When did game consoles reach their peak for you?

[+Ransom]

In your opinion, when did home video game consoles peak in terms of the experience they deliver?

 

This isn't an intellectual thing; I'm asking on an emotional level.

 

For me, it was the 5200/ColecoVision era. That's when it peaked for me. Those consoles delivered the home arcade experience we'd been promised all those years. And they were just so danmed cool. The 5200 looks like it's something from space. And it can frickin' talk to you without a voice module. Hey -- maybe it is from space!

 

As for the ColecoVision, it had unlimited expansion possibilities. And they actually fulfilled many of them. Sure, we didn't get the Super Game Module, but we did get a trak-ball, a driving wheel, a 2600 adapter, and a tiny little computer add-on. And the most amazing controller ever made, complete with four action buttons, a full keypad, a spinner, and a real joystick. All those add-ons were produced within the short lifespan of the ColecoVision. Amazing! (The light that burns twice as bright . .. )

 

And the games are just awesome. Galaxian, Defender, Star Raiders, Berzerk, Frenzy, Super Cobra, Robotron:2084...I could go on and on. These two systems have a high percentage of really great games. And thank you Coleco for bringing some lesser-known favorites to the home console. Back then, I thought I was the only one in the world who loved Venture. There was no way I'd ever see that on a console. But Coleco did it! That was amazing to me. It was like they were working from my video game playlist. If it was on my list and Atari hadn't made a cart for it, Coleco did.

 

It was a great time to be a kid. And now, as an adult, they're still great consoles. Sure, they both have their quirks, but they make putting up with it well worth while.

 

That's my opinion. What's yours?

Edited December 18, 2009 by Ransom

[DaytonaUSA]

Saturn/Playstation/N64 days, when arcade play was still king. Racers, fighters, pretty much every genre, even platformers had the old arcade type of style to them, just with new shiny graphics and I loved it. I don't know how to describe it, but starting with the PS2/Xbox/GC days, this really started to die off.

 

Games have become graphic novels, when I grew up with games being 15 minute arcade sessions. Sure there have always been RPGs, ect, but the main popular games have changed completely from the mid 90s to now.

 

Probably why I love my PS1, Saturn and N64 so much. It was the best of all the generations. You had 3D graphics AND arcade game play at it's best.

 

Some favorites:

Armored Core

Daytona USA

Nights into Dreams

House of the Dead

Street Fighter Zero 3

X-Men VS Street Fighter

Sega Rally

Sky Target

Air Combat

N20

WipEout

Warhawk

Wing Commader

Mario Kart 64

Starfox 64

F-Zero

Moto Racer

Need for Speed II SE

Edited December 18, 2009 by DaytonaUSA

[The_Laird]

I think it peaked in the late 16-bit years and I don't own a console newer than the Saturn and you will se the reasoning behind this.

 

Back then you still had a great mix of original games and arcade conversions with programmers trying to push each machine to its individual limits. I love the days of the arcades and they came to an end after this period in gaming.

 

Back then I had a Megadrive and Atari Lynx and loved them both so much for the mix of original games and coin-op conversions. I then went onto the Jaguar which still had that mix with some great updates of some classic arcade games too which made it even better. I also owned a Saturn and the reason I chose it over the PS1 was because of the Sega arcade game conversions.

 

It was the Playsyation generation that killed arcades and killed originality in gamimg. Now we are stuck with a shitty kids console, and 2 totally unreliable consoles from faceless companies with near identical games. YAWN!

[DaytonaUSA]

I think it peaked in the late 16-bit years and I don't own a console newer than the Saturn and you will se the reasoning behind this.

 

Back then you still had a great mix of original games and arcade conversions with programmers trying to push each machine to its individual limits. I love the days of the arcades and they came to an end after this period in gaming.

 

Back then I had a Megadrive and Atari Lynx and loved them both so much for the mix of original games and coin-op conversions. I then went onto the Jaguar which still had that mix with some great updates of some classic arcade games too which made it even better. I also owned a Saturn and the reason I chose it over the PS1 was because of the Sega arcade game conversions.

 

It was the Playsyation generation that killed arcades and killed originality in gamimg. Now we are stuck with a shitty kids console, and 2 totally unreliable consoles from faceless companies with near identical games. YAWN!

 

I wouldn't call the PS3 unreliable at all. The 360 for sure. They've all lost their faces though. Nintendo the most of the three in my personal opinion. However, I will stand up and say that the PS1 still offered many arcade type games, even if that is when gaming started to become like they are today. I still love my PS1 more than any other Playstation system. But Saturn still rules my day .

