A console that you missed

[hudson]

I missed PS2 and Dreamcast mainly due to getting into PC gaming (Medal of Honor, Battlefield 1942, Counterstrike etc) after PSone. I also missed the Saturn as I chose the PSone (could only afford one). I did get these consoles later on though. I got a PS2 for Katamari and FFX. On DC, I discovered Tokyo Bus Driver.

[beecee]

Whilst this one highlights how the GC was such a capable little machine

I always thought that the PS2 was the least capable machine between the 3, with developers pretty much programming for the least powerful (PS2) and on occasion tweaking the xbox version.

[Asura]

I always thought that the PS2 was the least capable machine between the 3, with developers pretty much programming for the least powerful (PS2) and on occasion tweaking the xbox version.

There was a great deal of variety.

Whether or not the PS2 was the "weakest" machine is a bit difficult to say. The PS2 was one of the last of the "old-school" approach to console design (where the Dreamcast was the first of the "new school", with the Xbox consolidating that approach). It was, in a way, a bit like the Saturn - it could do pretty amazing things in the right hands that would not have been possible on other machines, but it was a weird chimera of a thing to program for. Also it had some very specific quirks which could negatively impact it, and this was exacerbated in the UK by Sony not being more insistent on developers providing 60hz/Progressive Scan options in games (developers were allowed to and some did, but many didn't and some of the PAL conversions were shoddy).

The Xbox (as one of its earlier codenames give away - the DirectXBox) was seen as more powerful, and in many respects that matter, it was. More importantly it was easier to develop for. The Xbox was designed as an attempt to build a low-cost machine that could play games that used the DirectX API (Microsoft's game programming toolset which underpinned pretty much all windows games at the time). In a very real sense, the Xbox is like a PC, with the same rough strengths and weaknesses. It also shared the advantage that Microsoft is, first and foremost, a software company, so the tools for it were good, and its OS was pretty good (allowing for stuff like Live to work well). Sony are infamous for being really shoddy with software; it blighted their first attempts at MP3 players and minidiscs and was one of the reasons they got crushed by the iPod.

Again, similar to the Saturn, Sony couldn't see the future and they weren't absolutely certain of the hardware properties the PS1's successor would need. The PS2, as a result, has some very strange specifics. I was once told even the data-size of its variables is bizarre and nothing like most computers, which is just really odd. However, its very powerful processing capabilities did lead to games like Demon Chaos:

https://youtu.be/44KZ0neSz7E?t=1m

The GameCube wasn't the most straightforward machine either (I've been told its audio hardware took some serious deep magic to get the best out of) but it was closer in design to the Dreamcast and Xbox than the PS2, what with having ATI graphics hardware.

As for which machine developers "favoured", as a result of all this, it varied a great deal from company-to-company. Many developers used Renderware, a cross-platform toolkit, up until EA bought its developer Criterion and support for other developers was removed when contracts expired (I was once told that this was the real reason EA bought Burnout, to get Renderware, which drove a stake through the heart of Pro Evo and to secure their dominance in that genre, which I guess worked - though that didn't come from an EA staffer so it may have just been a theory that fits the facts).

Of course, other developers had their own cross-platform toolkits too.

A fair few devs favoured the Xbox because it made it easier to start on PC, then they would scale to fit the PS2. Those tend to be the worse ports like Sonic Heroes, which is really jerky on PS2 but very smooth on Xbox.

So yeah, it was really mixed. I'm not sure there was a consensus.

[_SD_]

Atari. I’ve just realised I've never had any of their systems. A mate at school had a Jaguar CD and wouldn’t stop going on about how awesome it was. Then the N64 came out. Another guy had a Lynx but I thought the screen was odd and it wasn’t exactly portable. He returned with a Lynx 2 and I still wasn’t impressed. I’ve only ever seen a couple of 2600s at people’s houses over the years, and not a single 5200 or 7800.

[buster_broon]

Apart from Newer consoles like the switch I've generally bought all consoles, but the 8bit era passed me by, I got into video gaming from the neo geo, mega drive and snes so I've never owned or played with a nes or a master system, and they don't interest me at all

[randombs]

I skipped these during their releases (I bought the starred ones later):

SNES* (I already had an MD)
PlayStation*/N64* (I chose Saturn instead)
Wii-U (already had an X360, PS3 and a Wii)
3DS/PS Vita (I was given a 3DSLL recently but probably wouldn't have bought one otherwise)

I also haven't bought in to the current gen yet but I'd like to get a PS4 at some point.

[Asura]

Apart from Newer consoles like the switch I've generally bought all consoles, but the 8bit era passed me by, I got into video gaming from the neo geo, mega drive and snes so I've never owned or played with a nes or a master system, and they don't interest me at all

Come to think of it, I've never actually played on a Neo Geo home system (not including the Pocket systems), despite the avatar. I put plenty of coins into their arcade machines back-in-the-day, but have never played on one of the consoles.

