The Mega Duck

Background/History
The amusingly-named Mega Duck was released in 1993. It was made by a Hong Kong based company, Welback Holdings. Games were distributed by Thin Chen (better known as "Sachen"), which was one of the leading publishers of unlicensed NES games. It was yet another Game Boy competitor, and looked fairly similar to the Game Boy. In fact, many Mega Duck games were released for the Game Boy later on.
Like the Game Boy, it had a monochrome LCD screen, a + shaped D-pad, Select and Start, and B and A buttons. Games were said to be on par with the earliest Game Boy games. The screen is said to be of slightly higher quality than the Game Boy. About 35 games were released. The cartridges were thin and small, much like Sega Game Gear cartridges.
The Mega Duck was released in parts of Europe and Brazil. In Brazil, it was known as the "Cougar Boy".
One system, two VERY funny names. What the heck?

What Makes It Obscure?
The Mega Duck was released in limited geographical areas over 20 years ago. It is very rare nowadays. The Cougar Boy is even rarer.

Epoch Cassette Vision

Background/History:
The Cassette Vision was released on July 30, 1981 by a Japanese toy company called Epoch. The system was said to have power roughly equivalent to the Atari 2600. One unusual feature of the Cassette Vision was its controllers. The controllers had two knobs each (one for horizontal movement, the other for vertical movement), and two buttons for each player. Start, Select, and power buttons were located in the center. In effect, the console and both controllers were one unit. Another unusual feature is that the individual game cartridges contain key components of the system functions, such as the RAM and video processor.
In 1983, a cost-reduced version of the Cassette Vision was made, called the Cassette Vision Jr. Controls were redesigned for this unit into 1 directional lever on the left side and 4 push buttons on the right side.

What Makes It Obscure?
Its Japan-only release, eventual overshadowing by the Famicom, and over three decades since release have relegated it to obscurity. It also wasn't very successful - though its successor, the Super Cassette Vision, saw more success. Only 12 games were released for the Cassette Vision before it was superseded by the Super Cassette Vision in 1984.

Gizmondo - Includes A TOTALED FERRARI!!!

Background/History:
Tiger Telematics, the manufacturer of the Gizmondo, was founded in the early 2000s in Sweden. In late 2003, the buzz began circulating around a new system called the "Gametrac". In August 2004, the as yet unreleased device was renamed the "Gizmondo". It was released in England on March 19, 2005, in Sweden in late summer 2005, and in the USA on October 22, 2005.
Prior to its release, the Gizmondo was expected to be a huge success. Extensive advertising was put out, and launch parties featuring celebrities were thrown - the company had blown through many millions of dollars before the first console was sold. The system had internet, text messaging, a 1.3 megapixel camera, and GPS - features never before seen on a handheld video game system. As a handheld game system, it was relatively powerful, being capable of 3D graphics capabilities approximately on par with the Sony PlayStation 2. The price was $400, but if you opted for a "Smart Adds" enabled unit, the price was cut to $229.

What Makes It Obscure?
The Gizmondo isn't the most obscure system out there. This was a video game system with lots of hype that was released in the Internet era. It has gotten its fair share of fame, including a mention as "Worst Console of All Time" by GameTrailers. One of the main executives behind the Gizmondo, Stefan Eriksson, had ties to the Swedish Mafia and got in a well-publicized car crash that split an Enzo Ferrari in half. Amazingly, no one was killed in the crash, and Eriksson was sentenced to two years in prison.
The Gizmondo was discontinued on February 6, 2006, when Tiger Telematics went bankrupt. Having spent just 11 months on the market, total sales were less than 25,000.
It is probably the most spectacular console failure in history, and while it isn't the most obscure, it does have the most interesting story.

Stefan Eriksson's wrecked Enzo Ferrari, from wreckedexotics.com

The Gamate

Gamate and 3 games. Image from here, courtesy of Miguel Duran of Museo 8 Bits.

Background/History:
After the Game Boy came out in 1989, numerous competitors came out to compete in the handheld market. All three major Nintendo competitors had one; Sega had the Game Gear, Atari had the Lynx, and NEC had the Turbo Express, which was literally a portable Turbo Grafx 16. These four were by no means the only handheld competitors. Spurred by the new market and lower cost of developing a handheld, several companies offered handheld video game systems.
One of these systems was called the Gamate, launched in 1990. It was created by Bit Corporation, a Taiwanese video game company active from 1982-1992. Bit was known for its Atari 2600 games and software compatible clones of other systems, such as the Famicom, Atari 2600, Sega SG-1000, and Colecovision. Many of their products were made under different brand names, such as Puzzy and Zimag. The company had worldwide reach, and many of their products never made it to US shores.
The Gamate was a Bit product that made it to US shores; in addition, it was sold all over the world. Australia, parts of Europe and Asia, and Argentina were the known regions the system saw release. Local distributors, not Bit itself, distributed the console.
The system used a card form factor for its games, as shown in the picture. It had an LCD screen, much like the Game Boy - no color and no back-light.
Bit Corporation went out of business in 1992, and a fellow Taiwanese company, United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) and its subsidiary Funtech (known later for the Super A'Can) continued to produce the Gamate until at least 1993. The last game was released in 1995, by which time over 70 games had been released.
The serial number on the back of the Gamate indicates production year and order - for instance, "9142115" is the 42,115th Gamate produced in 1991.
There are two variants of the system's appearance. The G-1001 has an x-shaped D-pad, and the G-1002 has a + shaped D-pad. There is also a white Gamate with red buttons.

What Makes It Obscure?
The Gamate never sold in numbers comparable to the Game Boy or even the Sega, Atari, or NEC handheld offerings.
In addition, quality was in many ways lower than the Game Boy. While the system itself was assembled in a quality manner, the LCD screen quality was inconsistent. There were two different types of LCD screen on the Gamate - a "worse" one and a "better" one. Some units had the worse LCD, some had the better one. "Ghosting" - a blurry and faint appearance exhibited by objects on screen - was exhibited by the system, and was far worse on the "worse" LCD screen. The mono sound of the Gamate was distorted and of low quality if played without headphones; with headphones, the sound quality improved greatly, due to the fact that the system could only output stereo through the headphone jack.

