Why The Super A'Can Failed ! - Gaming History Documentary

[@erockbrox8484]

As a game developer myself, I cannot tell you how hard and time consuming it is to make games for a console. I worked on 2 games. Both took 3 years to make. That's 3 years just for a single game. So if you are going to make a gaming console and be successful then you not only have to produce the hardware, but support the hardware by getting great developers onboard and your console may not take off right away because you have to give developers time to make great games.

[@releasethedogs]

You're a single person. Typically console games have teams of people that work on them.

[@jasonjones7461]

I'm friends with a Nintendo 3ds, wiiU, switch indie game developer and his first game took about 3 years to make...and a further 3 years to fix with update patches after release. I know EXACTLY what you mean, it's so unbelievably tough and many times, esp early on it nearly broke him. In that time tho he's released an impressive amount of games including the FINAL game on 3ds eShop which just released on March 9th, literally just weeks until eShop closes for good. If you are interested check out the "silver falls" game series. It had an extremely rough start but has since been fully redeemed and is some of the best and most impressive eShop exclusive indie games on 3ds. The final game is fantastic, Silver falls Gaiden DDD and Ruby River, it's a two in one game. One is a battle RPG with a clever combat system, the other, Ruby river is a first for 3ds, an actual open world survival horror building and crafting game. You can build cool structures, fight monsters, ECT and it's NOT Minecraft ripoff format. It's truly impressive and works great.

[@ht8520]

Intellivision amico comes to mind as a recent example

[@istrasci]

More like "Super A'Can't", am I right?

[@nightowl8363]

Respect.

[@Fender178]

Also that Sango Fighter game also was released on MSDos PCs as well and there was an illegal English translation version of it and the Super Acan version is a port of the PC version which made it super weird in terms of functionality.

[@witonosfreestyle]

First thank you for sharing about this console, I grown up in Taiwan and I never had the chance to see this console. However I did played the game 'Africa' that you have mentioned with questionable characters. I would like to clarify that game was actually quite a successful title on the PC version. The creativity of Taiwanese back then has a preference of 'parody' joke characters using similar sounding names, similar to how Taiwanese kids like to makeup nicknames for each other (which might not make sense to non Mandarin speakers). It was light hearted and entertaining to the Taiwanese gamers back then without invoking history. For example, the Chinese version of Madonna in game has a similar sounding words that literally means "Girl that pays the bill". Hitler is "Suck special" I think back then the Taiwanese developers have a stronger presence on the PC market, in fact, a golden era for the Mandarin games that inspired many modern art, music and designs later on, even inspired many creators from mainland China till this day. There were even some series in my opinion that rivals Final Fantasy and Shining Force with original story without plagiarism (in some aspect better) at that time. I hope that you can make a video about those Mandarin game history one day.

[@empusa23bis]

This. A video on the history of Taiwanese games would be nice, expecially if one consult people who can read traditional characters AND speak Taiwanese variety.

[@altrogeruvah]

Wow, I first heard of this console about 10 years ago from Gamester81's collection, takes me back...

[@dadandvideogames]

Man, I've never heard of this. You're always pulling out these obscure gems.

[@colinwatt9387]

I've said it before, but I'm sure you have a time machine which you use to insert obscure consoles into the past, so you can cover them. It's the only explanation for how you can keep finding more consoles every time I convince myself I have seen them all. Keep it up.

[@jayhouston7054]

Lol Tommy Talarico... Also great video, I had not known of this system. Your videos are a necessity of gracious viewing.

[@grinbrothers]

It's a shame when the more original attempts in areas known for bootleg fail, though this video certainly does a good job of showing why. Regardless of the quality of the Super A'Can games, it certainly had a good variety from the looks of it. 14:24 - That was a perfect reaction to there mere suggestion that a company looked to the 32X and thought it would be a good idea to copy it.

[@tiga2001]

thanks for bring this console to our attention. I'm Taiwanese and even I had never heard of this. Not sure what they were thinking with such an ambitious plan but kudos for trying, it must have been a pretty interesting story despite the failure.

