Game console that has aged the best pre-128-bit gen

[sabre2922]

What home consoles have aged the best and/or worst throughout the years?
tell us why also was it the games ? the overall gameplay etc? lets say pre-Dreamcast or current gen.
I will have to go with:
SUPER NES: all the way, if I can play the Chrono Trigger port on the PSX with its slighty bothersome load times and still have a better experience than with the latest RPGs on both PS2 and XBOX (well maybe not Star Wars:KOTOR) then that should speak volumes on the SNES behalf shouldnt it?
NEO-GEO: 90% of the games released on this venerable arcade/home console system will stand the test of time like no other in my opinion.When I think of games like Samurai Shodown and Magician Lord I look at them as High-tech works of art really. It is sad that the majority of current-gen gamers out there that started with the PSX will never see these excellent hand-drawn 2-D games in the same light as us "older" gamers that was raised on the greatness that was and still is 2-D.
umm now im going to backtrack a little
PSone: dont think that Im contradicting myself here I have to mention the PSX for the sheer number of great franchises that began life on this system and the old standards that were completely revamped and overhauled for the first time in 3-D like the Metal Gear series and the Final Fantasy series.
Of course most of these games look very pale in comparison with the current gen versions but they still havent aged as badly as other 3-D games on 3DO Saturn etc.
Now for the worst :roll:
N64: should speak for itself when the only games on this sytem that look even halfway decent today were the ones made by nintendo themselves or RARE. at one time I was kinda a N64 fanboy but damn this system really has aged badly oh so badly :(
Saturn: while I still consider this as one of my favorite systems overall and think of it as a 2-D god especially compared to the limited 2-D capabilities of the PSone I have to wonder why most 3-D games on this system look worse than the same 3-D games on 3DO? off-world interceptor anyone? while a beast of a machine (back in the day) for 2-D its 3-D capabilities were almost embarassing compared to the PSX or even (do i dare?) the N64 @_@
SO what consoles have aged like fine wine and which have aged as gracefully as a 1973 ford pinto?

[tholly]

Best: NES, Neo Geo MVS / AES

Worst: N64

[Nez]

Best: Snes, Neo Geo

Worst: N64. Game Boy.

[-hellvin-]

The best:

NES, Neo Geo, SNES

Worst:

3do, Saturn, N64

[sporkster]

Best- NES, SNES, and Neo Geo

Worst- N64

[Jibbajaba]

Well it looks like everyone is saying pretty much the same thing here, and I;m not going to be too much different. NES, SNES, and Genesis for me are no brainers, but I'm going to have to disagree with Nez in that I think that the original Game Boy games have held up quite well in my opinion due to the backward compatibility of the GBA and the fact that it colorizes the games, which works quite well on most games. I still play original Game Boy games on a regular basis.

[Escape•From•Jenny•Island]

Best: Neo•Geo (Hmmm... 4 of its 14 years were spent in the 128 bit days), SEGA Genesis (The Colors... THE COLORS!), SEGA CD (Quality FMV just makes most of its games look great)

In the Middle: SEGA Saturn (Games like NiGHTS, Daytona USA, Fighting Vipers, Bug Too!, The Lost World, Panzer Dragoon Zwie and Saga all look excellent and outperform many PlayStation games even though a lot of them use that awful... look at the PSX thing...), Nintendo 64 (It is just about all 3D... Very Pointy Polygons and not much detail to them)

Worst: PlayStation (Only GREAT graphics on this system were the Hand Drawn backgrounds in Final Fantasy and others - That awful Zoomed-in-Blended look of backgrounds and wall tiles... Blech)

[optic_85]

Best: NES, GENESIS, Game Boy, Saturn(kind of a personal thing for me. But i love my saturn, and still play it often)

Worst: N64(by far the worst), PSONE(cant stand playing psone games like twisted metal), Game Gea.r

[Darkness X]

How I think the consoles have aged...


Best Graphics...

SNES: I am still impressed by some games(even today), DKC 2&3, Final Fantasy 3, Chrono Trigger, ect,ect,ect

NeoGeo: I had never seen much of this system until about a year ago, I saw some screen shots of some games(and played a few) and my exact words were: "Holy shit, those games look GREAT!" IMO this systems graphics will always look great.


Worst graphics...

PS1: I used to be impressed, but now I find that almost all PlayStation games look pretty bad. The only ones that still make me say "hmmm, not bad" are...FFVIII, FFIX, Tekken 3, Twisted Metal 4, Rayman. Everything besides those(mainly the early stuff) Look pathetic.

Saturn: I love most 2D Saturn games(and a few 3D ones like VF2,Fighters:Megamix, NiGHTS,ect). but I would say around 80% of the Saturns games look like pure crap nowdays.

Genesis: Like the Saturn, the exclusive games(Sonic series, Streets of Rage series, Vectorman) look pretty nice and full of color. But almost every multi platform game looks better/sounds better on the SNES.

