Why The Game Wave Failed! - Canadian Rare Console History
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- Опубліковано 19 чер 2019
- #GameWave #RetroGamingHistory #RetroConsoles
The Following video is guest content from Stuff We Play. Please subscribe to the channel at
/ @stuffweplay
This documentary tells the story of the ZAPiT Game Wave, the only (non-Pong clone) game console to ever be made in Canada and its story of greed, corruption, fraud, and identity crisis. See it all on today's Canadian edition of The Art of Failure!
Special thanks to Justin Kwok and Mike Montanaro for being interviewed for this episode!
Featuring the voices of:
Rawman as Justin Kwok
/ @startandselect
BladeBlur as Mike Montanaro
/ @bladeblur
TokenGeek as Richard Nass
/ channel
That Trav Guy as CER
/ thattravguy
The Golden Bolt as Anthony Gussin
/ @thegoldenbolt
Info Sources -
docs.google.com/document/d/1S...
Thumbnail Image Source - sourssketches.tumblr.com/post...
Music From:
Epidemic Sound
Niklas Johansson
'One Last Mission'
Gunnar Johnsen
'Neon City 2'
Czar Donic
'Bug'
John Börjesson
'Ashes'
Hector Posser
'Platform 9'
'Triumph Hill'
Molife
'Ephemeral'
Love Face
'Game Face (Instrumental)'
Andreas Jamsheree
'Pawn Shop'
August Wilhelmsson
'Hero's Hand 5'
From Now On
'Rubik's Cube'
DeathCap Music
"The Art of Failure Theme"
/ deathcapmusic
Mazedude
'Reich Lake'
ocremix.org/artist/4313/mazedude - Ігри
If you enjoyed today's content, why not subscribe to Stuff We Play and check out James's whole library of videos!
ua-cam.com/channels/MWE7y3KTDJ8avhbFqyNIAg.html
Done, thanks 😁
Done and done (and don't forget the little bell!)
subscribed, thanks!
Thank you so much for featuring me! I'm glad more people are getting to learn about this cool, yet weird, part of gaming history!
Cool stuff, I just subscribed to you :)
Thank you!
Interesting...
When Top Hat Gaming Man talks obscure consoles, he talks OBSCURE consoles.
Him and Rerez should tag team on a video.
I never even knew there was a Canadian made game console and I LIVE in Canada, so goes to show you how bad it flopped if not even someone in a city has never heard of it.
Looks to me like you should consider yourself lucky
@Stephen Thomas We had our first DVD player when we got a PS2 in like 2001
I own a game wave and it still works great. In fact we use it every Christmas when the family gets together. Great system.
Tell us what made you by it in the first place.
@@FADE2GRY2048 Probably trivia?
The console looks like an easy bake oven.
Come for the Canadian anime girl; stay for the Canadian gaming console history.
A curved surface? Where am I supposed to put my bowl of cereal?
This is what REALLY doomed the console!
"An affordable multi-media center that was perfect for families" - Well, we saw how that ended when it was called CD-I and Pippin.
...and Bandai Playdia as well.
@@paxhumana2015 Don't forget the Commodore CDTV.
@@paxhumana2015 Bandai failed 2 times so that's why they never made another one coz they don't wanna make it 3 lol
This ""console"" is one of the reasons we Canadians apologize so often.
Wow lol.
It's okay, "Rush" makes up for this and Justin Bieber
I thought you guys apologized for Bryan Adams.
I’m Canadian and can vouch for this
Someone should apologize for samantha bea 👎.
This is a great find.. I’d never have stumbled on this channel that made this..
Thanks for hosting it THGM,
NICK
This is the last place i expected to find my art. Enjoyed the video.
I want to see this guy's channel hit 20k before the week is out. Get to it people!
Thank you so much! I'd quite like that, too!
I've seen one of these consoles at a thrift store about 10 years ago. They wanted $2.99 for it. I passed.
