The Story of the Unreleased Namco Console

This short documentary looks at the fascinating story of Namco's 16-bit Super System console detailing what went wrong and why it why it was never released as planned.
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#RetroGaming #History #Namco

[@dreamcaster4754]

Damn, with Namcos arcade pedigree they could have made a great console and supported it with quality games :-(

[@dragokills6990]

Certainly would have made the 16-bit war more interesting

[@G.L.999]

Sony designed their contract with Nintendo to be rejected. Creating the 'Habsburg Ultimatum' Effect!

[@Sinn0100]

Don't forget Namco also worked with Sega. I believe they called company Namcot to get around Nintendo licensing.

[@Embargoman]

To say the least Namco should have partnered with Microsoft for the X-Box release in Japan that a Namco game should be the first game for X-Box while we had Halo.

[@InputArchive]

How many up of these episodes have you got left in the pipeline? Can’t be that many left now!

[@TheLairdsLair]

Quite a lot actually! I've got lots of new ones planned out already too.

[@CharlesHepburn2]

I would have liked to see the spec sheet for this console… you say it’s basically a system 21?

[@TheLairdsLair]

Yes, that's what the reports at the time said.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namco_System_21

[@CharlesHepburn2]

@@TheLairdsLair interesting specs. Dual 68000 and 4 or 5 DSP chips for 3D graphics. This would have been more powerful than the NEO GEO around the same time period. It would have been hard to bring that level of technology home for a reasonable price. Looks like it may have been approaching $1,000 retail if Neo Geo is used as a reference

[@TheLairdsLair]

I would bet that they would have reduced that somewhat, probably just a single M68000 and 1 or 2 DSP chips, otherwise it wouldn't have been competitive.

[@CharlesHepburn2]

@@TheLairdsLair if they could have done $300-400 MSRP with that configuration, they may have had a small chance. Games would have to have been obviously superior in graphics and AAA in quality however

[@greenkoopa]

Could it play Doom?

[@TheLairdsLair]

Given the specs, definitely!

[@Gameboy-Unboxings]

What does your intro actually say? Lol it bothers me. I think it says Welcome something. Ive never been good at understanding certain things even song lyrics so dont mind me.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Welcome STUN Runner, taken from the Atari Lynx port of the famous arcade game.