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Which piece of gaming hardware felt most advanced for its time?

Dreamcast for sure, PSP comes a close second.
The jump from GBA to PSP and PSX/64 to DC were huge in terms of possibilities, technology and features.
 
I remember playing the TH port on my N-Gage.

I was flipping out about being able to play games in full 3D on my handheld.
 
PSP and Dreamcast definitely both felt like HUGE leaps over what we got before, but I suspect objectively it was the 360 and PS3. Both of them were very high end pieces of software that had to make an obscene loss to be even remotely affordable for most people, and the PS3 FAILED at that for years.
 
jufonuk said:
dreamcast.

going from the saturn. to arcade perfect ports and online with voice chat. wow
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This. But for me it was from PS1 to Dreamcast arcade perfection. Nothing has come close of delivering the same wow factor in my 30 year of gaming.
 
snkryo said:
Neo geo aes cause it was a beast of machine that let you play arcade perfect games at home.
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For the low low price of $150-300 a game :P


I never actually saw a Neo Geo in person while it was contemporary, so I guess my answer would be the Dreamcast as well. I remember being impressed with the Saturn and PS1 when they launched, but the Dreamcast was on a different level.

I think I would have been more impressed with my 360 if I had my HDTV at the start of this generation. It still looked a lot better than the PS2 on SD, but some of that wow factor was lost.
 
system-TurboExpress.jpg


outunderthestars said:
runner up:

pan-3do.jpg
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Correct answers...
 
PSP all the way. Everyone was amazed when it came out. It was also equally amazing how everyone forgot about it. Makes me feel nostalgic.
 
I definitely agree with the PSP. A big leap ahead of the GBA and a much better feeling and looking bit of technology than the rival DS fat (the DS lite which would come just a short while later narrowed the gap to even in my opinion).

I would go further however and bring up the PSP Go. It's a fantastically well put together device that offers a great deal of improvements over the regular PSP and many other portables, the major ones being it's ultra small form factor and USB charging abilities. It was obviously a failure, but it was a failure because it was ahead of it's time, attempting to be a purely downloadable system at a point when folks were just barely getting their head around owning a library of purely downloaded games. I've been playing Persona 3 Portable on it these last few weeks, and just handling the thing gives me this unreal feeling that I'm playing around with some futuristic device and not a dead system of yesteryear.

 
Dreamcast. Probably amplified more by going from the Saturn for me. But it was glorious. Sonic Adventure, using an RGB scart on a Sony CRT looked amazing. Then there was Shenmue.

The VMU was cool too although criminally under used. Still, online play, second screen and powerful hardware added up to a great package. The PS2 always gets sited as the reason the DC died, but the truth is that it was selling OK. Just not OK enough to rescue Sega from its preceding trail of hardware catastrophes. Such a shame.
 
Sega Model 2 arcade board.

I feel like anyone answering this question with the name of a mainstream console (or, even worse, handheld) was criminally underexposed growing up.
 
In the console space I definitely have to give it to Dreamcast, it was really mindblowing improvement. Even if I did hate SEGA at the time. No question in the handheld space though, it was PSP. Wipeout Pure in March 2005? My jaw dropped.
 
Dreamcast. It was ahead of its time with the VMU (may have inspired the gamepad for the Wii U) and online play (56k modems but still, it was functional). It got cancelled to early.
 
To be honest nearly every platform has wowed me at one point or another. Either through sheer visual brilliance for its time or revolutionary controls being introduced. A few of the most notables machines that changed the way I gamed forever...

NES
Gameboy
Neo-Geo
TG-16 (CD) & Turbo Express
Genesis
Super Nintendo
3D0
N64
Playstation
Dreamcast
Wii
 
PSP was pretty mind blowing, considering it was a portable in 2005 and was delivering ~PS2 quality games on the go.

Dreamcast, admittedly, is up there too. The public's perception of it was low for whatever reason, but it was pretty incredible considering its contemporaries at the time.
 
I agree with you OP, and I really enjoyed reading your write-up. The thing about the PSP was you could get those PS2 games on a damn portable. I remember playin ATV Offroad Fury on a demo station at Best Buy, and I was just blown away at the console experience. It was definitely what I wanted, and I sure did get it. It was also the first device I owned that allowed me to browse the web, which was just crazy. My family was in awe at how technologically advanced it was. Even these days, my dad always talks about "wow, this used to be so ahead of its time." I completely agree. Too bad about the Vita though. I got one on launch but then I sold it later, and I hyped it up soooo hardcore. Hope it can somehow get better.
 
Arcade games spoiled me, I didn't rate the 8 or 16bit consoles highly at the time but playing some good Irem, Taito, Sega and Namco ports on PC Engine GT was really cool, Atari Lynx did some amazing too thinking back.

Dreamcast was also reallly impressive.
 
soul calibur on the dreamcast blew my mind when i saw it the first time

and also tekken tag tournament on ps2 made me go HOLY SHIT IS THIS REAL LIFE
 
Personally for me the first case was going from Sega Master System and NES to Sega Genesis (sic?) Going from Double Dribble to Lakers Vs. Celtics was mind blowing. The second time was the Dreamcast. I don't think people give it enough credit for being so amazing graphics-wise out of the gate. Shit like MGS2 was amazing, but it was a long wait for those great PS2 games at launch. Soul Calibur justified my day one Dreamcast purchase. Waiting hours in line for a PS2 got me Smugglers Run and Kessen. It wasn't excactly the emotion engine, real-time dance scene from FFVIII I was expecting.
 
