Home video game consoles have been around since the 1970s, and while there are only a handful of consoles today, it wasn’t always like that. This was especially true throughout the 1980s and ’90s as more companies threw their tech at consumers hoping to gain a significant chunk of the market. This was both a good thing and a bad thing because, while people had lots of different systems and games to choose from, a lot of the consoles available weren’t great.
For every Nintendo Entertainment System, there was a crappy clone hoping to carve out a niche. While only a few consoles came to define the late 20th century, there are some that featured excellent games, better hardware, and more capabilities that utterly failed to find an audience. Essentially, there were two unusual camps in the decades-long console wars: bad gaming consoles almost nobody played and good consoles that fit the same description.
For the latter, cost was typically a problem because a company can make the best product ever dreamed of, but if it’s too expensive, its audience remains small. The bad consoles failed to find an audience for obvious reasons, as consumers pay attention to what’s getting panned just as much as they do the opposite. These 10 consoles all fall into the two camps, and while half are excellent systems some people never even heard of, the rest are notoriously awful, even though hardly anyone got a chance to try them out.
Best: TurboGrafx-16
The NEC TurboGrafx-16 is a console almost nobody in the West knew existed, though it was successful in Japan, where it was marketed as the PC Engine. The system was the result of a joint venture between NEC Home Electronics and Hudson Soft, which produced the system’s media, known as HuCards. These were proprietary games about the size and shape of a credit card. When it hit the market in the U.S., the TurboGrafx-16 came too late to challenge the NES and Sega Master System.
Instead, the console found itself amidst the incredibly popular Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Sega Genesis. This didn’t help it find a large audience in the West, as it arrived 15 days after the Genesis launched. Add to that a lackluster marketing campaign and a little fudging of the numbers, and the TurboGrafx-16 faded into obscurity. It was touted as a 16-bit system, but in actuality, it had an 8-bit CPU and dual 16-bit graphics processors.
Regardless of its technical specs, the TurboGrafx-16 boasted an excellent library of games, and it was a well-designed system. NEC produced several additions, including a CD-ROM drive that further expanded the library. It also produced the TurboExpress, a handheld color console that played the entire TurboGrafx HuCard library. Unfortunately, the cost of that device was high: $249 in 1990 ($640 in 2026). Ultimately, the TurboGrafx line withered and died out, having sold around 10 million units worldwide, with most of those sales happening in Japan.
Worst: 3DO
When CD-ROM technology began appearing in more systems, different companies jumped on board hoping to make a name for themselves in the gaming market. One such company was Panasonic, which produced the first models of the 3DO in 1993. Subsequent years saw the console manufactured by various companies, including Sanyo and GoldStar. The system featured a 32-bit processor and entered the landscape prior to the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, so it had a lot going for it.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest issues was its lackluster game library resulting from poor-quality third-party support. That left consumers with the option to snag the shiny new thing, the 3DO, even though it didn’t have a solid franchise grounding it. In fact, some of the system’s best games weren’t exclusive to the platform, and while it had an impressive launch, the system quickly lost favor with consumers once the more advanced PlayStation arrived soon after, backed by excellent third-party support.
Another major problem with the console was its price, which was high at $699.99 (about $1,625 in 2026), and with little software to justify that cost, few people were enticed to purchase a 3DO. This resulted in poor sales, limiting the audience significantly, with only around 2 million units sold before Panasonic and the other hardware manufacturers abandoned ship. An attempted revival in 2026 also failed, and even faster, collapsing within about a week, after the company behind it turned out not to own the console rights.
Best: Sega Saturn
When Sega introduced the Genesis, it managed to cut fairly deep into Nintendo’s market share. As technology advanced, Sega opted to design an entirely new system, the Sega Saturn, which boasted a CD-ROM drive when many other consoles still used cartridges. The system was released in North America in 1995, shortly before the Sony PlayStation hit the market, so you’d think that the Saturn would do well. Unfortunately, it did the opposite, and it didn’t take long for Sega to abandon the console, which was a shame.
The Saturn was a powerful fifth-generation system that featured an impressive library of games. Some of the system’s best include “Virtua Fighter,” which looked just like the arcade version, and “Panzer Dragoon Saga.” The system could have performed better, but it was hit with bad management decisions, including a surprise launch that came four months earlier than planned. This upset retailers, but the system’s ultimate downfall was its price.
