In your opinion, what is the most underrated video game system? (including computers!)

[bluejay]

1 hour ago, bluejay said:

The Tandy portable computers, especially the 200. I think a lot of you guys are sick of me talking about the Tandy 200, but is it not the best computer of 1984? Sure, it was pretty expensive, but think about it. A Commodore 64 costed $200 in '84. The 200 with 72k costed $1500. The 6 built in programs, if its value was $150 for each program it had built in, a better version of BASIC plus the internal 300 baud modem and db25 serial interface, which would also be a few hundred dollars for the C64, which means the T200 is portable, unlike the 64, has more RAM, built it software and hardware, and costs less. 

Yeah, thinking about it, $150 is too much for the simple programs that came with it. Here's the revised version of the comparison.

 

Year: 1984

 

Tandy 200

 

Tandy 200: $1000

2x 24k RAM: $500

Total: $1500

 

Commodore 64

 

Commodore 64: $200

All the programs the 200 has(Multiplan is expensive): $500

Simon's BASIC to compensate with the terrible BASIC the C64 comes with: $225

Modem: $100

 

For around $400 more, you get something a lot more compact and portable with everything built-in with a faster CPU and more RAM, a real operating system, a real db25 serial interface, ability to save stuff without the use of a disk/hard drive, ability to communicate with modern computers without special hardware, no flaky RF connection(unless you got the 1702 for a few more hundred $)...

It's just so much better!

[+wongojack]

On 3/29/2020 at 12:43 AM, MadZiontist said:

 

Nah, it really only needs $70 to get it up to par. Anything above that is just pimping it out.

The fact that the Genesis is gaming royalty, and most of its fans still don't even know that it exists lends to it being underrated. The fact that it can be emulated doesn't really matter, or most of the consoles mentioned in this thread would be excluded. You'd sorta then have to say that a modern day Windows gaming PC would be the only right answer. Many people prefer playing games on original hardware and the Nomad can play most of the Genesis library in handheld or TV mode. It's kinda hard for me to consider something that is so obscure, yet has one of the greatest libraries in gaming history to not be underrated.

I guess I could concede though on the fact that without the $70 in mods, it might be a flaming turd. But I didn't even know about it until last year.



Sent from my LG Stylo 2 Plus using Tapatalk
 

 

Yeah, emulation . . . but let's not jump to the PC if that's ok.  Why?  Because for the Nomad, the conversation goes like this "You can play all of your Genesis games on the go."  That was the advantage of owning it when it came out.  It doesn't offer anything except portability.

 

Today - everyone can get a Genesis, so if you want to fulfill the Nomad's promise and take your genesis library with you "on the go," Nomad is one of the choices.  There are also MANY other affordable choices.  Why you would choose the Nomad over other choices comes down to the reason you listed - because you like original hardware.  That's about it.

 

<<Side Note: I tried to find a .gif of Metalocalypse where Murderface says "Yeah, I'm on the Go" but alas, I couldn't>>

[+GoldLeader]

On 3/28/2020 at 11:13 PM, Steven Pendleton said:

Yep, I got to try the GT a few months ago in a store and I found that the screen is actually better than the Nomad's. As for CD vs HuCARD, it's up to personal preference, but over 50% of the PC Engine library is on CD, so that's the biggest negative of the GT compared to the Nomad. Still, the HuCARD library is still solid and has lots of great games.

 

I'd rather smash my Super Famicom with a hammer than get rid of my PC Engine. That's not to say the SFC is bad at all, but after wanting to get the SNES for 20 years and then finally getting one, I find that I just don't care about it much at all so it sits over in the corner with a stack of Genesis and Mega Drive games piled on top. It does have the best game ever made, though. (Super Metroid)

 

I actually want to get a TurboGrafx-16 eventually. I finally saw one in person for the first time at Tokyo Game Show last year and they are much nicer looking in person than in pictures on the internet. They are not cheap, though, and since HuCARDs are region locked, I would have to import games from the USA. There are apparently only 138 US TurboGrafx-16 games, as well, which is pretty sad compared to the almost 700 games Japan got. Still, I'd like to get one some day if I can since they are really cool systems!

