On November 17, 2020, Bud Light would, in its turn, shake the gaming community with the announcement of a brand new console, the BL6, but contrary to popular belief, this was not an attend to imitate the success of the KFConsole as the work on the BL6 started long before the announcement of the KFConsole. The work on the BL6 started in January 2020, but the love story between Bud Light and the gamer between way before that. In 2016 when Bud Light announced they were taking a radical expansion into the 21^st century digital realm of esports with the unveiling of the Bud Light All-Stars program where carefully selected by experts, Bud Light would reveal the field of esports athletes from across North America that will vie for votes to become the first-ever Bud Light All-Stars.

Over the years, Bud Light continues its venture into eSports buy notably acting as an official sponsor for major leagues and teams, including League of Legends and the Overwatch League. By January 2020, Bud Light was ready to push the relationship with the gamer community ever further and contacted the Engine Shop, an industry-leading, award-winning experiential and engagement marketing agency specializing in sports, entertainment, and lifestyle brand activations. It is through them that the BL6 found its creator: Michael Marrero.

Michael had been a pivotal contributor with The Gamer Agency, a marketing agency focused around gaming and esports events that the Engine Shop had acquired as few years before. So when Bud Light contacted the Engine Shop to discuss what they could propose to help expand their brand into the gaming world even further, it was a natural fit to have Michael as a key contributor on this project as well. Micheal was the one who came up with the BL6 idea. Right from the start Bud Light fell in love with the idea as it would show gamers that Bud Light knew how to have fun and would be something concrete that gamer would care about.

At first Micheal and Bud Light explored the idea of a modular console:  Every module would be can-shaped. The module themselves would have been to put them in a carrier (like a six-pack) to build your own personal “ultimate” console. The Engine Shop looked into sourcing plastic can-shaped containers that we could put t-shirts in, toothbrushes, Bluetooth speakers, mini controllers, dice holders, etc. Said can modules would have been collected by doing things at a series of planned activations across the country.

In terms of the modular console, it was going to be delightfully absurd; think space balls (if you haven’t seen that movie, give it a watch).

-Michael Marrero

The Anker Nebulas mobile projector was aimed to be the module that would have been the real console. They were the same size as a soda/beer can and ran android. The thought being, they would buy a limited number, have them custom painted/wrapped, and have some special builds of android games installed on them. Those modules would have been very limited and largely given to influencers and media, but they did plan to give some away at the aforementioned events. But with COVID-19 hitting hard, the concept of hosting events fell impossible and the team had to change the concept from a modular console to standalone console.

While, the original idea had to be shelved, the standalone BL6 would retain a lot of the original concept. The console would fully portable and shaped as a 6-pack. Instead of an Anker Nebulas mobile projector, it featured an integrated ASUS ZenBeam 720 Projector connected to the gut of a Surface laptop running Windows 10, an Intel Core i7 chip and 16GB of RAM. The “cans” in the six-pack, while not being actual module would all have different purposes. The front two cans would serve as exhaust vent, the two middle one would hold the 8Bitdo N30 Pro controllers and the last two cans would be built-in koozies (can coolers).

Instead of a custom Android built, the BL6 came with Windows-Kiosk App that would serve as a dedicated interface for the 6 built-in games, including Tekken 7, Soul Calibur ViI and RBI Baseball 2020. The BL6 would also feature two exclusive games : Flashlight Freeze Tag, a game about hitting other players with the BL6 projector beam and Six Puck, a hockey-themed game around Bud Light (this is actually just PONG).

While the team would have loved to put more horsepower in the BL6, finding small enough PC gaming internals with enough thermal headroom was a challenge that they didn’t have enough time for. Finally, on November 17, 2020, the BL6 was unveiled to the world.

Release
A single console was put to auction on ShopBeerGear.com with the mention, “Bid to be the proud owner of the only limited edition console available.”. All proceeds would be matched by the Bud Light team and donated to the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation supporting their “Change is on the Menu” program. With no solid bid validation being put into place, the auction started slowly but eventually started to be overrun by fake bids, one of which was over 2,147,483,648$. With fake bid being removed, the final winning bid was of 50,000$ according to some media. But Jennifer Kadragich, Supervisor at The Engine Shop, note that it ended up raising $24k for charity. It is unclear if this refers to a final bid of $24k or $12k with an additional $12k being matched by Bud Light.

