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What's the Worst Console You Ever Played?


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...you could churn out some damn good fast paced games for the system as Donkey Kong Country and F-Zero can attest to. Bubsy of all games games showed that the SNES was capable of sonic style speed.

DKC was a HUGE step back in gameplay regardless of how it may have stepped forward in graphics.

 

It was basically the original SMB... WITHOUT the fireflower power-up.

 

You ran from left to right, ocassionally grabbing a power-up that DID grant you a second hit before you died, but didn't grant you any EXTRA power (IE Breaking breaks with your jump). You had no power-up that gave you an offensive attack and NONE of the power-ups that SMB3 offered, Sure you had the ride-able animals, but they were no where NEAR as flexible as the power-ups SMB3 gave you.

And SMB3 was released in 1989. For the original NES.

Edited by Torr
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I probably already responded to this before, but that was likely years ago. My current answer for worst game system would either be the game.com or the APF-1000, with the Emerson Arcadia and Channel F close behind. The most pointless game system would be the 32X, because really, who needed that with the Saturn six months away and the Sega CD released two years before? The most disappointing would probably be the Playstation TV. Amusing at first, but designed with a whole lot of impediments that ruin the experience. Intrusive firmware updates, a limited selection of compatible Vita games with the rest bound to digital distribution, remote play that's reported to work poorly if it's not connected directly to the PS4, overpriced memory cards, untapped hardware potential, infuriating to hack... oh, this thing is just the gift that keeps on giving. You a headache.

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...the Super NES...had audio that sounded like it was coming from a marble bathroom. /snesrant

THANK YOU, lol. Every time I try to explain that weird muffled echo quality of SNES audio to people they think I'm nuts.

 

Though it's not like the Genesis' sound is any better. A little thin and tinny for my liking.

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Tough question, this.

 

Most consoles have some redeeming factor for me and i never outright hated any system then or now, but i guess i will have to say the Intellivision thanks to its atrocious controllers. Seriously, those things are a disgrace and ruin so many games thanks to them being hardly playable. The ColecoVision has a way better controller, it is the closest comparison really.

 

Otherwise i have to say the Game Boy. Many friends had it but i never got into it, i couldnt see the fun of playing downgraded NES games in green & black with shit sound on a barely visible screen and spending a small fortune on batteries and repeat it all.

 

I never played the 7800 or the Jaguar so i cant say anything about them.

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Otherwise i have to say the Game Boy. Many friends had it but i never got into it, i couldnt see the fun of playing downgraded NES games in green & black with shit sound on a barely visible screen and spending a small fortune on batteries and repeat it all.

 

I almost agree with you. The Game Boy had some TERRIBLE visuals with the green monochrome and blurry as hell visuals when things moved (which is kind of a staple in video gaming) but the sound was nice. And a LOT of the games were rock solid. You just gotta play them on a Super Game Boy or GB Player for the Gamecube.

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Otherwise i have to say the Game Boy. Many friends had it but i never got into it, i couldnt see the fun of playing downgraded NES games in green & black with shit sound on a barely visible screen and spending a small fortune on batteries and repeat it all.

 

 

It's definitely fair to say that some GB games are "downgraded NES" games but that's taking a pretty narrow view of the library.

 

Still, even "downgraded NES" games sure were cool to play on the school bus in the late 80s.

 

I remember the Game Boy quite fondly, so I reacquired it a few years ago. To me, it is yet another example of how great things can be done with meager hardware capabilities if you get enough developer muscle on board to make games.

 

I remember replacing my Game Boy with a Lynx model 1 around the time that the model 2 was released, and kind of regretting it. Not that the Lynx sucked or anything, but the Game Boy just had more games that I enjoyed.

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For me it is the X-Box 360. I feared I was never going to get a Wii because of the Wii shortage, so I got an X-Box 360. That was a mistake, as the console has absolutely no game I would be interested in.

When you're not interested in a console with 1,000+ games of every possible type imaginable, the issue is probably more with you than the console. But then again some people called out the NES and SNES in this thread, so I suppose nothing should surprise me.

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THANK YOU, lol. Every time I try to explain that weird muffled echo quality of SNES audio to people they think I'm nuts.

 

Though it's not like the Genesis' sound is any better. A little thin and tinny for my liking.

 

What version of the Genesis? If you had a v1 and used the headphone jack the audio was amazing. On the SNES I think what you're talking about (and I know what you mean) is from the sound samples they used. They unfortunately stood out and sounded quite hollow. Nintendo basically forced devs to use only Nintendo's sound samples and most of them were crap. About the only thing the SNES did reasonably well was orchestral music.

