Systems Really worth having.

[BoneSnapDeez]

In addition, the Lemon64 Commodore 64 forums have 10335 registered users, so I guess people should start recommending the Commodore 64 as an essential console too.

I don't have a problem with this.

[Luke]

first videogame system I ever played was 2600. it was my dads and I would drool when he busted it out.

Same here. Him passing the system to me was like when my Grandfather passed on his wedding ring. As a kid I would watch in amazement as he played dozens of levels of Missile Command, and if there was and ending to the game, he would have reached it.

One of the best homebrews ever made, easily.

Thanks.

[ninjainspandex]

I personally would recommend both the Saturn and the N64. Both have very unique game libraries and emulation of those systems are very glitchy and not at all near perfect. the rest you could just emulate easily and focus all your money on collecting for just those two systems.

[GirlGamer55]

Here's my two cents...if that's worth anything to you.

Maybe it's because I grew up playing on the N64 so I have fond memories of it, but I don't think it deserves whatever hate some people have for it. It's not "rare" and still somewhat cheap. It has a library of great games (depends on what type of games your into) and it's easy to use.

Other then that I would say get a GameCube and PS2. Skip the Wii, because while it can play GC games, it's way more then a GameCube and personally I think it's one of the worst Nintendo consoles ever made. My mom bought one a while back at a pawn shop, played with it like 5 times and forgot about it, and I can't say I blame her. Since i'm the gamer in the family it got passed to me, not that I even touch the damned thing...but when I have played it I was always disappointed, more so because I grew up with Nintendo's great consoles (NES, SNES, N64). Then again maybe it's because i'm old school and still rock the old consoles of my childhood.

As per the PS2, I might have grown up a Nintendo girl but as soon as the PS1 came out...I was hooked. The PS2 is by far one of my top consoles. The amount of great games it has is nearly endless, and it's a fun console all around. As an added bonus...it can be a dvd player!

tl;dr:

N64
GameCube
Playstation 2

[Hazerd]

I really cant stand anything before the NES, i grew up with the Gameboy, SNES, and N64 mainly.

But the 2600 is a legend in retro gaming for sure, but it doesnt appeal much to me

[muhanad]

Here's my two cents...if that's worth anything to you.

Maybe it's because I grew up playing on the N64 so I have fond memories of it, but I don't think it deserves whatever hate some people have for it. It's not "rare" and still somewhat cheap. It has a library of great games (depends on what type of games your into) and it's easy to use.

Yeah but most good games are above the $15 mark, which sucks. Cause people who are just into the "trend" of retro gaming usually turn to the N64 first. But yeah, I feel like the N64 gets thrown under the bus by alot of retro gamers, when it actually had a lot of classics.

[Menegrothx]

Sure you can play those 2600/Intellivision/Colecovision/Vic-20&Early C64/Spectrum/MSX games for points and they can be addicting, but they simply don't have the kind of depth that the NES era/late 1980s 8-bit gaming brought with it. Mega Man (or Castlevania/Metroid, even Super Mario Brothers 3) and Ultima 4/5 (or Phantasy Star/Wasteland) are prime examples of this. Would you rate a simple 2600 arcade game as one of your all time favorite games amongst 16-bit, 32-bit, PS2-era and modern games? Not likely. But there's so much depth and thought put into best of 8-bit games like Mega Man 2 and Ultima 5 that you could easily compare them with modern games and rank them as your favorite games.

Stick with the only classics... Vectrex, Amiga, Pippen, Jaguar, and Virtual Boy... preferably with CD add on where applicable.

How the hell can you compare Amiga to platforms that have game libraries of less than 30 (with the exception of Jaguar)?

If you're going to buy a console, it doesn't any sense to buy anything other than PS2 first. None. You can't argue against the added game library of PS1 and PS2, it's impossible. Unless you can get your hands on a PS3 that plays PS2 games.

SNES+Gameboy addon
NES
Genesis+Master System addon+Sega CD&32X
Colecovision with Atari 2600 addon or Atari 7800 (plays 2600 games)
Wii is backwards compatibile with Gamecube and Xbox 360 is backwards compatibile with Xbox (and PS3 is backwards compatibile with PS1 and in rare cases PS2)

These have the largest game libraries

Yeah to me N64 was a sweet Nintendo system with some really fun games.

Golden Eye? Hello?

and Ocarina of Time is still my favorite Zelda installment.

When you consider that PC got System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Half Life, Quake 1-3, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Counter Strike and Day of Defeat (among others) during the same time perioid, the N64 combo of Golden Eye, Turok and Perfect Dark looks pitiful in comparison. And Golden Eye is only a game that was good for it's time. If it wasn't on N64, there wouldn't be much point getting excited over it.

And why any one would mention Ocarina of Time when the same console has Majora's Mask is beyond comprehension.

Everything Atari rules. I own the 2600, 5200, 7800, and Lynx and adore all of them. Even the 5200 with it's crappy controllers.

Stop posting and go buy yourself a ST Them dungeon crawlers&RPGs man. And SHMUPs and what not, but I know since you're so into RPGs, you need a ST for Dungeon Master alone.

[Gamerforlife]

The SNES and PS2 are the best systems ever in my opinion just in practical terms with their huge, diverse libraries. Many of those games still hold up too

On the other hand, if you wanted some street cred with the hardcore gamer I'd say get a Saturn and a Dreamcast. A Saturn collection is quite an impressive thing, with quite a few "holy grail" games and tons of awesome imports.

If you really want to impress, I'd say get a Neo Geo with a couple of its high priced games. Keith Apicary would approve

For pure nostalgia, nothing beats the 16-bit era for me, which means having a Super Nintendo AND a Genesis.

So I guess to sum it all up, must haves:

SNES
Neo Geo
Genesis
Saturn
Dreamcast
PS2

You should probably get a Nintendo hand held too, tons of great games there with pretty much any one you choose and handheld gaming has become such a big part of Nintendo's history. Any other consoles are strictly optional in my opinion.

[Menegrothx]

On the other hand, if you wanted some street cred with the hardcore gamer I'd say get a Saturn and a Dreamcast. A Saturn collection is quite an impressive thing, with quite a few "holy grail" games and tons of awesome imports.

Dreamcast really hasn't got all that much of those hardcore games (except the 2D fighters, which are plentiful though), I think Saturn is better there. The scale might tip on Dreamcast's favors when it comes to fighters, but Saturn has the SHMUPs.
Dreamcast=Experimental and unique games
Saturn=Regular games that have been polished to perfection

If you really want to impress, I'd say get a Neo Geo with a couple of its high priced games.

How on earth can you compare Neo Geo to to PS2/SNES/Gen/NES. It's by no strecth in any way a must have console with a large and diverse game library. It has a fairly small library of games, too large amount of it's library consists of sequels to fighting games (if you have the best in the series, there's not much point in owning all the 3-6 others games if you aim for a diverse, high quality collection rather than just owning every game ever released for the system) and many genres aren't represented at all in it's library.

When it comes to having a large and diverse game library (with a lot of high quality titles), it goes like this
1. PS2
2. SNES, Genesis, NES
3. Saturn, Dreamcast
PS1 stands somewhere between 2 and 3, Saturn beats PS1 in the genres it excels at (2D) but overall PS1 has more variety, unique one of a kind games and a much larger library of games.

[Andavive]

All the systems with games lol

Really just go slow and enjoy the games, before you get to the point of having "to much to play but no motivation".