While the action hinted that only one console existed, at least 5 were made (with incomplete prototypes floating around as well). At least two consoles were sent to YouTuber TimTheTatman Two to promote the release. Another YouTuber called Svenny McG has footage of the BL6 being sold on ShopBeerGear.com for $3000 (as a buy it now option) and later being marked as sold out, although it is impossible to validate if any sale did actually occur.

Demise
As with most marketing stunt, the BL6 had its moment of glory. The results of the campaign were very positive with nearly 200 million impressions, 241 placements and a 12% purchase intent increase amongst gamers.  Micheal Marrero was awarded a Clio award for its work on the BL6.

With time, the legend of the BL6 faded away and nowadays, the BL6 is just a footnote in the video game history, although a very cool one (pun intended).

BL6 Flyer	BL6 Specs
QA testing of the units	Clio Awards

Operation
Power button : Press once to turn on or turn off the console
Projector: Hold 5 seconds to turn on. Press twice to turn it off.
Cool button: Press once to turn on or off the koozies.

The console can operate on batteries or while being plugged in. It has an HDMI out that be used instead of the projector. It also has a built-in speaker that turns on with the projector.

Release
Now, the exact release date is not known at the moment as most machines supporting the Brother Embroidery Designs Cards are post-2000 machine. The earliest dated picture of a machine supporting those cards are from a PE-150 in 1999. This being said, Brother stated the PE-Design module which allowed to put your own embroidery on a card was released in 1996, so it makes sense that the cards themselves were available before that. What we know for sure is that the Super Mario Embroidery World ( スーパーマリオ エンブロイダリーワールド) was released in Japan first. It features 46 designs form Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart and Super Mario All-Stars, which put the released after  July 14, 1993.

The U.S. release, simply titled No.17 features 52 designs, adding 6 design from Donkey Kong Country, which leads us to believe that the U.S. version was released after November 21, 1994, the release date for Donkey Kong Country. This being said, the embroidery logo on the cart (item #52) is the Super Donkey Kong logo, which is the Japanese name for Donkey Kong Country. So it is possible that it was developed before the U.S. name was decided, which could place the release before this date.

Demise
Since the personal embroidery machine was new and expensive, not many of these cards were produced. By the time these machine became affordable, Brother had lost the license to produce the Nintendo embroidery card. While this is the first time Nintendo partnered with a Sewing company, this would not be the last as Jaguar would launch in May 2000 the Jn-100, a Sewing Machine that connects to a Game Boy for its design followed by the JN-2000, which would add embroidery capabilities to the machine.

So it should come to no surprise to learn that TurboXS had exactly the same idea with their Data Transfer Engine Console (DTEC). The DTEC is a modular, configurable, universal engine management computer. It provides a fully adjustable in-car system that can monitor exhaust gas temperature (EGT), Boost, rpm, air-fuel ratio , etc.

The system would use a proprietary interface that plugs into the existing Game Boy SP’s link port, which would allow them to use the Game Boy screen and controller as the input and output for the system. As the system doesn’t need to modify your GBA in any way. You can still use it for everything you can use Game Boy for.

Release
The DTEC was released in October 2004 in two models. The barebones DTEC starter kit sold for $229, but was limited to just data logging. The more robust DTEC-BC-PRO (which came with an electronic boost control solenoid, as well as MAP and knock sensors) retailed for $550. Of course, you would need to add a $99 Game Boy Advance SP on top to complete the kit.

By all means, the DTEC was a success. Other boost controller of the time such as the Greddy E01, Blitz SBC-id, the Apexi AVC-R or even the HKS EVC V were all more expensive and had fewer features.

TurboXS was also floating the idea of making the DTEC compatible with the upcoming Nintendo DS.” We could make it work on the DS . It seems like we could from everything we’ve done on the research. We can make it work on the DS, I don’t know what additional programming [is required] to use both screens. Definitely works on Advance and SP. We need to get one and find out.”

