Favourite (retro) console?

[demontux]

Retro's a little bit of a vague term, so I'm going to take it to mean anything that's older than the current (8th) generation of consoles, and maaaaaybe the 7th generation.

I'm probably going to sound a little odd, but honestly my favourite older console is a toss-up between the Mega CD, and the Sega Saturn. Both of them are something of a mess, and yet for some reason I have a real affection for both of them. Maybe that's down to not paying full price for either, but I honestly do like both.

The Mega CD I think, for me, is more down to what the console could have been rather than what it actually was - the potential for games on an unprecedented scale and with fantastic CD-quality soundtracks - I still rank Batman Returns and the EU/JP Sonic CD soundtracks among my favourites.

The Saturn I just find fascinating from a technical standpoint - a messy Frankenstein of a console, but ahead of its time in some ways - notably in that it had two SH2 processors - a multi-core console a full decade before that became the norm. Unfortunately the utter weirdness of its video adapter and the fact that the CPUs couldn't both access memory at the same time made it absolute hell to develop for - didn't stop some surprisingly good games like Daytona USA, NiGHTS, and the excellent version of Symphony of the Night coming out for it. I still play them a lot.


Anyway. I think I've rambled enough. What are your favourite consoles of days gone by, and why? I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts

[OrangeLightning]

Well, if I'm going as old as I remember and for the awesome fun family times we had with it, I'd have to say the glorious moment my dad presented me with a SNES...I was 3 and he created a GAMING MONSTER!! >D

But seriously, I loved it, had so much fun playing games like Mario Kart, Zombies Ate My Neighbours, Donkey Kong Country with my parents and my sister, there was always someone getting far too into it heh heh. And they were just great games, always coming back to them even now I get the urge, the controller was manageable for my tiny hands, and the gameplay was usually only a few buttons so pretty easy to learn. An excellent console.

However, I would have to give a shout out to the console that definitely got the most love out of me, and that would be my trusty Playstation 2. The first console I owned that was mine well and truly without being shared with my sister, and did I play the hell out of it. I survived my teenage years thanks to Tekken Tag Tournament, Jak & Daxter, Kingdom Hearts, Dynasty Warrirors. I love the graphics, the ability to play DVD especially region 1 copies thanks to a handy region changer disc, and playing all the old PS1 titles as well. My baby

Okay...done rambling!

[Biggkenny]

Part of me wants to say the Sega Mega Drive, and another part of me wants to say the Nintendo 64.

The main games I played were Sonic, Sonic 2, Streets of Rage, and Golden Axe.
I loved how you could just simply put a game in (after blowing the dust out of course(best bit)) and then immediately you're in, no long loading times, and straight into the action.

I never actually owned an N64 but I went around to a friends house a lot just so I could play on his. I really liked how the controller felt so unique and playing stuff like Goldeneye, Mario Kart, and Pokemon Stadium was awesome.

But I feel that both of those consoles only had advantages because they were simpler times with companies caring about the quality of what they made, and the games I mentioned were truly great. Nowadays you don't just put in a cartridge and switch it on, you have to put your disk in and listen to the horrible whirring of the disk.

[Yikes]

...

[thederus]

Hmmm this is a tough one for me as I owned all of the above and some thst haven't been mentioned..

However I am going to go for my nes because without that I would have studied more in later life and not feel the need to buy every new game I like the looks of. Also it gave me duck hunt, mario, mario 3 zelda etc etc all the games everyone loves

[TheBurgerKing]

For me the SNES was the best console ever released.
It was more colourful than the Mega Drive (better colour pallet) and the sound chip was more advance and just sounded superb

[thederus]

I have to agree with this, it was the n64 despite its power lacked the sound quality of the Sony and Sega disc platforms.

Original nes remains my favourite but I guess I could give snes a third gen nod of approval

[Time4Tea]

Hmmmm...i'll always love commadore 64 as it was first computer. But then the original playstation was what i played the most.

[PharaohAtem]

I don't know I played Atari for the longest time. The darn old packman and mrs packman were always fun to play with. All those levels and it took me a while until I could defeat the came finally, but those ghost yeah I finally beat you all.

[Treize Shi-Griv]

Pretty tricky choice for me, since I have played on quite a few consoles over the years. If anything I would have to say it's a toss-up between the Sega Master System II (Kenseiden, Wonder Boy III, Rastan... some really nice games on there even though many are overshadowed by other consoles) and the Nintendo 64, which had many memorable games from my childhood.

[thederus]

Fan I just say commodore and atari don't really count as being played the most as let's be honest loading a tape cassette for 45 minutes doesn't count and neither does reloading it after it crashes five seconds into the game lol

[Morgnator]

For me the SNES was the best console ever released.
It was more colourful than the Mega Drive (better colour pallet) and the sound chip was more advance and just sounded superb

I agree with BK entirely.
The SNES is the most beautiful thing i have ever seen, both in terms of graphics (those 16 bit sprites, mmm sexy) and in terms of audio.
Also the controller is fantastic and was such a revolution at the time.
I fell in lilove with the SNES the first time i played one, shortly becore launch at a special event at Virgin Megastore in Nottingham and my love has never waivered.
Not in the slightest.
Beautiful.

Oh yeah and the games were pretty good too :p

[Jack Frost]

For me the SNES was the best console ever released.
It was more colourful than the Mega Drive (better colour pallet) and the sound chip was more advance and just sounded superb

In terms of game quality, I would have to agree with you there. However, I would have to say that the Playstation was the best console ever released. Some of the games released on the platform literally created genres of their own which have lasted to this day. Silent Hill and Parappa the Rapper, anyone?

[TheBurgerKing]

there wouldn't be a sony playstation if it wasn't for a bad decision made by nintendo, so that makes nintendo the greatest?

[rarefox]

SEGA Mega-Drive hands done and Gamecube if its considered retro now lol