VTech CreatiVision

VTech CreatiVision.

Background/History:
The CreatiVision was introduced in 1981 by VTech, a company now known for its cordless phones and children's electronic learning products. However, "VTech" actually stands for "Video Technology Limited", as the system got its start in video game systems; it's first product was a PONG clone, released in 1977.
The system was a sort of computer/video game hybrid, like several other consoles of the time. It was a console with capabilities fairly close to the ColecoVision, launched the next year. Controllers had a joystick with buttons on the side, but both controllers could be used as a keyboard; each controller had one side of the keyboard. The system could be expanded with a floppy disk drive, cassette player, printer, and BASIC cartridge.
The CreatiVision was manufactured in Hong Kong, but primarily released in European countries. (VTech is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden) It also made it into various other countries, including South Africa and Japan. Israel got the system as the Educat 2000, and Australia got it as the Dick Smith Wizzard.
When the video game crash of 1984 hit, VTech had the foresight to shift their total focus to the computer market. In 1984, they released a line of computers called the Laser 2001, which were based on CreatiVision hardware and compatible with the games.
The CreatiVision and Laser 2001 were discontinued in 1986.

What Makes It Obscure?
This is one of those systems that's primarily obscure because of age and its release which never reached the US market. 

Milton Bradley Microvision - The first programmable handheld

Microvision, with "Block Buster" cartridge.

Background/History:
Contrary to popular belief, the first programmable handheld video game system was not Nintendo's Game Boy. While the Game Boy was the first successful handheld, the first programmable handheld was the Milton Bradley Microvision, released in 1979 - a full ten years before Nintendo's successful offering. The system was unique in that the cartridges themselves (which snapped onto the front of and were almost as large as the system) contained the main CPU.The cartridge also contained overlays for the LCD screen and buttons. The LCD screen was about 2 inches square.

What Makes It Obscure?
The technology just wasn't yet there to offer a good handheld in 1979. The system was very large; about a foot tall and four inches wide. It required a 9 volt battery (two 9-volts on early units) and drained it quickly. The system featured only 16 bytes of RAM (the Atari 2600 featured 128 bytes), and had only a 16x16 resolution. The only sound the system could output was a square wave.
The biggest factor in its obscurity is the age of the system and its durability. While the system was moderately successful 35 years ago, most of the systems have long ceased to function. The system's three main killers are screen rot, electrostatic discharge, and keypad destruction.
Screen rot is degradation of the LCD screen, causing it to darken and not correctly display the game.
ESD damage is where the microprocessor is "fried" by electrical shock. This can occur from a voltage of only a few dozen volts
Keypad destruction is where the 12-button keypad wears out from repeated use.

Action Max - VHS Tapes Required

Background/History:
In this instance, the "What Makes It Obscure" section seems to describe the system well.

What Makes It Obscure?
In the late 1980s, the video game market was on a meteoric rise, led by the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Atari 7800, Atari XEGS and Sega Master System were quickly introduced to compete, but by 1987 the NES had 90 percent of the market. The remaining 10 percent of the market was almost entirely controlled by the Master System, 7800, XEGS and the earlier Atari 2600, which was marketed as a budget console.
There were several consoles fighting over the tiny remaining sliver of the market. One of these was the Action Max, launched in 1987 by a company called Worlds of Wonder (WoW). WoW was a toy company known at that time for the Teddy Ruxpin doll and Lazer Tag.
It's a theme that comes up time and time again: this system failed. For one, it required a VHS player, and only half of people in the US had a VHS player at the time. The system hooked up to a VHS player and used VHS tapes as opposed to game cartridges.
The system's fatal flaw was its limited capabilities. The system was only capable of playing light gun games. Gameplay was point based, depending on shot accuracy: players could not truly win or lose a game. There were five games released, and all had similar gameplay, only varying on theme.
The Action Max died a quick death, and WoW closed for good in late 1990.

Fujitsu FM Towns Marty - The first 32 bit console

Background/History:
Fujitsu is a Japanese information technology company that builds a wide range of computers from tablet PCs to supercomputers. In 1989, they released the FM Towns computer in Japan. The FM Towns was its own computer platform, designed for high-end multimedia applications and games. It was named after Charles Hard Townes, a Nobel Prize winning physicist, but spelled "towns" because "Townes" is pronounced "tow-ness" in Japan. Shortly afterward, Fujitsu decided to make a video game system based on the FM Towns architecture. The Marty, released on February 20, 1993, was a video game console variant of the FM Towns computer. It was compatible with all FM Towns computer games.
The Marty was a very powerful console for its time. It used CD-ROMs and was the first 32 bit system ever released, in effect starting a new generation of video game consoles. The power of the system allowed it to have full arcade ports, as opposed to the cut-down arcade ports common on other systems of the time.
The system used an AMD 386 processor with 16 MHz. 
In April 1994, the FM Towns Car Marty was released. This was a variant of the Marty that could be installed in a car. It even included a built in navigation system.

What Makes It Obscure?
The Marty was expensive - the equivalent of over $1000 at release. This was cheaper than the FM Towns computers, but the system was positioned as a high-end gaming system. The system also had incomplete compatibility with the FM Towns' later games. The FM Towns evolved over time, and eventually the Marty's hardware was insufficiently powered to play some games. The FM Towns was in production until 1997, four years after the Marty was introduced.
In 1994, the Marty 2 was introduced, and the price was dropped to the equivalent of about $700. Sales began to increase, but the Marty line was discontinued the next year. Fujitsu felt the system was a lost cause. This led to the creation of "Marty's Law" - "if you don't keep offering something to sell, you can't increase sales".

