The Blackangel Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 Does anyone else remember the Sega Nomad? Did you have one? @Rain Dew has one and she has always loved it. The only issue is that it eats batteries like Homer Simpson eats donuts, and the power pack doesn't last very long either. It is neat however to be able to take your favorite Sega Genesis games on the go, if you want them instead of a Game Gear. Lots of Sega games weren't on Game Gear. It was truly ahead of its time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shagger Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 I had heard of the Nomad, but I've never played one, nor even seen one to tell the truth. I'll put a picture so we can see what it looked like. It really was a neat idea. A handheld console that you just put your Sega Megadrive/Genesis cartages in. It meant you didn't have to have separate libraries for you handheld and home console. You could say it was the Switch 22 years earlier. It was a coloured screen on a handheld 3 years before the Game Boy Colour (but having said that, 6 years after the Atari Lynx, so it makes you wonder why Sega and Nintendo took so long to catch up), so it was pretty revolutionary. I agree it was ahead of it's time, but timing was also it's biggest problem along with some impracticalities. Trying to power what was essentially a Sega Megadrive/Genesis with batteries back in 1995 was never going to be practical, not to mention this was around the same time as the likes of the Sega Saturn, The Sega 32X, The N64 and The PlayStation all came out, so it's little surprise this costly handheld didn't sell very well. A shame, but it's still a very likeable system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted May 25, 2022 Share Posted May 25, 2022 I've also heard of it and remember it quite vaguely - However, I've never played it. When was it released exactly as in the year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blackangel Posted May 25, 2022 Author Share Posted May 25, 2022 (edited) It was released in October 1995. It was discontinued in 1999. So it had a really short lifespan. Edited May 25, 2022 by The Blackangel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin11 Posted May 25, 2022 Share Posted May 25, 2022 That's interesting history you've told about Sega Nomad. I never learned about it, only from the post you shared which is the first time I learned that the gaming device first came out on 1995, and got discontinued in 1999. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted June 15, 2022 Share Posted June 15, 2022 On 5/25/2022 at 11:10 AM, The Blackangel said: It was released in October 1995. It was discontinued in 1999. So it had a really short lifespan. You know it's funny - I vaguely remember it now. I remember a kid coming to school with one and the rest of us were looking at him kinda odd as the rest of us had Gameboys. The issue with majority of Sega consoles in the past is that they weren't really marketed well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aniekwe Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 I had seen it a couple of times around 1997 but I was still in love with my Gameboy as of then. I never bothered about getting it because to me, Gameboy was better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blackangel Posted June 16, 2022 Author Share Posted June 16, 2022 22 hours ago, killamch89 said: The issue with majority of Sega consoles in the past is that they weren't really marketed well. That was their biggest problem. They came out at the same time as the SNES, and due to that, they were destined to fail. Mainly because (in the states at least) everyone was on Nintendo, and everyone wanted Nintendo consoles. Releasing a completely different kind of console at the time was basically suicide. Sony waited until the N64 era, and (thankfully) completely blew up and are now one of the biggest competitors with the PlayStation. Xbox came around a little later, and it blew up as well. It all takes timing and tech. If you want to succeed you have to know what to offer and when. Sega just released at the worst time. If they had waited a bit, I'm sure there would be a Sega board under the Platforms section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 6 hours ago, The Blackangel said: That was their biggest problem. They came out at the same time as the SNES, and due to that, they were destined to fail. Mainly because (in the states at least) everyone was on Nintendo, and everyone wanted Nintendo consoles. Releasing a completely different kind of console at the time was basically suicide. Sony waited until the N64 era, and (thankfully) completely blew up and are now one of the biggest competitors with the PlayStation. Xbox came around a little later, and it blew up as well. It all takes timing and tech. If you want to succeed you have to know what to offer and when. Sega just released at the worst time. If they had waited a bit, I'm sure there would be a Sega board under the Platforms section. Sometimes, it's best things turned out the way they did because Sega were also making some pretty stupid decisions at the time which ultimately also led to their downfall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aniekwe Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 14 hours ago, The Blackangel said: That was their biggest problem. They came out at the same time as the SNES, and due to that, they were destined to fail. Mainly because (in the states at least) everyone was on Nintendo, and everyone wanted Nintendo consoles. Releasing a completely different kind of console at the time was basically suicide. Sony waited until the N64 era, and (thankfully) completely blew up and are now one of the biggest competitors with the PlayStation. Xbox came around a little later, and it blew up as well. It all takes timing and tech. If you want to succeed you have to know what to offer and when. Sega just released at the worst time. If they had waited a bit, I'm sure there would be a Sega board under the Platforms section. The competition and gamers preferences at the time was never going to make it easy for them to survive in the market. It was a trying time for Sega. Their timing was very wrong and it's what led to their downfall. Take a look at what happened in the social media world with when Facebook came out and kicked out MySpace. Any social media platform that wanted to come out then would be kicked to the dust because FB was a strong competition and it was what people were interested in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grungie Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 The battery life was pretty garbage on it. It kind of defeats the point of a handheld. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 7 hours ago, Grungie said: The battery life was pretty garbage on it. It kind of defeats the point of a handheld. How long did it last exactly? And did it use rechargeable batteries? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grungie Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 (edited) 27 minutes ago, killamch89 said: How long did it last exactly? And did it use rechargeable batteries? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_Nomad#:~:text=The Nomad could be powered,(DC 9V%2C 3W). About 2-3 hours on 6 AA batteries. This was the 90’s where rechargeable batteries weren’t that common on devices like this. There was apparently a battery pack, but the only 3 people I knew that owned a Nomad never had one. Edited June 17, 2022 by Grungie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 24 minutes ago, Grungie said: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_Nomad#:~:text=The Nomad could be powered,(DC 9V%2C 3W). About 2-3 hours on 6 AA batteries. This was the 90’s where rechargeable batteries weren’t that common on devices like this. There was apparently a battery pack, but the only 3 people I knew that owned a Nomad never had one. 2-3 hours on 6 AA batteries is pretty pathetic! Honestly, I can see why it flopped - you could power 3 Gameboys with the same amount of batteries and for way longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blackangel Posted June 17, 2022 Author Share Posted June 17, 2022 The battery pack gave it a little longer play time, but not much. Also the damn thing was heavy as hell. If you lacked endurance or strength, it was better to lay it on a table, which is completely pointless. If you're doing that, just play a regular Sega on the TV. Aniekwe 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
