15 Gadgets That Failed to Soar

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
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Stuff.tv really has this thing for picking out the nostalgic artifacts and reminding just how cool they were and how much older we are all getting by remembering them. This installment gives us 15 gadgets that should have made the big time, but due to snags along the way, never quite made the leap.
 
Sega Dreamcast was/is a great console. Panzer Dragoon was awesome!.
 
I still play my Dreamcast, great for fighting games if you're into that ;)
 
I just read about the Infinium Phantom and wiki says they sued [H] for defamation.

$50k payday for Kyle lol.
 
You could burn games to CD-R's from ISO's and they would play. Not very profitable for publishers...

But you could do that with Playstation 2 , Xbox and 360 games too & they were all successful. :confused:
 
But you could do that with Playstation 2 , Xbox and 360 games too & they were all successful. :confused:

except those required a softmod or modchip. Dreamcast required neither all you did was burn the game and you where done. I believe some of the Dreamcast systems did required the bootdisc while others didn't.
 
List reminded me about the Palm pre. I don't know how on earth anyone ever thought that thing had a chance against the iPhone.

That said, oculus rift and Vr will be the next thing on this list when they redo it. Probably the wiiU as well depending on if Nintendo can actually listen and save that sinking ship.
 
Dreamcast was a great machine. Everyone blames piracy that killed it but actually it was Sega management shooting itself in the feet over and over. They basically stopped advertising once the PS2 came out. Management had already decided they couldn't beat Sony, and so they didn't try.

EA actually approached Sega about making games exclusive for Dreamcast (or at least with a significant delay from the PS2). Sega turned them down, preferring to keep it in-house with 2K studios... then EA bought the rights to the entire NFL world and suddenly 2K couldn't make any more "NFL" football games.

The final nail in the coffin was not actually from Sony's PS2 however... it was the XBox. Sega management thought they had an alliance with MS because they licensed their Windows CE OS. They did not even see Xbox coming. Management was so scared sh!tless of Microsoft that it just gave up and called it game over. They put the Dreamcast on the clearance shelf and killed all game titles still in development. Idiots.

Dreamcast was the first console with 3D graphics and online gaming (56k modem first, then the ethernet adapter). The Dreamcast team actually wanted ethernet first, but the oh so talented management FORCED them to develop and use a modem instead, thinking the general public all used dialup (a good idea in 1995 I guess, but when it released in 99?).

Then the piracy thing, and by 2000 cd burners and blank media were affordable.
 
Dreamcast was a great machine. Everyone blames piracy that killed it but actually it was Sega management shooting itself in the feet over and over. They basically stopped advertising once the PS2 came out. Management had already decided they couldn't beat Sony, and so they didn't try.

EA actually approached Sega about making games exclusive for Dreamcast (or at least with a significant delay from the PS2). Sega turned them down, preferring to keep it in-house with 2K studios... then EA bought the rights to the entire NFL world and suddenly 2K couldn't make any more "NFL" football games.

The final nail in the coffin was not actually from Sony's PS2 however... it was the XBox. Sega management thought they had an alliance with MS because they licensed their Windows CE OS. They did not even see Xbox coming. Management was so scared sh!tless of Microsoft that it just gave up and called it game over. They put the Dreamcast on the clearance shelf and killed all game titles still in development. Idiots.

Dreamcast was the first console with 3D graphics and online gaming (56k modem first, then the ethernet adapter). The Dreamcast team actually wanted ethernet first, but the oh so talented management FORCED them to develop and use a modem instead, thinking the general public all used dialup (a good idea in 1995 I guess, but when it released in 99?).

Then the piracy thing, and by 2000 cd burners and blank media were affordable.

Damn. I just had a life history in one minute :(
 
Sega Dreamcast was/is a great console. Panzer Dragoon was awesome!.

The game was nothing short of amazing but it was for Sega Saturn. Unless you're talking about a different version.
 
Dreamcast was a great machine. Everyone blames piracy that killed it but actually it was Sega management shooting itself in the feet over and over. They basically stopped advertising once the PS2 came out. Management had already decided they couldn't beat Sony, and so they didn't try.