The 1292 Advanced Programmable Video Game System

Background/History:
Released in 1976, this system was one of the first programmable home video game consoles. It was sold primarily in Europe. It is not a system in the traditional sense, but rather a family of systems all compatible with one another. (There are several other, non-compatible systems based on the same chipset, but this post focuses on the 1292 compatibility family) A total of 15 different systems, made by 8 different companies, were part of this family! Not all of the 15 systems were sold in the same area, so the systems you could pick from depended on what part of Europe you were in.
The system used a Signetics 2650AI CPU running at 4.43 MHz. It was capable of basic graphics and sounds that were approximately on the level of early Atari 2600 games.

What Makes It Obscure?
Aside from its Europe-only release, it did not make much of an impact compared to later systems such as the Atari 2600. 

Sega SG-1000 - Sega's FIRST console

Sega SG-1000 II. Picture was taken by me, is from Wikipedia, and is public domain.

AUDIO FEATURE HERE

Background/History:
Many people think that the Sega Genesis, released in 1989, was Sega's first console, but it was actually Sega's first successful console in the USA. The Master System dates back to 1986, and was Sega's first console to be sold worldwide. The first console to ever be released by Sega dates all the way back to 1983.
Before 1983, Sega had made itself known as an arcade powerhouse. Games like Star Trek, Zaxxon, Frogger, and Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom had won the acclaim of players worldwide. By 1982, Sega had revenues of $215 million. This dropped to $136 million the next year due to a crash in the arcade industry, and Sega decided to enter the home console market.
The Sega SG-1000 was released in Japan on July 15, 1983, with later releases in Australia and parts of Europe. A cosmetic redesign called the SG-1000 II was released in July 1984, this time a Japan exclusive. It had some new features, such as detachable controllers and the ability to play Sega My Card games.
The system saw a (very belated) release in the USA in 1988, with the release of the Telegames Personal Arcade. However, the Personal Arcade was marketed as a ColecoVision replacement, and the SG-1000 functionality was unexplained. Also, SG-1000 games were never released to the USA market.
The system's hardware was very similar to the ColecoVision, which had been released in 1982.
97 games - 68 cartridge and 29 My Card games - were released.
Several peripherals were released, and a majority of the games require one to be played. 42 of the cartridge games can be played without a peripheral. The remaining 26 cartridge games require a keyboard, called the SK-1100. The 29 My Card games require a peripheral called the Card Catcher. A steering wheel controller was available for racing games, such as Safari Race.


What Makes It Obscure?
Aside from the system's release only in limited regions of the world, the SG-1000 was unsuccessful in its home market of Japan. The system was released on the same day as the Nintendo Famicom (NES), which quickly dominated the market. The Famicom had far more advanced technical specs than the SG-1000, making the SG-1000 outdated upon release. Sega was relegated to a very distant second place. Changes were made for the SG-1000 II, including a sleeker case and standard joypad controllers (replacing the joystick on the original SG-1000), but the efforts were too little, too late. The system was discontinued in October 1985, after only two years on the market. It was replaced by the Sega Mark III, which was developed from the SG-1000 technology and was more powerful than the Famicom. A cosmetic redesign of the Mark III became the Master System, which found success in some parts of the world.

The Olivetti Envision

The Olivetti Envision.

Background/History:
The Olivetti Envision stretches the boundaries of what can be considered a "video game system", but it is a computer device that can be hooked up to a television and play games, so it qualifies as a console video game system. The system was in the category of multimedia systems, a class that also includes the CD-i, Memorex VIS, and Amiga CD32. The system, made by an Italian electronics company called Olivetti, was released only in Italy. It launched in September 1995. The system was released with two available processors, much like engine choices in a car. One could opt for a model based on the Intel 486 DX4 100 MHz processor or an Intel Pentium 75 MHz processor. The system had a wireless keyboard, mouse, and remote and was designed to be compatible with standard PC peripherals.
The purpose of the system was to make a computer that was easy to use, a sort of "first computer" that had a less steep learning curve to use. The system used Windows 95, which on the Envision was available in three modes. The simple mode was limited to the use of a remote control that could be used to control volume or make copies of CDs. The intermediate mode allowed the use of a limited set of programs through a graphical shell called Olipilot. The advanced mode used the standard Windows 95 appearance.
The system was also designed to have the appearance of a VCR, in order to win it familiarity with consumers.

What Makes It Obscure?
The system was only sold in Italy, and it failed over there. The hardware was not upgradeable, and was rendered obsolete very quickly. The system had many bugs that prevented full compatibility with PC programs, It was also overpriced, poorly marketed, and filled a niche that wasn't there to begin with.

Feature: Ridiculously Priced Video Game Consoles

The Casio PV-1000

Background/History:
1983 was a terrible year for video gaming in the US, The once mighty industry was crashing at blistering speed, and consoles were being discontinued left and right. In Japan, the story was the polar opposite. The video game industry was in a time of great innovation at the time, led by the introduction of the Nintendo Famicom in July of that year. Casio had experience porting games to the MSX computers in Japan, and decided to throw their hat into the thriving Japanese console market, releasing the PV-1000 in October 1983.
The system used the Zilog Z80 processor, also used in the ColecoVision, and used a joystick controller much like most other early 1980s consoles.

What Makes It Obscure?
The PV-1000's October 1983 release put it into direct competition with the Nintendo Famicom (later sold as the NES) and Sega SG-1000, each of which had vastly superior technical specs and third party support. Only 15 games were ever released for the system, mostly ports of popular arcade games of the time. The system was said to have been produced only for a period of a few weeks, and is extremely rare today.
In short, the system failed because it was competing with two vastly superior systems.

The Super A'Can

Background/History:
The Super A'Can is a video game console released in Taiwan on October 25, 1995. Although it is often compared to the Super Nintendo, it is, in many ways, cosmetically more like the SNES and internally more like the Sega Genesis. The system has an SNES-like control pad and appearance, but Sega Genesis-like internals - for instance, the system used the same Motorola 68000 processor as the Genesis. The system is not compatible with the Genesis (or SNES for that matter). The system was developed by a Taiwanese company called Funtech specifically for the Taiwanese market, and was not a pirated system. The system was graphically about on par with the SNES, and most of its games are similar in gameplay to popular SNES games of the time.

