What Is Your Favorite Console Generation?

[godslabrat]

I truly hate the Wikipedia "generations" list, only because it's taken on the air of being something objective and unquestionable, instead of a rough grouping... which was what it was intended to be.  Console generations are having the same problem as comic book "ages".  They do exist, but the lines between each depend a lot on the context and the needs of the person making the distinction.

 

Case in point: where would the Sega Saturn lie, in the grand scheme of things?  Chronologically, it was a competitor to the SNES.  Technologically, its main rival was the PS1.  The right answer depends on the conversation being had at the time.

[Flojomojo]

Yeah. I mentally group stuff according to aspects of the tech. Very roughly:

 

Cartridges and RF go together (Atari, Colecovision, Intellivision, maybe some NES and SMS)

 

More buttons and controllers go together, Japan takes over (snes, Genesis, Sega CD, turbografx)

 

Polygons and CDs, the end of arcades (Jaguar, PlayStation, Saturn, N64 3do, Dreamcast, PS2, GameCube)

 

Online and HD (all xboxes, PS3 and ps4, modern PC games)

 

All the mobile from GameBoy through iPhones and Switch (my faves)!

 

There are lots of problems and inconsistencies with these groupings!!

[0078265317]

What generation (number) is NES?

[Flojomojo]

13 minutes ago, 0078265317 said:

What generation (number) is NES?

I think it's safe to say that many people round here don't care. If you do, it's easy enough to look up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_game_consoles_by_generation

[godslabrat]

16 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

I think it's safe to say that many people round here don't care. If you do, it's easy enough to look up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_game_consoles_by_generation

Indeed.  Depending on who's doing the talking, the NES could be a contemporary of the SMS, Genesis, 7800... or to some outliers, the colecovision, Jaguar, or 3DO.

 

Its all about perspective.

[Flojomojo]

Some folks around here might say the NES was the beginning of the end, when classic games died out and turned into side-scrollers. 

[adamchevy]

Some folks around here might say the NES was the beginning of the end, when classic games died out and turned into side-scrollers. 

I could agree with that. For me every generation after the video game crash feels very much the same. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, it just has a very predictable cycle. Maybe that was set forth during the end of the 8 bit generation? Maybe it is a symptom of how fast technology evolves? I often thought that the Xbox 360/PS3/Wii generation felt to long. But I have always been more interested in the Technological side of gaming. It appears that those advancements have slowed down since Moore’s law has been disproven.

[MrMaddog]

Another reason for the definitions of "generations" that's not so cut and dry are the Pre-Crash systems.  The Atari 2600 & Channel F are 2nd Gen. consoles that came out in the late 70's but the Atari 5200 & ColecoVision not only came out in the early 80's but were more advanced.  But yet they were lumped in the same catagory because of The Crash that seperated Atari from the NES (nevermind that the Famicom came out a year after the ColecoVision...)

 

Then you got the 7th Generation which was twice as long than the usual 5 year period but in the later five years you got the slim models that can render existing games better and the addition of motion controls.  The current 8th Generation had the last half of the 5-6 years with not only slim models but more powerful ones that support 4K.

 

And the upcoming systems like PS5 & Xbox Scarlet will run at 4k & 60 fps but will play the exact same games as on the current systems only better,  or I can keep my existing Xbox One and still play the "launch title" Halo Infinity but with less graphical fidelity.  So what exactly are the generation labels will be now?

 

(Honestly I think they should use half generations to note the same system platforms but with slight improvements.)

 

[high voltage]

The Wikipedia Generation is totally wrong. Putting the Atari 5200/Coleco/Vectrex in the same as Atari 2600, it's just stupidity.

 

 

 

 

[high voltage]

 

So if the Coleco is Second, the NES is also second (The NES came out in 1983, it was only called Famicom)

Edited November 25, 2019 by high voltage

[mr_me]

The 

2 hours ago, MrMaddog said:

Atari 5200 & ColecoVision not only came out in the early 80's but were more advanced.  But yet they were lumped in the same catagory because of The Crash that seperated Atari from the NES (nevermind that the Famicom came out a year after the ColecoVision...)

The atari 5200 and colecovision are built on 1979 technology, the stuff that was already available in the atari 400 and ti99/4.  The famicom was a significant improvement for 1983.  The colecovision and sega sg-1000 have identical hardware yet they are in two different generations.

[godslabrat]

10 hours ago, high voltage said:

 

So if the Coleco is Second, the NES is also second (The NES came out in 1983, it was only called Famicom)

 

10 hours ago, high voltage said:

The Wikipedia Generation is totally wrong. Putting the Atari 5200/Coleco/Vectrex in the same as Atari 2600, it's just stupidity.

