Computer World's 21 biggest tech flops

[Q]

Discuss (http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012345&source=rss_news50)

[Tai]

The segway isn't on there. And it should be. I voted for "Other".

[jackrabbit]

Q, you need to be banned for single word links like this.

[Shadowrat]

I don't know if one can claim that "Virtual Reality" is a flop. It's not even a product. It's like saying the flying car is a flop because people in the 50's thought we'd all be flying around in them by now.

The Segway, great flop! What's his face was saying how it was going to "change the world." and that "entire cities would be torn down and rebuilt around the Segway!"

Nobody's ever promised me that their virtual reality product would change my life, or the world. Just that someday we will likely have 3d interfaces and maybe tactile feedback and motion tracking. Seems like we are kind of still on that track.

[Creole Ned]

Betamax should have been on the list, probably the biggest flop from an "average Joe" perspective.

Also, they referred to the Commodore 64 as a console. What the heck? It had a real keyboard, unlike the PCjr (which did earn its place on the list).

Among failed OSes they neglected to mention the spiffy but dead BeOS.

The Sega Saturn may have deserved a mention over the Dreamcast. That puppy arrived with an anchor strapped around its neck to insure a speedy demise.

The real crime is the omission of the 8-track cassette tape. Those sucked in every way something could suck (I still have Saturday Night Fever on 8-track).

[jackrabbit]

They put the Dreamcast on the list of flops? That would make the whole list null and void. Dreamcast was the worlds greatest console ever.

[Q]

The Dreamcast may have been a great piece of hardware, but commercially it was a complete, total, and utter flop.

[jackrabbit]

The list says it's a technology flop that didn't live up to the hype, though. There was minimal hype surrounding the Dreamcast, and technologically it was better than anything on the market till the Xbox. Plus the games were some of the best any system has had since.

[Budly]

I still have a box of 8-tracks and 2 players, 1 console and one portable. Whenever I listen to cd's of albums I had on 8-track I always recognize where the track changes were.

[Creole Ned]

The best part about 8-tracks is how they blithely destroyed an album's continuity for the sake of getting a balanced number of songs per track (which only listed as four, oddly enough). Popular techniques:

- shuffle songs into a different order so each track was about the same length
- repeat a song, again chosen strictly on length
- fade a song early on one track and fade it back in on the next track

Terrible, awful format.

I will say the live version of Jive Talkin' on the SNF 8-track is superior to the CD studio version, though. :o

[Circuit]

The Dreamcast may have been a great piece of hardware, but commercially it was a complete, total, and utter flop.

"Complete, total and utter" is a bit exaggerated. It died early, but it was far from a flop. The thing is, it did live up to the hype but didn't last due to the overhwhelming weight of Sony's juggernaut, the PS2. The Sega CD? Now that was a friggin' flop.

[Tick]

Yeah, the Dreamcast did better than at least a half dozen other similary hyped consoles: Saturn, SegaCD (technically not a stand alone console, tho much ballyhooed when it came out), anything Atari did after the 7200, 3D0, NeoGeo, and that's just off the top of my head.

On a somewhat related note, while visiting a friend to play Wii stuff (altho we ended up playing Mario Kart Double Dash because he only has 2 wiimotes and there were 4 of us), he mentioned that he has 3 working dreamcasts and offered me one. I never had a dreamcast when they were current. Anyone have recommendations for games I should keep an eye out for?

[Tai]

soul calibur

[Tai]

soul calibur

I say it three times.

[Shadowrat]

The Neo Geo wasn't a flop. Sure it didn't sell well as a home system, but they were in every single arcade / truck stop / 7-11 on the planet throughout the 90's.

[Shadowrat]

I have a dreamcast too. it's collecting dust in my basement. I recall getting it on opening day, then never seeing a game, second controller, or gun for the thing for close to a year.

My dreamcast holds a special place in my heart as the console that made me swear off consoles forever. well, that's what i swore. I did get a gamecube, and i'm looking for a wii.

Also. i got a DS, but when i swore that i wasn't including handhelds because ever since the atari lynx i have loved handhelds.

but i certainly haven't nor will i ever buy another sega console!:bg:

[Circuit]

The Neo Geo wasn't a flop. Sure it didn't sell well as a home system, but they were in every single arcade / truck stop / 7-11 on the planet throughout the 90's.

I'm pretty sure he was talking about the home console. The fact that back then it was friggin' more expensive than the PS3 with games that each cost as much or more than the other competing consoles themselves made it a big surprise it sold as well as it did, though. As far as I recall, the arcade and home hardware were pretty similar and way ahead of most of the stuff availalable at the time, which is what gave it its cult following and made it last something like 13 years being supported officially. No idea what the actual sales numbers were like, but it did have a pretty huge niche audience, if there is such a thing. So yeah, I don't think "flop" really applies to it simply because they apparently did everything they set out to do.

[Shadowrat]

I had one. I couldn't afford the games though. i would just rent a different one every weekend.

[Orion]

I still have my dreamcast hooked up, waiting for JR to come by for some more football. the nfl2k series of football games are easily the best I've ever played.
too bad 2ksports can't make anymore games cause NFL is licensed to those fucktards who make the madden series.

[Patton]

i loved my dreamcast

and my saturn

NIGHTS was so neat :D