Hey Top Hat Gaming Man, can you please do a video on the cancelled Indrema L600 game console?? Nobody has done a good video on it and I remember hearing about it around the year 2000. You should also talk about the Phantom!
Goddamit. I thought I was a video game history expert because I know about consoles like the sharp x68000, Pippen, and FM Towns Marty but you are taking me to school LOLl!!! ;-)
I've now subbed to Stuff We Play. One day I hope to have as many subscribers as he has, but I have my doubts that I will ever reach that goal. Cool the way that you promote other channels. :)
I know you can do it :)
@@StuffWePlay Thanks for that. I'll be uploading a video within' the next 2 hours showing 15 NES games from my collection. All of them homebrews, hacks, or proto repros. :)
@@StuffWePlay I'm trying my best, but my subscrib-o-meter seems to be stuck at 1,825.
Just subscribed... I'll check out your content when I have a chance later
@@yourfriendlybeatmaker4520 Video and PC Games, Comics, DVDs, LaserDiscs, etc. That's what I cover.
The crossover episode I never expected to happen. Stuff we Play is a great chanel.
Thank you :)
I'm from Canada and I've never even heard of this thing
im from mississauga and i never heard of it lol
Your channel it's pure gold!!
Is this thing more of a set top box with dvd player? Reminds me of the games you'd get on your cable box or smart tv?
In fact, that's what they should have done! They could've made it a digital tv receiver with dvd combi. It would've sold a lot more!
Who drew that Canadian waify in the thumbnail? Do they accept commissions?
Nice Feature Episode, good Job!
The design alone is a major flaw.
I could see what they were going for, considering the market they were trying to go for (basically, as casual as casual can get), but I think the real problem was that the hardware wasnt even trying to be built for actual gaming beyond something like a trivia game. I dont even think casual gamers in 2005 would be satisfied with a DVD player that plays trivia games (the PS2 far outdid that already back in 2000!). I have to wonder what the other 10 games were like, but if they couldnt even get a tetris clone going...
It might have failed as a gaming console, but it's design begs for a Retropie or smaller PC. It would make a great retro emulator console and even able to install a DVD in the old slot. (might have to make one). ☺️
That company logo just screams *graphic design is my passion.*
What's that? Four fonts?
rofl !! :D
Combination of things, really. There was never a serious marketing push for the system, the evangelicals didn't bite, who knows what bull Hari was up to with their money as he didn't seem all that interested in the project, and the system was only slightly cheaper than a PS2 had become by that point, despite only really being capable of trivia games, which the PS2 had in spades (Buzz, of course, comes to mind immediately). The Wii in 2006, with more novel family experiences than simple trivia, was the final nail.
Ok so who out there needs a gamewave asap
Dat thumbnail, it got my click this time.
It's nice of you to support a smaller creator like this
I was born in British Columbia Canada, and I have never heard of this thing.
Well I live in Toronto and frequently shopped at Mastermind at the time and never heard of this console either. Talk about no marketing.
Ye, never heard of this thing either.
same from Toronto i never heard of this
I'm actually from Mississauga. This is the first time I've heard of it. The name of that Vin guy that went to jail rings a bell, though...
Do any of the development kits still exist? Would be interesting to see how far this console can be pushed.
If any do still exist, they'd still be in Mississauga. Unfortunately, as it was hard enough tracking down folks who'd worked on the system, I was unable to confirm if any still exist
Feel bad.... canada should try again. Maybe with an actual team of game devs
Very detailed explanation of the system and people around it, I had a very pleasant time watching your video and hope you two do more together again
Cheers
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
My favorite guy in a top hat with even more amazing information for us. And special thanks to Stuff We Play too!
Once again a very informative video!
"The reason why game consoles made by individual companies are typically successful, is because they are sold at such a low price that the companies behind them take a bit of a loss."
- holds on a shot of a Gamecube, which was sold at a profit
- ????
great work top hat man! you found something new I havnt heard of. I will send you one letter with a freshly captured ray of Australian sunlight.
