The Nintendo Atlantis?

[ezyville]

One of the more interesting things to come out of GDC was the admission by Nintendo that there was a system called "Atlantis." According to Jeremy Parish's blog, the rumor was that the handheld was a 32-bit system that could compete with the likes of the Saturn and the Playstation. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the system never saw the light of day because of a variety of factors that were never really explained, but Parish points to the last second unexpected success of Pokemon as a potential reason.

Anyways, seeing pictures of the handheld right next to the DS makes me wonder how different things might be if Atlantis had come out. While the GBA wasn't exactly what I would call "Saturn and Playstation quality," imagine if in 1996, we did have a portable gaming system that was as good as the stuff we had at home. Would there even be consoles today if Atlantis was a success, proving that next-gen is right in your hands? Or would it have been another Virtual Boy and we'd be buying them on eBay today for irony? Not that Nintendo needs more attention, but I would love to see what else they have that never got past the doors of their R&D department...

[Thor]

Why does everyone pick on my Virtual Boy

[meppi]

Why does everyone pick on my Virtual Boy

I have no idea. I love mine so much that I got a spare new one many years ago.

Galactic Pinball alone is worth the purchase.

[Gnash]

Just like the Dreamcast. I think the Virtual Boy is better as a retro console than what it was back in the day they were released. Sometimes like good wine, you can't appreciate things until they age. Either the console or us.

[Ferneu]

I had never heard about it until your post, but I'd just like to say one thing:

LOOK MAMMA, IT WOULD HAVE 4 FRONTAL BUTTONS! LET'S GO SNES!!!!

Don't get it? Probably not. So read my rants here:

http://www.retromags.com/forums/Dsi-Ds-Lite-t3534.html

[Thor]

I have no idea. I love mine so much that I got a spare new one many years ago.

Galactic Pinball alone is worth the purchase.

Yeah I've got 2 of them but I need to get another one because one of the lenses on one unit is going so I need to make sure that I always have 2 working units just to be safe.

[ezyville]

You guys don't get dizzy playing the Virtual Boy? Hats off to y'all, I remember trying out kiosk at a Toys 'R Us back in the day and I lasted all of 5 minutes before getting dizzy...

[meppi]

You guys don't get dizzy playing the Virtual Boy? Hats off to y'all, I remember trying out kiosk at a Toys 'R Us back in the day and I lasted all of 5 minutes before getting dizzy...

No not really. I get a bit of a headache when I play it for over an hour without taking a break though, but nowadays I get that from playing on the tv as well most of the time.

Sure you weren't very young when you experienced that.

I'm just saying because there were some warnings about kids up till the age of 12 or something better not using the system because it could cause permanent eye damage to them.

[Thor]

See and I don't even get head aches. Now if I play in a room with light and play the game for a while. Once I'm done and I come back into a bright room yeah that tends to hurt a bit. But not for long.

The other thing I've noticed is that peoples thoughts on the VB seem to all be the same. I think that peoples memory may have changed because of all the stories on the net. I know if my brother tells me a story about something that happend to us a while back I may not remember it but by him telling me the story my mind tries to make up visuals to match that memory. That may just be me though...