Note: Apologies for taking so long to make another article. After the last one I was working on and may still get back to sometime being lost, (Google Chrome crashed, and for whatever reason, it was the only time Blogger ever decided to NOT auto-save), successfully losing six hours worth of work and six hours of my life I'll never get back, I was sort of doing a silent-protest against Blogger... even though it was a joint-effort between the browser and Blogger, but anywho. For those curious, the last article I was working on that lost six hours worth of work, was going to be a minimum of a four page spread, chronicling the biggest and most memorable gaming feats since I first got into gaming back in 1983. More or less my own personal compendium of anything noteworthy in gaming, even if it wasn't something that I myself personally followed. May still be coming, but for the time being, has been shelved... anyways, I digress...
With all the many and unending different lists (*waves hands* Umm, you do realize the emphasis in the above picture is supposed to be on the BEER HAT yes!? ;]) coming out of the greatest and most awesome innovations, titles, and creations that ever came to be, I figured I'd take an opposite approach and shed some light on some of the biggest controversies in technology that never came to be and/or got !@#!-canned before they ever had a chance to blossom. I may update this as time goes on if/when I can recall any other overly noteworthy innovations that never came to be (like perhaps *hint, hint* the hoverboard, hover car, the fully solar-powered car that should have released a decade ago, the light-bulb that never burns out... just to name a few).
#1. Star Trek Online using Perpetual Engine by Perpetual Entertainment
Many I've talked to have seemed puzzled when I mention the Perpetual Engine and don't realize that Star Trek Online wasn't ever originally Cryptic's baby IP. The truth of the matter is Star Trek Online originally went into early development in 2004 by Perpetual Entertainment. The 3
images above, as well as the one to the left, are actual screenshots from their working engine of the game and what the game would have actually looked like. The Perpetual Engine also promised to have planets randomly appear, with full random terrain, environment, weather, population, npcs, etc to truly add to a realistic sense of actual space exploration, which is what the original concept of Star Trek was, and still is. Don't get me wrong; I recently started giving Cryptic's Star Trek Online a chance, and even though it's great fun and really neat, I'm still left to wonder what could have been with the Perpetual Engine, as well as what new MMO standards it may have set for other games and designs with seamless and virtually unending exploration.
#2. Ultima Online 2 (Officially dubbed: Ultima Online Worlds: Origin)
Recognize the image above? Unless you're a true hardcore gamer, and were also a PC gamer back in 1999 as well as following the Ultima storyline, you probably don't. The image above is from Ultima IX: Ascension, which in my opinion was probably one of the best PC-based open-world RPGs of all time. But why does that matter to Ultima Online? Because what many don't know is, there was originally planned to be an Ultima Online 2, yes, that's right, a SEQUEL to the great Ultima Online that so many rave about actually USING the Ascension Engine!! But why didn't it ever come to be you might ask? That's because Richard Garriot and Origin had the game fully designed and ready to go,
(seen in the image to the right which is an actual screenshot taken from within the early-beta of the working game), up until Electronic Arts actually stated they were afraid they'd lose too many players from the original Ultima Online, thus the bottom line worry was a fear of losing money, and decided to scrap the whole idea. In turn, Richard Garriot walked out (not that I blame him and would have done the same exact thing), which ultimately buried any and all ongoing continuations to the Ultima storyline. It's worth noting the silliness of EA's worrying, as any users that would have left the original Ultima Online would more than likely have migrated to Ultima Online 2. Perhaps their worry more stemmed from a reason to keep the servers up, or perhaps more the reaction of fans that would start asking why they were spoon fed everything they were about Ultima Online and sinking their money continually into it, when something that could have been so much better was so readily available. Another thought to ponder, Ultima Online 2 was pretty much finishing up and almost ready for release by March of 2001. Now let's think about this. Even World of Warcraft wasn't announced until September of 2001, and finally released in November of 2004; and it's also worth pointing out they're going on 7 years of flushing it all out and improving it. Imagine if you will, a game that was that vividly rich, realistic, and entertaining as Ultima Online 2 using the Ascension engine released three years prior, with an equivalent 7 years to improve it and make it better. Would it be possible that had this came to be, World of Warcraft may not have been as successfully huge as it ended up being, thus the MMO genre may not have been overshadowed and sucked as dry as it has by WoW!? Imagine how much more level-field the MMO genre, especially when it comes to fantasy-based games, would be if there was an equal competitor back from the start. Perhaps there wouldn't have been nearly as many WoW clones and so much loathing now for anything fantasy, as I can safely speak for myself and many others that I know, that may go postal if we see anymore WoW clones or rehashes of what can be done with fantasy, dragons, sword/shield, and anything else medieval! Hey Electronic Arts... don't you just wish you had the millions and billions of dollars that Blizzard is now making with their product (World of Warcraft) that ultimately buried your baby Ultima Online!? LOL!