 

Also,  You can buy an adapter to play PC Engine games on it, though they may not be cheap at this point.  Also you can get a Turbo Everdrive, which has a switch, to use it for Turbografx or PC Engine.

[Tanooki]

PCE adapters can range I've seen them kind of low, but upwards of a 100 too.  It's very worth it if you're not using shady emulation tricks or a ROM dump on an everdrive.

[Steven Pendleton]

7 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

upwards of a 100

At that point you can just get a PC Engine, though, since the price is about that and the PC Engine itself is really cool and takes up only a tiny amount of space. If you find the adaptor cheaper, that would be the better choice.

[+GoldLeader]

I meant if you already have a PC Engine, but buy a Turbografx, you could use the adapter to play PCE games on your Turbografx...I have one of those so called "Barney" Adapters (Also called a WH-301 Game Converter), which are usually purple like Barney the Dinosaur, except mine is brown.  It's kind of funny, on the box it shows a pinkish purple adapter allowing you to play Turbografx games on a PC Engine, but the product literally does the opposite.  I think they just used one box for all of their products. ?

[Steven Pendleton]

28 minutes ago, GoldLeader said:

I meant if you already have a PC Engine, but buy a Turbografx, you could use the adapter to play PCE games on your Turbografx...I have one of those so called "Barney" Adapters (Also called a WH-301 Game Converter), which are usually purple like Barney the Dinosaur, except mine is brown.  It's kind of funny, on the box it shows a pinkish purple adapter allowing you to play Turbografx games on a PC Engine, but the product literally does the opposite.  I think they just used one box for all of their products. ?

Yeah, I could do that, but not much point since I have a PC Engine! As it is, I'm using the SSDS3 since PC Engine games are getting expensive and my CD ROM2 doesn't work very well.

[MadZiontist]

Yeah, emulation . . . but let's not jump to the PC if that's ok.  Why?  Because for the Nomad, the conversation goes like this "You can play all of your Genesis games on the go."  That was the advantage of owning it when it came out.  It doesn't offer anything except portability.
 
Today - everyone can get a Genesis, so if you want to fulfill the Nomad's promise and take your genesis library with you "on the go," Nomad is one of the choices.  There are also MANY other affordable choices.  Why you would choose the Nomad over other choices comes down to the reason you listed - because you like original hardware.  That's about it.
 
>

I'm sorry for speaking out of line. I hadn't quite realized that my opinion needed to be validated by you first. [emoji848]

Sent from my LG Stylo 2 Plus using Tapatalk

[+Black_Tiger]

On 3/28/2020 at 7:40 PM, Steven Pendleton said:

Yep, I made that thread.

 

I actually didn't know the Nomad existed until a few years ago. Still, as I don't like emulation and the only thing I have that can emulate Genesis/MD is the PSP go, which has about the same battery life as the Nomad anyway, I think I'll stick to using the Nomad. I could hack my Vita or my Switch or fix my 3DS, which needs a new battery and d-pad, and hack that, but since the PSP go is already hacked and I'm lazy, that would be my #2 choice.

 

Yes, the Nomad has lots of problems, but I think it's worth it to have the best video game console library ever created as a non-emulation portable.

 

Take a look at the PC Engine GT, as well; it beat the Nomad to the market by 5 years and shares the same concept! It can't play CD games, though, so it's missing a lot of the best PC Engine games. Technically it's possible to run CD games through the HuCARD slot, but the device to do it got cancelled partway through development recently.

The PC Engine Duo is also portable and has an official rechargeable battery pak and monitor.

 

You can't hold it in your hands and play it like a Gameboy, but you could set it up anywhere and play the entire HuCard and CD library, watch TV on one of the best portable screens in the world at the time, save your games and still be able to export saves to other consoles and use any kind of controller you want (including the analog Cyberstick, Pachinko, mouse, tablet, etc). Super Darius and Darius Plus still work with 3D glasses. You could play Arcade Card Neo Geo fighters at a campsite.