Happy to see my boy getting propped up! SWP makes some great informative content.
Was cool to see him talking about this system. I managed to find one in a thrift store for 6 bucks. Feels like I overpaid, but it was fun exploring such a crappy console.
Awesome! So cool to learn more about obscure gaming.
Gotta give props to whoever drew the thumbnail for the Vz. 58
'The controllers are going to be IR remo-'
'Why did you just punch me in the face?'
Born in Manitoba and never heard of this console...obscure indeed
Awsome vid dude XD!!
As a Canadian I forgot about this until i saw it agian. I never owned one but I DID see ads for it.
I still have a boxed GW lying around my house.
I will always click to your videos just because of the anime waifus on the thumbnail, but also to learn something obscure in gaming.
I live in Toronto. Had family in the west end (Etobicoke, so almost Mississauga) that would regularly pick up games for me if they headed towards Mississauga.
I’ve never heard of this console. 😂
Edit: I’ve worked at Mastermind and STILL never heard of this! 🤣🤣
I'm from Toronto, too. Never heard of it.
I like how you point out other creators on UA-cam. Also I saw the Canadian geese. I see what u did there. We come for the hat, stay for the obscure.
I remember having a VHS based console in the early 90’s (in the US) I think it was a JVC had a very strange controller w colored buttons and a Mickey Mouse Donald Duck style frogger
That sounds like the Action Max! I'd love to track down one of those!
Alas i do not still have it other wise it would b yours seached VHS consoles and found out i had a view master interactive vision one look at those pictures and it all came flooding back to me a system I probably haven't touched since I was 7 least 25 years ago man I wish I would have saved that just for looks alone! Who knew consoles youd never play again would b something people would want 25 years later? I knew id want my SNES and N64!
1:09 .......... no joke, for a split second I thought that was a late 90s or early 2000s porn intro
Lol
Hooray for Stuff We Play!
Thanks man!
I like the SDK's tower case! I'd even buy that now.
0:36
That opening that you used to use is funny af- reminds me of Monty Python. Please bring it back.
Justin Kwok sounds like Lvl 100 roadman😁
I only know of this console from an ad I got talking about this DVD player from a copy of VeggieTales that was on it's own without the movie or case on the ground.
Wow, I literally live exactly where this console was made (well, not in the same building or anything, so not that literally...) and had no idea of its existence until this video. Thank you Top Hat Man (and James from Stuff We Play), you have pleasently surprised me for once. Well, I debated on whither this was pleasent or actually horrible to know about.... but, I mean, i guess its cool to be living somewhere that actually has something like an attempted gaming console to its name rather than nothing at all. Actually, its crazy, only recently I've come to see this place as "one of those places where nothing happens and nothing gets out (except that Prince recorded an album here)" to "Wow, actually people know we exist now and people actually do things here!".
I think if I caught word of this "console" somehow back when it was released (around when I was finishing highscool and starting video game design college), I'd probably immidiately see it as a scam. Something like one of those Chinese knock-off consoles. I'd assume its games were at least knockoffs of tetris or something (I remember I even had a satalite box in 2003 that had a shoddy tetris knock-off that I spent a couple of hours on once), but was it just trivia games (I'd like to know what those initial 11 were)? Ugh. It better have been one of the best trivia games ever made, then...
Still, it looked like the people working directly on it, at least, were sincerely tying to make something worthwhile. In 2005 the Wii wasnt out yet, and PS2 proved in 2001 that people would eat up a DVD player that did other things, lol. The problem was that it was literally a glorified DVD player...
I just saw this comment! Every single game for the system was either a trivia or puzzle game of some sort, save for Veggie Tales, which was a Mario Party clone. I'd love to hopefully hunt down the complete library at some point, but Veggie Tales and Gemz are near impossible to find
Don't know the anime character in the thumbnail
No, that was not an anime character. It was a picture of every canadian woman.
