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[Cloukyo]

What?

The nomad was just a mega drive but in handheld form, just like how the game gear was a master system in portable form. By the time it came out the mega drive was already on its way out.

The switch is a gen ahead of the Wii U (not COMPLETELY, but enough) and can output on the main tv screen with higher fidelity than its handheld version.

The removable joycons also allows for multiplayer gaming on the go.

I don't see the similarities at all.

 

[RoadHazard]

The Game Gear could also run actual Master System games via a converter. Kind of similar.

 

[iMerc]

The point is Nintendo is not as innovative as everyone says they are. They just have better timing with the technology avialable now

i think you have a narrow idea of what innovation is, buddy.
innovation is NOT specifically coming up with new technology never used before. period.
in many ways it's coming up with new way to use existing technology and thinking 'left of centre'.

nintendo has a pretty great track record with doing that. you may not like all the unique things they do, but they do them, and for the most part they do them quite successfully.

 

[Kthulhu]

HD Rumble

Steam Controller did it first.

 

[IronicSonic]

I think the point is the philosophy behind Game Gear, Nomad and Switch, is the same. Although, there are 20 years between them

 

[oneida]

there are many differences and similarities between the Nomad and the Switch, but ultimately the Nomad was a revision of a console on its way out of the market and the Switch is a new console with all the baggage that carries: no established library, an undetermined future, etc.

I'm day one on the Switch btw.

 

[Tigress]

Over 20 years ago SEGA launched a portable with separate controller input for multiplayer games. It was called the Nomad.

In addition to functioning as a portable console, it was designed to be used with a television set via a video port.The Nomad contains an A/V output that allows the Nomad to be played on a television screen — a feature then unique to the Nomad.

You could play on the move versus Super Street Fighter II or Mega Bomberman (considered as one of the best Bombermans by many fans) or coop Toejam & Earl on this thing in 1995. You just plugged in another controller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upx-NGa5Hn8

I didn't own one, but played Streets of Rage coop with a friend on it over 20 years ago. It was awesome.

However, the Nomad was a huge failure saleswise.

Maybe the nomad was before the tech was ready for that but I had one and I was not surprised it failed. It was big for a handheld (even for those days), took a lot of batteries, and ate through them really quickly. And because it was so big it was kind of awkward as a controller too. It did not work well as a handheld (though I was not aware it could plug into the tv). I still have the thing. I used to have a game gear too but I lost that and I always wish if I had to lose one why couldn't it have been the nomad.

 

[gogojira]

Yeah but how good did it run Zelda?

 

[Team Andromeda]

Nomad came out after Saturn launched and 6 years after the genesis came out,

They didn't do anything that nintendo did.

No that's because NEC beat both of them with the PC Eng GT.

 

[PhoncipleBone]

Pretty sure the Turboexpress portable was a similar idea, and could use cards interchangeably with the turbografx 16

Before the Nomad did it the TurboExpress was basically a portable TurboGrafx 16. It had a TV tuner and shit too. Way ahead of its time.

Way ahead. I wanted one of these so bad as a kid. The concept of playing the same exact games on tv or portable was so cool, and then add a TV tuner.

And NEC pulled that off years before Sega put the Nomad out.

 

[Tailzo]

I dunno if copied is the right word since they're literally using Nvidias chipset here.

The switch is an updated Shield K1 Tablet with a larger screen and joycons attached.

I'm more tempted by an updated version of this than a switch.But will it ever come?

 

[djtiesto]

Yeah but how good did it run Zelda?

It ran Crusader of Centy perfectly, that's as close as you'll get to Zelda on Genny.

 

[Glix]

As said, Turbo Express could have actually illustrated your point.

The Nomad comparison is silly

 

[outunderthestars]

I loved my Turbo Express

 

[SinCityAssassin]

The Nomad could be powered by an AC adapter, a rechargeable battery pack known as the Genesis Nomad PowerBack, or six AA batteries, which provide a battery life of two to three hours.

