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Introduction

Almost a revolution

Slipstream: The Konix Multisystem Archive
Sifting through the wreckage to discover what went wrong


Wyn Holloway and Jon Dean - while the dream was still alive The hook that caught our interest - The infamous and impressive 3D spinning cube demo The Slipstream controller that was the basis of the Multisystem - the shape of things to come in 1989 The brains behind the electronics The Slipstream (Multisystem) custom processor A Multisystem Devkit - there are at least 20 of these in existance. Where are they now?


Microsoft Kinect, Playstation Move, Nintendo Wii, Guitar hero, Rockband...

These are all thoroughly modern ways of interacting with Consoles that are fully immersing players in the game. What wonderfuly technologically advanced times we live in.

Not so long ago in video games history there was a real fear that if a developer had an idea for creating an interesting peripheral, that the additional cost to the end user of buying that peripheral possibly for the sake of just one game would be too prohibitive to most players, that they wouldn't buy the game.
It took a long time to get past this stigma, and the afore mentioned machines and impending peripherals are proof that revolution (not surprisingly Nintendo's code name for the Wii) and innovation can be financially viable - and then some...
Now look back almost 20 years, a machine arguably as significant as both the Wii for its innovative and revolutionary controls and peripherals and as powerful as a PS3 or XBOX360 for both sound and graphics capabilities was being produced by a small Joystick manufacturer in Wales in Great Britain.

This website details the epic struggle of this manufacturer led by its charismatic and visionary boss Wyn Holloway to secure funding to take his concept of revolutionary controls paired with the amazing power of Flare Technologies 'Flare One' computer concept and their attempt to take on the might of Sega and Nintendo to try to launch what could have been the best Games machine in the world.

If they had succeeded, the face of video games could have changed forever.


The Attention to Detail Developers running a prototype of Tunnels of Doom, possibly one of the greatest missed opportunities in the whole Konix story One dream too far, the incredible Konix Power chair. This is what most people remember about the Konix Multisystem When the Press are on your side the world is your oyster – you’d better deliver on your promises though when you’re setting near impossible goals The Konix Multisystem chipset ‘Slipstream’ was used later in this internet set top box. Not quite what we’d hoped for… One of the games that would have made the world take notice – Attack of the Mutant Camels 1989 by Jeff Minter. Will It ever see the light of day?.... Flare sold their technology to Bellfruit for use in machines such as this - there are now emulators for this machine so you can get an idea of what a Flare one / early revision Multisystem would have been like to play


Site News

August 18th, 2010:
Forum!
I have now created a Forum specifically for this website. Please feel free to register and start talking, asking questions and sharing opinions. Just click the Forum link on the navigation panel, or follow this link

August 9th, 2010:
What happened to the Multisystem after the collapse of Konix might be more interesting than I first thought. When Konix became MSU it started to get really interesting. I've been talking to former Employees and they weren't happy Bunnies, and I think I've uncovered a picture (an MSU mock-up) of what the Multisystem 2 would have evolved into and it's quite sad! For the moment, head on over to the MSU page for a quick look, I will try to develop the MSU pages a bit more as it's not just a footnote to the story; it's a whole new soap-opera in its own right!

August 2nd, 2010:
I was kindly given a scan of a proposal for a the Sailing game by ODE on the Multisystem, I thought you might be interested to read it to see how games companies were pitching their ideas to Konix for the right to develop on machine. Download the PDF

July 21st, 2010:
Time for a bit of a revamp, I've looked back in horror at all the typos and will do something about them.
Also, what with Sony Move and Microsoft Kinect, the whole world is going crazy for new ways to interact. I wonder if Wyn is thinking of a comeback?

February 17th, 2009:
Don't get too excited - no major news I'm afraid. I have been contacted by a former employee of MSU who gave me some interesting information about the company Wyn formed after Konix. I'll massage the info into the site when I have some time. I'd also like to say that I'll be tweaking the site a little, hopefully fixing up some of the embarrassing spelling mistakes and maybe making it a little more organised. I'll also re-write some of the stuff that's now out of date.

April 4th, 2008:
Sorry for the outage, my hosting account lapsed while I was away on business. All fixed now.

April 4th, 2008:
No news to report on trying to contact Jeff Minter for an interview, although I have recently been contacted by one of the developers from Bellfruit who offered his assistance where possible

Recommended links

View all 23 Multisystem Videos

Wyn Holloway - creator of the Multisystem Interviewed

Download the actual Multisystem technical reference document
Warning, it's 25Mb click here to start the download