What Makes It Obscure?
Even in Taiwan, the system was not a great success. Had the system been released two years earlier, it likely would have seen much more success. The late 1995 release of the system put it in competition with the 32 bit systems such as the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, and the Super A'Can was a generation behind. The system was eventually discontinued. (A discontinuation date wasn't found, but is likely around 1997). Only 12 games were released for the system. Combine that with a total lack of release outside Taiwan (in the mid-2000s, it was said that only four systems were outside Taiwan) and you have a very obscure console on your hands.

The Dendy - A Russian NES Clone

Dendy Junior, from here.

Background/History:
The Dendy is a video game console sold in Russia from 1992 to 1996, made by a company called Steepler. It was a Taiwanese produced clone of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), exclusively produced for the Russian market. As the NES was never produced in an official capacity for the Russian market, the Dendy was the only video game console on Russia's market at its introduction in late 1992. Most of the games were pirated copies of NES games. Some games were originally programmed, but most of these were still copyright infringing: one of these games was Somari, a clone of Sonic the Hedgehog with the Mario character. Many multicarts (cartridges with multiple games on them) were produced. The cartridges looked much like Famicom (the Japanese version of the NES) cartridges.
The initial price was 39,000 rubles (about $94), limiting its sales as the price was equivalent to a month's salary for an average person. By 1994, the price was down to $30-$35, and over a million had been sold, with an additional 100,000-125,000 units being sold on a monthly basis. In 1994, the Dendy's success spurred Sega to introduce their Genesis console to the Russian market. Steepler was reorganized into the Dendy company, and in November 1994 signed an agreement that Dendy the exclusive rights to sell the newer Super Nintendo console in Russia. It is unclear how the Dendy was discontinued: one theory suggests that Dendy signed a deal with Nintendo to sell licensed cartridge games in lieu of pirated games. Since licensed games cost several times more than pirated games, they were not affordable to the Russian market.

What Makes It Obscure?
The Dendy was the first successful console on the Russian market, but it was exclusively sold in Russia. It has aspects of it that are unlike any licensed console, and to the Western eye, it looks like what it is - a knockoff.

The VideoBrain

The VideoBrain.

Background/History:
The Video Brain Family Computer is yet another system that blurs the line between home computer and video game system. Developed by a startup company called Umtech, the system was based the Fairchild F8, the same microprocessor as the Fairchild Channel F. It featured a kilobyte of RAM and four kilobytes of ROM, and was capable of 16 color graphics. The VideoBrain was marketed as a "family" home computer, and it featured video games as well as productivity software. The system featured four built in programs: a text editor, clock, countdown timer, and color bar generator. Additional software was available on cartridges that could hold 12 kibibytes (about 12.3 kilobytes) of data. The system shipped with one cartridge, a program called Financier that could be used to solve financial equations.

What Makes It Obscure?
The system had several hard to use features. The system did not use BASIC, the common computer language of the time: it used APL/S, forcing users to adopt a programming language that was not in common use. The keyboard made text entry a tedious task. In addition: the system was poorly marketed. It was primarily available through mail order, although Macy's did sell the system briefly. The price on the system was also steep: at introduction, $500 ($1,815 in today's dollars) got you a system with three cartridges. Educational and video game cartridges were $20-40 (now $73-146). Only fourteen programs were ever released.
The system, released in March 1978, was one of the few systems to be discontinued before the end of the 1970s. Production ended in spring 1979.
The Channel F, the first programmable video game console and the system that donated its microprocessor to the VideoBrain, was introduced over a year earlier - November 1976 - and ended production in 1981.

Pioneer LaserActive

Laseractive, from here. Equipped with both PAC modules.
Background/History:
The LaserActive was a laserdisc based system, like the RDI Halcyon, but far more successful. Released on August 20, 1993 in Japan and September 13, 1993 in the US, the LaserActive was unique in that it required two components to work as a video game console. The base component was a laserdisc player, the Pioneer CLD-A100, and the second component was the PAC module. By itself, the base component could play standard laserdisc movies and CD-ROMs. There were two available PAC modules, each able to play their own library of laserdisc games. The PAC modules were not region locked, and could play games released anywhere in the world. Both PACs could be attached at once.
The Sega PAC, released by Pioneer and Sega, had a library of laserdisc games (called Mega LD) and could also play the full library of Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and Sega CD titles. Around 40 Mega LD discs were released. The NEC PAC, released by Pioneer and NEC, has a separate library of laserdisc games (called LD-ROM2), as well as being able to play TurboGrafx-16 and TurboGrafx-CD games. (The TurboGrafx-16 games were region locked). Around 15 LD-ROM2 games were released.
The game genres covered a wide range.
There was also a karaoke module available, as well as 3D glasses.

What Makes It Obscure?
Quite simply, price and value. The LaserActive was state-of-the-art; however, high technology is not cheap. The base unit cost $970, and each PAC was $600 extra. A LaserActive with the Sega PAC would set you back $1,570, before games. Adjusted for inflation, this is $2,550. While this sum got you a hefty library of thousands of games to choose from, keep in mind that a new Genesis and Sega CD could be bought for around $350 at the time ($569 today) and could play all US-released games other than the Mega LDs. In effect, this was a $1,220 premium ($1,981 today) to be able to play 40 Mega-LD games and imported games.
The LaserActive with the NEC module was also $1,570, but its game library was far smaller. The TurboGrafx line was much less successful and saw much fewer game releases than the Sega Genesis and CD did. The TurboDuo, a unit integrating the function of a TurboGrafx-16 and TurboGrafx-CD, could be bought for around $300 at the time ($487 today), and even offered an adapter to play games from different regions for both. In effect, this was a $1,270 premium ($2,063 today) to be able to play 15 Mega-LD games and have an inability to play foreign TurboGrafx-16 games.
If one used the LaserActive as a standalone Laserdisc player and CD player, the value proposition was better, but even a good laserdisc player, CD player, and game console were still far less expensive than a LaserActive. However, the value was not so bad as to prevent the system's release, and unlike the Halcyon, the LaserActive with Sega PAC did offer a large game library with the high price. The Halcyon came into a dead video game market. The LaserActive arrived into a lively video game market.
About 10,000 LaserActives were sold. Today a LaserActive and Sega PAC can still be bought for under $1,000.

