Worst
Phil and I were talking today about an old saw of ours, the question of what was the worst video game console of all time. Ultimately we're pretty sure it comes down to two options, the Neo Geo CD and the PC-FX.
The PC-FX was NEC's follow-up to the PC-Engine, a highly successful mainstream console that had all different kinds of games. For their entry into the 32-bit generation, they created a machine with very efficient hardware video decompression, which is to say that their console was optimized for playing back FMV clips.
The Neo CD was SNK's attempt to make a Neo Geo console with games that didn't cost 300 bucks. It had a great software library, because it had all those cool Neo arcade games. However, it also had a 1X speed CD drive (remember those?) and the CD ports were produced by the laziest programmers on earth, who did not bother to optimize their shit for load times at all. In the time it took to load up one round of King of Fighters, you could make yourself a sandwich. And some tomato soup, and get a glass of orange juice.
Software versus software, it's hard to say. The problem with accurately judging the PC-FX in that department is that it had a fair number of RPGs and such on it in addition to a multitude of shitty dating sims and anime clip collections. Some of those might actually be good, but maybe two white dudes on earth have actually played them, and they're both in mental hospitals having intense conversations with their moe rape pillows by now.
Another way to look at it, though, is to step back and consider that the FX was designed to do something well. It was designed to do a stupid thing well, something that it didn't actually need to do well, and it did nothing else well, but in its bizarro little field of specialty it was unchallenged at the time.
The Neo CD was basically designed from the get-go to suck. I think it has to take the crown.
The PC-FX was NEC's follow-up to the PC-Engine, a highly successful mainstream console that had all different kinds of games. For their entry into the 32-bit generation, they created a machine with very efficient hardware video decompression, which is to say that their console was optimized for playing back FMV clips.
The Neo CD was SNK's attempt to make a Neo Geo console with games that didn't cost 300 bucks. It had a great software library, because it had all those cool Neo arcade games. However, it also had a 1X speed CD drive (remember those?) and the CD ports were produced by the laziest programmers on earth, who did not bother to optimize their shit for load times at all. In the time it took to load up one round of King of Fighters, you could make yourself a sandwich. And some tomato soup, and get a glass of orange juice.
Software versus software, it's hard to say. The problem with accurately judging the PC-FX in that department is that it had a fair number of RPGs and such on it in addition to a multitude of shitty dating sims and anime clip collections. Some of those might actually be good, but maybe two white dudes on earth have actually played them, and they're both in mental hospitals having intense conversations with their moe rape pillows by now.
Another way to look at it, though, is to step back and consider that the FX was designed to do something well. It was designed to do a stupid thing well, something that it didn't actually need to do well, and it did nothing else well, but in its bizarro little field of specialty it was unchallenged at the time.
The Neo CD was basically designed from the get-go to suck. I think it has to take the crown.