The history of video games dates back to the 50s, but it wasn’t until the 70s and 80s
that they really took off with mainstream audiences.
Over the years, there’s been plenty of devs and creators who have produced some absolutely
amazing hardware.
But on the flip side of that, there’s some that have created utter failures that have
all but disappeared from existence.
Many of the items on this list are failed controllers, others are failed consoles, and
others, failed gaming gimmicks.
So with that in mind, let’s jump into our list.
10 The
Atari Mindlink The Atari Mindlink promised players that it
could read their minds, allowing you to control your video games with the power of your brain.
In reality, it was a headband that read the myoneural signal voltage from the player’s
forehead movements with infrared sensors, which would then be translated into movement
in the game they were playing.
Created for the Atari 2600, it was never actually released, with testing for the controller
showed that players would get frequent headaches while using it since it required them to move
their eyebrows A LOT in order to play.
9 The Playstation Mouse You know what makes perfect sense?
Using a mouse to play console games.
So, for context, back in the day, good ol 1992, the SNES released a mouse that you could
use for the game Mario paint.
Sony was like, hey, we could do that too!
Problem was, the Playstation was a different kind of console for a different kind of user
base.
Those who had Nintendo consoles often were of a younger demographic, and drawing games
were much more appealing to them.
Those who had a playstation were the kinds who preferred shooting, racing and action
games.
So the Playstation mouse didn’t really appeal to them, making it a bit of a commercial failure.
And the games that did benefit from having a mouse were all ones that people preferred
playing on PC anyway.
8 The Novint Falcon Just looking at the Novint Falcon is a bit
baffling.
This controller had a good core concept, but was executed rather poorly.
Perhaps it was ahead of its time.
Essentially it was a controller made to replace a mouse that had a motor pushing on its handle,
so you’d not only get a lot of feedback from it, but also a better range of motion.
So what was its problem?
It was hefty in size.
It didn’t have a whole lot of games that supported it.
And many thought it was more effort than it was worth, since you would have to find a
way to mount it while playing, It just wasn’t overly accessible or user friendly.
But, some people still dug it; back in 2009, Valve released updates for Half-Life 2, Portal
and Team Fortress 2 that added game support for the Novint Falcon.
7 Nokia N-Gage It’s a phone!
AND a game system!
WHOA!
Although, it wasn’t really that great of a phone, to be honest.
I know, because I had one.
Essentially, the Nokia N-Gage was Nokia’s way of trying to take advantage of the idea
that mobile gaming was slowly becoming a profitable industry.
Except, rather than having something like an app store where you could download games,
you would buy separate game cartridges for it, similar to a Gameboy Advance, and be able
to take it on the go with you BUT also use it to text and call people.
They had the right idea, but the execution wasn’t great.
As a gaming platform, it wasn’t all that bad, minus having a whole lot of unnecessary
buttons that made it really busy and messy to play with, but the games itself weren’t
too shabby.
That being said, it never really had any hit titles since, well, it was a Nokia phone,
not a serious gaming console. 6 Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Controller
This awful controller developed specifically to play Resident Evil 4 often comes to mind
when mulling over what the worst controller in video game history is.
An expensive PS2 accessory, it proved to be a lot more difficult to use than the actual
Ps2 controller when playing the game, even if it did vibrate every time you used it in
order to simulate a ‘realistic chainsaw feel’.
It even came with a cheesy display that you could mount it on, if you really wanted to
show it off, that is.
5 Konami Laser Scope Another head mounted game controller on our
list, the Konami Laser Scope similarly operated on a stupid premise; it was voice activate.
Meaning you would have to yell FIRE over and over again if you wanted to shoot.
Initially designed in 1990 for the game Laser Invasion, it was also compatible for other
NES zapper games.
And if that didn’t already sound and look awful, the technology was poorly produced
as well; many users criticized it for the LaserScope firing whenever you said ANY word.
Background noise also made it shoot, too.
4 Microsoft Entertainment Pack Back in the olden days of Windows computers,
between the operating systems of 3.1 and XP, part of the bundle that came with your computer
when you bought it was the Microsoft Entertainment Pack, which contained a bunch of simple games
that were great means of procrastination, especially if you worked in an office, or
were trying to do something other than write a term paper.
From FreeCell to Minesweeper to Chip’s Challenge, these games have very much lived on in the
memories of anyone who had a Windows computer between 1989 and 2001.
The Entertainment Pack itself was a product of Microsoft’s Entry Business Team, whose
job it was to make Windows more appealing to small businesses and homes, since the company
was concerned that its operating system’s high hardware requirements meant people would
only see it as a tool for larger enterprises.
The games themselves had a next to nothing budget, since at the time no game developers
saw Windows’ legitimacy as a gaming platform, so these games were crafted by Windows employees
who had spare time.
3 ET the Extra-Terrestrial The Atari 2600 ET game was a major commercial
failure; based off of the film of the same name, the goal of the game was to guide ET
through various screens in a cubic world to collect three parts of an interplanetary telephone
in order to ‘call home’.
The game was rushed to completion in 5 and a half weeks in order to be ready in time
for the 1982 Christmas season, and therefore was mass produced in order to meet an expected
high demand.
But, it sucked.
It is often considered one of the worst video games of all time, and many see it as a contributing
factor to the video game industry’s crash of 1983 (which was primarily due to market
saturation), with people returning the game in flocks.
An urban legend was spawned from this; that Atari had buried thousands of unsold cartridges
in a New Mexico landfill.
And guess what!
IT WAS TRUE.
In 2013 the site underwent an excavation, and found tons of ET cartridges along with
other Atari games.
Apparently 728,000 copies were buried.
While you can still hunt down a copy of this on eBay,
2 Nintendo Power Glove The Power Glove was a controller accessory
for the NES, and just by looking at it, you can probably figure out why it’s phased
out of existence, aside from being the butt of a joke every now and then.
The Power Glove was intriguing; it made use of some real early VR mechanics, but ultimately
was a bit of a commercial failure because it was only supported by two games, neither
of which came with it, and it was really difficult to use.
Think about it; you’re trying to use a game pad that’s awkwardly attached to your wrist.
Plus, despite exploring new grounds with VR tech, it was pretty imprecise.
Also, the games were called Glove Pilot and Manipulator Glove Adventure, so you can kinda
see where the lack of appeal came from.
1 Battle Tag Battle Tag is one of the more recent video
game creations on our list.
Some of you may remember it being showcased at Ubisoft’s 2010 E3 press conference.
What is battle tag?
Well, it’s basically laser tag, but for your home!
Players have guns with censors that they shoot at each other and your scores would end up
on the screen of your PC at the end of the game.
But after the press conference, most people were left confused by what exactly battle
tag was, since the demonstration was weird AF.
When it was actually released, after months of pretty much zero advertising, it was only
shipped out to 15 Toys R Us in the US in Texas, and Zellers stores in Canada; a chain that
is now dead.
And there we have it friends!
Have you ever come across any of these items?
Or owned any yourselves?
And if you could buy one of these for yourself, just for s*** and giggles, which one would
you get?
Give us a shout in those comments below and let us know!
If you dug this video, hit that like button!
And don’t forget to subscribe to top 10 gaming before you go for all things video
games, from lists, to news to updates and more!
Thanks for watching everyone!
Catch you all in the next video!