I’d have to go with the wood grain Atari 2600, I’m a sucker for 70’s designed electronics.
Technically neither a console nor a PC (in the IBM-compatible sense), but the Commodore PET has a certain kind of 70s futurism about it.
Note the integrated tape deck for all your storage needs.
The keyboard pictured, while interesting looking, is a complete POS. Later PETs had a more usable keyboard with a better layout.
Edit: I don’t think that red button at the bottom right is stock. It’s almost certainly a hardware reset button, which on the Commodore machines is typically done by shorting a couple pins on a user expansion port.
I like the woodgrain look, but I don’t think the Atari 2600 is a very good example of it. Lots of audio equipment from the time does it better. Especially when combined with brushed aluminum or stainless steel.
Purple GameCubes are retro now, so I’ll go with that as my favorite.
while not necessarily the prettiest console by any means but i always thought the Og xbox home menu went way harder than it needed to, now that’s presentation!
They said retro, the Xbox can’t be retro, its only been around for- oh. Oh no.
Vectrex, hands-down.
It just looks so sleek. For me, it was the future of gaming.
Nintendo’s GameCube. It’s cubical. Cubical!
It came with a beat carry handle and drug-hiding compartments!
PC Engine. Not only does it look like a prop from the set of TNG, but it is delightfully tiny. The cartridges are little cards that you slot in the front. There is literally nothing bad about a PC Engine. (Except for maybe that it’s only got one controller port)
+1.
Also it can be turned into a coolest spaceship, with its CDRom attachment, a very first in 1988!
Also the HuCard format for its games is unbeatable!
Speaking of spaceships…
Not the most practical PC engine model, because it lacked the extra oomph of the SuperGrafx and you couldn’t attach a CD-ROM² - but just look at it
The PC Engine/Turbagragix 16 also had a handheld (PC Engine GT/TurboExpress) that was way ahead of its time. It had the same power as the home console, was color, had a backlit display, and even had a TV tuner attachment. And it was released in 1990. The Sega Nomad basically copied these features in 1995, and Nintendo didn’t have a colored, backlit handheld until 1998.
I loved mine.
Humm, for PCs I’d have to say iMac
For game consoles it’s a hard debate between the GameBoy Pocket or the GameBoy Micro. One is the essence of a GameBoy shrunken down to a power efficent and usable design. While the other is the smallest you can make a console while still having it usable.
I still have that GBA micro laying around somewhere. An ex GF stole my reloadable cartridge though. :(
Mine has a black face plate.
Apparently, the Micro was the last Game Boy product that Nintendo made.
Very elegant.
I would say the cutoff is Game Boy Advance SP and Micro is a poseur, because Micro can’t play original Game Boy or Color games. If one is counting GBA, then the DS and DS Lite could still play those.
Edit: Get a flash cart and you can unofficially play old GB on any GBA-compatible using Goomba Color. Micro is awesome at what it does, I just hate that it has the Game Boy name yet can’t play GB games and had yet another different link cable and charging port because Nintendo!
The Sega Saturn, especially the Japan version:
Although I never owned this model myself, I recently picked up an 8bitdo replica (M30 bluetooth) of the Japan controller and it looks and feels great, although not strictly a direct copy of the original.
I ended up getting a Japanese Model 1 years ago, but I always wanted the Model 2.
The Dreamcast is up there too imo!
Wow
Remember having one of these at school in the late '70s / early '80s
OH MY GOD! I had one of those! I haven’t seen a picture of one since.
The keyboard was so awful. I don’t remember getting it as a birthday or other gift so it must have been a hand me down from a family friend or something.
Membrane keyboards are really the worst. I completely understand wanting to cost-cut to get units into schools and into the hands of kids, but that’s too much. It’s like someone saw a speak-and-spell and said “that’s the ticket.”
Intelligang represent!
Intellevision may not have the best controller design out there, but the versatility with the different card inserts made playing games easier when I was a kid. Basically a guide in the palm of your hands for each game you owned. Losing them did blow however.
BAM THERE IT IS !!!
We had both this one and the 2nd gen gray one! Plus the voice synthesizer addon. My dad would replace the touch pad inserts so we didn’t have to buy new controllers.
Amazing console way ahead of it’s time.
Why does there have to be just one? So many consoles are awesomely designed and reflect their eras well. I’m partial to colecovision and the Intellivision II. The redesign of the intellivision had an entire suite of peripherals to match the new design, including a musical keyboard.
I never liked the side-by-side Mega CD.
The stacked one looked better. Like an old hifi system.
Needs a Sonic 3 cartridge plugged into a Sonic & Knuckles cartridge plugged into the 32X plugged into the Genesis to get the full Sega experience.
Ask and you shall receive fellow lover of lock on technology ™️
Unfortunately I don’t have a genesis Game Genie or Action Replay to really spice it up
I can never decide on if the Tower of Power is amazing or a cancerous growth.
It can be two things
If I could reach through my phone screen, I’d definitely let you borrow my game genie just to complete that lock on power tower.
And the pièce de résistance, a Game Genie.
Japan had some killer PC designs in the 80’s and 90’s. But I’d say my favorite is a toss up between the X68000 and the Sony MSX 2
For consoles, I still think the Sega Genesis Model 1 is a masterclass in visual design.
The MSX design space was such an exciting place.
For anyone curious about the above, it’s like this:Imagine Nintendo said “instead of manufacturing the Switch 2, we released the specs and invited everyone else to build their own. You’re welcome to buy the Xbox Switch 2, the Sony PlaySwitch 2, the Philips Switch 2-i, the Sega Switch 2 & Knuckles, or the TRSwitch80 2. They’re all guaranteed to be compatible with our software lineup.” and then like, that actually happened.
Sounds similar to the 3DO’s situation!
That MSX 2 is sick.
While I definitely agree the overall best design goes to the Atari 2600, this comes in close second for me:
This bad boy (or girl, rather) is the Casio Loopy. Yes, Casio, the company primarily known for making wristwatches. This console was only released in Japan, and when it launched it had a target demographic of girls and young women. The console came with a built-in sticker printer, and the games were woman-targeted games in genres like romance, fashion, and life simulation (like Animal Crossing). Only 10 games were ever made for the Loopy, by the way. Its biggest failure and reason for not selling well was being a console that had games that looked like the SNES but having to directly compete with the PS1 and N64, as well as the replaceable sticker cartridges being very expensive.
Now, I am a man, and I am clearly not a part of the target demographic of this console. The games are entirely uninteresting to me, except maybe the Animal Crossing-like game “I Want A Room In Loopy Town.” But something about the curved shape of the console and its cool purple hue speak to me. The black cover for the sticker ejection port has me imagining a newer version playing an animated logo on that part if a small screen was behind it. The absurdly massive Eject button just looks like it gives the most satisfying “kerchunk” when you press it to eject a cartridge.
In third place I’d have to give a shout out to the Apple iMac G3, even though I really dislike Apple products and its neither a game console.or made for gaming in general, something about the white and bold color combo just looks really cool. The mouse was really bad though. Got a bit of that Frutiger Aero look.
iMac G3?
More like… eMachine eOne!
