Most Influential Video Game Console?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

There is a poll about this at the Video Game Critic.

 

Currently the NES is leading and the Atari 2600 only in second place.

 

Let's hope that changes soon. :wink:

[jetset]

I don't know how!! The NES was a great system, but influential? Nope. I'd think maybe the orig. playstation would be second before nes. Though it wasn't the first cd-based system, it definetly was the most widespread, and most all other systems after that were cd based.

[Room 34]

I don't think you can underestimate the influence of the NES. It was substantially better than any system that had widespread adoption before it. It incited the resurgence of the home video game industry after the crash, and the industry has never faltered in the same way since.

 

That said, I still think the Atari 2600 was way more influential, since it was the system that caused widespread adoption of home video gaming in the first place!

 

Now, before this ignites a raging debate over technological superiority of the NES vs. the 7800, SMS, etc. let's just step back and be honest.

 

In the first wave of home video game consoles, there were many popular systems: The Atari 2600, Odyssey 2, Intellivision, ColecoVision, Atari 5200, and on and on. But I don't think anyone can honestly debate the fact that the Atari 2600 was by far the biggest selling console of that bunch, with the greatest influence among them, despite the fact that it arguably had the weakest hardware.

 

In the same way, I don't think you can honestly debate the fact that the NES owned the home video game market in the late '80s, despite the presence of the SMS and the Atari 7800, and any others that were around.

[sku_u]

The Atari 2600 is now in the lead by 10 votes. I can see why NES is running neck in neck the 2600, though. NES launched a new generation of consoles and had some of the most influencial games of all times: Legend of Zelda and SMB.

 

The Atari 2600 was the first cart based system to take off and had Pitfall, Yars Revenge and a slew of other games to back it up.

 

Another factor in the closeness of the voting are the two different generations of gamers out there. There's the Atari generation and the Nintendo generation. I bet that Playstation would be much more up there if this same poll was taken in 2013.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Now, before this ignites a raging debate over technological superiority of the NES vs. the 7800, SMS, etc. let's just step back and be honest.

Oh no! Not that discussion again! Please!!!

[Snider-man]

Most influencial? Gotta go with Ralph Baer's "Brown Box." That's where it bagan people.

 

Now then, most commercially-influencial? Hmm...obviously the Atari 2600 leaps to mind. It was the first software-based video game system and it set the standard for all systems that followed. But, a close second - in my opinion - would have to be the original Playstation. Why? Because of the saturation it achieved. Remember when people used the word "Atari" for "videogames?" ( "Do you want to come over and play Atari?") I feel the same is true for the original Playstation system - the "gotta-have" system of the 90s.

[panamajoe]

the 2600 has taken the lead

and as i can´t vote once more, could someone out there please vote for the Jaguar? it at least is the most influential console for companys that are looking for reasons to stay out of the business

... and i can´t stand seeing the Jag in one line with the VirtualBoy ...

[Mayhem]

Remember when people used the word "Atari" for "videogames?" ( "Do you want to come over and play Atari?") I feel the same is true for the original Playstation system - the "gotta-have" system of the 90s.

 

And likewise, I would say, during the 80s for Nintendo and the NES

[Room 34]

I think arbitrarily distinguishing the decades like this makes no sense.

 

Atari 2600 dominated home video game systems from 1979 to 1983. (I know it came out in '77 but it didn't face serious competition until the Intellivision in '79.)

 

1984 and 1985 were kind of a void.

 

NES dominated from 1986 to about 1991 or so... whenever the SNES came out. (Sorry... my attention to the market really tapered off in the late years of the NES but before the SNES came out.)

[Snider-man]

Remember when people used the word "Atari" for "videogames?" ( "Do you want to come over and play Atari?") I feel the same is true for the original Playstation system - the "gotta-have" system of the 90s.

 

And likewise, I would say, during the 80s for Nintendo and the NES

 

Excellent, excellent point Mayhem. One I completely missed. "Nintendo" was also synonymous with "videogame" in its time. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Godzilla]

well this is about history, and this question is brain dead easy.

 

The odyssey. without it... where would we be?

 

Don't get much more influential than inventing the video game console as we know it.

 

and in second would be the 2600 for bringing video games out of the closet and into the mass market of acceptance. And nothing touches the 2600 in this category, nothing penetrated the mass concious like the 2600. even today, video games in general dont have the mass acceptance they did during the height of the 2600s days (and thats counting all the platforms out there,) the 2600 had a universal non-demographic non-age centric appeal that no console has achieved since.

[minorleagueguy]

two words....Coleco Telstar....nuf said

[NovaXpress]

Let's settle this right now. . . Higinbotham's Oscilloscope!

 

2600 edges out NES in my opinion.

[Godzilla]

Let's settle this right now. . . Higinbotham's Oscilloscope!

 

2600 edges out NES in my opinion.

 

uhm dood, thats not a video game console. (No carts, etc.) disqualified :-)

[sku_u]

One word: Chess

 

That game predates almost every other game still played today

[Atari2600Lives]

Well I just voted and the 2600 is completely dominating....as it should. Influential because other companies saw what profits you could have if it was done correctly.

[NovaXpress]

uhm dood, thats not a video game console. (No carts, etc.) disqualified

 

Not true, cause I have one and it also comes with a Tank Plus cart and Tetris. I'll be selling this system on ebay soon.

[ApolloBoy]

Well, I voted for the 2600. Even though I grew up with an NES, a Commodore 64, a Commodore VIC-20, and a Game Gear, I still think it is the most influential video game console ever. Here my reasons..

 

1. It was the first successful cartridge-based video game system.

2. It had many successful games (Pitfall, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, etc.).

3. It managed to survive commercially for about 14 years.

[NovaXpress]

The bottom line is that the 2600 showed what was possible. And all these years later we're still playing a little box hooked to the TV with attachable controllers and programmable media containing the games. Even though the 2600 wasn't first, it was the first system good enough to make the masses want it.

[Pitfall Harry]

Most influential? Gimme a break. That is something which will NEVER be determined from a poll. The vast majority of people who take the poll are simply going to vote for their favorite console. That's just the way the world works.

 

 

Ben

[Pitfall Harry]

One word: Chess

 

That game predates almost every other game still played today

 

Backgammon traces its roots much farther back than chess, but the wisdom in your choice of the word "almost" did not go unappreciated.

 

Ben

[AtariDude]

The most important was the original Odyssey because it showed that a video game system could sell and be fun.

 

The most influential was the Atari 2600 although Channel F was important because it was the first cartridge based console and force the entire industry to get away from Pong systems and create more versatile systems like the Atari 2600.

[liveinabin]

I'm glad the NES has dropped from the top spot. After all, it was the success of the Atari 2600 that directly influenced the creation of the NES in the first place. I latter days, I think the Dreamcast has been pretty influential - it's taken the new wave of consoles a good year or two to catch up with where the DC was on its demise.

[MegaManFan]

From my point of view, it's simply and unquestionably the 2600. It was the first colossal success of home console gaming (Odyssey was more "pioneering", Intellivision was more "innovative", Coleco was more "coin op" but none were in as many homes as Atari) and the first colossal failure (shortsightedness, big egoes, flooding the market, screwing retailers, making a kludgy successor to their original machine, et cetera). I don't think you can get more "influential" in either respect. Put simply, I think the rise and fall of the VCS shaped every single aspect of home console gaming before, during, and since it's heyday; which is part and parcel of the reason there is so much nostalgia about it and so many homebrew projects for it today.

[NovaXpress]

No one voted for the Emerson Arcadia? Incredible.