History of video games/Platforms/digiBLAST

History edit

Development edit

The digiBLAST was designed by Grey Innovation, a company in Melbourne, Australia.[1]

Names considered for the digiBLAST included "Xplorerr" and "Go-Deck".[2]

Launch edit

The digiBLAST saw a western European release in November of 2005 for 79.95 euros.[3][4][5][6] The DigiBLAST sold at a loss.[2] 200,000 digiBLASTs were expected to sell during the 2005 holiday season.[1][4]

Legacy edit

The digiBLAST sold 100,000 consoles at most, and was taken off the market around 2008.[7][8]

Grey Innovations survived the failure of the digiBLAST. It still existed as of 2020 and was the first company to produce ventilators for the Australian National Stockpile during the COVID-19 pandemic.[9]

Technology edit

Compute edit

The digiBLAST is powered by a Samsung OCEAN-L-20 SOC containing an ARM9 based CPU.[10][11][12]

Hardware edit

The digiBLAST has an LCD that easily ghosts.[4][13]

The digiBLAST has mono audio.[14]

A demo unit of the digiBLAST had a rechargeable battery that offers 10 hours of playtime.[15] The battery takes four hours to charge.[15] The shipped unit simply took four AA batteries.[16]

A pop out stand is used to prop the console up on tables and other flat surfaces.[17]

An optional MP3 Player module adds 256 megabytes of storage for music.[2]

Software edit

The digiBLAST runs Linux, which is loaded from game cartridges.[18][4][2]

Notable Games edit

External Resources edit

References edit

  1. a b "Sumea:Launchpad. - Aniticipation in Europe for Australian-Made Game Console". web.archive.org. 6 September 2007. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  2. a b c d "First-Touch.nl. Het laatste Nintendo DS Nieuws, Previews, Reviews, Features en meer". web.archive.org. 31 August 2006. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  3. "GadgetZone.nl digiBLAST verkrijgbaar vanaf september". web.archive.org. 17 December 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20051217100631/http://www.gadgetzone.nl/nieuws.php?id=678. 
  4. a b c d "digiBLAST by Nikko – The Video Game Kraken". Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  5. "Dissecta Turns Two! Celebrates with "What a DigiBLAST!"Sponsored by Tantalus Interactive". GamesIndustry.biz.
  6. "RF Generation: Nikko digiBLAST (Nikko digiBlast)". www.rfgeneration.com. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  7. Manikas, Pantelis. "Nikko DigiBlast". News & Reviews for Videogames & Gaming Consoles consall.eu.
  8. "digiBLAST (video game platform) - Glitchwave video games database". glitchwave.com. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  9. Roberts, Peter (1 August 2020). "Grey Innovation delivers first ventilators to national stockpile". Australian Manufacturing Forum. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  10. "digiBLAST". forum.digitpress.com. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  11. "https://twitter.com/0x416c6578/status/1002658457533763584". Twitter. Retrieved 21 November 2020. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  12. "ramiropolla/mame-ap2k". GitHub. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  13. "5 Video Game Consoles That Never Came To The U.S." Playbuzz. 7 February 2019. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  14. "digiBLAST: l'abbiamo provato!". web.archive.org. 29 September 2008. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  15. a b "digiBLAST: l'abbiamo provato!". web.archive.org. 14 September 2008. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  16. "A closer look at the digiBLAST Personal Media Center handheld video game console". Imgur. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  17. "Third Rate Gaming - DigiBLAST". Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  18. Carless, David Jenkins, Simon. "Gamasutra - The Art & Business of Making Games". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  19. a b "Digiblast - Ultimate Console Database". ultimateconsoledatabase.com. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  20. Barsanti, Sam; Hughes, William (22 March 2021). "The rise and fall of the Game Boy's weirdest rivals" (in en-us). The A.V. Club. https://www.avclub.com/the-game-com-cometh-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-game-boy-1846501180/slides/11.