Demise
While, the DTEC was a success for what it was, it was still a very niche item making it extremely rare today. The last unit sold by TurboXS was in 2010. In the end, the Nintendo DS version would never see the light of day. While TurboXS no longer provide any support for the DTEC, the manual and the latest firmware are still available from their website.

As a teenager of the 1980s, he always enjoyed text-based adventure games on my home computer and the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style of books. As an adult, he enjoyed audio dramas and particularly enjoyed vintage radio shows of the 1940s and 50s. From this haze of ideas, pieces began falling into place. He modified the submarine game into an open adventure system and realized it could be of interest to those with blindness or low vision.

Through a charity, he began speaking to blind gamers and listened to what they wanted from an electronic game. It was a surprise to discover how many people with low vision (and even completely blind people) play video games, but struggle with simple things like text-based menu systems and Wi-Fi passwords. The gaming industry hadn’t considered blind gamers as carefully as deaf players. Whilst most modern games have subtitles for the hearing impaired, very few have accessibility for blind gamers such as audio-descriptions or easy to view menu systems. Two men in particular played a big role in inspiring him to develop Audio Adventures. The first being, Edward Jackson, a young man who loved vintage video games but lost most of his vision following a stroke; and the second being the YouTuber, SightlessKombat, who despite being 100% blind from birth has generated many hours of online video content reviewing the latest games whilst helping influence the industry towards greater accessibility.

Ed Jackson’s enthusiasm for the project was infectious. Lee sent him an early prototype and was thrilled to hear how excited he was to have a product out of the box that he could use without needing any help. Without the enthusiasm and encouragement of Ed and SightlessKombat, Lee would not have kept working on Audio Adventures. «It was whilst talking to SightlessKombat that I came up with the slogan, “Everybody Can Play.” I began imagining the sort of device I would have loved as a teenager. I wanted a device for people who loved adventure games, role playing games and vintage gaming; but that would incorporate the accessibility features needed by people like Ed and SightlessKombat.»

But what really sealed the deal for Lee was his visit to a shop for the blind and discovering the only toy available for blind children was a football with a bell inside of it.

As worthwhile as my ambition was, what I hadn’t factored was the need to build a whole ecosystem to make the device function. It wasn’t just an electronic unit, it required its own bespoke coding language, which in turn required the creation of bespoke coding software.

From there, Lee work tirelessly for 3 years to make his dream a reality.

On March 9, 2024, the www.trumantoys.com website was put online giving the first glance of the audio adventures and the 6 upcoming titles.  Less than 5 months later, Lee put the Audio Adventures project on Kickstarter. It took less the 59 minutes to reach the funding goal of £3,000. The first 100 bakers were able to get the devices and 3 games (The Psychotronic Mind, The Hotel of Secrets and Bewilder) for £65.  Then 150 additional 3 games bundles were available £99. After those were gone, the normal price £115 for the 3 games bundle was applied. Other bundles included the device with 1 game of your choice for  £65 or 2 games for £89.

These all came with an exclusive Kickstarter red version of the Audio Adventures systems. In total 428 backers pledged £37,417, which was more than 12 time was Lee was aiming for.

Release
On March 20, 2025 the Kickstarter units were sent.

After Kickstarter, the sale of the Audio Adventures moved over to the website. The system would no longer be red, but would instead be white. With the release of the fourth game called Ice Cold, the pricing was reviewed. Each individual game would cost £22, the system by itself £29.00, a bundle containing the system and one game was £39 and a bundle with the system and all four games was £99. This is significantly less than the most expensive bundle of the Kickstarter campaign and with one extra game. 

Audio Adventure Kickstarter Version (Generation 1)	Audio Adventure Retail Version (Generation 2)

Games
All games are sold for £22.00. Per the time of this article, only 4 games have been released with 2 more on the way.