Apple Pippin

From here.

Background/History:
Apple has had two "golden ages" in its 39 year history. The first golden age was in the 1980s, and was led by the Apple II and early Macintosh computers. The second has been since around 2000 and has been led by many products - the iMac line, the iPod, the iPhone - iGuess you could call it the iEra. But in between that first and second golden age came Apple's dark age: the 1990s. Many of Apple's products during the '90s were underperforming.
One of Apple's biggest flops was the Pippin, their attempt to enter the video game market. The system was designed to compete with the "fifth generation" systems, namely the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Sega Saturn.
The system featured a 66 MHz PowerPC processor, making it similar in architecture to many early-mid 1990s Macintosh computers.The console also featured Internet connectivity. It offered a choice of 14.4, 28.8, or 33.6 kbit/s modems. Some games featured online play, and the system could be used to access the internet. In effect, the idea was for it to be a low end Macintosh computer - game console hybrid.
Like the 3DO, Apple created the hardware standard and third parties produced the system. In this case, two companies - Bandai and Katz Media (a Norwegian company) - manufactured the systems themselves. The Bandai Pippin launched in Japan on March 28, 1995 and in the USA on September 1, 1995. The Katz Media Pippin was sold in Europe and Canada, and launched on March 17, 1997.

What makes it obscure?
Like most obscure systems, this one was a flop. The main problem was the outdated technology. When the system was conceived in 1993, home computer prices were high and the game console market was dominated by 16 bit systems such as the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. At that time, the system's technical specs would have been impressive - it was leaps and bounds ahead of the 16 bit systems. In the two years between the system's conception and launch, home computer prices plummeted, even as the computers themselves became more powerful. On the game console front, the 16 bit era was coming to an end. The $599 Pippin launched around the same time as the 32 bit Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn, systems that were cheaper and far more powerful. One critic said that the Pippin tried to "market 1993 technology to a 1996 audience." The internet connectivity was also slow. By 1996-1997, 56 kbit/s modems were becoming common.
The Pippin was a classic case of too little, too late.

Tiger R-Zone

Background/History:
In the 1990s, Tiger Electronics was well known for making a line of inexpensive, self contained handheld systems. Most popular video games of the time ended up on a Tiger handheld, and the cheap handhelds were wildly successful.
At the same time, there was a "virtual reality" boom going on. Pop culture referenced it frequently, and Nintendo's Virtual Boy attempted to emulate it, with limited success. Hot on the heels of the Virtual Boy, Tiger launched the R-Zone in 1995.
The original R-Zone model, called the Headgear, featured a head strap with a mirrored surface and was worn around the player's head. The cartridge was plugged into the system and actually displayed the game itself, projecting it onto the mirrored surface, which the player saw as the game. The system's controller was attached to the head unit by a 2.5 foot cable, and was a fairly typical controller unit of the time.

What Makes It Obscure?
First and foremost among the R-Zone's faults was the graphical capabilities. The system's graphics were very limited, and only in red and black. While the Virtual Boy also displayed only in red and black, the graphical detail was much greater. Games on the R-Zone differed primarily in title and subject; gameplay was nearly identical among all titles. The system did not allow saving of data.

LJN Video Art

LJN Video Art with joystick, from crappy-games.wikia.com

Background/History:
The LJN Video Art was an art painting program, much like Mario Paint or Microsoft Paint. Unlike those programs, it doesn't come as software; rather, the LJN Video Art was its own self contained system. Launched in 1987, it was one of the first art video games ever released. It was not intended as a direct competitor to the NES and other video game systems of the era; it was meant to compete with television itself. The system's controller is a joystick. The joystick is pressed down and moved and acts much like a virtual colored pencil. A color selector at the top of the joystick allows the player to select a color. The system also used cartridges, which came pre-loaded with pictures the player could color in, much like a coloring book.

What Makes It Obscure?
LJN is well known for making many low quality games, and the Video Art is no exception. There is basically nothing good to say about the system. The system lacked features that even basic art programs are expected to provide, such as a screen clear mode or a paint fill tool. It was nothing more than a virtual coloring book with a pack of colored pencils. Worse, the joystick had poor response, making it nearly impossible to properly color in. The system used a metal prong coaxial cable that has to be screwed onto the back of a TV, as opposed to the more modern and convenient RF connectors used by video game systems of the time. The system also output only white noise.

The Angry Video Game Nerd reviewed the system on December 22, 2014. Here is the video.
Warning: strong language. 

 

The Daewoo Zemmix

Daewoo Zemmix Turbo, from msxarchive.nl

Background/History:
In the US, the "IBM" home computer architecture (originally introduced on the IBM PC in 1981) has long been the dominant standard. It has been massively updated over the years, but is still in use. In Asia, a dominant standard of the 1980s and early 1990s was MSX. MSX was introduced in 1983 as an attempt to unify standards among computers around the world. Although it saw very little success in the US, it became the premier computer gaming platform in many countries in Asia, and even saw some success in parts of Europe. Like the IBM standard, the MSX standard saw upgrades over the years: the MSX2 standard in 1985, MSX2+ in 1988, and MSXturboR in 1990. The final MSX computers ended production in 1995.
Daewoo is a massive South Korean company that is primarily known in the US for cheap cars and cheap electronics, but their products also include heavy machinery, ships, construction, and many diversified activities.
The Zemmix is basically a scaled down MSX computer, intended for gaming. The first models of the Zemmix, the original and "Victory" model, were released in 1985. In the late 1980s, the "Super Victory" model, compatible with the MSX2 standard, was released. The "Turbo", the final Zemmix model, was released in 1990 and was compatible with the MSX2+ standard. As the MSXturboR standard was only released in Japan, no Zemmix models used it. The Zemmix was discontinued in 1995.
One notable feature of the Zemmix is the color options. Models were available in a white/silver, red/black, or blue/yellow/black color scheme. There were also numerous peripherals available for the system, including keyboard, music box, RAM expansion, MSX2 upgrade expension, and even a "Family Card" which allowed the system to play Nintendo Famicom (NES) games.

