Dragon2k4
11-04-2004, 11:57 PM
http://consoledatabase.retrofaction.com/images/consoleinfo/konixmultisystem/konixmultisystemconsole.jpgThis console is known as the "Konix Slipstream".
Legendary machines are usually remembered for their classic games, however the Konix Multi-System became legendary for two quite different reasons. One is it’s completely revolutionary design, and the second is it’s failure to every become more than just a pipe dream.
This sad story begins with one man, Wyn Holloway, who after designing an alternative styled joystick, The Speedking, set up Konix to manufacture and market it. Commercial success led to a spin-off company, Creative Devices Ltd, which developed technical products for many leading companies.
http://www.nesretro.com/hardware/KonixEypx500XJ.jpgSpeed King
In early 1988 Wyn Holloway designed the ultimate games controller, a unit that could morph between steering wheel, airplane yolk and motorbike handlebars. Originally this was intended as a controller to be used with the PC, however after discussions with several potential customers it became apparent that this product could be so much more than just a joystick. Enter Flare, a trio of computer engineers with aspirations to design the ultimate games machine. At around the same time work was nearing completion on the multi-system, Flare had designed and constructed their own machine. The Flare 1 was capable of shifting 3D images faster than any other machine on the market. They demonstrated their machine at a trade show and received interest from various companies, including Atari, Amstrad, and of course Konix. Incidentally, Flare went on to design the Atari Jaguar.
A Partnership was formed
Konix wanted a machine to fit inside the restrictive shell of their fantastic joystick and Flare obviously saw this as the best possible home for their hardware. Flare were faced with a very difficult task, their huge motherboard had to be compressed onto a single chip, and Konix insisted on 4098 colours, and that the Flare 1’s original 8-bit chip be replaced with a 16-bit chip, obviously a marketing ploy to add system credibility in the 16-bit dominated industry of the time.
The two companies worked closely together until the completion of the prototypes, and by the Winter of 1989 the machine was ready to show off. Konix had constantly leaked lots of information to the gaming press right from the beginning of development, and the public were now desperate for more detailed facts. The feeling of anticipation was comparable to the recent Playstation launch build-up.
The design of the Multi-System was simply amazing. Gamers still dream of a decent steering wheel with force feedback, well this also had additional plug-in pedals containing two separate analogue switches, allowing variable acceleration and braking. The steering wheel was easily switched into it’s other guises as a motorbike or airplane controller. The games were stored on 3.5” disk, allowing cheap duplication. Konix also developed a fail safe anti-piracy disk format. To top it all off, games were to be priced at £14.99, half the price of other console software.
Not only did Konix promise the ultimate in console design but also a complete range of cheap and revolutionary add-ons. These included a helicopter controller, possibly because Thunderblade was all the rage at the time, a full plug in keyboard, a keypad, and an exercise bike controller, an idea recently brought to fruition on the 3DO. There was also a light gun in the works, with real hydraulic kickback. The final add-on promised to be the most awesome gaming peripheral of all time. A hydraulic chair which you bolted your TV and Multi-System onto , to create the ultimate arcade experience.
http://www.retrogames.co.uk/RGonline/assets/images/konix6.gif
But what of the games? Well the only titles shown to the press were conversions of the 16-bit titles “Last Ninja 2” and “Hammerfist”, which were hardly capable of showing the true power of the console, and were completely unsuited to it’s revolutionary design. This was perhaps, the very reason for the eventual downfall of the system. Excited prospective purchasers (myself included) clamored to the 1989 PCW show at London’s Earls Court, expecting to be “Blown Away” by the machine, only to find almost Amiga-Identical versions of two old and dull games. Not only this, but the revolutionary design never made it to the show in it’s proper form. The games were being played from NES style grey boxes. However there was a prototype of the hydraulic chair, but on the first day of the show, it’s motors burnt out.
http://home.wanadoo.nl/hessel.meun/konix/konix-chair.jpg http://home.wanadoo.nl/hessel.meun/konix/konix-chair-2.jpg
This was the ultimate add-on for a games console. With this chair connected to your KMS you could play games like e.g. After Burner, and actually follow the movements as they were happening on screen (just like the Afterburner Arcade cabinet ). Needless to say this would have been a real revolution in the games industriy, but alas...
http://www.retrogames.co.uk/RGonline/assets/images/konix3.gifKonix's Last Ninja 2
It was one of the few attempts to create a British-made video game console. The Konix would run games from specialised 3.5 inch floppy disk drive and had a 16-bit processor. It was announced for a 1989 launch at an expected price of £200. But this never happened due to the many promises for add-ons that could not be fulfilled, such as light guns, motorised chairs and exercise bikes as well as the delays and changes being made to the console all the time.
