Wasn't sure if this should go in /maho/ or here. Going to post it here because it's mostly vidya related. There was tons of cool hardware being released when I was a child that I lusted after and only got to experience through magazine reviews and somet

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File:Pioneer_LaserActive_CLD-A1….jpg (230.28 KB,600x450)

Anonymous 07/01/25 (Tue) 09:12:49 No.8071

Wasn't sure if this should go in /maho/ or here. Going to post it here because it's mostly vidya related.

There was tons of cool hardware being released when I was a child that I lusted after and only got to experience through magazine reviews and sometimes in person with a demo model. Pioneer Laseractive was like the holy grail of consoles and I wanted it so badly. But it sold for nearly $1k in early 90s USD and I knew I'd never be able to afford one. Later on in life I tried to snag one off the collector's market before retro gaming stuff got ridiculous but they were impossible to find. I still haven't seen one in person since it was released initially and they had a demo version behind glass at a local mall.

This thing was so cool. It's a Laser Disc player that came with multiple things called "PACs". You could hook up the PAC to play Genesis/Megadrive and TurboGrafx-16 games. More PACs were supposed to be announced and there were many rumors that it would get a SNES/NES PAC eventually. Along with support for some other disc stuff that was coming out around that time like the 3DO.

The one I got to play on had the Genesis PAC. It would play both cartridges and SegaCD games. They didn't have a game like this at the time but it was supposed to be able to play SegaCD games off LD-ROMs. So the games would be able to take advantage of the better video available on Laser Discs as opposed to the SegaCD's horrible overly compressed low definition/color pallet videos. Never got to play an LD-ROM game. But back then it seemed like the ultimate solution to the CD game problem they were having with the SegaCD at the time. Would have been so cool if someone made an RPG to take advantage of the increased storage space, improved video and audio.

They shipped a PAC to interface with a standard DOS computer. Lots of people were excited about that because it would allow this to function as a cheap dev kit for consoles. But again I've never seen one in person. The PACs were more expensive than the actual consoles. Most of them were $600 each.

I always wondered if there was some rich guy out there that managed to buy the system+all of the PACs then quickly got bored with it so the console say collecting dust unused. Anyway, at the time this was like the ultimate gaming experience money could buy. I spent many hours writing and sending in letters to gaming magazines back then trying to win it in a contest. They ran this contest for over a year that included this console, all the PACs, a massive big screen CRT TV and stereo system along with a bunch of other goodies. Winner was never announced and I wonder if it was just a big scam now.

There are a lot of interesting third party spin-offs of things like the Sega and non-Nintendo company consoles from back then. Most were never released outside of Japan. There was something called a Teradrive I really wanted. It had an ancient early 80s intel CPU in it and ran DOS. But it also had all the Genesis hardware inside and could be used as a devkit to make your own games. Never got to see one in person. I begged my Dad to let me import it and spent many months saving money but we couldn't find a dealer willing to ship it. Still haven't managed to buy one off the second hard market either. All this stuff is now really rare and people want it to put on a shelf. Shame it'll never be used for its actual purpose.

Anonymous 07/01/25 (Tue) 09:39:58 No.8072

Very interesting read, thank you for sharing! I have seen this machine before, but never bothered to properly research it. Judging by the image, I assume you can only hook up one PAC at a time via the bottom left slot?

However, while I do like the concept of the PACs, it does feel a little "useless" even for the time, does it not? The way I understand it, the modules are basically overpriced mini-consoles that demand an additional interface with more power-draw and I don't see any upsides to owning the original consoles, other than that swapping modules seems a little more convenient than swapping console cables on your TV. Might I be missing something?

I agree with the sentiment that hardware like this is best left in the hands of people actually using it in a respectful way, rather than just displaying it. I have collector's autism myself, but if something is already unboxed, I'd rather just use it and get more enjoyment out of it.

Anonymous 07/01/25 (Tue) 09:54:52 No.8073

File:Casio_Loopy_With_Magical_S….jpg (320.14 KB,1280x960)

>>8072
I can't find a picture of it now but there were multiple models released initially. The one I played on allowed you to connect two PACs at the same time. So you could have had TG16 and Genesis PACs and switched between them without having to unplug one. That's how the devkit stuff worked. The PC/DOS PAC could be connected at the same time as another PAC then you could connect it all up to a PC running DOS and directly control all the hardware.

The advantage at the time was not having to have multiple consoles and more importantly AC adapters hooked up at the same time. I don't think many people now understand just how unruly things could get behind a television back in that day. I had a 32X+SegaCD+Genesis setup. Which required 3 massive AC adapters going to the wall. Which were bricks that could cover 2+ outlets on a power strip. So you needed multiple power strips and some creative thinking to get them all plugged up at the same time. Now add into the mix the NES+SNES and other things hooked up to the same TV and it got to be a rats nest really quick.

