Pioneer · 1993–1996 · About 10,000
A LaserDisc player that became a Mega Drive or a PC Engine when you slid in a $600 module — Pioneer's 1993 bid to own interactive video, which sold about ten thousand units.
Pioneer launched the LaserActive in Japan on 20 August 1993 and in North America on 13 September 1993. The base unit, priced at US$970 (¥89,800 in Japan), played LaserDiscs and audio CDs. To play games it needed a PAC — an expansion module slotted into the front. The Mega-LD PAC added Sega Mega Drive and Mega-CD hardware; the LD-ROM² PAC added NEC's PC Engine and CD-ROM² hardware. Each cost about US$600, and a karaoke PAC was offered for about US$350. With a PAC fitted, the machine could also run games stored on LaserDisc, whose analogue video offered far better full-motion footage than any CD system of the time. The idea was sound, but the arithmetic was not: a complete games setup cost more than $1,500, and few developers were willing to produce titles for an audience that small. Only 31 LaserActive-specific titles were released — 23 for the Sega module and 15 for the NEC module, with a handful issued in both formats. An optional pair of 3-D goggles supported six titles. Computer Gaming World judged it in January 1994 to be a better product in many ways than its rivals, but noted it lacked software and that the control packs were too expensive. Pioneer discontinued the LaserActive in 1996 after selling roughly 10,000 units.