With the release of the Sega Megadrive the following year, interest in Konix sank to an all time low and despite a cash injection from a company called Add-Ons Ltd, Konix went under leaving thousands of gamers disappointed. No-one stepped in to resurrect the project and the Konix Multi-System is sadly now just a piece of computer legend. I have heard that some of the early Konix MS prototypes still exist in working form, if anyone can clarify this, please let us know!:)
This machine is probably the best proof of the rule that without one awesome game, any machine , however amazing it is, is doomed to fail. I will close this article with a profound quote from Wyn Holloway, which he made had the first press showing of the Multi-System. "What do they want? Do they want the Japanese to completely take over the business and dictate to us what we can publish, where we can publish it, and how many units we can sell?" -
Konix Multisystem Technical Specifications
* CPU: 16-bit 8086 Microprocessor with a custom 12 MHz ASIC chip
(includes video generator, colour palette, disk controller, Blitter, ROM, fast RAM, 12 MIP Arithmetic and Logic Unit, RISC Digital Signal Processor, stereo compact disk DACs and digital and analogue ports
* RAM: 256K (in later versions upgraded to 512K)
* Graphics: 512 x 200 pixel resolution, 4096 colours palette, displays 16 colours simultaneously
* Sound: 25 channel stereo CD quality sound . Output via TV or stereo headphone socket
* Display: Standard TV or RGB composite video
* Software: Customised 880K 3.5 inch disks and expansion cartridge
Konix's release schedule:
- Starglider 3 - Argonaut
- Bikers - Argonaut
- Last Ninja 2 - System 3
- Vendetta - System 3
- Tunnel of Doom - ATD
- Chess - Konix
Misc: Other Legends?
There are quite a few computer legends, a very famous one is the Sinclair Pandora. This was to be a totally portable Spectrum, with built in LCD screen. This finally saw the light of day as the Z88, a failed business machine.
MGT launched the ill fated SAM in a flurry of publicity in 1989. This machine was a Spectrum Compatible! Spectrum owners saw it as their machine’s savior, while everyone else saw it for the outdated machine it was. MGT only issued 800 units, and then went bust. I have yet to get my hands on one.
Commodore excited many gamers when they released the Commodore 128. The machine was said to have hundreds of games in the works, all of which would be incomparable with their C64 cousins. what purchasers got was a remodeled C64. Only three dedicated C128 games were ever released. - www.retrogames.co.uk
- Sad story that, I was looking forward to Konix!... :(
Legendary machines are usually remembered for their classic games, however the Konix Multi-System became legendary for two quite different reasons. One is it’s completely revolutionary design, and the second is it’s failure to every become more than just a pipe dream.
This sad story begins with one man, Wyn Holloway, who after designing an alternative styled joystick, The Speedking, set up Konix to manufacture and market it. Commercial success led to a spin-off company, Creative Devices Ltd, which developed technical products for many leading companies.
http://www.nesretro.com/hardware/KonixEypx500XJ.jpgSpeed King
In early 1988 Wyn Holloway designed the ultimate games controller, a unit that could morph between steering wheel, airplane yolk and motorbike handlebars. Originally this was intended as a controller to be used with the PC, however after discussions with several potential customers it became apparent that this product could be so much more than just a joystick. Enter Flare, a trio of computer engineers with aspirations to design the ultimate games machine. At around the same time work was nearing completion on the multi-system, Flare had designed and constructed their own machine. The Flare 1 was capable of shifting 3D images faster than any other machine on the market. They demonstrated their machine at a trade show and received interest from various companies, including Atari, Amstrad, and of course Konix. Incidentally, Flare went on to design the Atari Jaguar.
A Partnership was formed
Konix wanted a machine to fit inside the restrictive shell of their fantastic joystick and Flare obviously saw this as the best possible home for their hardware. Flare were faced with a very difficult task, their huge motherboard had to be compressed onto a single chip, and Konix insisted on 4098 colours, and that the Flare 1’s original 8-bit chip be replaced with a 16-bit chip, obviously a marketing ploy to add system credibility in the 16-bit dominated industry of the time.
The two companies worked closely together until the completion of the prototypes, and by the Winter of 1989 the machine was ready to show off. Konix had constantly leaked lots of information to the gaming press right from the beginning of development, and the public were now desperate for more detailed facts. The feeling of anticipation was comparable to the recent Playstation launch build-up.
The design of the Multi-System was simply amazing. Gamers still dream of a decent steering wheel with force feedback, well this also had additional plug-in pedals containing two separate analogue switches, allowing variable acceleration and braking. The steering wheel was easily switched into it’s other guises as a motorbike or airplane controller. The games were stored on 3.5” disk, allowing cheap duplication. Konix also developed a fail safe anti-piracy disk format. To top it all off, games were to be priced at £14.99, half the price of other console software.
