PolyStation: a Famicom clone meant to resemble the PS1 but only plays cartridges on the disc tray. Power Player Super Joy III: a console that got the attention of Nintendo around 2004, which featured a N64 controller rip-off and a Genesis controller rip-off for two player support, and a light gun. The rip-off console trend still also exists in some form, but not as it was back in the mid-1990s to late-2000s with very few rip-off consoles ever being made these days.Ī few examples of rip-off game consoles include: Discontinued by the early-2000s after VM Labs went under and later bought out by Genesis Microchip. Released by VM Labs in 2000 but with only eight games and four movies released for the system. Nuon: a console utilized on DVD players by Samsung, RCA, Toshiba and to a lesser extent Motorola. Sadly, the console was discontinued in 2011 and the servers aren't active anymore making it impossible to buy or download any of the games. Zeebo: a console released exclusively in Brazil & Mexico by TecToy in 2009 that didn't use physical media, instead focusing on digital distribution. Was too expensive for the average consumer when launched in 1993, and discontinued in 1995.Īction Max: a VHS-based system released by Worlds of Wonder (the same company that made Teddy Ruxpin & Laser Tag) in 1987 with only five games released, and players couldn't truly lose or win any of the games, since the only genre was just FMV light gun games, and really low-budget lame ones at best. Pioneer LaserActive: a LaserDisc player with compatibility with Genesis/Mega Drive & TurboGrafx-16 games in addition to their respective CD addon games and it's own LaserDisc games requiring one of the modules. Philips CD-i: a console released in 1991 and discontinued in 1998, with it's lackluster game library, unimpressive educational software, cheaply built controllers, and famously for it's bad Zelda & Mario games (mainly the cutscenes from Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon & Hotel Mario) However, few of us ever discuss the lesser known consoles of the first to seventh generation of game consoles, mainly because nobody knew about them when they came out, sold fewer units, or had very few games released.Ī few examples include but not limited to: Most of us are familiar with Playstation, Xbox, any Nintendo hardware, and even old retro consoles like the 3DO, the Neo Geo, Sega consoles up to the Dreamcast, and Atari consoles up to the Jaguar.

When we think of game consoles we usually think about the first generation up to the current generation.

Doom 3 is a rip off of system shock 2