What Makes It Obscure?
Despite the system's ten year lifespan, information on it is scarce. The system was only released in South Korea. They are said to be reasonably common over there, but extremely rare elsewhere.

The Vectrex

Vectrex with controller - from here

Background/History:
By 1982, the home video game market - led by the Atari 2600 - had become huge, but the crop of consoles on the market had become dated. Arcades were getting games with more and more impressive technical specs and innovations, and the home consoles found themselves unable to keep up with them. In 1982, a new generation of consoles arrived, promising to bring an up to date arcade experience home. This generation was led by three consoles - the ColecoVision, Atari 5200, and the GCE Vectrex.
While the ColecoVision and 5200 were both traditional game consoles made by established game companies, this was GCE's first venture - and used a different design from any other video game console. Other video game consoles used raster graphics, which involve rendering the picture as pixels. The Vectrex used vector graphics, an innovation used by several popular arcade games of the time. Vector graphics use lines and shapes instead of pixels, and allowed for smoother animation than any other console of the time.
In addition, the Vectrex included its own screen, and didn't require - or even allow - a television to hook up to. One could simply plug the console in and play. The console featured a nine inch screen. It weighed over 10 pounds, so it wasn't a portable - but it wasn't quite a traditional console, either.
The Vectrex had two peripherals that were also never before seen: a 3D imager (much like movie 3D glasses), and a light pen that allowed the player to draw on the screen display.
Over 80 games were released on the Vectrex.

What Makes It Obscure?
The Vectrex was released in November 1982, immediately before the video game crash of 1983-1984, and was produced for only a year. While the Vectrex was well received and sold well at introduction (well enough for Milton Bradley to buy out GCE), it wasn't able to match the success of the ColecoVision and 5200.
The system has maintained a small, devoted fan base, whom have released home brew games. The system has also been praised for its durability, controller design, and game library.

The RDI Halcyon - Maybe the Rarest Console Ever

Exhibit A: the RDI Halcyon. Exhibit B: a 2011 Honda Accord V6 EX-L sedan*. One is a very rare video game system. The other includes a GPS navigation system, leather seats, a 271 hp V6 engine, six airbags, and has less than 42,000 miles on it.
They're worth about the same.

Background/History:
The Halcyon was intended to be a system far ahead of its time, an "ultra high end" system. Beginning in the early 1980s, "interactive movie" type games began to be released into arcades. These games allowed the player to make choices that would trigger video clips, with the effect that one game could afford numerous different "movies" depending on the choices made. The concept was much like a "choose your own adventure" type book. The animation in the games took up a lot of space, and required the use of LaserDisc as a storage medium. Sega's Astron Belt, developed in 1982, was the first of these games, but the first successful interactive movie was Dragon's Lair, released in 1983. Dragon's Lair featured movie-quality animation by veteran Disney animator Don Bluth. The game was trial and error based; the player had to choose all choices correctly to finish the game, giving the game replay value. It was expensive to play: at a time when the standard price for an arcade play was 25 cents (59 cents in 2015 dollars), Dragon's Lair cost 50 cents ($1.17 in 2015 dollars). Space Ace, released in 1984, was another successful LaserDisc interactive movie arcade game.
Rick Dyer, who had created the concept for Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, saw an opportunity to bring the interactive movie experience home. Forming a company called "RDI", he began to design a console around RCA's Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED), which was a cheaper alternative. While the video and audio quality on CED was lower than LaserDisc, it would allow the system to be released at a more affordable price. During the Halcyon's design process, RCA dropped the CED program, and RDI was forced to use the LaserDisc. The Halcyon ended up using a LaserDisc player and attached computer. The system had some other never before seen features, including a headset that allowed the player to give the system voice commands.

What Makes It Obscure:
The system cost a stupendous $2,500 when it came out ($5,430 in today's dollars).  In addition to the prohibitive cost, the system was planned for release in January 1985, in the midst of the mid 1980s video game crash. Six games were planned at launch, but only two were ever produced: Thayer's Quest and Raiders vs. Chargers Football. Less than a dozen Halcyon units are known to exist and the value of the system is unknown, but speculated to be in the five figure range. It's possible that a Halcyon, with all hookups and components, could sell for over $20,000.

AUDIO FEATURE: https://soundcloud.com/carsthatareunusual/rdi-halcyon-podcast
There is an error on the podcast - near the end, I say "RCA" when I should have said "RDI".

Halcyon picture from here.
*The 2011 Accord is my car. Mileage figure from the day it was purchased - May 4, 2013. Picture from the day it was purchased.

The Amiga CD32 - Commodore's last Hurrah

Background/History:
In the early 1990s, there was a "multimedia" craze going on. Multimedia consoles could play their own libraries of video games, but also had educational software and reference software (e.g. encyclopedias) available as well. These systems, a sort of "hybrid" between PCs and video game systems, were intended to be more advanced and serve a wider array of functions than the popular video game systems of the time, such as the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. These systems didn't come cheap, often costing 3-10 times as much as a typical new video game system.
Released on September 17, 1993 at $399, the Amiga CD32 was an entrant in this field. It had more of a focus on games than most systems in this category. It was a product in Commodore's successful line of Amiga computers, being based on the Amiga 1200 computer which had been released a year earlier. In fact, if a keyboard, floppy drive, hard drive, and mouse are added, the CD32 is the equivalent of an Amiga 1200 computer. Wishing to avoid making the console redundant, Commodore did not want to make these accessories available; however, third parties offered them. As its name states, the CD32 uses CD-ROM for game storage and is a 32 bit system.