 

For all the features it had available at the time, the Duo was probably the best single model of a console we'll ever see.

[turboxray]

On 3/28/2020 at 10:43 PM, MadZiontist said:

 

Nah, it really only needs $70 to get it up to par. Anything above that is just pimping it out.

The fact that the Genesis is gaming royalty, and most of its fans still don't even know that it exists lends to it being underrated. The fact that it can be emulated doesn't really matter, or most of the consoles mentioned in this thread would be excluded. You'd sorta then have to say that a modern day Windows gaming PC would be the only right answer. Many people prefer playing games on original hardware and the Nomad can play most of the Genesis library in handheld or TV mode. It's kinda hard for me to consider something that is so obscure, yet has one of the greatest libraries in gaming history to not be underrated.

I guess I could concede though on the fact that without the $70 in mods, it might be a flaming turd. But I didn't even know about it until last year.



Sent from my LG Stylo 2 Plus using Tapatalk
 

 

It requires a mod to actually enjoy it.. is the point. Gamegear is in the same boat. Just because that's a thing for you, doesn't make it underrated. By the time Nomad came out, it was basically irrelevant - because no new games were coming out for it. My friend picked one up. It was cool for about a month, then shelved.

[turboxray]

On 3/30/2020 at 8:13 PM, Tanooki said:

PCE adapters can range I've seen them kind of low, but upwards of a 100 too.  It's very worth it if you're not using shady emulation tricks or a ROM dump on an everdrive.

What are 'shady emulation tricks' ???

[Tanooki]

Basically me having an attitude about crappy overly gushed over Pi garbage you see peddled all over ebay, facebook marketplace, etc.  Ghetto swiss army knife boxes using emulators and a shady ton of rom sold to peons and the lazy which is shady as it's illegally done.

[homerhomer]

That Atari Lynx was totally underrated.  I saved up and bought one back in the day.  For a console to have scaling and rotation effects was awesome.  It was like having a portable version of "Atari Games" arcade hardware. Games like Stun Runner, Battle Wheels and Blue Lightning looked amazing. The Lynx was very capable little system.  It was pulling off games that the SNES and Genesis couldn't.  

[MadZiontist]

@wongojack

I'm not the biggest fan of eating humble pie, but I thought more about, and had to admit that you were right about the Sega Nomad. [emoji6]

My final choice for most underrated console is still not a popular choice, and I might get almost as much heat for this one, possibly more. But many owners of this device would probably understand why I would choose the Nvidia Shield Portable.

Please excuse my lack of energy right now to make an argument for it. I just wanted to retract that misguided Nomad vote, and cast my vote for a different obscure handheld that was largely ignored by the masses.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

I was tempted to join the chorus praising the often overlooked game library of the PC Engine, but I think I'm actually going to have to go with the Neo Geo MVS/AES. Unlike the PC Engine the Neo Geo was actually really well known in the US, but growing up everyone just kinda regarded it as a rich kid's system and didn't really know much of anything about what games were available on it; and that's pretty much the same way you usually see the Neo Geo regarded today. 

 

There's a few common Neo Geo games most people have heard of, King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown and the like, but the vast majority of the system's software library is an unknown to most gamers. That's a shame too, because there's a whole lot more to the Neo Geo's game offerings than just a handful of well known fighting games.

Edited July 3, 2021 by Skippy B. Coyote

[Steven Pendleton]

18 minutes ago, Skippy B. Coyote said:

I was tempted to join the chorus praising the often overlooked game library of the PC Engine, but I think I'm actually going to have to go with the Neo Geo MVS/AES. Unlike the PC Engine the Neo Geo was actually really well known in the US, but growing up everyone just kinda regarded it as a rich kid's system and didn't really know much of anything about what games were available on it; and that's pretty much the same way you usually see the Neo Geo regarded today. 

 

There's a few common Neo Geo games most people have heard of, King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown and the like, but the vast majority of the system's software library is an unknown to most gamers. That's a shame too, because there's a whole lot more to the Neo Geo's game offerings than just a handful of well known fighting games.

