What was the best console of all time

Youn said:
You're taking into account final output resolution? Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me but I seem to recall playing Quake at a higher resolution than 256x224
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If you are referring to the resolution of the N64, the minimum was 320x240 with a maximum resolution of 640x480 with a few anamorphic and widescreen formats available (16:9). Something unique for its time. That higher resolution often required the 4MB RAM expansion pack.
As far as PC gaming was concerned, most games that were not using DirectX were either 640x480 with a scant few at 800x600. 1024x768 was the punishing resolution that only high end hardware could achieve. That was introduced as really only possible in 98' with dual Voodoo 2s. The first one maxing out at 800x600 the second one required for even being able to enter in 1024x768. Although some other video cards could "use" 1024x768 before the Voodoo 2, in any contemporary video game they were unplayable at that resolution. Later new rival nVidia released the TNT and TNT2 which began to change what was possible for the cost, but was still relatively expensive.

Your question however obviously has other implications. I will say that yes, PC games at the time had greater output resolution. That has always been the case throughout basically every console generation. However when considering overall fidelity especially when considering cost, I still with my statements that the N64 was unrivaled in terms of bringing 3D gaming to the masses. It's $200 launch price in 96' only went down as years went on. The price of a single graphics card let alone an entire system would exceed that during its entire lifetime.
 
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Yeah,
Look how popular the Original gameboy was and that only had a resolution of 160x144

and a refresh rate of 59.7!!!!
 
zamardii12 said:
For me it was my launch fat version of the PS3. I loved the big bulky look of it, and it played ALL PS1 and PS2 games, and of course the PS3 games.

Every PS3 revision since then removed the PS2 feature, but I felt like the PS3 with its addition of Blu Ray was a beautifully crafted piece of hardware by Sony that embraced powerful new technology but at the same time was a celebration of their gaming history to build-in the capability to play every game to ever come out on a Playstation console. I think it was just beautiful. 4 USB ports on the front, touch-sensitive eject and power button. The hidden memory card door.

PS3-fat.jpg
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My pick is the Original PS3 as well.

I had an original one too. Started getting hot even after the 19 blade swap and new thermal paste. Sold it on craigslist back in 2011 and regretted it. Bought another 60gb launch ps3 on craigslist for $100 (april 2016). Removed the old and dry thermal paste under the IHS, the system already had a 19-blade fan (no it was never opened, it had the tamper sticker intact). Put a 1TB ssd in the rig and installed all my downloaded games. GT6 took like 8 hours to install. Lol, Gran Turismo has become a joke, oh well still enjoy it.

Anyways, what the PS3 brought to the table is why I chose it.
Backwards compatibility with Ps2 and ps1 games.
If yours is jailbroken you can run linux (Yellow Dog Linux). Mine was never hacked, but I managed to install YDL 6.2 even got the wireless media board to work!
Optical Audio
HDMI
DS3 with its superb battery life
Removable Hard drive, been running SSD
4 front usb ports, and a bunch of memory slots!!!
the ps2 and ps1 memory card were a breeze to manage!

Basically a bunch of features none of the other consoles had at the time. That and a bunch of new technology nobody had yet.
 
chimera996 said:
My pick is the Original PS3 as well.

I had an original one too. Started getting hot even after the 19 blade swap and new thermal paste. Sold it on craigslist back in 2011 and regretted it. Bought another 60gb launch ps3 on craigslist for $100 (april 2016). Removed the old and dry thermal paste under the IHS, the system already had a 19-blade fan (no it was never opened, it had the tamper sticker intact). Put a 1TB ssd in the rig and installed all my downloaded games. GT6 took like 8 hours to install. Lol, Gran Turismo has become a joke, oh well still enjoy it.

Anyways, what the PS3 brought to the table is why I chose it.
Backwards compatibility with Ps2 and ps1 games.
If yours is jailbroken you can run linux (Yellow Dog Linux). Mine was never hacked, but I managed to install YDL 6.2 even got the wireless media board to work!
Optical Audio
HDMI
DS3 with its superb battery life
Removable Hard drive, been running SSD
4 front usb ports, and a bunch of memory slots!!!
the ps2 and ps1 memory card were a breeze to manage!

Basically a bunch of features none of the other consoles had at the time. That and a bunch of new technology nobody had yet.
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I remember running Linux on my PS3 when they still had the Other OS functionality still there. By the way, there was a class action lawsuit won recently where if you can prove you had Linux on your PS3 you will get a settlement. The settlement was for over $500 million.
 
