NEWS: SEGA prototype system SEGA PORTADRIVE

[ASSEMbler]

http://assemblergames.com/images/portadrive/porta_unit.jpg

SEGA PORTA DRIVE: 1990

Info dating from early 1990 stongly suggests that sega had developed a new machine that was designed to be a handheld game player, video cartridge player, and TV tuner unit with an 8mm cassette deck.

Using a 68000 / Z80 arrangement, it was supposed to have more ram capacity than NEO GEO. It was also to utilize a "Flip" screen that could act in dual modes with gameplay similar to an arcade shooter and the arrangement of the wonderswan.

Go to the main thread (http://assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5248) for more info and higher resolution pictures.

[ASSEMbler]

http://assemblergames.com/images/portadrive/portadrive.jpg

Acts as:

Television and VTR
Upload of video to unit cartridge
TV cartridge for TV use
Game cartridge
Screen rotates for pistol grip style (think of the LCD gun in soul hackers)
Screen can be used in an "arcade" arrangement
Price 24,800 yen

Source:1990 Beep! Powerful Mega-Magazine Megadrive

[ASSEMbler]

:prayer:All the elegance of a 15 year old before it's time version of the PSP

[cahaz]

how the hell can you play that thing? worst layout ever.

[LeGIt]

Not sure in the point of the unit with gamegear etc but would be nice to find a proto ;)

[Yakumo]

Now that is a new one !! Thanks ASSEMbler ;) I'm not sure if you guys will remember but last year I posted some pictures of another Sega Prototype that had a built in screen. It looked nothing like this though but was from around the same time period. I wonder if there's an actual hardware mockup ? Look how big the screen is too. And Sony thought they were the first to add a massive screen to a hand held :p

Yakumo

[cahaz]

Now that is a new one !! Thanks ASSEMbler ;) I'm not sure if you guys will remember but last year I posted some pictures of another Sega Prototype that had a built in screen. It looked nothing like this though but was from around the same time period. I wonder if there's an actual hardware mockup ? Look how big the screen is too. And Sony thought they were the first to add a massive screen to a hand held :p

Yakumo

they are, this thing was never released.

[ASSEMbler]

Of course not released, but if they made some evaluation units is another thing. A very big thing.

[z3ntn3l]

think about the GameGear Screen. The Measures of the Screen wasnt little. It was a big (color) screen for the early 90´s and in that time Sony wanted to buy you a walkman...
Ok CD was coming...

But in (crazy) Prototype Production Sega is the all time champion ;-)

[Topic Archive]

What a strange and wonderful machine, price 24,800 yen!!!!

...Does that mean that it might have seen an obsure release?

[ASSEMbler]

Nah. It's just unreleased stuff, but I can them doing it to counter the possible bandai portable super famicom.

[karsten]

they had lots of resources to waste at the time....

[kammedo]

W-O-W.
who knows why it never got released....

[karsten]

minutes battery life? (think of GG...)

[Perkunas]

I figure the most cool job around must be the guarding of obscure beta's and prototypes at Sega HQ... Along with the F1 Sega car that's 'lying around somewhere' in a Sega warehouse according to Naka... :p

[XerdoPwerko]

Just... Wow.
So... how far into development do you think it went?
Was it completely vapourware, like the "Active Enterprises" machine in 1994?
One thing for sure, though, it'd be one serious pain to play it the way the pics suggest... and the 8MM cassetes for video... that's just funny.

[Yakumo]

Fisher Price made a Black & White video camera for kids that used normal audio tapes. The quality was cack though so I guess Sega could have made a half decent one with 8mm tapes.

Yakumo

[Zilog Jones]

I thought that fisher price thing was just a camera, and you had to wire it up directly to a VHS VCR to record anything? I've seen video done on audio tapes before - you get like 40 lines of vertical resolution which is barely watchable - compare that to VHS which does around 240, and analogue broadcasts which are about 500-600.

That Sega thing is crazy though. Nice find! I'm sure if they did release something like that it would have cost at least $800 and would have weighed at least 5kg...