[@froststarlite5571]

It's hella funny you said Sega Dreamcast and DVD player I was thinking the exact same thing

[@cruelcynic]

I had never heard of this system. Cool video. Thanks.

[@RubeusArchos]

This was a real good one. I would see why turbo graft 16 and turbo garft hand held fail. No has ever made video I know of for that no where.

[@bazdaniels7420]

you're killing it with your vocalizations, very entertaining! Thanks again for the many laughs along with informative content xD

[@HoroJoga]

Kudos for using X-men vs Street Fighter soundtrack in the background!

[@nomadicmonkey3186]

I've been living in Japan for 34 freaking years and never had I known I was in SE Asia! That was really eye-opening. Joking aside really cool piece of lost media. A'Can mini when?

[@abrahamcambridge1250]

I was about to comment on the same error!

[@JMFSpike]

For that generation (4th), anything released after 1992 would have been too late. Assuming you were successful, it would have been extremely short lived. By the time you really started gaining momentum the Saturn would have been released, soon followed by the PS1. You'd be crushed in no time flat. They very likely knew they were doomed when they released this in late 95, but they had put all that work into it and probably wanted to at least give it a shot. They may have been thinking that just MAYBE they'd win the lottery and it would somehow work. I would love to see those RPG's it had get translated, but they will no doubt be very, very low priority and it could take at least another 2 decades to see that start to happen I think.

[@michailokeefeMooMoo]

One system on eBay for only £2,500,00 and games at £450,00

[@maxheadroom4659]

Well done. Never heard of this one. This system might have done better if in addition to original software, it would play Mega Drive games. Would not be a stretch since the hardware shared chips with the Mega Drive.

[@Veganarchy-Zetetic]

Not sure Sega would approve of that :S

[@gordonshumway7465]

It shared a Motorola 68k like many systems of the time did. It doesn't have the Z80 that the MD has. The Neo Geo also uses a 68k, so do you think the Genesis can run those games? There is more to a console than the CPU, chief.

[@MrLakridsbat]

Missed the stream, but loved the video. Much better audio and colourgrade than the last upload👍

[@zbdot73]

In terms of aesthetics I don't like how the case is all square but all the controllers and add-ons where rounded, choose a style motif & stick with it. I checked the specs and it was more powerful than the mega-drive. Where the company failed is software, no platform specific hits. They should have started their own in-house software development team with good graphic and sound artists to give it a chance.

[@VirajKathwadia]

I remember doing a paper on the Asian Tiger Economies back in Uni. Thanks for the refresher.

[@chrisd6287]

Very cool! Thanks for this awesomely informative video. I love learning new things

[@retrogamestudios7649]

I think a can I think a can....but I really cant - Tommy Tallarico

[@kalasatwater2224]

I wish they would fan translate those 2 rpgs

[@nufiya999]

A'can do what Sega wish nintendidn't

[@Warpath86x0]

I love lady decades narration.

[@crazyivan030983]

Very cool video. Superb piece of gaming history :) greetings from Poland :)

[@kadosho02]

Interesting to see another company try to dive into the gaming market. Competing with Sega and Nintendo, bold. But the library was lacking. Arrived late, and close to the PlayStation, Saturn, and N64. At least they tried. Oh no not the 32X clone!! No it cannot be!! Ahhhhhh!

[@speedyink]

Very cool, didn't know about the planned 32x like add on!

[@cloudstrife1983]

Nobody expects the Taiwanese 32X!

[@mstcrow5429]

Might be first console I've never heard of. And I know the Pippin. And the UMC x86 CPU that was banned from the US.

[@Monkeymeep]

Yes this is a necessity for gracious living. THIS . THIS IS A NECESSITY FOR GRACIOUS LIVING.

[@VOAN]

I didn't even knew this console existed and I was one of the few people that look more into import games and systems back in the days.

