under rated and over rated consoles

[InternalPrimate]

Overrated: Dreamcast

Underrated: Saturn

[MrMatthews]

Overrated


Underrated:

[WarmSignal]

Overrated: NEC Turbo Grafx-16

Underrated: Nintendo Wii

[tomaitheous]

Overrated: NEC Turbo Grafx-16

Underrated: Nintendo Wii

How is the TG16 overrated? Most kids from the 16bit generation didn't even realize it even existed.

[chinitosoccer]

How is the TG16 overrated? Most kids from the 16bit generation didn't even realize it even existed.

Maybe it wasn't overrated 20 years ago, but nowadays, it is overrated.

[Kollision]

Overrated:
Sega Master System - it just plainly gets raped in the ass by the NES

Underrated:
Sega CD - a great platform that remains obscure to this day

[Rusty Venture]

Underrated:
Any non-3D games console
Saturn
Sega CD
32X
Dreamcast
XBox 1 (had some good games in its prime along with some bad eggs, and you could greatly increase its capabilities with $20 and some soldering skills)
PC (it can play anything you want without modding, provided you have the specs for what you're running)

My adopted Sega child.

Sure a lot of what it offered was stuff that was ported or multi system games, but I played the hell out of "Burnout 3" and I was ecstatic that I could have my own soundtrack. Crappy Fallout Boy and their ilk out, Prodigy in!

Too bad more racing games didn't support that (yeah you Flatout 2).

And saving games to an internal HDD was the bestest thing ever, no more dicking around with memory cards.

<huggles Xbox>

[MN12BIRD]

Under-rated:

Atari Jaguar. Seriously the thing has some serious power under the hood I would love to see a game that actually pushes all of its limitations. But I'm only talking about the console itself not the games! DooM, Wolf3D and AVP are the only reasons I wanted one.

Game Cube. Most people I knew during its lifespan only looked at it as a kids toy until RE4 came out and blew the PS2 out of the water. Small, durable, 4 controller ports and excellent graphics.

SMS. Most of us know its capabilities but the general gaming public has no clue. Graphics that can put the NES to shame if only Nintendo didn't have such a stranglehold on the market!

Over-rated:

Wii. Sorry but most people bought it for the hype and then never bought any games for it afterwards. Not saying its terrible or anything just way to popular in a pop kinda way. No HD support when the PS2 can do 1080 HD (Gran Turismo 4 for example) and is 6 years older!

[retrospiel]

Wii does 480p on all its games, PS2 does 320x480i or 640x240p with only few exceptions actually supporting 480p.

Gran Turismo 4 is the only game to do "1080 HD" (= 1080i = 540 lines per frame) on PS2 and it renders the game in 540p internally and outputs it as 1080i at half the frame rate (60 interlaced frames instead of 60 progressive frames).

Since there is no HDTV that actually can display 1080i (aside of some early Toshiba CRT based HDTVs) the video has to be deinterlaced first before it can be displayed - you actually gain nothing in comparision to 480p but some lag (due to deinterlacing). In fact, you loose half the frame rate in comparison.

480p is the lowest fully compatible HD signal (usually labeled 'EDTV'), then we have 720p ('HD ready', which is where they somehow squeezed in 1080i to keep Toshiba happy) and then 1080p ('Full HD').

1080i is obsolete rubbish. It's the 32X of the HD age.

[Knuckle Duster]

Underrated: The Nomad! Had they continued producing Genesis-games, this thing could have been going somewhere.

To the nearest hardware shop, for batteries?

[MN12BIRD]

Wii does 480p on all its games, PS2 does 320x480i or 640x240p with only few exceptions actually supporting 480p.

Gran Turismo 4 is the only game to do "1080 HD" (= 1080i = 540 lines per frame) on PS2 and it renders the game in 540p internally and outputs it as 1080i at half the frame rate (60 interlaced frames instead of 60 progressive frames).

Since there is no HDTV that actually can display 1080i (aside of some early Toshiba CRT based HDTVs) the video has to be deinterlaced first before it can be displayed - you actually gain nothing in comparision to 480p but some lag (due to deinterlacing). In fact, you loose half the frame rate in comparison.

480p is the lowest fully compatible HD signal (usually labeled 'EDTV'), then we have 720p ('HD ready', which is where they somehow squeezed in 1080i to keep Toshiba happy) and then 1080p ('Full HD').

1080i is obsolete rubbish.

Interesting. I always thought there was little noticeable difference from 1080i to 1080p. Nice to know these facts now. I remember the game looking much better on my friends Sony 3LED rear projection HDTV but it might have been in 480P or 720P mode or something? I can't remember what video modes the game had other than 1080i. But if given the choice between 480p and 1080i you would take 480p?

[retrospiel]

Yeah, sounds crazy judging by the numbers, but given the choice between 1080i and 480p I would choose 480p because there would be no deinterlacing, no lag, and twice the frame rate.
480p would also be the more compatible format - e.g. with LCD/Plasma TVs. Certain CRT based rear projection TVs might be compatible with 1080i, but that won't be the case with any modern variant - in which case 480p would produce the better picture.

[17daysolderthannes]

Underrated:

PC (it can play anything you want without modding, provided you have the specs for what you're running)

Yeah, the PC is a weird beast. Usually it will have the most graphically and audio-ally advanced versions of a game, but what it lacks is a consistent controller layout (sorry, keyboard+mouse=sucks) and compatibility. I don't think I've ever bought a game (other than Mac, of course) for any PC and had it work 100% perfect. Either the computer was too old and it ran slow, or it was too new and had compatibility issues from newer versions of OS. XP and later Vista were notorious for this sort of thing. It's funny that running a DOS EMULATOR is the best way to enjoy these games outside of owning a time-relevant DOS based computer. Hopefully as DOSBox progresses we'll be able to enjoy this games properly and consistently without hardware related glitches of old.

On the note of DOSBox, anyone running Mac OS X needs to check out Boxer: it's a DOSBox "front end" that makes playing old DOS games almost as easy as playing a current game. You double click the EXE file and it literally does all of the dirty work for you. Then, all it takes is clicking the EXE file and you're good to go. I think even autorun discs will work with it.

[JackieBogard]

Overrated: Sega Dreamcast (although it is my fave console)

Underrated: Neo-Geo Pocket Color. had excellent fighting games.

[Nobi]

the most underrated video game console of all time is undisputedly the sega master system the 8 bit system that was released to compete with the original nes. 95% of all gamers dont even know what the hell an sms is or what one looks like. the nes usually tops any greatest consoles lists ive seen on youtube or gametrailers etc.. yet its competitor the sms was way more powerfull, faster, more colorfull, and technically superior in every way. there are so many side by side comparisons that prove the superiority the sms has over the nes yet the nes tops all the lists and the sms was completely forgotten.
the most overrated system of all time is the snes there are definitely alot of really good games on the system but there is mostly garbage id say 75%. the games are generally bland and generic. to me super mario world just doesnt have the same charm as super mario bros 3. and the donkeykong games are some of the most overrated games of all time. everytime i go to a vintage game shop i can usually find several games on each console that are worth buying except the snes where i usually find mostly games like ultraman,