What Makes It Obscure?
The CD32 is a classic "could've been a contender" system. 38% of CD-ROM drive sales in the UK immediately after its release were Amiga CD32 units, and sales were strong in Europe. The system also saw release in Canada, and was set up for US release in February or March 1994. Due to a patent dispute with a company called Cadtrack, a federal judge blocked Commodore from importing products into the US; the CD32, made in the Philippines, was under this injunction. Fortunately, some stores imported units from Canada to sell, but the console was only sold on the gray market, severely hampering its US success. 
Commodore filed for bankruptcy in late April 1994, and production of the CD32 stopped after just seven months. If Commodore had not closed down, there was potential for the system to be far more successful. The game library was large. Technical specifications were up to date, and the price, while steep, was lower than most multimedia systems and was not much higher than the launch prices of the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn which launched two years later. 

The Entex Adventure Vision

Adventure Vision with its four games stored. Photo courtesy of handheldmuseum.com

Background/History:
The early 1980s was a time for experimentation with video game concepts. The market was new and exciting, and no one really knew what the field's future held. The bulk of the video game industry was in the arcades, but home video game consoles - then led by the Atari 2600 - were a rapidly growing and popular segment as well.
The idea of a system that could be played on the go was an appealing one from the beginning. Systems such as Nintendo's Game and Watch series and Coleco's handheld games were primitive - often playing only one game, with very rudimentary graphics and sound. Attempts to make a proper handheld console with changeable games were stonewalled by the technology simply not being "ready" at an economical price. (The Milton Bradley Microvision tried and failed, but that's for another post)
The self-contained console was a "middle ground" between a traditional console and a handheld. While the self-contained console has considerable weight and size, it has its own electrical outlet and screen, so it doesn't require a television. The Adventure Vision was one of the machines in this small field. The Adventure Vision could be operated as a (very bulky) handheld on batteries or plugged into an AC adapter. It was released in late 1982.

What Makes It Obscure?
Few were sold, and the fragile and unreliable nature of the system means that even fewer survive. Despite being marketed as a "portable" system, if you dropped the system while carrying it would probably be broken. The system has four slots in the top which could store four games; this was ironic, as only four games were ever released, including the pack in game, Defender.  The four games were accurate ports of popular arcade games of the time, but the library ranks among the smallest ever released for a game system. At $80, the system was basically a poor man's Vectrex. The Vectrex, while still considered a commercial failure, was far more successful despite its $200 price tag.
The system had sound that was good enough, but poor graphics. The graphics only displayed in red, and had a resolution of only 150x40 pixels. The system featured a line of 40 vertical LEDs and a spinning mirror inside the system to simulate the 150 horizontal pixels. The graphics had a severe "wobble" to them due to the spinning mirror.

Other Aspects of the System
The system used an Intel 8048 processor running at 733 kilohertz and a National Semiconductor COP411L sound coprocessor running at 52.6 kilohertz.
The controls were a 4 direction joystick and 4 buttons, duplicated on either side of the joystick, for left or right handed players.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Good: It's a highly prized collector's item, control setup, games are faithful arcade translations.
Bad: Game library of only 4 games, poor graphics and sound.
Ugly: Durability. This system NEEDS to be babied.

The NUON

Background/History

The NUON, launched in late 2000, was a line of enhanced DVD players with video game functionality.

The DVD came to US shores in 1997, and while initially expensive, became affordable rapidly. By 2001, one third of households had a DVD player, just four years after their introduction. The DVD craze was on.
DVDs rapidly hit the video game market as well. By 2000, the buzz was on about the PlayStation 2. The original PlayStation was the highest selling console of the video game market at the time, and its successor promised an affordable price tag and high quality video games. Another big attraction on the PS2 was its use of DVD. The PS2 would use DVD discs for its video games and function as a standalone DVD player.
Microsoft announced their first console around this time as well. Scheduled for a 2001 launch, it was also going with DVD technology.
With the video game sales leader and a computer industry titan both ready to launch DVD based video game consoles, a small semiconductor company called VM Labs decided to get in on the action.
VM Labs' approach to the idea was unique. Instead of launching their own hardware, the Nuon technology was built in to certain models of DVD players. VM Labs itself developed the technology, but the players were built by and sold as Samsung, Toshiba, and RCA models. In addition to functioning as a standard DVD player, these models also had enhanced navigational tools (blah blah blah... this is a blog about video games) on some DVDs and also had a lineup of video games available.
A DVD player with a video game console built in? How could it lose?

What Makes It Obscure
Because the NUON models were marketed as standard DVD players, many consumers were unaware that their players had additional functionality. The library of titles that could take advantage of Nuon capabilities was small. Only four DVD movies with NUON enhancements were released, as well as eight NUON video games. The library of Nuon games was generic in nature, featuring few new ideas. By 2003, the NUON format was dead.
The PS2 also functioned as a standard DVD player, and it was often a lower cost than the NUON. The video game library of the PS2 was massive and highly varied.

The Casio Loopy

Picture pending. Picture of my Loopy, taken on February 9, 2015.

Background/History

The Casio Loopy was a system released in Japan on October 19, 1995, marketed to female gamers.

Casio is a very large multinational electronics company, founded in Japan in 1946. They are primarily known for their calculators and watches, but have released a wide variety of electronics over the years. In October 1983, they launched their first video game console, the PV-1000. This console was very unsuccessful, being discontinued within a matter of weeks after its introduction. Casio threw their hat into the video game market again in 1995, with the Loopy.
The Loopy was launched in the "fifth generation" of video game consoles. These consoles, launched in the mid-1990s, typically had 32 or 64 bit CPUs and usually used CD-ROM technology. This generation saw 3D graphics become widespread.

What Makes it Obscure?
The Loopy was unlike any other video game system ever released. The system was exclusively marketed to female gamers. Like its predecessor, the PV-1000, the unusually-named Loopy did not sell well, and today is a very rare system. The Loopy used cartridges, at a time when most consoles were switching over to CD-ROM. The Loopy also featured a thermal printer; players could print out game screenshots to create stickers. An optional accessory, called Magical Shop, even allowed the Loopy to be connected to another device (such as a VCR) and make screenshots and print out stickers. Even the color is unique; the system, its cartridges, and its accessories are purple. Cartoon hearts are prominently featured on the system box and cartridge boxes. The system was released only in Japan and only 10 games were ever released for it. The game library included many dating and "dress up" games.

