Bad Console Design Page Revised

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Retro STrife
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Re: Bad Console Design Page Revised

Postby Retro STrife » June 7th, 2020, 7:19 am

VicViper wrote:70$?!
You sure you're not talking about the RAM expansion cartridges for improved performance on some fighting games?
Cause I can show you even just on eBay that regular official memory cards can be found for 20-30 bucks, the Japanese ones even hovering between 10-15 bucks (although some of those look unofficial).


I can't speak to the import or third party cards, or newer reproduction cards that some ebay sellers might have. But the official Sega memory card in the US was the one that says "Backup" on the front. It just provides storage; no additional performance. Like this one here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-SEGA-S ... 3428100275?

That's the most recent sale on ebay, for $65 shipped. Prior to that, one sold for $30 but only because the seller listed it too low with Buy It Now. The others before that ended at $75, $70, $118 (with original box), $65, $64, $60, etc... There aren't many of the official cards sold in the past couple months. And I saw less than 10 of those currently for sale on ebay.

But again, my point wasn't really about the price. I was saying that the very few official cards listed on ebay, combined with the high price they sell for, is a good indication that it was not a common accessory that US Saturn owners bought. And Sega seemed to treat the internal memory as the main save method (after all, they called their memory card a "backup" card).

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Bad Console Design Page Revised

Postby VideoGameCritic » June 7th, 2020, 10:15 am

My friend Eric bought this Sega backup cartridge way back in the day (probably 1995-1996) and I specifically recall him complaining he had to pay $55 for the thing. And that was in 1995 money.

Then again, I think those dinky PS1 memory cards were about $25.

Alucard1191
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Re: Bad Console Design Page Revised

Postby Alucard1191 » June 7th, 2020, 3:26 pm

Shiznute wrote:A little hard on the Dreamcast which I consider one of the best console designs ever but I also am one that thinks it is a criminally underrated system. The one aspect of the design of having no DVD player was a death nail. However, I loved the 4 ports on the system, vmus (especially when you had functionality like hiding the play you were picking in football games), the system as a whole seemed to be very reliable, never noticed the issue with the cord coming out of the wrong end of the controller.


As far as reliability goes, the only systems I've had actually die on me are: N64, Toaster NES, (Which I'm pretty sure everyone has had...) and my Dreamcast. Honestly, my replacement dreamcast I've only had a little over a year and it is already starting to run a little ragged. Pretty sure it's the laser on both of them, so maybe I can learn to fix them somehow at some point in time.

(And seriously, it is a very poorly designed controller, but if you're good with it, that's cool.)

I do love my Dreamcast, and that was a system that was in so many ways ahead of its time, but I gotta agree with the general wisdom that Sega made a LOT of missteps with that system.


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