Action Gamemaster
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| Action Gamemaster | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Active Enterprises Ltd[1] |
| First release | Planned fall 1994 (Never released)[1] |
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The Action Gamemaster is a vaporware product that would have been produced by Active Enterprises Ltd.[1] The console's name is taken from The Cheetahmen game on the NES version of Action 52 which is also was also it's alternate title (which can be seen when the game starts up), as well as the name of a human character who appeared in the opening cutscene for the game and on the cover of the version, but does not appear in the game itself.
Development[edit]
During the time that the company was still met with negative reaction from most in the industry due in part to Action 52 resulting in poor sales, Active made the decision to switch its operations from developing games to begin developing and manufacturing their own gaming consoles while simultaneously releasing a small handful of their own games for it dubbed The Action Gamemaster. It was originally in announced at the 1994 Consumer Electronics Show[2] which was held in late June in Chicago, IL.
Existing concept art for the Action Gamemaster reveals a system shaped roughly like a flight yoke, with a directional pad on the left side, an action-button diamond on the right, unidentified function keys on the large central area, and the LCD screen on a bevel facing the player. The Action Gamemaster would have been much larger than other handheld systems of its day. Weight and power-requirement statistics are not available at this time. It's main display source for its games would've been from a 3.2" (320 x 240) color LCD screen. The system was also planned to have its own TV tuner, battery charger, car cigarette lighter adaptor, and an AC adaptor.
The system was to have been a handheld multi-cartridge and CD-ROM clone console[3] in the sense of Nintendo's Game Boy and the Atari Lynx, but with much greater aspirations. It would have featured compatibility with the NES, Sega Genesis and SNES cartridge games, as well as CD-ROM games, via separate modules that would be interchangeable with the system and were to retail individually. This was in addition to games written exclusively for the Action Gamemaster. One such game, Cheetahmen III, what was to be the SNES version of Action 52, and another game called Sports 5 was announced at the show, but neither they nor the Action Gamemaster were actually on display.
Vaporware status[edit]
Little to no work was actually done on the Action Gamemaster by the time Active ceased its video game operations in 1994 shortly after CES with no official word on its cancellation as the console never went beyond the initial announcement and prototype. It is generally believed that the system, had it been realized, would have proven far too bulky and expensive to be practical, especially with all of the added adapters for playing other games at a projected retail price of around $500 USD at the time as well as how difficult it would be to maintain the system in terms of replacing damaged or missing parts and storing the device and its accessories in a reasonable space.
While the console will never see the light of day, much of it's projected functionality has already seen representation by way of both hardware and software video game emulation on PCs, smartphones, and modified home and portable gaming consoles.
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Walker, Kirstin. "VIDEO DESIGNER PACKS IN THE GAMES". Sun Sentinel. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
- ↑ "NESWorld article on the CES booth hosted by Active Enterprises at the 1994 CES". Retrieved June 15, 2022.
- ↑ "Active Enterprises Action Gamemaster Console Information".
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