What do you think the most innovative console ever?

I think the most innovative console ever was the Turbografx 16. It was the first console I bought myslef when I was a wee lad. The games are on like a 3X2 card that was about a centimeter thick. It had graphics like the sega master system. It still had some great characters franchises like Bonk! remember Bonk!?!? yes you do....anyway, it was one of the first consoles to have a cd add-on and you also could take off the cd player and use it as a discman if you go out, that was pure genuis. On the controller, it had the turbo switches that were use pretty heavily in thier games. Instead of having a "start" button like every game has, they have a "run" button, which is the same as start, just called different. NEC also had the Turbo express which was the FIRST, yes, THE FIRST handheld that you could play your TG16 games on it. IMO, i think that the TG16 should get an award for most innovative console. I would put Sega at a close second only because I was a TG16 fanboy when it came out, but I do know that it was highly innovative as well.

It was PS1 for me, it was just "sexy"
It ran with the industry, it made people take notice  

[nO-One]

hmmm interms of technoligy it would be the Saturn and the PS.2.

Both sported new cutting edge technoligy.

Originally posted by Toxical
it made people take notice

That doesnt make it innovative. IMO the most innovative console to date was the Sega Master System. There are too many features to list; but some off the top of my head include the 2 built in AAA games and the card slot to play games that came on little digital cards, VERY innovative. Much more so than the NES which, due to some shady practices on Nintendo\'s part (thanks Altered ), it lost to.

I\'d have the say both the original NES and Master System were the most innovative at the time. The most recent would be Dreamcast.

ODYSSEY 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!



It was the first console (only??) to have a built in keyboard.



The keyboard was mainly used for selecting game levels, types, etc. since some cartridges came with several games on them (another innovative feature).

Also, there was a game called....Damn...I forget. Something with rings. It was a D&D trpe game (Mages, Knights, ...and Dragons). It used an overlay on the keyboard (which was a flat cellophane).

[QUEST FOR THE RINGS... That\'s it:)]

Check out the link!!


http://www.classicgaming.com/o2home/

[Living-In-Clip]

SMS or Saturn.

Whatever platform came out with PONG first.

Gohan, I am glad you have taken notice of my intense hatred fro the NES and Nintendo\'s practices as a whole.

The most innovative systems are:

Master System -

throughout it\'s many incarnations (mostly Brazilian) this console had some crazy stuff.

1) card games. small, simpler, much much cooler
2) dust shutter. to keep the dust out. It is the thing that closes when you take out a game. Something NES didn\'t have, which is why you have most of the NES sold are broken.
3) Later in it\'s 4 version, it became handheld. you would stick an antenna to your tv and use the system itself as the controller. Very cool looking. I must add that I have one of these, albeit PAL, so it works only in black and white.
4) Left handed controllers! Finally some love for us south-pawed games! Sheer genius and the control stick and speedball play like a dream!
5) play games on Game Gear, nuff said
6) 3D mother-effin games! with 3D glasses that would make the simplest of epileptics go into a massive seizure, these things were THE coolest thing back in the day. the picture on the screen would flash a little before the glasses would flash, making it seem 3D, great, great, great job at it too.
--------
Saturn -

1) Multiple processors. Crybaby developers will see their programming asses handed to them as Sega shows people how it was done 6 years ago developing for a system with multiple processors and making it work (see Panzer Dragoon games). Needless to say, IMO the best games on PS2 will be Sega games. but of course I am a Sega Fanboy
--------
X-Box -

Built in hard drive and ethernet adaptor.
--------
Sega CDX -

Genesis and Sega CD in one little portable CD player-sized case! It was a bit taller and alot heavier, but so cool looking! Also, connect it to your Nomad or Turbo Express and play SegaCD games portable! Plus, if you wanna see something really funny, put a 32X on top of it! the 32X is bigger than the system itself
--------

Eric Jacob -

AI. Expandable memory. case that grows with upgrades. earns money by dancing. Definetly the most innovative.

