The best 80s and 90s consoles fundamentally shaped modern gaming. The NES sold 61.9 million units and invented home console standards. The PlayStation moved 102.5 million units and launched the disc-based era. The Game Boy achieved 118 million sales and proved handhelds could dominate. These systems competed fiercely, innovated relentlessly, and created the gaming industry we know today. This ranking evaluates the best 80s and 90s consoles by lifetime sales, cultural impact, technical innovation, and lasting legacy.
ok, creating a top 10 list of the best consoles from the 80s and 90s nearly ruined friendships for several people. One of the guys, Carl, had to intervene in more disputes than he probably wanted to. Another guy, Joe, would constantly try to rank Sega systems higher due to his stubborn loyalty, even when the numbers didn’t necessarily support it. Tim wrote what he called a “measured defense” of the NES that turned into a seventeen-page manifesto about how it saved gaming entirely. Sam fought for the Genesis with an intensity equivalent to that of someone genuinely convinced that everyone else had terrible taste. Elena showed up with arguments for the Atari ST and Commodore 64 that nobody expected, citing European market dominance that most of us had completely forgotten about. John kept insisting that computers shouldn’t count at all, which meant we had to spend way too much time arguing about definitions. David made a surprisingly compelling case for the Dreamcast based purely on arcade authenticity and how the hardware felt different from emulation. Marcus would not stop talking about technical specifications and chipsets until everyone else just gave up arguing. Anyway, after three weeks of bickering and insults via Slack, and two Zoom conferences where Joe wouldn’t stop going on about how everyone disrespected the Genesis, and one particularly awkward moment where John threatened to leave the crew entirely, we finally agreed upon the following top 10 consoles.
The 80s and 90s were undoubtedly gaming’s most formative decades. Home consoles evolved from the Atari 2600’s blocky, colorless sprites to the NES’s revolutionary cartridge system to the SNES’s Mode 7 effects to the PlayStation’s full polygonal revolution. The sheer number of competing platforms meant that gaming didn’t have one clear winner, which made the console wars actually matter in ways they don’t anymore. People had genuine reasons to defend their hardware choices. You couldn’t just say one console was objectively better, because different systems excelled at completely different things. The Sega Genesis had better arcade ports and faster processors. The SNES had superior exclusive games and better controller design. The Commodore 64 had more overall software titles and cost significantly less. The NES basically invented modern home gaming from scratch. The PlayStation introduced disc-based gaming to consoles and changed everything about how games were distributed. The Game Boy dominated handhelds so thoroughly that competitors didn’t even stand a chance. These weren’t just machines, they were ecosystems, and people were genuinely loyal to them.
What made these console wars different from today is that there actually were legitimate tradeoffs. You couldn’t just buy every system. Most people had one console, maybe two if they were lucky. That meant choosing sides mattered. It meant your choice said something about what you valued. Did you want arcade accuracy? Genesis. Did you want the best single-player games? SNES. Did you want cutting-edge 3D graphics? PlayStation. Did you want portability? Game Boy, obviously. The debates weren’t just fanboyism, they were arguments about real design philosophies and engineering tradeoffs.
The consoles on this list have sold between 9 million and 118 million units worldwide. Some defined entire eras of gaming. Others were commercially successful but culturally overshadowed. A few were tragic failures despite incredible hardware. All of them mattered.