1. SNES
2. Gameboy Color (Does this count?)
3. N64
4. PS2
5. Xbox 360
 
Snes/PS1

If you were into JRPGs that era was the greatest era ever. It was all downhill from there. Though, I love the Dreamcast...but for reasons outside of JRPGs.
 
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I could order a ton of consoles in a ton of different ways, but if I was to do it purely by the hours of joy in front of it (and allowing for C= computers to also be consoles :D )

1. C64
2. Amiga
3. TG-16
4. SNES
5. N64

(For 2 through 5, I've also had a current PC build in parallel for games.)
 
1. SNES
2. PSX
3. N64
4. PS2
5. Dreamcast

Also gotta mention the OG NES.

Really though, if I had to pick one, I have to go with PSX.

All the cool niche games that nobody has the guts to make anymore: Tail of the Sun, No One Can Stop Mr. Domino, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, Vagrant Story etc.
 
Tough to answer. My first thought was Dreamcast. It's hard to call a failed console the best console of all time, but it was the console that got me into video games as a hobby. It's the first console that I saved up and paid for. It's the first console where I bought my own games. Prior to that, there were playstations and nintendos around, but they were shared family consoles. Since Dreamcast there have been consoles I've used more and enjoyed more. That was just the first one that really got me excited about video games.
 
Dreamcast forever.

Best launch, best overall library, best bang for buck, best swan song of all time

In second place, N64 or NES

Third for me is a three-way tie between PSX, Wii, and SNES

Currently rocking Wii U + Quadfire PC for this Gen. Will always be a Nintendo fan boy, but DC was and will always be best console ever.
 
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For me it's the Sega Dreamcast. The launch was awesome, and there were so many interesting, unique and new IPs released on it. Plus the online gaming worked pretty good for the time. I remember playing a lot of Phantasy Star Online and NFL2K1.
 
For single player: SNES

Some of the best JRPGs ever made. A plethora of great platfomers. Mario Kart.

For multiplayer: N64 (I have three brothers)

4 Player Mario Kart, 4 Player Goldeneye, 4 Player Perfect Dark, 4 Player Smash Brothers
 
Original PlayStation 3. Full hardware backwards compatibility with both the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2. 3 consoles worth of classics.

I'm currently in the process of building a Raspberry Pi 3 with RetroPie so I'm getting to mess around with alot of old classic systems.
 
acascianelli said:
Original PlayStation 3. Full hardware backwards compatibility with both the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2. 3 consoles worth of classics.
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I'm still rocking the original PS3. I only have it for The Suffering 1 & 2, Manhunt 1 & 2 and Black, and a LOT of ps1 games.
 
the original xbox, easily. reasons:

you could softmod it to rip xbox game
you could run just about any console in emulator

so not only could you play xbox game, you had nes, snes, n64, gameboy, sega, sega gen, neogeo and arcade. you had 1,000s of games in one (x)box.
 
scojer said:
I'm still rocking the original PS3. I only have it for The Suffering 1 & 2, Manhunt 1 & 2 and Black, and a LOT of ps1 games.
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I have a PS3 Slim, still use it for Gran Turismo 6. Never got much into PS1 or PS2 games on it.
 
Hmm I mean the one I played the most given the time of my life I'd say the Nintendo 64. I've owned most every console ever made other than the Neo-Geo and that was the only one where many many games made me and my friends laugh out loud over years of fun. WCW vs NWO, Mario Kart 64, GoldenEye, etc.

PlayStation is a very close second with their insanely good JRPGs and diverse library of titles.

PC would be the overall winner if it was an option though Counter Strike 7.1beta, Tribes 1/2, Command & Conquer series, World of Warcraft and UT2k4 took up more time than anything else really.
 
Snatcher is a pretty good Sega CD game. The PC Engine version was possibly better, but there was never an English version. If I remember correctly there was also a good Flashback version, among others. I'm not sure I'd rate it as the best console, but it had a few good games for it. I could see someone who owned one and had the good games putting it in their top tier. I never had one. Had to play Snatcher in emulation.
 
That's what I was guessing. :D In fact, I'm pretty sure it's time for another Snatcher play-through for me. It's been at least 5 years now since my last one.
 
next-Jin said:
Need an explanation on this. The only memorable title I can remember is Sonic CD, Night Trap was on PC and the 32X CD hybrid games were trash.
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NIght Trap was a Sega CD game, did not require the 32X. It was later ported over to a 32X only game too.
 
HardUp4HardWare said:
Which is sad when you think about it. The NEC TG-16 CD had a lot of great games. SF2 and Ys to name a couple.
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The later "Duo" era games were really good too. A lot of good shooters like Lords of Thunder, some of the Valis games I believe as well were on it. A lot more in Japan too that never even came out here. (Chi no Rondo for example. I've got an original import of it still in my collection.)
 
