Slashdot Mirror
What's the Best Game Console of All Time?
The C|Net Crave blog has up an article exploring the history of console gaming, and wonders aloud about the pecking order of the various systems. "Gaming is so subjective that there is no single "greatest" system ever. It might sound like a cop-out, but it really depends on what standards you're using and what generation you grew up in. I loved the SNES, and would personally call it the greatest system of all time. However, the NES and PlayStation could both easily be called the best, based on the standards they set and the advances they presented to gaming." The Guardian follows up this piece, noting that the article's rose-colored recollections of the SNES days may not be entirely accurate. Subjective or not, it's a good question: which consoles have a valid place in history and which ones should be forgotten?
I grew up with the NES. My parents refused to buy me a SNES when they came out, but I'm not at all bitter (bastards! *cries*). Aside from playing SNES games at friend's houses, I lost interest fairly quickly. I'd occasionally play a brief game at a friend's house on their playstation and i don't think I ever even touched a PS2 beyond using it to play DVDs back when it was the cheapest DVD player on the market. So I basically skipped the past two console generations alltogether.
The NES was the "greatest" system for me, simply because that was the one I interacted with the most, however I can definitely agree with this guy's argument that Sony's embrace of third party developers with the PlayStations made the game industry what it is today.
One minor nitpick, from the article:
I've always heard that was his inspiration for Zelda, not Mario.
. . . that has Duke Nukem Forever as a game option?
What disappoints me massively here is that there is no establishment of values. Have you ever done a trade study? Why weren't the performance parameters isolated and discussed between consoles? Instead, all I saw was opinionated statements often tied to nostalgia with little or no scientific basis.
It's not even discussed about what the delivery method is (cartridge or disc) or even whether doing something well in 8-bit is more desired than something bad in 32-bit. Hardware maintenance, sound capabilities, exclusive franchise titles, I could probably come up with 10 or so factors in deciding how to rank my consoles. Then I would define the scales and think of a novel way to weight them (probably by year and technological limitations).
Last but not least, I would need someone with enough time to play through all of them. Most importantly, this subject(s) would need to be non-interested meaning they have no previous gaming experience. And yet, I don't even see an attempt for this article to do the above while trying to forget that Donky Kong Country entertained them for months in their past.
Why will pong always be better than NES Contra for my dad? Because it was his generation's game. Why is NES Contra always better for me than Souped Up Console Gears of War? Because that was my generation's game. Why will Gears of War always beat Super Lucid Brain Implants Choco Serial Murder Hospital Mystery for my
If you want me to be impressed with a comprehensive study, I expect a cold hard naive matrix and not some subjective highly tailored prose laden essay written by an avid gamer.
My work here is dung.
Clearly the best videogame console is the Infinium Labs Phantom. It even plays Duke Nukem Forever!
Jean-Francois Im's blog
I have yet to play a game on the Phantom that I hated. No other console can boast that claim.
It still used Cartridges which meant less loading times than optical media. Goldeneye brought my family together like no thanksgiving dinner could. On my PS1, the word Loading flashed across the scoreboard in Madden 98 eighteen times before I could play a game. Waaaay worse than waiting for Windows XP to load on an old PC. ;)
People probably have find memories of a console they used when they were (are?( children, but they're probably just remembering the good old days.
Consoles are improving the whole time, just don't wait for the "best", because you'll never find it
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
A modded xbox loaded with emulators to play every NES and SNES game ever made? Sure, a PC can do this but the xbox controller is the same as the SNES/NES with more buttons. Trying to play genesis games is not as simple. Xbox 360/PS3 all i see are first person shooters, I got tired of those around Quake 2.
will be judged by the games for it.
With that in mind, I'd like to nominate the Genesis and the N64 because I think I've whiled away more hours of my life playing games from those 2 consoles than all the others combined.
Runner Up: Neo Geo, but mostly for the Metal Slug series
In Soviet Russia jokes are formulaic and decidedly non-humorous.
'nuff said.
FTA: "The 8-bit console found dozens of great games, from franchise firsts like Super Mario Brothers,..."
What exactly is Super Mario Brothers the first of? It's not the first Mario game. In fact, it's a direct sequel to Mario Brothers and arguably it's the 5th Donkey Kong game. It's not even the first 2D platformer as Pac-Land has that locked up. Super Mario Brothers was a great game but it's not the first anything.
Who needs anything more?
No technical reasons, just the games.
And screw "rose tinted glasses", I played it today.
I beat half a dozen Contra levels, I played some Blaster Master and Iron Tank, I watched a movie "100 NES games in 10 minutes", I'm working on a port of Fire 'n' Ice so I spent a while romhacking and screenshotting it, I played a few levels of Lolo and Wario's Woods, and I played through the first two levels of Super Mario Bros in order to compare something against the Java remake/mod of it I'm working on translating.
NES FOREVER.
I respond to your sigs
I'd go with the SNES as well, but like the summary said, there's a lot going on for the NES. I just don't see the Playstation there however. I'd give a shout to the PS2 who, IMHO was the first totally mainstream console. It's EVERYWHERE. Nintendo's handhelds should not be dismissed either, if they fit in your definition of 'video game console.'
The XBOX 360 is clearly superior to any previous gaming system. Not only can you play games you can download games, download movies, connect to a Media Center PC and watch TV, play all your music, Instant message, etc. It does almost everything a central media machine should do...minus having a built-in TV tuner.
For sheer longevity, if not volume of games.
http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/dedicated/homepong.html
I'd have to say it's pretty much a tie between the NES and the PSX. Why? Because both essentially saved console gaming in their times. The NES pulled gaming out of a hell of utter lack of game production standards, and it introduced one of the greatest controller innovations ever: the D-Pad. The PSX was moderately priced and used CD-ROM media, which let its games be inexpensive and contain more content than cartridge-based games. This combined what would grow to be possibly the largest library of games ever, with many truly wonderful games (Final Fantasy 7, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, etc.) that brought console gaming into the mainstream. And after the N64 introduced analog sticks on controllers, Sony trumped it with the best-designed controller ever, the Dual Shock. Ever since then, with the exception of the Wii, controllers have primarily tended to be some variation of the Dual Shock, and that's a good thing.
By reading this you acknowledge that you have read it.
People prolly won't like me saying this. Seems the obvious choice to me, though... Plays Wii and Gamecube games out of the box, and the virtual console plays games from the NES, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis, Neo Geo, etc.... It doesn't play games for XBox or Playstation, but the library it brings to the table is much bigger, and covers a much wider array of playstyles. There's simply more variety with the Wii.
The Wiimote is also the only *fun* controller that I've run across in years. Actually changes the gameplay significantly. Some people hate it, some people love it. I love it.