 

Still, I think the N64 was the most quality of making games the way they are today more than the PS1 was. The PS1 had more arcade style games like the Saturn, while the N64 was more focused on adventure and platforming titles which eventually became what games are pretty much today.

[tz101]

Everything hit its high point with Nintendo and the NES. These games were far better than any of the 2600, Colecovision, or Intellivision games that came prior.

 

Top notch titles were:

SMB2

SMB3

Zanac

Legend of Zelda

Arkanoid

Karnov

Tecmo Super Bowl

Rolling Thunder

[+save2600]

This is a thought provoking thread. While I would like to say Colecovision, I can't. Great arcade translations for sure, but many of us were sick to death of them by then AND the controllers are the most un-arcade like around. Especially that goofy "Super Action" controller. lol Neat concepts, don't get me wrong, but I don't care for them in a practical sense. Umm... I might have to go with a more modern console, such as the Jaguar, Saturn or maybe even the PSX. Hate to admit the latter, but there were still some good games up until then. And when you ask about which console was a "peak" for me, these from the mid 90's really fit that description because I believe gaming has taken a serious nosedive since then. Honestly, the original XBox probably peaked my interest in gaming and helped ruin my desire to game on any platforms since, even though I've owned a Gamecube & Wii - but neither for very long. Cartridge based 8 and 16-bit systems will forever remain my "favorite" to play day in and day out. Not that I play that often

[kevincal]

1996

[Galactus]

SNES

[nathanallan]

For me I go with the late 16-bit era. After that it got less cartoony and more realistic (though I kinda do like realistic on the PC). I prefer cartoony over titles that started to emerge that wanted to be more realistic. Most of the classic compilations were nice on the newer consoles, but the later 16-bit era peaked it for me.

[Pixelboy]

The 16-bit era was the peek for me, more notably with the Super-NES and Genesis. Nice controllers, quality games with great graphics and sounds (most of which were pick-up-and-play) and a relatively stable market where third-party publishers could actually make a buck without having huge teams put years of effort into software development.

 

After that era, things went downhill.

 

Nintendo made the huge mistake of sticking with the cart format for the N64 and lost a lot of third-party support in the process. I also could never stand the N64 controller, personally.

 

Meanwhile Sony embraced 3D gaming with its PlayStation, which implied that we all got joypads with a bunch of buttons (and then later analog joysticks) shoved down our throats. The only PS games I enjoyed were those that didn't require the constant use of the joypad shoulder buttons. I hate shoulder buttons with a passion, and I barely got used to them on the Super-NES and Game Boy Advance.

 

Sega rushed the Saturn out the door, which was a glorified 2D machine at its core, but as Sony was taking the market away from Nintendo with the PlayStation, Sega had no choice but to push 3D gaming on the Saturn, and third-party developers followed relunctantly, given the complex internals of the machine. From a strictly business point of view, it simply made more sense to develop games on the PlayStation at the time. By the time Sega released the Dreamcast, the company had already made too many mistakes, and had to get out of the hardware business entirely just to stay alive, which meant the end of Dreamcast support. I was never a fan of the Dreamcast, so its demise never really bothered me, but I do recognize that it was a tragedy in terms of lost potential.

 

Sony's dominance and Microsoft's steady rise to fame in America left Nintendo with lackluster sales of the Game Cube, with most of its hit games being first-party. At least the Game Cube controller was pretty good IMHO, and the Game Boy Player was a stroke of genius.

 

Through all of that, we got increasingly complex (and not always good) 3D games, which served to slowly crystalize the concept of the "hardcore gamer" (Steel Battallion, anyone?) leaving guys like me with no choice but to focus on the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance for the kind of gaming I enjoy. Then the Nintendo DS came along, and frankly, stylus-based gaming just isn't for me, so I just abandonned handheld gaming altogether at one point.

 

Nowadays, I don't really play games anymore. I went "full retro", and I now spend all my free time working on ColecoVision homebrew-related projects. No Wii, no 360 and no PS3 for me, I don't have any time to invest in today's games.

[ddaniels]

I would say my peak occured while owning an Intellivision around '83. I could sense that Mattel was going downhill (video game industry in general at that time). I realized also at that time Coleco was the king in terms of graphics but I didn't want to jump on that bandwagon when I saw ads for the Commodore 64. I saw the Commodore 64 as the answer to better sound/graphics more flexability than any of the current consoles could offer. I can still recall the ad in video game magazines by Parker Brothers (I believe) showing a screen shot say of Congo Bongo for every system out at that time. It was funny how Congo Bongo looked when you compared the C64 version all the way down to the Atari 2600 versio. Funny, because now that I think about it was Xmas of '83 that I would have received my C64. I believe my parents paid around $300. Wow, 26 years later where did that time go?

