What is your favorite console generation?

[NeoTurboManiac]

What is your favorite console generation and how would you rank the generations from favorite to least favorite?

 

Here is how I would rank the console generations, along with a brief reason.

 

1. 4th Generation - 4 great consoles (TG-16, Neo Geo, SNES, Genesis) and each of them had their own identities and specific game genres that made them stand out. They also went out of their way to attack the competition in print ads or TV.

 

2. 6th Generation - Quality of 3D games improves. This generation was able to catch up with the arcades in terms of graphical quality. A good chunk of my 6th generation games are arcade ports.

 

3. 5th Generation - For me the PlayStation was king of the Japanese RPGs. Sega Saturn had some great arcade ports of 2D games. Though I am not a fan of the Nintendo 64, they stepped it up when it came to 3D games.

 

4. 3rd Generation - The reason why I don't rank this higher is because it was dominated by one system. The NES reigns supreme. I need to say no more. The Master System could have been a lot more, but sadly it didn't get the chance to.

 

5. 2nd Generation - A ton of systems in this era, though shit hit the fan during this time. Still a lot of memorable systems and games from this era, with the 2600 being my favorite.

 

6. 1st Generation - Mostly dominated by Pong. I love Pong. I have to give them a pass, since this was the very beginning.

 

7. 7th Generation - While there were games from this era that I enjoyed, there are too many issues about this generation that turned me off. Notably DLC, constant system updates, and patches, the unreliability of the 360 and the slowness of the PS3.

 

8. 8th Generation - Mandatory installs for games with the systems having limited hard drives. Why should you have to spend more money to get a bigger hard drive? These are supposed to be video game systems, not PCs. Not too many games that I find appealing. Too much focus on big budget titles. Games that would draw my interest may not get physical releases and thus get relegated to digital downloads.

 

 

[The Usotsuki]

"4th"; secondarily, "3rd".

[leods]

Hard to say. If I have to tie games to the platform they were first released on It get's complicated, but might be 4th gen. But Since I can Play SFII (and so many other great games) on both 6th and 7th gen, it's pretty unfair to the older Generations.

 

Right now my favorite System is the PS2. Games are cheap, easy to collect for, Controllers are easy to find and there are so many Options out there. It's just great.

 

I love my mega drive, but games are expensive, Controllers in good state are also getting expensive, there are less good Options straight out of the box, etc..

 

It's an interesting discussion, but truth is, except for 8th gen (and maybe first, but I agree with you, Cut them some slack, they're the first) they're all pretty awesome. 8th gen is just so trashy. I still can't believe how much they screwed up. People complain that 8th gen is too weak in graphics and such. To me that's one of the few right decisions they actually made. But they should have found a way of letting you Play games without installing. And games are just such garbage.. Except for the WiiU and a couple other games there's nothing even remotely appealing.

[+5-11under]

I don't know the generation numbers, but... ColecoVision/Intellivision/Vectrex/5200 are some of my favourites.

[zylon]

4th IMHO. For the earlier stuff, I preferred the computers of the times like XL's, and C64.

Edited November 14, 2015 by zylon

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

Here is how I rank it.

 

1. 2nd Generation (1976-1984): It was an era dominated by many systems notably the 2600, 5200, Odyssey 2, Intellivision, and Colecovision. And I own these systems. I love bringing the arcade experience home. And many of my top systems came from that era.

 

2. 4th Generation (1987-1999): The 16 bit era releases of the Genesis, SNES, and TG-16 produced great platformers, beat em ups, fighters, and arcade games and boasting rich colorful graphics with a great sound engine.

 

3. 6th Generation (1998-2012): The era when online gaming made it's debut. And 3D gaming was enhanced more. The Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, and Game Cube produced some great 3D platformers, fighters, racing, and arcade games. Also everything became dvd formatted.

 

4. 3rd Generation (1983-1995): The NES solely dominated that era and blew the Master System and 7800 out of the water. Now the 7800 has a fantastic homebrew market. The Master System had solid games but lacked third party support.

 

5. 5th Generation (1993-2006): The debut of CD media formatted gaming and Sony makes it's debut in the gaming market with the Playstation. 3D gaming becomes a huge trend. The Saturn and N64 made some good games but the Jaguar and 3DO didn't impress me.

 

6. 7th Generation (2004-Present): Online gaming takes it a notch higher. FPS' s were the dominance of that era and constant updates to the system became a major turnoff and also reliability issues for the 360 and early model PS3's.

