best retro console ever??poll

[fiath]

Tempest / 2000 is not horrible!

[killergorilla]

Tempest 2000 was awesome. One of the best games on the Jaguar (Which isn't actually that hard). The Jaguar version of Doom was pretty good as well, and if I remember correctly the jaguar had the best version of Wolfenstein 3D ever released (not sure how it compared to the Dreamcast unofficial releases though).

[woody57]

.....If you open a poll drunkensailor do not expect anything but contradiction and cries of " where,s choice X etc " this is subjective each of us can say we prefered different systems for various games but to slag off an entire company ? ..........espeacialy Atari.......Do you not know of the mighty Frederick grand master of OFF TOPIC.....how can you dare to risk cyber suicide ? by insulting the makers of the ST & Falcon....you said they made shit games ...thats your opinion but do not berate others whose perspective is different ...espeacialy as many pointed out earlier your Anti -atari stance......is this personal ? were you forced as part of some experiment to play atari 2600 catapillar for 3 months without sleep ?....did you have nightmares about Pacman ? ...................come on guy fess up ....Before we have to send round he who will see the truth

[DrBong]

Erm, where's the PC Engine, Atari 2600/7800, and Atari Lynx consoles on that list? Perhaps the Lynx is a reasonable omission if handhelds are not being included in this poll, but the others are biggies IMHO.

Also, can't see how the Sega Dreamcast and PSX are retro and the Neo-Geo is not. The number of Neo-Geo releases is a mere trickle compared to PSX 2, XBox etc. Even the Atari Lynx still has games being released for it today, but you really wouldn't call it anything but a retro handheld console.

[gaterooze]

The Vectrex would need to be in that poll to, partly because you simply can't emulate it properly -- you need the real thing to appreciate all that vector-y loveliness.

Personally, I can't go past the SNES. I had (and still have) a super wildcard (backup unit), so played every single game as they came out (0-day releases, how cool)... some great memories. 4-player Bomberman, endless Mario Kart duels, marathon SF2 Turbo tournaments -- heck, it even had a great version of Sensi! And of course, the majesty of Zelda 3 (and Final Fantasy 3, come to think of it). Unbeatable. The best part was, it would also convert & sometimes improve more 'serious' Amiga titles like Sim City, Civilization, Populous 1/2, Mega Lo Mania, etc.

However, I've recently started playing around with PC Engine emulation again, and it's a damn good machine -- some of the arcade-y stuff done on it was pure gaming bliss.

[killergorilla]

Good to see the Snes and Megadrive riding high. They really defined the whole "peak of gaming" experience. But just sit back and think of Sonic, Dynamite Headdy and Gunstar Heroes. Oh well, Poor old Snes.

[Dizzy]

MD is a pretty cool machine, just love it...

But where would the console be if it wasn't for Atari... I think the console market would have evolved very diff if Atari "never" had released their first console... (Well a What if thread for Das )

[gary]

CD32 - but only because I can play Amiga games on it and watch Amiga demos.

[gaterooze]

Mega Drive was pretty good, especially those games you mentioned, although my fave was Shining Force -- excellent strategy/RPG thing. And the EA Sports games, of course.

NES was another awesome machine, those platform games like Ninja Gaiden, Kabuki Quantam Fighter and Shatterhand -- no other system quite made 'em like that.

Hey MSX-folks, was there ever a cartridge-only console version of the MSX (like they did with the Amstrad)?

[Bloodwych]

After owning both machines, I'm torn between the megadrive and the snes, but went for the snes in the end.

The megadrive had some fantastic titles that just dropped my jaw when it was first released. I managed to get hold of a converted jap model way before there was even a sniff of them in the UK along with an infra red arcade joystick. First games I had for it were revenge of shinobi, golden axe and ghouls n ghosts - the graphics for the time were just amazing and that was as close to a coinup game I'd ever experienced in the home.

Year and a bit later, I started reading about Fzero on the snes and it's superior technical abilities in comparison to the MD. That was it - I had to have one! First day it was released I picked up the pack from dixons - it came with Super Mario World, 2 controllers, SCART/composite/Audio L+R lead and a very low serial number 00000946 or something. Still have this pack is pristine condition. Later SNES releases never had all the kit like the original pack did.

Completing Super Mario World was perhaps one of my greatest ever gaming experiences - I played non-stop until seeing that 96*, signifying I'd completed all levels - fantastic. Mario Kart, bomberman, street racer, fifa all had me multiplaying with friends for week after week.