[+Random Terrain]

I'm still waiting for the console that will make me say "Yep, this is the one. I have no complaints. I can do everything I've been wanting to do and more with these games."

 

I won't be happy until I can buy a Grand Theft Auto style game where the buildings and other things are destructible (like in Red Faction: Guerrilla), the trees can be climbed/chopped down/burned/shot up/blown up, the ground can be affected through digging/explosions/backhoe-like machines, and the people walking around are more intelligent and act more like real people would in various situations (they wouldn't casually stroll through fire or do other things that make no sense). Let me drive, fly airplanes and helicopters, and use a GTA: SA style jetpack again. Just give me more stuff to do in a more realistic world, without actual real-world hassles that would ruin a game.

[jeremysart]

Its hard to say really.

 

One one hand I could say Intellivision, because it had SO many first party, and imagic titles that were not released on the other competing consoles like the 2600, CV, or 5200. It was more colorfull and had a lot less flicker, plus great sounds, and a handfull of games had more than three screens and or full musical scores (take Thunder Castle or Tower of Doom for example of great Intv games). Then there were the addictive two player games that my friends still ask to play when we all get together, like Shark! Shark!

 

On another note, I could relate to DaytonaUSA.

During the era of PS1/ N64/ Saturn was an era where new genres were born, and a lot of great arcade titles were still being brought to consoles.

 

There were great games on the PS1 like

Crash Bandicoot,

Project Raiden,

Tomb Raider,

Need for Speed II Hot Pursuit,

Resident Evil 2,

Twisted Metal 2,

Metal Gear Solid,

Suikoden II,

Rouge Trip and Vigilante 8,

Command & Conquer,

Final Fantasy 7.

Then the N64 offered whole new fresh ideas and upgrades from 2D classics. There was

Super Mario 64 and

Star Fox 64,

Mario Kart 64,

the Turok series blew me away,

Doom 64 was a nice new face on my all time favorite FPS

Zelda Ocarina of Time brough adventure to a new level

 

But then my final verdict, from an emotional point of view, my final answer is:

 

SNES!

I will never forget the amazement and excitement of opening up that SNES. It came with two games,

Super Mario World,

and Super Mario All Stars.

The there was Donkey Kong Country,

Star Fox!

Yoshi's Island, (one of my all time favorites!)

Doom,

F-Zero,

HyperZone,

Zelda: A Link to the Past,

Killer Instinct,

Kirbys Dreamland 3..

 

I still play SNES games for than any other console!

[brojamfootball]

The 16-bit era with the Genesis was probably the peak for me. I remember the largely perfect arcade conversions as well as lots of original games that were fantastic.

 

I bought one for myself in about '93 when I was in my early-mid twenties, and repeatedly bummed out my girlfriend with marathon gaming sessions.

[DaytonaUSA]

Its hard to say really.

 

One one hand I could say Intellivision, because it had SO many first party, and imagic titles that were not released on the other competing consoles like the 2600, CV, or 5200. It was more colorfull and had a lot less flicker, plus great sounds, and a handfull of games had more than three screens and or full musical scores (take Thunder Castle or Tower of Doom for example of great Intv games). Then there were the addictive two player games that my friends still ask to play when we all get together, like Shark! Shark!

 

On another note, I could relate to DaytonaUSA.

During the era of PS1/ N64/ Saturn was an era where new genres were born, and a lot of great arcade titles were still being brought to consoles.

 

There were great games on the PS1 like

Crash Bandicoot,

Project Raiden,

Tomb Raider,

Need for Speed II Hot Pursuit,

Resident Evil 2,

Twisted Metal 2,

Metal Gear Solid,

Suikoden II,

Rouge Trip and Vigilante 8,

Command & Conquer,

Final Fantasy 7.

Then the N64 offered whole new fresh ideas and upgrades from 2D classics. There was

Super Mario 64 and

Star Fox 64,

Mario Kart 64,

the Turok series blew me away,

Doom 64 was a nice new face on my all time favorite FPS

Zelda Ocarina of Time brough adventure to a new level

 

But then my final verdict, from an emotional point of view, my final answer is:

 

SNES!

I will never forget the amazement and excitement of opening up that SNES. It came with two games,

Super Mario World,

and Super Mario All Stars.

The there was Donkey Kong Country,

Star Fox!

