2023-05-24 04:16:03
Back in the days when Sega was still in the business of making consoles, they were constantly working on new ideas that might separate them from the competition. While today that pursuit might be more focused on investing in some quality original titles or working to reduce the price of their hardware, back then it was more about finding unique and often quirky accessory concepts. At least for Sega, it was.
The results of their efforts were some ideas that were fairly innovative and clever and some that were kind of weird. Looking at some of these Sega accessories with a set of modern eyes can be very fun, sometimes funny, and always interesting.
8 Sega Activator
Before the Wiimote, Kinect, or PlayStation Move, there was the Sega Activator: the first full-body motion control system for a video game console. An octagonal loop console of some sort was placed on the floor in front of the TV so that the player could stand in the middle of it and play something like Street Fighter 2 with their whole body.
As cool as it looks, and before any other successful implementations of this kind of technology like Activator, the extension has never worked so well. Setting the thing up was a nightmare in itself, and using it to play couldn’t get much better than that.
7 Sega CD
Of all the bizarre accessory concepts Sega created in the heyday of the ’90s, the add-on that turns an existing console into a new one has to be the most interesting. The Sega CD was ahead of the curve in its use of CD technology, and delivered some time-boggling graphics, but the combination of a confusing concept, poor marketing, and inflated prices ultimately led to mixed reviews and poor sales.
However, there were at least a few good games on the Sega CD. Some fans even claim that Sound tablet It is better two-dimensional My voice game ever. But since so few people actually played these games, the addon was eventually remembered as a somewhat half-baked concept that didn’t quite fulfill its potential.
6 sega 32x
The Sega 32x was another interesting addition that was released in America in November 1994. It was designed to connect to the Sega Genesis and convert the console from a 16-bit device to a 32-bit device. With that would come a library of all-new, more powerful games along with some updated ports of the Sega Genesis titles that Sega hoped would keep fans engaged while they wait for the all-new Sega Saturn to be released.
Well, the Sega Saturn came out less than six months later, confusing consumers, confusing third-party developers, and eventually the Sega 32x. The concept had some potential, but the execution was so poor that the addon doesn’t stand a chance at all.
5 Game Gear Master System Adapter
It seems that the more simple Sega keeps things, the more success they have with their accessories. The Game Gear Master System Adapter is perhaps the best example of this. It was a simple adapter that plugged into a Sega Game Gear cartridge slot and allowed players to fire up their Sega Master System titles on the go.
There were a few hiccups with this such as the screen getting squeezy and making some games more difficult to play, but all things considered, it was a great concept that mostly worked out well. Handheld console titles came out at least a decade before everyone else.
4 Gear TV Tuner
At a time before the majority of humanity had a miniature movie theater in their pocket at all times, the concept of portable television was remarkably attractive. With the Game Gear TV Tuner, Sega sought to realize this concept and the Game Boy, which could not offer such a thing due to its lack of a color screen.
The accessory was working fine, but it also burned out a lot from the battery. More battery than the Game Gear already powers. One solution might be to plug the Game Gear into an outlet with the AC adapter, but if there’s an outlet nearby, chances are there’s a regular sized TV with more channels around it as well. That was so It’s about to be awesome.
3 Sega Nomad
While the Nintendo Switch is the original 2-in-1 console/console (with its own set of interesting accessories), Sega Nomad offered a remarkably similar experience more than 20 years before the Switch was released. This follow-up to the Game Gear offered fans the chance to take their Sega Genesis games on the go, a portable game experience that was on the surface even more impressive than what the Game Boy or Game Gear could offer.
Unfortunately, there were more than a few issues that stood in the way of Bedouin reaching its potential. The timing of its launch was awkward, the battery requirements were staggering, and the nearly $200 price tag was something of a bummer to many consumers. The portable device was ultimately a flop, but it’s still one of the cooler oddities for collectors on eBay today.
2 Sega channel
Sega Channel may have had some other issues that it caused in its own way, but the biggest problem was definitely that the world wasn’t ready for what it had to offer. In terms of commercial viability, at least.
With a simple Sega Channel Coaxial Adapter plugged into a user’s cable TV setup, gamers were able to connect to an online game service where they could download demos, codes, and actual Sega Genesis games. It was a very early introduction to what is now the standard for all consoles. A stroke of near-genius in the past, if it wasn’t so expensive and launched so late in the console’s life cycle.
1 Sega Action Chair
Many of Sega’s beloved and misguided accessories deserve a lot of credit for their innovation and the foresight with which they were developed. These tools account for some if not the Early examples of now popular ideas like backwards compatibility, handheld console-quality games, motion controls, and online game libraries. However, the Sega Action chair was kind of weird.
This controller/chair hybrid could be connected to the Sega Master System and Sega Genesis to offer fans an unusual and twisty gaming experience as the D-pad was attached to the seat itself, so players had to lean in whichever direction they wanted to move. The concept understandably didn’t work out, and is now rarely sought after by the most dedicated Sega collectors.
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