Tell me, what games on the C64 or MSX created a shift in the industry for home gaming the way SMB or Zelda did on the NES/Famicom?  I never said that no home games like that ever existed before Mario and Zelda (Pitfall released on the 2600 the same year as the C64 debuted, for example) but there's a reason why those titles and many other NES games are remembered as classics and set standards for the home games industry. 

Contrary to what you might believe, the home games console wasn't popularized by the C64, the MSX or their respective libraries.  It was popularized by what arcade games did a decade before those systems existed - enticing non-dedicated "casuals" (for lack of a better term) with simple, easy to understand gaming traits that were both addictive and intuitive.  Home computers (which is what those systems were) were still seen by the majority as jack-of-all-trades, not simple plug and play machines like the 2600 and NES.  The NES was not that popular in Europe... just as the C64 was not popular in Japan, and the vast majority of people in the US have never even heard of the MSX.  The crash of '83 took place in the US, but how popular was Atari in Europe after it occurred?  Failing to look at the effect something had from a global scale would be highly inaccurate to a system's legacy.  Simply put, what the 2600 began with its popularity, the NES sustained due to a plethora of titles that combined simple, arcade gaming traits with deeper experiences.  This is why today, PCs and consoles can exist in perfect harmony, despite PCs being so far ahead on so many levels.  The games console still offers relative simplicity, which lots of people clearly prefer, and many - if not most, according to the poll here - would agree that the NES was a big part of that.

I see this narrative a lot about how gaming was fine in Europe and so on yet I have doubts that without the mass market force that NA brought and powered that the gaming market would have sustained itself especially with the insane piracy issues that would go on to plague the computer markets throughout the 90s and 00s to the point that even EA a once staunch anti-console supporter of home computers in the 80s declared the non-console market dead. The issue with consoles in Europe wasn't popularity it was just a complex and problematic market to get set up in at the time for non European entities, the companies had no infrastructure and multiple nations each with their own regulations so console manufacturers couldn't push their platforms while home computer companies like commodore were based in UK as much as they'd like early until Sony and PS1 showed how to go about it hence why it sold well in Europe.

It's also not really about who did something first it's also about the execution for example Nintendo as far as I'm aware where the first to utilize the cartridge itself as additional hardware if needed so that certain games could overcome hardware limitations for example putting additional ram and chips in the carts of certain games, C64 had a price of $595 back on release MSX was $400 while NES/FCM had a price of $180 so while the games were more expensive the hardware was much cheaper. Consoles were straight forward plug and play and easy to find home computers not so much, accessories like the light gun and ROB, NES/FCM also introduced the license fee model for platform holders which is a solid business model to be sustainable an example of a paradigm shift, different approach to development and coding due to the being no cross development tools in Japan at the time they literally came up with a digital interface utilizing LEDs that allowed graphical design something unheard of at the time.

Ironically the NES was actually meant to release in NA in 1983 but Atari cocked up the publishing deal with Nintendo leading to the latter deciding to go it alone.

Snes, legendary console

Interesting choice, what specifically about SNES do you find made it the most groundbreaking?

Operating a C64 was as simple as typing "Load" and "Run", MSX also used cartridges just like NES. The MSX failed in the US due to competition from the C64 and lack of marketing, no confidence from Japan (and MS who made the operating system...)

NES had the right marketing and benefited from the crash in the US coming in 2 years later.

MSX is the birthplace of Metal Gear Solid but that didn't come out until 1987.
Ultima and Elite originated on C64. 

Both also had all the arcade games and easy to pick up and play games. But just not marketed as well.

It's a shame MSX failed as the console space would have turned out very differently if it hadn't. MSX was a 'standard' by MS and the Ascii corporation that was made by many companies including Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Canon, Goldstar, Toshiba, Sanyo, JVC, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Sharp, Yamaha, Fujitsu, Spectravideo, and Samsung. 

The NES closed it all down and cemented the path to walled gardens.



Only one of my nephews had a NES back in the 80s, and only had Mario and Duck Hunt on it. Compared to my other nephews with C64 where we went to play all kinds of games. We had an MSX and PC at the time, friends also had either MSX or C64 and later Amiga 500. 

There was indeed a lot of piracy, but parents still bought us games and after we grew up to have money to buy our own games the addiction was set.



C64 and MSX were nothing like the complexity of even simple PCs today. Instant on, insert tape, type LOAD "*",8,1 then RUN. A 5 year old could do it (my nephew at the time)

MSX you could switch to BASIC and make your own stuff. It's how I initially learned how to program and made my own games. But also played a lot of games on it, some from cartridge, most from tapes. 

Since MSX got me interested in programming I migrated to PC, first console I bought was a PS1 for TR2 as I couldn't afford a better PC at the time that could run it. First Nintendo console was N64 for me after seeing Wave Race 64 on it. NES and SNES never interested me at the time.



Anyway I don't see why NES was groundbreaking, cause of the DRM shutting down piracy? It came out in the US at the right time with the right marketing, is that the groundbreaking part? Or is it Mario and Zelda?

Both.

Seems more like a confluence of circumstances rather than groundbreaking.

Famicon launches in 1983 in Japan.
MSX fails to gain traction in the US.
Atari bungles up the release of Famicon in the US and starts a decline / video game crash in the US by poor quality management.
Nintendo parts ways with Atari and relaunches the Famion as the NES in the USA with "Nintendo seal of quality" marketing.
Full release in 1986 after 2 limited test markets in 1985.
Since Famicon launched in 1983 already, Mario and Zelda had time to be developed to accompany the US launch.

I don't see the groundbreaking part of the console...

Nintendo's marketing strategy was though, the "Nintendo seal of quality" was genius and as effective as Sony's "This is how you share your games on PS4" that killed the XBox One launch. That doesn't make the PS4 groundbreaking though.

N64, and it's not close.

I think you can measure impact as ground breaking. If it was Nintendo's system that set a popular precedent and introduced forever IPs that shaped the industry, then that is groundbreaking, even if there was no technical wizardry going on.

For me though, N64 >>>

In that case (impact) it would be Gameboy, which is how this "Why NES" discussion started, Why NES at the top and Gameboy at the bottom in the poll.

Gameboy also introduced forever IPs, Pokemon being the biggest. Actually much bigger than Mario when it comes to revenue and overall impact.


N64 is also more groundbreaking, It's the Nintendo console that had me buy in to Nintendo. PS1 still had very awkward 3D controls and warping textures all over the place. N64 fixed all that. As well as starting the path to haptic feedback.

To me Wii is still the most groundbreaking by daring to abandon the tech (and multi media device) race, setting the path to the Switch and standardizing motion controls. While six axis was doing crappy tilt games, Wii had Wii Sports, Zack & Wiki, as well as pointer controls for menu navigation and shooters.

Wii Mote spawned Move, which (together with Eye Toy) spawned PSVR1, hence my vote goes to Wii as VR is where my playtime goes nowadays.



Head tracking demo with the Wii mote in 2007! You could credit Nintendo with inside out tracking now used in VR everywhere. 

The Wii Mote was the most groundbreaking and now a standard part of the Switch.