#3. Super Nintendo / Super Famicom CD-Rom Drive
What you see above is the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo in North America), but I wonder what that is under it!? This one is an innovation that I'm kind of glad it ended up the way it did. Why you ask? Well, that image above was to be the CD-Rom drive for the Super Nintendo. Even though back then I absolutely loved the Super Nintendo and was completely drooling at the idea of SNES games on CD and a dockable drive that sat under the main console, and was really sad back then to hear the idea was scrapped, it turned out for the best. You're still asking why? How ironic it'd be, let's take a really close and long hard look at that image again. Oh look, the Super Nintendo is giving birth to the Playstation. That's right, you got it! Nintendo originally looked to Sony to develop what would become the SNES CD-Rom drive, and even though Sony had a built prototype that they
unveiled for the world to see, ready for market, Nintendo at the last minute decided to back out and claim that they felt cartridges were the wave of the future and the CD media wouldn't keep the push that it had. Sony being the awesome marketing geniuses that they are, absolutely refused to lose the money already invested into development and manufacturing in such a disrespectful manner, and in result, turned around to patent it as the first PlayStation home gaming system. Whoops, don't get me wrong, I love Nintendo and all, but I love my Playstation even more; so for what it's worth Nintendo, thank you. However, let's imagine for a second, just how much huger and bigger of a gaming giant Nintendo *could have been* had they taken the opportunity to have the biggest jump-start ahead of the curve in the realm of CD-based console games. I guess Nintendo can toss this one in their loss column along with their Virtual Boy and Power Glove (which for the record, I still think the Power Glove was an awesome idea and innovation, just perhaps was ahead of its time and wasn't manufactured/designed as well as it could have been).
#4. Virtual Reality
For any of the teenie-boppers that may be reading this, yes, Virtual Reality actually did exist for a very short time, it wasn't just science fiction you read about in books or see in movies like Lawnmower Man, The Matrix, or Tron. However, due to many issues with some peoples equilibrium and some other issues, the entire concept ended up being for the most part scrapped from the public market. Leaving us hardcore VR enthusiasts to really dig through the scraps to continue our pursuits in more of a fanatical approach. For those who may not be aware of what
Virtual Reality is, it would allow for a person to use a video headset to actually put themselves into the game itself, as though the game were a true "virtual world" that was wrapped around them as the center focus. Now even I ask myself if this was a good thing or a bad thing; could Virtual Reality development have been ahead of its time? Could be possible. I am happy to see the newer innovations coming to market, such as the PlayStation Move, as well as using it with the SharpShooter peripheral. It allows for motion-reading, controller-based movement, and realistic aiming, with many more awesome prospects still yet waiting to be unlocked. Now just couple that with a video-headset and perhaps one of those old Interactor force-feedback vests (another technological invention that didn't last long), and maybe even a Nintendo Power Glove (yet another technological invention that didn't fare well), and you're all set!
#5. Apple Windows!? (WTF!?)
Disclaimer: This portion is NOT to help those zealots who want to believe Steve Jobs was (a) God who gets full credit for being the biggest innovator in the gaming industry. For the record Steve Jobs and Apple focused on hardware and OSes, such as cell phones, computers, laptops, tablets, music players, portable devices, etc... they NEVER made any huge break into the gaming industry. I have full respect for Steve Jobs, but the fanboys chanting his name are fabricating false truths, just as many fanboys do about anything else they want to be a delusional follower of (I actually read somebody saying the other day saying that "Steve Jobs is personally responsible for bringing us the personal computer"... mmm-KAY, right, love the guy Steve Jobs, but NOT TRUE! Maybe these chanting fanboys should realize they're going to ultimately get people to end up hating Steve Jobs or at least hearing about untruths claimed in his name!). Anyways, this IS meant to be a props to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, please don't use this to stretch it anymore than that, thank you. So if you are one that seems to believe that Steve Jobs created life... please, by all means, go get an iLife and let us know what it's all about, peace out homie!
Saving the best for last, probably the biggest controversy known by 99% of all geeks, (myself included), the ACTUAL origins of WINDOWS and how it came to be. *GASP* Yep, I'm letting the skeletons out of the closet Big Brother... go suck an egg, cry me a river, build me a bridge, and get the !@#! over it. Anyways, it's no huge secret that Microsoft hasn't had an original thought since coming up with the company title, especially seeings even DOS was bought by Bill Gates from a drugged out college student flunky and then delivered to IBM (which Bill Gates already sold them DOS before even having it) for mass-production. However, not everybody is privy to the how and why of how Windows came to be. Long story short, Bill Gates being the devil in sheep's clothing that he is, approached Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, claiming he wanted to *help them* make the
MacOS the best it could be, as he felt the idea was truly revolutionary. All the while, Bill Gates and crew worked to reverse engineer the code and use the new "format" for their own ends. Just before MacOS was to hit the public market, Bill Gates beat Steve Jobs to the punch and revealed Windows to the world; which ended up making the MacOS look more like a "wannabe copy-cat" sadly. How much different the realm of technology may have turned out had MacOS came before Windows; then perhaps Microsoft wouldn't be the cut-throat greedy bastards that monopolize technology and flash you the biggest price tags to keep it moving along. For what it's worth, before anybody claims I'm a hypocrite, I actually dual-boot my box/rig with RedHat Linux, and only really run Windows Vista for any games that either can't be ported to Linux, or don't want to without issues/bugs/glitches. However, let's ponder for a moment how much better the world could have been, both in technology and in just in general, had Steve Jobs been the one making millions or billions of dollars every day like Microsoft does. If Bill Gates could have been the one left in the dust and being forced to grovel at Steve Jobs feet instead. Yes, it's sad, that people like Bill Gates exist, that came into the life of Steve Jobs, to hold such genius minds like Steve Jobs under their thumb until they're in the ground. For what it's worth, Bill Gates, I really do pray that one day you burn in hell, but that might be best saved for another article, maybe? Q:)
So there you have it, the top 5 innovations that never came to be; maybe more being added later as I recall any others that are overly noteworthy. Until next time, I leave you with one final thought...
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