So that'd be my vote. *shrugs*
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
To begin in three, two, one...
The Playstation was definitely not the greatest console of all time. Its philosophy was, "Let's throw a bunch of crud against the wall and see what sticks." As a standardized platform for home entertainment it was highly successful. (In part, due to the low cost of its CD media.) However, if you want to actually look at a system that captured the hearts and minds of the market, the NES is probably IT.
The NES drug the console market out of a complete collapse into a thriving and expansive market. The quality was kept reasonably high through careful controls on the number of games that could be produced by each licensee. (To prevent the "game dumping" problem that occurred in the Atari generation.) It set the stage for the modern video game market, brought the arcade home in ways that even the Colecovision couldn't, introduced the idea of story-driven action games rather than arcade console games, reorganized the market around a control scheme that lives on even today (i.e. the venerable gamepad), and is fondly remembered by nearly every generation of gamer.
There simply has never been a console that has had the impact on the market that the original NES had. In its time it was without equal. I love the SNES as well, but the title for the "greatest" always has been and always will be on the NES.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
NES went from Atari2600 and arcades to a home system that finally allowed developers to do a full 2d game. If you were born before 1980 and you were a video game fanatic, you'd know the advances that the NES brought. Some NES games are fun today still, but people tend to walk away from the Atari 2600. Some people went from Intellivision,Colleco, or even the early days of the C64 to NES. Even so, NES was a huge jump forward in technology. If you want to argue, let me bring down the hammer: Today people are gaming all sorts of games across different genre and game stations. When the NES was out, it was the thing! All the kids would talk about what games they beat like status symbols, and you could trade games with your friends.
.45 magnum because that was before the days where they put orange stripes on guns.
For the worst system: I played the Odessey on occassion, and overlaying different screens so you can switch from tennis, to ping pong, to air hockey was so lame it was sad. On the plus side, some versions of the Odessey came with a lightgun that looked like a
God spoke to me.
All platforms had good and bad games, it's useless to compare them. BUT -- in terms of technical coolness and uniqueness, I have to give it to my good ol' Vectrex. Clearly vector graphics don't work for every type of game, but for the games it did work with, it was awesome.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
My vote: Nintendo DS. The portability, accessibility, and interactivity (through the touch screen) have helped Nintendo capture an entirely new generation of game-players. Young or old, there is something appealing to anyone. Heck, even my parents enjoy the DS! Seriously, go anywhere in Japan and you'll see someone playing one--I challenge anyone *not* to find someone playing a DS on the Tokyo subway.
I can't say it was the "best" system, but I think it deserves serious credit.
No, I'm not talking about SEGA Genesis. This was a little known competitor to the original Nintendo. Not only did it come equipped with a bad-ass gun, it had not one, but two different sized cartridge slots. Why? I have no idea.... but it was awesome.
Deserved mentioning...
and yes to Vectrex!
Seriously, TFA seems concerned with a presentist understanding of "The greatest machine of all time", as in "Which consoles make the greatest advancement." Who cares about advancement? It's about the games, dude.
It's all about the games.
I was originally going to say it would be the GameBoy Advance SP, but then I remembered that the DS can play GameBoy Advance games too.
It's a nicely-sized portable, which I've found means that I can actually play the game instead of requiring a TV. Many of the great SNES games were re-released for the GBA (like The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, basically all the Final Fantasy games before VII, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Donkey Kong Country 2).
Unfortunately Nintendo took the time to screw with some of them (Link shouldn't be yelling "Ha!" all the time in Link to the Past!), and not all of them translated quite as well as I might like (the music in Final Fantasy VI Advance was screwed up in some places, but on the plus side the bugs were fixed).
Add in original DS games and other original GBA games, and you've got a very nice portable handheld console, which in my mind at least makes it the Best Game Console of All Time, So Far.
Of course, that's probably because I'm getting older and have less free time to play games. It's easier to sneak some game time when you can just drop the console in your pocket or man-purs-- I mean, laptop bag. It's a laptop bag.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
That piece of junk's only innovation was the introduction of ridiculous load times and boring cutscenes to gaming, and we've been cursed with them even since.
I was the odd-ball without an NES, but oh the love I had for my Sega Master System -- Phantasy Star, Ys, Miracle Warriors, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Zillion, Walter Payton Football, Quartet, Space Harrier -- oh the hours of my mis-spent youth
This was the ultimate game console for those kids who's parents were too poor or cheap to buy the Atari.
....
It had games like
Blackjack
KC Munchkin (rip off of Pac Man)
err.....
um some learning game.
Oh hell, it sucked, but I sure do miss it.
Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
In my game room I have the following set up and ready to play:
Sega Master, NES, Genesis, SNES, Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, Wii
Between 30-70 games each for the others, and about 8 for the Wii
Based on those options, the SNES gets the most play time by far. Followed closely by the Wii, then NES, then Genesis.
My household includes me (the kook who collected all these systems), My non-gamer (Wii or Ducktails on NES only), and my two children (who keep the SNES warm for me).
Impossible to say at this point. We'd have to wait until the end of time and then do a review. Now if you want to talk about the best console so far, I'd vote for either the NES or the Wii. Both were massively popular.
Even though it isn't really covered in the article, I'd have to pick the original Xbox as the greatest system. Wait! Before you mod me into oblivion let me explain: I claim that a lot of interest in a particular console seems to be how well you can modify it for other purposes. In other words, versatility can be of great importance.
Xbox (original): Once you easily softmod the machine, and possible install a larger internal hardrive, the Xbox is a self-sufficient machine with excellent graphics capabilities and emulation ability. Even by today's console standards, on any 'regular' standard-definition TV, the Xbox games are surprising good looking and perform well. Yeah, a lot of Xbox titles are cross-platform. But even so, usually the Xbox edition of any title was as good or superior to the others. Plus, with UnleashX or other dashboard replacement, you have customizable menus from which to launch programs or games stored on the hard drive. It's also reliable as hell, almost impossible to kill.
Emulation. The Xbox can run those precious SNES games listed in the article. It can also run NES, Genesis, Atari, and even some PSone games. There's even a working Daphne emulator for those old laserdisc titles such as Space Ace and Dragon's Lair. You can also run a number of select N64 titles, although not a complete list.
Multi-Media. Xbox has the famous XBMC, XBoxMediaCenter from which you can play movies, music, photos and the like from local or network storage. XBMC can also be used as a game launcher instead of other dashboards if you prefer. The only caveat is that newer H264 and other Hi-Def high-bandwidth material is a bit too much for the 700MHx intel CPU on the aging beast.
