If You Could Choose One System

[HalcyonDaze00]

Amiga - far better games than any of the consoles at the time

[Sephiroth81]

SNES. I think its a great console from any way you look at it, with a huge varied selection of games, but probably also helped it was my first home console and was in my "formative years"!

[PostieDoc]

I'll choose the Amiga, it was just a great all-rounder. SWOS, Turrican 2, Rainbow Islands, Midwinter, Lotus games, Super Cars 2, Hired Guns, Lemmings, Worms, Flashback, Canon Fodder, Speedball 2, R-Type 2 - whats not to love?
Ok, it isn't the best machine for fighting games or platformers (although there are some fun platformers on it) but other than that it is a great computer.

You should have made this thread a poll.

[The Hardest of All Freds]

PC - OBVS

[mrmessy]

Without having to think about it...
And by a country mile...
Hands down, without a shadow of a doubt...
etc.

Amiga. No, Spectrum! Damn, forgot about the SNES.

Amiga then. Deffo.

[markopoloman]

Tough choice between the C64, Amiga and PC

So putting my sensible head on...

The PC.

Can emulate C64 and Amiga

[Treguard]

Amiga - far better games than any of the consoles at the time

This is the correct answer.

[RodimusPrime]

Amiga - far better games than any of the consoles at the time

This is the correct answer.

Not really comparable, but whatever helps you validate your opinions and helps you sleep at night.

[fredghostmaster]

Spectrum for me, so much variety of games to choose from.

[mrmessy]

Amiga - far better games than any of the consoles at the time

This is the correct answer.

Not really comparable, but whatever helps you validate your opinions and helps you sleep at night.

Sez the bloke who started all those largely non-comparable console battle threads!

...which I quite enjoyed. Keep up the good work. Glad to have you onboard.

[RodimusPrime]

This is the correct answer.

Not really comparable, but whatever helps you validate your opinions and helps you sleep at night.

Sez the bloke who started all those largely non-comparable console battle threads!

...which I quite enjoyed. Keep up the good work. Glad to have you onboard.

Touche, and very good point. Well played.

Snes is still better than amiga though.

[outdated_gamer]

Depends which era and what age tbh. It would probably go a bit like this:

late 70s:

Kid - Atari VCS (affordable for parents, big collection of games, Atari being a big name back then)
Teen - Atari 400/800 (better graphics, computing capabilities)
Adult - Apple II (best for business, good software support)

Early 80s:

Kid - ColecoVision (nice console with good Arcade ports and Atari VCS compatability)
Teen - Commodore 64 (large collection of games and a good starting point for programming)
Adult - IBM PC XT (best for business, upgradable platform)

Late 80s:

Kid - NES (all the cool kids had one, the best games, affordable)
Teen - Amiga 500 (big step up from the 8-bit computers, large software collection and creativity potential)
Adult - Amiga 2000 (this would be a close call but I do think the Amiga dominated the IBM PC, Apple Mac and Atari ST in the late 80s)

Early 90s:

Kid - SNES (best main-stream console, outside of some missing Sega, NEC and SNK exclusives, it had the best library of games and was affordable, although the games did cost quite a lot)
Teen - SNES or Amiga 500 (unfortunately, the DOS PC was too expensive for the average teen back then and Amiga was dying out so it was a bit of a "wait and see" situation here)
Adult - DOS PC (Amiga was on the way out, it made more sense to invest in a more expensive but more long-sighted computer platform)

Late 90s:

Kid - N64 (the PSX had undoubtly more games and had the option for easy piracy, which was a hardware seller in less developed countries, but the N64 had more kid-friendly games, some of which of very high quality, the downside were the expensive games with limited storage space)
Teen - PSX or PC (PSX was the most main-stream console system out there that catered directly to teens and younger adults, it only missed a few Sega and Nintendo exclusives, but the real beast in that period was the PC with it's 3D accelerators that gave it the edge over consoles and of course it was useful for things outside gaming too)
Adult - Windows PC (Amiga was basically dead by then, Atari dropped out of the home computer race too, this left only the MS Windows PC and Apple OS Mac to compete on the market where the Mac was relegated to a small niche of graphics designers and the Windows PC was dominating the business and home computing scene)

Early 2000s:

Kid - GameCube (with the Sega Dreamcast dying out too soon, the GameCube was the only really cost-effective gaming system with a library of games that was really catered to younger audiences)
Teen - PS2 or PC (PS2 was the obvious choice for a teen in these times, the largest library of games and longest lasting support, but the PC offered a lot more again, both, graphically and computing-wise)
Adult - PC (maybe at this point laptops started to become a more feasible option, but those who needed lots of compute power still needed a desktop or a stationary workstation and this rings true for modern times too)

Late 2000s:

Kid - Wii (fun for the whole family, the Wii was a mega hit, despite "hardcore gamers" hating on it)
Teen - Xbox 360 or PC (the 360 was the most appealing console for the average teen in those times, good support and the best versions of multi-plats, although it missed some Sony and Nintendo exclusives, while the PC was standard choice for those wanting more)
Adult - PC (during this time we started seeing some shift towards the more portable devices, but for serious business and compute uses the PC stayed the main choice)

Early 2010s:

Kid - Wii U (although it failed to attract a larger mass of people, it still was the most kid-friendy system on the market and got a plethora of nice games for those parents who didn't want their kid to play violent games like GTA, COD and Mortal Kombat)
Teen - PS4 or PC (PS4, being the most powerful console, has the best versions of console multi-plats in addition to some solid exclusives, while the PC has it all, including many Xbox One titles)
Adult - PC (much as above, things didn't change a lot although we have seen a decline of sales of pre-built desktops, but for gamers, 3D designers and programmers the mass of power the platform offers is still very desirable)


TLDR: the PC of course, it runs almost all the stuff and then some. Although I freeley admit that Amiga was the superior platform in the 80s.

[necronom]

Depending on the years it would be the C64 or from '87 it would be the Amiga.

[Treguard]

Not really comparable, but whatever helps you validate your opinions and helps you sleep at night.

Sez the bloke who started all those largely non-comparable console battle threads!

...which I quite enjoyed. Keep up the good work. Glad to have you onboard.

Touche, and very good point. Well played.

Snes is still better than amiga though.

Thats your opinion, don't let the fact other people gave other ones stop you sleeping at night, ok?

[RodimusPrime]

Don't worry about it.

I will still attempt to educate the world, But I long ago accepted the fact that some people like to live in ignorance and wrap it round them like a comfort blanket.

far be it for me to shatter these fragile illusions.