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A considerable number of today's video game giants have stepped out of their comfort zones and have become "industry leaders" after entering this market. However, not all companies are suitable for "stepping out of their comfort zones", or they simply want to do something " Innovation", otherwise we probably wouldn't see those "weird" evil game console products.
The most evil one among them may be the one from 2006. Whether it is in terms of game mode or innovative direction, it is a bit too evil.
Part 1
Mattel, founded in 1945, is the world's largest toy company. It has a rich line of toys, such as Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels cars or a large number of Disney toys. However, Mattel, which has gone smoothly in the real world, has also made many attempts to make games.
The first is the 1979 (i.e. "smart TV"). This host was the number one rival of the smash hit Atari 2600. It was produced until 1990 and sold more than 3 million units from 1980 to 1983. .
Now it seems that the innovation index on it is really incredible – the first 16-bit game console, the first game console that can download games, the first game console with a complete built-in character system, the first game console with arrow keys Game console, the first game console with a real-time voice system…
In 1983, Mattel released the "Aquarius" () gaming computer as a competitor to the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A and VIC-20. Although it has an advantage in terms of price, its game quality is disappointing because its graphics processing capabilities are poor and its 4KB memory is too small. In the end, Aquarius was discontinued after only four months on sale, and Mattel's price war failed.
Mattel not only develops its own game consoles, but also distributes other game consoles. For example, they have cooperated with Nintendo to sell NES (the so-called "NES" in Japan) in Europe and Canada, and they also made some profits for this. They also made a few NES-compatible peripherals, the most famous (or least notorious) of which was the "Power Glove."
In 1984, Mattel sold all its video game R&D departments and assets to a former executive of Mattel Electronics, who subsequently established INTV. Mattel temporarily lost its game development resources. In 2006, Mattel began planning to re-produce electronic game consoles. This time they had a bold plan to combine traditional electronic games with trading card games. As a result, it may be the strangest thing in the 21st century. The game console was born.
Part 2
The function of the game console is nothing special. It uses a read-only disc in UDF format, has two handle interfaces, and outputs video and sound by connecting to a TV. What really makes it extraordinary is its radio frequency identification (RFID) function.
The so-called RFID is a technology that uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track specific "tags" attached to objects. An RFID tag contains a miniature radio receiver and radio transmitter. When the receiver receives the information sent from the reader After the electromagnetic pulse is triggered, the transmitter will send the corresponding digital number in the identification library to the reader, and the reader can identify the target.
RFID used in daily life can be divided into two types: active and passive. Passive RFID uses the energy of radio waves to provide energy and does not require batteries but has higher requirements for identification distance; active RFID uses external batteries for power supply and identification distance. Can reach hundreds of meters.
Compared with barcodes and QR codes, RFID can be automatically identified without aligning the identifier, so it has a wide range of applications in life, such as tracking the position of cars on automatic production lines and making "electronic collars" to track pets. The location of cats and dogs to prevent them from getting lost, or it can be made into a chip that can be implanted in the human body.
In order to give the game console the ability to "understand" cards, it has complete RFID functionality. The RFID identification system it uses comes from the British wafer semiconductor design company "Innovative Research and Technology" and operates at a frequency of 13.56 MHz.
Each game is equipped with a set of identification cards. Each identification card has a built-in identification tag. When the card is read by the machine, the machine will know the content corresponding to the card, and then it will unlock it and record the game. Progress also requires an additional card.
It is mainly aimed at boys aged 5-9. However, in fact, all its game evaluations are E10+ or T. This is probably because its games are almost all action-adventure games. Each game sold for $19.99 and came with six cards, except for the last game in the series, Spider-Man, which came with seven cards.
If players need to obtain more cards, they must purchase a six-card card pack at $10 per pack. The cards are divided into skill cards, character cards, move cards, ability cards, etc. The cards in the card pack are random, and there is no channel to sell the cards individually, so if you want to get the cards you need in particular, you can only exchange them with friends.
In this mode, the number of cards required for a game will be quite large. The launch game "X-Men" is expected to be equipped with 102 cards. Only by collecting all the cards can you enter the next part of the game. Therefore, without enough cards, it's impossible to access the game's hidden content, meaning any attempts to unlock the full version of the game, or to hack out special content, are impossible. On homebrew it is almost an impossible task.
However, this also leads to a problem, which is the increase in game fees.
The machine itself is priced at US$69.99, and a game is priced at US$19.99. If you need to buy all 102 cards, you will need US$170 (this is assuming that you can find all exchange channels) to buy all the cards for a game. The actual cost of all the cards needed is probably even higher than that, and in fact, many of the cards are still not available for sale today. Just imagine a game where the cost of DLC is higher than the base game.