With the LaserActive you had one power wire+one wire going to the TV to do everything plus you got a nice LaserDisc player out of the deal. Back then I really wanted a Laserdisc and so did most other people. Since DVDs were years away and VHS was never going to get you anything close to the quality you got at the theater.

Then there is just the coolness factor about having something most people didn't. I miss all the unique and interesting hardware that was coming out back then.

Here is another Japanese exclusive console I wanted and most people have never heard of. The Casio Loopy. The entire purpose of this console? Hooking it up to a VCR/DVD players to get still frames off of them so you could draw on them with a mouse and make stickers. It's a console designed 100% for girls that love photo booths. Didn't sell that great as you might except. Wouldn't fly at all in today's market because you can't design something for girl's only use. But it was a cool piece of hardware nonetheless and I'm sure the few girls that got one probably really enjoyed it. No idea why they didn't make a camera and karaoke add-on for it as well.

I've always wondered how well it'd work as a capture card. Never seen one in person or got to play with one. No idea if they made any actual games for it.

Anonymous 07/01/25 (Tue) 10:21:45 No.8074

>>8073
I think it's important to note that most of the "girl's only" gaming hardware back then almost always came with one controller port. Kind of drives home the fact that these weren't designed with playing games in mind. They were designed to be part of a larger social experience. In this case. A bunch of girls having a sleep over or something either taking turns playing or playing together while the host controlled the hardware.

There was a bunch of hardware back then attempting to capture a casual girl's gaming market that didn't really exist. Since girls that were actually into gaming wanted to play actual games. But so many believed they could open up a new market of customers by designing consoles/hardware that weren't really gaming machines first.

The whole "multimedia device for the TV" hardware from the early 90s was kind of the same thing. They thought people would really want a CD-ROM under the television but they had no idea what the content to go on said CDs looked like. But they were churning out $1k+ hardware that was basically just CD-ROM with RF-out anyway. Like some kind of killer application was just going to appear out of thin air. In reality, all that ever got ported over were old LD arcade games, encyclopedias, crappy Video CDs and Myst.

Anonymous 07/01/25 (Tue) 10:34:19 No.8075

>>8073
Not too related, but that reminds me of how proud my kid-self was when I daisy-chained like 3 or 4 power strips together to hook up every single device I've had, jamming all the composite cables underneith my TV so that I could quickly swap inputs on the front AV. I never minded the chaos behind the TV and saw it as a necessary evil, but nowadays, connecting too many things at once scares me shitless. I've never had problems with fires, melting cables or anything like that, but whenever I see people discussing this sort of thing, more often than not it seems like they make it out to be some sort of suicide in progress.

Anonymous 07/01/25 (Tue) 11:02:08 No.8076

>>8075
I impressed my friends back then by running a long coax cable to a switching box mad from real wood that was probably produced in the late 70s/early 80s. No idea where it came from I just happened to find it among my Dad's stuff one day. It had those old hard to press buttons that made a loud pop when you pressed them in and allowed you to hook up 6 or 8 inputs.

Anyway, I ran a long coax from it to the TV on the other side of the room by routing it around my waterbed that hugged the wall. Then I set-up all my consoles on a shelf between the bed and this small love seat I had in the room. I managed to plug in all the AC adapters using multiple power strips like you did and hid them under the waterbed's frame.

The end result was you could swap consoles and games by reaching over from the loveseat or bed and switch inputs using that old switching box. They all used RF which is obviously crap quality but at the time I didn't know better because my old TV didn't have composite inputs anyway. Had the VCR hooked up as well with coax input coming from the satellite box back to it using a splitter. Looked like a rats nest and major fire hazard but it was all hidden so out of sight out of mind. As long as I could play my vidya and record wrestling and anime from the C-band dish I didn't care. Friends thought I was some kind of tech genius.

Later on when I got a proper PC and a hand-me-down Amiga with a genlock I added those to the mix as well. Made good money renting and selling VHS tapes and later bootleg games for PSX and Dreamcast at school. Even had a couple of people buying N64 backups using that floppy disk cartridge you could order for $100 from the back of gaming magazines back then. I offered modchip installation services as well. Would be mega rich now if I invested the money I made into stocks instead of blowing it all on importing games and hardware from Japan. I did manage to buy a really nice TV with my profits around 1998 though and finally got something with non-RF inputs.

/amv/ - Anime, Manga, VG

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