| VAMatt said: Anyone not choosing Atari 2600 clearly wasn't alive (or, old enough to play video games) at the time that system was current. It was, far and away, the most important piece of video gaming hardware ever made. It was a much bigger deal than NES, Genesis, PS2, Wii, or any of those others that made a big splash. None of them even approach it's impact. It really took gaming from something that barely existed, and made it into a mainstream activity. The 30 million units sold of Atari 2600 was about as significant to our hobby as Switch 2 selling 500 million would be. It took gaming up several levels. And, sure, the OP asked for "best", not most important. But, why do you think the system managed to sell so well? It was among the best things ever made at that point. That's why. |
Yeah, I think most folk don't understand how big 2600 was, and I think it really comes down to their first console being something that is, at best, as old as NES.
That said, from this POV, playing games on 2600 is really rough - I tend to play them from time to time, but honestly, they really show that early stages of game design mentality, and most arcade ports are just simply better played elsewhere.
Still, if by best we go with best for their time and impact on console industry, then yeah, I can't really go with anything but 2600.