Computing. That's right, the Xbox is a 700MHz intel PC in a console case. You can use it to run Linux as a basic computing platform if you like. This is Slashdot, is it not? Nothing can be taken seriously here until it runs linux. :)
Don't get me wrong... I loved the SNES as well in its day. You could even use pliers to break away the little plastic tabs in the cartridge slot to play those Ranma 1/2 import games. But any other utility was pretty much non-existant. Ans let's face it, there were a ton of crappy platformer clones (maybe not as many as the infamous NES).
P.S.What I find most amusing is how much I *hated* the big and heavy XBox when it first came out, and conversely how much I love it today.
{ - Generic Guy - }
What's the best $FOO of all time?
Expect at least as many unique answers as there are replies.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
My vote has to go to the Nintendo 64. Watching Super Mario 64, and later Zelda Ocarina of Time, run around in 3 dimensions was just such a quantum leap from Pong and Tank (yes I go back to the very beginning) that there is no way to say anyone else ever brought such a leap to gaming.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
At any given time, individual consoles have had particular examples that were superior to the wealth of options on the PC, but over time the PC has established itself as king.
The graphics options are superior to the speciality boxes. The keyboard/mouse reigns in fps, and the rumble controllers are now common on the PC. The noob wii controller I would say now owns the PC, but time will tell.
And online play is still far ahead on the PC, though that may change.
But I'm actually a bit partial to the, uh... SNES.
I just can't get enough Chrono Trigger / Tales of Phantasia / Super Mario RPG
FF3 / Earthbound / Secret of Evermore / Zelda:ALinkToThePast / Megaman X
Yoshi's Island / Zombies ate my neighbors / etc.
Yeah, Zombies ate my neighbors, I said it.
There's really no shortage of great SNES games. They're fun and memorable and that kind of crap.
If the whole premise of this is the best "game machine" of all time, I have to argue that the Commodore 64 was the best game console of all time.
Yes, yes, I know. It's not a dedicated gaming system like a true "console" is, but you will be hard-pressed to find people who used it for more than a gaming system. Even when the NES came out, the C64 was the king of the gaming machines with a ton of top-notch games out for it. When C64 users got together, very few cared about GEOS or MultiCALC. It was all about the games, from Mail Order Monsters to Space Taxi to the original Castle Wolfenstein to the Ultima series to The Last Ninja. Gaming was what made the C64 as popular as it was.
So, you can debate about the best "console" of all time, but as far as I'm concerned the best gaming platform was the C64.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
...why? Because you could put in the BASIC programming cartridge and enter 1Kb of your own code on the built-in numeric keypad!
Wait, wrong argument. Sorry.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
"The [console name] is the best one, because I played it when I was 12."
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
The next one.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
I'd have to put my vote in for 3DO. It was, after all, the first console to use optical media.
..::ALWAYS : watching::..
That's a fairly easy question for me to answer.
Pilotwings & Mario cart are great, but with games like Jungle Strike, Herzog Zwei, RoadRash 2, Speedball 2, PGA Tour Golf and Micro Machines 2, the Sega Megadrive wins hands down.
I noticed the other day that someone was suggesting otherwise, because of the various ill-fated attachments that were knocked out (32X and Megacd). That seems a rather weak reason to dismiss a particular console; surely you didn't have to buy them?
512x512 monochrome amber plasma display. Programmable keyboard. Online chat during multiplayer dungeon games, chess, etc., with users from across town or across the ocean.
In 1978.
sigs, as if you care.
It came with Sewer Shark!
It's sorta like debating which movie studio makes the best movies. Does total count? High signal to noise ratio? Do we adjust for overall popularity? Our feelings as they've changed with time?
I had a TV with a pong-like game built into it in the 70's. Then a 2600. Odyssey. Intellivison. Coleco (really an Adam). Sega Master System. TurboGrafx 16. SNES. PS. N64. PS2. Xbox. Gamecube. 360. Wii.
I bet that's more hands on then most people who comment on such things. But even still it's worthless to me. The 2600 came when I was so young that I just longed to do things grown ups could. It was the first to make major headway into homes. The SMS was those 7th-8th grade type years. The SMS probably wins in signal to noise. Alex Kidd, Phantasy Star, Miracle Warriors, Zillion, Shinobi, After Burner, Califnornia games, MK, Ninja Gaiden, Space Harrier. And I'm sure I'm missing a bunch. But compared to the low number of total games for the system, that's a huge amount of A list games.
Then agian, The TurboGrafx 16 and Bonks and Slaughterhouse. 2 great games for a system that only had like 10 games total.
The NES to me was the clear winner as far as the system that brought home gaming back after fading away after the 2600. Probably had the most "great" games of any system. Even more then the followup SNES had IMO.
I don't know. I like being nostalgic here. But the arguement as to which was the best really can't be won.
of course ;-)
Sorry for stealing someone's sig: ASCII a stupid question, get a stupis ANSI.
BookDetective.net - book search engine and ranker I donate my skills to.
To start it off, I love the control inputs for Battlezone!
No contest.
Well, except probably the Amiga a few years later.
simply the best of its time and stayed the best up until NES. I would include the Atari 5200, but not all games were available for both (at least where I could find). Coleco did, however, do a good job of running Zaxxon.
This is a lot like asking "what's the best car in history" or "what's the best food in history"....
1) Ask stupid purely subjective question, designed to invoke emotional attachment
2) Serve up ads
3) Profit...
Sorry, but Dreamcast has to win. If for no other reason than the (sad) realization that more alcohol was consumed in college in front of Virtua Tennis than in front of tits. :(
A very well-designed machine, an excellent controller, and (if you play imports) the finest game library ever. Shameless plug time: check out the Propeller Arena Fan Site.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Actually, it depends on what type of videogame you're into. I am quite an eclectic player, meaning I play almost any kind of videogames, but I have to admit that the NeoGeo AES was a damn good console for people who were into fighting games. Its only drawback was its expensive games, due to the high price of memory back then -- the "ROM size was up to 330 megabits."
In fact, this platform has been a good choice for anybody who was keen on arcade games generally speaking: for instance, shooters or run 'n gun games (and perhaps quizzes if you can understand Japanese).
"The body may heal, but the mind is not always so resilient." -- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Another cool approach to figuring out the greatest game of all time is to aggregate a bunch of peoples favorite games, and then merge the results. This is what is going on in the list below. It has users and critics lists of the best games and combines to create the overall communities best game of all time. I added my list in to vote.
aggregate best video games ever
Currently if your curious these are the top 3:
1. GoldenEye 007
2. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
3. Super Mario 64
Dan Mayer: my blog, essays, art, etc
Not trolling, but I think MAME and MESS are the best gaming platform via emulation :-)
http://mamedev.org/
http://mess.org/
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
I have never, ever had a console system, although I did once borrow an Atari Pong for a while in 76.
I have always had at least one mechanical pinball machine, though. And the bar table Galaga, naturally.
