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We’re talking home consoles here, not handhelds or PCs or other home computers.
Remember, you can only pick one. So, vote and then explain your selection in the comments below. And if more than one of you demand the inclusion of a console I’ve missed, I’ll add it to the poll.
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or you could.. you know… have a personal preference and your own opinion…
but yeah, sure, what you said could work… *ahem*
I agree with Snacuum to an extent. The Dreamcast was far ahead of its time and the first console to offer online gaming, something we all take for granted now. It had a plethora of good games that looked and played great, as well as a controller that offered new possibilities in gaming (albeit a wonky design).
My vote is for the Dreamcast, a very misunderstood and badly timed console by a company switching their business stances at the time (hardware->software). I have also never owned a Dreamcast.
I’d have to say the PSX. In my eyes it probably had one of the more profound influences on the industry, really defining what console gaming would go on to become. The introduction of CDs and Sony’s clever development support made the idea of more is more in the gaming world the concept that would give the edge in all future console wars.
The NES is of course worth noting, but although popular, it’s role in the industry was made a little vague due to the rivalry of Sega and many of the ideas that Nintendo represented at the time have gone on to be undermined [by the DS, lol quality control?] or embraced to the extreme [only inhouse is worth the effort, etc].
I can also see the argument for Dreamcast, but its own internal haphazard architecture is one of the more significant reasons for its downfall.
Dreamcast may have been ahead of it’s time, but it doesn’t make it the ‘best console of all time’.
If it was so great, why did it fail so hard? I’d argue the Dreamcast as the WORST console of all time, because it single-handedly killed Sega
The Dreamcast did not kill Sega. Sega decided to change its manufacturing priorities instead of competing against Sony and Nintendo. They changed the chairman of Sega shortly after the Dreamcast’s release. The new chairman decided to focus entirely on software, effective immediately. They did not want to compete with Sony’s PS2. Therefore they discontinued the production of Dreamcasts quite suddenly, thus making people believe the Dreamcast was a flop. The truth is it sold incredibly well, and this whole hiatus was simply a poor business decision for both the company’s income and reputation.
Again, it is a misunderstood console even today.
I wouldn’t have the DC anywhere near the greatest of all time simply because it didn’t last long enough (obscure japanese shooters and homebrew games notwithstanding) to build up a catalogue of games anywhere near worthy of standing alongside the PS2 or SNES.
It was a potentially great machine that never fulfilled that potential.
Don’t forget this thread isn’t about “the most successful console of all time” but the BEST!
Also for anyone who replied to me in response to my ‘trolling style’ post, sorry, and also sorry for not getting the /v/ joke.
Even though I was a diehard Sega fan as a child, probably the SNES. Fantastic library and very good tech.
it won’t be a popular choice, but I think Gamecube was the best, Had the best games, Great graphics, Great Console.
I’m with Adam..
Super Nintendo trumps all competition, then Playstation 2, then xbox 360 for me.
Honestly, SNES has provided so many great gaming memories for me, but not only that, the games on the system still hold up to the test fo time for me. Games like Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, Super Metroid, super ghouls n ghosts… man it’s just so… super….
Also with the greatest RPGS of all time (Chrono trigger, secret of mana, the FF series etc)
Then the quirky classics like clay fighter, plok, ghoul patrol and shaq fu… wait.. no.. not shaq fu…
To me, the PS2 is. Yes, I’m not like you older gamers who are like blah blah blah cartridges and Commodore 64 and Atari etc. My first console that I actually bought was a PS1, in 96. So yeah, I didn’t get much of an opportunity to play with the older consoles. I remember going around to a friends house to play on a SNES. We also owned a 64 for about a year, but it packed up and died, so we got a PS2.
The PS2 just had such a huge games library, and every one seemed to have one, even my Nintendo-fanboy and Sony-hating friend did. He did sell it after 6 months, but the point is he got it. And it’s just … awesome. Not to mention it houses my favourite game, Jak and Daxter: the Precursor legacy.
Hey, my first console was a Hanimex back in about 1981/82 (followed by Atari 2600, Commodore 64, etc) and I still agree with you that the PS2 is the king.
PS2 owns everything. It’s selection of games and longevity is incomparable to anything else.