The game wave was the predecessor to the wii, the few things that set them apart was that: the wii had motion controls, nintendo games and a great amount of 3rd party games all things the game wave was missing, thus it failed.
Nice doco, what a shocker that thing was.
Thank you for this, I've always wondered where the GameWave originated. I have one, bought in a thrift store for $10, and two or three games bundled (more like mummified with cellophane tape to the case). I have no interest in trivia games but a deep, powerful drive to collect oddball underdog game consoles. I couldn't recall a thing about any of the other games on the system, but Letter Zap is a pretty good puzzle title that's worth playing.
If you're looking for another oddball console to research, check out the Xavix GamePort. It was a motion-controlled game system made a few years before the Nintendo Wii came to market, and designed by ex-Nintendo staff. Each game also came with its own controller, like a tennis racket, miniature baseball bat, or (my favorite) a transluscent bowling ball. When they didn't really break into the market like they had thought they might, they started focusing on non-gaming peripherals like wireless bathroom scales that would sync with the console, or a pre-Wii Fit-style mat endorsed by Jackie Chan. Eventually it faded away once the Wii console stormed the marketplace and dominated motion control gaming.
So it's pretty much Canada's answer to the CDI.
Kind of an answer to the CDI, but it was developed over a full decade after the CDI. It's more Canada's answer to the Nuon.
Nah the CD-i had a better graphics chip.
Right in my own neighbourhood and I’ve never actually seen one in person
So this guy’s scam basically boiled down to:
Phase 1 - “Give me money, then I’ll give you money.”
Phase 2 - “I changed my mind. No refunds.”
I picked one up at a Big lots in Biddeford Maine in 2006. Picked up 6 games with it and found a few others at a TJ Maxx in Portland, Maine. It broke in a couple months.
that chowder guy be ruthless!
'Mike Montanaro left ZAPIT Games in 2008 feeling that he had done as much work as he possibly could there. As of 2019, he works in funeral services in Toronto.'
Damn. Sad but fitting career choice seeing that he had to deal with the death of the Game Wave.
I miss the old top hat intro. I miss him chasing the ducks down xd
dat thumbnail though. yeeeeaaaahhhh~
So I'd say about ten years ago I had found one of these next to a dumpster and it still worked - I think it had a single controller and a game in the disc drive!
I got excited thinking it was a VM LABS NUON but after taking it to a retro games shop or two they had told me it was likely some sort of bootleg system (and wasn't a NUON!) that was sold at drugstores and that the shop had one they couldn't sell for like 15 dollars and said to e waste recycle it
I remember disassembling it for cables and then dumping the rest into the e waste bin
I wouldn't mind a 3do mini with 30 games. I wonder who has the rights...
Have you thought about doing a video on the pay-per-play Sky TV box games aka Sky gamestar/playjam? There was even a gamepad produced so technically it is a very obscure game console. Just unfortunate it is no longer playable.
I had a lot of fun with Fathom and Beehive Bedlum
I never heard of this console now I know why it flopped no ads about it
You have a problem pronouncing the name mississauga
ya lol i noticed that too it made me lol a few times :P
The Canada Geese at 0:38 is just perfect for the Canadian themed console 😂
It's a metaphor...somehow...I think
Stuff We Play just be blessed if you haven’t experienced being attacked by a goose. 🤣 first hand experience
I can't speak for geese but I can attest that seagulls are flying hellspawns
Stuff We Play the flying shit bombs.... I see you and I have experienced “The Rapture/Plague” of the seagulls 🤣
@@StuffWePlay , where I live has both types of birds.
A game system designed by committee, most of which have no experience with game systems, and released at the same time as the Xbox 360. What could possibly go wrong?
i never heard about this game wave console either
that thumbnail though....
This isn't just obscure, this is super obscure!
Did you just say 2008 is when smart devices were "preparing" to enter the market?
19:56 I know what veggie tales is but I never knew it was a Christian show hahaha had a good laugh
You should have delayed this video for July 1st (Canada Day).
