After looking at 29 very obscure video game systems, certain characteristics of these systems have begun to emerge that made them obscure. In most cases, the circumstances that led to their obscurity were complex, and no one cause can fully explain it.
Failure
The vast majority of obscure systems are obscure because they failed on the market. Lower sales translates into a system that is less well-remembered. A system where many units were sold is likely to be remembered by many, while the system that sold few units doesn't get remembered as well.
Some failed because their asking price was far too demanding on consumer's wallets. I did a feature on eight of these systems, but there are even more out there. There is a certain price that most successful consoles target. This price is typically below $600 in today's dollars at launch, falling to a much lower level as the masses adopt the system. There are certain systems that are expensive that have still seen niche market success, such as the Neo Geo, which justified its high system and cartridge prices by providing a wide range of arcade-perfect games - at a time when arcades were still a big deal. The manufacturer, SNK, was also well known as an arcade powerhouse.
The vast majority of overpriced consoles failed. For instance, the Apple Pippin, launched in 1996, was overpriced. It was $599 at launch, twice the price of the market leader, the Sony PlayStation. While other causes played into the Pippin's failure, journalists have said that the price was a major downfall of the system. This one sold 42,000 units - that's one Pippin for every 2,440 PlayStation sold.
Some failed because they targeted a niche that wasn't there. For instance, in the early to mid 1990s, there was a "multimedia console" boom. The Philips CD-i is probably the best known and best selling example, but a whole slew of systems - the Memorex VIS, Commodore Amiga CD32, Pioneer LaserActive, Olivetti Envision and Apple Pippin to name a few - came out in the same niche. The idea was that these systems would combine some PC functionality with game console functionality. The problem was that the niche was simply not there. The CD-i sold 1 million units - 1 CD-i per 49 Super Nintendos - and the other consoles in this genre sold even worse. The genre failed due to falling PC prices - a PC was often little more expensive, but provided far more functionality - not to mention more games.
It wasn't just the multimedia systems that fell into this trap. Many niches have been tried - and failed. For instance, Tiger's R-Zone was a portable system with a screen right next to your eye to simulate "virtual reality". The Action Max was a light gun-only VHS console. Both of these systems were made by well-known toy companies, and both were original ideas. Some ideas just don't work in the video game world.
Other systems failed because they were inadvisably advanced. There is a technological race, but the system has to be economical. If a system is too powerful, the hardware won't be able to be produced economically. An extreme example is the RDI Halcyon. This system used laserdiscs and intended to bring arcade perfect translations of interactive movie games - the most advanced games of the time - home. While the technical specs on the system were impressive, so was the price: $2,500 at the time ($5,430 in today's dollars). The FM Towns Marty is another system that was so advanced it was too expensive. Today's crop of systems are far more powerful than the Halcyon or Marty - but the Halcyon is 30 years old and the Marty 22, so the technology has had ample time to increase in power.
Sometimes, the advanced system is still economical, but suffers in other ways. The Milton Bradley Microvision was cheap enough to succeed - but at a foot tall and with the bare minimum of technical specs, it was clear in 1979 that the portable programmable video game system was an idea that was smart, but just not ready for its time. Ten years later, the Nintendo Game Boy would bring success to this idea.
On the flip side, some systems failed because they were behind their time. The Super A'Can had power that could compete with the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. Those systems had become outdated, and the system wound up in the same time period as the Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Nintendo 64. The jump from 2D to 3D graphics occurred with this generation, making the Super A'Can's untimeliness even more painful. The RCA Studio II was another system that fell below the technological curve of the time. Consumers don't want to pay good money on a new product that is outdated on arrival.
Some systems failed because they were just low quality. For instance, many of the Game Boy competitors - like the Gamate - offered a product that was lower quality than the Game Boy, and were not successful.
In order for a system to be successful, it has to have games. This is evident even at the system launch, where the quality and quantity of launch games are an important predictor of the system's success. A system needs more than launch games, though. It needs a supply of high quality games over a period of several years. It needs big-name games - one video game journalist compared the lifespans of (post-1988) systems that received Madden Football and those that didn't, with a pretty clear-cut message. Madden is currently the only NFL series of games and a very popular one at that.
There are some failed consoles that have managed to escape obscurity. The Nintendo Virtual Boy is a great example. The Virtual Boy was a Nintendo product, so it had a big name. Despite sales of only 250,000 units, it is well-known. It is referenced in numerous video game articles and reviews.
It's not just failure
Other factors can play into a system's obscurity. The age of the system is one. The oldest systems were released nearly half of an average human life span ago. The older a system is, the more impact it has to have had to still be remembered. It's not uncommon for the second generation of video game systems (about 1977 - 1984) to be referred to as the "Atari era", after the market leader of the time, the Atari 2600. The systems that made an impact during this era are still remembered, and merchandise is made to this day capitalizing on the nostalgia. For instance, you can get an Atari Flashback today which features Atari 2600 style controllers and case and has Atari 2600 games built in. The Intellivision Lives! series, available on many modern consoles, has kept awareness of the Intellivision high over 30 years after its release. And of course, the internet gives people places to discuss the old video games - and find out about every new release. It's much harder for an internet era console to become obscure. In fact, only 2 of the 29 systems on this blog were in production after 1997.
This blog is being written in Tennessee, so this blog is written from a United States perspective. Some systems that were unreleased in the United States are obscure here simply because we never saw them. For instance, the Dendy is a very successful and well remembered console - in Russia. Its Russian-only release means that the American market was unaware of it.
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Audio Feature here at SoundCloud.
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