Topic: The 'Lost prototype consoles' topic (warning: image-heavy)

Game Pro, March 1990, p74 wrote:

CD's for Nintendo?

That's right! A company from the United Kingdom, Codemaster [sic.], has developed an audio CD player for use with the Nintendo system. Samsung is manufacturing the hardware for this unusual unit and Camerica plans to distribute the product in the United States beginning this summer. If you buy the CD player and the interface together, the cost will be $159.95. One CD containing two games is included with the unit. Gamers will also be able to purchase the Nintendo Interface separately for $44.95. This should enable anyone with an audio CD player to hook it up to their Nintendo. Advantages to this system include game cost-one CD containing two or three games will be the same price as one traditional cartridge game, and one three-five meg game will cost less than a comparable cartridge game. Camerica currently plans to have six CD's available in July when the unit is released-three CD's with two games each on them, and three CD's, each with a three-five meg game on them. No word yet on what the games will be and remember, they're not likely to be compatible with other CD ROM game players. Super Nintendo has yet to announce any plans for an audio CD player or a CD ROM for their system we'll all be watching the development of this product with great interest.

Thanks to TheRedEye at Lost Levels

The unreleased Jaguar & CD, Jagduo :

The unreleased Jaguar VR :

Wow, someone doesn't like "pointless" threads. Bit like the pot calling the kettle black eh?

No we cannot have this locked.
This is good stuff.

I had almost forgotten all about the "batarang" PS3 controller. Good thing Sony dumped it.

Love this thread, although it needs a 56K warning.

I bought a Genesis once that included a Batarang PS1 controller for some reason. I have yet to actually use it, though.

Glad the vacuum cleaner Dreamcast didn't come out.

Yep, is there a way to modify the title of the thread?

GDC09: DSi architect reveals unreleased Nintendo handhelds

Early DS design :

Game Boy Advance prototype with a Yoshi-demo :

The well-known DS prototype :

As for last picture, credit to X-Cult

I'm glad that that there isn't a game YET released on the Wii using your Wii-mote as a vacuum cleaner in a vacuum cleaner 'game'! Not to mention a broomstick one! :' (

Wow, that GBA prototype looks better than the real thing!

mentioning the blue GBA concept

My only complain on it would be the button-layout on the right-hand; doesn't seem very practical in my opinion. All in all indeed a great design

Nintendo 64DD concept & specs

Thanks to gladiator at Retromags for providing the scan of Co...

Nintendo Dolphin / Gamecube

Gamecube controller prototypes :

Wow, thanks OP! It is so nice to see these old prototypes again. I've long thrown out those old magazines from about a decade ago.

My pleasure really. I' m really trying to make the most complete archive of these lost hardwares there is, it takes time and dedication but i find it fun and even educational in a way as i find new stuff everyday

Sega's Master System (in Japan, Mark) floppy drive. I guess you can compare it to Nintendo's N64DD...

Thanks to Giantbomb!

Playstation 2 conceptual designs :

PS3's 'Batrang' :

The Sony FourthVIEW was a VR headset that allowed the user to turn their heads in 360 degrees, examining the surrounding environment. It ran off the Playstation 2 hardware, and was shown at Sony Dream World 2002.

Credit again goes to X-Cult

unreleased 3DO successor the M2

Thanks Reala

There is even more on it too i just found out :

M2 - 3DO's vaporware upgrade (the white one is a development one, the black a consumer one) :

This was to be Panasonic's Playstation killer, the proposed upgrade to the 32 bit 3DO machine. The idea was to release it as a stand alone and also as some kind of attachment to exsisting 3DO machines. Sadly from day one M2 was pretty much doomed. The screen shots shown back in 1998 were way ahead of anything the machine could have actually produced.

3DO sold the M2 to Matsushita for like $100 million dollars, who then decided not to enter the market with it. This was a pretty big shock to the gaming world back then. Imagine Sony canning PS3 a month before release. A lot of very disappointed 3DO nerds commited suicide that day. Rumor is the guy in charge of the deal ended up running a fish cannery in South America. But it was good news for the 3DO company, who becasue of the deal became one of the few hardware developers to actually see a profit upon leaving the industry. 3DO today survives as a pretty decent software publisher, but it's highly unlikely they will ever enter the console business again.

