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

Unlikely

FUCKING NERD

Unlikely

Win.

retroking1981

Amstrad Mega PC apparently:

£999.99 at launch in 1993, sod that!

cockbeard

So maybe not exactly a 6128, but that was the idea, this was the time that I left computers as PCs were difficult to understand what was good or not. Admittedly I also kept buying the wrong consoles so I obviously couldn't tell if they were good either

RedDave2

I was thinking of the above console - what a piece of shit. I take it you mean the machine below - Amstard Mega PC or something.

davyK

There was an Amstrad computer that could play MD games but I think it was a PC clone type gizmo and I believe the MD games didn't play as well as on the console.

edit:oops - just saw the above post. I can remember seeing it in the shops and thinking it was a nice idea but very pricey.

Yossarian

Console curios is a much better topic for this thread. Carry on.

Blue Swirl

davyK wrote:

There was an Amstrad computer that could play MD games but I think it was a PC clone type gizmo and I believe the MD games didn't play as well as on the console.

Yup, the Amstrad Mega PC. But it was really just an Amstrad computer with a Mega Drive shoved inside. You couldn't, for example, do some word processing and switch to the Mega Drive app. You had to shut the machine down and turn it back on a Mega Drive mode. Two machines in one box, essentially.

As per usual Japan got the better machine in this regard, the Sega TeraDrive. It was an IBM-made PC which could play MD games without having to reboot. Just like the Mega PC it was all kinds of expensive and sold like a swift knee to the happy sacks.

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Blue Swirl

Yossarian wrote:

Console curios is a much better topic for this thread. Carry on.

Done and done.

RedDave2

I remember the terradrive being announced in mean machines Sega and thinking "wow, this is so future, what can Nintendo possibly do to top this?"

I wasn't the brightest back then.

JonB

Does anyone remember the Amstrad Mega PC?

It was a computer that could play Megadrive games. Maybe someone could post a picture...

mistercrayon

Escape

JonB wrote:

Does anyone remember the Amstrad Mega PC?

Its price plummeted so quickly, it's a sure contender for that title.

davyK

mistercrayon

PAH I see your GAME.COM and RAISE YOU a GAME.COM 2

Blue Swirl

Jeebus, I had no idea there was a Game.com 2. How did they get the money to get that project to fruition?

mistercrayon

It's just the same but with less crap. Like Ngage 2 I guess (QD!)

Vela

mistercrayon wrote:

PAH I see your GAME.COM and RAISE YOU a GAME.COM 2

So thats where they got all the 360 dpads from

dynamiteReady

Wonder why this never became a thing?...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC-FX

cockbeard

That was a thing, wasn't that the PC Engine, with Bonk and some quality big sprite 2d platformers and brawlers

[Deleted User]

If you look really closely you can see a panel of plastic that hasn't been over designed.

retroking1981

That was the successor to the PC Engine, the PC-FX.

Think it either:
a) Got crushed by the Super Famicom
b) Came out too close to the Saturn/PlayStation

Blue Swirl

retroking1981 wrote:

Think it either: a) Got crushed by the Super Famicom b) Came out too close to the Saturn/PlayStation

Combination of both, I think. IIRC it did OK in Japan.

poprock

I quite like those big old chunky connectors that plug in with a satisfying plastic ‘clunk’. Everything else about that PC Engine successor is horrible though.

retroking1981

Blue Swirl wrote:

Think it either: a) Got crushed by the Super Famicom b) Came out too close to the Saturn/PlayStation

Combination of both, I think. IIRC it did OK in Japan.

Funnily enough the original PC Engine succeeded on these two points. Namely it showed its superiority over the Famicom and came out early enough to gain traction before the SFC arrived*. Its probably the perfect example of getting everything right for a mid-gen release. Although this was so early the concept of gens probably wasn't a widespread term.

Shame they waited so long to release in the West. By the time they did the Genesis marketing machine was in full swing and calling it TurboGrafx-16 didn't really hide the fact it was just an amazing 8-Bit console.

* edit: I think I remember reading the PC Engine was actually the top selling console in Japan for 2-3 years before the SFC released.

dynamiteReady

Blue Swirl wrote:

retroking1981 wrote:

Think it either: a) Got crushed by the Super Famicom b) Came out too close to the Saturn/PlayStation

Combination of both, I think. IIRC it did OK in Japan.

Nah. It bricked in Japan too.
The Wikipedia article is terse, but it's cool.

Blue Swirl

dynamiteReady wrote:

Nah. It bricked in Japan too. The Wikipedia article is terse, but it's cool.

I don't see much of anything about the system's sales in Japan, but given it went through several iterations and got some add-ons it must have done OK.

Regardless, and on the subject of the PC Engine/TurboGrafx and add-ons, the original unit with CD add-on has to rate as one of the ugliest consoles.

The all-in-one unit is much better.

Harking back to the discussion about the Mega PC and TeraDrive, the Wiki article also mentions the X1 Twin, which was an X1 computer with the ability to play PC Engine Hu-card games. I bet that goes for a fortune now.

And the PC Engine multi-tap could go in my 'Nothing new under the sun' thread. It's the spitting image of the GameCube pad adapter for the Wii U.

retroking1981

I got very close to investing in that all in one model last year but apparently their not very reliable.

Blue Swirl

Odds on the combo is even worse.

RedDave2

Love the look of the jap pc engine. Its so cute and dinky, id have loved it as a kid. The us version is just so bland and ugly.

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