Console games have never held the least interest for me. I was always painfully aware that, even though they *could*, they intentionally chose not to make the console games equivalent to the arcade games, back when people still played arcade games like mad for 25 and 50 cents a pop.
So until MAME made it possible to strictly reproduce the arcade games from the early 80s, I never gave a damn about any console machine I ever saw.
That said, I did enjoy playing Zelda.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
The most influential have to be the Atari 2600, NES, PlayStation 2, and Wii.
The 'best', well... Best at what? I would argue that the PlayStation 3 is the 'best' game console ever, as it has the most powerful processor and graphics, Blu-ray, and the controller contains most of the capabilities of the Wii-mote, while retaining the best of previous generation controllers. (Well, with the Japanese DualShock 3, anyway.) Even so, it hasn't been very influential. (Other than maybe the slight benefit it has given to Blu-ray over HD DVD.) (Oh, and I have a Wii, might buy an XB360, and have never even CONSIDERED buying a PS3, so my statements aren't Sony fanboyism.)
If we're going to ask for 'best' of each generation, then it's just going to be a pissing match of one-ups.
As for my list up top? 2600 essentially created the home game console market. Yes, there were better (technically) consoles at the same time, and even Atari made better ones. But the 2600 was the grandaddy of game consoles. NES has an obvious place in history, reviving the game console market after the crash. PlayStation 2 is a bit of a tough call, but it was probably responsible for the creation of true 'fanboys' more than anything. The first console to have lines and sellouts at launch, and at the time, it really was a major leap over the competition. And, well, we know what the Wii has done. It has made technical power irrelevant. It has re-focused on actual gameplay. (I'm sure soon we'll see just as 'revolutionary' games for the XB360 and PS3, which will make their technical power an important selling point again. But we haven't seen it quite yet. When/if that happens, I expect the PS3 to start to out-sell the XB360.)
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
One word: Pixar
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
nothing better, games made for PC platform +1, games made for consoles but run under emulator on PC +2...
A hand up and a foot on every chest...
Wiith its wiinning design and wiifi capability, wii think it is the best.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
I didn't carry mine around that much, but I could have -- the original controller snapped right onto the front of the unit under the screen, and of course the screen was part of the unit itself (no TV required). The fact that it had Minestorm built in meant you didn't even have to bring a cartridge along to impress your friends, and in those days it didn't take much to make an impression! :-)
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
Everyone knows that the best gaming console was the Apple Pippin! I mean, it was designed by the same company as the Quadra and the Performa, so it has to be great!
I'm probably the real odd-man out here, but I think of all the different systems I've owned, the Sega Dreamcast was my favorite. I've owned several different consoles & handhelds. We currently have a PS, PS2 & XBox in my home, and none of them get the same use for gaming as my Dreamcast did. We use the PS2 mainly as a DVD player, the PS isn't even plugged in, and the XBox sits idle. My favorite controller of all time though is the Dual Shock 2.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
C'mon - all these console's are flashes in the pan compared to the Intellivision - it lasted in the market for over a decade, had lots of industry firsts (1st person dungeon crawl, RTS, speech in game, etc) plus a ton of fantastic and innovative games. The keypad, while a bit awkward, also meant that more complex games could be played properly on it as well. Mine's lasted over 25 years, and it still plays just great.
I was fortunate enough to have easy access to both an NES and SMS and eventually owned both for myself. The SMS is technically superior to the NES and as you note had some fantastic titles which were superior in their genre.
The problem with the SMS was lack of 3rd party games. Sega was the primary developer and publisher for most SMS games (and I believe for a long time the _only_ developer/publisher).
That's right - the atari2600...or not. Personally i'd pick the NES or the original (dot matrix) gameboy.
I've added my favorite games to the aggregate list as well. Starcraft, Super Smash Bros, and Tetris top my list (the list has games for computer and consoles, but you can console games dominate, and you can filter to just see games for your favorite platform) My list is here
I'd argue that the NES is the best console so far. Since we haven't reached the end of time claiming it's the best of all time is a bit stupid.
Anyway, the NES really established the modern console era. Atari, Coleco and others were certainly immensely important but I believe the NES had a more profound impact on gaming. The graphics were a significant leap from what had been previously available and the system introduced the control pad, something still in use today. And I'd argue it is a more universal controller than the Wii remote.
Then there were the games. There are the obvious ones, like Super Mario Bros, Metroid and Zelda. But many other popular games and genres saw their big start with the NES; Metal Gear, Final Fantasy and Mega Man are three that come to mind.
The SNES was a great system, but it really was just a NES with nicer graphics. The SNES also had some of its thunder stolen by the Genesis. It never dominated the market like the NES did.
Although, if you had asked me at the time I would have said the Sega Master System was the better console. That's what I owned and I still have an affinity for the console. Unfortunately, the NES got all the best games.
With absolutly no hesitation, the SNES, there is NO contest.
You feel sleepy. Close your eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt otherwise.
I wish that system wasn't so ahead of it's time. I wonder what happened to the founders.
TG16 was AWESOME when it came out. I still like the card vs. the cartridge, CD, DVD,or HDDVD/Blueray. Yeah with hindsight, it wouldn't scale as well maybe. I loved playing TG16 version of R-Type (Gradius?). It was beautiful back then, and is still cool now. Everyone loved bonk, but did you ever play Military Madness? A turn based strat game that was so much fun! I got it for my Cell phone when it came to that platform!
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
[RaspyComputerGeneratedVoice = ON]
EEEEK! HELLLP! SPIKE!!!!
OH NO!...MOLLY!
[RaspyComputerGeneratedVoice = OFF]
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It's a toss up between a D20 and a pair of percentile.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
I think the SNES was the best game system of all time, and here's why; no other system, in my mind, has ever had music composed so well for its games. Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy III, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, Legend of Gaia; these are the games that had some of the best music in the history of video games (IMHO), and it was all composed without REAL instruments. The NES also had some of the most amazing music ever composed (Mega Man II and III anyone?), but all this guy is looking at is some subjective material that he doesn't seem to know much about.
I haven't heard music this impressive in any later system, not consistently.
brian botkiller "Condensing fact from the vapor of nuance" - Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
The greatest video games system of all time is the Wii - it has revolutionized the way people interact with the console.
The only difference between all the other game systems is graphics and buttons. Difference between an Atari 2600 and NES/Genesis? More graphics and buttons. NES and SNES/Dreamcast/Playstation? Graphics and buttons. SNES/Playstation/Dreamcast and N64/PS2/XBox? Graphics and buttons. N64/PS2/XBox and PS3/XBox360? Graphics and buttons.