[Blur2040]

Theres two fischer price type cameras. One from the 80s that recorded to audio tape, the other that had to hook directly to a VCR...which is incredibly stupid. I read upo on the audio tape one once, as I thought it sounded really neat. As it turns out...it was...

[madhatter256]

What's next? A Sega Portapotty?

[Hawanja]

Wow. That has to be the clunkiest looking thing ever. I know it was 1990, but still.

[Zilog Jones]

Theres two fischer price type cameras. One from the 80s that recorded to audio tape, the other that had to hook directly to a VCR...which is incredibly stupid. I read upo on the audio tape one once, as I thought it sounded really neat. As it turns out...it was...
Cool, guess I was wrong! Any websites in this? I was deprived as a child, only having a Fisher-Price *audio* tape recorder - I still have the bitchin' tape that came with it though ^_^

[cahaz]

when we will see a portable gamegear prototype?

[PrOfUnD Darkness]

I think this is just on more concept SEGA's engineers were trying before the GG...
But it's amazing!

[AntiPasta]

I heard the Fisher Price camera is pretty rare and some video artists use it.

Anyhow, does anybody remember the 32-bit Sega handheld prototype assembler posted about years ago on the EZboard?

[cahaz]

nah, more informations please.:prayer:

[ASSEMbler]

Well unless someone can read kanji we're shit outof luck.

[AntiPasta]

Cool, guess I was wrong! Any websites in this? I was deprived as a child, only having a Fisher-Price *audio* tape recorder - I still have the bitchin' tape that came with it though ^_^

http://www.totalrewind.org/miscelny.htm

[Roi]

Wow, never heard of it before.

[Yakumo]

http://www.totalrewind.org/miscelny.htm

Anti, I have to thank you so much for that link. I spent a good 3 hours reading that site in work today :smt082 Sure made my afternoon of no jobs speed by :)

Yakumo

[AntiPasta]

Anti, I have to thank you so much for that link. I spent a good 3 hours reading that site in work today :smt082 Sure made my afternoon of no jobs speed by :)

Yakumo

No problem mate. It's a very interesting site indeed :-)

[ccovell]

Yeah, that was a cool site that sure took me back to my family's first VCR days.... and I was the only one in the family (at age 8) who knew how to turn the tuning knobs under the cover to change the preset channels to the more interesting cable channels above channel 13... those were the days...

And also, I spotted my brother's first laserdisc player, that clunky old Pioneer one, on that site. He bought it used in 1992 or 3 or so, so even back when he bought it it was over 10 years old!

Anyway, back on topic... those pics look interesting but to me it's just wild speculation. Did artists at Beep! draw them themselves, or did they get them from Sega? They are just pencil drawings after all, nothing to go wild about. Beep! and those other magazines came up with absurd designs of future hardware almost monthly. :/

[strider]

so where can i find this portable famicom from bandi

[Yakumo]

so where can i find this portable famicom from bandi
You can't. It was never released also its not really portable like a handheld. It was the size of a small carry case.

Yakumo

[strider]

well i built my own anyway i was just looking for a pocket size one..................... yes i have idea i will build one from my pocket nes or game axe color

[dj898]

You can't. It was never released also its not really portable like a handheld. It was the size of a small carry case.

Yakumo


ever heard of the story where a guy bought the thinnest notebook at the airport from a pilot after spotting him using it on his lap while sitting at the terminal. when he handed over rather large sum of cash the pilot gave him the small notebook plus a big suitcase standing next to the seat. When he called out the pilot pointing out that he forgot to collect his luggage the pilot replied, "no mate that IS the battery..." :p

[Shadowlayer]

Nice concept.....for a R/C car controller:lol:

Did they at least made a mockup?

[Sally]

Not one that has ever been found. I would imagine they didn't wast their time with it past the drawing board. The R&D costs alone would be astounding, not to mention manufacturing.

[Shadowlayer]

I see, well I don't fell sad for this little contraption, not that I can say the same about other great SEGA stuff like the DC DVD adaptor, the MP3 VMU and the VR headset for the Genesis