I can’t believe the NES is being beaten, the voting tweens must be out in force. Im not even a big Nintendo person myself anymore, but in retrospect the NES was magnificent.
People will argue until the cows come home on this and I think it simply relates back to whatever you were playing when you became passionate about gaming. This is what you will hold dear to your heart and believe to be the best. Seeing peoples answers here I reckon I could guess their age by what corresponds with their formative teenage years and a consoles peak period. Much like music what we first get into ussually sticks with us.
I’m going to have to disagree. My first gaming system was an Amiga 500. Then, I became a “passionate” gamer with my Master System and Mega Drive with long hours of Sonic.
However, I’ll probably vote for the Gamecube, just because I think it was the the greatest system of it’s time with classic gems and AAA games.
I think the greatest console should go beyond the nostalgia factor.
Voted Dreamcast only because Game Gear wasn’t up here, that thing had a TV adapter and everything.
Playstation, hands down. It changed the game and paved the way to how we play today.
PSX – the first console I was able to afford under my own steam (my folks didn’t like videogames; thought they were antisocial square-eyes machines), which coming from the Amiga also welcomed me nicely into the world of 3D gaming.
I actually remember being at Toys R Us at the counter, paying the final $40 or so of the total in $1 and $2 coins… hehe. Aah the wonders of saving pocket money rather than having a job during high-school…
Wipeout, Twisted Metal, Destruction Derby, Ridge Racer, Final Fantasy VII… life (and gaming) was simpler back then 🙂
Here here. PSX was the first console I bought myself, with Abe’s Oddysee. ‘Pfffffthahaha it was easy!’ I loved possessing the Sligs and running them off cliffs of blasting other Sligs. 😀
I have owned 47% of these consoles, and I would have to say that the Playstation 2 gets my vote for a number of reasons.
– The amount of quality games it has on the system
– The long life (2000 – Current)
– It really set the platform of what people will now expect from a console
Worst will have to be the N64 (Sorry Ashley!)
Looking back at that console, I could have gone without it. It I remember playing Blast Corps and getting to a point in the game where I couldn’t get beyond a level. I had missed something critical in that level and for some reason I couldn’t go back. The saved data was on the cartridge and that was it. I couldn’t wipe it or re-save it or even start again. The game was not playable anymore. The only good thing about N64 was goldeneye.
Voted SNES. But, if I was japanese, or any of the good games actually made it out here, I probably would have gone for the Saturn.
PS2, just for the sheer quantity of top-notch titles across all genres. Everything from your huge blockbusters like Gran Turismo, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, to absolutely brilliant niche stuff like Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Katamari Damacy, etc.
The huge userbase meant that publishers could afford to risk money on those kinds of niche products because you only had to sell to a very small percentage of that userbase to make your money back.
PS2 – and I didn’t even own one. It’s had the longest lifespan, most compelling library and it was quality hardware.
For me, the console which was the greatest leap forward in the technology, I think was the PS1. I’ve played many many different games, on many many different consoles/pc’s etc, but the first time I saw and played Tomb Raider on the PS1 is a moment that will stay with me forever. It just looked and controlled so much better than anything I had ever played previously, it really felt like the start of a new era in videogaming.
The Neo Geo is hands down the best console. A pure 2D powerhouse with some of the best games ever made. It had perfect arcade conversions. It was just the expensive price tag that stopped it from compeating with Sega and Nintendo.
Neo Geo has to the the best. Arcade quality games at home. Sure the games cost $300+ new, but i have only ever bought a handful of games at full recommended retail price.
It came with an arcade stick for a controller which was awesome. Very responsive, as good as an arcade machine.
It also had an adapter that let you play actual Neo Geo MVS arcade games. No other console has ever done that.
N64. No Contest. Best Console. Ever.
I believe reasons as per my desicion can be seen in various posts above and soon below.
Its a shame you cant pick all of them, I have fond memories of quite a few systems, its too hard to just pick one as the best (^_^)
I’ve owned 10 of those, and I had to go for the Dreamcast. I love my DC, and how could you go past the adorable animations on the VMU. This console should have been king. *sniff*
After that I’d have to go Gamecube (criminally under-appreciated) and the PSX. PSX was my first taste of console gaming so it was the beginning of an awesome age of discovery for me.
