post above: why am I looking for extra PC Engine mini controllers, when I don't have any friends? Also, why have they blurred the image at the top right of the magazine ad? Now all I can see is some horrific choad.

I never believed my console collection was complete without at least a 2nd controller - even now when the odds of any MP action on what I have except for Switch and Wii are highly unlikely.

I have 4 bloody arcade sticks for my Dreamcast!  Has been used a couple of times - had a Doubles Virtua Tennis event in work.

I cycle my controllers though , mimimises wear and tear.

WOWCube early bird offers end in 24 hours and the pound has recovered a bit... [gulp] guess it's decision time.

I was literally looking at Virtual Boy consoles on eBay earlier, I need help.