Console Rankings
- Nintendo Entertainment System – The console that saved gaming entirely
- Super Nintendo – The 16-bit masterpiece that proved Nintendo’s dominance
- PlayStation – The disc-based revolution that changed gaming forever
- Game Boy – The handheld that made portability actually work
- Sega Genesis – The arcade-quality alternative that nearly won the war
- Commodore 64 – The computer that became a gaming phenomenon
- Atari 2600 – The system that started it all
- Sega Master System – The underdog that should have won
- Sega Dreamcast – The final dreamer, the most ambitious failure
- Atari ST – The European power that nobody in America remembers
Comparison Table: Key Stats for Best 80s and 90s Consoles
| Console | Release Year | Lifetime Sales | Standout Feature | Iconic Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NES | 1983/1985 | 61.9 million | Quality control seal | Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda |
| SNES | 1990/1991 | 49.1 million | Mode 7 graphics | Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid |
| PlayStation | 1994/1995 | 102.5 million | CD-ROM storage | Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid |
| Game Boy | 1989 | 118 million | Battery life | Tetris, Pokemon |
| Genesis | 1988/1989 | 30.75 million | Arcade ports | Sonic the Hedgehog, Gunstar Heroes |
| Commodore 64 | 1982 | 12.5 million | SID sound chip | Pirate, Impossible Mission |
| Atari 2600 | 1977 | 27 million | Interchangeable cartridges | Adventure, Pitfall |
| Master System | 1985/1986 | 13 million | Color graphics | Alex Kidd, Phantasy Star |
| Dreamcast | 1998/1999 | 9.1 million | Built-in modem | Shenmue, Soul Calibur |
| Atari ST | 1985 | 6 million | 512-color display | Populous, Dungeon Master |
1. Nintendo Entertainment System (1983)
Console Details
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: July 1983 (Japan as Famicom), October 1985 (North America as NES)
Lifetime Sales: 61.9 million units worldwide
The System That Saved Gaming
The NES didn’t just save gaming. It invented modern gaming. Before the NES, home consoles were toys. After the NES, they were platforms. The console industry had basically collapsed in 1983. The Atari 2600 had flooded the market with shovelware. Publishers were releasing games without any quality control. Retailers didn’t trust video games anymore. Nobody thought home consoles had a future. Then Nintendo showed up with the Famicom in Japan, and they understood something that everyone else had missed. They understood that games needed to be good. They understood that the hardware had to be reliable. They understood that publishers needed to respect the platform or they’d be shut out entirely.
The NES brought all of that structure to a market that had completely fallen apart. The cartridge lockout chip meant that unlicensed games simply wouldn’t play on the system. This sounds cynical, but it wasn’t. It meant that if a game had the Nintendo seal of approval, you could actually trust it. You could walk into a store, see that seal, and know you weren’t buying garbage. For retailers who had been burned by the Atari crash, this was everything. For consumers, it meant that the NES library had quality standards that didn’t exist anywhere else.
Notable Games
The library itself was incredible. Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Mega Man. These weren’t just games, they were system sellers. Parents would buy the console specifically to get their kids Mario. Teenagers would camp out overnight to get the new Zelda. The NES had games that mattered culturally in ways that consoles never had before.
Technical Achievement
The controller design was revolutionary. Two buttons. A directional pad. That was it. But the ergonomics, the responsiveness, the way it felt in your hands, it was perfect. Games were designed around that controller. The directional pad became the standard for console gaming for the next thirty years.
By the time the NES was done, it had sold nearly 62 million units worldwide. That number is genuinely staggering when you realize that the global video game market barely existed in 1983. Nintendo didn’t just release a console, they created an entire industry standard.
[Tim’s Deep Dive on How the NES Saved Gaming →]
2. Super Nintendo (1990)
Console Details
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: November 1990 (Japan), August 1991 (North America)
Lifetime Sales: 49.1 million units worldwide
The 16-Bit Masterpiece
The SNES was Nintendo’s response to the Genesis, except they didn’t just match it, they exceeded it. The 16-bit era was supposed to be about raw horsepower. The Genesis had the faster processor. The SNES had something more important: Mode 7 graphics, superior sound hardware, and an absolutely stacked game library. Nintendo proved that you didn’t need the fastest CPU to make the best console. You needed better games.
Super Mario World launched with the system and immediately showed what the SNES could do. The pseudo-3D effects in F-Zero. The orchestral music in the RPGs. The animation quality in the sprite work. The SNES had a visual identity that the Genesis couldn’t match, even if the Genesis technically had faster memory access or whatever technical advantage was being argued about at the time.
Notable Games
The exclusive library was genuinely dominant. Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Earthbound. The SNES had games that defined entire genres. The Genesis had good games, but the SNES had masterpieces.
By the end of the SNES’s life cycle, it had sold nearly 50 million units worldwide. In retrospect, the console war wasn’t even close. The SNES won decisively, and everyone knew it.
[Samuel’s Comprehensive Defense of the SNES as the Perfect 16-Bit Machine →]
3. PlayStation (1994)
Console Details
Developer: Sony
Release Date: December 1994 (Japan), September 1995 (North America)
Lifetime Sales: 102.5 million units worldwide
The Disc-Based Revolution
The PlayStation sold more units than any console on this list. More units than the NES. More units than the Game Boy. More units than everything except the Game Boy line. That number tells you everything you need to know about how massive the PlayStation’s impact was.