I have bought a couple retro consoles, but having not grown up with them I don’t have the same fondness for them as other gamers my age.
Super Nintendo. It had the best and biggest range of games, it was the height of awesome sprite-gaming (no badly-textured huge polygons to be seen… except in maybe Starfox) and was also the platform Super Mario World and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island came out on.
It would have to be the xbox 360 for me. Even though it was plagued by RRoD they redeemed themselves with the ease of warranty return policy.
Xbox live practically redefined multiplayer games on consoles or any system for that matter.
Go Intellivision!
Not the first console I played, but the first one that my Dad brought back home one day (as a total surprise).
If I could have voted a second one, it would have been the Atari 2600.
Your tags need updating to include ‘can of worms’.
Tie between PS2 and Xbox, with an honourable mention to the Dreamcast.
I voted for the 360 because I have quite honestly not had as much fun with video games as I have had over the past 8 months since I bought the thing – thanks especially to online gaming it has taken over from TV as my primary form of entertainment.
Close second would be the Nintendo 64 (which I still own but) back in the day it was like a revelation – Mario 64, Zelda, Banjo Kazooie, Starfox, Tetrisphere, Rouge Squadron, the only things the Playstation could do better was fighting games and cutscenes.
Compared to the N64 the Gamecube was a disappointment so my other picks would be the SNES and the PS2.
For me it’s the Xbox 360.
So so many small reasons, but mostly it comes down to the steady release of good games, exclusives and online options. I was a big fan of the oiginal Xbox, and the 360 improved on it in every conceivable way, hardware and software wise. It’s also one of the only consoles I’ve been a full supporter of since it’s release… and I love it as much now as I did then, despite getting the RRoD more than once :p
My runners up of course would be the original Xbox, the PS3, the PS2 and the N64.
An option for:
“Whatever you owned between ages 8 and 12”
I think that whatever console you had at that age would probably have influenced you the most out of any others you might have owned.
I’d probably say that the SNES was the “best” console, for a number of reasons, but my favorite would have to be the Master System.
Nintendo 64 all the way.
I was around 15/16, I had saved up my money to buy the console just before xmas but couldn’t afford a game until I received my xmas money. Then I had an agonising 3 day wait of doing xmas stuff with rellies, travelling back home and playing with the controller while looking at the back of the box until the shops opened again and I bought Mario 64.
Oh yeah, I remember that pain. We couldn’t buy games in our home town (!) so when we used to visit my Grandmother in Sydney we would save up all our bucks and agonise over which game to buy from Computerwave in Martin Place. Then read the box and manual until it nearly fell apart during the days that we were waiting to head back home to try it out. It was a delicious form of torture.
virtual boy FTW. Talk about a vomit fest after playing it for longer than 15 minutes.
actually, it’s a perfect drunkeness simulator. really tripped out vision and vomit everywhere.
Super Nintendo. Had some of the all time great titles, fantastic library, and a whole lot of fun to play – as a 29yo, my fondest memories remain with the SNES.
My gauge for this is how much I neglected the rest of my life when playing this console.
Atari 2600: I was about 4, I didn’t really know what I was doing with the games and the only ones that I did like, River Raid and Pitfall, I was really bad at/got frustrated by their difficulty.
NES: I got into incredible amounts of trouble from my parents for over-playing Super Mario Bros. Contra and the Tiny Toons games instead of doing my homework. Indeed after 6 months they took the damn thing away and I never played it again.
Mega Drive: Loved Sonic 2, 3 and S&K, not to mention Quackshot and the Aladdin game. This system never sucked days and months of my life away though.
Nintendo 64: Failed pretty much everything in the second semester of year 8 completing Ocarina of Time.
The 64 wins.
It’s hard to go past the console that first allowed four player gaming in one room as a standard. Who hasnt got fond memories of playing Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Diddy Kong Racing or Mario Kart 64, Super Smash Bros, etc, with a bunch of friends all yelling at eachother and laughing and calling eachother screencheats?
I’m an Xbox lover here… but looking back I was all over the Mega Drive.
Mega Drive > N64 > Playstation
I was all over the PS2 aswell until I played Halo at a mates so I bought an Xbox.
I’ve played more games and spent more time playing video games with my Xbox & 360, but I had so much fun as a kid on the 64 and Mega Drive. Classic games that I still have to this day.
