Best Console Design Decisions

General and high profile video game topics.
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Retro STrife
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Re: Best Console Design Decisions

Postby Retro STrife » April 16th, 2020, 3:09 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:
Gentlegamer wrote:
Buttermancan wrote:The Sega Saturn having a hard drive. At the time it was amazing and so much better than the playstation and N64 for saving games!


You mean internal save battery. It was in concept cool but the battery had no more longevity than many carts.

Though I still have NES carts with 25+ year old save games.


This is an interesting point. The Saturn and NES cartridges used the same type of battery - the CR2032 - and yet the cart batteries last for decades while the Saturn battery can't make it through a year!


Yeah, the Saturn backup battery is already on the Worst Console Design lists, so it couldn't make this list. Personally, I agree with it being on the "bad" list as a terrible design, because the battery only lasts about 1 year, and then you lose all your saved games. I'd take memory cards over that system any day. And in fact, even with the Saturn, it's basically obligatory to buy the extra memory card accessory due to the battery dying so quickly. But, in concept, could have been a great idea if it at least lasted 5-10 years.

ThePixelatedGenocide
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Re: Best Console Design Decisions

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » April 17th, 2020, 11:17 am

Retro STrife wrote:That reminds me... the PS2/PS1 compatibility was a great design decision in its own right, and worth mentioning. The PS1 was the best selling console ever at that point, so it allowed the PS2 to ride the PS1 coat tails while its game library was pretty weak for the first couple years.


It was also cool to see all those games with texture filtering and faster load times. It wasn't quite Bleem, but it helped the PSone age gracefully.

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Re: Best Console Design Decisions

Postby VideoGameCritic » April 17th, 2020, 11:32 am

So it sounds like Atari 7800 and PS2 qualify for the same good design item. Do I separate the two or combine them?

Gleebergloben123
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Re: Best Console Design Decisions

Postby Gleebergloben123 » April 17th, 2020, 11:47 am

On the INTV, hitting 1 and 9 at the same time pauses your game.

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Retro STrife
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Re: Best Console Design Decisions

Postby Retro STrife » April 17th, 2020, 12:01 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:So it sounds like Atari 7800 and PS2 qualify for the same good design item. Do I separate the two or combine them?


Good question.. I think either way is fair. But in the interest of not taking up two spots, I'd vote to just combine them.

But I do think both are equally worthy. I believe the 7800 was the first US console with backwards compatibility. (But computers probably had it first, so it wasn't a new concept. And the Mark III in Japan, playing SG-1000 games, might have preceded the 7800. They were both in development at the same time.) But either way, I think 7800 was the first notable US console use and having the 2600 library at its fingertips might be the main reason it survived the few years that it did. Likewise, the PS2 brought back backwards compatibility after a 15-year hiatus, and did it on much more complex hardware. It was huge for the PS2 to capture that giant market of PS1 gamers and migrate them to the new system. And it set a new standard, where gamers today have started expecting backwards compatibility.

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Re: Best Console Design Decisions

Postby VideoGameCritic » April 17th, 2020, 12:27 pm

Of course the Wii was backwards compatible with the GameCube. It's kind of a slippery slope so maybe I'll just focus on one and mention the others.

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Retro STrife
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Re: Best Console Design Decisions

Postby Retro STrife » April 17th, 2020, 12:53 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:Of course the Wii was backwards compatible with the GameCube. It's kind of a slippery slope so maybe I'll just focus on one and mention the others.


In fairness to the PS2, the backwards compatibility on the Wii/Gamecube, Xbox 360/Xbox, and PS3/PS2 are different though. That entire Wii, 360, PS3 generation did backwards compatibility largely to copy the great design decision reignited by the PS2 in the prior generation, because they saw how well it exploded PS2 sales. Picking one is fine of course, but just wanted to add why I don't see the slippery slope if 7800 and PS2 were both featured, as they represent such different eras.

I think another question is whether you include multiple design decisions for the same console into one spot or two. For example, the PS2 has the highest consoles sales by far in history -- two huge factors in those record sales (besides the games) were the DVD player and backwards compatibility. If you used both, you could do those separately or include as one entry.

strat
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Re: Best Console Design Decisions

Postby strat » April 17th, 2020, 2:03 pm

Didn't PS3 make rechargeable, wireless controllers the standard?

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Re: Best Console Design Decisions

Postby VideoGameCritic » April 17th, 2020, 2:16 pm

Actually the Xbox 360 came out a little bit before the PS3, so does the 360 deserve this honor?

Alucard1191
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Re: Best Console Design Decisions

Postby Alucard1191 » April 17th, 2020, 2:44 pm

I think the PS2 deserves the backwards compatibility mention over the others, as it made that the standard. And I agree on the xbox 360 controllers. I know some people hate on them, but I think that is a really well designed controller, and I have experienced no issues with them dying at a bad time. If it starts to die, I just grab a new battery off the charger. I have 4 batteries and don't do a lot of social gaming, so it is never an issue. And they don't eat batteries like the wii controllers do.


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