Unproduced Systems and Failed Concepts

I'm not sure if this has been covered already, but I'm interested in systems that were never released and ones that were total failures. I think we know enough about the Virtual Boy though.

Well here's my contribution to this thread...behold, the most "ambitious" handheld never produced. The Action Gamemaster!
http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/special/active11.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Gamemaster

It was an insane or shall we say "inspired" idea for a system. The company behind the concept were responsible for the abominations known as Action 52 and Cheetahmen 2.
Nowadays you get all of those features on a Dingoo, PSP or iPhone. Plus they don't weigh 15 pounds!


Also here is the dreadful Action Max. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Max
A half-assed gaming system that only uses a gun and VHS tapes! The production budgets on the games themselves looked abysmal. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9ZcvwkUHvw

I own one of the games, its Ambush Alley...I feel sorry for the poor sucker in my town that bought one when it was new.

 

I'd love some more info on the Konix Multisystem if anyone has anything??

 

It was a failed concept, the company obviously had big plans for its future. If history played out differently maybe a model would've been made. I thought was worth mentioning for the sheer audacity.

 

Well, while on the concept of canned stuff, has anything surfaced on the Sega Neptune, Nintendo Play Station, or that unnamed 32 or 64 bit cartridge system by Sega since the last time that anyone cared about them? :v

 

I know there is a thread about the Nintendo CD, ironically that's how I found the site. I tried search and way too many things unrelated came up for me. I'm guessing this is because posts range as far back as 2005.

Only a couple threads I could find that "directly" related to this topic.

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23056&highlight=Sega+Neptune

The Phantom (contender for the most ironic console name ever)
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18417&highlight=Phantom
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=508&highlight=Phantom

Really good thread, yet 2 years old and barely any pictures.
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5654&highlight=Phantom&page=4

 

Does anybody have any materials for the Hasbro NEMO system that the game Night Trap was originally made for?

Yeah there is a video included on Night Trap itself and now YouTube, but that's pretty much it I believe.

 

There's a wikipedia article about the NEMO but still no real info about. you can read about at this link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEMO

 

That's how I found out about it, also the shitty Action Max is mentioned there too...same VHS concept except way less interactivity.

Apparently the NEMO was made of a modified ColecoVision console and at lest two VCR's. I may take it upon myself to recreate a facsimile of what it may have looked like.


Here is the only known screenshot of the damn thing...

 

If only that video in Night Trap was clear enough we could probably see the NEMO system or what it was being played on without it being a giant blur.

 

Color Vectrex

 

That colour Vectrex is pretty amazing considering it's a true one of a kind prototype.

 

The Color Vectrex seems to have been conceived to make it so that you didn't have to use screen overlays for color. Least from my understanding.
http://www.atarihq.com/vectrex/po_cge.htm

Here a better pic of the guts, notice the different colored motherboard/mainboards.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1179/969307370_0f5b68eda2_b.jpg

Did they use gold mother/mainboards in the commercial version or just the prototype?

 

I'm betting someone at Hasbro or SEGA has the original copy which is not nearly as shit looking. I know SEGA has a room packed full of retro goodies at its U.S. headquarters, here it is!
http://sega-memories.blogspot.com/2008/08/sega-of-americas-holy-grail.html

 

JaguarVR has been mentioned two times on here, or so says a search.
http://jagcube.atari.org/jaguarvr.html
http://www.nexgam.de/media/cache/nexgam/img/articles/6392/Jaguar-VR-Hands-on-1.jpg

Here is a vid of it in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NCQJrd-4rk


Sometimes it amazes me how many freaking peripherals are developed for doomed consoles.


Atari sure has a lot of unfinished concepts and consoles.

 

Its where all there money went.

 

Not to mention their last console the Jaguar looked literally like a toilet with the CD add-on. What a coincidence!

 

My parents got me this on Christmas '87 when they saw how excited I was when playing Duck Hunt at a video place and how badly I wanted "that thing with the gun you plug to the TV."

Yeah, that really sucked.

 

Ok here's an update on the NEMO system! The sources on the internet may be wrong, it wasn't a modded ColecoVision, but rather a Coleco Adam that was used in the prototype. I can verify this by the screenshot.
The controller is white, not black as in the ColecoVision console.

Here are some high-res pictures.
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/coleco-adam/CIMG3282.JPG
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/coleco-adam/CIMG3285.JPG


Does anyone have any thoughts on what that bluish box is that's in front of Tom Zito? I'm guessing the black machine is a VCR, but I can't tell what that other thing is.