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Posted: May 28 2010 10:09 pm

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1991915,00.html

the virtual boy is on there of course.

Quote:

Time Magazine recently penned a list of the 50 Worst Inventions ever created. Alongside such items as New Coke and Agent Orange is Nintendo's infamous Virtual Boy, which comes in at number 8.
"The Virtual Boy will go down as Nintendo's most short-lived system, staying on the market for just six months in 1995 before being mercy-killed," Time's Dan Fletcher wrote.

"The system consisted of bulky, bright red headgear that completely obscured a gamer's vision as he tries to play games rendered in rudimentary 3D graphics."

The Virtual Boy is also infamous for forcing the late Gunpei Yokoi out of Nintendo. He would go on to develop the competing WonderSwan for Bandai before his tragic death in 1997.

These days, the Virtual Boy is something of a collector's item among fans, fetching high prices on sites like eBay. Given the platform's history though, Nintendo seems like it would sooner forget the Virtual Boy ever existed.

Also making Time's list is Farmville, which comes in just below the Virtual Boy, and the Tamagotchi. Given the success of those products though, something tells us that Zynga and Bandai have no regrets whatsoever.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3179551

Posted: Jun 24 2010 10:49 pm

Tamagatchi and the Virtual Boy were awesome. I want a Virtual Boy more than I do a 3DS, or an N64. Tamogotchi was basically what I did before I got my first DS. I got caught with it in school and couldn't get it back until June. Those were the days!

Posted: Jun 25 2010 02:14 am

Auto-Tune! I agree whole-fucking-heartedly!

EDIT: The Baby Cage is awful.

Posted: Jun 25 2010 06:16 am

List fails for not including the Apple Newton or the Apple Pippin.

Also, the inclusionof Betamax is kind of bullshit. They even admit that the inclusion is bullshit, but they don't even know WHY:

Quote:

Betamax wasn't so much a bad product as a lesson in marketing gone awry. The also-ran to VHS in the video-format wars, Betamax was pushed by Sony as a proprietary format in 1975 before it was completely ready, in a race to get manufacturers on board. But while Betamax could record up to an hour of video, VHS could record up to two hours. That slight advantage was enough for VHS to gain a foothold in the market, one it never relinquished. Betamax became a footnote.

Betamax lost to VHS for the same reason that Apple could never beat IBM: They refused to license out the hardware to third parties. Whereas JVC licensed out VHS technology to any interested party, Sony refused to do so. So whereas you had a wide selection of VHS VCR machines to choose from, the only Betamax models available were the ones made directly by Sony. This also created availability issues. It was much easier to rent or purchase a VHS VCR, because more of them were being manufactured.

Joined: Mar 18 2010 Location: Tuonela Posts: 299

Auto-tune is ok, if it is really used as an audible effect (instead of its original purpose, which was to make that shitty singer hit the note), and if done with taste. Daft Punk kicks ass, and that song came when everybody wasn't using it yet.

2010 SLF Tag Champ Joined: Jun 07 2006 Posts: 12294

The fact that the sucessful Betamax is on here, but the horrendous divx or disposable DVDs aren't is a travesty.

Posted: Jun 25 2010 01:45 pm

Vaenamoenen wrote:

Auto-tune is ok, if it is really used as an audible effect (instead of its original purpose, which was to make that shitty singer hit the note), and if done with taste. Daft Punk kicks ass, and that song came when everybody wasn't using it yet.

That's true. There are a lot of good uses for it. Electronica uses it well for the most part. Bands like Chromeo and Ween use auto-tune/vocoders a lot, and it's great. It's just a matter of abuse, like burned toast and landmines.

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

Quote:

CueCat
Released at the height of the tech boom in the late 1990s, the CueCat was a massively expensive failure. Millions of the cat-shaped bar-code scanners were produced and shipped for free across the U.S., in hopes that people would use them to scan specially marked bar codes to visit Internet sites. (How this was easier than a typing a link, the company never did answer.) Despite a much ballyhooed launch, with CueCat codes printed in Wired and BusinessWeek, consumers never got into the idea of reading their magazines next to a wired cat-shaped scanner, and the CueCat became little more than a high-tech paperweight.

What the hell were they thinking?!

Posted: Jun 25 2010 06:54 pm

FNJ wrote:

The fact that the sucessful Betamax is on here, but the horrendous divx or disposable DVDs aren't is a travesty.

An excellent point!

Posted: Jun 25 2010 07:04 pm

I'm a bit disappointed that the atomic bomb didn't make this, oh well.

Posted: Jun 25 2010 07:18 pm

I would put HD DVD before Betamax. At least Betamax lasted for a decent amount of time.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

I know! An invention that saved possibly hundreds of thousands of American lives! What was Time thinking?! Rolling Eyes

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

sidewaydriver wrote:

I would put HD DVD before Betamax. At least Betamax lasted for a decent amount of time.

I have fond memories of renting a Betamax at the local video store with my parents. For that reason alone I cannot hate the Betamax. I don't care, some of you like Megaman just because you liked the first 3 games and disregard the 27 horrible incarnations of him.

Also, note my sarcasm. But kinda not.

Posted: Jun 25 2010 07:27 pm

I like all the Mega Man games, even the ones that suck.

Posted: Jun 25 2010 07:29 pm

sidewaydriver wrote:

I like all the Mega Man games, even the ones that suck.

^Except BN and Star Force....

Posted: Jun 25 2010 07:32 pm

Ba'al wrote:

sidewaydriver wrote:

I like all the Mega Man games, even the ones that suck.

^Except BN and Star Force....

That goes without saying.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

I'm just trollin'. I was hoping to get a rise out of FNJ and make him cry about it, but he probably detects my trollingness.

Posted: Jun 25 2010 10:10 pm

joshwoodzy wrote:

I'm just trollin'. I was hoping to get a rise out of FNJ and make him cry about it, but he probably detects my trollingness.

i think jprime is the ultimate mega fan, besides m3ga man.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

I know, but FNJ posts more. I was hoping to use my reverse trolling technique on someone. It's a secret to everyone.

Posted: Jun 25 2010 10:18 pm

so you were trying to troll a non-troll, who has recently been accused of trolling? interesting. what if you get an ogre instead?

2010 SLF Tag Champ Joined: Jun 07 2006 Posts: 12294

joshwoodzy wrote:

sidewaydriver wrote:

I would put HD DVD before Betamax. At least Betamax lasted for a decent amount of time.

I have fond memories of renting a Betamax at the local video store with my parents. For that reason alone I cannot hate the Betamax. I don't care, some of you like Megaman just because you liked the first 3 games and disregard the 27 horrible incarnations of him.

Also, note my sarcasm. But kinda not.

I've always been under the impression that Betamax was supposedly better than VHS.

Posted: Jun 27 2010 05:01 pm

What about those MiniDiscs? The tiny half sized CDs. Those never took off.

Posted: Jun 27 2010 05:06 pm

they took off for about half a year.... i remember some 'rich' kids in school were showing them off.

Joined: Sep 08 2009 Posts: 80

Ba'al wrote:

sidewaydriver wrote:

I like all the Mega Man games, even the ones that suck.

^Except BN and Star Force....

Hey hold your horses, I played the first Battle Network and thought the combat system was ace. Shitloads of fun!
Of course it's not a real Megaman game though.