Before the PlayStation, consoles used cartridges. Games came on plastic carts that cost forty, fifty, sometimes sixty dollars each. They had storage limitations. They had loading time limitations. They were a technology that had been basically refined to perfection, but they had hard ceilings on what they could do.
The PlayStation showed up with discs. CD-ROMs could hold multiple gigabytes of data. They cost almost nothing to manufacture compared to cartridges. They could store full-motion video, orchestral soundtracks, expansive 3D worlds. The PlayStation didn’t have the fastest processor or the most advanced graphics hardware, but it had the most practical storage medium ever used in a console. It won because it was practical. It won because developers could actually afford to make games for it. It won because you could store Resident Evil’s voice acting and pre-rendered backgrounds on a single disc.
Notable Games
The 3D graphics were a revelation. Not because they were technically superior to what the Nintendo 64 was doing, but because the PlayStation library had so many games doing 3D so well. Final Fantasy VII had the cultural impact of a major film release. Metal Gear Solid changed what was possible in stealth gameplay. Tekken and Street Fighter Alpha proved that 2D fighting games could transition to 3D without losing what made them special. The PlayStation didn’t invent any of these genres, but it had the library depth to prove that 3D gaming was the future.
102.5 million units sold worldwide. That’s not just a successful console, that’s a paradigm shift. That’s the moment when the industry stopped making cartridges and started making discs.
[Marcus’s Technical Analysis of Why Disc-Based Gaming Changed Everything →]
4. Game Boy (1989)
Console Details
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: April 1989 (Japan), July 1989 (North America)
Lifetime Sales: 118 million units worldwide (Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined)
The Handheld That Dominated Everything
The Game Boy’s story is the most purely dominant gaming achievement in history. It wasn’t the most advanced handheld. The Sega Game Gear had a color screen and better graphics. The Atari Lynx had more processing power. The Nintendo Virtual Boy had 3D. But the Game Boy had something more important: Tetris, incredible battery life, durability, a game library that nobody else could match, and a price point that made competing systems look expensive.
Game Boy sold 118 million units when you combine the original Game Boy line with the Game Boy Color. That’s literally more than any home console on this list. The handheld market wasn’t supposed to be bigger than the home console market, but Game Boy made it impossible to ignore. It proved that you didn’t need cutting-edge graphics to create an empire. You needed games people wanted to play.
Notable Games
Tetris was absolutely crucial. That one game made Game Boy essential. Parents who didn’t care about video games would buy Game Boy because they wanted to play Tetris. That single title gave Game Boy a cultural penetration that no handheld had achieved before.
The game library expanded relentlessly. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Final Fantasy Legend, Kirby’s Dream Land, Metroid II. By the time the Game Boy Color arrived, there were hundreds of games. The competition had maybe dozens.
Technical Achievement
The battery life was almost absurd compared to competitors. The Game Gear would eat through four AA batteries in about five hours. The Game Boy would run for thirty hours. That wasn’t a minor difference. That was the difference between a novelty toy and something you could actually take on a road trip.
Nintendo didn’t win the handheld market. Nintendo completely dominated it. 118 million units sold means Game Boy was in more households than any other gaming device of that era except maybe the NES. It’s the most successful single product in gaming history.
[Joe’s Reluctant Acknowledgment of Game Boy’s Dominance Despite It Not Being Sega →]
5. Sega Genesis (1988)
Console Details
Developer: Sega
Release Date: August 1988 (Japan as Mega Drive), September 1989 (North America)
Lifetime Sales: 30.75 million units (plus several million licensed variants)
The Console That Should Have Won
The Genesis was supposed to win. It was faster than the SNES. It had better arcade ports. It had a cooler mascot in Sonic. It had Blast Processing. For about three years in the early 90s, it actually seemed like the Genesis might actually take down Nintendo’s dominance.
The arcade ports were a genuine advantage. The SNES struggled with arcade-quality scrolling shoot-em-ups and fast action games. The Genesis’s faster processor meant that arcade ports looked and played significantly better. If you wanted to play Strider or Golden Axe or Street Fighter II at home, the Genesis was where you did it.
