Inactive enterprises

March 12, 2006 1:33 AM

Witness the witlessness of Active Enterprises, who not only tried to sell their NES cartridge, Action 52, for up to $200 retail in the early 90's, but also claimed to be developing a revolutionary multimedia platform.
posted by starkeffect (10 comments total)

I love all the 4,000-In-One! games that clueless marketers tried to sell to even more clueless grandmas.

Here's a great review of Action 52.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 1:52 AM on March 12, 2006

"My my, Reginalda - have you read of that man in Florida and his craptacular video game machine?"

"Why no, Humfersworth. Be he of strong constitution?"

"Indubitably, Reginalda! Indubitably!"

"Why, Humfersworth, it's simply dreadully wonderfully craplicious!"

"Nyes. Quite."

....

"Shall we ever make love again, Humfersworth?"

"What's that, Reginalda? I was playing Super Adventure Island on my Action GameMaster."

"Are you alright?"

"I think I dislocated my thumb."
posted by ford and the prefects at 2:40 AM on March 12, 2006

Sounds oddly familiar.
posted by Mikey-San at 2:47 AM on March 12, 2006

Mikey-San Hm!
posted by TwelveTwo at 2:48 AM on March 12, 2006

btw, Action 52 has its own "fan" website
posted by starkeffect at 3:18 AM on March 12, 2006

The video rental shack up the stree from me has this. It's worse tha nyou think.
posted by Space Coyote at 5:47 AM on March 12, 2006

For those who like to read about such things, Game Over, while I dont remember it talking about the Action 52, does go into great detail into the Atari/Tengen > Nintendo battles (or How Atari Shot Themselves in the Face).
posted by gren at 5:48 AM on March 12, 2006

From gren's Game Over link,

'The book includes a fair amount of info on the planned Nintendo Network, a system that would use the NES as a portal to services like stocks, online shopping, and the like. Although the USA plans never really got off to the ground Sheff portrays the coming network as the first step in Nintendo's domination of the entire electronics industry; in some places, you could substitute "Microsoft" for "Nintendo" in his text and it would not seem at all out of place.'
(emphasis mine)

Heh. I love old-school tech hype.
posted by MetaMonkey at 6:13 AM on March 12, 2006

Wow. I just checked. I have this game in my ROM folder.
posted by sourwookie at 8:28 AM on March 12, 2006

In "Chill Out," you play a blue nun who has received orders from the pope that grey nuns are heathens and need to be executed by having weird white things shot at them. Snow and ice and winter and stuff are somehow also involved.

Wow. That's. Fucked. Up.
posted by Afroblanco at 9:07 AM on March 12, 2006