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APPLE IPLAY
Concept art for an unreleased post Atmark Game console from Apple. Read somewhere that this eventually ended up as a handheld then was cancelled altogether.
ACTION ENTERPRISES GAMEMASTER
This thing was supposedly going to be able to play SNES, Genesis, Gameboy, TG-16, NES, and Lynx games in addition to it's own. Wow. Too bad there's no way that could ever happen in a handheld that wasn't the size of a mac truck. It was to accomplish all this with the use of adapters which would be essentially scaled down versions of the various game systems themselves. A way too over ambitious concept that was doomed from the start. I suppose today one could get a Pocket PC and run emulators to accomplish the same thing, or get a Game Park 32. But in 1991 this was just impossible.
XGP Kids
The Gamepark world is a little complicated, after the underground success of the Gamepark 32 handheld, the company Game Park split into two, with several engineers and developers forming their own rival company called Gamepark Holdings to develop the Gamepark GP2X, while Game Park itself developed this machine, the XGP (Extreme Game Player.)
The console was to come in several different models, including the XGP Mini (which was probably an attempt to reproduce the successful marketing of Nintendo's GBA Mini) and a smaller, more durable machine called the XGP Kids. Capabilities would have been similar between the three models, with the XGP Mini scaled down to reduce costs while the XGP kids would have been less technically capable, focusing on less "hardcore" games for a children's market.
The handheld showed a lot of promise, however as of March 7th, 2007 the company Game Park declared bankruptcy (indeed, the official site now seems to be selling footwear.) Thus it seems while the console is ready to go it's unlikely we'll ever see it released. Homebrew and fan support for the original GP 32 (as well as the Gamepark 2PX) is still going strong however.
SEGA NEPTUNE
A proposed Sega Genesis and 32 X combination that was intended to satisfy Sega fans until the release of the Saturn in 1995. As the 32 X was a flop this console never made it into mass production, although (as always) there are rumors of wearhouses full of unmarketed units. Too bad for Sega stuff like this gave them an unfounded reputation for vaporware that probably hurt the one post Genesis system they made that could have made it, the Dreamcast. Now Sega is a shadow of thier former selves, although rumors persist that the Dreamcast may enter production again. I doubt it will ever happen.
SEGA VR
Pretty cool looking Virtual Reality system by Sega. Back in the early 90's "Virtual Reality" was one of those buzz-words that everyone was throwing around. Right around this time is when computers started moving some decent polygons and games like Virtua Fighter, Doom, and Decent appeared. This system was designed around the first person shooter/adventure game (and even appeared in the Spike Lee movie "Clockers" with a game called "Gangsta") but the executives in the Sega corporate hierarchy were too afraid of people wearing it and wandering into traffic or walking off cliffs, so it got canned. That sucks. This thing would have been dope. There are supposedly working units out there somewhere as this one got up to the production phase before getting deep sixed.
NINTENDO SNES CD "PLAYSTATION"
Article taken from an old EGM detailing the SNES ND drive
The ill-fated Snes CD-rom drive. There's a long story behind this, apparently Nintendo orignally partnered with Sony, then went behind Sony's back to Phillips which lead to all kinds of legal trouble that prevented the machine from ever being completed. At the last minute the deal fell apart, but due to contractual obligations Phillips got it's own (notoriously crappy) Mario and Zelda games for the CDI, while Sony went on to make it's own Playstation console. The rest they say is history.
ATARI JAGUAR DUO
An Atari Jaguar and CD combined into one base unit. Atari hyped the Jaguar CD for like a year, and then finally debuted it with three games. To my knowledge no new ones were ever made as by that time the Jaguar was pretty much dead as a doornail. Makes you wonder how much money they could have saved/made if they just would have gone CD with the base unit in the first place (a lesson Nintendo would learn with he N64 a year later.) Should play all Jaguar cart/CD games, and there's at least a couple of hundred floating around (former test units) as well as probably a warehouse of mint boxed units sadly awaiting a release date that will never come somewhere.
NANOGEAR
Pretty high tech handheld that looks like it never got off the drawing board. The official website is still up (sometimes) so there's a chance it might come out in the future. You can see all the various doohickies that would be on it. Looks like it could play PC games. Pic taken from http://www.nurve.net
PHILLIPS IN2IT
Kid's PDA thing that got the axe only a few months before it would have seen production. Also known as the "Kidcom." Has all the stuff things like this usually have, like date book, calander, etc. Intended to be an educational machine, at least 100 working units are floating around.