So did the gameboy color and that lasted 25 hours on 4 batts

 

[DAREALGUMMY]

Yes. To have this 20 years ago was a feat.

Regarding the horrendous battery life though? With all the tech we have now, the Switch still has a poor one. The Nomad was about 2 hrs which is close to Switch's 2.5 hrs.

That's not true at all.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Yeah, things like Nomad and TurboExpress were interesting, but very much show the problems with taking hardware originally exclusively designed as a home console and trying to make it work as a portable.

 

[franklyshankly]

I'm more tempted by an updated version of this than a switch.But will it ever come?

Doesn't seem like it. I wish it would, I always wanted a new shield tablet or portable. But they haven't really announced anything in forever.

 

[ZOONAMI]

And yet people complain about the Switch and the bad battery life...

Just some thoughts:

-Switch is between Wii U and Xbox One performance wise
-Switch is PORTABLE
-we have battery banks nowadays
-rechargable battery


Awesome as hell.

Microsoft should release a portable Xbox 360...
GTA 4,5, Forza, PGR, COD, MW, Oblivion... on the Go is a dream...

Developers should just make more 360 ports for android and iOS.

Problem solved.

Apple A9 and up is capable, as are Nvidia tegra x1s and likely even snapdragon 835 and Samsung exynos chips.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

And it inhaled AAs like they were nothing.

So did Game Gear. Battery drain was hilarious.

 

[Mael]

This is like saying the Switch is a shitty product because Nokia made the N-Gage and that was way more innovative.
There's ways to make an argument but that's an incredibly shitty one.

 

[bomblord1]

The Nomad could be powered by an AC adapter, a rechargeable battery pack known as the Genesis Nomad PowerBack, or six AA batteries, which provide a battery life of two to three hours.

Six?! Isn't that like 15,000 MaH?

 

[Glix]

So did Game Gear. Battery drain was hilarious.

Hey lets not leave Lynx out of this convo, thing would chew up batteries and spit them out.

Additionally and kinda off topic the fact that a system was made where it was so incredibly difficult to get the carts out that They HAD TO CHANGE THE SHAPE OF THE CARTS TO FIX IT, will never be topped in my mind

 

[Manmademan]

Yeah, things like Nomad and TurboExpress were interesting, but very much show the problems with taking hardware originally exclusively designed as a home console and trying to make it work as a portable.

I'd say the issue was more along the lines of it was 1990 and LCD and battery tech was really primitive at the time.

 

[Manmademan]

Way ahead. I wanted one of these so bad as a kid. The concept of playing the same exact games on tv or portable was so cool, and then add a TV tuner.

And NEC pulled that off years before Sega put the Nomad out.

You really want to blow minds?

The turbo express portable released in 1990.

The OG "pea soup" gameboy released only ONE YEAR EARLIER in 1989.

The turbo express was the "how the fuck is this even possible" hardware of the early 90s when kids found out about it.

 

[RexNovis]

And it inhaled AAs like they were nothing.

You say this but the average playtime for a set of rechargeable AA batteries in the nomad is almost 4 hours longer than the reported playtime for Zelda via battery on the Switch so... basically as long as you had rechargeable AA batteries it was way better.

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

The 90s was basically just a decade of SEGA throwing stuff at the wall to see what stuck. And that's why I loved them.

Virtua Fighter for the 32x had a fuckin 16:9 mode

 

[fernoca]

You say this but the average playtime for a set of rechargeable AA battery's in the nomad is almost 4 hours longer than the reported playtime for Zelda via battery on the Switch so... basically as long as you had rechargeable AA batteries it was way better.

My Nomad never lasted 7 hours straight.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I had one. Picked it up for around $50 when Toys R Us was clearancing them. I didn't even waste the time using batteries as it would suck them dry in no time. I always carried a power supply with me.