The Psychotronic Mind Action & Adventure March 20, 2025	Hotel of Secrets Exploration & Drama March 20, 2025	Bewilder Quest & Puzzle March 20, 2025
Ice Cold Action, Survival & Exploration July 2nd, 2025	Bank Robbing Bunnies Action & Strategy ETA: Summer 2025	How Close is the Ghost? Mystery and Adventure ETA: Summer 2025

Sources: https://www.trumantoys.com/about

Release
The PocketStation was released on January 23, 1999 at a cost of ¥3,000, alongside a few games including Doko Demo Issyo which would sold 1.5 million copies over its lifetime. The PocketStation sold out very quickly everywhere. Sony, which didn’t anticipate the demanded, only produced 60,000 units. Sony quickly started producing more to meet the demand and added a new model called the SCPH-4000C which was a clear version of the initial released. The console serve primarily as a memory card for the Playstation, but some Playstation game could push extra features such as mini-games to the PocketStation. Its infrared sensor also allowed to exchange information between PocketStations. It could even be used to transfer game data between the PlayStation and the WorderSwan using both the PocketStation and the Wonder Wave. Developer Shinichi Okamoto said, “Based on the concept of a computer that can be worn, we packed functions into a system of only 30g. It’s a machine that teaches everyone who touches what entertainment is.”

The PocketStation was so successful that, according to Sony, they were never able to produce enough units to satisfy the Japanese market, thus explaining why it was never sold overseas. Over its life span, more than 185 Playstation games used its features and sold over 4.4 million units.

Demise
Since Doko Demo Issyo, there were no notable hits, and most of them were only PlayStation bonus mini-games. The novelty effect stated to wear off, with users complaining about the resolution. With the release of the Playstation 2 on March 4, 2000, the PocketStation lost a lot of its relevancy. The number of compatible software began to be in steep decline and by July 2002, Sony stopped the production of the PocketStation.

Hardware
The PocketStation was released in four different colors. Other colors have been spotted (blue, orange, gold), but it is unclear if they are prototypes or extremely limited release.

White SCPH-4000		Clear SCPH-4000C		Pink Only available as a pack-in with the Limited Edition of Tokimeki Memorial 2.		Black Only available as a pack-in with the Yu-Gi-Oh! True Duel Monsters Sealed Memories Limited Edition Special Box

In the 90s, the Karaoke was an extremely popular activities in Japan and a lot of company were looking the home market. But home karaoke system were expensive and complex. You needed a screen for the lyrics, good quality audio system, specially encoded song, etc. Music distribution was probably the biggest problem. In a age where the Internet was not as fast and popular than today, you had to rely on specialized compilation that were expensive, or uses a a machine that could connect to an online catalogue. In 1994, Sega released the Sega Music Network to be used with their commercial Karaoke system, the Prologue-21. In 1995, Taito offered a similar service for their home Karaoke system called the X-55. All of these systems required an online connection and subscription, leaving the door wide open for TOMY to provide a true “professional” Karaoke system for cheap. According to a survey conducted by TOMY, many elementary and junior high school students have never been to a karaoke booth because it is prohibited by school rules, yet half of them said they would like a home karaoke machine

To make sure the kiss-site would fell professional, TOMY reached out to Toei Video for the production of the Dance Karaoke series software.  They used the Furikara technology, a karaoke with choreography function that the company provided for the commercial online karaoke service “Super B-Max.” In Furikara, the dancers’ movements are digitized through motion capture, and a Computer-generated character made of 3D polygons reproduces the choreography in time with the music. As it is rendered in real time, the user can also change the angle of the character. Since the kiss-site didn’t have any 3D rendering capabilities, the choreography data would converted into MPEG-compliant video data before being recorded onto a CD-ROM. This would eliminates the ability to switch angles, but provided live-action footage of the same quality as professional-grade equipment.

The kiss-site was basically a video CD player. And since it’s target audience was primarily students, TOMY had planned to develop edutainment and hobby content for the platform. TOMY was so convinced that the kiss-site would be a success, that they announced before the launched of the kiss-site a new model would be launched by the end of 2001 that would support online distribution.

