Super A'Can - Fun for...no one...

[wheelaa]

Rare, obscure, crap.

Post up your memories / horrors / fun times with Funtech's finest.

Few pics for reference, 10 of the 12 released titles.

I can honestly say I was not disappointed in my level of disappointment when I first played one of these.

Will revert with a fuller and more up-to-date view on disappointment levels once I've had a refresher session with this abomination.

 

[Tyree_Cooper]

A can of what?

 

[ItsMeMario]

Super ! A can ! :'D

 

[Trimesh]

Maybe UMC should have stuck to making CPUs and PPUs for famiclones

Any idea what the "north" "middle" and "south" stickers on the game boxes mean?

 

[Mr. Sound-About]

Ah, the A'can...

The system itself is pretty decent, even if the build quality leaves much to be desired: Each of my controllers -- which have that "mushy" kind of feel -- has something rattling inside it, and I've had a PSU go bad.

Games were all rushed, and it shows. The Sango Fighter port is especially embarrassing as it is buggy as all hell, has incorrect colors all over the place, and fighters frequently use the wrong voices. It's a mess. It's unfortunate, because the DOS (and PC-98) originals were so well done. The lone, official console port should have been at least as good if not better.

Boomzoo is a good looking and great sounding Bomberman clone, but slowdown that plagues the stages with animated barriers is inexcusable.

I could go on and on, but I can't be bothered to continue typing about this from my phone keypad.

 

[Arcadia]

I could go on and on, but I can't be bothered to continue typing about this from my phone keypad.

Are you saying you don't want to open A'Can of worms?

 

[Mr. Sound-About]

Any idea what the "north" "middle" and "south" stickers on the game boxes mean?

A colleague once told me, years and years ago, that they represented the regions of Taiwan the games were sold in. I took his word for it. Apparently at one point, a few collectors were looking for a copy of "Rebel Star" and wanted to know if it was ever sold in their part of the country. Hence the sticker curiousity.

Are you saying you don't want to open A'Can of worms?

OK, that wasn't bad. But the A'can is a big enough joke in itself, it doesn't need our help.

I'll say this for the A'can: The RPGs were pretty good. And by that I mean more than just enjoyable, they were actually kind of impressive. ? Yeah, I know: everyone -- myself included -- wants to gang up on the console & its software library, merrily accusing it of being nothing more than a pile of refuse. But that's not fair. Only around 85% of it is refuse. The rest is... well, you want to throw it away, and you know you should, but you just can't bring yourself to.

 

[cta]

Only around 85% of it is refuse. The rest is... well, you want to throw it away, and you know you should, but you just can't bring yourself to.

Oh hi guys, you appear to be talking about the Gizmondo in here? No? Must be the N-Gage then. What, not that either? How about CD-i?

There's very few systems that don't have at least one or two games that are at least somewhat enjoyable. Honestly, while I won't be throwing any money at the hardware, if someone translated those A'Can RPGs I'd play them - they look interesting enough. Bomberman Boom Zoo, too.

 

[Trimesh]

A colleague once told me, years and years ago, that they represented the regions of Taiwan the games were sold in. I took his word for it. Apparently at one point, a few collectors were looking for a copy of "Rebel Star" and wanted to know if it was ever sold in their part of the country. Hence the sticker curiousity.

That would make sense - the only time I saw any of those games in real life was in a little store in Taipei - and they had the sticker with "北" on them, which would make perfect sense if it was the distribution region. Unfortunately (fortunately?) they didn't have the console, just the games, or my attraction for obscure crap would likely have compelled me to buy it

 

[wheelaa]

Each of my controllers -- which have that "mushy" kind of feel -- has something rattling inside it

Yeah, my used controller is the same, some piece rattling inside. The others are OK though.

I quite like the console look, a decent weight to it, there are fuglier consoles out there.

 

[dyer60]

I like the look of it!

To me it rips off the look of the SNES but that’s no bad thing in my book.

 

[Mr. Sound-About]

Oh hi guys, you appear to be talking about the Gizmondo in here? No? Must be the N-Gage then. What, not that either? How about CD-i?

? Oh no you di'in't. Compared to those doorstops, the A'can is a wonder machine. (Oh God, I'm defending it again.)

Fun [?] fact: N-Gage was my first cell phone. I was very excited about it at launch, but quickly allowed myself to realize that it... totally sucked. Eventually a friend of mine drilled a small hole in the back cover, just over the position of the speaker, so I wouldn't have to "side talk" with it anymore. What an asinine product design. Still, I enjoyed working on Super Fighter Block Battle, which was basically our "gift" to fellow N-Gage enthusiasts.

I quite like the console look, a decent weight to it, there are fuglier consoles out there.

Well yeah, I like the look of it too. And the hardware inside is impressive, if outdated by the time the machine hit the market. What I don't understand is how anyone behind it actually expected it to be a success. Especially with cheap bootlegs of Japanese games available everywhere, for all the major systems. They banked on the belief that Taiwanese people would pay far more for games in their own language, made by their own countrymen. Thus no language barrier, and no poorly translated content. It was a real noodle-scratcher of a decision, but you got to give them credit for getting behind it and really giving it a go!

 

[Flash]

The main problem with all those smaller companies trying to enter console market was that even if hardware is okay they had one problem... lack of games. But well even not-so-small companies sometimes make weird decisions. SuperGrafx is first that comes to mind. A console that have very little advantages over normal PC Engine at much higher price... Or what Sega did with 32X.