It was pretty cool. Some games like Vectorman and Virtua Racing looked stunning on it (back then). Oddly enough some games didn't work. I remember having to return Golden Axe 2, as it was one of those that didn't.

 

[SmokedMeat]

You really want to blow minds?

The turbo express portable released in 1990.

The OG "pea soup" gameboy released only ONE YEAR EARLIER in 1989.

The turbo express was the "how the fuck is this even possible" hardware of the early 90s when kids found out about it.

Turbo Express was selling for $300 as I recall. It was badass, but way too much money.

 

[RexNovis]

My Nomad never lasted 7 hours straight.

I said "almost 4 hours longer." Mine lasted 6+ hours whilst playing X-Men 2 clone wars on my rechargeable batteries back in the day. I remember because he game had no save status so I had that shit down to a science getting as far as I could before the batteries would die.

 

[Dremorak]

And sega-does what ninten-did before that:

 

[Xbudz]

And it inhaled AAs like they were nothing.

AA battery tech has gotten much better since the 90's.
I have a Nomad and I haven't changed the batteries in quite a while- still boots up

 

[D.Lo]

It's kind of true (also the PC Engine GT), but apart from the obvious 'tech not ready' things, the primary difference is Sega was craping out hardware left and right multiple times a year, whereas the Switch is THE Nintendo hardware going forward.

 

[Peltz]

The point is Nintendo is not as innovative as everyone says they are. They just have better timing with the technology avialable now

The Switch isn't anything new. That doesn't stop it from being a very cool device.

 

[kess]

Switch screen is probably about a million times better

like trying actually playing Gunstar Heroes on a Nomad or Soldier Blade on a TurboExpress

impossamole

 

[Septimus Prime]

And it inhaled AAs like they were nothing.

*Bling*

♪ SEGUuuuuuuuuuuh...

*blip*

 

[Dishwalla]

Didn't know the Nomad existed until like the mid 2000s, never knew anyone who had one as a kid.

 

[MrCunningham]

The Game Gear could also run actual Master System games via a converter. Kind of similar.

The Game Gear is almost the exact same hardware as the SMS. The one key difference is that the Game Gar can output a wider selection of colours. The Sega master System only had a colour palette of 64 colours, while the SMS has a 12bit palette of 4096 colours. Both machines can only display about 30 something colours on screen max, but the Game Gear just has a more robust selection.

All it takes is a cartridge convertor to play SMS games on the Game Gear, but Game Gear games are not backwards compatible.

The Turbo Express beat the Nomad to the market by many years. The Sega Nomad was only sold in North America, it was never released in Japan or other parts of the globe because Sega of Japan really wanted to end Sega Mega Drive production to focus on the Saturn. But Sega of America released the machine, because Genesis software was still selling well in 1995. Majesco also released the Sega Genesis model 3 in 1998 to get in on some of that unsold Genesis inventory.

 

[pixelation]

And it inhaled AAs like they were nothing.

Well the Switch does slurp down the juice quite quick based on official impressions.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

They copied Sega in making consoles I have dwindling interest in.

 

[Parakeetman]

It was called a "Nomad" because it wandered from owner to owner due to nobody wanting one lol.

 

[Elfforkusu]

Nomad also went through 6(?) AAs in about 30 minutes.

Pretty sure mine still works though!

 

[AmyS]

The PC-Engine LT is an even better comparison than the PC-Engine GT / TurboExpress.

And docked with CD-ROM.

 

[Poltergust]

Oh wow, I think I actually owned one of these. I have a faint memory of playing Ristar on it.

 

[Švejk]

Switch can never reach the greatness the Genesis was... ever.

 

[Sseklebeast]

My brother bought a Nomad and it did indeed suck the life out of the batteries very quickly. We bought the AC adapter and dealt with being tethered to a power outlet. I had a lot of fun with it though.

 

[Teran]

Well the Switch does slurp down the juice quite quick based on official impressions.

Not AAs though, thank God.