[Zen Monkey]

I've missed loads of consoles. Way more than I've owned. Gaming on the go has never interested me so I've missed every handheld console. The Saturn is the only Sega console I've had. The 360 remains the only Microsoft console I've had. I didn't buy a Sony console 'til 2014 (the PS3). I went travelling around the world between '97 and '03 during which I didn't play a single video game and effectively missed out on an entire generation. So, yeah, loads.

[QualityChimp]

I'm nearly always a generation behind or getting older tech as a new one launches.
The Xbox 360 is the only console I've bought at launch and my parents got me a Game Boy for Christmas the year it came out.

Other than that, I had a Vic20 when the C64 was out, a Megadrive as the SNES came out, PS1 when the N64 came out and so on.
I was never particularly bothered as I always used to play to death any games I did have, rather than pining for what I didn't.

These days, having a modded XBox means I can play most things retro without feeling like I've missed out.

I've enjoyed having a Dreamcast fairly recently and I've been able to play all those lovely shooters that don't require DLC or extra packs to make them complete. <3 Zero Gunner 2!

[Paddy]

I missed owning a Nintendo 64 even though it appeared to be the most powerful console on the market at the time. Its not that I didn't want the console but that was back in the day when you got what your parents could afford and that would be just the one console (in my case a Saturn, then a PS1).

I had a time when I owned a PS3, Xbox 360 and a Wii. I worked part-time but I still didn't have enough time to appreciate all the games that were available. I'm not sure I'll ever return to owning all the consoles of a current generation again but I might be able to manage one main console and another as a secondary (it'd have to be cheap though and I doubt the Switch is going to become a more reasonable RRP anytime soon).

[BigDeadFreak]

That being said, I believe the PS2 pulled through as a wonderful machine with one of the widest varieties of quality games of any machine.

I completely agree. When it came out I was deep into retro/import gaming and full of reverse snobbery towards anything made by Sony. However, after getting one when San Andreas came out I spent a huge amount of time with it. To be fair, I think it took a while for it's library to develop that level of diversity but it did end up being one of the best machines of all time. If I had to pick one console to stick with for the rest of my life, it'd be hard to look past the PS2.

As for consoles I missed, I never got a 3DO. It was insanely expensive when it came out and always seemed a bit ****. However, it was definitely the best of a bad bunch of systems that came out in between the SNES and Saturn. I always had a secret desire to own one but never got round to purchasing one when I was collecting. There's no justifying it now though as most of the good games seem to have aged pretty badly or been superseded on later systems.

I still think the 3DO is one of the best looking consoles. It has a real industrial brutality to it which implies a supreme level of power. It wouldn't look out of place in the engine rooms of the Nostromo.

[DeathAdder]

Never had any Atari home console, although I had both versions of the Lynx, or Colecovision. The only console I had from those days was the Phillips Videopac.

Never had any form of the Neo Geo, apart from the Pocket, or PC Engine except the LT and GT. I've also never had an original X-box or 3DO.

Was late getting PC Engines, Master System and Saturn.

I think I've had most of the common ones.

[gunrock]

None of these (things I was aware of at the time):
Atari VCS
Vectrex
Colecovision
Mattel Intellivision
Nes
Master System
Megadrive
SNES
Neo Geo
3DO
Saturn
Nuon
Xbox ONE

I came to these late during their lifecycle:
PC Engine (only got it in 2015 to see what it was like)
N64 (had a PlayStation - got mine with Perfect Dark)
Gamecube (had an original Xbox - got it with a work bonus of Amazon vouchers and another XBox)
PS2 (had a Japanese launch Dreamcast, bought it cheap from here mainly for ICO and SOTC).
XBOX 360 (didn't go next gen for a while, won it in a radio competition and first game I bought was Crackdown which was years old by then).
PS3 (had a 360 - got it for Uncharted 1 and 2).

What's amazing about these consoles I did get, probably 60% of them were bought for me by my wife (some while she was my girlfriend). ��

Edit: just put an emoji in and it displays on my phone ok? Does that work?

[Marmotta]

I completely missed out on the Saturn, but didn't consider it a big loss at the time and still don't to a certain extent. More obviously stuff like the AES, 3DO, etc.

Didn't get a PS2 until the slim and San Andreas came out in late 2004 and didn't get an Xbox One until Tomb Raider came out as a timed exclusive, other than that I've picked up the other major hardware releases within a year of launch.

[Zaki]

But the Dreamcast though as it pumped out such "pure" graphics which really popped on screen. Wonder how they'd look now via HDMI on a new screen or even an OLED?

It looks amazing through the OSSC!