 

7. 1st Generation (1972-1977): Dominated by pong systems and pioneers into the video game market. The games were simple but something special for it's time throughout the 70's.

 

8. 8th Generation (2012-Present): The DLC content and updates like the previous generation have leered me away from getting excited about the PS4 and Xbox One. I enjoy the Wii, but social media drains the fun out of this generation's systems.

[NeoTurboManiac]

I don't know the generation numbers, but... ColecoVision/Intellivision/Vectrex/5200 are some of my favourites.

1st Gen - Pong, Vectrex 2nd Gen - Atari 2600, 5200, ColecoVision, Vectrex, etc. 3rd Gen - NES, Master System 4th Gen - 16-bit era 5th Gen - 32-bit era 6th Gen - PS2, Xbox, Dreamcast, Gamecube 7th Gen PS3, Xbox 360, Wii 8th Gen PS4, Xbox One, Wii U

[high voltage]

You can't put Atari 2600 and Coleco, Atari 5200, Vectrex, in the same generation, that's just Wiki stupidity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of written proof from video gaming magazines at the time that Coleco 5200 etc are 3rd gen.

[leods]

You can't put Atari 2600 and Coleco, Atari 5200, Vectrex, in the same generation, that's just Wiki stupidity

 

Lots of written proof from video gaming magazines at the time that Coleco 5200 etc are 3rd gen.

 

Who cares about your old magazines and Facts? Everybody knows the NES is the first Videogame System out there, Everything that came before is the same and are all crap. Welcome to the new world of "Retro Gaming":

 

First platformer is Mario

First Action RPG is Zelda

The only good game Atari ever made was Pac Man

Coleco Vision is just a crappy atari clone with slightly better graphics, but no one cares, because, again, anything to come before the mighty NES is just garbage.

 

If you don't know These Facts you're just too old and can't Keep up with the Evolution of Retro gaming, where People will build up Hype for new Retro consoles on Facebook without ever bothering to try any of the dozens of actual old Videogames out there. Not to mention old magazines are crap. The only relyable Information Come from your favorite youtuber. Those you can trust. No one would be crazy to upload a Video with false information to YouTube.

[Christophero Sly]

Who puts the 2600 in the same generation as the 5200 and CV? That's just dumb.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

What an awesome thread idea! I've often pondered over my favorite consoles and enjoy reading about what makes certain consoles special to others, but I've never really considered it in terms of generations. As someone who has done the majority of my gaming over the course of my life on handheld systems I might have a slightly different perspective on the issue than many gamers here, and with that in mind here's my Top 3 favorite console generations.

 

 

#3. Fourth Generation (Game Boy & Sega Genesis)

 

Growing up in the early 90's I did most of my childhood gaming on an original gray brick model Game Boy, which would lead to a lifelong fascination with handheld games. As a kid I had what most of my friends considered a pretty enormous Game Boy library, around thirty or so games, and these days I have about twice that many. Some of my fondest childhood gaming memories were on that little green and black screen, and now as an adult I think I spend even more time playing the Game Boy than I did when I was a kid. I did eventually get a Sega Genesis during my youth too, which led to innumerable hours of playing Mortal Kombat and every Sonic game published for the system. I still dig the Genesis a lot and try to go back and play it at least a few times a month, but the original Game Boy and it's humongous library of excellent games is really my bread and butter of this generation.

 

 

 

#2. Fifth Generation (Game Boy Color & PlayStation)

 

Wouldn't you know it, my second favorite generation is the very next one! This generation had two major highlights for me: The first was finally being able to enjoy all my old favorite Game Boy games in color (in many cases it was just a splash of color, but it still excited me) and without motion blur. The Game Boy Color's screen was just leaps and bounds ahead of the original Game Boy's, with the pixels all clearly visible and never becoming blurry when objects moved on the screen; and the Worm Light that Nyko released for the GBC meant that I could finally play Game Boy without the need to sit under a bright light source or attach some enormously bulky screen magnifying contraption to my handheld. And on top of all that there were tons of great new games for it that were in full, vibrant color!

 

The second highlight of this generation (for me that is) was the original Sony PlayStation. This console marked what may have been the biggest leap forward in graphics, game variety, and a game's ability to tell a story that the world of console video games has ever seen. Up until the PlayStation came out I had never experienced any games with 3D polygonal graphics, and when I got my first couple games for the system—the original Tomb Raider and Resident Evil games—I was completely blown away. It's been a good two decades since then, and even after all this time the PlayStation has never stopped impressing me. It's huge library of exciting and compelling 3D action/adventure/horror games, awesome light gun shooters, conversions classic PC games in all sorts of genres, and perfect ports of most of my favorite 80's arcade games (and a trackball controller to play Centipede with no less) definitely make the PlayStation one of my all time favorite home gaming consoles.

