What console do you find most interesting in concept or execution and why?

[Caeda]

Personally, I find the 3DO Interactive Multiplayerand GP32 the most interesting because of the 3DO being a console that was licensed out to multiple companies to make their own, and because of the GP32 being a handheld console created and sold with the purpose of being able to develop your own homebrew software for it.

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

Man I sure don't find 3DO interesting lol that was a 700 dollar paper weight I still regret.

I think switch currently because of the way it handles both big screen and handheld gaming, very unique and does it very well. Has so many possibilities.

 

[Datajoy]

The Switch leaps to mind first, given that almost every other home console has been just a box that you plug into your TV. It also has many unique use cases even beyond the several that are officially promoted. For example I took a trip this summer and just brought the system (no joycons) a pro controller and a single USB-C cable. Played a ton of tabletop splatoon without compromising control.

 

[Tagyhag]

The PS3. While it was incredibly expensive, it offered a huge amount for your buck.

It was just crazy to see so much packed into a system while saying "To hell with affordable consumer prices".

And it's going to be the last of its kind.

 

[Lukasper]

The asymmetric gameplay possibilities that the Wii U promised that were never realised outside of a limited number of NintendoLand mingames and Afordable Space Adventures. Could have gone any number of directions, particularly if they committed (which would have been a bad move) and went the multiple gamepad route.

 

[TuMekeNZ]

PS1 due to it starting life as a Nintendo add on that went on to be a world beater in its own right.
One of my all time favourites.

 

[Sabretooth]

The Vectrex, from 1982.

This is what happens when an engineer goes to a surplus warehouse, picks up a 1" cathode ray tube and his first thought is "I should make a video game out of this". They planned to make a handheld out of that, which failed, and the project eventually morphed into a 9-inch-wide screen that you see above. It's neither a traditional home console because it comes with its own display, and neither is it a proper handheld.

And the strangest part of all? It's all vector graphics. No pixel grids in this bitch, it's all lines drawn onto the screen. As a result, it was all black-and-white, but you could install coloured plastic overlays onto the screen to make games look prettier.

This oddball console managed to get around 30 games (including a robust homebrew scene that continues to this day), and even two accessories: a lightpen to draw on the screen with, and a 3D imager. In fact, this game had the earliest known 3D imager for a game console, and it was a headset with a spinning disc in it.

It's not a great console by any means, but it certainly is the most interesting one in my opinion.

 

[mindatlarge]

The Switch comes to mind. When I learned about the portable nature of the system and the Joy-Cons, I was turned off as I was hoping for just a powerful home console with a traditional control scheme.

Owning the system and Pro Controller since launch, I love how those features have been implemented so far though, as they totally feel like options and not forced. Feels like a system that has something for everyone, where you can play it how you want, depending on your preference.

 

[LunaticGunstar]

Dreamcast. The first console with a built-in modem. It also used Windows CE as its OS which was supposed to allow for easy porting of PC games at the time.

Also, VMU's.

Quite the forward-thinking machine from SEGA.

 

[TheMisterManGuy]

The Nintendo DS

Click to shrink...

Back in 2004, it was supposed to be a new start for Nintendo. As the late Hiroshi Yamauchi put it, if it were to succeed, Nintendo would rise to heaven. If not, it would sink to hell. And at first glance, the DS looked doomed to fail. Stacked next to Sony's elegant and powerful PlayStation Portable (which boasted PS2 quality in your pocket), the DS stood out with it's weird dual screen setup, touch screen, microphone,and comparatively weaker specs.

It didn't even have a strong launch lineup, with the only must-have title at launch being an enhanced N64 port with somewhat gimped controls. Yet against all odds, Nintendo was able to prove the DS' worth thanks to unique titles like Nintendogs and Brain Age, and the eventual DS lite upgrade, which took the relatively ugly and fat design of the OG model, and made it a much sleeker, cooler gadget for the mainstream. Eventually, the DS racked up an impressive amount of third party support both east and west, with every major publisher seemingly announcing at least something for it each year.

Perhaps what I find most interesting about the DS was Nintendo's own output. In an odd twist of fate, Nintendo's output was generally considered sub-par among fans, at least in regards to Nintendo staples like Zelda, Mario, and Metroid. The DS had strong third party support, but it was very rare for a Nintendo console to be considered to have worse first party support than third party. Yet, despite that, I consider the DS to host Nintendo's most unique and intruiging new IP output of any of their consoles. Obviously you had the aforementioned Touch Generations stuff like Brain Age and Nintendogs, but you also had weirder stuff like Rhythm Heaven, Hotel Dusk, Elite Beat Agents, Electroplankton, etc. That's not even getting into their Japan only games like Daigasso! Band Brothers, the Tingle games, Chōsōjū Mecha MG, Jet Impulse, etc. They co-produced two Shonen Jump fighting games. Even some of the established franchises were taken in weird directions. Kirby Canvas Curse was one of the earliest showcases of the DS' touch screen, Wario Ware D.I.Y. put the Microgame creation into the player's hands. Mario Kart DS marked Nintendo's very first foray into the brave new world of online multiplayer, Advance Wars took a darker turn with Days of Ruin, and the aforementioned Metroid Prime Hunters turned Metroid into a DS equivalent of a portable Quake III.

 

[Freddo]

I really liked the idea of the PS3, being able to have digital games of previous generations on it. I imagined one day to have a very long list of games on my XMB with PS1 and PS2 games, and while I do have a fair share of PS1 and PS2 games, it was also kinda ruined by the fact that so many PS1 and PS2 games are still missing from the EU PS Store.

The Vectrex, from 1982.

Click to shrink...

