Best (and Worst) Looking Consoles?

[BillyHW]

What are your picks for best (and worst) looking consoles? Here are my nominees.

 

BEST:

 

I will never understand why NEC gave us the hideous TurboGrafx-16 instead of this work of beauty. (Even the name PC Engine is full of awesome, best console name ever!)

 

 

WORST:

 

Cartridges out the side? Are you serious?

Edited January 12, 2012 by BillyHW

[Lentzquest]

Best: Atari Jaguar, I really like the overall shape and single button. Nice that the reset was a controller function.

 

Worst: I gotta go with either the Wii or Dreamcast... or any other white console for that matter. I really hated it for a while there where every company had to turn their electronics into "Apple White".

[TwinChargers]

Best- Atari 7800

 

 

Worst- N64

 

[genesisguy]

Best: Original Toaster NES. I know lame. But it's so iconic.

 

Worst: US SNES. The Super Famicom looked so cool, but here in the States we got that ugly grey box with the purple switches.

[so_tough!]

PC Engine is lovely looking!!!! Especially the white one! The cd rom with it looks coool!!!!

 

 

Jaguar looks cool too, Japanese Grey Staturn aswell, the dreamcast looks nice aswell.

[ls650]

Actually, I rather like the look of the original Intellivision - nothing says 70s like faux wood grain!

 

My vote for worst looking:

[Cebus Capucinis]

Best: BIG SEXY!

Worst: Jaguar with toilet add-on (you know it had to be said).

[Tr3vor]

Best: The NES. its so simple and it hides any big huge toumors that are carts inside of it.

 

Worst: The Xbox. Do you see how big it is?! also its puke green logo on the top. I like bolth light and dark greens, but that light bright green in plastic form is disgusting. the same with the lime green game boy color, ugh it makes me sick looking at it. good thing that the nasty green thing is only on the top.

[jetset]

Best - Atari 5200

 

Worst - Gamecube

[DemonoidTentacle]

Best: The True SNES. Colours, man. Colours on the buttons!

 

 

Worst: Too many horrible looking systems, but I've got to go with... I dunno, I'll have a think, and then edit this.

[cd-w]

Sticking with Atari:

 

Best: 2600 Vader - none more black

Worst: Lynx I - huge ugly slab

 

Chris

[+Ransom]

Best - Atari 5200

 

Worst - Microsoft XBox

[Rybags]

I'll add Magnavox Odyssey² to the worst lookers list. You could also throw in a whole bunch of 1st generation systems of the Pong/Shooter era.

3DO - looks like one of those old cheapskate "video players", ie VHS that plays tapes but can't record.

 

Best - 6 switch 2600s, Colecovision, Jaguar (just hide the controllers though)

[jaybird3rd]

To me, the worst-looking of the "really old" consoles would have to be the Coleco Telstar Arcade—that's the triangle-shaped one with a gun, a steering wheel, and paddles built into it. It must have taken up a ton of shelf space in stores. Of the newer consoles, I'm afraid I'm also going to pick on the Jaguar/JagCD combo (hey, I own and love them both, but let's be honest ... making the JagCD a different color was the only way they could have made it any worse as a cosmetic match for the Jaguar).

 

Just to be a contrarian, I'd also mention the original "fat" PlayStation 3: I don't own any modern consoles, so I only got the chance to see the PS3 in person fairly recently, and I was aghast at how ugly and clunky-looking it was. Perhaps the newer models are nicer.

 

As for the "best-looking", I have a special fondness for the Atari-style "pedestal" designs, so I'd have to pick the Atari 5200 and 7800. The 5200 is a little too big, but that machine in particular has style, especially if you pair it up with the incredible 5200 Trak-Ball controllers. The 7800 is a nice-looking machine, too, but you can tell that Atari was very aggressive about cost-reducing that system, at least compared to the "luxury model" workmanship of the 5200.

[Reaperman]

Best:

Jaguar CD

 

 

I don't like Jaguar/cd as a gaming system, and I freely admit this, but as an object on my shelf it's a thing of beauty. It's *so* different from other consoles, but not ugly. Sure it's on a lot of folks worst list for looking like a toilet, but I think that it looks like an awesome, futuristic, Frank Lloyd Wright toilet. It really reminds me of something he'd design.

 

Worst:

3do

 

 

Other designs of this system were better, but this one really sticks out as being awful. It has gaudy pillars but is essentially just a tarted up box. Kind of like when casinos use pillars to look fancy, but the whole place is pink-champagne cheap. The one and only benefit to the design is that you can stack a prettier video game system on top of it.

[Tr3vor]

Just to be a contrarian, I'd also mention the original "fat" PlayStation 3: I don't own any modern consoles, so I only got the chance to see the PS3 in person fairly recently, and I was aghast at how ugly and clunky-looking it was. Perhaps the newer models are nicer.

Yes, they are soooo much better. the original is the chunkiest fattest POS I've seen. I have the slim version, and I swear its half as tall as that chunk. with no ugly vents on the sides or anything.

[Austin]

The front-loading FZ-1 3DO is sexy, to be honest. It's one that needs to be seen in person to really appreciate it.

[Rex Dart]

The front-loading FZ-1 3DO is sexy, to be honest. It's one that needs to be seen in person to really appreciate it.

 

I think you'd need to see it in the 80's, where its styling originated. Yech. The FZ-10 is way sleek in comparison.

[Dirty Harry]

Best: Vectrex, built in controller (sort of), and video screen. very cool looking system

 

Worst: First version of snes that had the oxidizing plastic problem, looked like someone lit it on fire or spilled cola all over it.

Edited January 13, 2012 by Dirty Harry

[+thegoldenband]

Best: the Sega Saturn has one of the nicest form factors I've ever seen in a console.

 

Worst: I think the original PlayStation design is kind of hideous. The N64 isn't that great either.

[Emehr]

Best: Lynx 2

The second revision of the Lynx is a pleasure to hold and gaze upon. I feel like Sam Gamgee holding that vegetable at the beginning of Fellowship of the Rings.

 

Worst: NES top loader

When I first saw pics of the NES top loader in EGM I thought it was a joke. They took the iconic NES, punched it in the face, and repackaged it. I don't dislike a lot of systems. They are all art in their own way. Except the top loader. It reminds me of that scene in Mad Max (not Road Warrior, the one before it with the bad American overdub): That thing is not the Goose.

[BillyHW]

Best: Vectrex, built in controller (sort of), and video screen. very cool looking system

 

Worst: First version of snes that had the oxidizing plastic problem, looked like someone lit it on fire or spilled cola all over it.

 

I have one of the first ones (I managed to snag it prior to the official release date even) and it doesn't have the oxidation problem. Lucky me.

[AlvinKarpis]

Best

 

ColecoVision

Atari 5200

Sega Master System

 

Worst

 

Magnavox Odyssey 2

NES Toploader

[BassGuitari]

Best:

Atari/Sears 2600 systems (H6, 6, 4, Darth, VAII, Jr.)

Atari 5200

Intellivision II (with matching ECS and System Changer!)

INTV System III

Odyssey 100 (we need more red/red-orange consoles in the world)

Odyssey 2

Nintendo 64 (esp. with the colors)

 

Worst:

RCA Studio II

Sega Pico

ActionMax

Atari XE Game System

Atari Lynx (first version)

Coleco Telstar (original)

Xbox

 

Edited January 14, 2012 by BassGuitari

[Inky]

Best.. 7800.

 

Worst.. the XE Game system