TOMY had ambitious plans for the kiss-site, hoping to sell 200,000 units of the machine and 600,000 software in the first year, starting with this year’s Christmas sales season. To achieve this TOMY launched various even including a national audition contest on the TV Tokyo’s Oha Suta show. The constest was called Kiss Girl Audition and had a 1,000 participants. The finalist made a TV ads promoting the upcoming console. In the end, Hasegawa Ai won the first place of contest, followed by Aragaki Risa in second place and RENA in third place.

Release
The console launched with 20 titles in the “Dance Karaoke Series” with two to three new titles planned to be added each month. In addition to SPEED, Morning Musume, and Namie Amuro, the lineup will also include artists aimed at housewives, such as Pink Lady. Each software contained two songs and costed ¥680. While 2 songs might be seems to be a rip-off, it was in fact a marketing ploy to lower the price, to ensure that even elementary and junior high school students can easily purchase the software.

But the a few days before the launch of the kiss-Site, Takara launched their own Karaoke system for kids called the e-Kara. The e-Kara became an instant success leaving TOMY and the kiss-Site in the dust.

But TOMY kept pushing the kiss-site. At the 2001 Tokyo Game Show, TOMY schedule a talk show and live performance by voice actress Nana Mizuki.

Demise
While the kiss-site wasn’t a failure, it never rose to it’s true potential as the e-Kara took most of the market.

In the 90s, the Karaoke was an extremely popular activities in Japan and a lot of company were looking the home market. But home karaoke system were expensive and complex. You needed a screen for the lyrics, good quality audio system, specially encoded song, etc. Music distribution was probably the biggest problem. In a age where the Internet was not as fast and popular than today, you had to rely on specialized compilation that were expensive, or uses a a machine that could connect to an online catalogue. In 1994, Sega released the Sega Music Network to be used with their commercial Karaoke system, the Prologue-21. In 1995, Taito offered a similar service for their home Karaoke system called the X-55. All these services were aimed at adult, leaving the door wide open for Takara to provide an offering to a younger audience.

Takara understood that to enter this market segment they had to have a product that would be affordable and easy to use. Takara licensed the Xavix technology from SSD  (which would later release the XaviXPORT using the same technologies) and released their take on the home Karaoke system with the e-Kara. But while releasing an home Karaoke system for the whole family was the primary goal, Takara couldn’t dismissed another opportunity brought forward by the e-Kara : the rythm games. Since the late 80s, Japan had been dancing to the rhythm of the Dance Dance Revolution series. The latest in the series of rythm games was GuitarFreaks who had just been released. Since the e-Kara would used cartridges to hold the songs, it was not difficult to create a system to make use of these cartridges as a base for a rhythm game. Instead of using the falling down notes from the music, the Popira (ポピラ) represented the notes by four falling ball that needed to be bounced with the rhythm of the music. While a bit more preparation were needed to make a cartridges compatible with the Popira system and therefore not all e-Kara cartridges would be compatible with the Popira system, the inverse was not an issue. To differentiate the two series, the Popira compatible cartridges would be called the Gold Cartridge and would start with a “G-“.

Release
Released on October 20, 2000, the e-Kara was an instant success. A few days later, it was TOMY’s turn to release their own Karaoke machine called Kiss-Site, which never became close to be a worthy competitor to the e-Kara. In 18 months, the e-Kara had sold over a millions units and over 2.5 million cartridges. The Popira which released on the same day had a bit less success with only 200,000 units sold over the same period of time. Nevertheless, those number were good enough for Takara to repeat the experience. On July 21, 2002 Takara released the e-Kara N, an improved version of the e-Kara, and Popira 2, a second instalment of the Popira franchise that now feature a second controller for some head to head competition and multiple different game play options. While the Popira 2 did fairly well, Takara couldn’t help to notice that another rhythm game was taking Japan over : Taiko no Tatsujin. The game which simulates a taiko drum was very popular in both the arcade and in the home console. Takara swiftly decided to build a third installment in the Popira series with Taiko de Popira. The Taiko de Popira didn’t do as well as expected, but at this point Takara understood that as long as they kept releasing updated hardwares that are compatible with their e-Kara brand, they could do no wrong. As such, Takara decided to revisit the concept of the dancing mat by launching the fourth installment in the Popira franchise: Jumpin’ Popira which was an undated version of the Dance Dance Revolution Fami Mat, a console using the e-Kara cartridges released under the Konami brand.