Quack Shot! anyone?
N64 for two reasons, Ocarina of Time and Rareware
Ps2 would come next for its shear amount of great games (I suppose if you make a few thousand a couple have to be good)
Then worthy mentions for the dreamcast, ps1 and snes (the snes would have been better if more games had made it to the PAL region; super mario rpg, chrono trigger, final fantasy 4 and 6, etc)
3DO fo’ sho’
If you need any proof why it should be best game console ever you obviously never played ‘plumbers don’t wear ties’
Was legendary
I had to vote for the dreamcast, I imported one when they came out and I remember saying ‘I never want to play my playstation again’. Soul Calibre was astounding, and looked better than anything that came out on the PS2 for years later.
I never had any interest in the NES or the SNES, missed them completely.
Most of my gaming actually took place on the Atari 400 home computer, I thrrashed that thing to death and modified the hell out of it.
Realistically, I’d say the 2600 was probably the all-time king, that sucker sold for so many years, and I was so jealous of the kids who had one, back when I was a wee lad in the 70s.
I voted SNES. From the massive library of great games spanning many genres, to the controller which set the standard for controllers today (4 face buttons and shoulder buttons) and the non-existent load times (hooray for cartridges!), it is, in my humble opinion, the greatest console of all time.
SNES because it was the pinnacle of 2D gaming (before we dived into 3D). It seems like 3D still has a long way to go and the SNES came out in the golden age of gaming.
What worries me is that we all seem to be picking consoles from our past (myself included) and nothing really that we have now?
As much as I love being nostalgic, I still have a strong appreciation for the 7th generation consoles. Because one day, when we’re all 10 to 20 years older, our kids will laugh at us for what we used to play with when we were young…
I can understand what you are saying, but at the same time some of the older consoles did alot for the gaming industry to influence what we have today.
We can argue that the PS3 is the ‘best’ because it’s list of features is arguably greater than anything else on the market.
Or the Wii is the ‘best’ because it’s penetrated into a market that never considered playing games.
Or the 360 is the ‘best’ because it’s online infrastructure is changing online gaming for consoles as we know it.
I still think that some of the older consoles are still better though…
My stance on the matter is that the best consoles are the ones that do change how we play the games. To that extent, the Wii has had an huge impact on the industry and I acknowledge that, but I don’t believe the changes are the best for the industry at this time.
One of the things I’ve used in my choice (PSone) is the controllers as well as the media.
I’ve played with 1 Button joysticks (C64, Atari 2600), 2 Button controllers (NES), 3/6 Buttons (SNES, MD), 8 Buttons & Analogue Sticks (PSX). The NES is a classic was probably the first console to get any popularity. The next gen I found as though they were just minor expansions, the games were great, but the hardware was nothing to write home about.
The change to CD Media (which brought load times! :p), along with a new controller with a form factor that is actually confortable to hold over time instead of a flat thin rectangle and over it’s generation a library of games which is second to none.
I came to the thread to vote for PC Engine, but it’s not on the list. At the time of release, I was super blown away by it. My family wasn’t wealthy enough to own one, but a friend had one, so my friend, my bro and I played R-Type on that thing every weekend for months. Considering how small the device was, and the games actually looked like credit cards, and the awesome graphics/audio, I still think it was the best console ever.
I lol’d when i saw “Saturn” at the top. No wonder it has not a single vote.i kid i kid, Saturn was pretty good.
MY favourite would be the Sega Saturn (Shining force 3/panzer dragoon ftw)
But in all honesty, I think the ps1/psx would get the best console as it was really the first console to introduce adult games (Blood , violence, fear) taking the video game medium away from just being for kids.
N64 for me. SNES too, but that was a a year or 2 before my time and I never had one. This is highly dependent on when you grew up rather than simply which console is best.
Eg. I think the PS2 was an overall piece of crap console, but other people disagree. If they grew up with the thing.. then I probably understand.
Damn right! Cannot believe the Vectrex isn’t on the list. Fab built in game (much, much better than Asteroids), one of the best examples of Scramble, an analogue joystick with 4 fire buttons. Overall, it was working on 3d vector graphics while the rest of the world was still fiddling with sprites; if only we could have had generations of this console…
Lost so many hours on this console – happy times.
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