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Strange and forgotten consoles

872 bytes added, 18:31, 24 March 2019
Handhelds: Filtering this chart into multi-decade splits. Everyone liking it (After seeing the preview, whoa, these are big sections.)?
! scope="col"|Description
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!colspan="4"|Before 1991|-|[[wikipedia:Design Digi Casse|Bandai Digi Casse]]|None|No|Originally released in Japan by Bandai in 1984, another short-lived console from the early 80s. Only had around 4 to 6 games released for it. The console was released in Europe by an unknown company and in Russia as the Elektronika NM 26, both sometime in the late 80s.|-|[[wikipedia:Epoch_Game_Pocket_Computer|Epoch Game Pocket Computer]]|Good|Yes|Only 5 games exist for this handheld (Released in 1984). All can be found [http://www.theoldcomputer.com/roms/index.php?folder=Epoch/Game-Pocket-Computer/Cartridges here].|-|[[wikipedia:Grandstand_(game_manufacturer)#Projector-based_'Light'_games|Grandstand Light Games]]|None|No|Have you every played a poor Game & Watch clone and said to yourself "I Would Love to Play This On The Big Screen"? Then the Light Games from 1988 is for you. It has a built-in projector and less then 10 games released for it. It's unknown how many units were sold or when it was discontinued.|-|[[wikipedia:Game_Master_(console)|Hartung Game Master Senshi Mangajukuu]]|Decent|Bandai Denshi Manga JukuYes (No-intro)|A German Game Boy knockoff released in 1990. Also distributed in the UK as the '''Systema 2000''' and under alternate names in other countries, including '''Super Game''' and '''Game Tronic'''. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay9dZ-RBpQA Demonstration]|-|[[wikipedia:Palmtex Portable Videogame System|Palmtex PVS / Super Micro]]|None|No|Released in 1984, Super Micro was a handheld console similar to the Milton Bradley Microvision in design. Bad timing, a lack of advertising, and issues with its design and quality (the plastic body is vary fragile) resulted in failure. Palmtex sold less then 37,000 units and discontinued the console the same year it was released. Only three of the eight games announced were released.|-|[[wikipedia:Romtec Colorvision|Romtec Colorvision]]|None|No|Released in 1984, The Colorvision was another cheaply made console released during the Video Game Crash. It's unknown how many units were sold or when it was discontinued. Only 5 games were released for it.|-|[[wikipedia:VTech 3D Gamate|VTech 3D Gamate]]|None|No|An extremely rare console released in 1983 by VTech, it's unknown how many units were sold and was likely discontinued shortly after released. While six games were announced, only 3 are known to have been released.|-|[[wikipedia:VTech Variety|VTech Variety]]|None|No|Another extremely rare console released from VTech in 1983, like the 3D Gamate. It's unknown how many units were sold and was also likely discontinued shortly after released. Only six games are known to have been released for it.|-|[[wikipedia:List_of_VTech_Handheld_electronic_games|VTech ProScreen]]
|None
|No
|Released in Japan by Bandai in 1995Yet another extremely rare console from VTech, the Denshi Manga Juku The ProScreen was a touchscreen-based console that was the predecessor to the WonderSwan. It was discontinued released in 1996 1984 and only four three games were are known to have been released for it (including of all things, an exclusive Rockman aka Mega Man game).|-!colspan="4"|1991-2000
|-
|[[wikipedia:Digi CasseDesign Master Senshi Mangajukuu|Bandai Digi CasseDenshi Manga Juku]]
|None
|No
|Originally released Released in Japan by Bandai in 19841995, another shortthe Denshi Manga Juku was a touchscreen-lived based console from that was the predecessor to the early 80sWonderSwan. Only had around 4 to 6 It was discontinued in 1996 and only four games were released for it. The console was released in Europe by (including of all things, an unknown company and in Russia as the Elektronika NM 26, both sometime in the late 80sexclusive Rockman aka Mega Man game).
|-
|C2: Color & Card
|None
|No
|Released in 1995 in China by Baiyi Animation, The extremely rare, C2 was made to bank on the popularity of Roco Kingdom films but ultimately it was a flop, . Only 6 games were made for it and was discontinued shortly after released.