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What version of the Genesis? If you had a v1 and used the headphone jack the audio was amazing. On the SNES I think what you're talking about (and I know what you mean) is from the sound samples they used. They unfortunately stood out and sounded quite hollow. Nintendo basically forced devs to use only Nintendo's sound samples and most of them were crap. About the only thing the SNES did reasonably well was orchestral music.

 

Agreed about the Model 1 Genesis -- the better hardware revisions have deep bass and a wonderfully full sound.

 

The SNES had a low-pass filter IIRC to hide aliasing (insect noise) from compression and a low sampling rate as well, so that contributes to the muffling. I agree that its strongest suit was faux-orchestral music, but it could do other genres in the right hands too:

 

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What version of the Genesis? If you had a v1 and used the headphone jack the audio was amazing.

I had the second version. Didn't figure it made any difference.

 

I could see maybe getting better low end out of headphones, but the overall audio style of many Genesis games just feels lacking to me (and yeah, it varies from game to game; some sound pretty good). Especially that awful synth guitar sound, gah.

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I had the second version. Didn't figure it made any difference.

 

Even among the models that may typically be referred to as the first version, the second version, etc., there are differences. There's truly a plethora of variations ranging in different quality video and audio results. Here is a guide.

 

My primary/go to Sega Genesis is a TMSS High Definition Graphics Model 1 (1601) with the following modifications:
-Modded for Composite and S-Video.
-Switchable between Japan and US.
-Switchable between Default and Overclock (No slowdowns in any game).
Motherboard: VA6 (also has the "PRODUCED BY OR UNDER LICENSE FROM SEGA ENTERPRISE LTD." every time before every game - Non TMSS versions do not do that).
Video Encoder: Sony CXA1145.
No rainbow banding (Rainbow banding is common among VA2 thru VA5 aka Non-TMSS Motherboards).
FM Synthesis: Discrete Yamaha YM2612.
Sound quality/circuitry is excellent, well balanced, without ill effects.
(VA3 to VA6 are all like this for this particular model. VA2 is the poor audio version for this model).
Regarding "the second version" (Model 2), a couple of them (VA2, VA2.3) utilize the YM2612, but the PSG is not wired correctly.
Others (VA0, VA1, VA1. 8) utilize the YM3438, and have all sorts of issues or conditions that affect the sound.
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Even among the models that may typically be referred to as the first version, the second version, etc., there are differences. There's truly a plethora of variations ranging in different quality video and audio results. Here is a guide.

 

My primary/go to Sega Genesis is a TMSS High Definition Graphics Model 1 (1601) with the following modifications:
-Modded for Composite and S-Video.
-Switchable between Japan and US.
-Switchable between Default and Overclock (No slowdowns in any game).
Motherboard: VA6 (also has the "PRODUCED BY OR UNDER LICENSE FROM SEGA ENTERPRISE LTD." every time before every game - Non TMSS versions do not do that).
Video Encoder: Sony CXA1145.
No rainbow banding (Rainbow banding is common among VA2 thru VA5 aka Non-TMSS Motherboards).
FM Synthesis: Discrete Yamaha YM2612.
Sound quality/circuitry is excellent, well balanced, without ill effects.
(VA3 to VA6 are all like this for this particular model. VA2 is the poor audio version for this model).
Regarding "the second version" (Model 2), a couple of them (VA2, VA2.3) utilize the YM2612, but the PSG is not wired correctly.
Others (VA0, VA1, VA1. 8) utilize the YM3438, and have all sorts of issues or conditions that affect the sound.

 

 

Gosh it's a shame they couldn't have been consistent with their manufacturing? What the heck was going on and why did they have to make so many revisions in the first place?

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But only in terms of raw CPU speed. I believe on every other facet, from audio hardware to graphics processing, the SNES beats out the Sega Genesis hands down. Hence why there is an argument to be made that in terms of overall performance, the SNES was more powerful.

Colors and effects, but the PCE and Genesis beat out the SNES as far as graphic bandwidth to vram (Genesis vdma, PCE full write access to vram during active display). The PCE and Genesis also have better sprite size options over the SNES (snes can only choose two options per screen). The PCE and Genesis also have less restrictions to vram, allowing more vram for tiles or more for sprites; snes has a restricting bank system for vram.

