Before the 21st century, video games were primarily played in one of two ways: in arcades or at home with consoles. For a long time, arcade games held a technological advantage over most consoles, pushing console developers to compete by closing that gap.

This technological arms race led to innovations in video game consoles that ultimately surpassed even the best arcade machines. However, some consoles, like the Dreamcast and Neo Geo, were so advanced for their time that they ended in commercial failures.

10

The Sega Game Gear had a backlit color screen

Said backlit color screen consumed a lot of batteries

The Sega Game Gear competed with the Atari Lynx and the powerful Nintendo Game Boy. The Game Gear had the same backlit color screen as the Atari Lynx, but with a slightly lower and more competitive price. The Game Gear also had the advantage of higher tier games, particularly ports of Sega Master System titles. With its hardware and library, the Game Gear was ready to take on the Game Boy.

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Unfortunately, the Game Boy was simply too profitable for the Game Gear to actively compete where it mattered. It didn’t help that the Game Gear’s superior features also had drawbacks. More particularly, the Game Gear’s backlit color screen reduced battery life compared to the Atari Lynx and especially the Game Boy.

9

The Atari Lynx was better than most video game consoles at the time

Perhaps he was too far ahead for his own good on that front

The Atari Lynx was Atari’s only entry into the handheld console market. It was released a few months after Nintendo launched its iconic Game Boy. Atari sought to usurp Nintendo’s Game Boy with its Lynx. The Atari Lynx had a backlight and a color screen, and it was more powerful than most consoles of the time, with hardware that resembled a low-end home computer.

The Atari Lynx’s advanced features ultimately led to its downfall. Its superior hardware, color screen, and backlight came at the expense of mediocre battery life. Even hardware revision, the Lynx II, only had six hours of battery lifewhich was still far inferior to the Nintendo Game Boy. With competition from the Sega Game Gear, the Atari Lynx’s lifespan was short-lived.

8

The Virtual Boy was a 3D console before the Nintendo 64

But it was literally a sight for sore eyes

The Virtual Boy is an oft-forgotten console created by Nintendo as a stopgap while the Nintendo 64 was delayed. Its design resembles future virtual reality headsets, aligning with Nintendo’s vision for the system. In some of the best games, the Virtual Boy indeed features very impressive graphics for its time.

The big downside to the Virtual Boy was how impractical it was. It can hardly be classified as a portable video game console, given the lack of a headband and the fact that a controller must be plugged into the system. It didn’t help that all of the game’s visuals were red and black. At the very least, the next Nintendo console could learn from the Virtual Boy.

7

The Dreamcast was an Xbox before the Xbox

But competitors showed that being an Xbox wasn’t necessary

The Dreamcast was Sega’s last home console before moving to third-party development, and it was a strong note to end on. The Dreamcast featured innovations that many consider a precursor to Microsoft’s Xbox. Actually, Microsoft played a role in developing the Dreamcast’s online connectivitywhich helped make the system famous at the time.​​​​​​​

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Unfortunately for Sega, Sony’s PlayStation 2 launched shortly after and demonstrated that online connectivity was not essential in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Microsoft’s first Xbox arrived shortly after. long after the Dreamcast was discontinued, and despite the strong popularity of Xbox Live, it still struggled to compete with the PlayStation 2. This shows that innovation can sometimes come too soon.​​​​​​​

6

The 3DO had great 3D graphics

But almost no one made 3DO games with this in mind

3DO is the name of a video game company, a multimedia format and a console. Rather than a single system, the 3DO company licensed other manufacturers to produce consoles that supported its format and hardware specifications. For its time, the 3DO was an extremely powerful console and the first truly capable of 3D graphics.

Unfortunately, many developers have focused on FMV games due to 3DO’s use of CD-ROM technology. Aside from titles like The need for speed, the 3DO library was filled with FMV games and, worse still, shovels, with Plumbers don’t wear ties being the most infamous example. If the 3DO had launched a year or two later, it might have had a better chance in the console market.

5

The Ouya would have been an independent developer’s mecca

It should have been released a decade later

The Ouya received a lot of media attention from its crowdfunding campaign until its release. The Ouya was presented as an inexpensive alternative to the mainstream video game consoles of the time, namely Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Nintendo’s Wii U, and Sony’s PlayStation 3. More importantly, the Ouya was presented as a platform on which Ouya video game developers could produce games for Ouya video game players.

By the way, portable gaming devices like Valve’s Steam Deck do almost exactly the same thing as the Ouya. The main difference is that the Steam Deck launched in 2022, while the Ouya had the misfortune of being released in 2013a banner year that saw the high-profile launches of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Even without this competition, the Ouya suffered from a glut of shovels that made the console difficult to sell.​​​​​​​

4

The Neo Geo was a home arcade machine

It was as expensive as an arcade machine

Technically, the Neo Geo is not the name of a video game console but of an arcade system produced by the famous arcade manufacturer of the time, SNK. Otherwise, the Neo Geo video game console, known as the Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System, brought arcade quality to the home long before the days of Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation video game consoles. Many Neo Geo games also played and looked like arcade games.​​​​​​​

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Unfortunately, the arcade-quality Neo Geo launched with an arcade-level price of $699.99. Even without accounting for inflation, that matches the cost of Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro, which is already considered an expensive console. The difference is that arcade games are more accessible on the PlayStation 5 Pro, while even minimally functional Neo Geo consoles are rare and hard to find.​​​​​​​

3

The N-Gage was a smartphone before smartphones

Too bad it wasn’t released ten years later as a smartphone

The N-Gage was Nokia’s attempt to compete with Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance in the handheld console market. It had advanced features for its time and, looking back, looked like a modern smartphone. The N-Gage could make and receive calls and texts while playing its own library of video games, not to mention its other multimedia features.

Unfortunately, the Nokia N-Gage’s primary role as a handheld console meant that its additional features went largely unused by most gamers. It also had to compete with the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation Portable, the latter of which effectively made the Nokia N-Gage obsolete with its similar capabilities. If it had been published ten years later, the N-Gage could have succeeded as a quality Android smartphone.

2

The Apple Pippin is the precursor to the Xbox

Too bad it’s not as intuitive as the Xbox

The Pippin is the result of a collaboration between Apple and Bandai, the latter already accustomed to the video game console market while the former sought to break into it. Apple and Bandai’s goal was to create a video game console so advanced that it would blow its competitors out of the water. Indeed, Apple Pippin’s hardware and operating system resemble the efforts of Microsoft and its Xbox.

The main difference between the Apple Pippin and the Microsoft Xbox is that the latter proved moderately successful and led to an enduring console lineage. On the other hand, The Pippin suffered from slow frame rates and lacked compelling exclusive titleswith many of its games available on other home computers. Ultimately, the Xbox had much better execution.

A portable video game console with Internet and touch screen

Game.com was a handheld console developed by Tiger Electronics, known at the time for its many licensed LCD handheld games. Of all the overly ambitious consoles, Game.com wins the prize. Game.com offered a touch screen years before the Nintendo DS and even offered rudimentary Internet connectivity a year before the Sega Dreamcast.​​​​​​​

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Tiger’s Game.com was of poor quality overall, with its monochrome screen displaying pixels visible to the naked eye. Despite receiving high-profile ports like Resident Evil 2 And Duke Nukem 3Dthese versions were vastly inferior to other versions. Ultimately, Game.com was too far ahead of its time and stood no chance against Nintendo’s simpler, more accessible Game Boy.