|-
|[[wikipedia:Cybiko|Cybiko/Cybiko Xtreme ]]
|The Cybiko is a Russian handheld computer introduced in the U.S. by David Yang's company Cybiko Inc. as a retail test market in New York on April 2000, and rolled out nationwide in May 2000. It is designed for teens, featuring its own two-way radio text messaging system. It had over 430 "official" freeware games and applications.
|-
|[[wikipedia:List_of_commercial_failures_in_video_gaming#digiBlastGamate|DigiBlastGamate]]|Good|Yes|Another attempt to capture part of the Game Boy market, the Gamate was released in the early 90s by Bit Corporation. The magnitude of its failure makes it and its software obscenely rare today, with prices over 500 dollars for the handheld alone on eBay. It's so obscure that it wasn't until December 2014 when preliminary support for the handheld was added in MAME, and ROM dumps were made.|-|Koei PasoGo
|None
|No
|The DigiBlast is In 1996, Koei released a Linux-based console from 2005 that was meant to compete with both Game Boy competitor in Japan called the GameBoy Advance PasoGo, and for some reason Koei decided to market it as being designed specifically to play the VideoNow series traditional Asian board game, Go. The console flopped thanks to its high price tag of portable video players39, Unfortunately despite having a solid launch lineup800 Yen (about $600 when adjusted for inflation), The system was a major flop and quickly became one the size of the worst selling consoles ever releaseddevice, only selling about 100,000 and the fact that all six launch titles were slightly different versions of Go. It's unknown how many units in its short lifespanwere sold or when it was discontinued.
|-
|[[wikipedia:Epoch_Game_Pocket_ComputerMega_Duck|Epoch Game Pocket ComputerMegaDuck/CougarBoy]]
|Good
|Yes
|Only 5 Chinese knockoff Game Boy (Made and released in 1993 by a Hong Kong firm) that was branded with various bizarre names, despite each version being exactly the same. Used cartridges. ROMs are out there, surprisingly.|-|[[wikipedia:Pixter|Pixter]]|None|No|Released in 2000 as Fisher-Price's first (and only) Video Game Console, the Pixter was one of many consoles from the 2000s sold in the toy aisle and marketed towards children; around 25 to 50 games exist were released for this it before being discontinued in 2007.|-|[[wikipedia:Game.com|Tiger Game.com]]|Preliminary|No-intro // [https://archive.org/download/TOSEC_V2017-04-23/Tiger/ TOSEC]|Launched on August 1997. An infamous piece of shit, with quite possibly the worst screen on any handheldever. Somehow still had a "port" of Resident Evil 2. All can be found [httphttps://www.theoldcomputeryoutube.com/romswatch?v=wfxzVFzvizE CGR review]. Notable milestones in industry: it was the first video game console to include a touchscreen and the first handheld console to include Internet connectivity.|-|[[wikipedia:Watara_Supervision|Watara Supervision]]|Good|No-intro // [https://indexarchive.php?folder=Epochorg/download/TOSEC_V2017-04-23/Watara/TOSEC]|An attempt at making a real competitor for the GameBoy/Color and introduced in 1992.|-Pocket!colspan="4"|2001-Computer/Cartridges here2010|-|[[wikipedia:List_of_commercial_failures_in_video_gaming#digiBlast|DigiBlast]]|None|No|The DigiBlast is a Linux-based console from 2005 that was meant to compete with both the GameBoy Advance and the VideoNow series of portable video players, Unfortunately despite having a solid launch lineup, The system was a major flop and quickly became one of the worst selling consoles ever released, only selling about 100,000 units in its short lifespan.
|-
|[[wikipedia:Gameking|GameKing]]
|Yes
|A rather bastardized attempt at making a Gameboy-esque handheld, manufactured and marketed by TimeTop (aka Guangzhou Daidaixing Tec. Electronics Co. Ltd.) in 2003. Strangely enough, this one's even more primitive than the Supervision, Gamate and Mega Duck consoles before it, as it uses a lower-resolution 64x32 screen, and that's despite companies such as Subor (i.e. that Chinese company who gained notoriety for developing an AMD-based gaming PC/console hybrid) releasing workalike clones of the [[Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators|Game Boy]] and, more recently, GBA clones. MAME support for it is preliminary at best.