But the Wii is fundamentally different. It's the realization of what the power glove was meant to be. There hasn't been that kind of revolution in gaming since Pong. Maybe the advent of games where you could save your game (with code or battery) from one session to the next. But other than that, it's all graphics and buttons.
paintball
Ah, you baby! Unskippable cutscenes and load times make man out of you! A *MAN*, I tell you!
Toughen up, son! Go play the entire Xenosaga trilogy! Huah!
While a great controller (although easily ruined by sweaty hands), the D-Pad was first seen on all the Game & Watch series of games. It was already around for almost 5 years when Nintendo put it on the NES.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
My formative years were during the great heyday of arcade games, so I would have to answer that the best gaming platform is the null one - that is, customized hardware and software to play a particular game.
But, that said, if I had to pick a best, I would have to pick the Wii, almost entirely due to the revolutionary contribution of the Wiimote and the way in which it has fundamentally altered game interaction.
Video game console discussions always end up with more modern gamers attacking the past, citing technological advancements as proof of superiority. To those people, is navigating a Pixar DVD menu more enjoyable than a game of Pong? I do not see the positive correlation between graphical enhancements and gameplay. In fact, one could say that back then video game developers had to focus on gameplay because graphics alone could not attract gamers. Either way, I don't know why some people can't admit the style of video games made on the SNES is more appealing to some gamers. Anyway, if I had to rate consoles objectively based on industry impact, the main contenders would be the NES and PSX. I love the SNES, and it's my personal favorite console, but I feel those two progressed the industry the furthest. The previous generation of consoles did nothing for gaming (and I almost quit video games due to that lack of innovation), and the modern one has potential with the DS and Wii. But in the end, any video game console can be the best, from the Intellivision to the Jaguar to the Xbox. I'm just baffled why some people would get into heated debates about this.
The first 32bit CD console. Truly "multimedia" by the contemporary definition - It played audio CDs, using the controller as a remote. With a plug-in cartridge it could play full-motion mpeg video, a la the CD-i. Since it was basically an Amiga 1200 without a keyboard, it could easily be expanded into a full-fledged home computer, with the addition of a keyboard, mouse, RAM, HDD etc... very similar to what Sony seem to be pushing with the ps3.
Shame that Commodore went bust soon after the machine was released. Stupid Commodore.
sustainable living
I think the Wii will win. maybe not right now, but in the next 5 years, it's going to continue growing. there's almost no ceiling to it's potential. Check out some of the cool motion capture vids going around.
"Teach a man to build a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life."
1) Dreamcast was legitimately ahead of its time - you can compare Tony Hawk/Dead or Alive on Dreamcast vs Playstation and see a world of difference. 2) The games were ahead of its time - many of the XBOX-generation games were largely ports of Dreamcast original games, including Metropolis Street Racer, among others. 3) No mod chip required for home brew - probably one of the easiest ways to enjoy console emulation on the home tv. The only downside is learning how to burn the roms to the CD. I'm not sure though, but it seemed like the CDs caused the drive to fail early though. 4) Features - built-in networking for online gaming, with some degree success in Phantasy Star. VMU minigames/screen and Rumble controller (which is just starting to arrive in next gen platforms as in the PSP->PS3 plugin). The VMU could communicate to users when there was player-private information without having to broadcast it on the screen and show other players, plus it could also do standalone play. 5) Games - Skies of Arcadia is still probably my favorite RPG ever - more fun in tone and atmosphere than many of the Final Fantasy's. Soul Caliber - extremely deep game play but deceptively simple to get started. It is unfortunate though that there weren't more games, which is a major downside 6) No Region lock - unlike most consoles, Dreamcast didn't burp when you played games from Japan.
I will agree that Atari and Intellivision had great consoles before the Nintendo, but the NES was just an unstoppable force. Everybody had one, or wanted one. Nintendo became a thing to do: "hey, let's play Nintendo." It just worked, very well, and many of the games were highly addictive and long (think Zelda and Mario).
:) Games had to be back by 6PM the next evening, and there would be no sleep until then.
The Nintendo brought about the video game rental business, at least around here. I remember scraping up as much change as I could and riding my bike to the video store to rent games...hoping that Ikari Warriors was finally back in.
I think the NES craze is what started everyone really thinking about video games. With computer games and even the Atari, people considered those systems to be "educational" (and more or less they were). The earlier consoles were much more rare, and simply a "cool" thing for anyone to own, regardless of age. But it was the Nintendo that gave us the video game stereotype: fat kids sitting around all day playing games (a deserved stereotype perhaps). The Nintendo brought about much of the public "awareness" of the "dangers" of video games. The Nintendo brought about a new set of harsh parental rules, such as: "one hour of Nintendo per evening after homework!!" The Nintendo put callouses on the thumbs of millions of kids. The Nintendo taught an entire generation of kids how to push a button with amazing speed via the tensed-up-arm-jitter technique (thanks Track & Field!). The Nintendo taught us about electronics, and how to change the battery in a Zelda cartridge. It taught us that that smacking an expensive piece of gear real hard was an acceptable form of maintenance. It gave us the phrase: "hey don't throw the controller!!!"
Aside from Robby the Robot his weird ass gyros, the Nintendo was a phenomenal success that was all alone for quite some time. Consoles have become more and more popular over time, but now they are just the norm, and the competition is good enough that there's no single household name in the console world. I gave up on them after the NES when I decided that computers were just the way to go with video games, at least for geeks.
The Wii deserves some consideration to be a top game console. I played the NES and SNES from 1988 to about 1996. When the next generation of consoles came out, I played them, but got tired of them quickly. I pretty much stopped playing consoles for about 8 years until the Wii came out. I know this is true for a lot of people. During the past winter holidays, my parents, grandparents, and other "older" relatives all loved the Wii too. My 80 year old grandmother won the family bowling tournament, and talked smack about it! My mom got addicted to WarioWare. There's no way those events could happen on any other console.
2d6
or an 8x8 square board, though 21x21 has had a lot of impact, too.
Hopelessly pedantic since 1963.
Come on! The headaches weren't THAT bad.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Shouldn't this be a poll ? ...
The C64 would be the winner of course
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
Not only did the C64 have great games written for it, but in its own way created the culture that allowed those who followed to flourish.
Many kids who diddled with the C64 later became the game developers who programmed on the PlayStation, the Xbox, and other consoles.
Parent's subject has to be the lamest thing I've read in the last 3 months on slashdot. However lame his suggestion is, he has a point about this discussion. It is pointless, but fun, and it brings people together...kind of like gaming itself ;)
I rank platforms in my mind in sort of an evolutionary chain of what was the best system for its era...the single must have (only dorks and rich introvert kids had two of the same gen systems)...here's my chain:
Atari 2600>NES>Super NES>N64>Playstation 2>???