Super Aleste. SF2 Turbo, Mortal Kombat, Super Probotector (why did UK versions get lame names???) oh the list goes on.

Both fantastic games consoles that dropped my jaw when they were released. Loved buying the C+VG console specials with loads of screen caps from the 16-bit consoles. Still flick through them now and again – great memories.

[killergorilla]

Originally posted by Bloodwych
Completing Super Mario World was perhaps one of my greatest ever gaming experiences - I played non-stop until seeing that 96*, signifying I'd completed all levels - fantastic

Hell yeah. It's still one of the best games of all time and getting all 96 was a big YEAH!!! when I did it back in er.. the 90's. That bloody level where you had to fly under the exit to get to the secret exit, that was frustrating. What a fanastic game.

And Mario Kart and F-Zero both rock beyond belief. I still own F-Zero actually, but I don't have a Snes to play it on

Luckily the GBA version is very nice too, so I'll play that instead!

[Enverex]

Jaguar wasn't too unsupported, even the crappy magazine I subscribed to years ago had a big collection of games for the Jag.

[killergorilla]

Sorry but it was 'too unsupported' it had only 57 games released for it!! (Not including the 13 CD games which needed the overpriced add-on - a la MegaCD)

if u like shining force then u must love shining force 3 for sega saturn, best rpg ever imo, shortly followed by panzer dragoon saga(saturn) and skies of arcadia(dreamcast) and of course games like nights, burning rangers, sonic jam made saturn the best console ever

[Djay]

what about the C64 console, the G64 was it????

i would have to say the GBA!!! cos i can play all the old Snes remakes (a few Megadrive ones too) and Amiga remakes as well...

[gaterooze]

Good call, Djay! I'm just waiting for the GBA to get some more top original titles instead of all the SNES ports. It's getting better by the week, though... I'm really interested in one of those GP32's, with all its great emulation support. Sounds like a dream handheld for me.

Bloodwych & Killergorilla -- the magical 96!!! I spent an hour doing that "fly underneath and swoop up" level over and over and over again until I got it. A big cheer went up in the room when I did!

Wish I still had some of those C+VG Mean Machines mags...

Drunkensailor -- would love to get a Saturn & Dreamcast some day... I always regret not grabbing a Dreamcast I saw in the local paper being sold with 150 games, for a price which I found out later was amazingly cheap. F'N STUPID OF ME!!! But at the time, I had no money

[blackcornflake]

N64 out of that lot for me. Not taking anything away from the others, of course.

It's a great machine with some classic games, like the other machines in the poll, but the N64 is the one I have the most fun memories of. The amount of fun some of the 4-player games in particular provided me and my mates is difficult to convey in words. Here's a diagram of some large things instead.

|---| <-- Bus

|-----------------| <-- Football Stadium

|----------------------------------------| <-- Great Wall of China

Amount of fun = larger than that.

N.B. Diagram not to any particular scale.

[killergorilla]

I wish I had more than one vote because a lot of the comments written about other consoles (other than the Megadrive which got my vote) brings back sooo many memories.

I nearly ruined my GCSEs because of Goldeneye on the N64 (oh how unimportant they seem now!) We used to play the N64 four player for hours on end and we used to play drinking games, whoever lost at Mario Kart, Goldeneye, Snowboard Kids (From what I can remember) had to do a shot of the flithiest shot we could find in the cupboard (not including cleaning chemicals) And playing Zelda: OOT and Mario 64 where major highlights in my gaming past, they had so much charisma, level design second to none and best of all, playability by the bucket load. I think Mario 64 is the only 1 player game I've ever played with 4 people (taking it in turns).

As for the Dreamcast, well simply wow. This system has lasted me years, and I've been playing it quite a bit recently (my mates DC actually, I broke mine). Virtua Tennis (2 really) is one of the best sports games of all time, and playing it four player is a superb idea (even if you hate tennis), talk about learning curve. And who can forgot the classics such as Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2, Shenmue 1+2, MSR, the sublime Rez and (only recently bettered) Soul Calibur. Then you have the quick fix Crazy Taxi's, the undeniably 'old-school' MDK2 (one of the most difficult games I have played in recent years), and Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament (Both great conversions). But for drunken mayhem it really does have to be Chu Chu Rocket, my god that game makes your head hurt. And not forgetting to mention Bomberman Online, and Worms World Party. Those games kick serious ass too. Oh my god I forgot about the Arcade perfect conversions of the old-school games! (2D fighter, shmups). Gigawing (1+2), Gunbird 2, Ikaruga, Street Fighter Alhpa 3, Street Fighter 3 (All versions), Capcom Vs SNK (1+2), the list goes OOOOON.