|-
|[[wikipedia:Gamate|Gamate]]
|Good
|Yes
|Another attempt to capture part of the Game Boy market, the Gamate was released in the early 90s by Bit Corporation. The magnitude of its failure makes it and its software obscenely rare today, with prices over 500 dollars for the handheld alone on eBay. It's so obscure that it wasn't until December 2014 when preliminary support for the handheld was added in MAME, and ROM dumps were made.
|-
|[[wikipedia:Gizmondo|Gizmondo]]
|Preliminary
|Yes (No-intro)
|A Korean handheld, it was released on November 23, 2001, in South Korea only. It was the first handheld to use SD cards and had pretty good specs for the time, so everybody ended up just jailbreaking it and using it as an emulator/homebrew platform. The developers later went on to develop the more successful GP2X line, which was designed from the ground up for emulators. An emulator was made for the system in 2002 called "GeePee32" that is known to be able to emulate many commercial games for the system, though some lack sound. However, the project is inactive. It can be found here: [http://users.skynet.be/bk327964/gp32/]|-|[[wikipedia:Grandstand_(game_manufacturer)#Projector-based_'Light'_games|Grandstand Light Games]]|None|No|Have you every played a poor Game & Watch clone and said to yourself "I Would Love to Play This On The Big Screen"? Then the Light Games from 1988 is for you. It has a built-in projector and less then 10 games released for it. It's unknown how many units were sold or when it was discontinued.
|-
|Giochi Preziosi My Life
|No
|Released in Italy in 2007, My Life was marketed towards young girls five to thirteen years of age, A Simple life simulator serves as the built-in game and as the main UI. How many units sold, number of games were released and when it was discontinued is unknown.
|-
|[[wikipedia:Game_Master_(console)|Hartung Game Master]]
|Decent
|Yes (No-intro)
|A German Game Boy knockoff. Also distributed in the UK. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay9dZ-RBpQA Demonstration]
|-
|Koei PasoGo
|None
|No
|In 1996, Koei released a Game Boy competitor in Japan called the PasoGo, and for some reason Koei decided to market it as being designed specifically to play the traditional Asian board game, Go. The console flopped thanks to its high price tag of 39,800 Yen (about $600 when adjusted for inflation), the size of the device, and the fact that all six launch titles were slightly different versions of Go. It's unknown how many units were sold or when it was discontinued.
|-
|[[wikipedia:Leapster|Leapster]]
|Preliminary
|Yes (No-intro)
|The Leapster Learning Game System (Released in late 2003) is an educational handheld game console aimed at 4 to 10-year-olds (preschool to fourth grade) and made by LeapFrog Enterprises. Its games teach the alphabet, phonics, basic mathematics (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), art, and animal facts to players. It featured a touchscreen and games from various licenses from Thomas & Friends to Sonic X. Oddly enough it has a homebrew scene that even features some emulators, most especially with its successors, i.e. the Didj, Leapster Explorer, and LeapPad series of tablets which run on the Pollux and NXP3200 platforms along with a customized Linux distribution.|-|[[wikipedia:Mega_Duck|MegaDuck/CougarBoy]]|Good|Yes|Chinese knockoff Game Boy that was branded with various bizarre names, despite each version being exactly the same. Used cartridges. ROMs are out there, surprisingly.|-|M&D Monon Color|None|No|Like the C2, The Monon Color from 2014 also tried to bank on the popularity of Roco Kingdom films and was only slightly more successful then it, its unknown how many games were released for it or when it was discontinued.
|-
|[[wikipedia:Pokemon_Mini|Nintendo Pokémon Mini]]
|Decent
|[https://archive.org/download/TOSEC_V2017-04-23/Nintendo/Pokemon%20Mini/ TOSEC]
|A very downgraded Game Boy(But also the tiniest cart-based handheld device made by Nintendo). It was first released in NA and then Japan on late 2001. Only Pokemon related games were released, and its catalog of games is also very limited. It's also very rare nowadays. Decent support in MAME, though there are other choices to play these games on other emulators.
