I’d have to go with the wood grain Atari 2600, I’m a sucker for 70’s designed electronics.
Console: Sega Dreamcast
PC: Any IBM beige box from the 90s
Game Boy Advance. Actually all 3 variants (GBA, SP & Micro) are beautiful consoles.
I love how the SP looks. The original feels better in the hand but the clamshell looks so good and it feels great to open and close.
I’m tempted to get a foldable as my next phone because I miss that design.
This but the mark III with the FM sound adapter
I never understood the choice to put a flowchart on the front of this one. 😆
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.
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
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.
I never liked the side-by-side Mega CD.
The stacked one looked better. Like an old hifi system.
The 2600 depicted in the article thumbnail, was absolutely a beauty in its native environment of the late 1970’s:
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.
The Dreamcast is up there too imo!
I ended up getting a Japanese Model 1 years ago, but I always wanted the Model 2.
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.”
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!
I got my start with atari 2600 but I think the GameCube was the best looking in both form and function. Best looking computer is an IBM Aptiva S
How many consoles look like toilets?
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.
Is PS Vita a retro console? If so that.
I’ve still got mine, and it still works great! I sold my PSP to get a used one about a month from launch, and I’ve kept it ever since. It’s a great console, if only there were more games for it.
I modded mine. Once modded it can emulate most gba, gbc, psp or ps1 games (and more). The full extended library is pretty big once emulation comes into play.
I’ve seen people doing that, I should look into doing it sometime. I mostly use the Steam Deck for handheld emulation, but it can’t hurt to have more options!
I’d say PSP is, but Vita isn’t. DS is, but 3DS isn’t.
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.
