If You Could Choose One System

[Big Shoes]

Super Nintendo

[mrmessy]

I mean I even conceded the point by admitting Mrmessy was correct in calling me out.

I think that comment was missed due to outdated_gamers memoirs that directly followed...

Indeed. Pick one system, it said... OG pretty much listed them all! Although I stopped reading a couple of paragraphs in.

[Matt_B]

What about the person that chooses an Amstrad?

That person appreciates the paradoxical nature of a machine that can produce the definitive 8 bit version of Chase HQ, yet also poop out the worst version of Outrun ever produced.

Yeah, but it's worth remembering that only the good games are truly limited by the hardware; the bad games more tend to come down to the talent of the developers, or lack of it.

It's much the same with all those really bad Amiga ports of games that are better played on 8-bit machines. There's no technical reason for them to be that way; it's just down to the lottery of who got to make them and the amount of time and money they were given to do so.

[RodimusPrime]

What about the person that chooses an Amstrad?

That person appreciates the paradoxical nature of a machine that can produce the definitive 8 bit version of Chase HQ, yet also poop out the worst version of Outrun ever produced.

Yeah, but it's worth remembering that only the good games are truly limited by the hardware; the bad games more tend to come down to the talent of the developers, or lack of it.

It's much the same with all those really bad Amiga ports of games that are better played on 8-bit machines. There's no technical reason for them to be that way; it's just down to the lottery of who got to make them and the amount of time and money they were given to do so.

Fair point, and probably true.

But I would say that issues such as one fire button and constant disk swapping was a massive hurdle to overcome for certain genres.

[Treguard]

That person appreciates the paradoxical nature of a machine that can produce the definitive 8 bit version of Chase HQ, yet also poop out the worst version of Outrun ever produced.

Yeah, but it's worth remembering that only the good games are truly limited by the hardware; the bad games more tend to come down to the talent of the developers, or lack of it.

It's much the same with all those really bad Amiga ports of games that are better played on 8-bit machines. There's no technical reason for them to be that way; it's just down to the lottery of who got to make them and the amount of time and money they were given to do so.

Fair point, and probably true.

But I would say that issues such as one fire button and constant disk swapping was a massive hurdle to overcome for certain genres.

I don't know what you mean, I loved having to swap two disks and wait between bouts and having to contort my wrist painfully to perform a hadouken on Street Fighter II. It was way better than playing it with a joypad allowing you to perform the full range of moves easily and been able to do all that different quick medium hard punch/kick malarkey. wasn't jealous of the SNES version. Nope, not at all.

[RodimusPrime]

TBF I do like the Amiga as Stated before.

I think the ideal setup was megadrive/Snes + Amiga at the time.

I think its all down to personal preference and the type of games you prefer is going to influence the choice you make.

Believe it or not I do understand that people prefer different machines to me. just need to stop wading in when someone dares to say something is better than my preffered machine.

[Treguard]

TBF I do like the Amiga as Stated before.

I think the ideal setup was megadrive/Snes + Amiga at the time.

I think its all down to personal preference and the type of games you prefer is going to influence the choice you make.

Believe it or not I do understand that people prefer different machines to me. just need to stop wading in when someone dares to say something is better than my preffered machine.

Yeah I get that, if you were talking, say fighting games or shooters, there's no contest. Shadow Fighter against Super Street Fighter 2? Project X against R-Type 3? Only one winner there, and it doesn't have a keyboard.

[Analog]

TBF I do like the Amiga as Stated before.

I think the ideal setup was megadrive/Snes + Amiga at the time.

I think its all down to personal preference and the type of games you prefer is going to influence the choice you make.

Believe it or not I do understand that people prefer different machines to me. just need to stop wading in when someone dares to say something is better than my preffered machine.

but you have a point there because there is a distinction between "favourite" and "better".

imo even though outdated gamer listed the n64 for kids in retrospect I don't think it was the "better" console even in that market.

as for the original question personally I would have had a huge benefit for going with amiga with everything included because of what it offered for budding musicians on a budget, also the possibility of the internet and going online, plus the games library too. I think I remember being interested in an amiga back then.

[Sephiroth81]

I think the ideal setup was megadrive/Snes + Amiga at the time.

Yeah, I had the SNES/Amiga combo, and they are probably my top two machines of all time - a good era to have two such awesome machines on the market (and yea, the others that I didn't own were pretty solid as well)! Totally different experiences though, and both have plenty of depth in their own right for the majority of people to enjoy them.