However all was not finished for the M2. Four games made it into Japanese arcades based on it's hardware, Battle Tyrst, Hell night, Total Vice, and Polystars. A semi complete Demo of D's was also shown at E3 in 1998 (which was later released for the Sega Dreamcast.) The only "commerical" release of anything containing the M2 chipset was the FZ-35S, which was made as a business multimedia device, the only known software being a "virtual car show" type thing and a home desgin program released in Japan. Also it appears that Matsushita incorporated elements of M2 technology into a coffee machine, of all things. $100 million and they're making coffee machines. That's one smart business decesion.

Does it exist? Can you get one? Yes... sort of. With my dedication and extensive research (which involves going to the Assembler forums and reading the M2 thread) a list has been formed of all M2 hardware known to exist, as follows:

2x 3do m2 complete developer system (includes 3do m2 card, cdrom card, cdrom drive unit, documentry and the software toolkit
1x 3do m2 maybe developer maybe early console kit running with software / games
1x 3do m2 developer system (3do m2 dev cart, cdrom drive unit, documentry and software toolkit
2x 3do m2 drive unit
2x 3do m2 developer card

John D. Norman writes:

Also, Matsushita bought the M2 technology from 3DO (which is now defunct), not Panasonic, which is actually one in the same company. The M2 was also the competition for the original PlayStation, not the PS2 which would have been released 4 years-ish after the M2 had it been on time. The system was actually a VERY capable for its time. Titles like D’s Dinner Table 2 and a few projects from 3DO’s own software development groups had decidedly better geometry than the N64 but without the fuzzy textures. Keeping in mind the system would have been released almost simultaneously with the N64 – again, had it been on time – it was quite a bit ahead of the curb. The problem was that Japanese developers had very little faith in the 3DO platform. Most were much more willing to work on a system with a solid brand name like Sega at the time, or much easier hardware to work with like the PlayStation. Matsushita/Panasonic basically got cold feet from this lukewarm response and didn’t want to invest the capital on what was becoming a very crowded video game market.

D2 / D’s Dinner Table 2 was eventually ported to the Dreamcast, not the PS2. After the port of the original D / D’s Dinner Table to the PlayStation (and Saturn), Kenji Eno of Warp pretty much swore off ever developing for Sony again because of the problems they had getting D released on the platform in most territories.

Thanks to Zappenduster and Mr. Norman for the info.

Occasionally M2 prototype consoles pop up on Ebay and go for rediculous amounts of money. But without software you're looking at a $10,000 doorstop.

The Goldstar M2 :

The FZ-35S business multimedia machine :

Thanks to Ultimate Console Database

More stuff :

Prototype controller :

$10,000? Bargain deal! Although i must say...it's a very interesting piece of hardware.

Other unreleased 3DOs :

Thanks to Digitpress

Sanyo's 3DO prototype (with Megadrive controller?!) :

Final, released one :

Notice the colour differences with the prototype.

The unreleased Indrema L600

NUON based game system that got 86'ed like six months before it would have hit store shelves. Inifinum Labs just thought that Sony's market penetration was just too deep to make it feasible to compete.

Very cool looking Linux based console with a basically redesigned PS1 dual shock controller. Used a DVD drive and could of course read VCD, MP3, CDs, etc. NUON eventually made it's way into several different DVD players but good luck finding one (let alone any of the only seven games made for them.)

What really blows is that this was supposed to be an open source console (hence Linux) which meant anyone with a PC could potentially have been a developer. Damn.

Indrema closed it's doors on April 6th, 2001, ten million dollars short for what they needed to continue with the console. Problably not more than a few early prototypes around if any out there.

Thanks to Ultimate Console Database for the article

%$&#@ LAUGHS LOUD!

Prototype since april 2001 :

Prototype before april 2001 :

P.S. Thanks to the one who edited the topic-title