The Nuon is an obscure video game platform developed by VM Labs. Following the collapse of Atari Corporation following the disastrous run of the Atari Jaguar, a group of Atari employees led by ex-VP Richard Miller left the company to form VM Labs, who would go to work on a Spiritual Successor to the Jaguar.
The resulting platform, named Nuon, was interesting in that it wasn't a dedicated video game console, but a chipset that was available for DVD Player manufacturers to license from VM Labs to include in their players, similar to how the 3DO Company licensed their 3DO technology to third parties to manufacture. Unlike the 3DO however, these were DVD Players first and video game consoles second. Speaking of DVD, in addition to being able to play their own games, Nuon-equipped DVD players were able to access optional special features on certain Nuon-enhanced DVDs. Features included smooth fast-forwarding/rewinding, zoom function, and enhanced DVD menus.
Unfortunately, the Nuon was a major flop. Only three manufacturers signed on to add Nuon technology to their DVD players, most notably Samsung. RCA also sold Nuon players, but those didn't even play games. Only eight games were released for the Nuon, comprising of either unimpressive ports, sequels, or straight-up ripoffs of previous-gen titles. The one killer app was Tempest 3000, but it wasn't enough to convince consumers to support the platform. While the platform's one wholly original game, Freefall 3050 A.D., was well-received, it required an analog controller to play, something that wasn't bundled with Nuon players, which came with D-Pad controllers instead. This restricted the game's audience. Despite advertising itself as a "128-bit system", none of the games looked better than what could be found on the Nintendo 64, repeating the same mistake the Jaguar made. Likewise, only four DVD movies were released with Nuon-enhanced features, all of them being from 20th Century Studios, who wasted the technology meant for action films and big budget spectacles on B-grade or obscure comedies such as Bedazzled (2000) and Dr. Dolittle 2 (the lone exception being the poorly-received Planet of the Apes (2001)).
Shortly after the first Nuon players were released, VM Labs would run into financial trouble, and would be sold to Genesis Microchips in early 2002, who folded the company into a new division, which was laid off only four months later, effectively marking the demise of VM Labs. While the Nuon chipset would go on to power some HDTVs, no new games would be released past 2000, and no Nuon-enhanced DVDs were released past 2002. Aside from being labeled "Special Edition", signs of Nuon support were reduced to a tiny logo on the back of the case. In 2003, the few Nuon players sold were discontinued, with the platform disappearing from the market entirely by 2004.
Although it faded into obscurity, that didn't mean it didn't make some impact on the gaming industry, as it inspired Sony engineer and PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi to implement DVD support in the PlayStation 2, which went onto becoming one of the major factors behind the console's commercial success. Its impressive music visualizer (itself a variant of the Jaguar CD's visualizer), developed by Tempest 2000/3000 designer Jeff Minter, would later be improved upon and built into the much more successful Xbox 360. That being said, the Nuon remains unknown to many, and is reduced to a small footnote in gaming history.
Specifications:
Processors
- CPU: Custom Quad-core Nuon MPE (Media Processing Element), each core running at either 108MHz or 54MHz.
- GPU: Two custom 3d Media GL MPEs, 66MHz
Memory
- 32MB Fast Page Dynamic Random Access Memory clocked at 33MHz
- 8MB Video RAM
- 512KB Audio RAM
- 64-256 MB writable ROM (presumably for saving games)
- Officially supported formats:
- DVD-ROM
- DVD-Video
- CD-DA
- CD-R
- HDCD
Graphics
- Max resolution is 720x576 interlaced.
- 24-bit color
- MPEG-2 video decoder
- Max theoretical polygon count is unknown, though given Jeff Minter's account that the Nuon apparently lacked fast 3D hardware (something he recounts the Nintendo GameCube having but not the Nuon), performance was possibly somewhere between the Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast, likely more within the Nintendo 64's ballpark given the graphical style of the system's 3D games.
Games:
- Ballistic (Pack-in with Samsung units)
- Crayon Shin-chan 3 (Korean-only release)
- Freefall 3050 A.D.
- Iron Soldier 3
- Merlin Racing
- The Next Tetris DLX (Pack-in with Toshiba units)
- Space Invaders X.L.
- Tempest 3000
Nuon-Enhanced DVDs:
- The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
- Bedazzled (2000)
- Dr. Dolittle 2
- Planet of the Apes (2001)