1. NES - Doesn't really need an explanation if you grew up in the 80's.
2. Intellivsion - First console I owned/played, this is what basically got me in to gaming.
3. Atari 2600 - Also doesn't need much of an explanation if you grew up in the 80's.
4. N64 - 2 games put this at number 4 for me Star Wars Shadows of the Empire and Turok, 2 of the best games I have ever played :)
5. Sega Genesis/Sega Master System/SNES - 3 way tie here with the Genesis coming out slightly on top due to the fact me and one of my best friends growing up put at least 500 hours on MK3.
 
errer said:
1. NES - Doesn't really need an explanation if you grew up in the 80's.
2. Intellivsion - First console I owned/played, this is what basically got me in to gaming.
3. Atari 2600 - Also doesn't need much of an explanation if you grew up in the 80's.
4. N64 - 2 games put this at number 4 for me Star Wars Shadows of the Empire and Turok, 2 of the best games I have ever played :)
5. Sega Genesis/Sega Master System/SNES - 3 way tie here with the Genesis coming out slightly on top due to the fact me and one of my best friends growing up put at least 500 hours on MK3.
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I loved my Intellivision. (and the Bally Astrocade) I can't put them in my top 5, but they're definitely special in a similar way to me.
 
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Megadrive - it had Dune II
Snes - for allthe awesome RPG's (chrono trigger ftw)
PSX - Soo much fun/scares with resident evil and even tough I hate electronic music I loved wipeout
Master system - my first console had so much fun with it with my neighbours, borrowing each others games and competing against each other
PS2/PS4 stopped with consoles in the PS2 era focusing more on PC games recently got a PS4 for the last of us and uncharted 4 and I'm having a good time with it so far.
 
Started on Atari 2600
PS2 is my fav tons of great games I still play
PS3 backward Cap version. I just wish I would have bought two because Sony won't do backward cap anymore.
Xbox 360 (for Call of Duty games)(Games are harder on xbox)
 
Ranked in order I go with:

1. Genesis
2. Playstation 1
3. NES
4. N64
5. Playstation 2

The Genesis came at a time when arcade games meant a lot to me and it had so many ports that were the same if not better than the originals. Plus, all of those add-ons. The Sega CD was pretty mind-blowing in that era and it had a library that's still a little underrated. Lunar, Silpheed, Eternal Champions, Sonic, Shining Force, etc.

The PS1 hit when I was in college and I can't count the number of hours I wasted playing Street Fighter Alpha, Tekken, and the like. Everyone I knew had one and seemingly every new game came out for it.

The NES and I had a love/hate relationship. It sucked for arcade ports, but it forced developers to add depth when they couldn't match graphics. The visuals were such a letdown (Arcade vs. NES was like PC vs. PS4 but way more extreme), but that games library was great.

The N64 had Mario Kart, Smash, Mario Party, Zelda, Diddy Kong Racing, 007, Perfect Dark, Conker, Starfox, etc. While the library wasn't huge, I put so much time into those games. I think I only actually owned like 10 games for it, but I put in TONS of time with all of them.

The PS2 was a continuation of the PS1 for me. Plus, the fact that the competition was thinner, it got most of the exclusives in those days. I don't think it was a particularly great console, but it came at a time when MS wasn't up and running, Sega was acting stupid, and Nintendo wasn't sure what they wanted the GC to be. Sony benefitted from that timing.
 
Not old enough for the NES so will leave that one out.
Here are my favourites in order of greatness:

1. Dreamcast (Every arcade game I spent a ton of money on came out for this console)
2. Xbox 360 (Felt like the Dreamcast with enhanced social features)
3. Super Nintendo (Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6)
4. Playstation 1 (Got all the games I hoped would come out for the Nintendo 64)
5. Saturn (Fighting games ran better on the Saturn than the PS1)
 
Xinmosni said:
Dreamcast forever.

Best launch, best overall library, best bang for buck, best swan song of all time

In second place, N64 or NES

Third for me is a three-way tie between PSX, Wii, and SNES

Currently rocking Wii U + Quadfire PC for this Gen. Will always be a Nintendo fan boy, but DC was and will always be best console ever.
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Another vote for the Dreamcast. It was truly ahead of it's time. It was the first console to add a network adapter (modem) and feature internet access via a addon disc for a web browser and multiplayer games over the internet (Phantasy Star Online). You could even hook up a proprietary keyboard to it. Even the controller was the first of it's kind with the funky memory card with an LCD screen that could be used in certain games designed to take advantage of it.
 
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