Which system was your favorite as a kid? (Poll suggestion by AA user "bluejay")

[Max_Chatsworth]

How do you vote exactly?  

[eightbit]

I have a lot of favorites, but as a KID.....The Sega Master System. I was 11 when it was released so I was at that age where it just fit what I wanted in a game system at the time. Good graphics and sound, deep game play, fun and challenging games. It had it all. And while I have never been an RPG person, I played right through Phantasy Star and I will always cherish that memory until the day I die. It is the only RPG I have ever played all the way through believe it or not!

 

As an ADULT, well, my favorites have changed. I need quick fun games now. I can find the time for those moreso than a long drawn out game. So nowadays it is probably the Atari 2600/7800 that are my favorites. But the SMS is still in the mix and always will be

[R.O.T.S]

I was born in 71 so as a kid  games were hand held / tabletop LED,VFD and LCD but my first console in the early 80`s was a good old Atari 2600 woody 6-switch so that is my vote.

[WhataKowinkydink]

On 8/9/2020 at 7:28 AM, Keatah said:

It's an ill-thought out poll

Glad I'm not the only one that thought that. 

 

I went NES - wasn't my first gaming machine, but as it came out when I was still pretty young, it has a nostalgia to it too.  I used the C64 (also in the poll) about the same time, but we never had one of those at home.  We had an Atari 2600 at home, but that was long forgotten soon after the NES came out.  That said though River Raid, Combat, and of course Pacman were pretty memorable 2600 games.

[BydoEmpire]

Intellivision, because that was our family's first console.

[+x=usr(1536)]

Voted A8, but am also bemoaning the lack of a Vectrex option.

[Rogerpoco]

We always had Atari's around, I just remember being "too young" to really "get it".

The NES was the first one that was "mine", that I got to stay up all night on weekends playing and stuff.

I'd possibly have went with the C64, because I DID have a lot of exposure to it, but being fair, it took my Friend that was, evidently, smarter than me to start the games, we were like, 11.

Ironically, I am a "high score chaser", and the NES is terribly unkind to me now.

[Keir]

I only had 3 systems as a kid: a VIC-20 followed by a C64 followed by a Commodore 128D, so my vote was easy! 

[Keatah]

To clarify my early answer..

 

Console:

Atari 2600

Intellivision

Colecovision

Astrocade

..in that order with the 2600 being ahead by far.

 

Computer:

Apple II

Atari 400/800

Amiga

C64

Apple IIgs

..in that order with the Apple II being way in the lead.

 

But before consoles were a thing there were the LED & VFD handhelds. Despite them being so simplistic compared to today's cellafone gamez, each somehow managed to be unique and bought a satisfying sense of adventure to early electronic gaming. Part of that was highly related to physical styling and uniquely shaped and colored control buttons and switches. Even at that early juncture I was looking for signs of artificial intelligence in these things. Like how could the handheld know what to do. Why did the Chess Challenger sometimes pick a different move despite me opening the game with the same one. What was the force that made a round of action different from the last?

 

And so.. The 2600 gets top console spot because it was my first cartridge-based system, was pretty durable, had billions of games, and came right at the primetime of pre-teen development. Not to mention all the other reasons expressed here: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/340261-a-discussion-whats-the-most-remarkable-thing-about-the-2600/

 

The Apple II gets top computer spot because I got it so early on. Right at the cusp the micro-era. The beginning of the information age. A time of SpaceShuttles and SpaceColonies. A time when Apple Computer would respond to your technical questions rather directly without call-center insulation. Their warranty cards were like surveys wanting to know what you were doing with your computer, how it was set-up, what things you wanted to see developed. It was among the last (if not THE last) all-TTL singleboard systems with no custom chippery.

 

Finally it was a durable system that could withstand me standing on it (to see what would happen!) and all the abuses a dumb-ass pre-teen could dish out. Banging, punching, beating on the keyboard in all games. And because that I was able to learn and grow with it. Learned all kinds of concepts which still apply to today's Windows 10/11 rigs!

Edited November 9, 2022 by Keatah

[Flyindrew]

My #1 all time favorite system to this day is my Atari 130 XE. I got it the 3rd week of August in 1985 for my 13 th birthday, brand new and still use it to this day. It was a daily part of my life from Junior High well into my 20s. 

 

Other honorable mentions

Atari 2600

Super NES

Magnovox Odyssey 500 (pong unit in the late 1970s)

PlayStation 2

HP laptop-PC gaming

Samsung tablet (Android gaming)

XBox Series S

[+GoldLeader]

One of my later thoughts on this old poll:

 

I Loved my Atari (2600), but later, for what felt like a shorter period of time;  I Loved my ColecoVision!  And later NES then SNES, Genesis etc...  Really depends on the time frame of course, and when you were a kid.  To a younger person,  many more choices were available,  to them as a kid.

[Giles N]

I won’t try to be too wry here, 

…but:

 

1) what is ‘kid’ (7-12, 7-14, 3-18, 6-9, etc)?

 

(For me it, - just because of the times, of my financial possibilities or just ‘autobiographical’ specifics, made some sudden changes from 12+ … and I’m at the moment unsure whether it would be MD(aka Genesis), SNES or Amiga 500 after 12. Before that it was C64 but really, really wishing to hava a SMS…)

 

2) could you add some stuff like Amiga 500, Atari ST, Lynx, Jaguar (won’t apply to me, but who knows who’re here and their age), 

 

—

 

Could question BTW.

 

Really, really though between Genesis or SNES (and if you allow for Amiga 500…, even thougher… they all had their particular highlights…)

Edited November 12, 2022 by Giles N

[Keatah]

3 hours ago, Giles N said:

1) what is ‘kid’ (7-12, 7-14, 3-18, 6-9, etc)?

Likely toddler through mid-teen.

 

3 hours ago, Giles N said:

2) could you add some stuff like Amiga 500, Atari ST, Lynx, Jaguar (won’t apply to me, but who knows who’re here and their age), 

Pretty sure the poll can't be edited at this late juncture.

[TheGameCollector]

From this list, the NES and SNES were both my favorites from the era. I also had a Sega Genesis at the same time but mostly used it just to play Sonic games and few others I was given. I loved it too but not quite as much.

 

I was still a preteen when I first had a Playstation though and that is still my all time favorite console.

[1980gamer]

1. Intellivision

2. TI99/4a

3. Colecovision

4. 2600 ( many friends had this, so I played it a bunch with them, until I got a system changer for my Intellivision )  They got Intellivision's also when they dropped to $50

5. I was 14 or 15 when I got a C=64 and that was the system until PC's took over. 

 

[1980gamer]

Double post

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by 1980gamer

[1980gamer]

double post

 

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by 1980gamer

[MrMaddog]

Had an Atari 2600 in grade school which was my favorite game system, but my first and favorite computer at the time was the Tandy CoCo where I learned how to program my own games.

 

In my teenage years I had both an Atari 130XE & NES which was great for rentals at the time.

 

I wanted to mentioned that since I couldn't pick more than one choice...