Oh, now god damnit Altered.. did you have to be so thourough about the innovative features of the SMS? Save some scraps for me for christ\'s sake!

Well, I guess I can mention that first model of the SMS didn\'t have two games built in like Gohan said.. but it had one and it certainly wasn\'t AAA. If you pressed -> and B (start) at the "Enjoy" screen which comes up when you power on without a game in it, the screen will scroll right and you\'ll be able to play a simple little game where you have to lead a snail through a maze within 60 seconds. Dunno how many levels there were, I could only get to Lvl 7. But it was cool anyhow. This feature is has even been added in the "MEKA" SMS emulator, so you can try it out yourself.

(I dunno what the two games built into the SMS2 were, but one was an Alex Kidd title. I think that\'s the version you\'re thinking about Gohan)

So yeah.. the SMS was the most innovative mainstream console IMO. Also, didn\'t Sega leave the territorial lockouts out of the SMS games, so that Europeans could import and play American and Japaneese games without having to worry about compatability problems?

BTW: CignusXI, what year did the Oddessey come out? Cause my TI/994A had a built on Keyboard also. (Technically it was a computer, but only after massive addons.) It also had this cool voice synthesiser that would talk to you with certain games. Sure it sounded a bit like WOPR from Wargames.. but we\'re talking EARLY 80\'s game system for chists sake. Well before Nintnedo arrived on the scene.

I\'d also say the Sega Genesis was an increadibly innovative console considering all the add on\'s. CD, 32X, VR helmet, Modem, Sega Channel.. and then the Sega CDX which was the first portable Genesis. It looked like a normal Diskman CD player (which it could double as) with a cartridge slot along the top. It was also backwards compatable thanks to the Master Converter.

The PS2 takes the cake for "most innovative archetecture" in my opinion. And NES gets my vote for most innovative peripherals. I mean come on.. the PowerGlove, LightGun, That big NES controller footpad.. it\'s peripherals made us SMS fans jelous as hell. (Not to mention it\'s fanbase, but that\'s a discussion for another time)

If i had to pick an innovative console, I would pick PS2, why? well i invested lots of money in PS1 games, and some of them are still fun to play, even though they might seem old.  
I don\'t need to keep 2 consoles, since the PS2 plays DVDs/PS2/PS1 games.  

I think that was a real winner, IMO.

[Living-In-Clip]

Originally posted by Toxical
If i had to pick an innovative console, I would pick PS2, why? well i invested lots of money in PS1 games, and some of them are still fun to play, even though they might seem old.  
I don\'t need to keep 2 consoles, since the PS2 plays DVDs/PS2/PS1 games.  

I think that was a real winner, IMO.

But, the PS2 is not the first console to feature backwards compabability (typo galore..). And playing DVDs is hardly innovative. Espically when it is half-hearted support (mine won\'t play HellRaiser 2 :Hellbound ).

You are right L.I.C.  but i like my PS2 so much, I\'m a "PS2 Whore" !!!

I could not play "Art of War", damn it, that was a cool Snipes movie

Originally posted by CygnusXI
ODYSSEY 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!



It was the first console (only??) to have a built in keyboard.



The keyboard was mainly used for selecting game levels, types, etc. since some cartridges came with several games on them (another innovative feature).

Also, there was a game called....Damn...I forget. Something with rings. It was a D&D trpe game (Mages, Knights, ...and Dragons). It used an overlay on the keyboard (which was a flat cellophane).

[QUEST FOR THE RINGS... That\'s it:)]

Check out the link!!


http://www.classicgaming.com/o2home/

HAHA, I use to have an ODYSSEY 2, I loved that thing... Only think I didn\'t like was that the controlers were hard wired to the system... No way to take them off.

-Ramon

[Bobs_Hardware]

innovative sonsole...games wise...Dreamcast...

innovative console...architecture...Saturn and PS2...