Favorite 8-bit consoles?

[Benjamin]

Did you write that with a straight face? There's a pretty big difference between Dragon Warrior 1 and Final Fantasy 1. Huge - back then, maybe not so huge nowadays. If you'd beaten both in the era, you'd could right away right away though. FF1 was impressive and pure awesome. Had beat it 4 or 5 times back then. Used to have cassette tapes of the music, too.

My face can't possibly get any straighter. Seriously, I've beaten Dragon Warrior twice and Final Fantasy once along with owning the strategy guides for both, so I know the games quite well. Final Fantasy's game mechanics aren't much improved beyond Dragon Warrior, and the gameplay and story line isn't anymore complex. The scope and size of Final Fantasy is without a doubt huge compared to DW and the party element does well in offering a bit more variety, but there's not much significant improvement beyond that -- it's a better game by offering more of the same without really improving much on it. I didn't think so much of it back then as each separate FF quest seemed like its own little game of DW until the next one showed up. Guess that's been the basic RPG template every since. :/ To be fare, most genres can be summed up similarly, each next release being a minor refinement of the prior game.

[Now there are no limits]

I'm sorry I have to disagree. The fact that the NES has the Contra, Castlevania, Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden series just demolishes anything the Master System has.. These games are LEGENDARY and definitely a big part of gaming history. Also these franchises continue to sell millions 20 years after they were released.

ET on the Atari is a big part of gaming history.

[tomaitheous]

My face can't possibly get any straighter.

...

Phantasy Star urinates all over any RPG the NES can offer up.

You make baby jesus and baby nes cry

[Black_Tiger]

Final Fantasy is in a completely different league than Dragon Warrior. I'd rate it inbetween DWII and DWIII. DWI could be ported pretty well to Intellivision and AD&D Treasure of Tarmin rivals the NES version. I don't think that story is one of the most important aspects of RPGs, it only compliments a good game.

Although FF is tied'ish as my favorite Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star is in a completely different league than it and every other NES/FC RPG. I also prefer its PSG music over anything on NES. The only game that comes close to PSI is FFIII, but it's also close to FFIV.

Ultima IV SMS is also better than most NES RPGs and has a PSG soundtrack rivaling the ones. Both SMS RPGs have aesthetics much closer to 16-bit consoles than the 8-bit generation.

[jesus.arnold]

8-bit wise, The NES, C64 and Spectrum are massively far ahead of every other 8-bit out there, due to their impressively huge game libraries.

after that would come the Master System and Amstrad which are excellent machines with very solid amounts of good games

lastly is everything else, I'm not including the PC Engine because though technically it is an 8-bit console it isn't really comparable power wise to the others.

[j_factor]

Spectrum

Spectrum is proof that the Brits are all crazy.

[ninjabearhug]

SMS is my favourite 8 bit by far. For every good game on the NES, there's a better equivalent on the SMS, with only one exception Maniac Mansion. I don't have anything against the NES, i've spent hours upon hours playing mine, and it's nothing to do with sentimental value as i didn't have either system growing up, just prefer the SMS.

Big fan of the 7800 too as it was the first console i ever used a light gun on (Barnyard Blasters, Alien Brigade), and that left a lasting impression for some reason.

I really enjoy the C64 and Spectrum too, but have recently sold all of my old computers and games. I just don't have the time to sit and wait for games to load/crash/reload anymore.

Special Mention to the GX4000. Yeah i know it's pretty shit, but i had one when i was a kid so it has sentimental value .

[djtwok]

Gamegear (because of stereo sound and more colours against sms) for the great shinobi parts, sonic 1&2, SoR, wonderboy 3,...
Beside that i also still play gameboy classics (tmnt 1&2, supermario land 1, tetris, robocop).

[jesus.arnold]

Spectrum is proof that the Brits are all crazy.

The thing is that in the UK we have nostalgia for the Spectrum because it was around when we were kids, this makes us un-biased when it comes to retro consoles, because we look past all their faults equally,

there was this guy on a website from the US who was just rating every Spectrum game badly due to the colour, and I said do you rate all Atari 2600/VCS games badly because they're blocky? is the original Gameboy worthless because it has no colour? the guy hadn't realised that he was looking past all the faults of the other consoles because he was used to them, and because he'd only just seen a Spectrum it's faults had hit him straight away.

For anyone who has never played a Spectrum, the console that it is most like over any other is the original Gameboy, it was basically a computer version of a Gameboy that you'd hook up to a TV 7 years before the gameboy turned up, very nicely detailed graphics, terrible colour (when the game wasn't just put in monochrome) and masses and masses of quality software.

The two biggest differences between the two is the Spectrum had long load times as opposed to instant cartridges, though where the GB software was being sold for £30 brand new Spectrum software was sold for £3-£10 brand new, you would find the gameboy version of Robocop for £30 whilst the Speccy one was £3 and they were pretty close to being the exact same game (GB version seems to have been ported from spectrum)

[TheEdge]

I never had an 8-bit, I didnt even know they existed until I got heavy into retro gaming. I went from NES directly to Genesis and the directly to Dreamcast.

[dragonboy]

I never had an 8-bit, I didnt even know they existed until I got heavy into retro gaming. I went from NES directly to Genesis and the directly to Dreamcast.

NES is 8-bit

[Gentlegamer]

Are we talking actual "8-bit" systems, or just consoles from what is called the "8-bit" era of gaming?

If it is the former, mine are Atari Video Computer System, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Turbografx-16.

If it is the later, my favorite is Nintendo Entertainment System.

[acdc]

master system

[TheEdge]

NES is 8-bit

Really? I thought NES were 4-bit or something