5 Tiny Console Libraries Where You Can Try All the Fun Games

Few consoles have reached the Virtual Boy’s level of infamy. Nintendo’s early attempt at 3D gaming had ugly red-and-black graphics, gave people headaches, and sported one of the smallest console libraries in history. Surprisingly, some of the games were worth playing, particularly Virtual Boy Wario Land and Jack Bros. I actually recommend these games, along with some other little Virtual Boy gems like Galactic Pinball and Mario Clash. Just be sure to play them on an emulator so you can avoid the headaches.

3. Vectrex (28 Games)

The Vectrex was an innovative console with its built-in vector monitor and primitive 3D graphics, but it was unfortunately released right before the North American video game crash hit. As a result, it lasted only two years and received one of the smallest console libraries in history. Had the crash not happened, the system could have revolutionized the video game market. The games are worth playing now to get a peek at an intriguing piece of video game history.

4. Atari Jaguar (50 Games)

It’s hard to get a definitive list of all the official Jaguar games since there’s a dispute over whether or not certain games were actually released. Still, it’s generally estimated that there were around fifty games released for Atari‘s failed attempt at a 64-bit console. There was a CD add-on, which had thirteen games released for it, but that only bumped the library up to approximately sixty-three games. Still, there were some decent ports of classic games like Theme Park, plus the Jaguar is where the Rayman series got its start.

5. Atari 7800 (58 Games)

All of Atari’s console libraries after the wildly successful 2600 were small. The 7800 directly competed with the massively popular NES, and it was predictably a failure. Although it was backward compatible with 2600 games, only fifty-eight games were released for the 7800 itself, many of which were ports. Still, the homebrew community has given this system a second life, creating new games for it even to this day.

Conclusion

There’s something fascinating about obscure consoles and small console libraries. They let us look beyond the success stories and into the richness of gaming history. It’s also interesting to think that there are some console libraries where you could theoretically play all the games. There were many systems that tried and failed, but that doesn’t mean their games aren’t worth a play.