NES started all.

The N64 and SNES probably had the most influence on controller design.

If I had to choose just one... (Which is hard)

I would say the NES because it saved the console gaming and well gaming market in general.

However here is a list of systems that made an impact of some sort on the U.S. market.

Turbo Grafix 16- While I can't remember exactly if this was the first 16 bit system to hit the market... I do remember it was the first system to use a CD-Rom on a console system. It was also the first system to actually do a combined system of a regular cart(Actually Hu Cards) system and CD system in the Turbo Duo. Also, I believe the Turbo Express was the first portable that could actually play the consoles (Hu Cards) games on the market. However the system never went over well due to lack of great games in the U.S. as thus it is a rarity. However if you can buy one it's well worth it for the hard core gamer... it does have some great titles (No really in spite of what I said it does it's just that when you compare it to the choices on SNES or Gen. it doesn't have as many) It's kinda like a Sega Saturn of the 16 bit era really some great titles hit the shores of the U.S. and it's selection gets even sweeter if you can get some games imported. Of course you'll have to shell out the bucks for the best stuff because they are so rare... (And probably the system itself seeing as to how the numbers dictate under a million sold here in America and the Turbo Duo is the one you'll want)

Sega Saturn: Technically this was the first (major player in the gaming world anyway)CD-Rom based system of the 32 bit era.
It was known for it's Arcade ports(The best of it's time really kinda like Neo Geo) but some features that get overlooked is... It had a battery to save games unlike the Playstation(Sure you could only save about 1-4 most of the time but at least you could open the box and actually play a game without the frustration of having to run back to the store and get a memory card or buy one with the system) You had a net thing that could play games online(While not really the first adapter to allow you to do this the Saturn was the one that had any kind of known focus on this at the time) In addition for a system that was not known for it's 3-D graphics much to the surprise to many of gamers a very fondly though of series (At the time ground breaking in it's own way) made it's debut here. None other than Tomb Raider. Unfortunately, despite the fact that it had some of the greatest games of it's time(and to some all time) it died an early death. Most people say Sony killed it... A lot say FF7 was the deathblow and quite a few say N64 was... the truth is Sega killed it with some bad choices.

PS1: I have to give credit where credit is due. The PS1 expanded the audience(Though it's important to note the PC gaming market helped with this as well at the time a lot of people that played on PC's and didn't want to stop playing games was forced with a choice... upgrade their graphics card every month or other month for the games they wanted to play on the PC or buy a console system that will last for some years and just get games and a memory card as wanted or needed based on the PC gaming mag I had a subscription to they a lot went with the latter choice so in a way you could say Sony actually got lucky with timing but whatever) Two things I will say for Sony though... 1 they pretty much put the RPG genre on the map when FF7 hit their system which leads to 2... they have a great library of games... which has some of the best games of all time on it. It's also important to note that the PS1 upon launch was the most likely to crash and give you problems (Read disc errors were common) and is the most finicky system of it's time. Still... that being said the PS1 is a very influential system (and one of the most important systems) of all time.

PS2: Sony became the first major player to deliver a DVD console system. In a sense of irony upon launch it had just as many problems as the first Playstation and in a sense of irony some(all??) of the first games were done on a regular CD(with a blue bottom on it.... kinda makes ya wonder about those first few PS3 titles don't it) In the end however it continued to expand the audience(around here at least) and delivered some great hits along the way.

Wii: Basically the controls are well cool(if done properly) and has expanded the audience.

PS1... because most people who post here will say the NES, anway...

The NES. Gaming today wouldn't be what it is without it. You think big name electronic companies like Sony and Microsoft would have bothered entering the videogaming business if it wasn't lucrative?

Doh I forgot.

N64: Ability to have 4 players right from the box. (Should be included on all systems) Also, probably the best Cart based system of all time.

Xbox: Basically made that Console Online thing a major factor. (Suffered greatly for it though)

I think there's 2 answers to this, one of which (NES) has been echoed by many people already as being responsible for reviving the market. But a revival indicates a prior market. Thus, I also nominate: Pong.

The home version of Pong showed that there was a market for these outside of the arcade. It was the success of home Pong that allowed the second gen (Atari 2600, Colecovision, etc) to create. While the ability to change the game was introduced here, it would never have happened if said market hadn't been born. And without either Pong or the NES, we wouldn't have gaming where it is today.

We has to say PS1 so far.

But when this gen is over and all is said and done, I fink we will say Wii was the most influental. It's close already.












Bah. I give up. It was NES.

The problem with saying the PS1 is the most influential is because if the NES didn't work out and crashed there would have been no audience for the PS1 to expand upon in the first place(most likely) or if there was one it would be small. In addtion if the NES wasn't a success then there might not have been an SNES and if there was no SNES there would have been no PS1. (After all the PS1 was a CD expansion on the SNES that was redesigned to be on it's own after the deal fell through with Nintendo... Which was Nintendo's fault but whatever.)

Definitely the NES.