Sonic the Hedgehog was genuinely appealing in ways that Mario wasn’t. Mario was Nintendo’s family-friendly everyman. Sonic was cooler, edgier, faster. For teenagers in the early 90s, choosing between Mario and Sonic felt like choosing between your parents’ music and actual cool music.
Notable Games
The Genesis also had incredible exclusives that Nintendo didn’t have. Ristar, Gunstar Heroes, Altered Beast, Wonderboy, Ys. The library had depth and personality that went beyond just “Nintendo games in different flavors.”
But the Genesis ultimately didn’t win because the SNES had better games. Not faster games, not more technically impressive games, but better games. Final Fantasy VI versus Sonic 3. Chrono Trigger versus Phantasy Star IV. A Link to the Past versus Altered Beast. When you lined them up, the SNES library was just superior. The Genesis’s advantage in arcade ports wasn’t enough to overcome the SNES’s advantage in original games.
That said, the Genesis mattered. It proved that Nintendo could actually be challenged. For a few years, the console war was real. That competition made both systems better. The Genesis pushed Nintendo to prove why the SNES was actually superior. By the end of it, the SNES won decisively, but the Genesis had earned legitimate respect. 30 million units sold is nothing to dismiss. That’s a successful console that just happened to lose to something slightly better.
[Joe’s Passionate, Slightly Unhinged Defense of the Genesis as Unfairly Underrated →]
6. Commodore 64 (1982)
Console Details
Developer: Commodore
Release Date: August 1982
Lifetime Sales: 12.5 million units (estimates range from 10.5 to 17 million)
The Computer That Dominated Gaming
The Commodore 64 was a computer, not a console. This distinction matters, but it also doesn’t, because the C64 had more games than most consoles and was primarily used for gaming by most of its owners. It was also cheaper than most consoles. It was also built for a longer lifespan than consoles typically had. So… it belonged on this list, even if John spent forty-five minutes arguing that it shouldn’t.
The C64 was absurdly cheap when it came out. The NES cost $199. The C64 cost $595 at launch, but within a year the price had dropped to $299, and within a few years it was cheaper than most consoles. That price point made it the most accessible computer gaming platform in history. Everyone had a C64. Not everyone had a Commodore 64, but everyone knew someone with one.
Notable Games
The game library was staggering. Pirate, Impossible Mission, Boulder Dash, Lode Runner, Jumpman, The Last Ninja, Maniac Mansion. These were games that defined computer gaming in the 80s. The C64 had arcade ports, but it also had original games that didn’t exist anywhere else. It had a development community that was incredibly active because the barrier to entry was lower than on other platforms.
Technical Achievement
The sound chip, the SID chip, was genuinely remarkable. Computer games on the C64 had music that was often better than console games. That sounds impossible, but the SID chip had eight octaves and could produce three-voice polyphonic sound. Composers created legitimate music on that hardware. It wasn’t just bleeps and bloops, it was actual composition.
The C64 sold between 10.5 and 17 million units. The most conservative estimates say 12.5 million. That’s nearly as many as the Sega Genesis. The C64 was a commercially dominant platform that most people in North America have basically forgotten about because console gaming eventually became the dominant paradigm.
[Elena’s Comprehensive Reassessment of the Commodore 64’s Cultural Impact on European Gaming →]
7. Atari 2600 (1977)
Console Details
Developer: Atari
Release Date: September 1977
Lifetime Sales: 27 million units worldwide
The Console That Started Everything
The Atari 2600 invented home console gaming. Before the 2600, there were no home consoles. People played Pong at arcades. They played video games in restaurants and bars. There wasn’t a home video game market because nobody had figured out how to make arcade-quality games work on home television sets.
The Atari 2600 showed that it was possible. Sure, the games looked nothing like the arcade versions. Combat had blocky sprites and flickering animation. Pac-Man was so degraded from the arcade version that it almost wasn’t Pac-Man anymore. But it was Pac-Man at home. That was enough. People didn’t need arcade-perfect ports, they needed games they could play at home. The 2600 proved that market existed.
Notable Games
The problem was that the 2600 proved the market existed and then the market almost died. The console crash of 1983 happened because publishers were flooding the system with garbage games. E.T. became infamous for being so bad that Atari allegedly buried cartridges of it in the desert. The 2600’s library went from essential to embarrassing in a very short time.