Strickly from my past perceptions:

- Neo Geo Pocket Color. It blew my mind back then. I wondered why people still played on a Gameboy.

- Dreamcast. THERE'S A SCREEN ON MY CONTROLLER. Also, character models had hands... with modeled fingers... It was the future.
 
Reuenthal said:
Now, for me personally it was N64 and also some of PC games that came out at about that time, specifically Quake. After that while I was impressed by subsequent hardware I was never as impressed as that time with N64 and also my PC running Quake. Some of my 3D experiences that happened first wowed me more than subsequent ones.
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Nailed it

Software/Open GL Quake (playing full-screen from 486 -> Pentium 90, and then subsequently getting a 3dfx graphics card - Quake wowed me twice) + Nintendo 64 (Super Mario 64, Shadows of the Empire on Hoth)

Honorable mention goes to SNES - the graphics were great, but the SOUND is really what impressed me - it was unbelievably awesome - Neo Geo gets a nod from me as well for the ridiculously large sprites and 200 dollar games =)

EDIT: I should add NES here - I owned a Colecovision w/ Atari adaptor - the NES was just a giant, giant leap... Super Mario blew me away and then Super Mario 3 did it again
 
Japanese computers had the best graphics at one point in regards to arcade ports.

Neo Geo
Sony playstation
Dreamcast
Radeon 9700. Nvidia was cooking numbers and this card destroyed the Nvidia 3000, 4000, and 5000 series cards.
 
The PSP for me too. Although the single stick totally felt like a step back at the same time. Never understood why they didn't just put in a second one. Loved that I had internet access, online play, and good graphics. Not to mention a very respectable library.
 
The Amiga for me, getting one of these in the latter part of the 80's was a real revelation and it wouldn't be until the arrival of the Snes and Megadrive that I saw something comparable.

I would also give a nod to the Acorn Archimedes, a 32 bit RISC based computer we used in high school. We had them in 1991 and it had a superb GUI, scanners hooked up, could video capture and had great desktop publishing software. It was leagues ahead of the PCs at the time.
 
MurderSlim said:
The Amiga for me, getting one of these in the latter part of the 80's was a real revelation and it wouldn't be until the arrival of the Snes and Megadrive that I saw something comparable.
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And the thing that needs to be remembered here is that the Amiga launched in the US three months before the NES.
 
PSP.

Some consoles were impressive leaps over previous generations, but PSP was lightyears ahead of any other handheld at the time.

Not to mention that the large screen and multimedia functions were just mindblowing for something so cheap. PMP devices with smaller screens and crappier hardware were $400 at minimum.
 
I'll second the Voodoo2 SLI. That setup was monstrous and was guaranteed to run practically every game lights out, just because of the ubiquity of the 3dfx API. I still remember the time I turned on hardware rendering for Starsiege Tribes.

It's just not the same anymore.
 
It would have to be PSP, followed closely by Dreamcast.

PSP was so far beyond GBA and DS it was unbelievable, the huge screen, console graphics, analog sticks, optical media, it was crazy tech.

Dreamcast was really insane if you think that N64 was released just 2-3 years before. Going from that low poly blurry fog mess to crystal clarity and fluidity of Dreamcast, complete with the triggers controller was spectacular. Even compared to PC, it was on its own league.

For the same reason PS2, Xbox or GCN didn't feel as advanced, they were just slightly upgraded from Dreamcast. And to me, both Xbox 360 and PS3 felt pretty ordinary when they came out, we had seen similar graphics and fluidity on PC already.

N64 did feel pretty advanced st forst sight with the anti pixellation measures and forced AA, but when the fog and blur took over those empty game worlds it felt almost instantly dated.
 
The first time I saw Daytona USA on an arcade cabinet I thought computer graphics just couldn't get any better. Blown away doesn't make it justice, never had this same feeling ever since.
 
I want to say the Dreamcast, even though I never owned one. The graphics were probably the biggest leap in a single generation that I've ever seen, but the very fact that it came with a 56k modem built-in was pretty ground-breaking. Too bad it had the worst controller for a console ever made.

For me personally, it was the Sony Playstation. It just felt... so clean. Plus the fact that I could listen to audio CDs blew my mind for some reason.
 
N64, because of Mario64.

I was 10 when it released and the analog control/precision blew my mind. I still remember that feeling. It was insane and seemed so futuristic.

First party N64 software is/was incredible and in terms of control were years ahead of anyone.
 
Definitely the Amiga 500. What a machine! The higher end ones (like the 4000) were good enough for TV CGI. Floppy drive, expandable RAM, expandable HDD, incredible graphics and sound. And a GUI! And a mouse!

Blew my mind.
 
Dreamcast and Xbox tied. Dreamcast for its GFX and overall just impact.
Xbox because of all it could do, its innards, and the step up it seemed to deliver.
 
Jumpman23 said:
To be honest nearly every platform has wowed me at one point or another. Either through sheer visual brilliance for its time or revolutionary controls being introduced. A few of the most notables machines that changed the way I gamed forever...

NES
Gameboy
Neo-Geo
TG-16 (CD) & Turbo Express
Genesis
Super Nintendo
3D0
N64
Playstation
Dreamcast
Wii
Click to expand...

You really thought these machines felt the most advanced for their time?
 
PS2 for me. Even those glowing balls in the system options blew me away with their sleek sophistication. The black on purple scheme was so sexy to me back then.
 
The lynx and the gamegear in the portable segment gotta love the 30 min battery time on the gg.
and the n64 in consoles seeing mario in 3d for the first time i said wow.
 
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