Favorite console era...

[ebola]

Also when Arcade machines were breaking ground with 3D; Model 1-3 and Namco System 11/12/22/23. I could not wait for those arcade ports (some which never came of course).

Digressing a little from the original question, I did enjoy the era of coin-ops generally (r-type etc). But thats probably a rose-tinted spectacles thing.
I dont play that many games these days, and I've never enoyed consoles as much as computers... i'll add to the list of people replying 'amiga'.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Amiga doesn't count. This is about console eras. Including the Amiga would have it favourite by a mile

 

[NighTGhosT78]

Speedball!!!!! Wow, I nearly forgot that one....

*ICE CREAM... ICE CREAM

Umm.....if i remember well someone is just making the remake of Speedball 2 in 3D......i saw the announcement just few days ago.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It's from the original creators and is on XB360 (Live Arcade I think?) and PC IIRC.

 

[NighTGhosT78]

It's from the original creators and is on XB360 (Live Arcade I think?) and PC IIRC.

So the Bitmap Bros are back again? ....that's great ...i loved Xenon and Speedball at that time

 

[Npl]

Amiga doesn't count. This is about console eras. Including the Amiga would have it favourite by a mile

it plays games, has a known hardware-base for ~7 years, 2 ports for controllers. What does a console define?

Even if its no console, whatever console-era was cuirrent around its time was implicitly best.

PS. Bitmap Bros aint reliable, an new Speedball was already announced way back and shouldve run on UE2. Just silently vanished

 

[Arwin]

Amiga doesn't count. This is about console eras. Including the Amiga would have it favourite by a mile

If the main purpose of 80%+ of its sales are mainly for playing games, then it is a console.

You have a point though. But these games, you bought them, slid them in there, turned on the machine, and your game started (on the ST anyway). And you hook them up to a TV. That's so much like a console already ...

How would you define consoles so that the Amiga and ST are excluded? Can't be used for anything else but games?

 

[ebola]

It's from the original creators and is on XB360 (Live Arcade I think?) and PC IIRC.

speedball2 on xbla? really ? wow !

In defence of including the Amiga, I'll add (a) i think it was conceived primarily as a home games machine, and (b) although I'd rather forget, a variant did appear in dedicated console form ...

And you hook them up to a PC. That's so much like a console already

do you mean TV, in this statement explaining why the amiga is more like a console than a PC

I suppose the ps3 with linux is the closest thing to the spirit of the amiga today, although the fact it's a closed platform breaks that analogy. (is there any ps3 demoscene coding going on? ... )

 

[Shifty Geezer]

How would you define consoles so that the Amiga and ST are excluded? Can't be used for anything else but games?

They came with a WIMP GUI OS, Shell/CLI, writeable media, keyboard and mouse, and non-gaming applications.

 

[Arwin]

They came with a WIMP GUI OS, Shell/CLI, writeable media, keyboard and mouse, and non-gaming applications.

Except that a keyboard and mouse aren't included, that goes for the PS3 and 360 as well though, doesn't it? The lines are always a bit blurry in that regard. They probably were what you can call 'convergence devices'. An important aspect here was that they had hardware intended for gaming built in, and they were fixed platforms for a very large part of their cycles in terms of hardware too.

Anyway, if I take to your definition, I guess for me it was the PS1 era, as that was the first time I preferred what the consoles had to offer over the other stuff. From Tekken to GT, to Micro Machines V3, to Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy (though at some point I did get FF VII on PC), and many other great games, that was an important turning point for me and gaming.

In contrast, as far as I can tell, the Amiga and Atari were superior to their console brethren in almost every way back then, and they had fixed hardware, joystick ports, dedicated gaming hardware, TV-out, and everything else that makes consoles good for games.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Except that a keyboard and mouse aren't included, that goes for the PS3 and 360 as well though, doesn't it?

Yes, but PS3 (not XB360 because that doesn't allow you to run applications or export data to other systems etc.) is trying to be more than a console. Every previous console has had controllers, no mice, and has played games, other than a few rare exceptions to provided software

An important aspect here was that they had hardware intended for gaming

For gaming, or multimedia, versatile computers?

and they were fixed platforms for a very large part of their cycles in terms of hardware too.

So has every computer pretty much other than the IBM PC and clones. If static hardware is proof of a console, than all computer gaming, going back to the ZX80, has been console gaming. That's obviously not true though, otherwise we wouldn't have definitions (no matter how ill-defined) for 'computers' and 'consoles'

In contrast, as far as I can tell, the Amiga and Atari were superior to their console brethren in almost every way back then

That's true, but the cost a good sight more as well! Plus it was outdated on gaming hardware when the 16bit consoles came out. SNES included lots of features for gaming that weren't much use for non-gaming apps, unlike the computers.

 

[I.S.T.]

IMO, the Genesis/SNES era, the PS1/Saturn/N64 era and the DC/PS2/GC/X-Box eras all tie for best. Each one had vastly different games and sensibilities. Good trends in gaming were abandoned, but so were bad ones. Each one brought new ideas to gaming that weren't possible or concivible in the previous era.

 

[Tap In]

Genesis/SNES of course.

 

[Arwin]

That's true, but the cost a good sight more as well! Plus it was outdated on gaming hardware when the 16bit consoles came out. SNES included lots of features for gaming that weren't much use for non-gaming apps, unlike the computers.

I disagree - I think the Amiga had a lot of stuff that was only really useful for gaming as well. Also the SNES never really managed to do a lot that was distinctly better than what the Amiga did. But that may have been for many different kinds of reasons, of course.