At least five units got out to the general public (in the Netherlands at least) as they were used in a study to see how children would respond to such devices for instant messaging and such.
Built in software included:
Address book
Match couples according to birthdays
Calculate "Biorhythms"
Alarm clock
Calculator
Draw program (one or two 'players')
Making tunes (songs)
RED JADE
Ericsson's super handheld flops even before it gets out the door
Ericsson invested $10 million in the devleopment of this console and was all ready to go with it until a shitty economy forced them to cut 22,000 jobs, and sadly the Red Jade as well. Was to have some pretty cool capabilities, such as basic PDA-like functions, "wireless connectivity" (like Bluetooth or perhaps mobile phone-like cpabilities,) Dvix movies, a Polygon graphics engine on par with the PS1, etc. Software was to be downloaded from secure servers, not clear if the machine took carts, flash carts, or other removable media. Sounds pretty close to a GP32, or a Nokia N-Gage but with more functions.
ATARI GAME BRAIN
Pre-2600 unreleased console
The first home system developed by Atari that took interchangeable carts.
Very interesting control scheme there, with a big knob at the top and also a pseudo cross pad at the bottom. Games were selected via the switches at the bottom.
Carts didn't have roms but chips that produced games (similar to the PC-50X series of consoles.) Only nine games would have ever been available. 86'ed in favor of the 2600.
INDREMA L600
Next gen system that got the axe
NUON based game system that got 86'ed like six months before it would have hit store shelves. Inifinum Labs just thought that Sony's market penetration was just too deep to make it feasible to compete.
Very cool looking Linux based console with a basically redesigned PS1 dual shock controller. Used a DVD drive and could of course read VCD, MP3, CDs, etc. NUON eventually made it's way into several different DVD players but good luck finding one (let alone any of the only seven games made for them.)
What really blows is that this was supposed to be an open source console (hence Linux) which meant anyone with a PC could potentially have been a developer. Damn.
Indrema closed it's doors on April 6th, 2001, ten million dollars short for what they needed to continue with the console. Problably not more than a few early prototypes around if any out there.
Concept art for an unreleased post Atmark Game console from Apple. Read somewhere that this eventually ended up as a handheld then was cancelled altogether.
ACTION ENTERPRISES GAMEMASTER
This thing was supposedly going to be able to play SNES, Genesis, Gameboy, TG-16, NES, and Lynx games in addition to it's own. Wow. Too bad there's no way that could ever happen in a handheld that wasn't the size of a mac truck. It was to accomplish all this with the use of adapters which would be essentially scaled down versions of the various game systems themselves. A way too over ambitious concept that was doomed from the start. I suppose today one could get a Pocket PC and run emulators to accomplish the same thing, or get a Game Park 32. But in 1991 this was just impossible.
XGP Kids
The Gamepark world is a little complicated, after the underground success of the Gamepark 32 handheld, the company Game Park split into two, with several engineers and developers forming their own rival company called Gamepark Holdings to develop the Gamepark GP2X, while Game Park itself developed this machine, the XGP (Extreme Game Player.)
The console was to come in several different models, including the XGP Mini (which was probably an attempt to reproduce the successful marketing of Nintendo's GBA Mini) and a smaller, more durable machine called the XGP Kids. Capabilities would have been similar between the three models, with the XGP Mini scaled down to reduce costs while the XGP kids would have been less technically capable, focusing on less "hardcore" games for a children's market.
The handheld showed a lot of promise, however as of March 7th, 2007 the company Game Park declared bankruptcy (indeed, the official site now seems to be selling footwear.) Thus it seems while the console is ready to go it's unlikely we'll ever see it released. Homebrew and fan support for the original GP 32 (as well as the Gamepark 2PX) is still going strong however.
SEGA NEPTUNE
A proposed Sega Genesis and 32 X combination that was intended to satisfy Sega fans until the release of the Saturn in 1995. As the 32 X was a flop this console never made it into mass production, although (as always) there are rumors of wearhouses full of unmarketed units. Too bad for Sega stuff like this gave them an unfounded reputation for vaporware that probably hurt the one post Genesis system they made that could have made it, the Dreamcast. Now Sega is a shadow of thier former selves, although rumors persist that the Dreamcast may enter production again. I doubt it will ever happen.
