6 console flops that were actually amazing, from the Sega Dreamcast to the Neo Geo Pocket

DS:
Sometimes life just isn't fair. Vincent Van Gogh went completely unappreciated during his lifetime despite his obvious genius; Jesus - a man who could turn water into wine, don't forget - was nailed to a cross and left for dead; while Steve Brookstein has only ever had one number one single, despite winning the very first series of The X Factor. Now what's that about?

[WilliamSheridan]

Dreamcast was definitely ahead of its time....

[Knushwood Butt]

Loved my Neo Pocket Colour

Spent hours on card fighters clash games

[InTheZoneAC]

the dreamcast was not amazing:
-It's graphics were in between ps1 and ps2
-the controller felt so narrow and skinny
-no dvd drive

I don't know why people act like it was anything more than another overrated undersold flop of a console. My friend had one because "next gen" and I told him I'm just waiting for PS2.

He always talked about graphics, non stop. Of course when I played it did look better than anything I've seen before, but that was it. The games were ok at best. I didn't like NFL 2K's control scheme compared to Madden's.

Even as a kid I predicted this console would die off in 2 years, well what happened...

[filchron]

You must have hated arcades. Youre probably real fun at parties /s

between PS1 and PS2? no. DC had much better filtering than grainy ass PS2. compare the DOA2 on PS2 and the DC and then revise that wrong statement buddy. and the sad thing is PS2 had TWICE the ram of the DC and the 480p signal from DC still came out WAY cleaner than PS2's.

[InTheZoneAC]

arcades are definitely fun. Went to celebration station any time we could :)

"you're" probably real fun at parties...because wtf does that have to do with anything...

if dreamcast was any good it wouldn't have died faster than the wii u has...

don't be so defensive, I'm not the one that controlled everyone else not to buy it lol

[DivineAssault]

DC ran games at 60FPS and was an arcade players "Dream" come true.. For the first time, arcade games were surpassed by a console.. Saturn had it 1:1 if you imported with the 4mb cart.. I wasnt in love with the DC controller but i had a 6 button layout 3rd party i used for all those great fighting games.. PS2 was superior in hardware but why is it games like Grandia 2 played like crap on there? Just like the original that played way better on Saturn than PS1..

Yes they both died but they werent bad machines.. Sega was always a middle gen console.. Genesis was meant to compete with NES, Saturn was meant to 1 up Nintendo again but the PS deal fell through and there it went.. VMUs, online, high res 60fps gameplay, 4 control ports... They were ahead of their time..

[N0TaB0T]

You never played it.

[FlyingFoxy]

That's the main reason that DC failed, because people lost faith in Sega after the 32x, MEGA CD & kinda the Saturn. People were hyped for the PS2 and that's a big reason why DC failed to sell, it really didn't have many poor games at all and most were good to great.

Not sure what you're on about with the graphics either, most games were just as good looking as ones on PS2.

The only thing you could say was lacking on the DC was storage on the GD roms and maybe they could've added a second thumb stick. There wasn't really anything wrong with its graphics capability for the time, don't forget it came out way earlier than the PS2.

You kinda lost credibility by saying the DC had grainy graphics.

[Godmars290]

Part of the DC's failure was the loss of faith from the core gaming audience coupled with finical choices which left Sega in bad sorts, but another was the lack of a similar hook to the PS2, namely movie playback. At the time GD roms had the option, remember seeing discs for the format in a few places, and if Sega had included it things might have been different.

People/gamers look at the PS2 and only say/think that the games for it made all the difference, sold well over 100 million of the consoles, but it was DVD movies that tipped the scales as far as the general public was concerned.

[InTheZoneAC]

who said anything about grainy?

[Segata]

I should kick you into outer space for such a ignorant comment.

[Picnic]

Of course the graphics were inbetween PS1 and PS2... because it was released between PS1 and PS2!

The graphics were closer to PS2 level than PS1 level.

In fact, many early PS2 games did not look as good as Dreamcast games. And Jet Set Radio and Shenmue look great for the time to this day.

[Picnic]

Your prediction that it would die off within 2 years was not without basis - the MegaCD, the 32x, the Saturn. Sega's past history of releasing expensive add ons, abandoning some of their previous successes (like no new Sonic game on Saturn!), coupled with a new entrant in the market, Sony, meant that, unfortunately, Sega was like the Ghost of Christmas Past to many people. And if you didn't like arcade games, or arcade-STYLE games, or RPGS, there really wasn't all that much on it. It was a bit like having a new NEO GEO in a way- quite good visually, if a little rough round the edges sometimes, but just not as personal to many people as the competition and not having sufficient sense of depth gameswise apart from Shenmue.

[iplay1up2]

Um, when Dreamcast came out it was the most powerful system available. In some ways it was MORE powerful than PS2.

GameCube, had more power than PS2, as well as XBOX. PS2 was the weaker of that gen, but it still won, and went on to be the 1 selling game console o all time.

[gangsta_red]

"-It's graphics were in between ps1 and ps2"

Wow, I was all set to read why the Dreamcast was not amazing and then all credibility became lost with your first point.