EA actually approached Sega about making games exclusive for Dreamcast (or at least with a significant delay from the PS2). Sega turned them down, preferring to keep it in-house with 2K studios... then EA bought the rights to the entire NFL world and suddenly 2K couldn't make any more "NFL" football games.

The final nail in the coffin was not actually from Sony's PS2 however... it was the XBox. Sega management thought they had an alliance with MS because they licensed their Windows CE OS. They did not even see Xbox coming. Management was so scared sh!tless of Microsoft that it just gave up and called it game over. They put the Dreamcast on the clearance shelf and killed all game titles still in development. Idiots.

Dreamcast was the first console with 3D graphics and online gaming (56k modem first, then the ethernet adapter). The Dreamcast team actually wanted ethernet first, but the oh so talented management FORCED them to develop and use a modem instead, thinking the general public all used dialup (a good idea in 1995 I guess, but when it released in 99?).

Then the piracy thing, and by 2000 cd burners and blank media were affordable.

Bingo!
pro tip you want to burn your Dreamcast drive out quick run pirated games on it. My buddy has gone thru a bunch using burned games . My launch unit still works perfect but I've never played anything but genuine games on it.
 
Bingo!
pro tip you want to burn your Dreamcast drive out quick run pirated games on it. My buddy has gone thru a bunch using burned games . My launch unit still works perfect but I've never played anything but genuine games on it.

I beg too differ. Not one person I know had any issues with their Dreamcast's no matter how they acquired their games. Sounds like you are generalizing one person's experience into a trend of some sort.
 
except those required a softmod or modchip. Dreamcast required neither all you did was burn the game and you where done. I believe some of the Dreamcast systems did required the bootdisc while others didn't.

^ what he said. No modding required. Just burn and boot.
 
except those required a softmod or modchip. Dreamcast required neither all you did was burn the game and you where done. I believe some of the Dreamcast systems did required the bootdisc while others didn't.

Oh and if my memory serves me right all Dreamcast's were region free. So you could burn Japanese games as well. It was a piracy free for all.
 
List reminded me about the Palm pre. I don't know how on earth anyone ever thought that thing had a chance against the iPhone.

That said, oculus rift and Vr will be the next thing on this list when they redo it. Probably the wiiU as well depending on if Nintendo can actually listen and save that sinking ship.

Well the Palm pre was a very good phone, it did a lot of things better than the iphone. When the pre came out the iphone was steam rolling the competition with advertising, I don't think it was ever going to out sell but it should of lasted.
 
The "we said" part is funny because it looks like "stuff" got it wrong over and over.
 
I agree with the Dreamcast,I always favored Sega's consoles. If it could have gotten better third party support,it would have succeeded. The Phantom doesn't even belong on the list,it was vaporware that never even produced.
 
Well the Palm pre was a very good phone, it did a lot of things better than the iphone.

+1

Although my current Android is a lot faster than my old Pre, I must say to this day I still miss the "swipe-based" multi-tasking of the Pre. Best part of that OS, in my opinion. I was sad to see it abandoned.
 
Well the Palm pre was a very good phone, it did a lot of things better than the iphone. When the pre came out the iphone was steam rolling the competition with advertising, I don't think it was ever going to out sell but it should of lasted.

As someone who has been been in IT since blackberries first got big and was responsible for the companies telecom at that time. I am going to respectfully disagree. The iPhone for all its faults made one thing extremely clear. The "qwerty" keyboards days were numbered and the bar phone was going to be the new standard. Oh sure some of the die hard's fought against it, but to most at least from a professional stance it was plain as day. So the Palm Pre in all honesty never stood a chance. It was a design that was out dated before it ever hit the market . Same could be said for all the blackberry phones that kept coming out and selling in smaller and smaller numbers. Don't get me wrong, I certainly understand the reason why some prefer the keyboard and I'm not discounting that. I am simply pointing out that numbers rule when it comes to phones and qwerty phones were clearly on the rapid decline at that point. Palm was absolutely Foolish to launch that phone.
 
