Mine would probably be the N64 days. I played that system every day, it was so awsome, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Banjo, Mario64, Smash bros, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Star Fox, Body Harvest, Quest64, Harvest Moon, Turok 1 and 2, Cruis' n USA, Conker, and others. Man that was a good system.


Well anyway whats your favorite gen?

16-bit, simply because that was the golden age of arcade gaming.

Now this is a good thread! And it is also a VERY difficult question for me to answer. But I will try.

I think that the 8-bit days are probably overall my favorite simply because that' s when I first got seriously into videogames and there were lots of movers and shakers in the industry, namely in the form of arcade games. I would scan each and every store ad found in the Sunday paper looking for Sega Master System stuff. I would call 1-800-USA-SEGA at least once a week to find out the latest info on new upcoming games. I would buy games simply because I did not have them yet. Leading into the Genesis era was also a great time. I swear a game counselor at Sega was going to ask me out. We were on the phone a lot together, usually for 45 minute sessions. All I cared about was Sega, but she started asking other oddball non-videogame questions. When it was finally revealed that I was 16 years old, she seemed a bit disappointed and said that I sounded older. I bet I was still too much man for her, though. :)

The Genesis days were really cool, but I got pissed at how stupid Sega of America was becoming. Why did they change game names when they came over from Japan (Thunder Force 4 became the misspelled Lightening Force) and why did they insist on changing the box artwork?

I really loved the Saturn days due to imports from Japan alone. Sega of America became even more stupid during this time and seemed to bring over only bad games for the most part and sold them in GIANT Sega CD-sized boxes, all with the worst artwork attainable. But the Japanese system has the 4MB RAM cart, tons of great fighting games, a better controller (which was eventually released in the US), better advertising, and a much wider selection overall.

The Dreamcast era was kind of noneventful for me, with the exception of a few earth-shattering games like Soul Calibur, Daytona USA, Shenmue 1 and 2. I think those were the only 4 games made for the Dreamcast. If there were others, they surely didn' t hold up to these 4.

The current generation isn' t as fun without Sega. The Xbox has way too many games programmed by US and EU companies, which usually equals boredom (drawn out boredom) in the form of an individual running around with a gun in either GTA form or FPS form. The Gamecube has a half dozen fantastic games, and the PS2 has lots of great games from Japan, but just seems disappointing because, umm, I dunno. It' s just not as fun without Sega.

I would call 1-800-USA-SEGA at least once a week to find out the latest info on new upcoming games.

Same here, LOL.. That number was imbedded in my skull. I spent more time talking to Sega game counselor' s than my own family, lol.. During the Master System era I' d call Sega pretty often and have em send me tips, tricks, and/or codes to games. I was building up a nice stockpile of tip sheets. Even had them send duplicates since I just loved receiving stuff from Sega!

The 16-bit age. Because it was the age of my awakening.

I had the most fun in the PSX/Dreamcast days. Although this generation is a close second because of Xbox Live.

I loved the Genesis/SNES generation because I could get regular nintendo for cheap.

I have two favorites:

1. Genesis vs Super Nintendo: I liked this generation because of the schism that divided Nintendo gamers and Sega gamers, it was the first time that Sega used brilliant marketing (ie: ' We do what Nintendon' t' ), and it was the first time when Sonic the Hedgehog attempted to challenge our dear Mario. Plus, they were such titans, on equal footing, and it was just amazing to see what came next. Of course, the sales numbers speak for themselves: SNES: 49 Mil; GEN: 32 Mil.

2. Nintendo 64 vs Playstation: Although there wasn' t as much of an equal footing as there was in the 16 bit wars, Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64 were just destined to be rivals. It was this time when people were shocked to see that Nintendo isn' t the titan it used to be, and it was dethroned by a scrappy up and comer, as well as a former Nintendo partner. Sony, the rookie, managed to trounce Nintendo, the grandfather of the industry, and because of this era, Nintendo never managed to regain it' s lost market share.
Sales numbers: PS1: 102 Mil; N64: 29 Mil.

I don' t know why I put up the sales numbers, but it' s just interesting. Actually, if you look at the SNES and Genesis sales numbers, they aren' t exactly on an ' even foot' , despite the fact that they had a 50/50 share of the market by 1993, but it was a little game called Donkey Kong Country that made SNES skyrocket in sales, beating Genesis by almost 20 million copies.

Im the type of person who likes the new and most advanced. Altho some what young I started gaming back on the Atari. With each emerging generation came a new favorite. So I currently like this one. But that' ll keep changing.

I loved the Super Nintendo; however, I love my Xbox more and I know I' m going to love my Xbox 360 even more than that

I really started getting into gaming during the first Nintendo, and PC games of that age. The first video game I ever played was one of those handheld football games that just have small lines representing players.

I think my favorite generation was when the Dreamcast launched. I don' t really know what generation you would put this in. I think that had the biggest leap in graphics of any game system. I remember seeing sonic adventure 1 at best buy and it just blew my mind how amazing they were. The DC had so many technically amazing games and tons of classics that I still play today. And the DC launched 9/9/99 an awesome time to launch, which was also on my birthday. Along with all the awesome games the DC also introduced the first decent online console multiplayer. I played tons of games online rarely having lag, and this was with 56k. Also it browsed the internet faster than my 266mhz PC at the time.

