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The forgotten losers of the console wars

The forgotten losers of the console wars
Mat Smith
Mat Smith|@thatmatsmith|July 4, 2014 3:01 PM

History is written by the victors, but for all those generations of console wars we've managed to weather through, what about the other guys? Opening this week, a new games museum in southern Japan houses 56 different consoles of varying fame (or infamy). For every NES/Famicom, there are curiosities like the huge "Pocket Home PC," failing on the very definition of its name. Remember the Sega Game 1000? We didn't, but we should probably cut these (mostly) beige consoles some slack. While most of the devices toured here weren't a commercial success, each helped gently push gaming toward its current state -- if only by firmly demonstrating what we didn't want. And yeah, we wish the Dreamcast was still around too. Here's to the games consoles we've loved and lost over the last 40 years.

Gallery: Game Museum's console collection: the also-rans | 13 Photos

  • Playing with history
  • Japan's first games console
  • Is it really a console?
  • Sega Game 1000
  • Tiny joysticks
  • Emerson Arcadia 2001
  • Nintendo's Virtual Boy: now it's prescient
  • Apple's game console
  • Panasonic 3DO
  • Playdia. Killed by edutainment
  • Laser-disc gaming
  • Nokia's N-Gage
  • The Frankenstein of a Genesis
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The forgotten losers of the console wars