Hm.
Do all the occasions count, when some new "feature" (always-on, loot boxes, pay-2-win, etc., etc.) was introduced by some company or another, where a very vocal minority of gamers would scream their lungs out online and claim, that THIS would now be the end of what companies can get away with. And that THIS TIME the gamers worldwide would unite, to put those greedy (EA, Ubisoft, Rockstar, simply enter the name of the gaming company you hate most) bastards out of business?

Do those "Industry Changing Features" count?

Because, if yes - there were so many of those, it's impossible to remember them all. ;)

Posting about board games in the dreamlist reminded me of Nintendo Labo. I won't lie, I'm not very familiar with the full concept or its current status. As far as I remember, Nintendo Labo uses cardboard to create interactive toys that work with the Switch console. The reasons I stayed away: Nintendo itself and what I perceived as a cheap novelty concept.

1. Dreamcast VMU and other memory card accessories

2. Wifi functionality and stores for outdated consoles like the Wii, DS, Wii U, and 3DS.

3. Motion sensor games using Wii sensors, PS Move, Xbox Kinect, and tilting phones.

4. Amiibos. I forewent it and used non-official NFC cards instead.

5. Wiimote plastic accessories. Though the nunchuk and classic pro controllers were designed pretty well.

6. Password screens

Stop Skeletons from Fighting also does interesting video essays about failed gaming inventions.

https://www.youtube.com/@StopSkeletonsFromFighting/videos

That reminds me. There were mobile apps that act as extra resources for console games back then.

I wish I could watch people like Skeletons and Polygon Donut, but their high energy style is often in sharp contrast to the kind of content I like, which is long, plodding, and patiently explained.

Also, remember when 3D televisions were a thing and games tried to implement them as a gimmick?

Remember when every game with online functionality had its own third party middleware service?

Actually, now that I'm thinking about GameSpy, remember those Planet websites? They're still up evidently.

Glad that you also had fun with it back then. haha
Also glad you still hold to your PS1 and PS2!

If there's two things I wish I held on to, it was my flight joystick which I never really used properly, and the uhm driving wheel for the PS1. The latter could've at least been used for a PS2 game like Gran Turismo 4 and it'd probably rock, but then I was told it didn't really act much like a real driving wheel, a.k.a. it didn't cars any differently from just using the D-pad, which would make it suck I think.

But at least I have my PS1, PS2, bought a PS3 and I have the Vita, off the top of my head.

Do memory cards count? I like the idea in theory, but in practice that just meant we had a bunch of proprietary formats for old consoles. I think the PS1, PS2, Dreamcast, GC, and Vita all had memcards in some shape or another. The PSP had memcards too but the format was at least semi-popular or common compared to the Vita's and wasn't a pain in the butt to turn into a MicroSD converter. Nowadays people produce third party PS1/PS2 memory cards that let you use a MicroSD card to either create loads of virtual memory cards, or to just use them as mass storage for games to load up on your console.

Still, memcards were an industry changing feature. Instead of it being built into the game's cart at a cost, it was now common and accessible enough to the average Joe, allowing more games to take advantage of saving and loading, and it was a nice transition until console makers realized MicroSD cards (at least Nintendo) or HDDs/SSDs could unlock all the potential.

We had one of those back then. I used to play Gran Turismo with my dad on PS1 on it. Gotta agree, the way I remember, the technology was way too simple to be the kind of simulator we thought of they should be. As PS1 couldn't have this kind of user input because games hadn't the technology to do so back then I think.

Because I grew up on poor family (if you can call a family that has money to spent on a hobby such as a gaming console, even if sparingly) we had only Sony consoles and only the main ones as they were cheaper on my country.
Later we got a PC and emulated everything we could. From NES, to SNES, to N64, to PS1 and beyond.

Still I wish we had preserved our consoles and games, I still miss the quality of PS2 controllers to this day.
Can't find any like it!

Also, yes! Memory Cards! Geez, such a creative idea that solved many problems. This generation takes memory and space for granted! haha
I remember having a heart pain when we needed to delete a save from a game to be able to save and progress on another! oof! :P

About the community projects, If Im not mistaken, a Youtuber I follow talked about these kind of memory cards with SDs inside... let me see If I can find it.

EDIT:

Found it! Here it is:

Modern Vintage Gamer - "This $50 PS2 Memory card saves and PLAYS all your games but.." (16:50 duration)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUJjmyG7FBw

(He's a great youtuber by the way! I'd recommend everyone around here that enjoy emulation, hacking, gaming preservation and so on to follow him. Wish GOG would do a partnership with him as they already did with Josh Strife Hayes, Mandalore Gaming and TheSphereHunter!)

So glad that motion controls (mostly the botched attempts by Microsoft and Sony) didn't catch on in any meaningful way. We still have VR and VE through dedicated hardware, but developers aren't wasting their time introducing motion gimmicks in popular franchises instead of building new mainline games.

In that same vein, I'm glad that the 3D gimmicks have died down as well. It was all the craze for a bit to a point that Nintendo introduced 3DS which collectivity gave a lot of people nothing but literal headaches. You had some nonsense like 3D TVs and filters that required glasses. Collectivity, all of that was somewhat toned down. Just like with motion controls above, it's not dead, just not the focus and more an outlier these days,

Motion controls are still around, but they've mostly mutated into gyro controls; which are a more acceptable version which require a lot less effort on the players.

You're probably referring to the Virtual Boy?