But before the crash, the 2600 had incredible games. Adventure was basically the first action-adventure game in a home setting. Pitfall was revolutionary. Combat was genuinely good. The Arcade Games cartridges were competent translations of arcade classics. If you wanted to play video games at home in 1980, the Atari 2600 was your only option.
The 2600 sold 27 million units. That’s respectable even by modern standards. It’s more than the Dreamcast, more than the Master System, more than the Atari ST. The 2600 matters because it was first, and being first in a market that didn’t exist yet is everything.
[David’s Deep Dive into the 2600’s Design Philosophy and Why Original Hardware Still Matters →]
8. Sega Master System (1985)
Console Details
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1985 (Japan and North America), 1986 (Europe)
Lifetime Sales: 13 million units worldwide (21 million including Brazilian variants)
The Console That Should Have Won
The Master System was the console that should have won but didn’t. It was technically superior to the NES. It had better graphics. It had a color palette instead of the NES’s limited color scheme. It had better sound. It had games that were genuinely impressive for the hardware.
But it came out at exactly the wrong time. The NES was already dominant. Nintendo had locked down publisher exclusivity. The Master System had an incredibly limited library compared to the NES. Parents weren’t going to buy a third console when the NES was already established. It didn’t matter that the Master System was technically better. The NES had Zelda. The Master System didn’t.
Notable Games
The Master System also suffered from regional fragmentation. It was released in Japan, North America, and Europe at different times with different libraries. In Brazil, the Master System remained commercially viable for decades because of licensing agreements. But in North America and Europe, the Master System was basically a failure against the NES.
The games were good though. Alex Kidd, Phantasy Star, Master of Darkness, Wonderboy, Ys. The Master System had exclusives that were genuinely excellent. It’s one of those tragic cases where a technically superior system lost because of market timing and publisher support.
The Master System sold 13 million units worldwide, which sounds respectable until you realize it lost to a system that sold 62 million units. It’s the Pepsi of consoles, perpetually in second place.
[John’s Controversial Argument That the Master System Deserved More Love Than It Received →]
9. Sega Dreamcast (1998)
Console Details
Developer: Sega
Release Date: November 1998 (Japan), September 1999 (North America and Europe)
Lifetime Sales: 9.1 million units worldwide
The Future That Never Happened
The Dreamcast was the future that never happened. It was Sega’s last console, and they put everything into it. The hardware was advanced for 1998. It had a built-in modem for online gaming when online gaming wasn’t even a thing yet. It had GD-ROM discs that could hold more data than cartridges. It had arcade-quality hardware because Sega had just released the Naomi arcade board with basically the same chipset.
The library was incredible. Shenmue, Soul Calibur, Power Stone, Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Seaman. These weren’t just good games, they were ambitious. Soul Calibur on Dreamcast was as good as the arcade version. Jet Set Radio had cel-shading that was genuinely revolutionary for console gaming. Shenmue was a completely original game that didn’t fit any established genre.
Notable Games
But the Dreamcast launched in Japan in 1998 and North America in 1999, which meant it launched right into the lead-up to the PlayStation 2. By the time the Dreamcast was hitting its stride, the PS2 had already been announced. It was going to have DVD support. It was going to have better graphics. It was going to have Final Fantasy and Metal Gear. The Dreamcast, despite having better arcade games, couldn’t compete with the cultural juggernaut that the PS2 became.
Sega discontinued the Dreamcast in 2001 after only about 9 million units sold. That sounds like a failure, but it’s not. The Dreamcast proved that Sega could still make hardware that mattered. It proved that the company could innovate. It was just ahead of its time and arrived at the exact wrong moment.
The Dreamcast is the console that makes you think about alternate timelines. What if the PS2 had shipped a year later? What if the Dreamcast had DVD support? What if Sega had held on another year? Maybe the Dreamcast would have thrived. Probably it wouldn’t have. But it’s fun to imagine.
10. Atari ST (1985)
Console Details
Developer: Atari
Release Date: June 1985
Lifetime Sales: 6 million units worldwide (over 3 million in Europe alone)
The European Power Nobody Remembers
The Atari ST was a computer, not a console, which meant John had legitimate arguments about whether it belonged on this list. But the ST had a substantial gaming library and was primarily used for gaming by a lot of its owners, so it’s here anyway. Also, Elena made a very compelling case that ignoring the ST meant ignoring the entire European computer gaming scene, which seemed intellectually dishonest.