Sorry Sega...tech stats, cool commercials, and having fanboys don't get you in my list. Sega was cool, but I felt sorry for the guys who had one (any of them) because almost everyone else had the comparable nintendo. I mean, how long can you play Sonic the Hedgehog alone while all the other kids are playing SFII turbo? It's nothing personal, sega...
Playstation 1 didn't make it b/c it represented the triumph of the kind of mindless gaming that I have always hated, Nintendo still ruled at that time. Remeber the kids in the dorm on their PS1's? Playing some lame excuse for a 3D pvp fighter while all the cool kids were playing 4 player bond or mario kart...seriously... PS2, however, wins in my book b/c gamecube kind of gave up on anyone over the age of 14 with that tiny controller.
Ok, back to my trade study
Thank you Dave Raggett
Playstation 3.
:) )
xoxoxo,
Sony
(Yes, I'm kidding.
Mmmm......sacrelicious.
Chrono Trigger, hands down the best console RPG of all time, with only FF7 and Earthbound coming anywhere close. I've spent more hours playing and replaying Chrono Trigger than any other video game, including the modern FPSes that I tend to prefer these days. Chrono Trigger's blend of humor, flirtatious characters, intense drama, fantastic graphics for a 16-bit system, but most of all: the most compelling, appropriate music ever in a game. I can listen to the music from the game and feel like I'm playing it.
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
PS1 was met with intense competition from Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64. It was good effort to let others know that Sony can be a serious player in the console market even though it's only Sony's first attempt. But it was the PS2 that solidified Sony's reputation as, not only a market player, but a market leader, of the console industry. XBox and Gamecube had their followers, but PS2 played well into mass-market. But whatever fame and reputation and good-will that Sony has built-up has been squabbled by the over-powered over-priced under-selling monster that PS3 is.
My votes for all-time consoles will be SNES and PS2. But then, I was born late, so I might have been missing out on all the Commodore and Atari craziness too =)
Only joking. But I thought I'd mention it for nostalgia.
That and the CDTV.
A million and one ways for Commodore to sell the same old chips.
I don't understand people who exclude portables from such comparisons, but for those who realize their validity, don't you think the GameBoy should win this spot?
The DS is by and far the most successful video game machine ever, beating records repeatedly throughout its life cycle, and STILL outselling all the other consoles.
The DS exists because Nintendo made handheld gaming successful and relevant to real developers with the GameBoy.
And personally, my favorite experiences with gaming were on GameBoy and its derivatives.
Just my 2c..
I read the script, and I think it would help my character's motivation if he was on fire. -Bender
Well, clearly the best game console of all time is the Playstation 7. Since we'll reach the limit of Moore's Law right around then, all subsequent consoles will just be cheap imitations.
...but perhaps I've said too much.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Nothing else has yet come close to capturing the market like the NES. Over its ten year lifespan (you will never again see a 10-year system), the Nintendo brand was inescapable. There was Nintendo *everything*: TV-shows, magazines, clothing, bedding, a few of movies, even breakfast cereal. It is solely responsible for the console video game market having grown into the multi-billion dollar industry it is today.
Without the NES, I can easily imagine the console gaming market eclipsing, being replaced by PC gaming.
TG-16 had quite a few great, unique games! They had:
- a slew of side-scrolling shooters, among the best ever made (Blazing Lasers, Super Star Soldier, Raiden, Macross 2036, to name a few)
- a couple of great pinball games (Alien/Devil Crush)
- The Bonk series was great
- Dungeon Explorer which was basically 5-player gauntlet with RPG elements
- That racing/RPG combo game was fun
- Dragon's Curse
- Battle Royale - 5 player wrestling madness
- Legendary Axe I/II
- Military Madness (like Advance Wars but older) I'm sure I could think of more...
Who could forget such classics as JJ & Jeff and Johnny Turbo!
...it's the last one that your parents bought for you. Well, maybe. My parents bought me a NES for making the Honor Role in 8th grade, and a Genesis. Nothing ever beat the joy i got from that original NES.
These types of articles are as useful as "Top Ten" lists. Every console has it's good and bad points and once you throw in preference this all becomes a completely moot point. This is just hit farming at it's finest and it sucks when Slashdot actually posts stuff like this. Next time it will be chocolate versus vanilla, which is more geek worthy?
You won't get a VC copy (NES, SNES, or N64) of Dr. Mario, but they announced a WiiWare version that will support 2 players online.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Wii not the Wii? Who says the best console must be a crusty old, beloved memory? I started with Pong, moved through the NES, SNES, land. Loved Amiga and Sega, but really... the Wii is just a slice of hot game-lovin goodness. Yum. I'll take another slice.
...but I think maybe ZX80, ZX81, VIC20, Dragon32, ZX Spectrum, C64, Amiga were my favourite gaming computers and perhaps the Atari 2600, NES, PS1 and PS2 on the console side. That said, the Acorn Electron had quite a big userbase in the UK (particularly for playing Elite I remember).
I'd say it's not so much a case of 'which was the best console', rather 'which was the best of it's generation'.
If we're going to consider systems that were released very recently, I think we should include the retro system that was released recently.
Like many others, I owned an Atari 2600 when I was about 6. I came to acquire a large number of games for it, which somehow I managed to stop my parents from throwing away. I still have those games, but of course the old 2600 doesn't hoot up to any TV I own, nor does it likely still function.
Enter the Atari flashback2. 40 games on a system that still uses my old Atari joysticks. And even better, people have already demonstrated how to hack it to play the original 2600 cartridges!
Now I just have to get my hands on a second one, so that if I screw up the hack, my wife and I can still play pong on the first flashback2 I bought...
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Clearly it's the TI 83+ (Possibly silver edition)
For the greatest console of all time, I have two words:
GAME BOY.
Every other console has had credible rivals that did much the same thing. The NES competed with home computers, early on with Spectrums and C64s and later with Acorns and Amigas. SNES faced the Mega Drive. And so on, and so on. Often there's been a clear leader, but there's never been anything else remotely like the Game Boy's dominance. And as pack-in games go, Tetris was an absolute killer.
The Game Boy lasted a decade and saw off every rival that ever dared try it on. Sega had a good go, they had a colour screen and everything, but the Game Gear sank while Nintendo marched on, and on, and on... I thought it was finally dying off, then Pokemon happened - and suddenly every one of the countless millions of old Game Boys came out of the attic and lit up again, played with by the original owners' younger brothers! And hence a miniaturised Gameboy Pocket made with modern technology, and then colour...