3DO: With 3D games that look worse then the PS1, and even the Saturn time has not been kind to this system.

Nintendo 64: Super Mario 64/Donkey Kong 64/Goldeneye/Perfect Dark/Banjo Kazooie and Tooie/ All still look decent, but everything else just looks bad!

Best gameplay wise..

Everything on the list, just take away the 3DO and add the NES.

I like all of these systems(accept the 3DO cause I could never find something I liked), but in my opinion the 2D games will always be aging better then the 3D games.

[hydr0x]

BEST: NES/SNES/2D-Saturn/Neo Geo
WORST: 3D-Saturn, PSX, N64, 3DO

[anagrama]

I really can't understand why everyone is saying NES. Not to disrespect the machine and it's place in history, but everything about it is firmly rooted in the 80's.

Best: Vectrex (timeless really), Neo

Worst: PS1, Jag (bar T2000), N64 (3rd Party)

[klausien]

My personal thoughts.

Best: PC Engine/Turbografx CD - for how old it is, it is still very impressive.

Worst: 3DO - was never all that great in the first place.

[chrisbid]

Genesis for me, smoothly animated 2D with little or no slowdown, and classic hardware generated sound

the SNES is in the middle, things like mode 7 look really bad now, and the midi sound is just flat sounding. plus the slowdown you get in action games prooves time and time again that it is an incredibly overrated system

as for worst, that goes to the PSX. 1st generation 3D games with textures are the ugliest video game graphics ever. 1st generation 2D games, while blocky, were at least clean and well defined. The N64 knew this and used blurring to soften up the look, so they get extra points for trying. The Saturn is in the same boat as the PSX, but since the Saturn wasnt intended to be a 3D only system, you cant fault sega and those bonus points are deducted from the PSX for forcing 3D on the public before it was ready.

[EnemyZero]

Best : Genesis , Saturn, NES (my genesis and saturn get ALOT of usage , my 2 fav consoles of all time)

Worst : I find my N64 collecting dust

[Pedro Lambrini]

I'd have to go for the SNES. Some of the games are just absolutely lovely! Look at Yoshi's Island, Super Mario RPG or the DKC series :-P I think these games, among others, will always have charm...

Worst would have to be Playstation - I pretty much hated the thing when it was big ( to the point it put me off console gaming until I picked up a cheap N64! ) The graphics are just plain awful and 90% of the (admittedly huge) games catalogue is just plain dull!! AND it was the killer of 2D and the birth place of Geek Chique!!! Over-rated, under-powered piece of junk *deep breath* Sorry folks just needed to get that off my chest

[Darth Sensei]

Best: Atari 2600. Nothing has ever really been better.

Worst: N64 There are only 3 or 4 games on that system I will ever play again.

D

[Push Upstairs]

the SNES is in the middle, things like mode 7 look really bad now


Oh yeah. Recently playing some games that contain this made me realize that Mode 7 stuff was just a huge pixelated 2D sprite. Not as good as i remember it being :o I still like the SNES though.


Anything 2D pretty much holds up. I dont know what it is about sprites that come off timeless but they do hold up 10+ years down the line.

I'd say Saturn's 3D games, Virtua Boy, N64, and some PSX games are just nasty. to look at nowadays.

[ewrann]

Best = Sega Genesis and Atari 7800.
Worst = Yeah, the N64.

E

[Nintendo1978]

Best: NES, Super Nintendo, GameCube, Sega Genesis and PS2

Worst: Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast and Virtual Boy

[Wookie]

Best: 2600, Sega Master, TG16, Genesis
Worst: Odyssey2, Intellivision, 3DO, NES

I'm surprised so many people hate the N64 - I'm still having great fun with mine.
-Ron

[TNTPLUST]

Best: Atari 2600. Nothing has ever really been better.
D

And it has held up quite well considering the sheer number of homebrews produced for it every year.

I think everyone is pretty much agreeing on the 16/32 bit era. So to be different (or difficult) I will go with the Pre-Crash 8 bit systems.

Held up the Best - Atari 2600/7800, Vectrex and the INTV

(based on collector status plus renewed intrest...homebrews, re-releases and compilations on newer systems)

Worst - Colecovision, 5200, and Odyssey II

(Yes, they are neat systems, Yes I collect them but they haven't held up AS well as the above machines. Note the 7800 should be on this list but I think it gets a big bump for having 2600 built in compatability.)

[Crush Crawfish]

The Nes and SNES have definitely aged the best. I'll never get tired of playing chrono trigger, earthbound, or Mega man 3!

The worst would be the N64 and Saturn. I like the systems, but if I've learned anything from them it's that 2D ages much better than 3D. The only N64 games that still look good are the Zeldas, Paper Mario, Mischief Makers, and Conker's BFD.

[ghostangelofcky]

Best - Sega Genesis, pre super nes
Turbografx 16 and Neo Geo AES are my top three.