Another one of my favorite times is a short while after the xbox 1 launched. I met a ton of people while having Halo 1 LANs. I became friends with people from other towns and they introduced me to people from other towns, and I just ended up meeting a ton of people. People treated me like I was a proffessional sports player because I was so l337.

So It is kind of hard to say what my favorite is, unless you consider xbox and DC in the same generation.
DC and PS2 were in the same gen. I guess PS2 and Xbox were in the same gen, but were DC and Xbox in the same gen?

Of course, the sales numbers speak for themselves: SNES: 49 Mil; GEN: 32 Mil.

Sega stopped selling the Genesis when the Saturn came out, nearly 2 years before Nintendo stopped selling the SNES. Stupid decision by Sega. There was a substantial period of time when Sega was actually beating Nintendo significantly.

That' s true. By September 1993, Sega Genesis sold 28 million units, and the SNES sold 20 million units. What made Sega outsell Nintendo that time? Two things; Sonic, and Sega' s brutally aggressive marketing.

mine would be when i got the original playstation.it was great playing all night that my eyes turn red.the first time i got scared was with resident evil.it was great.also playing tekken.man the playstation era was my greatest time

If you ask me a great system with bad memories (overall) would probably ruin the system' s experience for you. But an alright system with great memories would probably be your favorite, am I right? I don' t mean the system itself but the game experiences, that' s what I mean and thanks for answering my question.

I just wanted to see what people' s thoughts are.

In answer to MikeK:

Well, this is a very subjective thread so people' s preferences are bound to be coloured by their experiences at the time.

My favourite era was the reign of the 8-bit home computer in Europe. There were three main " adversaries" : The Sinclair Spectrum 48/128, the Commodore 64/128 and the Amstrad 464/6128. Even though technology was still in it' s infancy (you had to type a command in BASIC to start the loading procedure and people were buying games recorded on audio tapes - floppy disks appeared later), it was a time when there were no dominant/commercial genres, and oddball games such as " Jet Set Willy" , " IK+" , " Wizball" , " Paradroid" , " Quedex" and " Trailblazer" actually held their own sales-wise against coin-op conversions and licensed games. Just think, at the time, no-one in Europe actually cared about the NES and the Master System (which were made available much later). It was as if there were two different worlds, not just two different markets.

my favorite would probably be the xbox or n64. n64 had so many cool games like banjo kazoie, james bond, killer instinct,ect. those games had good replay value. and of course the xbox because its games looked so gooooooooood. lol

I hated this generation. PS2 and Xbox were basically clones and the gamecube sucked. Uggh...

N64/PS/Saturn was very interesting, because for the four years of it' s lifespan, I was in shock by Nintendo' s immediate.... uh... suckiness. Man, Sony just phoughed through it, didn' t it? And that Saturn just plain sucked.

I like the SNES/Genesis era because it was so amazing how even though Sega had a two year headstart, had incredible marketing campaigns, and had Sonic; that still couldn' t break Mario and the gang. Now that' s something.

The NES/Master System/5200 was boring because Nintendo just slaughtered them at a 10 to 1 ratio. Sigh.... but good for them.

Next gen will be amazing because it seems like Nintendo and the big two are all fighting for the future of gaming: innovation or multimedia fusing, affordability or ground-breaking technology... it' s gonna be one great console cycle. I just don' t know which will end up on top between the three: Microsoft' s marketing first, and they' re dead serious about the market, Sony is currently the market king, and may have the best technology, while Nintendo making something so Revolutionary it' s hoping it' ll become an industry standard.. Interesting.

And that Saturn just plain sucked.

Everywhere else except for Japan. If you relied only on domestic releases in the U.S. and Europe then the Saturn was pretty lackluster, but if you imported then the Saturn was a gold mine of a console as there was TONS of good stuff released in Japan. It even outdid the N64 over there!

I like the SNES/Genesis era because it was so amazing how even though Sega had a two year headstart, had incredible marketing campaigns, and had Sonic; that still couldn' t break Mario and the gang. Now that' s something.

Sega stole half the market from Nintendo, that' s VERY significant .

The NES/Master System/5200 was boring because Nintendo just slaughtered them at a 10 to 1 ratio. Sigh.... but good for them.

Third-party lock-out/exclusivity contracts will allow you to slaughter Any competitor in the gaming industry since third-party developers who sign on with you are stuck developing for you and ONLY you, they couldn' t venture elsewhere even if they wanted to

ORIGINAL: Terry Bogard
as TONS of good stuff released in Japan. It even outdid the N64 over there!

I like the SNES/Genesis era because it was so amazing how even though Sega had a two year headstart, had incredible marketing campaigns, and had Sonic; that still couldn' t break Mario and the gang. Now that' s something.

Sega stole half the market from Nintendo, that' s VERY significant .

that and the graphics on the Genesis still remained on par with a console that was released 2 years later. The Genesis roacked the SNES.