The Saturn launched in May 1995 at $399 ($877 in 2026), and Sony paid attention. At the first Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), not long after Sega’s surprise reveal, a Sony rep made a simple announcement that tanked Sega’s now-failed console: “$299.” After that, he walked off the stage to thunderous applause, and the PlayStation went on to utterly destroy the Saturn’s sales. Sega managed to sell approximately 9.25 million Saturns worldwide before pulling the system entirely. Sony, on the other hand, dominated the market, selling 102.4 million PlayStations worldwide.
Worst: Nintendo Virtual Boy
Nintendo has made a lot of excellent consoles over the years, including the NES, Game Boy, Wii, Switch, and others. The company is known for its impressive hardware and massive library of excellent games, but even Nintendo stumbled a couple of times. Most notably, the Virtual Boy arrived in 1995 to an audience that didn’t ask for it, and the resulting crash was utterly terrible. The system was actually pretty powerful, using a 32-bit processor to create a virtual landscape for gameplay.
While the project was underway, Nintendo opted to move resources into the development of the Nintendo 64, leaving the Virtual Boy without what it needed to proceed. Still, it went to market, and the system quickly found itself gathering dust on store shelves. This happened for various reasons, though the primary problem with the Virtual Boy was its red monochrome display. While the parallax effect created a 3D landscape, the red glow and requirement to literally lean into the device made it undesirable.
Some users experienced eye strain after playing for short periods, and others got headaches. Essentially, it wasn’t fun to play because it physically took a toll on the player, and the Nintendo Virtual Boy flopped. By the time Nintendo pulled it, the company had sold just 770,000 units, and only 22 games were released for the console during its original run. Despite this, Nintendo revived its library for the Switch in 2026.
Best: SG-1000
It’s a common belief that Sega entered the console wars with the Sega Master System, but that’s not entirely accurate. While that system did introduce Sega’s hardware to the West, the first console the company made was the SG-1000, an 8-bit system first released in 1983. It was sold outside Japan in countries like Taiwan, Korea, New Zealand, and Australia, but few gamers outside those countries got a chance to try it out. Sega updated the system several times, and it ultimately became the basis of the Master System, but that took several years.
The SG-1000 didn’t have the biggest gaming library, as it only supported 51 games that came on ROM cartridges, as well as 29 Sega My Card games, which were unique to the system and its computer counterpart, the SC-3000. While that’s not a lot of games compared to other systems of the era, many of them were fun and engaging titles that remain so to this day. “Championship Lode Runner” was particularly popular, as were “Girl’s Garden” and several others.
The company released 21 games in the first six months of the SG-1000’s debut, which outpaced Nintendo’s release of only nine games in 1983. The company, which is now best known for its games, maintained that edge for a while, but was ultimately overshadowed by the Nintendo Famicom. Sega’s entry into the console market resulted in a well-designed system with a nice game library, but its limited sales in and outside Japan resulted in around 2 million units sold.
Worst: Philips CD-i
The Compact Disc-Interactive, better known as the Philips CD-i, was developed in conjunction with Sony to produce a console that could play video, games, and audio CDs. Philips initially marketed the CD-i as an edutainment platform, but it soon became a gaming system, though if you had the chance to play one, you’d probably shy away from calling it that. The system arrived in 1991 at a cost of $700 ($1,720 in 2026), so it was already pretty expensive from the jump. If it had some good games, that might not have mattered, but you see where this is going.
Gameplay on the CD-i was challenging, as the controller’s inputs were seemingly coded to not work no matter how hard you tried. It had a library of over 200 games, few of which were very good, and some were so absurdly awful that they’ve become somewhat legendary in how utterly bad they were. Perhaps the worst of these were the games that used licensed Nintendo characters, thanks to a pre-existing agreement between Philips and Nintendo.
The resulting three “Zelda” games are disturbingly terrible, and they’re not considered canon to the franchise in any respect. There was also a “Hotel Mario” game that suffered the same mistreatment by the folks who made it. In the end, Philips managed to make an expensive system that nobody wanted because it barely played its horrible library of games, and the system is more of a joke among retro enthusiasts than anything else.
Best: Neo Geo AES
The SNK Corporation entered the home console market in 1990 with the Neo Geo, which came in two versions: an arcade system dubbed the Multi Video System and a home console called the Advanced Entertainment System. The hardware was effectively the same, so the games for the Neo Geo AES were identical to those for the Neo Geo MVS, which could utilize multiple cartridges in a single cabinet. Unfortunately, the cartridges weren’t interchangeable, but that hardly mattered because almost nobody bought the Neo Geo AES, and cost was the primary reason.