Nobody would ever guess that the best Neo Geo game is a(n unbelievably excellent) golf game, but that's how it is.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

2 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Nobody would ever guess that the best Neo Geo game is a(n unbelievably excellent) golf game, but that's how it is.

 

I can't argue that, Neo Turf Masters rocks! I'm really partial to Windjammers and Puzzle Bobble 2 as well. I only just discovered the MVS/AES a couple months ago when I got an MVSX machine, but I've been exploring the system's library a lot over the last couple months and there are just so many rock solid games on this system that I had never even heard of before since I too was one of those people that always regarded the Neo Geo as a rich kid's system and didn't give it much thought past that. Even if original hardware is out of your price range and you've gotta resort to emulation (for which the MVSX is a darn fine solution if you ask me, at least once you add the full MVS/AES library to it with the HyloX hack) it's still a system that's well worth checking out

 

[Steven Pendleton]

3 minutes ago, Skippy B. Coyote said:

 

I can't argue that, Neo Turf Masters rocks! I'm really partial to Windjammers and Puzzle Bobble 2 as well. I only just discovered the MVS/AES a couple months ago when I got an MVSX machine, but I've been exploring the system's library a lot over the last couple months and there are just so many rock solid games on this system that I had never even heard of before since I too was one of those people that always regarded the Neo Geo as a rich kid's system and didn't give it much thought past that. Even if original hardware is out of your price range and you've gotta resort to emulation (for which the MVSX is a darn fine solution if you ask me, at least once you add the full MVS/AES library to it with the HyloX hack) it's still a system that's well worth checking out

 

Yeah, I love the Neo Geo. The AES is a giant system and it barely fits on my desk, but there is no arcade system ever created that has a better library. Too bad the AES version of Neo Turf Masters costs $25,000 or more if you can find one (and you probably can't because of how rare they are), but at least the MVS version is cheap and easy to find and there are of course other ways of playing/obtaining Neo Geo games.

[gorf68]

The VIC-20, could have done so much more if the C64 hadn't come out so soon in its life.

[+jgkspsx]

The Tiger R-Zone. Particularly the XPS handheld or SuperScreen tabletop that won’t make you cross-eyed. For the games that don’t suck, of which there are at least ten, it is a really fun experience. Tiger’s awful marketing aside, the humble reality of the platform is a lot better than its so-far-below-the-toilet-it’s-in-the-sewer reputation suggests. It is a much more pleasant way to play multisegment LCD games than the dedicated handhelds with terrible buttons and ridiculous lighting requirements, and not all multisegment LCD games are garbage. Most are, I admit, but not all.

[+jgkspsx]

On 2/16/2020 at 11:32 AM, Zoyous said:

I would shine a light on the Sega Game Gear. Although (like every other handheld system) it was overshadowed by the Gameboy, it was still quite successful - amassing a library of almost 400 games and selling over 11 million units in an interesting variety of different-colored models. In fact, the entire 8-bit line-up of Sega systems is fascinating because they enjoyed success in different regions, so just when you think you've seen everything they have to offer, you discover seemingly hundreds more games that you hadn't heard about before.

Definitely the runner up. The Game Gear library, which is chock-full of exclusive gems, is ignored by 99% of the classic gaming community. Sega seems to prefer they be forgotten based on the tiny number of games they brought to Virtual Console and the tiny number of games on the Game Gear Mini. The good thing about this is that almost all the best games are affordable, with only a handful (Tails Adventure, Wizard Pinball, Arena: Maze of Death, Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya) of the best NA/EU games costing more than $50. (Alas, the greatest games for the system, GG Aleste 1 and 2, are crazy expensive.)

