The future of consoles

Probably more a massive spike for 2020 and then levelling off to saner levels for 2021. Here we go...



PC grew far less than console in 2020, less of a Covid spike, so the return to more normal buying levels in 2021 was less impactful on the relative number.

 

i remember when IBM and Amstrad tried to reconcile both worlds

Amstrad Mega PC - Wikipedia

 

Why have i never heard of that thing before? Intresting device to say the least. Abit like the Sony/nintendo console

 

Because you're too young !

 

There also was the Fujitsu/marty FM towns which was tagged as console and PC in one machine.

 

Don't forget Atari and the Atari ST (Atari 520 ST and then Atari 1040 ST) which had an interesting development path.

Jay Miner (one of the original developers of the custom chips in the Atari 2600, 5200 and 7800) attempted to convince Atari's management to create a new chip that would be used in a Computer/Console. Atari management refused and thus he left and formed Hi-Toro which later became Amiga. However, Amiga ran out of money to continue development and Atari stepped in with funds so that they could continue developing the chip. As part of the deal, Atari got exclusive rights to the design for 1 year and thus the Atari ST was born. The product of a desire to have consoles evolve into computers and thus have a chip that could serve in both a console and computer role.

It's also why Amiga had computers that were so adept and well suited to running games compared to its competitors in the computing space. That fusion of console and computing.

If not for the console crash that followed after Atari 2600's crash, what we know of as the Amiga could have been an Atari gaming console. Faced with such capable hardware as the Amiga had, would Nintendo have stood a chanced with the NES? This would also require Atari to have approved of Jay Miner's venture, of course.

Regards,
SB

 

Pretty sure there were various console plugin cards for IBM too.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/the-strange-world-of-console-computer-hybrids

 

I wouldn't exactly consider the NV1 a console plug-in. I had one and while it had a few console game ports, it was basically just an early 3D accelerator that wasn't based on triangle rasterization which the rest of the industry went with.

Although I guess since a few console games were ported to it, it could be considered a console plug-in?

Regards,
SB

 

Creative 3DO Blaster was a true console plug-in. Probably the only one I've heard of.

Tommy McClain

 

I had an amiga cd32 at the time. Really liked it.

 

So you were the dude who bought it!!

 

Was it the one partnered with Sega to promote quads and the games were basically Saturn game ports?

 

Ok ok, I m veeery curious now. What exactly did you like about it?

 

I was 14, it was a CD machine and was 32bit(ah the bits war), that alone was awesome !
i had a mega CD too, and dreamed about having a PC Engine Duo. Only got the coregraphx.

 

The Mega CD looks like a dream console compared to the abomination that the AmigaCD was. I would have cried

 

Yeah. A few Sega Saturn games were ported to it. I remember Virtua Fighter and I believe Panzer Dragoon.

Regards,
SB

 

I still have the Mega CD today! Plus a bunch of games as the console bundle itself had 12 or so.

 

I owned an Amiga 2500 and then an Amiga 3000. I also owned a BeBox.

 

You win.

 

What a bunch of old geezers, everyone has mild alzheimer's and thinks the topic is about memories of the past instead of discussing the future of consoles.