Demise
The e-Kara franchise held strong for a number of years, releasing a ton of different variation of the console, including some proper video game console such as the e-Pitch.

On April 15th, 2003, TOMY announced the upcoming released of the evio, a video-game console to learn violin. Chisako Takashima, a well-known Japanese violinist,  was on scene for the announcement and became the face of the evio. She noted the  “Many people aspire to be violinists, but it is difficult to produce a proper sound, and many give up. That’s why I want evio, which allows children to easily experience the joy of the violin, to get them more interested in the instrument.”

The bow is equipped with an infrared optical sensor where it touches the string, and the bow has barcode-like slits printed on it for the sensor to read. When the bow is moved and the slit passes through the sensor, a sound is emitted, and the volume and length of the sound can be adjusted by the speed at which the bow passes through the slit and the distance it is moved. The neck is also equipped with a “vibrato key” that allows you to enjoy the performance effect of vibrating the sound. The evio would come bundled with 6 songs and cartridges would allow additional songs to be played. The evio would have, of course, have a “Solo” mode for enjoying playing alone, but additional mode would also be included. The “Orchestra” mode where you play the main melody with accompaniment in the background, the “Contest” mode where you compete to see how well you can play by following the guide, the “Lesson” mode where you can learn how to play, and the “Demo” mode where evio plays a model.

TOMY had an ambitious goal for the evio, hoping to sell  500,000 units of the series, for a total of 1 billion yen.

Release
The evio was released on July 31, 2003 for ¥7,000. Dedicated headphones were also available for ¥1,800 and all cartridges were also available for ¥1,800. An even with Chisako Takashima was held on July 28, 2003. At the event, Takashima performed “Great Old Clock” on the evio accompanied by the chorus of “Chaimu”, the youngest unit in history consisting of seven elementary school students. Even though the violin is different from a real violin, the performance was truly professional.

Demise
The evio had a bright future ahead of it, especially since it had virtually no competition. The closest thing to the evio was the Yamaha silent violin which cost between ¥69,000 and ¥110,000. Of course, those were not toys, but if you wanted your kid to start learning the violin in silence, this was either that ot the evio. But the evio had serious limitation. It would help kids learn about the position of the hands and the timing, but the rest was too different from a real violin to be used as a practice device. In the end, the evio was not the success TOMY hoped for and abandoned the evio and the Simple Concert concept as a whole.

Cartridges
18 cartridges were released for the evio, each containing 10 additional songs. A additional “not for resale” cartridge also exist.

エヴィオセレクション 01 Evio Selection 01 eM1		エヴィオセレクション 02 Evio Selection 02 eM2		アニメミックス 1 Anime Mix 1 eM3
I love クラシック 1 I Love Classic 1 eM4		ヒーリングエアー Healing Air 1 eM5		ドラマミックス 1 Drama Mix 1 eM6
ピュアキッス 1 Pure Kiss 1 eM7		ハードソウル 1 Hard Soul 1 eM8		エヴィオセレクション 03 Evio Selection 03 eM9
アニメスペシャル ポケットモンスター Anime Special Pokémon eM10		アニメミックス 2 Anime Mix 2 eM11		I love クラシック 2 I love Classic 2 eM12
コンチェルトセレクション Concerto Selection eM13		ディズニーセレクション 1 Disney Selection 1 eM14		エヴィオセレクション 04 Evio Selection 04 eM15
高嶋ちさ子セレクション Chisako Takashima selection eM16		みんなのエヴィオ Everyone’s Evio eM17		エヴィオチャレンジ! Evio Challenge eM18
		スペシャルコンチェルトセレクション Special Concerto Selection eM-c1* Not for sale

* While this cartridges exist, its origin are unclear. Please contact us if you have any information.