[Tanooki]

JGK is right about the R-Zone, not the cycloptic turd red eye flap nightmare, that has no redeeming value in the slightest.  But the XPG handheld it's comfortable, displays and lights up quite well, a comfortable button layout and d-pad too, easy access to change and mount the games into it too.  It has dozens of games but as he said at least 10+ of them are actually very well made and quite fun, even beyond the very fun, there are an equal amount of passably good titles you can still waste a few minutes on now and again and not feel like you got hosed.  Tiger took what they learned for years on their stand alone things and put what worked well into those, to even the point the controls are like real game fluid even if the motion is still segmented which is weird but you get used to.  If you go with the added tabletop then you have this almost mini arcade like thing, and it has these color overlays that we've seen used back to the vectrex era that add a bit more with some terrain and thing (also, it's not in red, so it leaves more options with that.)

[+wongojack]

You guys are being very convincing that the R-Zone is something I need to try.

[Tanooki]

Well I'll say this much, if you've always hated segmented LCD games whether it's Tiger, Nintendo (G&W, wrist watch), random japanese ones, keychain, etc this won't change your mind most likely.  But if you did find joy in a few of them for their basic design and reward of points, placement in a race, shot down targets, or whatever, then yeah, you'll probably like something.  These came out pretty much on the back end of segmented LCD games other than the dollar store garbage from the last 15-20 years and they are for better or worse sadly the top end of quality you'll find in most the cases for the type.  Sure there are exceptions, like Radio Shack's Highway is pretty bad ass for a hitchhiker pickup/outrun wanna be, as is Sub Wars from Tiger where you throw pings and torpedo the hell out of the enemies in a spherical realm of combat, that aren't there.  Some games have overlap like Daytona and (minus the sketchy light gun) Virtua Cop that converted very well, and others are unique and on a bar so high you're like...wtf tiger?  with Panzer Dragoon.  It really just depends.  I've decided to pick up the games when I can find them and have a selection as do a few others here.

 

There are 9 that I own, it came with Jedi Academy which is strange, a blaster dodge run thing, weakest but not bad of the bunch.  Then I found Daytona cheap local too like the other, and I had the hologram VTR-X Tiger it is based on and so I can compare them to see the quality.  Then I bought a second unit to spruce mine up, trade out a couple I had for nicer cart copies, and along that added: Batman & Robin, Battle Arena Toshinden, Indy 500, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Panzer Dragoon, and the other 2 Star Wars ones Millennium Falcon Challenge and Rebel Forces.

 

The MFC one it's based on the black Tiger handheld with the cut vader screw on joystick where you wreck rebels, but it's reverse here using han's ship to bust the enemy.  The other Rebel Forces is based on an existing light gun (think Wii tech done crappier cheaper) LCD which I didn't have, but had the Virtua Cop version of, so I can compare the layout and it's very nicely converted too despite the lack of the little LED pop gun.

 

The weakest are the 1on1 fighters, they're good, but they severely lack the move set, fluidity, and other oomph you'd expect from a SF2/MK clone style thing, but they're not garbage, just average but if you go in expecting limits they're fun to play in short bursts.

 

The big winner other than Daytona is Panzer Dragoon. T hat one plays fluidly, you can spin your view around as in the Saturn game in all 4 directions firing away at the same mass produced targets that game has, even has the boss fights too where you dodge fire and take those out.  Stages are outdoors and indoor caves like the Saturn, and it plays smooth, it's weird, but works, and better than it should (like Daytona.)

[Zoyous]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

Well I'll say this much, if you've always hated segmented LCD games whether it's Tiger, Nintendo (G&W, wrist watch), random japanese ones, keychain, etc this won't change your mind most likely.  But if you did find joy in a few of them for their basic design and reward of points, placement in a race, shot down targets, or whatever, then yeah, you'll probably like something.  These came out pretty much on the back end of segmented LCD games other than the dollar store garbage from the last 15-20 years and they are for better or worse sadly the top end of quality you'll find in most the cases for the type.

I haven't looked into it, but I think you'd have to at least be open-minded about the nature of the tech and appreciate the unique limitations of it and strengths of segmented LCD games. Bearing in mind that, at the time they were new, the other home games they were up against were very blocky, low-resolution pixel-based games, while LCD games looked like little hand-drawn illustrations. The only game like that I ever had was a Nelsonic Pac-Man watch (the one with the small joystick) and, playing it years later, I felt it played a decent game of Pac-Man all things considered.