Its contemporary successor is nearly as crazy. Everyone thought the DS was a stopgap. A cheap gimmick produced to slow down the PSP while Nintendo worked on the real next-gen Game Boy. How very, very wrong we were.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Precisely the reason I bought a PlayStation instead of an N64 - I had no shortage of friends to hang out at their house and play Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, or Goldeneye long into the night (though I was never impressed with Goldeneye, Quake 2 released at roughly the same time and I'll never give up mouse/keyboard control in an FPS). When Metal Gear Solid released, I got to swap consoles with those friends, giving me a chance to sample the N64's single-player games without having to buy my own (Starfox64 was fun as hell). I'd say both consoles definitely delivered as good systems, but they had their own distinct flavor.
The other reason: the N64 had nothing on the PSX for RPGs, a genre I love, and is a reason I would rank the PSX a cut above the N64. When it came to the school nights where we couldn't chuck turtle shells at each other for hours on end, I had quite a lot of game content to play through - Mario Kart didn't hold up so well then. There are still RPGs for the PSX that I haven't gotten to, and several I own have just as high replayability as the N64's "party games"; I think that's as large a strength as the N64's for being a multiplayer system (though to be honest, I think the most hours we racked up in multiplayer fragfesting on a single game was Rogue Trip for the PSX, with a multitap).
The Saturn and Dreamcast will always have a special place of honor for me, a sort of "noncompete" placing. Popular or not, I still rank games from them among my favorites (like Panzer Dragoon and Seaman, respectively).
Registered Linux User #449434
I am one of the few Slashdotters who can be totally objective. I have never owned a console and I have never played any game on any console in my life. Meaning, I have no nostalgia for any of the systems. So then, the greatest console was the one that Tetris originally came on, which I think was one of the Nintendo systems.
Say what you will about that controller, I consider it to be the best-designed controller in the history of video game controllers. NOTHING has ever fit my hands so perfectly, nothing whatsoever. Far from being tiny, the controller is a good fit. In fact, it's bigger than a PS2 controller, so I'm not sure how you can call the PS2 good, and then pick on the GameCube for having a "tiny controller".
I never owned a PS2, but the Gamecube controller was small. It used to give me cramps after playing for more than 30 minutes or so, and eventually I had to buy a third party controller which was a bit bigger.
Having said that, I do have large hands - I loved the XBox controller, and everyone claimed it was too big for them.
no question, best console I ever owned...
-- it's ridiculous how many people misspell ridiculous... (damn, damn, damn...)
The 16-bit consoles were the high-point of gaming for me. The NES game library was great, but the console itself was underpowered. When the Sega Genesis and SNES came out, the upgrade in graphics and sound blew away any 8-bit system. These consoles still look and play great today. I'm partial to the Genesis because that's the console I played most (and still play), but the SNES has its advantages too.
The next generation consoles brought about the dark age of video games. The introduction of 3D graphics made everything look the same. I stopped playing video games for 10 years, waiting for something interesting to happen. Honestly, we are just now starting to reach a point where technology is no longer a limitation.
However, I still appreciate the 16-bit systems. Seeing what they did with raster effects on the Genesis -- it's like graphical poetry! And the games were actually fun to play.
So much innovation - so many firsts - so much longevity.... It was a great console
word...I missed out on the next gen RGP's...anything post-16-bit. I played through all the dragon warriors, FF's, and the like for the nintendo platforms, but that's it. I just never got into it. It's not like I studied on those lonely nights, mind you...mostly downloaded music
I played a dreamcast once and I must agree that it was better, from a purely hardware perspective.
it's amazing to me how rich gaming history has become.
I've got an xbox360 now. it was a social decision. all my gamer friends got 360's for Halo and Xbox live, so it was either get the ps3 (which i think is better) and fly solo, or go with the crowd. i've enjoyed playing tiger woods, halo, and fifa online w/ my homies, but I'd like to check out a 'japanese' style RPG...i just don't know if there are any worth playing for the 360 right now.
Thank you Dave Raggett
What? No 3DO fans?
Many more points for SMS:
It was competing against the NES, while having infinitely better graphics.
It was the first home gaming system to have controls that weren't incredibly clunky... With most NES games you really had to be heavy handed on the controller, and forget any fine manipulation. (Frankly, I'm amazed how well they did with SMB3--the only real exception).
An absolutely amazing life-span... The "power base converter" for the Genesis allowed you to play SMS games. The Game Gear was really just a portable SMS system. A SMS/GG converter was available as well... The ease of cross-porting SMS and Game Gear games, combined with the large entrenched SMS market in Brazil, meant that games continued to be produced for the SMS for decades. Sonic 1/2/Chaos/3DBlast, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, etc. etc. Lots of quite "modern" games were available (and playable) on the very old SMS system.
You really can't compare the SMS and NES... NES had more in common with older game systems like Atari than it did with SMS. Meanwhile, the SMS had a tremendous amount in common with later systems like the Genesis.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
The NES has to be the greatest console of all-time. Before the NES, console gaming was considered dead after the industry imploded in the early 80's. The NES not only brought the "game console" back from the dead, but also marked the beginning of so many now-legendary video game franchises. Super Mario Bros. 1-3, Zelda, Final Fantasy... You could argue if it were not for Nintendo's excellent execution with the NES, the modern video game industry as we know it may not even exist.
It's not true that the Dreamcast didn't have any region protection. However, a boot disc can get around that with no problem, and since the Dreamcast can run CD-Rs without mods, it's trivial to download and burn a fix.
But, as someone who plays still plays a lot of Dreamcast (my favorite console) and owns about ten or so imports (I just get Sakura Taisen 4 a few weeks ago), boot discs get irritating.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Mega_Drive
The Megadrive had a model and SegaNet. In the states all we had was SegaChannel.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Just like your fabled N64 controller, the PS controller is modal: you don't need the second [right-hand] analog stick and the X/Circle/Square/Triangle pad. Instead, game designers are free to switch which set they want you to use out of the two halves of the controller: left-hand (direction pad, analog stick) and right-hand (button pad, analog stick). Any two of these works (witness Katamari Damacy for the beauty of the two, equally-spaced analog sticks), and the way the controller is shaped makes any combination of these equally easy to work with (one minor adjustment, and your fingers are situated directly on either pad or stick, either side). There's never too much for one person to control; the PS controller often gives them options on how to control it. Also, press X/Circle/Triangle/Square isn't any worse than press Z or A or B, all of which the new player will need a little time to find.
One of the things that makes it so good is that it's basically the perfect controller for the RPGs the PS has excelled at: it has just the right keys (menu, cancel, and select, plus an option key or five or seven) and just the right control system (the analog stick versus the d-pad is crucial in 3D RPGs).
The only problem with the PS controller is that reaching Select and Start can occasionally be a pain.
The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. -Anais Nin
Sega Genesis
...don't u mean so far ...or at least as far as we can humanly determine.. damn noobs they're everywhere.