|-
|[[wikipedia:N-Gage_(device)|Nokia N-Gage]]
|None
|Yes
|Nokia's attempt at making a cell phone/handheld system hybrid, before mobile gaming really took off. Although it was the most powerful handheld in its timeand released in October 2003, it failed due to a high price, a terrible button layout, numerous design flaws, and its underdeveloped cell phone component. Had a redesign called the QD, but it was only slightly better. Most of its games were ports, either from the GBA or from the PS1 and Saturn. While it didn't have any standout titles, it still had a few odd original entries from big franchises such as Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey and SSX: Out of Bounds and was the only system to have an English version of Xanadu Next. There's one emulator called N-GageCool, but it's dead payware that only runs Java games. [[Cellphone_emulators#N-Gage_(Nokia)|Modern open source emulators]] are in the works.|-|[[wikipedia:Palmtex Portable Videogame System|Palmtex PVS / Super Micro]]|None|No|Released in 1984, Super Micro was a handheld console similar to the Milton Bradley Microvision in design. Bad timing, a lack of advertising, and issues with its design and quality (the plastic body is vary fragile) resulted in failure. Palmtex sold less then 37,000 units and discontinued the console the same year it was released. Only three of the eight games announced were released.|-|[[wikipedia:Pixter|Pixter]]|None|No|Released in 2000 as Fisher-Price's first (and only) Video Game Console, The Pixter was one of many consoles from the 2000s sold in the toy aisle and marketed towards children, around 25 to 50 games were released for it before being discontinued in 2007.|-|[[wikipedia:Romtec Colorvision|Romtec Colorvision]]|None|No|Released in 1984, The Colorvision was another cheaply made console released during the Video Game Crash. It's unknown how many units were sold or when it was discontinued. Only 5 games were released for it.
|-
|[[wikipedia:Tapwave_Zodiac|Tapwave Zodiac]]
|[http://www.theoldcomputer.com/roms/index.php?folder=Tapwave/Zodiac Some]
|A handheld released in 2003 that used an enhanced Palm OS. Ahead for its time, even receiving awards. However, the PSP and Nintendo DS killed it.
|-
|[[wikipedia:Game.com|Tiger Game.com]]
|Preliminary
|No-intro // [https://archive.org/download/TOSEC_V2017-04-23/Tiger/ TOSEC]
|An infamous piece of shit, with quite possibly the worst screen on any handheld ever. Somehow still had a "port" of Resident Evil 2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfxzVFzvizE CGR review]
|-
|[[wikipedia:VideoNow XP|VideoNow XP]]
|None
|No
|Released in 2003 and underwent 5 total revisions. An often forgotten attempt by Hasbro and their subsidiary Tiger Electronics (of Game.com fame) to use the popularity of the VideoNow portable video players to enter the Video Game market.
|-
!colspan="4"|[[wikipedia:VTech 3D Gamate|VTech 3D Gamate]]|None|No|An extremely rare console released in 1983 by VTech, it's unknown how many units were sold and was likely discontinued shortly after released. While six games were announced, only 3 are known to have been released.2011-2020
|-
|[[wikipedia:VTech Variety|VTech Variety]]|None|No|Another extremely rare console released from VTech in 1983, like the 3D Gamate. It's unknown how many units were sold and was also likely discontinued shortly after released. Only six games are known to have been released for it.|-|[[VTech ProScreen]]M&D Monon Color
|None
|No
|Yet another extremely rare console from VTechLike the C2, The ProScreen Monon Color from 2014 also tried to bank on the popularity of Roco Kingdom films and was released in 1984 and only three slightly more successful than it; it's unknown how many games are known to have been were releasedfor it or when it was discontinued.
|-
|[[wikipedia:Watara_Supervision|Watara Supervision]]
|Good
|No-intro // [https://archive.org/download/TOSEC_V2017-04-23/Watara/ TOSEC]
|An attempt at making a real competitor for the Game Boy/Color.
|}
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