Still whip out the DreamCast from time to time, just an all around great console, with games that are STILL fun to play. :)
 
Bingo!
pro tip you want to burn your Dreamcast drive out quick run pirated games on it. My buddy has gone thru a bunch using burned games . My launch unit still works perfect but I've never played anything but genuine games on it.

I did play around with the ISO's back then, and they did work... but they loaded much more slowly... so much in fact that some games were damn near unplayable (Crazy Taxi, from 1st hand experience) they loaded so slow the console couldn't deal with it and you had texture pop in everywhere... and the drive would be seeking like crazy the whole time. I suspect they indexed the data differently and when flat copied to an iso it didn't make an exact duplicate. Some other games were like this too... I just started buying the games instead, like a good boy.

Man I tell ya... what a blast it was to play House of the dead at home on my bigscreen with the light gun. Just like playing the arcade version, but without dropping $20 at Dave and Busters every time.
 
I did play around with the ISO's back then, and they did work... but they loaded much more slowly... so much in fact that some games were damn near unplayable (Crazy Taxi, from 1st hand experience) they loaded so slow the console couldn't deal with it and you had texture pop in everywhere... and the drive would be seeking like crazy the whole time. I suspect they indexed the data differently and when flat copied to an iso it didn't make an exact duplicate. Some other games were like this too... I just started buying the games instead, like a good boy.

Man I tell ya... what a blast it was to play House of the dead at home on my bigscreen with the light gun. Just like playing the arcade version, but without dropping $20 at Dave and Busters every time.

Back when the Dreamcast was new, was the era of innocence WRT the quality of optical media. Most didn't know what they were buying was absolute shit.

That was probably half the problem.
 
I'm pleasantly surprised to see 3dTV on there... I thought only techy folks (like on here) thought it was unsuccessful
 
I did play around with the ISO's back then, and they did work... but they loaded much more slowly... so much in fact that some games were damn near unplayable (Crazy Taxi, from 1st hand experience) they loaded so slow the console couldn't deal with it and you had texture pop in everywhere... and the drive would be seeking like crazy the whole time. I suspect they indexed the data differently and when flat copied to an iso it didn't make an exact duplicate. Some other games were like this too... I just started buying the games instead, like a good boy.

Man I tell ya... what a blast it was to play House of the dead at home on my bigscreen with the light gun. Just like playing the arcade version, but without dropping $20 at Dave and Busters every time.

My Dreamcast never had that problem... worked perfectly whatever medium I put in it. Maybe a bad burn?
 
As someone who has been been in IT since blackberries first got big and was responsible for the companies telecom at that time. I am going to respectfully disagree. The iPhone for all its faults made one thing extremely clear. The "qwerty" keyboards days were numbered and the bar phone was going to be the new standard. Oh sure some of the die hard's fought against it, but to most at least from a professional stance it was plain as day. So the Palm Pre in all honesty never stood a chance. It was a design that was out dated before it ever hit the market . Same could be said for all the blackberry phones that kept coming out and selling in smaller and smaller numbers. Don't get me wrong, I certainly understand the reason why some prefer the keyboard and I'm not discounting that. I am simply pointing out that numbers rule when it comes to phones and qwerty phones were clearly on the rapid decline at that point. Palm was absolutely Foolish to launch that phone.

All valid points.
 
*and the one of the most significant "nails in the coffin" to the Dreamcast was lack of titles. I wonder why no one wanted to publish games on it..

The problem was that most publishers no longer trusted Sega. The fiasco around the 32X and Saturn really pissed people off. Sega demanded a commitment to 5 titles for the 32x to get a Saturn development license. The 32x dev hardware was crap to start. I went through 3 generations of dev kits before I got one that worked right.

But the real problem was that they promised at least a year of market time before launching the Saturn. The 32x launched for the holidays and in early spring Sega panicked over how things were going in Japan and released about 4 months after the 32x. Companies wasted millions of dollars on development for a platform that died in less than six months.

