which system to get for my brother on christmas

[mas]

I want to get my older brother a console and a few games for christmas. I don't know which one to choose. He is like me. Arcade hit and run, adventure, sports and fighting, No rpg's. He grew up with me going to arcades and playing all the systems I mentioned for the poll.
My sister in law says he wants to get one so I'd figure I would get one for him. Since he lives in a town with really no where to go to pick up any retro games he has to rely on ebay. He also is like the most of us, little money, kids, house, bills etc.
I thought I would ask you guys what to get for my brother. I'm going to spend about 75.00 or so on him. He would go for any of the three but I want to get him going for a while on a system and games.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Genesis does!

[SteveyMajors]

I'd go with the Genesis. $75 could take you a long way.

[hashiriya1]

Blast Processing is the gift that keeps on giving.

[RetroVision]

Id say Genesis or SNES...but SNES wont get as far as the Genesis with 70$ (as the console will usually cost you 30-45$....so id have to lean to Genesis...you could find a Genesis v2 for 10$ with cables and controller. In my opinion I like the SNES slightly better, but they are very close overall.

[Cronozilla]

The fact that the first genre you said he likes is Arcade games ... you should have already bought a Genesis. SNES just can't compare in the Arcade space. Outside of Capcom support, Genesis just had all of them. (Also, Sega games are inherently more arcade like in design)

And like everyone else has pointed out, Genesis is way cheaper.
I've found systems with wireless controllers and complete games before for $10-$15.

[BurningDoom]

Genesis is cheaper. But do want to get the cheaper gift? Or the better gift? I'm definetly of the opinion that while Genesis is a fantastic system that any retro-gamer should own, the SNES is one of the very few systems that are better than the Genesis. The game library of the SNES has some of the greatest games of all-time.

If it were me, I'd get the SNES along with Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, and Super Street Fighter II.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Genesis is cheaper. But do want to get the cheaper gift? Or the better gift? I'm definetly of the opinion that while Genesis is a fantastic system that any retro-gamer should own, the SNES is one of the very few systems that are better than the Genesis. The game library of the SNES has some of the greatest games of all-time.

If it were me, I'd get the SNES along with Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, and Super Street Fighter II.

The thing is, he said his friend likes arcadey games but not RPGs that much. RPGs are a big part of the SNES library while the Genesis got much more arcade goodness, especially since SEGA was big on the arcade scene then.

[Damm64]

Arcade games... Go the SEGA route my friend.

Genesis is cheaper. But do want to get the cheaper gift? Or the better gift? I'm definetly of the opinion that while Genesis is a fantastic system that any retro-gamer should own, the SNES is one of the very few systems that are better than the Genesis. The game library of the SNES has some of the greatest games of all-time.

If it were me, I'd get the SNES along with Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, and Super Street Fighter II.

The "better" gift will depent of the taste of the person and his/her preferences, and for what mas said looks like the genesis suits his brothers tastes better.

[AppleQueso]

Genesis absolutely. $75 could stretch pretty far for it.

It's worth noting though that the NES is definitely no slouch in the "arcade-style games" department either.