Other Aspects of the System
The system used a 32 bit RISC CPU. The controller for the Loopy featured four front buttons (labeled A, B, C, and D) and two shoulder buttons, and was the same color of the console. A mouse was also included with the console. There was only one controller port.

Here's a video of the Loopy I took on February 9, 2015:

The Memorex VIS

Memorex VIS, courtesy of mondocoolmedia.wordpress.com

Background/History:
The VIS was a CD-ROM based system launched in November 1992, and initially only sold at Radio Shack stores.

In the early 1990s, there was a "multimedia" craze going on. Multimedia consoles could play their own libraries of video games, but also had educational software and reference software (e.g. encyclopedias) available as well. These systems, a sort of "hybrid" between PCs and video game systems, were intended to be more advanced and serve a wider array of functions than the popular video game systems of the time, such as the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. These systems didn't come cheap, often costing 3-10 times as much as a typical new video game system.

What makes it obscure?
The VIS was intended to compete with the Philips CD-i, the first "multimedia" system on the market, which had gone on sale about a year before the VIS. The CD-i was a failure itself, selling only a million units in its 7 years on the market. (For comparison, the Sega Genesis, a successful console of the same era, sold 40 million units in 8 years on the market). At launch, the VIS was $699
The VIS sold only 11,000 units, and was withdrawn from the market two months after it was introduced. Unsold warehouse stock was acquired by a company called Tiger, and by late 1994, the system was being sold - with 30 titles - for $99. Only about 50 titles were released for the system. Most were educational in nature, with few true "video games."

Other Aspects of the System
The VIS uses a special version of Windows 3.1, called "Modular Windows". Modular Windows was intended to be an embedded version of Windows for use on devices that connect to televisions; the VIS ended up being the only product to ever use it. The system also used the Intel 286 CPU, which was a very common CPU in PCs made in the mid 1980s to early 1990s.

The RCA Studio II

Background/History:

The RCA Studio II was launched in January 1977, making it one of the first video game consoles to take programmable cartridges.

At the time the Studio II was introduced, the video game market was dominated by machines that could play a small selection of built in games. A little over a year earlier, in late 1975, Atari had introduced a home version of its very popular arcade game Pong. Within months, "clones" of Atari Pong flooded the market. Over time, "Pong" systems, both from Atari and clones, introduced new games (typically variations on Pong) and added new features such as color graphics. By 1977, most "Pong clones" on the market featured several games and color graphics.

In November 1976, in the midst of the "Pong clone" era, Fairchild Semiconductor launched a system called the Video Entertainment System, later known as the Channel F. This was the first ever system to use programmable cartridges. Several consoles followed in 1977, the first of which was the Studio II. The "Pong Clones" still found a niche for a time, as they were lower priced than the cartridge systems.

What Makes It Obscure?

The biggest drawback to the Studio II was that it was outdated, even at launch. While the Channel F featured color graphics and relatively smooth animation, the Studio II featured black and white graphics, animation that was often choppy and prone to flicker, and was only capable of simple audio "beeps". At $150 at launch, it was only $20 cheaper than the vastly superior Channel F.

Other drawbacks to the system included a lack of standalone controllers; two keypads were built into the console itself, forcing the players very close to one another to play a two player game. 

The Atari 2600, introduced in September 1977, had technical capabilities that were far better than the Channel F and a quickly growing, high quality game library. While the Channel F was able to survive until early 1981 due to its established game library and lower price, the Studio II died a quick death. Production was cut on the system in early 1978, and the system was discontinued entirely in 1979. 

Other Aspects of the System

The Studio II featured five built in games: Addition, Bowling, Doodle, Freeway, and Patterns. Only 10 cartridge games were released for the system, making a total of 15 games. 

The system featured an RCA 1802 microprocessor running at 1.78 MHz, 2 kilobytes of ROM including the five built in games, 512 bytes of RAM, and displayed in 64x32 resolution. 

Welcome

Some video game systems are well known, and many among us have memories of them or have heard of them. Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sony PlayStation and PS2 are some that come to mind. At the other end of the extreme are systems that few know about and even fewer have played. Most of these systems didn't sell well. Often, quite a bit of time has passed since they were on the market. For every system that was a blockbuster hit, there are several that passed into the annals of obscurity.

This blog is to bring those systems to light and highlight facts on them. You will likely find out about a system you have never heard of.

Upcoming posts - updated Apr. 29, 2015 3:07 pm

NUON - Feb. 13, 2015
Entex Adventure Vision - Feb. 27, 2015 (posted Mar. 1)
Amiga CD32 - Mar. 2, 2015
RDI Halcyon - Mar. 17, 2015
Vectrex: Mar. 19, 2015

Potential future consoles (note: not all of these may be included)
Casio PV-1000 - Apr. 18, 2015
Laseractive - Apr. 9, 2015
Apple Pippin - Apr. 7, 2015
APF MP-1000 - coming May 2015
FM Towns Marty - Apr. 23, 2015
Action Max - Apr. 26, 2015
LJN Video Art - Apr. 2, 2015
Epoch Cassette Vision - Apr. 29, 2015
1292 Advanced Video Game System - Apr. 21, 2015
CreatiVision - Apr. 28, 2015
Dendy - Apr. 16, 2015
Super A'Can - Apr. 16, 2015
Daewoo Zemmix - Mar. 31, 2015
R-Zone - Apr. 5, 2015
Gamate - Apr. 28, 2015
Gizmondo - Apr. 28, 2015
Mega Duck - coming Apr. 29, 2015
Olivetti Envision - Apr. 20, 2015
Arcadia 2001
Sega SG-1000- Apr. 21, 2015
Microvision - Apr. 27, 2015
Video Brain - Apr. 14, 2015