Summer is always an odd season in the computer industry. It's sometimes described as transitional, in that the big thing from last Christmas is now dead and the big thing for next Christmas is still just a dot on the horizon. Four years ago this week it was even more transitional that usual. The old stalwarts - SNES, Mega Drive and Amiga - were, if not dead, starting to smell a bit and the new kids - Saturn and PlayStation - were still in the embryonic stage. PC was, as ever, a 'disappointing' format so what was everybody buying and selling?

Three wildly differing consoles were, if not hot then certainly above room temperature, at least for a while, and desperately trying to fill the gap in the market. From our lofty position here in 1999, and with the benefit of hindsight, we can now see that none succeeded, but each for a different reason. The first contender was SNK, who were pushing a new, low-priced (£70 off!) Neo Geo pack which came with two controllers and a (still hefty!) £329 RRP. Games for the system cost between £35 and £60 and were all arcade conversions.

It might sound simplistic but, sadly, not enough of 1995's gamers were prepared to pay these prices and, with no marketing and limited distribution, SNK slowly left the stage. The second contender was the CD-based 3D0, made by several manufacturers, all conforming to a standard spec (what a good idea! Just like MSX!). Goldstar had just released their system at £349, and were actively promoting the system through High Street stores, so no marketing or distribution difficulties here.

It had a fair amount of software support (including Electronic Arts, no less) and the games were reasonably priced. True, it was hardly an impulse buy, but over the next two years the price eventually bottomed out at £99, and still very few punters went for it. Maybe it came to market a little too late? Or perhaps it was because even as Goldstar launched their machine this week four years ago - and it was only the second 3D0 player to become available - 3D0, the company, were actively pre-selling their next generation machine, the M2, to industry journalists.

Perhaps this confused the buying public - why buy now when M2 would be available the following year? As it turned out, of course, M2 didn't happen at all and Trip Hawkins, 3D0 founder, could be forgiven for wishing he'd kept his bleedin' trap shut. The final contender for King Console (as opposed to 'king console') was the Atari Jaguar which boasted an impressive specification, low price and a sexy image. Few in the industry gave it any chance of success and publicly stated that it would fail simply because it was Atari, which I thought at the time was very unfair. Perhaps that particular prophecy became self-fulfilling or maybe they just knew Atari better than me; either way, the end result was the same. So, transitional indeed - but hey, that didn't mean nothing was happening...