At no 10: the 1995 Sega Saturn! Rushed into production to beat the Sony PlayStation it launched with only six games available. A massive advertising campaign couldn't rescue it's reputation...
At no 9: the 1982 Vectex! Who needs sprites when you've got vector graphics! Plus you could add a coloured sheet to the weird shoebox monitor to give you 'colour' graphics. A brave attempt...
At no 8: the 1995 Nintendo Virtual Boy! What do you get if you cross a ViewMaster with a Game and Watch and put it on a tripod? The answer was a commercial flop. Another brave attempt at something new, at a time when VR was all the rage...
At no 7: the 1990 Amstrad GX4000! Amstrad made a console? Yes they did! Was it any good? Erm...
At no 6: the 1994 Sega Mega Jet! A portable version of the Mega Drive this was used on Japanese airlines as in-flight entertainment. Many privately owned ones are apparently from a shipment hijacked by Indonesian sea-pirates that later turned up on eBay...
At no 5: the 1977 Coleco Telstar Arcade! Probably the world's only triangular console it let you drive, shoot and play tennis - but not at the same time alas...
At no 4: the 1994 Atari Jaguar! "The world's first 64 bit console" was actually two 32 bit systems crammed into the same box. That's not cheating, is it? Buggy hardware and a lack of games led to its demise and Atari's exit from the console market...
At no 3: the 2004 Nokia N-Gage! Was it a phone? Was it a console? Was it a digital belt buckle? Nobody knew. What we did know was what killed it: the iPhone...
At no 2: the Apple Bandai Pippin! Apple made a console? With Bandai?? With a croissant for a controller??? Quietly buried by Steve Jobs in 1997 next to the Apple Newton. Send no flowers...
And the no 1 best forgotten games console is... the 1984 Yeno Super Lady Cassette Vision - a pink console for the lady gamer!
If it's any consolation the boy's version was equally as crap...
More pulp video games another time. Most will be PAL compatible...
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Given the current heatwave, I feel obliged to ask my favourite question: is it time to bring back the leisure suit?
Let's find out...
Now we all know what a man's lounge suit is, but if we're honest it can be a bit... stuffy. Formal. Businesslike. Not what you'd wear 'in da club' as the young folks say.
So for many years tailors have been experimenting with less formal, but still upmarket gents attire. The sort of garb you could wear for both a high level business meeting AND for listening to the Moody Blues in an espresso bar. Something versatile.
Today in pulp I look back at the publishing phenomenon of gamebooks: novels in which YOU are the hero!
A pencil and dice may be required for this thread...
Gamebooks are a simple but addictive concept: you control the narrative. At the end of each section of the story you are offered a choice of outcomes, and based on that you turn to the page indicated to see what happens next.
Gamebook plots are in fact complicated decision tree maps: one or more branches end in success, but many more end in failure! It's down to you to decide which path to tread.
He was the terror of London; a demonic figure with glowing eyes and fiery breath who could leap ten feet high. The penny dreadfuls of the time wrote up his exploits in lurid terms. But who was he really?
Today I look at one of the earliest pulp legends: Spring-Heeled Jack!
London has always attracted ghosts, and in the 19th Century they increasingly left their haunted houses and graveyards and began to wader the capital's streets.
But one apparition caught the Victorian public attention more than most...
In October 1837 a 'leaping character' with a look of the Devil began to prey on Londoners. Often he would leap high into the air and land in front of a carriage, causing it to crash. It would then flee with a high-pitched laugh.