Yoshi's Island, (one of my all time favorites!)

Doom,

F-Zero,

HyperZone,

Zelda: A Link to the Past,

Killer Instinct,

Kirbys Dreamland 3..

 

I still play SNES games for than any other console!

 

Thank you! Someone sees where I was going with that. Playstation didn't become "evil" in my eyes until the PS2. Even then, I still like Playstation, but I think the last glory days of gaming were two generations ago for sure. For the people who keep saying it ended with consoles like Intellivision or NES, because of the arcade classics they recreated, I'm sure you can relate to where I'm going with this. Same idea of loving arcade gameplay, just in a different generation of gaming. I think the reason why modern gaming seems soulless sometimes is simply because the arcade influence is now gone.

[carmel_andrews]

like the other eggheads here have said. anything n64/jag/ps1/saturn etc etc, going bk to VCS/VES and that RCA studio jobbie and before...that is where real gaming lies...if we wanted movie quality gaming standards we'd buy up our local multiplex/i max etc

[BydoEmpire]

This is a tough question for consoles. I want to say the end of the pre-crash era - the quantity and creativity of software was just amazing. On the other hand, quality was uneven and a lot of genres just weren't around on consoles. I might go with the 16-bit era - it was the 8-bit postcrash era bumped up a notch. There were just more genres and more quality games on the Genny/SNES/TG-16 than on the NES/SMS/7800. Never been a big fan of the ps1/saturn/n64 era. The DC/ps2/gc/xbox era was very cool, but gaming became such a big business that some of the charm was lost. Still, it's hard to argue with the quantity of AAA games that still hold up. The current generation sucks.

 

For computer games, I'd say the early-to-mid 90s. VGA/SoundBlaster equipped PCs had become pretty standard, along with a hard drive. The Amiga was full of amazing stuff in the early 90s, although it was reaching its final days (commercially). There was never such a great variety of creative, quality PC games as then - stuff like Doom, X-Com, Civilzation, Ultima: Underworld, Wing Commander, Lucasarts' adventures. I think the c64's heyday was probably right up there - certainly in terms of quantity - but there was just so much groundbreaking, quality stuff on PCs in the early-to-mid 90s that I have to give it the edge. Those games hold up better as well. I basically stopped playing PC games when 3D cards became required (other than Morrowind).

 

Consoles: 16-bit (SNES, Genny, TG-16)

Computers: early-to-mid 90s (VGA/Soundblaster PCs, Amiga)

Edited December 18, 2009 by BydoEmpire

[BassGuitari]

I pretty much lost interest, for the most part, around the time GTA3 came out. I just don't get excited about new games anymore. They just don't seem that interesting. Sure, there were/are exceptions, like the Resident Evil remake for GameCube, Battlefield 1942, Resident Evil 4, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii (which was actually kind of a let-down for me). And my friends and I did have some fun with GTA3 and Dynasty Warriors 3 and Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. Other than that...meh. Halo 3? Call of Duty? World of Warcraft? Madden '10? Don't care.

 

(I WAS really looking forward to Aliens: Colonial Marines -the XBox360/PS3 version- and To End All Wars, though, and was super-pissed when they got canceled.)

 

So to answer the question, "when did game consoles reach their peak for you?," I'd have to say, from a purely emotional standpoint, the 1990s. When I could still get excited about new hardware/games, as well as old ones. In the early '90s I was a little kid, and there was so much for me to discover.

 

Like the time I found an Atari in my aunt's basement, and I didn't know what it was, and she said "it's a video game from the stone age,"...THAT was exciting. What's it like? How does it work? What are all these weird switches? Everything about it was so alien to the game-hardware conventions I'd been accustomed to, such as large cartridges, d-pad controllers, power buttons (not switches), cartridges that sat in the console either flatly or at a 90-degree angle (not the weird 45ish-degree angle that Atari games went in), and the absence of woodgrain and the color orange.

 

Or the time, years later, I went to a friend's after school to play Playstation, only to find he had an Odyssey 2 squirreled away in the corner under some old books and clothes (the Playstation was sidelined that afternoon, and many other afternoons). I later traded him some PS games for it. It would be the first of many systems that would become my classic game collection.

 

At the same time, things like NES, SNES, Genesis, Playstation, N64, and Dreamcast were happening, and that was great, too. Super Mario 1/2/3/World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Double Dragon, Street Fighter II, Shinobi III, WWF Royal Rumble, Alien Trilogy, Tenchu, Resident Evil, Goldeneye, Mario Kart (/64), Star Fox (/64), Crazy Taxi, House Of The Dead 2, etc...lots of good times there.