SNK initially released the console as a rental-only device, targeting hotels and the like. Ultimately, it opted to release it as a commercial product for $649.99 ($1,665 in 2026), while its games cost $200 ($515 in 2026). That made the Neo Geo AES a luxury console that few could afford, which reduced the number of people who experienced its remarkably good library of games. The Neo Geo introduced franchises like “Fatal Fury,” “Samurai Shodown,” “The King of Fighters,” and “Metal Slug,” among others, all of which have done well in arcades and via non-Neo Geo releases.
Of course, the best game library in the world isn’t going to move sales when its hardware and software costs are astronomical. When the Neo Geo was released, it went up against the SNES and Genesis, both of which had large libraries of games, and neither cost anywhere close to what SNK charged for the Neo Geo AES. As a result, it sold poorly, moving only around 410,000 units worldwide.
Worst: Atari Jaguar
There’s no denying that Atari helped launch the home video game industry with its Atari VCS (later renamed the Atari 2600). Follow-up consoles didn’t perform as well as the company hoped, so when it came time to enter the fifth console generation, it pulled out all the stops, releasing the Atari Jaguar in 1993. The company called it the world’s first 64-bit system, which wasn’t entirely accurate. It also touted the console as an interactive multimedia home entertainment system.
While it came out in 1993, Atari didn’t engineer the Jaguar with CD-ROM capabilities, so it relied on an older cartridge format. An eventual CD-ROM add-on became the butt of many jokes, as it resembled a toilet seat sitting atop the console, which had failed to achieve any real market traction by that time. On top of that, the games and CD-ROM reader barely worked. The system was difficult to code for, had a bulky, poorly made controller, and offered a small library of games.
There were only 63 games released on the system, 13 of which could only be played with the CD add-on. When the Sony PlayStation arrived in 1995, the Jaguar was already a failed console. When the system collapsed, Atari merged with hardware maker JTS and dropped the Jaguar entirely. When Atari pulled the Jaguar from store shelves, the company had managed to sell only around 125,000 units, with an estimated 100,000 sitting in storage and left unsold.
Best: Pioneer LaserActive
Of all the failed classic consoles, the Pioneer LaserActive is easily the one the fewest people heard of when it was released in 1993. The system was a hybrid LaserDisc player and gaming console that was marketed as an entertainment system where people could watch movies, play video games, and enjoy music all in one place. The system was certainly ambitious, but it was also expensive and required a lot of components to achieve full functionality.
This is because, while it could play several different systems’ games, it required expansion devices to do so. Once you installed these, you could use the LaserActive to play Sega Genesis, Sega CD, and TurboGrafx-16 games. It also featured a karaoke attachment and an ability to play LD-ROM games, which were a type of interactive movie. The system looked and worked much like home stereo systems did back in the 1980s and ’90s, featuring different components all stacked together to perform different tasks.
The problem, of course, was the price, as the LaserActive was unattainably costly. When it was released in 1993, the base unit cost $970 ($2,250 in 2026), while the attachments to play other systems’ games cost $600 ($1,390 in 2026) each. So, if you wanted the ability to play all of the compatible games, you had to shell out a whopping $2,170 ($5,030 in 2026). It’s no wonder that only 10,000 units sold before the system’s life ended.
Worst: Apple Bandai Pippin
When people think of Apple, they don’t immediately think of games. Sure, you can play games on Apple devices, but the company isn’t known as a gaming company. That’s not to say that it didn’t try, but Apple’s game system failed early on in the console wars because almost nobody bought the Apple Bandai Pippin. It was designed to be a cheap computer that could also play video gamest on paper, but the execution was sloppy
All the best intentions went into the Pippin’s design only to come out the other side without achieving much. It barely compared to other consoles of the period, which included the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64, as the Pippin hit store shelves in 1996. Part of the problem was cost, as it launched with a $600 ($1,280 in 2026) price tag. The PlayStation cost $299 by then, and it had excellent third-party support for its games.
The Pippin had terrible support, with most of its software coming from Bandai, which made the hardware. The system only saw 22 licensed games released in North America, though around 80 hit the Japanese market. Apple never seemed fully committed to the system, and planned or promised updates never arrived. In the end, the company’s only entry in the video game console market sold 42,000 units, making it much harder to find someone who played it than someone who didn’t.
