The Taito WOWOW: The Console That Never Was

[MaximumRD]

I have always known about several unreleased and / or vaporware consoles and hardware but I recently stumbled onto this one I had never heard of and so for any of you who are interested in such things and might not know check it out. Here is a link to the story ( an Interview with Yukiharu Sambe, R&D manager of the unreleased Taito WOWOW ) on Unseen 64's site - 

 

http://www.unseen64.net/2015/08/10/interview-taito-wowow-console/

 

 

[The Professor]

WOWOW! The graphics and console remind me of the TurboDuo. Was the card slot in the front for playing card games, or for paying for satellite game downloads? The red bar on the right front of the console looks like it could be an IR receiver.

[MaximumRD]

NOT my video but certainly fascinating as to what could have been! 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HNWDBqFm6M

 

The Taito WOWOW: The Console That Never Was

AE Redux

Published on Feb 19, 2017

During the 16-bit era, a fierce battle was waged between Nintendo, Sega, and NEC, but did you know that Taito was considering entering the fray with a console of their own? In 1992, they announced the Taito WOWOW, a CD-based system that would make thorough use of satellite technology. The console never got past the prototype stage, but it's interesting to see Taito was floating such a system.

[Justin]

 Note: This is one of the few video game systems I've had a bonafide nightmare about.

[RickR]

 Note: This is one of the few video game systems I've had a bonafide nightmare about.

Why?

[RickR]

 

NOT my video but certainly fascinating as to what could have been! 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HNWDBqFm6M

 

The Taito WOWOW: The Console That Never Was

AE Redux

Published on Feb 19, 2017

During the 16-bit era, a fierce battle was waged between Nintendo, Sega, and NEC, but did you know that Taito was considering entering the fray with a console of their own? In 1992, they announced the Taito WOWOW, a CD-based system that would make thorough use of satellite technology. The console never got past the prototype stage, but it's interesting to see Taito was floating such a system.

 

This video pretty much highlights all the reasons we should be skeptical of any crowd-funded video game console.  If a large company couldn't do it.......

[Justin]

Why?

 

 

Not sure that I can explain or understand the psychology behind it. I had a terrible dream that I was in a game shop in Tokyo. I was looking at PC Engine and Super Famicom stuff, trying to pin down an Atari 2800 and buy some obscure hardware. A small man behind the counter told me that he had a Taito WOWOW complete in the box in the back room, and that it was for sale for ¥300,000. I told him I didn't know that it had ever been released and he said "Oh yes, there was a test market in Tokyo and Osaka" but it didn't do very well so it was canceled. I was so excited. I told him I wanted to buy the Taito WOWOW and to bring it out from the back room. I talked about the 7800 being test marketed in 1984 and he brought the WOWOW box out to the front counter. The box was pristine. It was a glossy black box with silver Japanese lettering and a large picture of the WOWOW game system on the front. The back showed some of the unreleased games and they seemed... weird. I told the man how strange the games appeared and that they looked like they had been designed in another world, parallel to our own. I paid the ¥300,000 and he went to put it in a shopping bag but the bag was too small.

 

As he searched for a larger bag I realized that I hadn't even opened up the box yet. I opened the WOWOW box and there was nothing inside but two Japanese beetles. The man came back out and was very apologetic. He said that he knew the WOWOW was either in the back of the store or somewhere in his house, that he would find it and bring it to me at my hotel later that night. I thought about asking for my money back, but then I thought I risked the man backing out of the deal entirely and I didn't want to lose my chance at getting a WOWOW. Then a small old woman approached me from out of nowhere. She had walked up to me from behind my back from some other part of the game store. My first thought was "what's such an old woman doing in a video game shop?". She had a wooden walking stick (like a staff) and one bad eye that didn't open all the way. She was shaking her stick at me and saying something to me in Japanese (or in a language I couldn't quite understand). She seemed to be angry with me, she came across as hostile and acted like she wanted me to leave. I asked the man behind the counter what she was saying and if she was angry. He laughed and said "She's telling you that the two Japanese beetles you found are a sign of good luck." Somehow I didn't really believe this man and felt like he was just trying to be polite and smooth over whatever the woman was really saying.

 

I left the store with the WOWOW box in a plastic bag and walked into a world that felt like Blade Runner on a rainy afternoon. I walked back to my hotel but felt like I was being chased. Something was after me. I looked into my bag that the WOWOW box was in, and other things were disappearing out of the bag. By the time I arrived back at the hotel night had fallen. I had gotten some food and went back to my room, #1401. There was a knock at the door. It was the small man behind the counter at the game shop in Tokyo. The man was frantic, and speaking at me hurriedly in Japanese, as if he could no longer speak to me in English. I was looking for the WOWOW which he was supposed to have brought with him, but there was nothing there. He was wearing a rain coat with an umbrella, and he was dripping wet. I saw that his hand was dripping blood. The man was now missing one finger and one eye, and bleeding out of both. He motioned for us to break the glass and escape out of my hotel window, and that we had to go NOW.

 

That's all I remember.

[RickR]

Wow!  I think you need to flesh this out more fully as a short story, my man.  I want to know how it ends!

[TrekMD]

Wow, had never heard of this console.