[@demgreens]

I haven't watched this video yet, but from what I've seen of the Super A'Can, its graphical features are nearly identical to the Super NES / Famicom, with its background scaling, color blending and windowing effects, not to mention per scanline updates a la HDMA. The sampled audio is somewhat similar, but I'll get back to that later. The reason that this feature set is so suspiciously similar is that UMC, the semiconductor manufacturer that produced the Super A'Can, had been swiping technology from Ricoh, who was the main chip supplier to Nintendo for the NES/Famicom as well as the SNES. Some time in the 80's, Ricoh began working with UMC, either to have an extra line of chip production or by licensing out semiconductor designs. UMC ended up getting a hold of the chip designs for the NES/Famicom, in this case, the custom 6502 with sound generation and the Picture Processing Unit. The result of this was a flood of Famiclones and bootleg systems, many of which catered to the needs of countries that Nintendo didn't officially market in. UMC would eventually get their hands on the SNES IC designs that Ricoh had. This didn't stop with Nintendo. When Capcom was designing the CP System arcade board (otherwise known as CPS1) the decision was made to use custom ICs for generating sprites and background tiles respectively, and the contract chip fabricator they reached out to was none other than Ricoh. In 1991, a certain game was released on that hardware that set arcades on fire, and an update was released the next year, that being Street Fighter II Champion Edition. Some gamers who lived in that time might remember playing the game with bizarre features, such as fireballs that moved up and down, vastly increased walking speed, special moves that can be performed in the air, etc. This is of course because those games were bootlegs with modified ROMs, which were sold under names like "Rainbow Edition" and the like. The fact that Capcom USA required operators to buy whole new cabinets for SFII Champion Edition rather than upgrade their existing Street Fighter II cabs with new PCBs no doubt contributed to the proliferation of these bootlegs. That and they were naturally less expensive. The CPS1 board featured two custom ICs and every other chip was off-the-shelf. The bootlegs instead used UMC chips - designs they had acquired indirectly from Capcom through their relationship with Ricoh. While Capcom's previous hit game for the hardware, Final Fight, had seen a degree of bootlegging, the massive success of Street Fighter II led to UMC pumping out more CPS1 compatible ICs to meet unprecedented demand. In response to this, Capcom would design their next arcade board, CP System 2 (CPS2), with a comprehensive encryption scheme for the ROMs. That brings us back to the Super A'Can, where UMC used the chip designs from Ricoh clients to build a game system. Now, the SNES/SFC's sound chips, a CPU and a digital signal processor, were not manufactured by Ricoh, but by Sony. So what was the source of the Super A'Can's sound hardware? In 1989, Fujitsu released the FM Towns computer, which featured a Yamaha 2612 for FM synthesis (same one used in the Mega Drive / Genesis) and a Ricoh RF5c68 (which would later be used in the Sega CD as well as Sega's System 18 and System 32 arcade boards). This chip features 8 PCM channels just like the S-SMP of similar vintage in the SNES. It would make perfect sense for the Super A'Can's sound chip to be based on the RF5c68, but it does raise the question of why Nintendo ended up working with Sony for the SNES sound hardware. Anyway, I've typed enough, the simple answer is that UMC was unscrupulous and Ricoh didn't protect the intellectual properties of their clients.

[@Las_cacas]

Never heard of this system... Love this channel

[@oddojaggins]

Speedy Dragon looks like if Sega of America came up with the first sonic game. What a weird console thanks for sharing

[@supersonicsjm]

Wooot, I got mentioned in a LadyDecade video.

[@markfleming7705]

Weird watching gameplay and thinking i seen it somehwere before ;)

[@yadabub]

A'Can a do it captain!

[@releasethedogs]

Neither Japan or Taiwan is in South East Asia. Also the map at 3:12 does not point to Singapore at all. It's located at the tip of the Malay Peninsula and the map shows it pointing to the Island of Borneo.

[@linusdee2703]

Do you come up with the ideas for these videos yourself? Love the content , so many interesting games and consoles I never knew existed

[@seanobrien3301]

13:10 “There you are playing your World War II shooter, and all of a sudden, you’re a Nazi. You didn’t ask for this, you didn’t choose this, but there it is, and it’s treated no differently than playing a British soldier.” - Extra Credits

[@nightowl8363]

Imperial Japanese army was AT LEAST as bad. So fck it.