Also the Saturn was a stone cold bitch to develop for. At best you could get the sh2s to behave as the equivalent of 1.8 processors, it had blocking memory access between the 2 CPUs so if on hit memory the other stalled until the other was done. It also had no perspective correct texture support. Everything was Square textures with 90 degree rotation or bust. More money on a platform that went nowhere. By the time the dream cast shipped most publishers didn't trust them. One of the biggest supporters on the Genesis was EA, with them deliberately abandoning Sega it did a lot of damage and other publishers followed suit.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the Dreamcast. Shipped two games on it. The one I am most proud of was Super Runabout San Francisco edition with the redesigned handling mechanics for Us and EU. Spent 9 month and several shouting matches with the lead programmer to fix it.

I still dust mine off periodically for land stalkers, DOA 2 or soulcalibur, mdk2, Shenmue, ready 2 rumble, D2, gigawing 1/2' and the Sakura taisen series.
 
I always thought the GamePark handhelds were interesting, but they never gained an audience outside of Korea.
 
The problem was that most publishers no longer trusted Sega. The fiasco around the 32X and Saturn really pissed people off. Sega demanded a commitment to 5 titles for the 32x to get a Saturn development license. The 32x dev hardware was crap to start. I went through 3 generations of dev kits before I got one that worked right.

But the real problem was that they promised at least a year of market time before launching the Saturn. The 32x launched for the holidays and in early spring Sega panicked over how things were going in Japan and released about 4 months after the 32x. Companies wasted millions of dollars on development for a platform that died in less than six months.

Also the Saturn was a stone cold bitch to develop for. At best you could get the sh2s to behave as the equivalent of 1.8 processors, it had blocking memory access between the 2 CPUs so if on hit memory the other stalled until the other was done. It also had no perspective correct texture support. Everything was Square textures with 90 degree rotation or bust. More money on a platform that went nowhere. By the time the dream cast shipped most publishers didn't trust them. One of the biggest supporters on the Genesis was EA, with them deliberately abandoning Sega it did a lot of damage and other publishers followed suit.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the Dreamcast. Shipped two games on it. The one I am most proud of was Super Runabout San Francisco edition with the redesigned handling mechanics for Us and EU. Spent 9 month and several shouting matches with the lead programmer to fix it.

I still dust mine off periodically for land stalkers, DOA 2 or soulcalibur, mdk2, Shenmue, ready 2 rumble, D2, gigawing 1/2' and the Sakura taisen series.

You're right about what Sega did with the 32x and Saturn(not sure what the hell they were thinking even bothering with the 32x when the Saturn was already out in Japan. To be honest, none of the publishers should have trusted them either).

That being said, those problems would have been short term for the Dreamcast. The long term problem that killed it was the fact that any kid(and plenty of adults) could use the cd burner they already had and just burn games. I know plenty of people that had dreamcasts, and I don't know any that actually bothered to buy games for it once they learned how easy it was to download and burn games. Of course I don't know everyone on the planet, but I also know that the piracy was so laughably easy that anyone with a duplicator could burn discs and sell them at the fleamarket... and they did.

While the PS1 required gamesharks, boot disks and disc swaps, and the PS2 required a chip(that wasn't particularly expensive, but was still beyond the scope of likely 99% of the owners of the PS2, and even the xbox had piracy as well, it wasn't anywhere near as easy as the dreamcast.

While the DC had great games, it was also "that system with the games that cost next to nothing from the fleamarket or simply burned CD's", and it became very apparent that the publishers ran from the thing like a sinking ship accelerating it's failure.
 
Thanks to the ability to use a Boot CD, a friend of mine and I were able to play Fire Pro D. I forget which import shop we bought it from though...
 
I actually still carry my 80GB Zune player. It always had better audio quality than the iPod of the day and that's what mattered to me. If it had played FLAK, it would have been killer.
 
It's funny the Phantom made the list. We had a blast when we brought the console to quakecon and let Kyle have his way with it on stage.
 
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