Well, I'll give you something to read when you get back from being banned.

First, when did I say I disagree or that you were wrong? I didn't. The "try again" was in reference to the price. I then further extrapolated on the price, mentioning how it really did cost a lot more than the PS3 does today. As for piracy itself, it was an issue, yes, but the worst part of it was on the MVS (arcade) side, not the AES (consumer) side. Before anyone tries to say anything, yes, I do know that they're interchangable. AES carts were the ones with the packaging, labels, etc, and are also the ones typically more sought by collectors today due to their higher scarcity.

Lastly, we disagree on best systems. You'll note that I did acknowledge the DS prior, which, given that the system is not dead yet, is quite an accomplishment in my eyes; when all is said and done, it probably will pass the SNES. I won't make that final call for myself until it's on life support. For the PS2, it's late enough for me to judge, and while it also has some quality games, the sheer volume of top-tier games and those quirky different games is less on the PS2. As for the Wii, again, it's not dead, and again, it has some good games, but again, not in the quantities of the SNES, and even then, some of the good games are throwbacks to older eras anyway. (Most notable: FF4 After Years.) But that's something we'll just have to disagree on.

SNES

Yep the Neo-Geo was definitely more expensive.

Looking at Wikipedia, apparently the Gold was $649.99 (they packed in two joysticks, a memory card and a game) and the Silver was $399.99 (only one joystick controller but no pack-in games or pack-in memory card).

I have no clue what the joysticks and memory cards cost but I bet they were expensive. The cost of a Silver + an extra joystick (what good is an arcade machine without multiplayer?) + a memory card (or without being able to save your high scores?) probably might have been about the same as the Gold package anyway. And if you liked Magician Lord (the pack-in with Neo-Geo), the Gold would have been the obvious choice. Because the games were ridiculously expensive and to pay only $250 extra for the game, an extra joystick to play with a friend and a memory card to save high-scores for IRL peen cred (which was the only thing you could save I think because they were arcade games) was a bargain compared to the alternative.

And if you take into account inflation (very important to consider in cross-generational price comparisons), $399.99 in 1990 is equivalent to $616.97 in 2006

and $649.99 in 1990 is equivalent to $1,002.59 in 2006 (can you imagine that? A $1000 console bundle with 2 controllers, a memory card and a game? Absolutely ridiculous when you see bundles like MW2 360 bundle going for $400 regular price).

So yes, the Neo-Geo was absolutely more expensive than the PS3. Even when you compare entry-level Neo-Geo without even a memory card to the 'premium' $600 PS3.

Also (as I'm the first person that mentioned the piracy issue) I must point out that SNK went bankrupt in 2001 until Playmore bought them out. So in a sense you can say that the Neo-Geo would have lasted for 11 years instead without Playmore's intervention. Because Playmore bought out SNK, the Neo-Geo's life was able to be extended for 4 more years (considering how outdated the hardware was at that point, I'm surprised SNK continued to bother releasing software for it anyway. Neo-Geo was a powerhouse back in the day but very primitive by 21st century standards). Still, the Neo-Geo lasting 11 years only to finally succumb to piracy is quite an accomplishment. Normally you'd think that a ridiculously expensive console like that wouldn't last long but it did.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

the SNES has the best games.

My vote goes to the NEOGEO AES. The greatest console ever. For those who have one, you know how great it is and always will be. The piracy issue people are talking about affected the MVS arcade hardware, not so much the home cart market. The AES was much more successful than SNK envisioned.
The high price point was to ensure the hardware was always profitable, same with the home cart prices.

I personally would say the 8 bit era was the most fought but hey :) Seen as this is a 16bit thread I would have to say the amiga thrapwashes the snes and genesis into oblivion but if you never heard of the amiga (please come back to real gaming lol) The snes was the best console by a mile. Neogeo was cool but way too expensive. After playing Rock n Roll Racing on the snes i just couldnt bear to play any genesis games, the music was just so awesome!! Not only that secret of mana was on the snes, NO BRAINER!

I had a Sega Genesis and an SNES. The Super Nintendo wins hands down for me. Its still my favorite system of all time.

It's funny how people tend to look back on Nintendo consoles with more affection than they had at the time. I loved my SNES but it definitely received the same amount of flak from Sega fanboys that the Wii receives now from those that make up the HD Twin consumer base (but of course there was no internet to make it all quite so absurd back then). I predict the same will be true retrospectively for the Wii somewhere down the line.

OT: I owned a Megadrive and before it a Mastersystem. Megadrive was a very cool system, and Sega had a lot of good games - but comapred to the SNES it really doesn't hold a torch. The amount of sheer joy and pleasure you could get from that one console was magic.

^^Oh, I loved my Snes at the time, too. After its first year, it really came into its own. New breakthroughs in graphics, audio, and gameplay were happening on an almost quaterly basis. No console improved technologically in its lifetime more than the Snes. I was in geek heaven!