With that in mind, the team decided to build a game that would detect the flow of urine to control a game. While this might seem trivial, the sensor needed to differentiate the flow of urine from the flow of water when the toilet was flushed and the movement from body parts that would be in front of the sensor. To achieve this Sega collected the urination data from more than 1,000 people.

In 2008, the first prototype was installed in the men’s restroom at Sega (Ota Ward, Tokyo). The initial reaction was very positive, but they quickly realize that there was no clear market for it.  At this point, Sega had been out of the home video game console for a while now, meaning that Sega had no sale channel outside their arcade one. As this device was aimed at commercial facilities to entertain customers, it didn’t fit in Sega’s existing distribution model. This was a serious issue, one that the team needed to solve for the Toylets to be a commercial success. The team almost gave up many times as, without clients, there was no need for this technology. But Sega never shies down from a challenge. They managed to take over the Karaoke parlor by storm with the release of the Prologue 21 in 1999, they could do it again with the Toylets. They just needed the right angle. It was not long before the team realized that the screen could also be used to display advertisements, which was a very enticing feature to propose to commercial users.

In August 2010, Sega decided to demonstrate their game to the prestigious FOOD STYLE Japan Exhibition (which was formerly known as the Izakaya Industry Exhibition) in Tokyo. To demonstrate the product, Sega had modified a garden fountain of the Manneken Pis (a cherub peeing) for the cherub to start peeing when a button was pressed. The team named the statue Shonta and he was the star of the event. People interest was piqued, but no serious inquiries were made. Still, there were a few companies that showed interest. The question became, how could Sega get them to buy? The development team came up with a plan. They set up screens similar to the one of the Sega Toylets in pachinko parlors in Tokyo and conducted a survey at the toilet exit. They displayed four types of food products on both the Sega Toylets screen and in a paper advertisement, to examine the difference in recognition. The results were favorable: 51% of people who saw the Toylets remembered all four types, compared to 15% of people who saw the paper advertisement.

Toylets early prototype	The development of Toilets	Machida Hirotaka, development team producer
	Toylets being display at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in 2014

The test proved to the development team that their product could have a real impact when it comes to advertising product, so they decide to put it to the test in a Izakaya (a type of informal Japanese bar that serves alcoholic drinks and snacks) in Tokyo in the New Year period. Before the test, the store was resistant to displaying menus in the restrooms, but they were pleased with the result with the added benefit of attracting more young customers who came to play the games. The test delivered result quickly, with advertised menu items being ordered 2.2 times more in the two weeks of the test.

The result was presented to the Sega executive, which finally gave the go-ahead. And just when everything finally started to take shape, the great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11th. With the need to conserve electricity, selling a product that was essentially a video game console for the toilet didn’t seem to be the right move. The project was again on the verge of being canceled, but the Izakaya industry started to support the disaster-stricken areas by selling sake from the Tohoku region, which convince Sega to continue with the project, with one small change: adding a “power-saving mode” function.

With the final blessing from Sega, the team started the tremendous task of creating a commercially viable version of the product. So far, the prototype was too costly with a price tag ¥300,000 and was too heavy. The weight needed to be under 3 kg in order for the walls of the restrooms to hold up. Eventually, the weight was reduced to 2.9 kg. The final  model would have a speed sensor and dual sensor that would act as a motion sensor and a infrared reflective senior.

Release
The Sega Toylets were first pre-release in the Yoronotaki izakaya chain in October 2011 which created a buzz around the product (see the picture on the right). On November 21, 2011, the console was officially released alongside eight games (each costing ¥10,000). While the product definitely created a lot of buzz, its adoption was very slow and the cost was a major reason. While Sega boasted that installing the Toylets had many benefits such as increased sales and cleaner bathroom (as peeing outside the toilet wouldn’t count toward your score), the return on investment was hard to achieve, especially if your establishment had many urinals.

By the end of May 2014, there was only 420 Toylets consoles installed in 250 locations. While the main market was still restaurants and amusement facilities, Sega also had some success in hospitals and medical facilities and were aiming to expand into unexplored business types. Sega also tried to reach out to home users by making the Toylets available for home use as well.