The Saturn was also a big fave of mine. I was a BIG fan of Virtua Cop 1 and 2 and played them for hours over and over trying to get my score multiplier up as far as possible (involving never being shot and not killing hostages). Virtua Fighter 2 was groundbreaking for the time, having superb hi-res graphics and a combat system that still retains it charms and has only really been 'polished' since. I have much to say about Nights as it blew me away. It was so much more about linking and chaining rather than completing the levels and getting A's on all every level was a great achievement for me, but didn't stop me going back and playing it AGAIN and AGAIN. Unfortunately I never played Shining Force 3, but I did play (and still own) the AWESOME Panzer Dragoon Saga, 4 disks of sheer brilliance, both 'prequels' (if you can call em that?) being defining points in the Saturn's life. Ugh the list is endless! Guardian Heroes, Radiant Silvergun (nice ones Treasure!), Burning Rangers, Tomb Raider (yes this game was awesome and ground breaking - pity about the mess they made of the series), Children of the Atom, Marvel Vs Streetfighter and the AWESOME Saturn Bomberman (10 players of fucking mayhem).

I'll leave my rants there as I could go on FOREVER. I never thought I'd have that many memories of those systems, and I've probably forgotten loads of games anyway!

[Shatterhand]

Yes, the MSX had a "Cart-only" system. It was developed by Zemina. I don't remember its name, but I remember it came in either Blue or Pink colors.

Zemina was famous for its bootlegs copies. Many people had 1942 copies that were "Copyrighted by Zemina", while the game was actually made by Ascii. The same happened with Project A 2, and a few others. They also made some games by themselves, named "Bubble Bobble", a version of Bubble Bobble for the MSX 1. It's horrible. They also made "Bros Adventure", a copy of Mario Bros, Super Boy II, a copy of Super Mario Bros, this one is pretty good actualy, and Super Boy III, which is a copy of SUPER MARIO WORLD (Yes, the SNES game), and it's also pretty good. Don't ask me where is Super Boy I though

Yes, Zemina only ripped people off. How they did manage to make their own system is a mystery

But, going into the topic.

It's funny, I have never considered myself a "Sega fanboy". I think they made some of the greatest arcade games ever, but I am no big fan of them. When I was thinking about what I should vote, the doubt was exactly between their 3 main consoles: Mega-Drive, Saturn or Dreamcast, for all reasons that have been stated here already.

Sorry, the SNES can't compete with the Mega-Drive. It may have more colors and the Mode7 chip and all, but the Mega-Drive library is much better. And the Mega-Drive also got a very good Sensible Soccer port, better than the SNES one .

The Mega-Drive had all the Treasure stuff (Now, I AM a Treasure Fanboy. They are awseome!), M.U.S.H.A. the Thunder Force series, Castlevania Bloodlines, Contra Hard Corps (Both are better than any Snes counterpart), Sonic games, Streets of Rage 1,2 &3, The better version of NBA Jam and all MK games. Super Street Fighter 2 was also slight better on the Mega-Drive, and the 6 button joypad was much more confortable to play it than the SNES one (Alas.. this joypad is the BEST EVER MADE, period), Truxton, a better port of Raiden, Ranger-X, Moonwalker, Global Gladiators, Puyo Puyo 2, Shinobi games, Road Rash, Desert Stike (Much better than the horrible SNES version, not as good as the Miggy one ), NHL games are much faster on Mega-Drive, as are the Fifa games.

The SNES can't match this.

[gaterooze]

This reminds me of the ol' Sega vs Nintendo wars of the early 90's! Man, they were vicious.

I've owned both and have played virtually every game on both sytems (for the SNES, *literally* every game, even the indecipherable Japanese titles), and enjoyed them both a lot, but in the end I think it comes down to personal taste and neither is really "best." Just favorites. For example, I slightly preferred the SNES incarnations of Castlevania and Contra, and Konami's International Superstar Soccer on the SNES was always more fun than FIFA... but that's just me.

True, some of the great titles you mentioned were MD-only (except, Puyo Puyo 2 was on SNES, as was the Puyo 2 Remix!), but then on the flip-side of the coin are the SNES-only titles -- Mario Kart, Zelda 3, Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Starwing, Final Fantasy 3, Goemon, Super Metroid, Secret of Mana, and so on...

The best solution is -- HAVE BOTH, and enjoy the crap out of 'em!!!

@Killergorilla -- wow, what a Sega collection! Would love to have all those DC & Saturn titles...