Worst - Sega Saturn, all the Genesis attachments, Jaguar CD, N64, CD-I, 3DO.

ghost

[ManekiNeko]

As far as 3D games are concerned, I think the N64 has aged most gracefully, while the Saturn suffers the most. I was playing Tom and Jerry: Fists of Furry on an emulator and was really impressed with what they were able to do with the system. There's a lot of special effects and well drawn polygonal characters that match up pretty closely to their cartoon counterparts. Mario 64 is a little rougher around the edges, but it still has the vibrance and life you didn't often see in polygonal video games from the mid 1990's.

However, age has not been so kind to most of the Saturn's 3D games. I remember that I went back to Panzer Dragoon Saga just two years after I'd beaten it the first time and was horrified by the ugly brown playfields and rough character models. NiGHTS fares a lot better but it's still pretty clear that the designers just pasted sprites onto a large polygonal playfield. Dead or Alive is still surprisingly sharp, but when I see most of the other 3D games on the Saturn I can't help but agree with those who've claimed that it just wasn't designed for polygonal output.

The Playstation lands somewhere in the middle. There are some really, really primitive looking games (Jumping Flash!, for one) and some incredibly impressive ones (the Spyro series), but most Playstation games are just average... solid but unexceptional.

JR

[Jibbajaba]

The worst would be the N64 and Saturn. I like the systems, but if I've learned anything from them it's that 2D ages much better than 3D. The only N64 games that still look good are the Zeldas, Paper Mario, Mischief Makers, and Conker's BFD.

In my opinion, Yoshi's Story was the best looking N64 game there is, and it still looks great today.

[theoakwoody]

Well I'd like to start off by saying that I'm totally addicted to the tg16 at the moment and I'm glad someone started a huge post about it.

Okay here we go.

Best systems: I'm not going to say NEO GEO because it cost 300 times as much as every other console at the time and so yeah it looked good but so what. I like the Super Nes graphics better than the Genny and the TG16 but I'm going to give the TG16 the nod here on the 16 bit consoles even though yeah yeah 8 + 8 doesn't 16 make. It came out 3 years before the Snes and still held its ground. How can people say NES? There are as many horrible looking games on the NES as there are on the PSONE! You can't say, "Oh there's some great looking games on that system". YOu have to look at the system as a whole and the nod here definitely goes to the SMS for the 8 bit Genre. I can't believe the 7800 got any votes here, the graphics are awful. I don't care about the 32 bit genre which brings us to the pre 8-bit. I don't care if Atari, Colecovision, Intellivision games are fun to play, they all look like complete dogshit!

Worst Systems:

3DO- For $ 700 you better get something better than what's in the arcades.
Sega CD- FMV sucks ass


I'm going to spare the Saturn, PSONE, and the N64 as I have fond memories of all and because they pioneered the 3D Fad which was important to todays' games. Come on, cut 'em some slack people. Of course the first generation of 3D games were going to look like crap. Post N64 no one has any excuses.

[Kid Ice]

Held up the best:

Saturn - sure, the 3-D games look like crap, but guesswhat? They always did. Check out the imports. Radiant Silvergun has a vast variety of cool-looking stuff. X-Men vs SF, Marvel vs SF, SFZ3...still the best console versions.

Held up the worst:

3DO - it hurts to say it because I'm a huge 3DO fan. But it seems every other console has its beautiful game that's still beautiful...Demon Attack, SMB3, Sonic, DKC, etc...3DO games are, without exception, butt ugly. I can't think of a colorful 3DO game besides Soccer Kid...3DO games are just DARK.

EDIT: Wolfenstein 3D! Now there's a 3DO game that's still cool-looking. Still, the rest of the 3DO catalog; scary.

[ManekiNeko]

Wait, hasn't Crash 'n Burn, Road Rash, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo held up pretty well on that system? From what I remember, Crash 'n Burn was pretty advanced for the time... so much so that it could almost have passed for a Playstation game.

JR

[FlufflePuff]

I pretty much feel the same as everyone else.

The SNES, in terms of its age relative to other consoles, has aged the best. For example, I turned on Earthworm Jim 2 today (i just bought it at Goodwill) and was amazed by the detail in the game. The depth of color and content in this 10 year old game really amazed me. That's not to say it's a good game, but in terms of visuals and amount of content, it delivers better than any other system, relative to its age.

I disagree that the N64 has aged badly. I think it was bad from the beginning. The console itself wasn't bad at all, it was the games released for it. The same could be said of the Saturn. It wasn't a bad console, it just had too many crappy games.

I would say that the Sega CD has probably aged the worst of any console (if you even consider it a console). FMV games were a pretty bad idea. Top the bad idea with the even worse presentation of the video and you get a crappy string of games. The games tried to do to much on a system not designed to support them. They looked clunky, blocky, or washed out. True, there are a few great games on the system, but I can count them on one hand. If it weren't for Snatcher and Sonic CD, I probably wouldn't have bought one (and this from the guy who is still proud of his game.com).