 

 

 

 

This is the point I was making... these answers are neither right nor wrong.  The generation is simply a matter of perspective.

[mr_me]

From what perspective are the atari 2600 and atari 5200 the same generation?

Edited November 26, 2019 by mr_me

[DJ Clae]

The 8-bit and 16-bit generations are the ones my brothers and I all hold close to our hearts, since growing up with them. The fifth generation is when the scene started to feel like it was slowly sliding away from us, and it was all downhill from there. The three of us all still buy the current gen consoles when they're released.

[adamchevy]

I’m currently a big fan of the PS3 generation. It’s so cheap to collect for! I find my likes and dislikes usually follow that trend.

[godslabrat]

6 hours ago, mr_me said:

From what perspective are the atari 2600 and atari 5200 the same generation?

The perspective that gaming history defines pre-NES as "classic".  A lot of people lump all Atari, intv, and Coleco into one category.

[Flojomojo]

Just as a modern kid is unlikely to see much difference between black and white movies from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s -- the farther you get from the time these things were new, the less differentiated they look. 
 

I grew up with this stuff and even I'm starting to look at things like Sydney Hunter with a modern eye. "Wow, this is really limited and slow." 

 

I know a 9yo kid who thinks anything from Xbox 360 and older is "outdated."

[VectorGamer]

1 hour ago, godslabrat said:

The perspective that gaming history defines pre-NES as "classic".  A lot of people lump all Atari, intv, and Coleco into one category.

I know I do. For me the classic era starts with Pong consoles and ends with the Atari 5200/ColecoVision/Vectrex. To each their own I guess.

[high voltage]

3 hours ago, godslabrat said:

The perspective that gaming history defines pre-NES as "classic".  A lot of people lump all Atari, intv, and Coleco into one category.

So NES and SNES and N64 (Mastersystem, Megadrive etc...) can be lumped together as well.

Edited November 26, 2019 by high voltage

[mr_me]

4 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

Just as a modern kid is unlikely to see much difference between black and white movies from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s -- the farther you get from the time these things were new, the less differentiated they look. 
 

I grew up with this stuff and even I'm starting to look at things like Sydney Hunter with a modern eye. "Wow, this is really limited and slow." 

 

I know a 9yo kid who thinks anything from Xbox 360 and older is "outdated."

That's why kids shouldn't be writing Wikipedia articles.

[godslabrat]

9 hours ago, high voltage said:

So NES and SNES and N64 (Mastersystem, Megadrive etc...) can be lumped together as well.

Some people do.  And if those systems aren't your thing, that's not unreasonable.

[Sneakyturtleegg]

What a bunch of fence sitters in this thread! Just answer the question and pick one! ? For me its the 16-bit Generation of consoles or whatever you want to call it (In the U.S. - Genesis, SNES, Neo Geo, Turbo-Grafx, Game Boy, Game Gear). Everything before it was the foundation for what I consider the greatest era of gaming. It was a time of refinement and innovation. A lot of timeless classics and all time greats came from this period. The pinnacle of 2d gaming. Just my 2 cents

[+cjherr]

Atari 2600, 5200, 7800

Bally Astrocade

Colecovision/ADAM

Emerson Arcadia 2001

Fairchild Channel F

Intellivision

Odyssey 2

Vectrex

 

Anything else is secondary.

[Mikebloke]

I must be one of the few people unbothered by the Wikipedia generation listing. Though I do admit I think there is a 2.5 generation where colecovision, intellivision sits. I want to say 5200 sits there too, but it's so... Rubbish. I don't know if it being between the 2600 and 7800 is enough to warrant it being beyond a 2nd gen. 

 

On this logic, fairchild channel F, 2600, the 1292 and similar devices would be the true 2nd generation, with the RCA bordering 1 and 2 and the 5200 bordering 2 and 2.5

 

The "16 bit" period is probably the best for me too. I remember the snes being the only semi decent nintendo console, the mega drive hitting it out of the park for me, and in later years now enjoying turbografx and the neo geo (CD, I'm not that rich!). 

[high voltage]

1 hour ago, Sneakyturtleegg said:

What a bunch of fence sitters in this thread! Just answer the question and pick one! ? For me its the 16-bit Generation of consoles or whatever you want to call it (In the U.S. - Genesis, SNES, Neo Geo, Turbo-Grafx, Game Boy, Game Gear). Everything before it was the foundation for what I consider the greatest era of gaming. It was a time of refinement and innovation. A lot of timeless classics and all time greats came from this period. The pinnacle of 2d gaming. Just my 2 cents

16 bit...Intellivision was that as well