It was marketed as a cheaper computer for the living room, one that could put the internet on your TV while also supporting a library of dedicated games. Like some of the computer hybrids before it, the Pippin was essentially a Macintosh in console form. Tech enthusiasts may crave a dedicated Apple gaming machine today, but it's easy to forget that the Cupertino clan briefly embarked into consoles before. Sega struggled to come anywhere close to the Game Boy, again, and dropped the Nomad after a couple of years. Beyond that, the Nomad launched too late into 16-bit gaming's lifespan, and it wasn't compatible with various Genesis add-ons. The Nomad was too expensive ($180 at launch), and it ate up batteries like nobody's business. But you know the drill with these things. It could even be hooked up to a TV and used as a more portable home console. It was a portable version of Sega's popular 16-bit home console, with a colorful, 3.25-inch, LCD display and support for the Genesis's extensive library of games. In short, the Nomad was to the Genesis what the TurboExpress was to the TurboGrafx-16. Sega had achieved some success with the Game Gear in the early 90s, but by late 1995 it gave the portable another shot with the Nomad. Sega Nomad (1995)ĭespite the Virtual Boy's problems, Nintendo and the Game Boy were still murdering everything else on the handheld market (including a handful of obscure devices that we didn't get into here). Nintendo discontinued the project within a year of its launch, selling less than a million units overall. The Virtual Boy was definitely onto something-just look how geeked people are for the Oculus Rift-but playing it was just unpleasant. It only had 22 games, with just 14 making it to North America. Its monochrome display was strictly made up of red LEDs, which kept costs down but made using the 32-bit console an ugly, migraine-inducing experience. It didn't really provide 3D games instead, it used a 'parallax' illusion that merely showed some 3D-looking objects on a 2D plane. It was awkwardly designed, not portable, and had just about no multiplayer features. The Virtual Boy had almost too many problems to count. It came at a time when the public was eager for improved home consoles, and was infamously rushed through its multimillion-dollar development process so the gaming giant could finish up its Nintendo 64 as a result. The Virtual Boy's sort-of-but-not-really-virtual-reality setup was mighty ambitious, but it wasn't all that fun to use. It would stay well behind Sony and Nintendo for its entire generation. This botched launch helped lead Sega to lose millions on the console in its lifetime. That made it so only six games were available from at launch, which was especially weak since the Saturn was $100 more expensive than Sony's console. Sega's marketing strategy was similarly problematic-it was so eager to get the jump on Sony that it surprisingly pushed the Saturn's US launch date up from September 1995 to directly after E3 that year. For one, it was complicated under the hood, leading some third-party developers to opt for the more accommodating PlayStation. The Saturn suffered from a few fatal, self-imposed flaws. The company had already failed with Genesis add-ons like the Sega CD and, especially, the Sega 32X, but the Saturn marked the beginning of the end for Sega's days as a console making giant. But in North America, and especially when compared to the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation, Sega's follow-up to the Genesis couldn't hold up. The Saturn sold millions of units in its lifetime, was big in Japan, and had some awesome games.
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