underdogs
There are three major roles served by what we’ll refer to as “underdog” systems:
1. To air out new ideas that, though worth exploring, will never be mainstream in their seminal form.
2. To act as a gadfly toward the market leader, spurring change where it would not otherwise occur.
3. To provide an independent editorial voice.
A fascinating article in-of all places?-BusinessWeek about the joy of failed gaming consoles:
For that matter, it is in the background of controller evolution that comfort and precision are generally held to the highest standards. In response to niche demands, through the mid-’90s Sega refined its control pads to a level that many enthusiasts consider the peak of design. The result: of the three major consoles of the last generation, the least mainstream is one of the most well-designed controllers ever; the second-least mainstream is one of the most innovative controllers ever, and the controller that became the default model for the following ten years – while neither well-designed nor in any sense original – is best adapted to the demands of the majority, by borrowing bits of everything else.
The article also posits a kind of “vigorous center” (my words) that understands the difference between stability and stasis…I think there’s some interesting extrapolations, so to speak, for the SF/F genre in this thesis.
And incidentally, I don’t think you can go wrong for a Dreamcast for $40.
