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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Which is the most significant (important) console in history?

 

Which is the most important console ever?

Atari 2600 119 6.86%
 
NES 806 46.48%
 
SNES 109 6.29%
 
Sega Genesis 25 1.44%
 
N64 54 3.11%
 
PSX 303 17.47%
 
XBox 14 0.81%
 
PS2 225 12.98%
 
XB360 20 1.15%
 
Other - please explain 59 3.40%
 
Total:1,734

I think either the Atari 2600 or the NES have to take this one.

Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 pretty much established what we think of as video game consoles. While the Fairchild Channel F already had programmable ROM cartridges, Atari had been planning it for some time (as in they didn't need the Fairchild for the idea). Here's a list of what it managed:

-Provided the clearest break from dedicated pong consoles by establishing and popularizing many of the conventions still followed by consoles to this day
-Popularized the interchangeable cartridges for games
-Had four (or in other models, two) controller slots, allowing for multiple types of controllers and not having them be hardwired in as was typical
-Had a wireless controller
-Went about grabbing licenses for various arcade games or intellectual property, essentially inventing the concept of the "console exclusive"
-Largely responsible for the entire concept of consoles, video games, and home gaming becoming mainstream knowledge (there was a time, especially in NA, where many people thought of video game consoles as simply being "an Atari", much like later on the less informed would often refer to consoles as "a Nintendo")
-Responsible for the birth of the 3rd party market, including the first 3rd party dev company (Activision) which was composed of former Atari employees

NES
The NES is really the only console that approaches the Atari 2600 in importance

-Restored the North American Market, which is a pretty darn important market. Also aided in bringing Europe back from computers (such as Amigas and Commodores).
-Established the first real quality control for their console, attempting to avoid the excess shovel-ware that helped sink Atari
-Invented the great great grandfather of all modern console controllers, abandoning the joystick for the d-pad and providing width so that it would be more comfortable to hold while also including a pause button, a select button, and both an a and b button (it's surprising how superior this was to the controllers used by the Atari 2600/5200, Intellevision, Colecovision, Oddyssey 2 and so forth)
-Unlike the Atari 2600, the NES featured many homemade, 1st party IP "killer apps" in the form of Mario, Metroid, Zelda and so forth, something other console makers would come to attempt to imitate
-Was able to win over Americans as a Japanese company, something that initially made some uneasy in a time where Japan's economy was expected by many to catch or overtake the USA's
-Finally, perhaps the single most important contribution any console has made to the industry is that the NES showed both that video games were not a fad and proved that the industry could remain stable, profitable, and accessible.


I imagine there's plenty more if I kept thinking about it, but these two are rather clearly the most "important" (which is not synonymous with "best", "most popular" and so forth) consoles ever made as far as their impact on the industry is concerned. Which I'd pick depends on whether credit should be given to Atari for some of the flaws of their business model that Nintendo later corrected, as that correction only took place due to Atari's pioneering years earlier. It's rather unfair to punish the Atari 2600 for stepping on a couple landmines while trailblazing the industry.

Otherwise, most other consoles were following trends that existed with or without them, but these two very much invented the trends.



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Chris Hu said:
Aeolus451 said:
PS1 or PS2. Saved the gaming market and third party devs.

No and No.  Home consoles where already hugly popular during the fourth generation.  As for third party console games those first appeared on the 2600 and already where as popular as first party titles on the NES especially in Japan with Dragon Quest.

No, they weren't. It was considered a childish hobby by most people and most of the games were kid games during nintend's reign. Playstation consoles broke sales records that nintendo and the rest dreamt of but couldn't do the vast majority of the time. Playstation home consoles pushed the gaming market into what it is. Third party devs were able to sell record breaking boat loads of games thanks to the success of playstation consoles. 



NES, Nintendo and it literally saved the gaming industry, it cannot be denied.



"Trick shot? The trick is NOT to get shot." - Lucian

NES and N64



 

Aeolus451 said:
Chris Hu said:

No and No.  Home consoles where already hugly popular during the fourth generation.  As for third party console games those first appeared on the 2600 and already where as popular as first party titles on the NES especially in Japan with Dragon Quest.

No, they weren't. It was considered a childish hobby by most people and most of the games were kid games during nintend's reign. Playstation consoles broke sales records that nintendo and the rest dreamt of but couldn't do the vast majority of the time. Playstation home consoles pushed the gaming market into what it is. Third party devs were able to sell record breaking boat loads of games thanks to the success of playstation consoles. 

LOL, the SNES and Genesis already had a ton of games not aimed at kids you have no clue what you are talking about.



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zorg1000 said:
Chris Hu said:
The NES

That being said the crash of 83 really only affected North America in Japan console sales really weren't affected by it. The NES actually launched there on July 15 1983. In Europe the majority of gamers played their games on PC's instead of consoles and the crash didn't affect PC gaming in Europe.

Consoles were super niche in Japan before NES/Famicon, so it revived the market in America and put it on the map in Japan.

Well what I said about the crash of 83 only affecting North America still is true though.  Before home consoles became popular in Japan, arcades where already big there and they wheren't affected by the crash of 83 there but it had a effect on arcades in North Amercia.  



N64 - Introduced four controller ports, Analog Stick, Rumble, ground breaking Mario 64 introduced free roaming camera.



 

I've very shocked to see so many people voting for the PSX I doubted that many users on here would have known about that console let alone think it was the most important thing in history.... over the NES? what the hell, that's nuts, but I guess people are strange.

This is a PSX btw, it is not a playstation one
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSX_(digital_video_recorder)



Why not check me out on youtube and help me on the way to 2k subs over at www.youtube.com/stormcloudlive

The three main contenders is 2600, NES/Famicom & PSX, but I ultimately went with PSX. If Sony had ducked out I'm sure Saturn would have taken its place fighting and winning the CD vs cartridge format war.



PS2 was the console that geared gaming towards adults more rather than children. Before that, everyone that played video games thought that gaming was for kids, PS2 changed that.