[@SylveonTrapito]

Now we really need a fan tranlation of that monopoly game.

[@icollectstories5702]

Agreed. IMO, the PS2 was so successful because it was, by far, the cheapest DVD player. If the Dreamcast had that ability AND Sega was smart enough to promote it (by packing in an IR remote, for example), they would also have cannibalized sales of stand-alone DVD players.

[@andrewsearson9802]

You seem to forget that the PS2 was also more powerful than the Dreamcast and Sony could make the DVD player components themselves, Sega would have had to buy them in from Sony or a third party and the end result of that would have been a more expensive console. You also seem to forget Ps1 backwards compatibility was a big selling point for people wanting to upgrade. I like the Dreamcast and believe it to have been a unique console, unfortunately I would still have collected my PS2 on day of release and passed on the Dreamcast, sorry probably not a popular view point but a sensible one nonetheless 😔

[@icollectstories5702]

@@andrewsearson9802 When Sony announced the PS2 specs, I was hoping Sony had upset Philips enough for them to counter with their own console by partnering with Sega, for example. I was disappointed by their lack of tactical awareness as they ceded the complete low-end DVD-player market to Sony. If you had a PS2, why would you consider buying a more expensive standalone Philips DVD player as well? And if you already had a PS2 to play DVDs, why would you (or your parents) buy an additional Sega or Nintendo game system? I did consider buying a PS2 simply to play DVDs, but settled on a DVD drive for my PC, which cost about the same, but played on a better monitor than my TV. As features go, I think the PS2 was fine without backwards compatibility as the DVD player was the killer app for the initial sales ramp. But I see no way to prove or disprove this assertion.

[@Mamiya645]

If we read it as akan it makes a Japanese word that means "no good", like its fate was decided rapidly. (insert Ouya joke here) Great vid, great gags!

[@darkspartan566]

awesome piece of history

[@R0B3RTP4UL50N]

Sounds like SEGA, releasing the SG-1000 II, jumping the gun and releasing any new hardware way too soon without properly fleshing them out instead of being patient and relying on the quality of their games.

[@aaldrich1982]

i'm a simple nut. I hear "gracious living" i press the like button.

[@christophermichael.w.7577]

When I was a kid I remember seeing a large amount of products that were made in Taiwan.Over the years I stopped seeing products that were made in Taiwan. I can not tell you the last time I saw a product with that label

[@britneyspearsvillarosa]

Here in the states never got Super A'Can

[@SonamSangpo]

Knocking it out the park with the obscurity! nice work

[@gamegenie8213]

Hi I love your videos, I just wondered if you ever thought about covering the very obscure Amstrad GX4000?.

[@UberNeuman]

*pulls out sunglasses* It would seem the Super A'Can.... *puts on sunglasses* Super A'Can't....

[@TheOneCalledOsiriss]

Do your thing Lady, ENDZone604 approves

[@stuartcastle2814]

Sounds like this console was too little too late. The add one would have gone some way to addressing the lack of power, but as we now know (and admittedly didn't then), people who buy consoles don't generally buy potentially expensive add ons just so they can play one or two games , and developers will not develop for those peripherals because they can get greater sales for the base console. This happened with the 32X, and more recently, the Kinect.. Assuming the base console was successful, developers would be more likely to develop for the base console, after all, that would mean their game would run both on base and expanded consoles. Thanks to increases in storage and downloading, it *is* feasible to build in proper support for expansions, and just disable it if it's not needed, but that wasn't practical with cartridges, which is why you can get games with enhancements for the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles that run on the PS4 and Xbox One.. Funtech didn't have that advantage. They didn't have a successful base console to fall back to, so an add on that probably moved the purchase price of the console near to that of the Playstation or Saturn (both of which had some success, even if the Saturn wasn't the massive hit the PS was). Given that choice most punters would have gone for the Sony or Sega console, which was also more powerful.

