I’d have to go with the wood grain Atari 2600, I’m a sucker for 70’s designed electronics.
I like the woodgrain look, but I don’t think the Atari 2600 is a very good example of it. Lots of audio equipment from the time does it better. Especially when combined with brushed aluminum or stainless steel.
Purple GameCubes are retro now, so I’ll go with that as my favorite.
Technically neither a console nor a PC (in the IBM-compatible sense), but the Commodore PET has a certain kind of 70s futurism about it.
Note the integrated tape deck for all your storage needs.
The keyboard pictured, while interesting looking, is a complete POS. Later PETs had a more usable keyboard with a better layout.
Console: Sega Dreamcast
PC: Any IBM beige box from the 90s
while not necessarily the prettiest console by any means but i always thought the Og xbox home menu went way harder than it needed to, now that’s presentation!
They said retro, the Xbox can’t be retro, its only been around for- oh. Oh no.
It just looks so sleek. For me, it was the future of gaming.
One more vote with OP. That Atari is a nice looking machine.
The Mega Drive is the best looking retro console, I mean look at it
This one looks a little naked. Needs more “High Definition Graphics” or whatever it says
Best looking and best name.
The Atari Portfolio (the one John Connors uses in Terminator 2) or the ST Book.
Vectrex, hands-down.
The 2600 depicted in the article thumbnail, was absolutely a beauty in its native environment of the late 1970’s:
I’m a fan of how ENIAC really used the space
If we’re also talking old computers then it’s hard to beat the Cray-1
Also had the advantage of fooling your house guests into thinking it’s a weird, modernist couch that makes conversation really hard.
Damn, wood. Or wood-looking material at least.
Humm, for PCs I’d have to say iMac
For game consoles it’s a hard debate between the GameBoy Pocket or the GameBoy Micro. One is the essence of a GameBoy shrunken down to a power efficent and usable design. While the other is the smallest you can make a console while still having it usable.
I still have that GBA micro laying around somewhere. An ex GF stole my reloadable cartridge though. :(
Mine has a black face plate.
Apparently, the Micro was the last Game Boy product that Nintendo made.
Very elegant.
I would say the cutoff is Game Boy Advance SP and Micro is a poseur, because Micro can’t play original Game Boy or Color games. If one is counting GBA, then the DS and DS Lite could still play those.
Edit: Get a flash cart and you can unofficially play old GB on any GBA-compatible using Goomba Color. Micro is awesome at what it does, I just hate that it has the Game Boy name yet can’t play GB games and had yet another different link cable port because Nintendo!
PC Engine. Not only does it look like a prop from the set of TNG, but it is delightfully tiny. The cartridges are little cards that you slot in the front. There is literally nothing bad about a PC Engine. (Except for maybe that it’s only got one controller port)
+1.
Also it can be turned into a coolest spaceship, with its CDRom attachment, a very first in 1988!
Also the HuCard format for its games is unbeatable!
Speaking of spaceships…
Not the most practical PC engine model, because it lacked the extra oomph of the SuperGrafx and you couldn’t attach a CD-ROM² - but just look at it
The PC Engine/Turbagragix 16 also had a handheld (PC Engine GT/TurboExpress) that was way ahead of its time. It had the same power as the home console, was color, had a backlit display, and even had a TV tuner attachment. And it was released in 1990. The Sega Nomad basically copied these features in 1995, and Nintendo didn’t have a colored, backlit handheld until 1998.
I loved mine.
Is PS Vita a retro console? If so that.
I’d say PSP is, but Vita isn’t. DS is, but 3DS isn’t.
To me, no. PS2 is a retro console, but PS3 (Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X., Crysis 2) is not. I mean, look at those games’ graphics, they look FENOMENAL.
I’ve still got mine, and it still works great! I sold my PSP to get a used one about a month from launch, and I’ve kept it ever since. It’s a great console, if only there were more games for it.
I modded mine. Once modded it can emulate most gba, gbc, psp or ps1 games (and more). The full extended library is pretty big once emulation comes into play.
I’ve seen people doing that, I should look into doing it sometime. I mostly use the Steam Deck for handheld emulation, but it can’t hurt to have more options!
It came out in 2011/2012, I wouldn’t classify that as retro
The 2600 was retro and quaint by 1990.
