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32X Month: What is your criteria for a "bad video game console"?

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Barry the Nomad:
In case you don't venture out to the main page, it's 32X Month at SEGAbits. We have several features lined up on the front page, so check it daily for new content! Alright, front page plugging over.


Anyway, thought I'd let the 32X talk spill into the forums by way of a discussion point that has been on my mind for a while now. As we all know, the 32X is not a beloved piece of hardware. It was a commercial failure, the library is small, and according to some it is a headache to connect to the Genesis.


But is is a bad video game console/add-on? What is your criteria for a truly bad console?


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For me, the 32X is not a bad console nor would it make my list of worst hardware of all time. For starters, it's not a console, it's an add-on. To own a 32X means you own a Genesis, so while the 32X library may be small, you are not limited to the 40 titles. If anything, the 32X expands the Genesis library available to the add-on's owners by 40. I'd much prefer to have a 32X than to not have one, as I prefer to have access to After Burner, Doom, Chaotix, Kolibri, Metal Head, MKII, Shadow Squadron, Space Harrier, SW Arcade, Tempo, Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing, and Zaxxon's Motherbase. Then there are the enhanced Genesis titles that, while not AAA by any means, are preferred on the 32X thanks to improved sound and visuals.


I have never experienced hardware failure with the 32X personally, so I deem it a solid piece of tech. Far more dependable than the SEGA CD in that regard. Sure it was a commercial failure, but it isn't 1994 anymore. As a piece of retro hardware I think the 32X is worth owning and is not a bad console/add-on at all. It has a fair share of quality must play titles, and it functions well.


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If we want to talk BAD game consoles, I'd point to the Jaguar CD, as it is notorious for hardware failure and has a library that is less than half the size of the 32X library. I'd also point to the Philips CD-i as a bad game console, if only because the thing is more of an education/entertainment machine than a game machine. They tried to go the game route, but failed most of the time. CD-i for the educational and non-gaming entertainment content? It's actually pretty cool. But for games, it is awful.

TJKitsune:
I believe what makes a console "bad" is likely a combination of several things.  I'll touch on them each in their own regards.

Developer Support:
I still hear people talk about how horrible the Dreamcast was due to the fact there were no EA games and they had no support from the company.  While Sega fixed this impressively by creating the 2K series, I don't believe it's their downfall.  But I'm seeing this now with the Playstation Vita.  It's by no means a horrible console, but because many developers are holding off from putting games on the system, it's not exactly helping it at all.  This would be a strong case for the 32X.  There weren't a lot of developers putting games onto the system because they were afraid they wouldn't make any cash on it, and rightly so from a business stand point.

Lesser Known IPs:
People all know the Call of Duties, the Halos, Marios and Zeldas.  They're the big names that pull a lot of people in.  Some people pass over games they've never heard of and don't take risks buying lesser known games such as Yakuza, Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia.  It isn't until years later of hearing people clamor over these games that people look back and realize they missed out on these games.  By then it's too late, the sales are missed, and money wasn't truly made on those games, thus cutting into the life of the system.  Not that lesser known IPs are a bad thing at all, but it's the truth that many people will pass up on these games.  I remember talking to a used game seller about how some older games are so expensive now, like Mars Matrix (A game I'm still trying to hunt down) and he recalled that when the game was released, no one wanted it and he couldn't get rid of the game and remembers marking it down to even $15 new when the Dreamcast was discontinued, and now the game goes for around $80.  The game simply sold poorly back then.  This sort of thing though continues on even modern consoles.