Not only did Konix promise the ultimate in console design but also a complete range of cheap and revolutionary add-ons. These included a helicopter controller, possibly because Thunderblade was all the rage at the time, a full plug in keyboard, a keypad, and an exercise bike controller, an idea recently brought to fruition on the 3DO. There was also a light gun in the works, with real hydraulic kickback. The final add-on promised to be the most awesome gaming peripheral of all time. A hydraulic chair which you bolted your TV and Multi-System onto , to create the ultimate arcade experience.
http://www.retrogames.co.uk/RGonline/assets/images/konix6.gif
But what of the games? Well the only titles shown to the press were conversions of the 16-bit titles “Last Ninja 2” and “Hammerfist”, which were hardly capable of showing the true power of the console, and were completely unsuited to it’s revolutionary design. This was perhaps, the very reason for the eventual downfall of the system. Excited prospective purchasers (myself included) clamored to the 1989 PCW show at London’s Earls Court, expecting to be “Blown Away” by the machine, only to find almost Amiga-Identical versions of two old and dull games. Not only this, but the revolutionary design never made it to the show in it’s proper form. The games were being played from NES style grey boxes. However there was a prototype of the hydraulic chair, but on the first day of the show, it’s motors burnt out.
http://home.wanadoo.nl/hessel.meun/konix/konix-chair.jpg http://home.wanadoo.nl/hessel.meun/konix/konix-chair-2.jpg
This was the ultimate add-on for a games console. With this chair connected to your KMS you could play games like e.g. After Burner, and actually follow the movements as they were happening on screen (just like the Afterburner Arcade cabinet ). Needless to say this would have been a real revolution in the games industriy, but alas...
http://www.retrogames.co.uk/RGonline/assets/images/konix3.gifKonix's Last Ninja 2
It was one of the few attempts to create a British-made video game console. The Konix would run games from specialised 3.5 inch floppy disk drive and had a 16-bit processor. It was announced for a 1989 launch at an expected price of £200. But this never happened due to the many promises for add-ons that could not be fulfilled, such as light guns, motorised chairs and exercise bikes as well as the delays and changes being made to the console all the time.
With the release of the Sega Megadrive the following year, interest in Konix sank to an all time low and despite a cash injection from a company called Add-Ons Ltd, Konix went under leaving thousands of gamers disappointed. No-one stepped in to resurrect the project and the Konix Multi-System is sadly now just a piece of computer legend. I have heard that some of the early Konix MS prototypes still exist in working form, if anyone can clarify this, please let us know!:)
This machine is probably the best proof of the rule that without one awesome game, any machine , however amazing it is, is doomed to fail. I will close this article with a profound quote from Wyn Holloway, which he made had the first press showing of the Multi-System. "What do they want? Do they want the Japanese to completely take over the business and dictate to us what we can publish, where we can publish it, and how many units we can sell?" -
Konix Multisystem Technical Specifications
* CPU: 16-bit 8086 Microprocessor with a custom 12 MHz ASIC chip
(includes video generator, colour palette, disk controller, Blitter, ROM, fast RAM, 12 MIP Arithmetic and Logic Unit, RISC Digital Signal Processor, stereo compact disk DACs and digital and analogue ports
* RAM: 256K (in later versions upgraded to 512K)
* Graphics: 512 x 200 pixel resolution, 4096 colours palette, displays 16 colours simultaneously
* Sound: 25 channel stereo CD quality sound . Output via TV or stereo headphone socket
* Display: Standard TV or RGB composite video
* Software: Customised 880K 3.5 inch disks and expansion cartridge
Konix's release schedule:
- Starglider 3 - Argonaut
- Bikers - Argonaut
- Last Ninja 2 - System 3
- Vendetta - System 3
- Tunnel of Doom - ATD
- Chess - Konix
Misc: Other Legends?
There are quite a few computer legends, a very famous one is the Sinclair Pandora. This was to be a totally portable Spectrum, with built in LCD screen. This finally saw the light of day as the Z88, a failed business machine.
MGT launched the ill fated SAM in a flurry of publicity in 1989. This machine was a Spectrum Compatible! Spectrum owners saw it as their machine’s savior, while everyone else saw it for the outdated machine it was. MGT only issued 800 units, and then went bust. I have yet to get my hands on one.
Commodore excited many gamers when they released the Commodore 128. The machine was said to have hundreds of games in the works, all of which would be incomparable with their C64 cousins. what purchasers got was a remodeled C64. Only three dedicated C128 games were ever released. - www.retrogames.co.uk
- Sad story that, I was looking forward to Konix!... :(