Part 3
The biggest problem is its hardware. Its processor is Sunrise SoC. The quality of this chip is not excellent, and it is far different from the processor of the Xbox 360 at the same time. In addition, the machine's memory is only 16MB, and its optical drive has a very slow reading speed, which results in a very long loading time for all games. It even makes people mistakenly think that they are not facing a 2006 console, but an outdated one. of 64.
In addition, the quality control is not very good, and many machines have problems with card reading, which makes games that require repeated scanning of cards even more annoying. In addition, the interface connecting the controller to the console is still the old mini din instead of the USB interface, which has long been adopted by mainstream game consoles. As for the video resolution, it is also very poor. The output video resolution is only 640✖️480, and the game picture quality is probably only at the level of more than ten years ago. Another troublesome problem is that the video output cable cannot be replaced. If it is damaged, the machine is almost hopeless.
Game-wise, it's also pretty bad. Until it stopped selling, it only had five games in stock, namely "X-Men", "Ben 10", "Star Wrestling Alliance", "Marvel Super Heroes" and "Spider-Man". These games have more or less problems, such as vicious bugs, mechanical problems or long loading times, etc. Their modes are almost the same, and the gameplay is almost non-existent.
The most ironic thing about this hybrid of a trading card game and a video game console is that there isn't an actual trading card game for you to play. There's no UNO, Magic: The Gathering, or Yu-Gi-Oh!, just a few games where even the characters are shared.
Even from a mechanical point of view, it was very unsuccessful. It's nice to add card game gameplay to a video game console, but it takes the combination to a point where it becomes tiresome. You need to swipe to select a character, you need to swipe to use moves, and you need to swipe to save progress. There are not enough cards in the game and there is no way to advance. In the end, this model became completely determined by who had more cards, that is, the rich players were the most powerful. At that time, no one should be able to accept this kind of thing.
Its lifespan ended in 2007. At this time, only more than 10,000 sets of the game console were sold. At that time, its price had dropped to US$9.9, a game was even only US$1.9, and the price of a card pack reached US$1. the following. When the machine was discontinued, no game could release all the cards, and all subsequent updates and completion plans were cancelled. Even the earliest release of "X-Men" only had less than half of the expected number of cards.
Mattel's move to return to the console manufacturing industry unfortunately failed, but for them it was just an attempt to "leave their comfort zone", so there were no particularly serious consequences. In 2016, Mattel made its third move back into the game manufacturing industry, purchasing the bankrupt Fuhu Inc. The company's main product was Nabi, an Android-based children's entertainment tablet.
However, this time it seemed that things were not going well either. As a result, Fuhu Inc collapsed completely, the official accounts were closed, and Nabi also ceased production in 2019. Mattel has really hurt others and itself this time. I hope they won't do this again in the future.
Part 4
However, the concept has not disappeared. The idea of having real-life things appear directly in games has even outlived itself. In 2011, Activision released the game "" with NFC and the function of scanning specific toys. It was announced that the soul was back.
2013's "Disney Infinity" is a more specific example. Through the official peripheral Base, players can place the matching Disney figure on the circular reading area, and then the character can enter the game and be used by the player. . However, this attempt failed in the end. The toy production of the "Infinite" series has been excessive, and the sales of the game are relatively sluggish. In the end, after Disney closed Avalanche Studios, "Infinity" ended with 3.0 as the series. Instead, the toys in the Infinity series continued to be sold for a while.
2015's "Lego Dimensions" is a similar game. By stacking Lego bricks on special peripherals, you can introduce them into the game, and the characters corresponding to the Lego toys can also be freely brought into the game. Of course, although this attempt received a lot of praise, it did not continue in the end.
In 2017, LEGO Dimensions peripherals were discontinued, just like the LEGO toy sets.
Of course, maybe Nintendo is more successful. In 2013, "Pokémon Battle U" was released on Wii U. It was the first game of any series to have the function of scanning specific toys. Use the Wii U to scan a specific Pokémon doll, and you can use the NFC function to introduce the corresponding Pokémon into the game. However, any NFC device will actually be scanned, and if it is not a Pokémon doll, random situations will occur. Additionally, the dolls are not available in all countries.
By 2014, Nintendo officially launched a "universal" NFC doll that was not compatible with one game. It can be recognized by Wii U, new 3ds, and more. After scanning, you can enhance your character or obtain a character. However, it has no direct relationship with the operation of the game itself. It is more like a "win by recharging money", but there will be a real reward after recharging.
Whether NFC can really become an effective gameplay, no one can make a conclusion yet. After all, "Disney Infinity" and "Lego Dimensions" were finally discontinued. Maybe there is indeed a problem with trying to bring real toys into the virtual world. Is it just a way to "make money"? Are you just asking players who are unwilling to spend more time on the game to use the simple and crude method of "paying money" to obtain virtual things?
From this point of view, will yesterday be the tomorrow of the NFC series?
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