Ever backed the wrong " Horse "

[RodimusPrime]

Did you get a Betamax instead of VHS.

Did you collect Gobots instead of transformers.

Did you buy a 3do thinking it was the future of gaming.

One of my worst decisions was thinking HD-DVDs were going to be the nest Format of choice. Built up a decent collection.

[rocky1980]

I was in the HD DVD camp

[ianpmarks]

I also had an HD-DVD Player - the XBOX 360 one.

Also in the late 70's I had loads of Black Hole action figures... not Star Wars. Once Empire came out I started a Star Wars collection. Don't remember what happened to the Black Hole ones, which is a shame as they might be worth something today.

Edit.,, I've just looked and some of the figures I had are worth a pretty penny... bah.

[HalcyonDaze00]

I bought the 3DO at release for full price! not sure if I thought it was the future of gaming but I certainly thought it would be better than it was, a dreadful machine.

[Antiriad2097]

Let's see...

Betamax
Oric 1
Oric Atmos
Mrs Ant v1.0
Atari ST
GameCube

I have a knack for bad choices. I did contemplate opening a video rental store in my area a few years back, glad I didn't actually follow that through.

[Katzkatz]

Betamax. Well, not my fault - my family bought one at the time. We had it for a couple of years. It was the only video recorder that my mother could actually use! It was better quality than VHS. Later on - you did notice - as the number of rental shops supporting it(we had travel about 12 miles to the local one later on) were getting sparse. In 1988, we switched over to VHS.

I don't if this counts, but my younger brother got an Amiga A600 - a few years after I got my A500. Is that the "wrong horse"? I'd also add that he got a secondhand Amiga A1200 when I went into DOS gaming with a 486 SX PC - I'm not if that quite counts. He also got a CD32. Again - you could argue both ways on that front.

[paranoid marvin]

I bought an ST, but I don't count it as a 'wrong horses. At the time it was far cheaper than the Amiga, games usually cost less, both machines were equally well supported and games seemed to be of an equal quality. Once Amiga games started becoming better, and less games were being made available for the ST, I upgraded. But I still got my moneys worth from my Atari.

I've rarely been an 'early adopter', so I guess that helps when making the right choice.

[Katzkatz]

I bought an ST, but I don't count it as a 'wrong horses. At the time it was far cheaper than the Amiga, games usually cost less, both machines were equally well supported and games seemed to be of an equal quality. Once Amiga games started becoming better, and less games were being made available for the ST, I upgraded. But I still got my moneys worth from my Atari.

I've rarely been an 'early adopter', so I guess that helps when making the right choice.

Yeah, I've never understood that - seeing the Atari ST as a "wrong horse" - and I say that being a former Amiga owner. The thing that first sort sparked my interest with the 16 bit machines was the Discovery Pack(I think that was what it was called) on the Atari ST some time back in 1988. At the time it was cheaper than the Amiga. I didn't get it, as I did need to save money to afford a new computer. Eventually, I waited awhile and settled on the Amiga - as having a Commodore 64 beforehand and also the blitter chip.

[Carrot007]

16 bit machines

ARRRGGGHHHHHHHH! A 16 bit data bus does not make it a 16 bit cpu. Likewise 8 bit in the QL. It was always 32 bit.

Anyhow

I've generally liked my choices!

Had a beta as a kid when the family got a VHS to repalce thiers! So acceptable I think.

Played with an aquarious for a bit, but I knew what it was from the start and was someone just trying to get rid. Lost it over tiome though, i miss it!

And as for Amiga/ST/ I went Amiga nd my mate went ST. Both good machines, well m,aybe starting with STE! The Original was more a bitter moan that they did not get the amiga. But yes it was cheaper and did run a bit faster to make up for the lack of custem chips. I love them both in different ways!

What I may have been guilty of is staying with a dead platform for too long! Both Spectrum and Amiga there.

[Katzkatz]

Whilst Betamax might have been "the wrong horse" for the domestic market(I think in the US - it was the porn industry that took onboard VHS and in the UK - I think Radio Rentals and Rumblelows took to VHS) - it did have some success in the broadcast TV sector with Betacam and so on.

On that sort of subject - "the wrong horse" - did anyone ever own a SuperVHS machine? I think around the time it was first released it was meant to be seen as an upgrade from VHS. I didn't know anyone who ever owned one. I always was fascinated by them in TV and Video Hardware magazines. I suspect that the cost of the machines and also the cassettes did prohibit the format.

[Mayhem]

Yes, we had a Betamax as well, dad got it because it had a better picture quality (true), and the video store had pretty much everything for rental as it did for VHS in 1984. Eventually of course we did have to swap over to VHS.

[English Invader]

Went for the ST over the Amiga but again it wasn't the wrong horse. Still prefer it over the Amiga to this day.

Also went for the Sega Game Gear over the Gameboy. Had many happy years with the GG but these days my interest in the system has waned in favour of the original Gameboy and the Atari Lynx. The Gameboy got a whole new lease of life with the backlight and bivert mods and a set of rechargable NiMH batteries but the other two are still the power hogs they've always been.

[Katzkatz]

Just thinking back, my family had a ZX80. I think we had that because it was before the ZX81 was released. Does that count as "the wrong horse"?

[Bluce_Ree]

I've had a perfect record so far. Speccy, Amiga, SNES, PS1, PS2, 360, PS4.

I've had other less popular systems along the way but only well after they'd lost their generational console wars.

[Megamixer]

Is anybody going to admit to backing Laserdisc and thinking it would be the next big thing?