 

 

 

#1. Sixth Generation (Game Boy Advance SP, Game Boy Micro, & GameCube)

 

This was a really hard choice for me, because I was darn tempted to call the previous generation my favorite, but if I'm being really honest with myself there's just way too much I love about Nintendo's offerings from this generation to give it second place. For my tastes this was the absolute best generation for handheld gaming, with the powerhouse that was the Game Boy Advance SP finally bringing one of my all time favorite game genres—sci-fi first person shooters—to a handheld. I can't even begin to describe how utterly amazed I was the first time I played Wolfenstein 3D and Doom for the Game Boy Advance, and those were just the tip of the iceberg for the system's game selection. I honestly can't think of any game genre that the GBA doesn't have a plethora of quality game titles in, and I love the system's lightweight and ergonomically comfortable clamshell design just as much as the games that can be played on it. The fact that Nintendo also gave the AGS-101 model of the GBA SP a backlight screen (finally!) and made it backwards compatible with all previous Game Boy and Game Boy Color games was just icing on the cake for an already outstanding handheld. The only complaint I could really make about it is that these days it can be hard to find new current production replacement rechargeable battery packs for it, but at the time of it's release it was really cool not having to stock up on AA batteries anymore.

 

Next up in this generation is the ill-fated yet ever so beautiful Game Boy Micro, which—in my very subjective opinion—is hands down the most beautiful and elegant handheld game console ever produced. Sure the screen is only a little larger than a postage stamp, and sure it dropped the backwards compatibility of the SP and only plays Game Boy Advance games, but man is it ever one classy looking system! I also love the total portability of the system. It's so small that even when kept inside a padded carrying case it still fits comfortably in any pants pocket, and what the screen lacks in size it makes up for in extreme levels of sharpness and wide array of backlight brightness options. It's too bad that so many of these little units were plagued with dead or stuck pixels on the screen, because it's an absolute joy to behold in all other respects.

 

Lastly we have the GameCube, which is by no small margin my absolute favorite home console that Nintendo has ever produced; and possibly my favorite home console period. It drew me in with it's Game Boy Player add-on that let me play all my favorite handheld games on the big screen, and it kept me glued to the couch with it's abundance of high quality exclusive titles that featured some of the most jaw droppingly beautiful graphics and engaging gameplay of the generation. The Resident Evil REmake, Metroid Prime, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Star Fox Adventures, Mario Party 4, and dozens and dozens more. On top of that were all the amazing compilations of great games from previous generations such as Sonic Mega Collection, The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition, Mega Man: Anniversary Collection, and so on. Back when it came out I felt like the GameCube was really a showcase of nearly everything that I ever loved about Nintendo, and I still feel that way about it today. Add in some really cool aesthetic design choices like the console's cube shape, the ever charming mini disc game format, and what is in my opinion the single most comfortable and ergonomically perfect controller ever made for a home console and it's not hard to see why the GameCube pushed the Sixth Generation up to #1 for me.

 

The Cube is dead, long live the Cube!

Edited November 14, 2015 by Jin

[Flojomojo]

If you pick anything older than the current crop of PCs that are powerful enough to emulate most of what has come before, it's as if you've freed the genie and are wasting a wish.

[Osgeld]

16 bit home consoles

 

simple enough

[BassGuitari]

Without getting into the whole generation argument, my favorite stuff comes from the 1976-86 timeframe. Pretty much everything that came out then is fascinating to me on some level. Second up would probably be the 32-bit era, namely PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Dreamcast.

Somewhat oddly, I have little interest in 16-bit era systems even though I was raised on them. I have all the SNES and Genesis games I care to play and little desire to collect for them further (a game here or there, that'd be about it). PC Engine isn't even on my radar aside from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.

I have essentially zero interest in anything after the PlayStation 2/GameCube/Xbox era.

[BassGuitari]

 

Who cares about your old magazines and Facts? Everybody knows the NES is the first Videogame System out there, Everything that came before is the same and are all crap. Welcome to the new world of "Retro Gaming":

 

First platformer is Mario

First Action RPG is Zelda

The only good game Atari ever made was Pac Man

Coleco Vision is just a crappy atari clone with slightly better graphics, but no one cares, because, again, anything to come before the mighty NES is just garbage.

