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