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Gosh it's a shame they couldn't have been consistent with their manufacturing? What the heck was going on and why did they have to make so many revisions in the first place?

its common among all the manufactures even today, some of it is bug fixes most of it is cost down

 

when I sold my SNES on ebay first question I got was "is it a rev 1 motherboard with the sony sound chips" so apparently there's crappier sounding SNES's as well, not being an expert on it, I had no idea

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Gosh it's a shame they couldn't have been consistent with their manufacturing? What the heck was going on and why did they have to make so many revisions in the first place?

Cost cutting measures, hardware fixes, and there is probably the fact that some boards might have been manufactured by different factories.

And sometime, lack of parts - if your sales increase rapidly, you might found yourself short in that specific sound chip, or RAM chip, etc.

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Sega went from discrete YM-2612s to YM-3438s pretty early. Later they incorporated the YM-3438s into their Genesis-on-a-Chip motherboards. The non-High Definition Graphics branded Sega Genesis Model 1s have the integrated part as do most of the Sega Model 2s and the other Sega Genesis/Mega Drive compatible hardware. Parts consolidation played a big role in eliminating discrete chips. In Sega's case they had a hard time getting the sound amplification circuit right after the High Definition Graphics branded Model 1s.

 

The SNES through three major variations of their audio hardware. First there was a plug in APU module with discrete Sony chips, the S-SMP Audio Processor and the S-DSP Audio DSP with the supporting RAM and D/A converter . Then they put all those chips onto the mainboard with the CPU and PPU chips. Finally, they condensed the S-SMP and S-DSP into a single Sony chip, the S-APU.

Edited by Great Hierophant
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In my 1982 neighborhood no one ever visited the guy with the Odyssey 2 for a quick game. He was lonely.

 

LOL. A friend of mine had an O2 and it was laying on the floor in a room that didn't have a TV. I seem to remember asking him to hook it up so we could play it to satisfy my curiosity and I wasn't impressed. I think that impression lasted a lifetime. I sold my O2 and games about a month ago and was happy to see it go.

 

 

When you're not interested in a console with 1,000+ games of every possible type imaginable, the issue is probably more with you than the console. But then again some people called out the NES and SNES in this thread, so I suppose nothing should surprise me.

 

The only thing I play on the 360 are old games or new games inspired by old games. The only games I play on the 360 are Daytona USA, Crazy Taxi, Pac-Man CE DX, Pac-Man Museum and Galaga.

 

The 360 is for my kids and they spend a lot of time on it. I have plenty of consoles, computers and MAME/arcade cabs to keep me occupied.

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Agreed about the Model 1 Genesis -- the better hardware revisions have deep bass and a wonderfully full sound.

 

The SNES had a low-pass filter IIRC to hide aliasing (insect noise) from compression and a low sampling rate as well, so that contributes to the muffling. I agree that its strongest suit was faux-orchestral music, but it could do other genres in the right hands too:

 

-snip-

 

Its funny how LJN has a lot of games with really good music. That song reminds me of another game that has my favorite SNES soundtrack, Vortex.

 

Anyway, on topic, I guess the 2 consoles I consider the worst I've played would be the original Game Boy and the Game Gear (I guess I'd consider handhelds to be consoles, whatever). The original gameboy has its place in history for sure, but the console itself now is just not that great. It's huge, so it doesn't fit in pockets very well, it hogs up 4 AA batteries like they are nothing and the screen is impossible to see, especially with sidescrollers or anything with scrolling. If I were to take a system for the purpose of playing gameboy games, I'd take my GBC over the original any day.

 

The gamegear is huge, it takes 6 AAs, the D-pad isn't very good, the screen is blurry like the gameboy's (except color, so kudos there), and there isn't any games on the system that I want to play. They also don't work too well anymore. I have 2 busted game gears sitting in my closet, I need to fix them sometime.

Edited by Tr3vor
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It's about the same size as the Lynx, right? That I like because I think the Game Boy is too small. I just didn't care for the games on the Game Gear.

 

I've never played a Lynx, but I'm guessing its the same size of the 2nd version or so. The first version of the lynx looks bigger than the game gear. I like my "portable" systems to fit in my pocket, otherwise I'd have to carry another case, or shove it in my already stuffed laptop bag or whatever, so those big old systems just don't do it for me.

Edited by Tr3vor
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I love Game Boy games but, having dug up an original GB a couple weeks ago for nostalgia's sake (I got one for Christmas when I was 6 or 7 but once I got a Game Boy Color I never really went back), I have to agree that it hasn't aged especially well. I can deal with the size and the batteries, but the screen blurred so badly in Super Mario Land and TMNT that I wondered how I ever put up with it back in the day.

Thank goodness for Super Game Boy and the like.

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