As it stands, the console war is between only two parties Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo is off doing their own thing and the PC masters need not quarrel with these console makers. However, there were a few potential players from across the console generations hoping to break into the market and take a slice of it. And work their way to the top of course, but none of them succeeded. Well because none of them actually got released. There were some attempts by some well-known manufacturers as well as a few new companies trying to break into the console market. Either way, I think you were not aware of any of them. Here are the 6 Consoles Which Got Cancelled.
6. The Atari Mirai
The unreleased Atari Mirai is definitely the most mysterious one on this list. Mainly because nobody knows a thing about it, at least there’s nothing that’s been really nailed down. However, there were two schools of thought on what this console actually was.
The first being an Atari-branded SNK Neo Geo.
Atari had done this sort of thing before with their XEGS game system. Which is essentially a console port of their 8-bit computers, so it didn’t sound completely out of the question for their next big hitter. That’s about all we know about the Atari Mirai if any of that is actually true. However, when Atari corporation closed their doors in 1996 a prototype of what is supposedly the Mirai was found.
But it was only a shell there was no hardware, so we’re still completely lost as to what that actually was.
5. The Namco Super System
The late 80s saw Namco absolutely dominating the arcade market. So big in fact they were taking a bite out of their biggest rival Atari. However, Namco’s arrogance at the time led to disagreements with companies like Nintendo. Nintendo was quite strict on how many games they could release for the NES per year. Namco took this in a strange way, they decided to try and support Nintendo’s rivals in terms of giving them games. And even trying to enter the console market themselves.
Namco quickly developed a 16-bit system called the super system. Which was based on their system 21 arcade hardware. It was much more powerful than the SNES and the Mega Drive, but just as they were about to take it to developers and retailers. They bottled it and decided to go and team up with Hudson soft and NEC, to try and produce a console with them.
However, after seeing the arrogance Namco was displaying in the industry Hudson soft and NEC wasn’t too keen. And they shrugged them off pretty quickly. Eventually releasing the super graphics system, which went absolutely down the pan. Namco’s super system was pretty much never heard from again.
4. The Nintendo PlayStation
That’s right the Nintendo PlayStation. Saying that you might have already heard about this you know the whole Nintendo-Sony deal. And then Sony went off and made the PlayStation and completely crushed Nintendo. Well, if you have not heard of that let me explain, back in the day Nintendo was looking at creating a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo. And ended up cuddling up to Sony to get that on their way. And lo and behold the Nintendo PlayStation was born.
The first actual prototype was found in 2015 but there was no CD hardware around. So was this new console, we don’t know really. In the end, Sony and Nintendo were battling it out constantly as to the rights of who owned the software and who owned the hardware. In the end, they split and Sony took the hardware with them and the Sony Playstation was born, then nothing was ever the same. Sony tried to relaunch this Nintendo or Super Nintendo CD thing with Philips but that too fell through.
3. The Sega Neptune
It seems odd that the now software-only Sega were trying to rub shoulders with the console Giants back in the 90s. To be honest with the Mega Drive or Genesis that is what they did and then the 32x rolled around. It was a mushroom-shaped add-on for the Mega Drive that allowed more powerful and more interesting cartridges to be played. Knuckles Chaotix and Virtua Fighter are just a couple of them.
But, Sega already anticipating the massive success the 32x are going to bring them.
2. The Taito Wowow
Taito was the king of the arcade back in the day. Space invaders and Arkanoid was made by Taito. Anyhow, there was absolutely no surprise that Taito wanted to bring their “Arcade smashes” into the living room. And eventually enter the console market in 1992, which felt a bit late. Saying that Taito worked pretty ahead of the curve when it came to hardware.
Their system was boasting a CD-ROM drive video streaming software and even the ability to download games via satellite. This did sound quite expensive, and for 1992 it was expensive, and that was ultimately the Wowow’s downfall. That and what would have been absolute crap download speeds at that time.
1. The Atari Panther
It’s Atari again trying to sneak into the 16-bit party. The panther was going to be Atari’s state-of-the-art 16-bit console. Boasting a Motorola 68000 chip, which you could also find in the Mega Drive, the Amiga, the Apple Macintosh.
The Mega Drive
The Amiga
The Apple Macintosh.
And even Ataris own ST computers. The chips in the Panther was what put it leagues ahead of his competition. The Otis was a 32 channel sound processor and the blossom was a video chip that pumped out 2,602,144 colors and almost limitless sprite counts. That made the panther ridiculously more powerful than the SNES and the Mega Drive. However, Atari decided to cancel the panther not because it was expensive, but because of the Jaguar.
Jaguar was also in development at the time, with their 32-bit console was really speeding through the production process. So they felt they’d not give the Panther a big enough window to justify being released. The Jaguar, however, was delayed over and over and over again, making that gap wider and wider. The perfect spot to pop out another console was gone. The Panther with its power and supposed cost-effectiveness was a real misstep for Atari. Probably one of the biggest missteps in console history.
There we have it, 6 Consoles Which Got Cancelled.