Canada-day-eh? Never heard of it... tell us about it buddy!
Really interesting story
I think this could've worked if marketing pushed it as a fancier DVD player rather than a games console.
Think of how popular Scene-It and DVD games were in the early 2000s - if they said "this is like those but better" it could've been more appealing to those crowds than indirectly comparing itself to the Xbox and PlayStation 2.
But hey, hindsight's always 20/20.
17::56 Well that would never happen these days lol.
It’s pronounced as Miss-is-sau-ga. Not Miss-is-sau-guwa
Was about the comment the same thing. Meh, Mississauga sucks anyway. Scarborough represent :P
Also he said Toron-tow. It's Torno-oh
rofl he kept making me laugh when he said it
"....Video games promote sex...."
I dont know, you ever met someone who plays video games?
Thumbnail girl is now my 38th fictional wife
I got one bnib for 20 bucks, at the time I figure a dvd player for that price was worth it... Used it for 10 mins and it's been in storage since.
I saw a video about obscure game consoles that didn't have many games and ordered a used Game Wave from ebay just out of curiosity.
It seems like the Game Wave was intended to be a competitor for the Wii which was also a familiy friendly multiplayer focused console.
But it has an other focus of game genres.
While the Wii was heavily using motion controls, the Game Wave focused on trivia games, puzzle games and video game versions of classic board games.
It isn't the worst thing ever. There were worse consoles (like the Matel Hyperscan).
For that what Zapit games wanted to reach the games are Ok.
I try to fullfil my Game Wave collection. I thought it was easy because there are only 13 titles.
I am still missing these ones to complete my collection:
* Gemz
* Click!
* Veggie Tales: Veg-Out! Family Tournament
Does anyone here have this games to sell?
Hello you lovely man !
And here we are, watching yet another Panasonic venture into the 'multimedia system' trend that almost never seem to please the market.
I love you too hat gaming man but honestly I wish you would have done this video yourself I miss everything about what you bring to the table I guess your just hard to replace... xox
1:22 Small complaint. I'm from Mississauga. There is only one "U" in the name. It's not pronounced "Miss-A-Saw-Gwah." It's simply "Miss-A-Saw-Gah." I know. Barack Obama messed it up too.
It seems that no one is aware of what CPU or GPU this thing used. Does anyone know?
Great video!
They mention it in the video. It just has some integrated processor for mpeg
The heart of the system was a Mediamatics 8611 processor. Not exactly what'd I'd call "capable hardware"!
Maybe Sony was inspired by the Gamewave for the PS5
How much anyone wanna bet this thing never made it west of Winnipeg?
It probably never made it east of Yonge St. ( street that divides Toronto and GTA in east and west parts and Mississauga is in the west).
Greetings from Dubai.
Failure of companies and/or projects happens, most of the time, mostly, because of BAD apples introduced in the project or the company..
Those usually are:
1- People with personal motives, usually in the form of greed, exploiting the innocence AND the enthusiasm and energy of the new project/ company. The very typical and classical trait of Narcissists..
2- Agents from rival companies/ organisations, who send someone to sabotage and/ or undermine the new project/ company.. believe it or not..
Want success? *KNOW YOUR PEOPLE!!* :o)
Umm... it s a philips CDi with 4 wireless control and a upgarde from CD-rom to DVD.
11:15 Why is Rawman rushing through the reading of every Justin Kwok narration in the video? He's talking so fast that it's hard to understand him.
The Wii Mini I think was released only in Canada I think.
Nope, came out here in the States too.
@@jesuszamora6949 sorry, i actually meant to say the Amiga CD32 which only came out in Canada and Europe.
@@waggsmith5889 Haha, yeah, the CD32 was barred from the US, because or patents Commodore couldn't pay for.
The Wii Mini is very different. 🤣
I saw this crap collecting dust in at least 3 value villages days after it was released.
I also want the sauce of the Canadian waifu from the thumbnail.