SEGA VR
Pretty cool looking Virtual Reality system by Sega. Back in the early 90's "Virtual Reality" was one of those buzz-words that everyone was throwing around. Right around this time is when computers started moving some decent polygons and games like Virtua Fighter, Doom, and Decent appeared. This system was designed around the first person shooter/adventure game (and even appeared in the Spike Lee movie "Clockers" with a game called "Gangsta") but the executives in the Sega corporate hierarchy were too afraid of people wearing it and wandering into traffic or walking off cliffs, so it got canned. That sucks. This thing would have been dope. There are supposedly working units out there somewhere as this one got up to the production phase before getting deep sixed.
NINTENDO SNES CD "PLAYSTATION"
Article taken from an old EGM detailing the SNES ND drive
The ill-fated Snes CD-rom drive. There's a long story behind this, apparently Nintendo orignally partnered with Sony, then went behind Sony's back to Phillips which lead to all kinds of legal trouble that prevented the machine from ever being completed. At the last minute the deal fell apart, but due to contractual obligations Phillips got it's own (notoriously crappy) Mario and Zelda games for the CDI, while Sony went on to make it's own Playstation console. The rest they say is history.
ATARI JAGUAR DUO
An Atari Jaguar and CD combined into one base unit. Atari hyped the Jaguar CD for like a year, and then finally debuted it with three games. To my knowledge no new ones were ever made as by that time the Jaguar was pretty much dead as a doornail. Makes you wonder how much money they could have saved/made if they just would have gone CD with the base unit in the first place (a lesson Nintendo would learn with he N64 a year later.) Should play all Jaguar cart/CD games, and there's at least a couple of hundred floating around (former test units) as well as probably a warehouse of mint boxed units sadly awaiting a release date that will never come somewhere.
NANOGEAR
Pretty high tech handheld that looks like it never got off the drawing board. The official website is still up (sometimes) so there's a chance it might come out in the future. You can see all the various doohickies that would be on it. Looks like it could play PC games. Pic taken from http://www.nurve.net
PHILLIPS IN2IT
Kid's PDA thing that got the axe only a few months before it would have seen production. Also known as the "Kidcom." Has all the stuff things like this usually have, like date book, calander, etc. Intended to be an educational machine, at least 100 working units are floating around.
At least five units got out to the general public (in the Netherlands at least) as they were used in a study to see how children would respond to such devices for instant messaging and such.
Built in software included:
Address book
Match couples according to birthdays
Calculate "Biorhythms"
Alarm clock
Calculator
Draw program (one or two 'players')
Making tunes (songs)
RED JADE
Ericsson's super handheld flops even before it gets out the door
Ericsson invested $10 million in the devleopment of this console and was all ready to go with it until a shitty economy forced them to cut 22,000 jobs, and sadly the Red Jade as well. Was to have some pretty cool capabilities, such as basic PDA-like functions, "wireless connectivity" (like Bluetooth or perhaps mobile phone-like cpabilities,) Dvix movies, a Polygon graphics engine on par with the PS1, etc. Software was to be downloaded from secure servers, not clear if the machine took carts, flash carts, or other removable media. Sounds pretty close to a GP32, or a Nokia N-Gage but with more functions.
ATARI GAME BRAIN
Pre-2600 unreleased console
The first home system developed by Atari that took interchangeable carts.
Very interesting control scheme there, with a big knob at the top and also a pseudo cross pad at the bottom. Games were selected via the switches at the bottom.
Carts didn't have roms but chips that produced games (similar to the PC-50X series of consoles.) Only nine games would have ever been available. 86'ed in favor of the 2600.
INDREMA L600
Next gen system that got the axe
NUON based game system that got 86'ed like six months before it would have hit store shelves. Inifinum Labs just thought that Sony's market penetration was just too deep to make it feasible to compete.
Very cool looking Linux based console with a basically redesigned PS1 dual shock controller. Used a DVD drive and could of course read VCD, MP3, CDs, etc. NUON eventually made it's way into several different DVD players but good luck finding one (let alone any of the only seven games made for them.)
What really blows is that this was supposed to be an open source console (hence Linux) which meant anyone with a PC could potentially have been a developer. Damn.
Indrema closed it's doors on April 6th, 2001, ten million dollars short for what they needed to continue with the console. Problably not more than a few early prototypes around if any out there.
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