From a purely hardware standpoint, the dream cast was my favorite. SNES had the greatest gaming however, with SimCity, Civ, Mario, Zelda, FZero, Pilotwings, Secret of Mana, Earthbound... Countless hours of my time were spent there. I had mario paint, superscope six, damn near every first party game. I love the NES for it's simplicity, it's easy to hop in and out of... I loved the 64, had it 3rd day of release, but 3rd party support was lacking and RPGs werent really anywhere to be found... I currently play the shit out of my xbox 360, you can't beat it's online support... SNES all the way in retrospect.
I say that with confidence because at one point or another I've owned, Atari 2600, Sega Genesis, SNES, PlayStation1, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Xbox, Xbox 360.
I avoided PS2 like the plague for it's failure rate... Plenty of friends had it for me to play. Which is about where I'm at with the 360, but it rocked as a MCE (Media Center Extender) initially now its scratching my discs and I'm sick of all the FPS's on it. It's ridiculous. I need RPGs damnit!
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask where they're goin' and hook up with 'em later.
Way ahead of it's time in performance and, unfortunately, pricetag ;)
It really was like having an arcade machine at home, but instead of having to pour in money continuously, you paid all of it up front.
The really interresting thing here is that the an entire generation of machines seems to be forgotten; Jaguar, Saturn, Nintendo 64. Nobody has fond memories of those. I never owned any of these (my console history is Oddysey (or rather Videopac; same thing), PS2 and Dreamcast - in that order), but it just seems weird none of these is mentioned.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
PONG. The first "console" I ever owned was PONG, it had 4 games & 2 rotary controllers. Man, that rocked my boat back in the day.
Hi there. I think that most of the comments saying that NES and SNES were the best consoles are from users not from Europe (I say this, because - for all I know - the Sega Mega drive done in Europe what Master System couldn't do: win the 8Bit and 16Bit War). I had an Atlantis TVGame (LOL), then after my parents got me the Mega Drive, I was the happiest kid in the world... So many days, so many hours... I personaly loved Sonic (Sonic3 & Knuckles was THE BEST!), but I would simply play anything just to be with my Mega Drive. Then I had a Sega Saturn (not as fun as Mega Drive, thus more advanced), then a PSX, and now, a Wii...
From all this consoles (oh, and plus the PC), Mega Drive was simply the one that gave me that playing pleasure. Sure, back then I had more time to play and more patience too, but the Mega drive WAS the Mega Drive...
The lot of ya.
The best game console of all time and not one who mentioned breasts?
Or is that considered software instead of hardware? o.O;
home
I never thought I'd see the Real 3DO versus Phillips CD-i debate on Slashdot again. Killing Time was awesome, but so was Voyeur. I guess I'll never know which of the two of these CD based giants is truely teh number one.
You *will* hate DNF. It's slated as a launch title.
I think it'd be a hard pressed debate to determine which console really was the best, as the concept of best will usually bring back feelings of which system evoked the most fun for the user. This can be seen in the comments here as individuals have rallied behind every system released.
;)
Ultimately, however, this isn't a bad thing, as it tells a great deal about how we view games! For many of us, the best console is the one we grew up with. Why? Because it's the one we spent hours playing on, hanging out with friends, united in a common goal of beating a game, discovering its secrets, and mastering its levels. I know of no person who has gone to an earlier game system they haven't played and enjoyed it more than the one designed in their generation.
This tells me it isn't so much the game and the console that make a system great (although, they obviously play a part) but more the company kept and memories made with that system that breed its loyalties. Video gaming is a social event afterall.
Aside from this, we have to concede without bias, that each console brought something to the table others did not, with the rare non-impact of a few systems whose names are nearly lost to time.
For castles made of sand must eventually return to the sea.
The SNES is the console where 2D gaming reached its pinnacle. The SNES is to 2D what the PS5 will be to 3D. It has some of the best games of all time; A Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Mega Man X, Final Fantasy III, Super Mario Kart, Street Fighter 2: Turbo, F-Zero... If I could only take one console (plus games) with me on a remote island, the SNES would easily win. No other console has the same amount of quality games.
The PS1? Give me a break. Have you played a PS1 game lately? That crap has not stood the test of time. Apart from the 2D games like Castlevania: SotN, PS1 games look (and often play) like shit. The PS1 is to 3D gaming what the VCS2600 is to 2D gaming: A landmark, a tremendously important console, but not one whose games are still relevant. We played VCS2600 games because it was awesome to play anything. We played the PS1 because it was awesome to play anything in 3D. But best console of all time? Not by a long shot.
will it run Linux?
"The Most Fun Possible on 4 wheels" is at SunBuggy in Las Vegas
Yoshi's Island, Super Mario World, Alladin, etc, look and play fantastic. NES games, on the other hand, are hard to take these days. They are great, but only in nostalgic recollection. Who really wants to play Super Mario Bros. without games saves? It's more fun to play the SNES update in Super Mario All Stars. On the other hand, Playstation games don't hold up as well even though they are newer, because they come across as, for the most part, weak versions of Playstation 2 games. SNES games seem entirely different from any current or just previous generation console. So I vote for the SNES. It's stood the test of time.
--- What?
N64 hands down.
Nice straight forward architecture. High speed processors, for the time. Decent amount of memory, for the time. Cartridge instead of CD (access time, transfer rates).
Well laid out motherboard (nice curvey lines to reduce signal reflections).
Unified memory, decent MIPS core. Decent graphics performance and a *lot* could be done with the RSP if you could get the microcode source from Nintendo.
Libraries were great. Minimal in footprint, Nintendo gave debug (anally retentive) libraries as well optimized release builds. Helped find bugs easily.
Debugging was decent, once we got off the SGI machines.
PS1 was, well, a PS1. Pretty crap really. GFX performance was reasonable, though. Audio was 'free' but crap.
Saturn was a mess. 2nd CPU slapped on at the last minute and some engineer in Japan made a serious mistake in the glue logic that caused it to be slower than molases. There was something odd about the polys on that machine (or was is PS1?) they were quads instead of tris, but with only top-left, bottom-right UVs.
Dreamcast was nice enough. Just a shame Microsoft used Sega for their first implementation of wince and fucked them over in the process, as well as offending pretty much any developer by insisting they used that nonsense.
Military Madness was my favorite as well and still the first game I seek out when i download the TG emulator on occasions Also, they had the handheld that was color *and* played the same games as the console. Very nice.
Best console of all time has to be the Zaltair.
"UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity." -Dennis Ritchie
Have you played "New Super Mario Bros" or "Super Paper Mario" ? There are powerups that make Mario the size of the screen.
Rock Band, w/ 4 players going wild at once, is not like any other gaming experience I've had. And being able to download songs for Rock Band is pretty amazing. Rock Band + Xbox-Live is the greatest combination of game and complete system ever.