The Hall of Shame 04.02.08: The Nuon

Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 04.02.2008

This was once dubbed the "Mario Killer." Obviously it didn't, but could you imagine if it did?

What a couple weeks it's been. First I talk about the failing consoles Atari made, and then I did an entirely different column talking about Sega's consoles, and now this week, I once again talk about another hardware related failure. I swear, next week will be something related to a game.

Anyway, this week is yet another console that was released in an effort to top the giant that was Nintendo and the soon-to-be giant that was Sony. The console went under the codename Project X, and the company behind it, VMLabs, claimed it was going to be a "Mario killer."

This "Mario killing" Project X wound up not killing Mario. It probably didn't even break a bone in Mario's body. In fact, the only thing this console killed was the company that created it, because it wasn't really a video game console, but rather a DVD player that just happened to play some video games. This week, the Nuon is inducted into the Hall of Shame.



It all started in 1997, a time when Sony was becoming the new dominant force in the game industry with the PlayStation and the release of Final Fantasy 7, Nintendo was doing pretty good with Nintendo 64, and the Sega Saturn...well, you know. A company by the name of VMLabs announced that they were going to release a new technology that would revolutionize the video game industry, codenamed Project X. They even dubbed the technology as a "Mario Killer" and came up with that image you see above. I'm kind of surprised Microsoft didn't that image for themselves with the Xbox. Project X was supposed to be more powerful then either the PlayStation or the Nintendo 64 and would be able to play DVDs. In 1998, the year the console was to be released, this would be awesome.

But in 2000, not so much. By then Sony was going to launch PlayStation 2, which was also boasting DVD playback. Sega had released Dreamcast, Nintendo was working on Dolphin (GameCube), and Microsoft was going to enter the console market with Xbox. Project X, now known as Nuon, wasn't going to look as powerful as it would've been in 1998, so it going to have to be very impressive in order to get people noticing.

But then as it turned out, Nuon wasn't going to be a video game console at all, but rather a chip in DVD players that would allow it to play 3D games and use all sorts of special features for select DVDs. The Nuon-based DVD players wouldn't be made by VMLabs, but rather from third-party hardware manufacturers like Toshiba and Samsung. If this strategy sounds familiar to you, it's because Trip Hawkins tried to do the same thing with 3DO, and that failed miserably mostly thanks to an asinine $700 price tag, which if inflated to today would be over $1000. But what made the Nuon different was that since it was technically a chip for DVD players, the hardware cost would be next to nothing for other companies.

So...the "Mario Killer" VMLabs was boasting about was going to be a chip that souped up DVD players that other companies would be making? The Nuon would have to be unbelievably amazing if it was going to live up to it's plumber murdering name.

The first Nuon DVD player was released in Spring 2000 for $400 by Samsung, and although RCA and Toshiba would also release their version of the Nuon, it pretty much bombed in the hardware market, both as a video game console and as a DVD player, or rather DVD chip. Only four movies were released that used the Nuon technology, and only eight or so games in total were released. With PlayStation 2 being released for $300 and having brand name recognition, not enough people gave a damn about the Nuon, and VMLabs went bankrupt in 2001. The Nuon technology was sold to Genesis Microchip, who retired the technology in 2002. The Nuon, just like many other failed consoles, would then be a cult system for homebrewers.

You know, the more I research into this Nuon, the more I keep thinking maybe I shouldn't be inducting it, because I'm not even sure if VMLabs was trying to create a video game console in the first place. But then I found out that the company was founded by Richard Miller, and you know what he was responsible for? The Atari Jaguar. When you've got the guy responsible for Atari's worst console ever, you are 99% destined to fail.

That's it?

Yeah, that's pretty much it. The Nuon came and went very quickly, mostly because gamers didn't really care about it and DVD owners could've found cheaper alternatives. Companies couldn't get behind the Nuon unless it proved itself, and when it didn't, the companies never bothered to develop games for it. The Nuon is pretty much forgettable. I mean, before you clicked this article, did you ask yourself "What the hell is a Nuon?" At least the Phillips CD-i will still be remembered because it had those Nintendo based abominations, but Nuon? It had nothing going for it.

But to think...what if the Nuon really was a Mario killer? What if the Nuon was so successful that it became a legitimate console contender? What if...

Nuon: An imaginary success story that changed the industry

So let's say the Nuon had a successful launch with great games to start off, and now gamers want more then a game machine, but something to play DVDs, do karaoke, and other such entertainments. Since Nuon could play next-gen style games and be able to play DVDs, already the Sega Dreamcast would have even more trouble trying to convince gamers Sega was still cool. Dreamcast probably would've died before the PS2 even came out. Once Sony released the PS2, it would be a close race between the Nuon and the PS2 for a while. PS2 would win over gamers because it played PS1 games, DVD movies, and was slightly cheaper, but the Nuon was able to do so much more. Meanwhile, once Nintendo would release the GameCube, in which there was no immediate Mario game or DVD playback, that console would struggle for years to get people to love it. Technically the GameCube did sort of struggle in it's time, but I'm talking a Sega Saturn-like struggle. GameCube would basically die and Nintendo would instead try to focus on a brand new console. Indeed, Mario looked to be killed. As for Microsoft, they would release the Xbox and it would bomb even worse then GameCube because it was just as expensive as Nuon but only had Halo. Either that or Microsoft would just cancel the console before it's release and instead focus on PC gaming and being a third-party publisher.

In the end of that console war, the PS2 would've likely won out by only a slight margin as Sony got ready for it's PS3. VMLabs would then begin working on a format more powerful then the Nuon, and would probably dub it "Nuon 2," with the new slogan being that it's a "Sony Killer." Meanwhile, Nintendo, no longer an industry leader like it used to be, decides to do the one thing gamers around the world would've thought never happened: Merge with Sega. "Nintendo Sega" would make a console with the greatest games to ever be imagined, and the console war would now be between Sony's PS3, VMLabs' Nuon 2, and Nintendo Sega's...uh...WiiCast?

At least, that's what I think would happen if the Nuon was the huge success VMLabs originally intended it to be. Crazy? Stupid? Probably. But hey, when a company decides to release a new video game console into the market, don't they dream of doing something like this? I know I would.

Unfortunately, Nuon being a Mario killer was just that.