The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Consider the tale of Active Enterprises, a "game developer" (and I use the term loosely) from 1989 who had big dreams, less sense, and even less funding.  Active was the source of Action 52, a 52-in-1 game pak for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Genesis.  Unfortunately, the 52 games fall into the trap of other poorly planned and poorly implemented multi-games of the time period: they're completely inept.  Then there's the Action GameMaster, the company's planned portable game system that played NES, Super NES, and Genesis cartridges plus had accessories for a TV tuner, camcorder, and its own proprietary 16-bit CD-ROM drive!  And it only measures more than one foot in diameter!  The future was truly here back in 1990.

Dig into Active's history and it would seem that their bid into the gaming world has less to do with churning out multi-games and more to do with launching a new licensed character group: The Cheetahmen!  And according to the poorly written opening text from The Cheetahmen, they will fight for you!  They are also ineptly programmed!  Yes, Active had the whole schmeer ready to go with video games (one released, two sequels planned), action figures, comic books, an animated syndicated cartoon show, and servo-controlled animatronic robots that appear at conventions around the world.  Ambitious?  Of course.  Successful?  Strangely enough, not so much.

(via MetaFilter)