Not Knowing What the System Is or Who it's For:
I hate this about modern consoles...  They're now more than just for games.  They control your TV, are DVRs, play movies, stream, have a bunch of applications, can make video calls..  Consoles in the '90's were simple.  They played games, and that it.  Some catered to kids, some catered to adults.  Nintendo struggled with the GameCube to define who their target audience was and for awhile, the system had troubles finding itself and who it was meant for.  The PS3, when it was released, was the cheapest BluRay player on the market at the beginning, and I know a lot of people who simply bought the system for that and never used it to play games.  Not to mention you had companies like Best Buy giving the console away for free if you bought at shiny new LCD TV.  Now it seems like with the new consoles, gaming is more like a 2nd thought than the first thing it really does.  Who do you target that to then?

Uneducated People and Bad Marketing:
This sorta would tie into an Add-on topic.  People didn't know exactly what the 32X did for the Genesis, and often passed on it because of that.  Just as how the Xbox 360 got the HD-DVD Add-on.  The 360 had no BluRay support, the PS3 did, so they went with HD-DVD.  It "failed" because...again, no support from other companies.  Even though HD-DVD, in some sense (and I'm not going to argue about this..) it had better picture quality than BluRay.  Sure, it had its faults as well, but BluRay was more widespread and people were more aware of it, because it was marketed more.  Marketing, Marketing, Marketing.  Don't know how much I can stress that..  Sega hardly markets their products anymore.  They rushed the Saturn out to try and beat out Playstation.  Nintendo did the same with some of their systems.  They tried to gain back market share, push it out there, but then had nothing to support it.  The Vita is going down because Sony's hardly talking about it.  Developers aren't talking about it.  Gamers aren't talking about it.  Why invest in a machine that's got a certain price tag and no one can justify investing in it when they hardly understand it or know why they should have one?

Poor Build Quality:
if it breaks after awhile and does last, or has some serious design flaws (Red Ring of Death, anyone?) or just burns out, that would justify it being a truly horrible system.  If it lasts for 10+ years without a hiccup, then it's a perfectly good investment.  Nothing lasts forever, that's for sure, but you'd expect a product to last more than a few months, or even weeks, and it just gives up on you.

Most of these things can be fixed (and some have for certain products..) with updated released, or better quality control.

So, yeah..  I feel like I'm rambling now and I don't want my topics to fall off point...  So,  I'll stop myself there and let others chime in.

Centrale:
I think the 32X is a cool add-on. That said, I have opted not to get one and collect for it because it does seem like a bit of a hassle to hook it up. I didn't realize until I started looking into it that it's intended to be pretty much a permanent addition to the Genesis. Even if it's technically not permanent, it's more involved than just popping it in and out of the cartridge slot like a cartridge. Even so, I think it's a cool device and it's really only with the 20/20 vision of hindsight that people can say it was a failure. At the time, it was a desirable concept to be able to expand the capabilities of an existing console.

I would regard the Atari 5200 as more of a bad situation. Actually the console itself is impressively powerful for its time. It's just that it was unfortunately undermined by some very bad controller design... specifically awkward button placement and an analog stick that does not self-center. The controllers alone are enough of a problem for most collectors to steer clear of the console entirely.

But overall I would hesitate to say that any console is just outright bad. Each one seems to have at least a handful of must-play games.

Presbytier:
I would consider a bad console as a machine with a small or poor library or a machine prone to failure (eg... The first 360 consoles due to their hardware failures or the Apple Pippin due to it not having any games). As far as the 32x is concerned; yeah it's an add-on not a console, but as an add-on it wasn't that great it was expensive and it's quality games where just too few to warrant the purchase.

ROJM:
The 32x is only bad because of the limited support it ended up getting. There was no full commitment and we lost a lot of potential good games like RATCHET AND BOLT and X MEN 32X. It really could have helped bridge the transition between the genesis and the saturn. My thing was that the 32x had to be of a reasonable price and not cost the same as a new console. If Sega had priced it cheaply back then, i think it would have helped sales a lot. It did had initial strong third party support before it faded away after the system didn't break new sales in its other yearly quarters....
I really wanted to play ALIENS Vs Predator that Capcom was going to release for it as one of their 32X game projects since the arcade game was quite awesome.

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