Search for DISCover PC on Google and your first hit will be a website called
Discoverconsole.com. It is the Website of a company called Digital Interactive Systems Corporation. They, like Infinium, the company behind the "Phantom" console planned to release a console that could play PC games without the annoying installation problems of a PC and one that could be plugged straight into your TV.
Its software allowed a gamer to simply drop a disc into the machine, which then automatically recognised, installed and played the game.
The user was to have the same experience as if they were playing on a PlayStation or an Xbox, it was to be a very simple consumer electronics product rather than a PC.

So what went wrong, why didn't the DISCover PC end up on the shelves of our games shops. Conspiracy theorists have put forward tales of espionage by the "Big 3" conspiring to stop this product, which could have put an end to the stranglehold that the "Big 3" had on the consumer.
However, if you looked under the bonnet of the DISCover PC it had specs no more powerful than an XBOX (1). Unlike a PC it could not be upgraded to play games that got graphically more sophisticated every year. Also a lot of PC games rely heavily on Keyboard use. These are probably the reasons as to why DISCover didn't get the investment. The console was displayed in California, so it does exist. You could be looking at a future "Super Rarity" machine. But alas I still think that the PC gaming market will remain very seperate to the console market.

By Paul the Elder








Prototype DISCover PC(Mk1)