Anyway, I do think that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_console at the end, under the heading "PCs used as Consoles" indicates that they might agree with me. If you use a computer, any computer really, primarily as a game playing interface between your tv and you use it primarily to play games, it's pretty much a video games console.

And to be sure, for most of its time there was for all intents and purposes no difference to the way I used my Atari and later Amiga, and the way I used the PS1 and PS2. At least not most of the time. I did occasionally do some GFA Basic stuff on the Atari, or fooled around with some Midi software, but since I didn't have a high-res monitor for it, nothing too fancy.

 

[Oboro Shogun]

I honestly believe each era gets better. Last gen it's still my favorite because this gen is off to a slow start. But I think the trend will continue and this gen will be my new favorite. I get caught up in nostalgia too and wish it was just me and my Master System again but I know deep down I'm better off now.

 

[V3]

Well during SNES era, I played mostly PC games, that was like the golden age of PC gaming, so many good PC games and of course there is SF2 in the arcade.

PS1 era, I played mostly arcade games.

PS2 era, I get bored with games too quickly.

Current Gen, I don't have many games that I really look forward to playing. I actually more looking forward to playing Starcraft 2 and Spores, than most consoles games announced thus far.

So Famicom/NES era probably, the games were quite original and fun at the time, well the good ones anyway.

 

[Crayon]

When the 16 bit generation went sour I was a teenager and could recognize that there wasn't much worth playing. I then discorered PC gaming as was blown away by the sheer variety.

The PS1 generation is my alltime favorite because I had the slickness and convienence (and low price!) of a console but with a variety of software that blew the PC away.

I could play:

Wipeout, Mario64, XCom, Doom, Quake, Command and Conquer, Sega Rally, Panzer general, R-type, Namco Museum, Enemy Zero, Nights, Street Fighter Alpha, Tekken3, Virtua Fighter 2, Ace Combat, R4, Virtua Racing, Time Crisis, Sonic Jam, Tomb Raider, Wave Race, Jet-Moto, Twisted Metal, Valkyrie Profile, Thunderforce 5, Final Fantasy 8, Chrono Cross, Starfox 64, Castlevania SOTN, Virtual Kaspirov, Lode Runner LR, Worms, Diablo....

I could play like... A million games.

 

[Akumajou]

The Sega vs Nintendo 16bit cartridge based battle days were great, specially the later part as Sega kept prooving to match every graphical effect the SNES had minus colors and sound however Sega dropped the ball with CD/32X

Going onto CD based 32bit consoles, Sony Playstation really delivered on the graphics front while Sega Saturn delivered on gameplay, I think this era was best because Sega was really fierce in trying to match Sony on graphics later on and IMO they did until MGS showed up, Burning Rangers and Panzer Dragoon Saga were marvelous but just when things could have gotten better and 2d became arcade perfect with the 4MB ram cart, Sega dropped the ball once again rushing to Dreamcast.

Nintendo's 64bit days were nearly flawless even though they had less games than previous gens, it was sad though that Nintendo did not force everyone to use the 4MB ram cart specially when cartridge games were getting bigger.

SEGA's Dreamcast era was the most painfull for me, I felt rewarded with Shenmue, Sonic Adventure and others like Capcom's amazing DC support but felt rather betrayed by Sega when it took Activision to localize Virtual On for the US and although the game was great it was rushed before it could have online play for US.

I knew that Yu Suzuki and AM2 was focused on Shenmue and II and Genki put out that rushed with poor graphics yet great gameplay VF3tb but it sucked that Virtua Fighter games were fewer on the more powerfull DC and Fighting Vipers 2 had to be imported, Sega Rally 2 had to use or be a showcase for Windows CE dev tools, etc you might as well almost call the DC the Capcom Dreamcast.

Sony has really improved the most though, with the PS2 days delivering amazing graphics and gameplay in light of the superior specs of Gamecube and XBox 1.

However even though the past was great, I want to look to the future and I see a great future of gaming growth with Playstation 3 mainly because this time Sony's console is not weak unlike previous gens, this time PS3 is strong in both 3d and ridiculously strong in 2d (unlike PS2 where it took some years for 2d games to improve over DC) as long as game devs step it up we will be guaranteed to see far more original content on Playstation 3 (obviously on NWii)

I had high hopes for XBox 360, sadly with not mentioning the RRoD, the console is almost no different than XBox 1, the focus on too many real or near real war games make me feel like someone is trainning me for some upcoming war and its almost been two years, they need to step it up.

Nintendo Wii imo should have had a cartridge slot for added backward compatibility...

 

[.Melchiah.]

The PlayStation era.

After Commodore 64 and Amiga 500 days I had pretty much lost interest on gaming. What revived it was Resident Evil. The mature atmosphere, storylines and characters in PlayStation games, and the open environments in them, were what made me fall in love with games again.

The best games of the era:
Silent Hill
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Final Fantasy VIII
Resident Evil 2
Tomb Raider II

 

[Cyan]

Amiga doesn't count. This is about console eras. Including the Amiga would have it favourite by a mile

heh, the nostalgia thing for the gamer who likes to remind himself of what it was like.

Xbox was my first console ever and, even so, this is the golden era of consoles for me. From the current generation on developers can do almost whatever they want and have the opportunity to express their ideas freely.

People will NEVER forget the masterpieces of the past but developers were very limited on what they coul do to push the games further.

Darn, I wish Doom had never existed and John Carmack was young in these days and creates Doom based on PS3, Wii, PC, and Xbox 360 hardware. This could be so awesome that it could change the industry forever.