The Atari ST was more affordable than the original Macintosh. It came with a built-in OS. It had a Motorola 68000 processor, which was more powerful than what most home computers had. It could display 512 colors on screen, which was stunning for 1985. By modern standards it sounds basic. In 1985 it was magic.
Notable Games
The game library was substantial, especially in Europe. Populous, Karateka, Dungeon Master, Realm of the Kraken, Missile Command. The ST attracted developers who wanted to work with more capable hardware. It wasn’t just a gaming machine, it was a machine for people who were serious about games.
The ST struggled in the North American market because the Commodore 64 was so cheap and the Apple Macintosh was so prestigious. But in Europe, the ST was genuinely competitive. In some regions it actually outsold the Amiga. The ST proved that there was a market for mid-range computing hardware that was powerful enough to do serious gaming.
The Atari ST sold 6 million units worldwide, which is respectable. It’s not a commercial powerhouse like the PlayStation or the NES, but it’s also not a failure. It’s a successful platform that has been basically forgotten by everyone except the people who actually used it.
[Elena’s Comprehensive Reassessment of the Atari ST’s Impact on European Gaming Culture →]
The Consoles That Weren’t Included (And Why We’re Still Angry About It)
This list had to leave off numerous systems that could have easily been included. The Nintendo 64 had incredible exclusive games and the controller was revolutionary. The Sega Saturn had some of the best arcade ports and a surprisingly deep library of shooters. The Nintendo Virtual Boy was a complete disaster but it mattered historically. The Game Gear was technically superior to the Game Boy but the battery life was abysmal. The Turbo Grafx-16 had some genuinely excellent games. The Neo Geo was a powerhouse that basically defined the fighting game arcade market.
Each of the ones we left off had a representative fighting for its inclusion. Tim made an argument for the Nintendo 64 that was surprisingly compelling. John wanted the Sega Saturn on the list because it was technically impressive. Samuel pushed for the Turbo Grafx-16 because he genuinely liked it. Elena had arguments for the Neo Geo based on its cultural impact in arcades. David wanted the Game Gear included just to argue about why it failed despite being technically superior.
Ultimately, the ten systems listed here represent not just the most commercially successful best 80s and 90s consoles, but the systems that defined what was possible in gaming across an entire era. They show the evolution from cartridges to discs to handhelds. They show the competition between different design philosophies. They show what happened when companies took risks and when they played it safe.
Some of these consoles won decisively. The PlayStation, the Game Boy, the NES. Some lost despite being superior hardware, like the Master System. Some arrived at exactly the wrong moment, like the Dreamcast. Some influenced entire continents, like the Commodore 64 and the Atari ST. All of them mattered.
What’s Next? The Best Retro Consoles to Collect in 2026
Looking to start your retro gaming collection? The best 80s and 90s consoles to buy now depend on what you’re after. If you want pristine, original hardware, the NES and SNES command premium prices but they’re still the most reliable systems for long-term collecting. The PlayStation has gotten cheaper as emulation improves, but original hardware still works beautifully. The Game Boy holds its value because it’s practically indestructible. The Genesis and Master System are more affordable entry points with massive game libraries. The Dreamcast has become increasingly collectible as people realize how good its library actually was. For European collectors, the Commodore 64 and Atari ST can be found at reasonable prices if you’re patient. The Atari 2600 requires careful shopping to avoid dead boards, but working systems aren’t prohibitively expensive.
Don’t worry if your favorite console wasn’t included. With hundreds of systems released between 1977 and 1999, there are plenty that could have made this list of best 80s and 90s consoles. The Intellivision, the ColecoVision, the Turbografx-16, the Saturn, the N64, the Neo Geo. Anybody can see that any Top Ten is going to leave off someone’s favorite system from their childhood. Feel free to yell at us in the comments. We’ve already been yelling at ourselves for weeks.
Deep dives for each individual console, written by whichever member of the crew fought the hardest for that console’s inclusion. Because passion should be rewarded, even when it gets a little crazy.
Samuel’s been gaming since the Atari 2600 and still thinks 16-bit was the golden age. Between accounting gigs and parenting teens, he keeps the CRTs humming in his Minneapolis basement, writing about cartridge quirks, console wars, and why pixel art never stopped being beautiful.
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