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.

There was definitely a generation of consoles between the Atari 2600 and the NES.  I tend to call this the "Crash Generation", but maybe "Lost Generation" is a better term.  And you are right that ET was not that bad of a game. 

I tend to think the crash was really caused by the Atari 5200.  It was a situation very much like the Wii-> Wii U transition, where an ultra popular system was followed by a dud.  However, retailers didn't understand the video game business back then.  They panicked and got rid of everhing, Atari, Coleco, Vectrex, etc....  I tend to think, if the retailers hadn't panicked, then Colecovision would have been the winner of the "Lost Generation".  I didn't have one but a guy on the end of my street had one and I played it a little.  It definitely seemed like the most solid system out of the ones launching around '82.  But what actually happened is the Commodore 64 really won the "Lost Generation", because it was the cheapest computer and retailers still sold those.

SEGA Saturn

TurbografX16

Dreamcast.

They had fantastic libraries. Dreamcast is still getting games. I noticed Joshprod is making a fully 3D racing game for it. Saturns library is very underrated as most of the best games never left Japan. It has some great arcade ports. The great fighting game machine. Shmups. RPGs and more. The Saturn is a better system with a better and larger library than N64. Dreamcast was a great system but a victim of circumstance. SEGA was already bankrupt and PS2 DVD ability just sealed it. TG16 failed in the west but in Japan was a monster of a console. What a fantastic library. It's nearly as good as Genesis in games but again most the best ones stuck in Japan. First CD based add on and IMO much better library than SEGA CD. A lot of great RPGs and some of them exclusive like Cosmic Fantasy series.

The most recent system that is very similar to these three is the Vita. Not a home console I know. If we can include handhelds then I will also add Neo Geo Pocket Color and Wonderswan. Gunpei's last work of genius before his death.