 

If you don't know These Facts you're just too old and can't Keep up with the Evolution of Retro gaming, where People will build up Hype for new Retro consoles on Facebook without ever bothering to try any of the dozens of actual old Videogames out there. Not to mention old magazines are crap. The only relyable Information Come from your favorite youtuber. Those you can trust. No one would be crazy to upload a Video with false information to YouTube.

It irritates me endlessly how the nouveau retro Youtube crowd treats everything that came before 1985 as a series of necessary mistakes that lead up to the NES. Yes, the NES was a watershed console. But to just write off everything else before it is just ignorant. It's not like the people at Atari and Mattel Electronics and Coleco were just primates throwing their own shit at each other before the Nintendo Monolith appeared and changed the course of videogame evolution.

[Andromeda Stardust]

From best to worst: 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th.

 

NES/FC is my favorite console but 4th gen wins because it's hard to beat the trio of great systems SNES/SFC, Genesis/MD, and TG-16/PCe from that generation.

 

Companies from favorite to least: Nintendo, Atari, Sega, NEC/Hudson, Sony, Ouya

(I only list companies I own at least one game console from)

 

But really each gen and every system have good games and crap games. I own consoles and play games from every generation so it isn't fair to ask me to pick my least favorite because I enjoy them all. If I don't enjoy something, I simply sell it off and get rid of it. Just because 8th gen is at the end of my list doesn't mean I don't enjoy playing Wii-U for instance. In fact I do consider it a better console than Wii, but overall 7th gen offered more variety of content.

[empsolo]

It irritates me endlessly how the nouveau retro Youtube crowd treats everything that came before 1985 as a series of necessary mistakes that lead up to the NES. Yes, the NES was a watershed console. But to just write off everything else before it is just ignorant. It's not like the people at Atari and Mattel Electronics and Coleco were just primates throwing their own shit at each other before the Nintendo Monolith appeared and changed the course of videogame evolution.

I don't think anybody really says that that with a serious face. I think that heavily strawmans the argument why gamers and gaming media in general after the crash of 1983 had re-appraised the generational structure. I mean let's face it, the Atari 5200, the Colecovision and the Intellivision were simply minor increases in graphics and specs compared to the NES, 7800, and Master System which were leaps and bounds beyond the so-called "third wave" or "generation 2.5." And I don't think anybody can really dispute that with a straight face.

Edited November 15, 2015 by empsolo

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

The 8-bit console generation is my favorite..like all of them.

 

Atari to NES and beyond, I pretty much collect and play them all...

Edited November 15, 2015 by SiLic0ne t0aD85

[BydoEmpire]

Atarti 2600/5200/Inty/CV/Vectrex - pre-crash cartridge-based consoles, basically. Not a fan of using generation numbers. Too confusing, everyone has different ideas of which systems are in which number, etc. But that's just me. Using the OP's numbers, then Gen 2.

 

Personally I do consider the 2600, 5200 & CV to be in the same generation. Chronologically (and to some extent technologically) they were very close and there was a lot of overlap.

[Algus]

Can I just blanket say "the 90s". ? Most of my favorite games came out late NES thru PS1

[BassGuitari]

I don't think anybody really says that that with a serious face. I think that heavily strawmans the argument why gamers and gaming media in general after the crash of 1983 had re-appraised the generational structure.

I'll share this post that was posted in the 2600 Forum just this morning:

 

I'm 25 so obviously I didn't grow up with Atari. I remember I was 12 when I started researching old Atari games, old NES games etc. I got my hands on a 2600 when I was 20 and I love it. I can play Atari for hours. However, I've only met one retro gamer my age who likes Atari. For most, they stop at NES. A lot dismiss what came before it.

 

I've heard from other retro gamers

"Atari is bad"

"Atari is boring"

"Gaming didn't get good until Nintendo"

"Only hipsters like Atari"

 

Most retro gamers I know also dismiss Sega and love anything Nintendo released in the past. Why is this? I would say personal preference but I'd say a good 85% of retro gamers my age adore Nintendo and dismiss Sega and especially dismiss Atari.

I don't see how anybody can deny this with a straight face.

 

I mean let's face it, the Atari 5200, the Colecovision and the Intellivision were simply minor increases in graphics and specs compared to the NES, 7800, and Master System which were leaps and bounds beyond the so-called "third wave" or "generation 2.5." And I don't think anybody can really dispute that with a straight face.