 

There were other things on the periphery (I say "periphery" because it seemed like nobody had them in my hometown, but we knew they existed) like Jaguar, 3DO, Sega CD and 32X, and Sega Saturn (one neighbor kid had one, and it was sweet) that also seemed very compelling despite their relative obscurity, with graphics that blew apart my NES and Genesis, and new technology (CDs! Whoa! Welcome to the future!).

 

So yeah, I'll say '90s, because that's when I happened to become aware of games. If I were ten years older, I'd probably say '80s.

[moycon]

In your opinion, when did home video game consoles peak in terms of the experience they deliver?

 

Hasn't happened yet and hopefully they never will.

 

Once you start reminiscing about the past and how great is was...you're officially old.

[+Ransom]

Hasn't happened yet and hopefully they never will.

 

Once you start reminiscing about the past and how great is was...you're officially old.

 

Hmm. So being 'old' means you've realized that (newer != better)?

 

Edited December 18, 2009 by Ransom

[DaytonaUSA]

I still love my PS3, but I mean, do I get excited at console releases anymore? No, not really. The only one that got me excited was the Wii, but that was a huge let down. Honestly, I miss the days in the mid and late 90s when consoles came out and you cared.

 

 

@Moycon

 

We're not old, we're observant. Let's face it, as fun as modern games are, a lot has changed, and fans of older genres or types of gameplay often feel abandoned with newer consoles.

[Video]

I'd have to say the 16 bit era. The SNES and Genesis were KING. They could do seemingly anything, and were nice and smooth when not overloaded. I might have picked the N 64 era (and PSX) but they had this bizarre, almost required shift to 3D, and while 3D was cool in small doses on the 16's and when done proper on the 32/64, for the most part, a lot, and i mean, a LOT of games just felt shit out.

 

Wonderfully, we actually got to kinda feel that 16 bit era twice, as in 01 the GBA rolled out, and it was the SNES all over again. Still lots of shit, but lots of gold too.

[Animan]

I'm not really sure. I enjoy games today as much as i did when i was first able to hold a controller in my hand, but I sure do miss playing SNES, green-screen Game Boy (later a GBA), PS1, and PC as a little munchkin. I still have those same systems today, but it's not quite the same. The only thing i prefer about playing those systems today is that when i was young, i had Yoshi's Island on the SNES, and it would freeze at random times. Being a little kid, i screamed worse than a 3 year old getting a shot (which how i act when i get a shot, even at 14), so eventually my sister threw it out (It was her system, anyway), but i recently got a new copy, and almost shed tears of joy from the happy memories i DID have.

 

The games that were most significant to me. (Excluding Atari, because there is too many)

 

SNES

-Super Mario World

-Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island)

-Donkey Kong Country 2 (I just recently got the first one, i grew up on the second one)

-Super Mario Kart

-Toy Story

 

Gameboy

-Super Mario Land

-Super Mario Land 2

-Killer Instinct (I STILL think this better than what the reviewers say about this version...)

-Game and Watch Gallery

 

PS1

-All Crash Bandicoot games

-Rollcage: Stage II

-Hydro Thunder (The Arcade Version, too)

-Lego Racers (The first game I ever beat)

-NASCAR Rumble

-Frogger

 

PC

-Roller Coaster Tycoon

-A ton of Lego games

-(I can't remember all of them for some reason )

 

Well, that's pretty much it on my list. Maybe a few i can't remember, but hey, we can't remember everything.

[+Random Terrain]

We're not old, we're observant. Let's face it, as fun as modern games are, a lot has changed, and fans of older genres or types of gameplay often feel abandoned with newer consoles.

Every console has something I'd probably like to play, but I felt abandoned long ago when it comes to randomness and replayability.

[Vic George 2K3]

Can't say there's a peak for me yet, unless it's this generation that's going to find it pretty hard to outdo itself. I just know that jumping ship from Nintendo to Sony by getting the Playstation 2 instead of the Gamecube was a rather interesting side trip, as there was barely anything on it that captivated my interest in it besides its DVD player capability. Personally I like the Playstation 2 controller much better than the Gamecube one since I rather have my two thumbsticks close together and I don't really care for the big green A button with three other buttons making orbits around it as far as its ergonomics go -- which is why I got Playstation 2 controller adapters for my Gamecube and my Wii. Then again, I seem to be losing interest in completing my games, even trying to do so in one sitting. As far as systems that are getting my gaming, it's mostly the Gamecube, the Wii, and the Gameboy Advance SP that's doing it for me.