[rocky1980]

Easy Amiga

[RodimusPrime]

TBF I do like the Amiga as Stated before.

I think the ideal setup was megadrive/Snes + Amiga at the time.

I think its all down to personal preference and the type of games you prefer is going to influence the choice you make.

Believe it or not I do understand that people prefer different machines to me. just need to stop wading in when someone dares to say something is better than my preffered machine.

but you have a point there because there is a distinction between "favourite" and "better".

imo even though outdated gamer listed the n64 for kids in retrospect I don't think it was the "better" console even in that market.

as for the original question personally I would have had a huge benefit for going with amiga with everything included because of what it offered for budding musicians on a budget, also the possibility of the internet and going online, plus the games library too. I think I remember being interested in an amiga back then.

Therein lies the problem. when someone says better, you automatically look at it through your eyes.

I prefer shooters, and fighters etc, so when someone says the Amiga is better than the Snes, those are my immediate go to games to compare. I guess the person saying it may be looking at it in terms of music programmes, point and clicks, and strategy games. in that instance then it makes sense to say the amiga is better.

[Matt_B]

I don't know what you mean, I loved having to swap two disks and wait between bouts and having to contort my wrist painfully to perform a hadouken on Street Fighter II. It was way better than playing it with a joypad allowing you to perform the full range of moves easily and been able to do all that different quick medium hard punch/kick malarkey. wasn't jealous of the SNES version. Nope, not at all.

I think you're being a little unfair to the Amiga there. At the end of the day it was a computer designed in 1985 - when floppy capacity and having a single button stick wasn't much of an issue - and the mere fact that it was able to compete at all with a console designed five years later speaks volumes about it being ahead of its time. I don't recall the SNES getting a lot of stellar ports of bleeding edge games in 1997 for comparison.

Anyway, my point was really about ports of games from systems contemporary to the Amiga at launch, like the C64, Amstrad and Spectrum. There aren't too many of them that require a lot of disk swapping or where the controller is totally inadequate, at least to my knowledge.

[mrmessy]

Some of the best games on the Amiga were the ones which DID involve lots of disk swapping. I'm thinking Secret of Monkey Island and Secret of Monkey Island 2. Wasn't that on 11 disks or something? Great game! I didn't mind the disks too much because I had two disk drives, which helped a LOT. Lucky me!

[RodimusPrime]

Some of the best games on the Amiga were the ones which DID involve lots of disk swapping. I'm thinking Secret of Monkey Island and Secret of Monkey Island 2. Wasn't that on 11 disks or something? Great game! I didn't mind the disks too much because I had two disk drives, which helped a LOT. Lucky me!

I think the issue is more with games like Streeftfighter and mortal kombat where you had to swap several discs for every fight and every time you choose a new character.

Moneky island was not to bad, because the story flowed from disc to disc and you only had to really swap when you had finished with one disc and then on to the next.

[outdated_gamer]

Indeed. Pick one system, it said... OG pretty much listed them all! Although I stopped reading a couple of paragraphs in.

I made a shortened "TLDR" version for those who don't want to read thru it all...

I think if we have to narrow it down to just one system, it must be contextualized in terms of eras and age, which my post reflects. Although I have no idea what I'd actually go for during a certain time and age, as our minds are unpredictable, so this is more of a "what I think these days" rather than "what I would actually do back then".

If I had to that is, truth is, looking back, the 8bit home computers have not aged well and are just not that fun to play on any more.

That may be true of the Spectrum and the Amstrad but it most certainly isn't of the C64. The C64 was holding its own with the Amiga well into the 90s and, in many cases, the C64 versions of games are better than those on the Amiga. If I had to pick one system, the C64 would be a very strong contender because of the vast library of games, the extent to which developers were able to push the system (no system fulfilled its potential more than the C64) and the overall quality of the hardware (I regard the C64 as one of the best designed systems ever - with the exception of the power supply which can be remedied).

I have to agree here, the C=64 often had the best versions of multi-format games for some reason. Despite my praise of the Amiga and it's better capabilities, several multi-format games often felt the best on the C=64. It seems it was what many devs targeted as the "main" platform and then made the enhanced ports for the 16-bit systems. And that iconic C=64 sound which is often associated with 80s gaming in general.