Sure you can, at least to the extent of raw specs and how one defines "leaps and bounds." If you think about it, the NES's graphical capabilities (since you mentioned it) were probably only about as big a step from the Colecovision as the Colecovision was from the Atari 2600 (granted, that's still a fairly sizeable step). The 7800 was barely a step up from the 5200 (until Bob DeCrescenzo showed up, I should add), and was actually a step back in terms of audio. Gotta remember, the late-'80s 8-bit systems were designed in the early to mid '80s, around the same time as or just after stuff like Colecovision and Atari 5200. The Famicom launched in 1983, and while it was capable of some impressive things, its technical specs were more or less in line with what was conventional then.

 

What set the NES and SMS apart was the games. The Super Marios and Zeldas, they were and still are great games, and no one is saying they weren't a quantum leap from the single-screen arcade games found on Atari and Coleco systems. My original point was only that I think it's a mistake to dismiss those old games.

Edited November 15, 2015 by BassGuitari

[high voltage]

Actually NES came out in 1983 (Famicom) just like the Coleco and Atari 2800, so they are all the same gen.

[mbd30]

I'd go with the transition period from the 8-bit console era to the 16-bit era, the late 80's and early 90's. There were great SNES and Genesis games being made, as well as some of the best NES games.

[empsolo]

 

 

 

I don't see how anybody can deny this with a straight face.

 

Yes, there is a bit of hyperbole in those sentiments but they aren't wrong though. Considering that for two straight console generations Atari released the same arcade conversions that everybody had playing since the VCS was released in 1977. And those so called next "gen" hardware offered those same games only with minor hardware updates and audio and control schemes and people ended up getting tired of them. Did Atari suck? Maybe not. But I can see where people are coming from nevertheless.

 

Sure you can, at least to the extent of raw specs and how one defines "leaps and bounds."

If by leaps and bounds, you mean hardware that can actually play newer types of games that kids my generation were interested in the aftermath of the '83 Crash. Specifically scrolling action games like your Super Mario, Contra, Metroid, and Mega Man games. As well as audio hardware that can enable games to play entire soundtracks of memorable music.

 

If you think about it, the NES's graphical capabilities (since you mentioned it) were probably only about as big a step from the Colecovision as the Colecovision was from the Atari 2600 (granted, that's still a fairly sizeable step).

Except the NES was able to do a lot of things naturally that neither VCS or the Colecovision were able to do like being able to do smooth srolling right out of the box and to do that with advances in graphics at the same time. Super Mario Bros was able to show just how far the hardware was able to be pushed without the need for special mapper chips. That's not saying much considering that Miyamoto had designed Super Mario Bros with the intent on it being the Famicom's swan Song.

 

The 7800 was barely a step up from the 5200 (until Bob DeCrescenzo showed up, I should add), and was actually a step back in terms of audio

I don't know about that. The 7800 looks much better in terms of sprite models than what we saw previously in the 5200 and the 2600. The graphics don't look better than what we would see with the Famicom and Master System but they were noticible improvments nevertheless. The only place where it really is a step back in on audio. But that's what you get for cheapening out and forcing devs to pay for the added cost of having 5200 quality audio on a third generation console.

 

. Gotta remember, the late-'80s 8-bit systems were designed in the early to mid '80s, around the same time as or just after stuff like Colecovision and Atari 5200.

That's true, but this generally means nothing when we talk about 2nd and 3rd gen systems.

 

The Famicom launched in 1983, and while it was capable of some impressive things, its technical specs were more or less in line with what was conventional then.

But the Famicom was designed with the idea in mind that it could keep up with the times to an extent. That's why it had seperate buses for graphics and audio and and was capable of relying on special chips found in carts to deliver better graphics without having to either tax the CPU or force the company to issue endless hardware revisions like Sega did with the SG-1000.

 

 

What set the NES and SMS apart was the games. The Super Marios and Zeldas, they were and still are great games, and no one is saying they weren't a quantum leap from the single-screen arcade games found on Atari and Coleco systems. My original point was only that I think it's a mistake to dismiss those old games.

Like I said. Nobody is dimissing them. It's just that the older console and software manufcaturers and producers like Atari, Coleco, and Mattel thought they could ride the early arcade port gravy endlessly and that would end up burning consumers in the end.

Edited November 15, 2015 by empsolo

[empsolo]

Actually NES came out in 1983 (Famicom) just like the Coleco and Atari 2800, so they are all the same gen.

The 2800 is just a 2600 with repackaged Japanese Box art. The Colecovision is clearly a previous gen system because it is not capable of doing the tyes of smooth scrolling games that the Master System and NES would be famous for. Also when a console is released has nothing to do with it's placement on the generation timescale.