Taking the entire history of videogames into account, I choose my first console...
The ColecoVision
It's almost like people forget this console. It existed in that space between the Atari VCS/2600 and the NES here in America. It seemed to be popular when I was young, and I even had the Module 1 so I could play Atari 2600 games. Even then, it was clear to my 5 year old eyes, the ColecoVision graphics were much better. It was the first place I got to experience Donkey Kong! It was the pack in game! That's right, A NINTENDO game was the pack in game for a non Nintendo console! And it was a great conversion. The NES version wasn't even much better. The controllers were pretty good for the time too. I preferred them to the joysticks I had used prior, only to eventually be introduced to the NES game pad and obviously those took the cake.... but this was years prior to the NES taking over the US.
The ColecoVision had great, best of the generation versions of:
Donkey Kong
Frogger
Q Bert
Zaxxon
Smurfs
Jungle Hunt
Popeye
Pitfall
Congo Bongo
Galaxian
and more.
I guess it seems like I lived in some alternate version of videogame history sometimes. I got into gaming literally DURING the crash. I remember my poor parents buying me cheap games in discount bargain bins... I didn't know the difference. I played the hell out of Spiderman and ET for the 2600. I beat ET. I don't care what people think in their revisionist history, but there were much worse games than ET. Heck, Spiderman was worse. Regardless, when I see the history of videogames being portrayed in media it seems to go from the 2600 to the NES, negating this awesome system and it's nice little run that gave me awesome memories, even if it tends to just be a footnote.
Oh, and BTW.. the ColecoVision had a great version of PacMan!!! I was spared from the 2600 atrocity.