[InTheZoneAC]

and I fail to see any of your points why it was great, completely disputing the fact that it died because it did suck

[gangsta_red]

The Dreamcast was great because it did have better graphics than the PS2, they had some of the best looking games at that time. Capcom's fighters played flawlessly on the Dreamcast and was the go to machine to play their games because of how fast the gamer played compared to a much slower PS2.

Dreamcast was also the first system where I played Madden online. Which blew my mind at that time since online was mainly a PC thing.

The system was ahead of it's time, Sega channel and the VMU were just a few examples of what made that system so great along with online and the great Sega games that released with it.

The system failed partly due to lack of third party support. Sega burned many third parties by dropping the Saturn so quickly, many third party devs including Sega of America had games in development for the Saturn. The Saturn architecture was already a nightmare to develop for so imagine these devs having to scrap that work because Sega dropped the Saturn.

Sega also burned a lot of retail stores by not only moving the release date of the Saturn up but exclusively releasing the system in only some retail stores. Because of this some retailers KB Hobbies (i believe) refused to carry Sega products.

"..completely disputing the fact that it died because it did suck.."

You made even less points and more opinions based on nothing really and yet you say "facts"?

[blawren4]

Failure is always relative. How many sales makes something successful? "If your not first, your last", or in this case, you failed. I'll admit, I've never heard of a couple of these.

[PhoenixUp]

GameCube made the most profit in its generation. I don't consider that console a flop.

I consider a flop to be a product that has a negative impact financially for a company.

[Picnic]

Have you got proof that the Gamecube made the most profit in its generation as, despite how cost effective Nintendo said it was to make a Gamecube, which had no complicated Emotion engine in it nor DVD drive, I would still highly doubt that the Gamecube overall made more profit for Nintendo than the PS2 did for Sony. The mass popularity of the PS2 meant that it was often sold at (a higher price (sometimes 2-3 times the price) of the Gamecube. For a month or 2, you could get a Gamecube and Resident Evil 4 or Wind Waker for just 40 UK pounds (55.55 dollars). And even if Sony could have made a bit more profit overall on the consoles, surely Sony get a cut on the games. With 155 million owners compared to Gamecube's 21 million, Sony would rake it in.

[PhoenixUp]

Nintendo made profit on every GameCube sold since day one while it took Sony a while before they broke even on PS2.

[Picnic]

Please can you provide your source? I can imagine that piracy could have eaten in to Sony's profits whereas piracy was close to impossible on Gamecube. But it would have much more to do with that, I think, than with any minor difference in console manufacturing cost versus console price.

[Concertoine]

Nintendo made the most profit that gen but that was largely due to the GBA and not the GC.

[DivineAssault]

I bought the neo geo pocket color on clearance with like 6 games. I was amazed at how awesome they looked at the time.. Hell, most of these are great systems.. Sega was my favorite company.. I can understand why people didnt trust them after all those add ons but i just stuck with the main consoles.. I bought Saturn instead of Playstation until i had no choice but to switch.. I hated Playstation at the time because 3D was so damn clunky to play until N64 perfected it..

[N0TaB0T]

Neo Geo Pocket still has the best joystick on a handheld gaming system, fight me.

[Segata]

Saturn,Dreamcast,Wii U,Vita.Game Gear,TurboGrafx16 are systems that commercially bombed but won my gamer heart.

[higgins78]

Agreed. Add the Gamecube and Wii U into that mix.

[Sirk7x]

Gamecube is all time favorite.

[TheEnigma313]

Wii U nah.

[Segata]

Yes the Wii U. Gave me some of my games this gen and my top 5 games of all time in XCX. Plus the greatest action game ever made in Bayonetta 2. I look at games of a console, not popular opinion to hate on just because. Back in 2000 was just as popular to shit on Dreamcast and in 1997 was super popular to shit on Saturn. Now years later people praise them. I always praised them because they always been consoles with great games.

[Coachkeys]

That's what's funny about. When they use a word like flop, It makes it sound inferior or just downright boring. I've owned all the "flop" systems (well, except ouya) and I was never disappointed.

[fatneal]

onlive was so ahead of its time it doesnt makes sense....i bought one early 2012 and was blown away. a lot of people dont know that sony quietly purchased onlives only game streaming competitor (gaikai) and turned it into what is now known as psNOW...i use psNOW on my ps4 and its just as good if not better than what onlive was.

other than that i think dreamcast and wiiU will go down as the most underrated underappreciated consoles of all time

[Sirk7x]

Wii U needs to be opened up by Nintendo to be used with Homebrew applications easily. Imagine what the fanbase could do with the controller using applications that Nintendo was never able to.

[gangsta_red]

I'm sure this article was being nice to Sega because you could easily fill that list up with even more failed Sega consoles, add ons and portables.

Real shame too, the Dreamcast was a fantastic system. Sega has some of the most interesting IP's around. But that PS2..what a monster that console was.

[YodasMyDad]

I'm almost 36. When the Dreamcast came out in NA on 9-9-99 my gamer friends and I were FLOORED. 'Speed Devils' was my fav. game on that system.