There's something so indescribable and satisfyingly tactile about loading a cartridge into a system. Sure, slipping discs in and out of velvet-smooth vacuum drives is one thing, but loading in a chunky cartridge and feeling all the parts lock into the housing is like some gaming equivalent of lock n' loading a shotgun shell. For the weirdly-named Nomad (a label that already implies a lack of impact) Sega tried to take the chunky days of 90's consoles and make them portable - something that as time would tell only the Game Boy would ever manage to perfect. With a games lineup routed in the previous generation's 16 bit aesthetic - thanks to support for Genesis titles exclusively - consumers were all too happy with the newer polygonal delights of the Sega Saturn to pay much attention. Throw in a two hour battery life, a rucksack-requiring size that hampered its portability and a fairly uncomfortable feel, and the Nomad was destined to wander the nebulous postings of auction sites like its namesake forevermore.