[@jFiire]

more games were developed but never released for this console. I even tried emailing the company who owns super a can for more information/interview, but no response.

[@Sevenigma777]

With as much as she uploads with unique content idk how long she will be able to keep this up

[@adriandanrico3535]

this is not unique content

[@johneymute]

I bet that even if the super a can was released in 1991,it still wouldn’t had sold well due it’s high price and lack of games,but also because everybody wanted mario or sonic,so i don’t think it would,ve make much sense.

[@zerosub4439]

Still a bombshell, that is why i watch and as bonus a great info about video games....... keep it up

[@TBustah]

I agree that adding DVD functionality would’ve been a feather in the Dreamcast’s cap, but I don’t know if it really would’ve made a difference in the long run. The Dreamcast wasn’t released in 2000 or 2001 like its contemporaries: it was released in 1998. There was no guarantee at that point in time that DVD functionality would even really be a selling point (especially not if it drastically increased the price), as the format war between VCD and DVD was not fully settled. The first DVD players had only just arrived in Japan in 1996, and hadn’t even made it to Australia and New Zealand yet. Let’s also not forget that it was the PS2 (and to a lesser extent, the original XBox) that helped cement DVDs. It may have had a head-start on the competition, but I don’t have quite the imagination to see a world where people bought a Dreamcast to primarily use as a DVD player in the same way that they did with the offerings from Sony and Microsoft. Those companies have much broader insight into consumer electronics, and correspondingly larger brand equity. Adults with zero interest in gaming would buy a PS2 or XBox just to watch DVDs, and let their kids or grandkids play games on it. Having DVD functionality certainly wouldn’t have left the Dreamcast looking so dated when the competition arrived, but I don’t know if it would’ve been enough. Sony had already gobbled up so much of their market share, and Microsoft still might’ve been able to bump Sega out in its weakened state.

[@maroon9273]

DVD would've expand the lifespand of the dreamcast. I wish sega would've managed the Saturn well so the dreamcast will be released later and more powerful than the ps2

[@felipepereira214]

Please, Lady Decade, do a documentary about Zeebo. Thanks in advance!

[@GameJunctionMedia]

Very interesting console for sure.

[@chaospoet]

Monopoly Adventures in Africa... with Adolf Hitler. 😳 I thought I saw him when you started showing the game but I thought I was seeing things. Then when you pointed it out my brain just froze and what's worse reminded me of one of those long/story type jokes about Hitler living in South America that I heard ages ago that I had forgotten I even knew. So I got twice the Hitler from this. Not what I was expecting would happen from a video about a Taiwanese game console.

[@blackenedheart9592]

I would so love to have one of those but I'm not rich so that'll never happen. I first heard about this system a few years ago.

[@johneygd]

It’s interesting that the super A can was released on 26 october 1995 but discontinued on april 1996,i rememver my first love in october 9 1995 till januari 23 1996,then after 3 month’s off i did got again for in love with that same gilr on april 25 till may 7 1996,those were those exciting and not so exciting school days of my live,and with that said,that super A can system will have a special place in my hearth because of the time frame it was released and discontinued, And let’s face it,the super a can should,ve the supernintendo instead because it does have builtin sprite zoom in and a much faster processor.

[@wastelander138]

Interesting stuff. You'd think when developing this they would have had their ear to the ground and found out that the 32bit era was about to kick off. It's not like Sega and Sony were being quiet about it.

[@mercster]

Not everyone can jump into the "next generation" immediately.

[@Yakobu90]

Is the end music from Ninja Baseball Batman? Anyway, for some reason this story reminds me of when I had a really nice bike ride and swallowed a fly 😒

[@brichan1851]

Another fun vid. How do you do it?!

[@mercster]

Hey, better color palette than Genesis. I reckon this was a failure of software development, not hardware. Looks like it could have been pretty capable in the right hands.

[@smoothALOE]

Graphically, it reminds me of the Phillips CDi or the Amiga 32CD.

