I'd have to go with the wood grain Atari 2600, I'm a sucker for 70's designed electronics.
While I definitely agree the overall best design goes to the Atari 2600, this comes in close second for me:
This bad boy (or girl, rather) is the Casio Loopy. Yes, Casio, the company primarily known for making wristwatches. This console was only released in Japan, and when it launched it had a target demographic of girls and young women. The console came with a built-in sticker printer, and the games were woman-targeted games in genres like romance, fashion, and life simulation (like Animal Crossing). Only 10 games were ever made for the Loopy, by the way. Its biggest failure and reason for not selling well was being a console that had games that looked like the SNES but having to directly compete with the PS1 and N64, as well as the replaceable sticker cartridges being very expensive.
Now, I am a man, and I am clearly not a part of the target demographic of this console. The games are entirely uninteresting to me, except maybe the Animal Crossing-like game "I Want A Room In Loopy Town." But something about the curved shape of the console and its cool purple hue speak to me. The black cover for the sticker ejection port has me imagining a newer version playing an animated logo on that part if a small screen was behind it. The absurdly massive Eject button just looks like it gives the most satisfying "kerchunk" when you press it to eject a cartridge.
In third place I'd have to give a shout out to the Apple iMac G3, even though I really dislike Apple products and its neither a game console.or made for gaming in general, something about the white and bold color combo just looks really cool. The mouse was really bad though. Got a bit of that Frutiger Aero look.
Why does there have to be just one? So many consoles are awesomely designed and reflect their eras well. Iām partial to colecovision and the Intellivision II. The redesign of the intellivision had an entire suite of peripherals to match the new design, including a musical keyboard.
I've got to go with the 2600 as well. Mostly because of the wood grain!
Might be biased, but the Commodore 64 is just iconic and good looking (what is not to love about a breadbox?)
Personally prefer sx-64, but breadbin is a close second.
Oh, that is cool.
The Atari XL seriea computers cut a nice space between retro and futuristic.
They're much sleeker looking than their 400/800 predecessors, as well as the Apple II and the breadbin VIC 20/64/C16. Only the 64C and Plus/4 really look similarly minaturized and not-in-need-of-a-big-wristrest-for-comfortable-typing.
The use of metal and smoked plastic trim gives it a premium appearance. The 1200XL even hides the cartridge slot on the side to avoid anyone nistaking it for a mere console..
Iām a fan of the Dreamcast and GameCube. Or the PS2 mini. I appreciate that early y2k aesthetic.
Oh and the Master System 1 was pretty cool with its 80s cyberpunk shape.
How many consoles look like toilets?
Also, most useful as a toilet.
I had this one many moons ago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleco_Telstar_Arcade#/media/File:Coleco-Telstar-Arcade-Pongside-L.jpg
Wood grain, triangular, and it had a gun.
(I'm sad no one uses faux-marble anymore.)
PS2 slim deserves a mention, I feel.
PS2 slim is now retro
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It's now older than the NES was when it was brought back on the Wii via Virtual Console.
Stop it she already turned to dust!
Japan had some killer PC designs in the 80's and 90's. But I'd say my favorite is a toss up between the X68000 and the Sony MSX 2
For consoles, I still think the Sega Genesis Model 1 is a masterclass in visual design.
That MSX 2 is sick.
If we're talking strictly design, my personal favorite is a generic fat PS2, probably tied with my model 1(?) Sega Genesis (none of the things like 32x or CD, which I desperately want to get some day).
If we're talking like PC with OS, the 90s Amiga lineup because I think the Amiga Workbench 3 line and the icons they used look absolutely beautiful. Definitely would love to get my hands on a 1200, but they're expensive. So no getting into that hobby for me just yet.
I never understood the choice to put a flowchart on the front of this one. š
Hol'up.
Atari's only had 4, not 6, switches on them?
Nope, there were two different versions! The 6 switch is the original. (And in my opinion the better looking one!) The 4 switch came later, and still has 6 switches, they just moved the difficulty switches to the back. I believe it saved them some money and made production a little easier because everything was on one circuit board with that setup.
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