First console I ever played on :)

My father rented it for a weekend while I was a little kid and I remember playing Pole Position on it. I haven't played on it since, but I sure would like to.

 

[Caeda]

Sabretooth Glad to see someone else who finds the Vectrex fascinating! It's a pretty underappreciated piece of gaming history, despite how unique it was at the time and still is.

LunaticGunstar Dreamcast, always a joy. Finally got the chance to own one myself to play not before getting my teeth drilled into after mentioning admiring the console to my boyfriend! That dentist office also had a Game Gear sitting around for folks to use when waiting too.

 

[Burgess_101]

Neo Geo Pocket Colour

As far as handhelds go the Analogue stick is really fascinating. It makes fighting games feel great, which was rare for a handheld at the time.

 

[Willin]

The Game.Com would have been a revelation if it wasn't 1997 when the technology was absolutely not there yet. If this was released in 2001 that used modern technology I could see it being a much much larger thing than what it turned out to be.

Also the N-Gage would have been the trendsetter for all modern mobile devices if this didn't happen:

 

[lazygecko]

Probably the Dreamcast? It was ahead of the curve in a lot of things we take for granted in consoles today. It came with a built-in modem and had the first non-peripheral online gaming service, and the system architecture was very PC-friendly making development for it a lot more accessible (which also garnered a huge homebrew scene).

 

[Echo]

In concept, and at the time, PS3's CELL was quite something.

In execution, I love the 3D effect of the 3DS. It's a gimmick for sure, but it has routinely wowed me more than any other feature on a Video Game device I can think of. I mean it's not even that technically impressive but there is just something so tickling about it. I loved having FE:A's maps pop out at me, and the sense of depth is certainly awkward but oddly enjoyable.

Sadly, you can't use the 3D for extended periods of time. Least I can't. Headaches and all that. >_>

 

[ldave82]

I think the PSP was a great technological achievement for it's time. It still feels a high tech product for me with the screen, UMD drive, WiFi, video and music playback. I watch a lot of TV series on that thing.

 

[Zeus]

Nintendo has had a pretty strong run of making a statement. The switch is obviously a major standout in the current market for successfully combining their portable and home console markets but the Wii with its wiimote tech also turned heads too (whether it was ultimately a good or bad venture sees a fair bit of debate). The 3ds fits as well with the dual screens and the 3d push (though it kind of cratered that aspect later on) and if you go back further you get some truly bizarre stuff like the Virtual Boy!

Hell there's an argument to be made these days that Nintendo "gimmicks" are core to the brand now as, in recent times, whenever they haven't really tried to push the envelope on kooky ideas they've stumbled (The Gamecube and arguably the Wii U). Strange company

 

[Caeda]

Willin I completely forgot about the Game.com existing ! It would definitely have been interesting to see released a couple years later in time when the technology was better.

Echo FE:A's 3D was super nice, I enjoyed flipping it on time to time myself. Never got headaches from it, but I did get annoyed because of how specifically you had to line it up for the 3D to work.

ldave82 The PSP is most certainly a joy. I didn't actually have the chance to use one or interact with one until earlier this year, and even as a first impression a dozen years after release, it still felt quite new.

 

[Deleted member 14002]

Neo Geo Pocket Colour

As far as handhelds go the Analogue stick is really fascinating. It makes fighting games feel great, which was rare for a handheld at the time.

Click to shrink...

Came in here to post this. That stick was amazing, was fine to platform with too.

Wound up modding mine with a backlight and it was incredible at the time.

 

[2+2=5]

The current gen of handhelds imo, Switch and GPD Win, Switch because of its flexibility and for basically being the Vita i have always hoped for(a hybrid i mean), the GPD Win because it's the steamboy made real, i mean it's a real notebook with integrated controls, you can do whatever you want with it, not just gaming, and with a simple pendrive you can transfer games/data/whatever from/to other computers and continue doing what you were doing in front of the tv or wherever and whenever you want.

 

[Decarbia]

Neo Geo Pocket Colour

As far as handhelds go the Analogue stick is really fascinating. It makes fighting games feel great, which was rare for a handheld at the time.

Click to shrink...

It isn't an analog stick. It's a microswitch dpad, a scaled down version of the neo geo CD controller. I love that system.

But for me, the most interesting is the 2600. It's way before my time and it seems impossible to do anything on such nothing hardware but it has so many fun games

 

[Xenon]

I'd have to say the Xbox One X. Its a culmination of everything MS has done right and discarding most of the crap that didn't work Seeing what it evolved from is amazing. But I'd put the PowerVR tech of the Dreamcast in a close second. I always thought the concept of only rendering what could be seen was a very resourceful way of maximizing a GPU..

 

[JigglesBunny]

The Switch is still a mindblowing gamble that never should have worked half as well as it does.

 

[petran79]

FM Towns and Amiga CD32 expansion for Amiga 1200 computers.

Both could play computer and console games at the same time.

Predated PC and console parity by 2 decades

 

[Deleted member 15428]

Nintendo Switch, and I'm a fan of Sega's consoles.

 

[Deleted member 2620]

The Switch is currently a very nice execution of a console-portable hybrid and useful and appealing in ways I wouldn't have expected.

Conceptually, I'm very interested in the Oculus Santa Cruz. A completely wireless standalone VR headset with apparently solid positional tracking of head and hands sounds wonderful. It won't deliver the exact experiences that the Vive on a high-end PC can, but anything that can make roomscale VR (and the huge new gaming-related possibilities that come with it) more convenient is extremely worthwhile.

 

[Servbot24]

Wii is the most interesting. It opened up the potential for new gameplay in some pretty radical ways, while it was also a very interesting step for Nintendo as a company.