Gen 1 = Pong/Telstar/Odyssey
Gen 2 = Atari 2600/Colecovision/Odyssey2/Intellivision
Gen 3 = NES/Master System/Atari 7800
Gen 4 = SNES/Mega Drive Genesis)/CDi/TurboGrafx16/Neo Geo
Gen 5 = N64/PS1/Saturn/Jaguar
Gen 6 = Xbox/Dreamcast/PS2/GameCube
Gen 7 = Wii/Xbox 360/PS3
Gen 8 = Xbox One/PS4/WiiU
For me personally:
Gen 1 < Gen 2 < Gen 3 < Gen 5 < Gen 6 < Gen 4 < Gen 7 < Gen 8
Gen 4 which is effectively the 16-bit Eea I feel has aged impeccably. I still to this day replay so many games from that period. Donkey Kong Country, Streets of Rage 2, Super Punch Out. So much holds up.
Gen 5 and 6 were the earlier 3D stuff and I gotta say, much of which hasn’t aged well at all. In particular Gen 5.
For me personally, Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 games would be pushing it for me. Every generation before is completely outdated and obsolete for me. They were awesome at the time but for me now, nope. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t play Indies anymore because they’re all 8/16 bit and I have been done with them for a very long time.
I think you need to go back and play some PS1/Saturn/N64 games some time mate. It’s not a good experience. Even “the all time classics” haven’t aged well. Like Mario 64.
No I don’t. LOL. I don’t even want to go back to the PS4/XBO generation. No way im going back to play any of that old stuff. First, I can’t since I don’t own any of those consoles and second, I know they all look bad and in a lot of ways, play bad. The only game I could play today would be Pokemon Puzzle League on N64. But it’s a puzzle game with blocks. lmao.
SNES/GEN would be the only consoles I could ever give a shot to but even then, I don’t think that I would make it halfway through any game. Just too old, outdated and obsolete for me now.
Chrono Trigger is still an all time classic JRPG but in no way, shape or form could I ever play that today. lmao.
Gen 1 < Gen 2 < Gen 5 < Gen 3 < Gen 6 = Gen 4 < Gen 7 < Gen 8
Gen 6 and 4 are tied for me. Gen 6 is really where 3d grew the beard so to speak and enhancements on PC and Series X help a ton whereas 4 has aged almost perfectly except in terms of gameplay design decisions that have been moved past.
Gen 2 < Gen 1 < Gen 5 < Gen 3 < Gen 4 < Gen 6 < Gen 7 < Gen 8
The gen 2 tried to add more color and shit to the gen 1 games, but today they look way worse than how simple and basic (but it looks good) of the first Gen.
And the games of the Gen 5 alongside with the start of the 3D looks really bad to modern standarts.
Gen 1 and Gen 2 where barely 2D and Gen 5 with 3D framerates in the single digits. I can live without that. Only N64 games can salvaged by remastering with higher framerates and resolution and are still playable, the rest is trash.
Gen 1,2,3 was an experiment to bring video games from Arcade to homes. Gen 4 was the first for hardcore gamer which let you play a “full” game from start to the end. Gen 5 generated idea & IPs for the market. Gen 6 developed gen 5 achievements. Gen 7 industry stopped. Services Era began.
My favorite as an analysts is Gen 5 why? Cause I liked the new idea & IPs get born, not necessary to be perfect, cause it’ll get there later.
My order as gamer:
1- Gen 6 “where gen 5 ideas & IPs get bloomed”
2- Gen 4 “the first real & full video game experience”
3- Gen 5 “in its time”
Don’t have any interest on the rest, good gens, but not impactive or developed something old to the next level except Killer Instinct 2013. After Gen 9 3rd year, with Backward + subscription services say goodbye to Gen 7&8.
Note: PC gaming was a thing since 80s, thinks it deserve to be on the list of the thread.
I’ve always seen generations in pairs. The first of the pair brings something new, and the second of it represents an evolution of that tech that is the perfect marriage of custom designed hardware (that learned from the past gen) and software that represents an advanced understanding (both technical and artistic) of how to get the most out of that hardware.
For example, Gen5 represented a move to 3D visuals. The hardware was adequate, but didn’t fully understand the needs of artists and engineers. The next generation, Gen6, applied all lessons learned and addressed a lot of the problems it had. Textures were no longer pixelated, the resolution maxed out the display (480p), frame rates more consistently hit 30 fps, etc.
Gen1 represented bringing videogames to homes.
Gen3 represented bringing arcade-like hardware home at an affordable price
Gen5 represented bringing 3D visuals to homes
Gen7 represented bringing HD 3D visuals that leveraged shaders, and persistent storage (useful for open world games).
And IMO Gen9 represents 4K visuals with Ray Tracing and Machine Learning. I predict Gen 10 will leverage these things and make Gen9 look antiquated. In 7 years I imagine raytracing could be the standard for all games in their lighting.
1- Gen 6 “where gen 5 ideas & IPs get bloomed”