[@mxggo9046]

LOVED THOS EPISODE

[@lolnotlmao]

Another obscure console? 👀 Might develop for it.

[@edgardeitz2784]

Perhaps the people working on the Super A'Can should've started _much_ earlier, or gotten help from wherever; hiring people with experience making consoles who aren't locked into the big companies.

[@Tempora158]

Yeah, when Funtech decided to design their own 16-bit console after the 16-bit generation started over THREE YEARS AGO, they were already too damn late in the console cycle. This thing needed to be at least equivalent to a NeoGeo to survive the Saturn/PS1 it launched against.

[@yeolemillinial8295]

i would like to see you dig into the colecovision, not that it was overly obscure, but dig into what generation it should REALLY be part of. as it is widely considered as a 2nd gen but really is a 3rd gen console

[@JohnSTF72]

If there is one lesson to be learned from A'Can, is that the timing of releasing a console is important as well: By the time A'Can was out, it wasn't facing SNES or Megadrive anymore, but far more (for the time) powerful consoles like the PS1 or the Saturn. The lack of a "killer game" made matters worse. Anyway, this was an interesting slice of gaming history.

[@Subfightr]

How does she actually own all this stuff? That's amazing. Does she own it since it came out and just takes care of stuff? Or she'll out a lot of money for crap that she will never play? Either way. The woman is amazing, her sloothing/reporting skills are amongst the best in the KZbin gaming world.

[@TeZXSpectrum]

Rare and expensive door wedge. 💥💥💥💥💥

[@rockfresh1993]

Never heard this before

[@jonsouth1545]

If the Acan had been launched in 1989 it might have done something but in1995 it was a bad joke

[@ghostofsparta291]

😍the way you say jaguar

[@donjohnson7768]

love your docs!

[@sulrich70]

Wow, well researched! Awesome job as usual! Some amazingly bad business decisions in that period of gaming that’s for sure.

[@CasperEgas]

Japan and Taiwan aren't in Southeast Asia, but in East Asia.

[@indask8]

Turns out the A'Can... Can't

[@theogravity]

I've seen many vintage gaming console videos over my years and this is the first one in a long time where I actually haven't heard of a specific console before. Thanks for the video, learned something new!

[@Podgemaster]

Another strange console, great vid and beautiful creator! Go Lady D

[@koobsmooth]

Ms. Decade, could you do a video about the Ouya?

[@seamusoblainn]

Japan is not considered to be in inSouth East Asia, and Mandarin is the most spoken language in Taiwan, not 'Taiwanese'

[@Karl_Kampfwagen]

☺️ you're the best, Lady Decade...

[@IsaacKuo]

Yeah, a DVD player on the Dreamcast would have sold a LOT more units. A lot of us got a PS2 and ended up not playing many games on it at all - using it mainly as a DVD player. With the Dreamcast, it would have been even better, because of the progressive scan VGA output capability. At that time, DVD players were expensive and not very available ... progressive scan? Pretty much not available at all! It would have been a big deal.

[@cody181818]

what did you do different with your videos this time?. did you green screen your room in behind you?. it looks funky. your like very orange and kinda stand out off the background lol. i mean your still as stunning as always. but the lighting and background look kinds funky lol?. did you have to do some retakes or something ?.

[@jhoughjr1]

its not often that literally hitler is literally hitler.

[@RetroPiero]

This thing supposely is more powerful than the super nintendo bases on its specs but all the games it has to show for it.......hard to say.

[@SegaTron64]

Your husband reviewed this console 3 years ago. You two haven't done the Atari Jaguar yet because you did not have a Jaguar GameDrive. Are you any closer to getting one? I know they are hard to procure. Keep up the great reviews!

[@alcinobenfica]

Remind me to never listen to your videos on my earpods lol.... You always jump scaring me

[@andrewbrooks2001]

Poor Tommy...

[@LorDedmazol]

Even find emulator is complicated

[@Iluvcars-m7x]

Where can one get one online

[@rogersmith494]

love the ending

[@jusschillin]

Super A'Can or Super Nintendo???