There were also some inquiries from overseas which Sega would have loved to accommodate. But going overseas meant that the game needed to be localized, which was too much of an investment with the low sales they had so far. This being said, at least one game (Bukkake Battle! Hana Kara Gyuunyuu) ended up being localized in English and was displayed in South Korea. On top of that, other company such as Captive Media were already developing interactive urinal game for the UK market, which could have been another reason to grow the home market before venturing outside Japan.

Demise
By 2016, the sale of the Toylets  hadn’t improved significantly and Sega decided to pull the plug. Sales of the Toylets ended definitely in May 2016 while customer support remained available until March 2021.

But, while the Toylets were discontinued, it didn’t stop Sega to feature them in Yakuza Kiwami 2 (December 7, 2017). Starting in Chapter 3, you can access the ToyLets from the restroom door in Club SEGA where  you can plan either Milky nose or The North Wind and the Sun… And Me.

Games
Eight games were developed for the Sega Toylets. Each came on a USB stick and cost ¥10,000.

• Milky nose: Battle of the bosses is similar as Milky nose, but instead of “fighting” the CPU, you are playing against the previous Toylets user.
• The same seems to apply to Save it! Manneken Pis, although this haven’t been confirmed.

Hana Kara Gyuunyuu 鼻から牛乳 (Milky nose) [VIDEO]		Hana Kara Gyuunyuu: Banchou Battle 鼻から牛乳: 番長バトル (Milky nose: Battle of the bosses) [VIDEO]		Dokitsu! Boufuu Keihou Hatsurei ドキッ！暴風警報発令 (The North Wind and the Sun… And Me) Box #: XKT-1979-0003 USB #: MDA-U0030
Graffiti Eraser		Panel Quiz Chou Nyo-ryoku パネルクイズ超ニョ〜力 (Panel Quiz Super Nyo~ryoku) [VIDEO]		Nyounai Checker 尿内チェッカー (Urine Checker) [VIDEO] Box #: XKT-1979-0005 USB #: MDA-U0032
	Tamero! Shoubengozou 溜めろ！小便小僧 (Save it! Manneken Pis) [VIDEO] Box #: XKT-1979-0001 USB #: MDA-U0028A		Tamero! Shoubengozou Deluxe 溜めろ！小便小僧 デラックス版 (Save it! Manneken Pis Deluxe Edition) [VIDEO]

Around the same time, Klaus Ollmann, deputy managing director of WEA Musik GmbH in Hamburg, got his hand on an Atari VCS. Mr. Ollmann fell in love with the product and convince the management to market the Atari repertoire in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. While the CEO of EA Musik GmbH wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea (as this had nothing to do with music), he still gave the green light. Klaus went on to become CEO and in early 1980, the first device was being sold.

In 1981, Unicom Consumer Electronics GmbH lost the right to distribute the Atari VCS but kept distributing games for a while. By 1983, the company had changes name for Unimex Technologies GmbH. and was looking for other Atari-related products to distribute. As such, they started to distribute the Starpath Supercharger under the name Supercharger  SR3000 and the Video Game Brain under the name Video Game Brain SP3000. By the end of 1983, Stephan Finta, also managed to strike a deal with an East Asian company to import a cassette copier. Dubbed the Duplicator SP280, the device allowed to copy an Atari VCS game to a 4k, 8k or even 16K EPROM blank cartridge.

Release
Released at the end of 1983 at a cost of 198DM, the system allowed to copy any game you wanted from a friend. The blank cartridges price was varying depending on the size of the EPROM. A 3 pack of 4K cartridges was 99DM, one 8K cartridge was 59DM and 16K cartridges which were planned for July 1984 were set to be sold at 89DM. The cartridges could be rewritten as many times as needed. The Duplicator SP280 was also distributed in France by Promotion France Export for a price of 798F with the 4K cartridges being sold for 98F.

Demise
It wasn’t long before the Duplicator SP280 was brought to the ear of the CEO of Atari GmbH, Klaus Ollmann, which decided to sue Unimex over the product. Atari GmbH would ultimately won and Unimex had to stop selling the Duplicator SP280.