Console aesthetics

[Anonymous No.2168983]

They used to have all kinds of interesting contours. Part of the excitement of a new console unveiling was the aesthetics. Like some kind of fucking alien spacecraft had landed that we could play astonishing new games on.

But now, they all look like generic rectilinear media appliances with no concrete identity. Even Nintendo has gone this route. The Wii and WiiU look like mid-2000s Apple products. The Xbone and PS4 look like DVRs.

Look at the styling of the N64. The PC Engine. The Dreamcast. Even the Jaguar, despite the terrible library, was interesting to look at and exuded distinct character.

The hardware architecture was also radically different! It made for games that looked recognizably different on different platforms. The last example of this I can remember was the weird tri-core PowerPC architecture of the Xbox 360, also a neat looking machine imo, if unreliable.

Nowadays they're all just mid range PCs in slightly different boxes. For a hardware collector who delights in the idiosyncrasies of different consoles, this bland sameness is absolute cancer.

[Anonymous No.2168991]

Gonna post good looking consoles until discussion picks up.

[Anonymous No.2168994]

[Anonymous No.2168996]

[Anonymous No.2168997]

[Anonymous No.2169000]

[Anonymous No.2169005]

We all know the CD addon resembled a toilet and that the mold for the main console was used to later make dental equipment. Gonna pre-empt that right now. Maybe it had only 5 truly great games but the console design itself was on point. Shame about the convoluted graphical architecture.

[Anonymous No.2169007]

>>2168991
>good looking

[Anonymous No.2169008]

Unreleased combo unit

[Anonymous No.2169012]

White Saturn or go home

[Anonymous No.2169015]

[Anonymous No.2169016]

>>2169007
It's popular now to say the 64 looked like shit but i remember being in love with it's upturned, shaped front and dark grey when it first came out

[Anonymous No.2169030]

That's because consoles aren't consoles anymore. They're media centers. They play movies, TV shows, music, social network, oh, and yeah, play games. And these media centers have to fit in (aesthetically and physically) with the rest of the entertainment center. Kinda sucks, but that's the future.

[Anonymous No.2169036]

>>2169016
Haha, I've always thought it looked ugly since the beginning.

NES > Wii > SNES > GC > N64

The first 3 are up for grabs, but I'm kinda set on the last 2.

[Anonymous No.2169079]

>>2169030

They should do all of that but also look meaningfully different from a PC. Or else why wouldn't I just hook a PC up to the television as a Steam box?

[Anonymous No.2169091]

If it doesn't have wood grain it might as well be a plastic dog turd.

[Anonymous No.2169093]

>>2169091

That just made the 2600 look like a prop on a 1970s porno set

[Anonymous No.2169102]

>>2169093
A console that clashes with cocaine and naked women doesn't suit a genteel lifestyle.

[Anonymous No.2169105]

>>2169012
Look at that solid plastic that looks like it belongs to a space station in the future. Nowadays it's all black and shitty 'piano' plastic.

[Anonymous No.2169109]

>>2168983
This is because everything is sterilized now. Your phone, your TV, your game console, your car dashboard, hell even your internet browser interface is sterilized and boring.

[Anonymous No.2169118]

Xboxes are a design sin. The Saturn was also pretty ugly to be honest.

[Anonymous No.2169130]

>>2168983

That's the point. Everyone wants their shit looking like sleek-ass media equipment so users won't feel ashamed having it out on their home theater setups. I'm actually surprised Nintendo went with subtle curves to the WiiU.

>>2168991
I always thought it evoked something of a hot-rod nose. I love the N64's looks.

[Anonymous No.2169134]

>>2169118
>saturn
>both CD and cartridge slots
>pretty ugly

If having the two girls you like at the same time is pretty ugly, then by all means...

[Anonymous No.2169135]

AES and PC Engine Duo R are top-tier in the looks department, if you ask me.

[Anonymous No.2169143]

>>2169130
>I always thought it evoked something of a hot-rod nose.

So I'm not the only one.

[Anonymous No.2169839]

You can blame Steve Jobs for that, OP. All electronics had to be sleek after the ipod got popular.

[Anonymous No.2170048]

>>2168994
Man, that Dreamcast looks beautiful, Anon. Is it official?

and if so, how rare are we talking

[Anonymous No.2170063]

>>2170048
Different anon here but wasn't it a Sonic tie-in?

[Anonymous No.2170068]

>>2170063
Nah, that one had all the Sonic stuff on the top of it. This one looks different.

[Anonymous No.2170075]

>>2170068
Hmmm well it doesn't seem to be any of these:

http://segaretro.org/Special_Dreamcast_Models

[Anonymous No.2170081]

>>2169135
Agree 100% on the AES, but I prefer the normal PC engine (the tiny one) over the Duo R

[Anonymous No.2170085]

I love the aesthetics of things like genesis model 1, turbografx, and saturn. They have this industrial look to them.

[Anonymous No.2170087]

Well I, for one, welcome the design choices that led to my consoles looking less like toys and more like a/v equipment (which they are now.)

[Anonymous No.2170094]

>>2170087
They look like toy a/v equipment. Real a/v equipment has lots of dials and switches.

[Anonymous No.2170117]

Am I the only one loving the design of the gamecube? I'm not even a big player of this console but the design seem so well-thought to me

[Anonymous No.2170126]

>>2170094
>dials and switches

Fucking gross, this isn't the 70's anymore.

[Anonymous No.2170134]

>>2170126
Why do you hate porn furniture?

[Anonymous No.2170137]

>>2170117
I hate that fucking handle on it. Controller leaves me cold, too.

[Anonymous No.2170140]

I always loved the designs of the NES and Famicom.
I enjoyed the fact that the NES tucked its game nice and neatly away while with famicom all it's attachments was a nicely put together tower

[Anonymous No.2170142]

>>2170126
Don't remind me.

We'll never see pure class like this ever again.

[Anonymous No.2170148]

>>2170134
I'm very prudish.

[Anonymous No.2170150]

>>2170148
Now to make you blush

[Anonymous No.2170153]

>>2170142
Well yeah, wood doesn't look "techy" enough for NEXT-GEN consoles

[Anonymous No.2170181]

>>2170153
There are wood-panel skins for ps3/4, I know that much.

>>2170150
Goodness me, I barely even know that sink.

[Anonymous No.2170185]

>>2170181
Indeed there is. There was talk of this in another thread.

Wood instantly makes a piece of technology sexier.

[Anonymous No.2170186]

>>2169030
I would have to make an exception for the original PS3 though,i was really blown away when i first got mine out of the box.

[Anonymous No.2170208]

>>2169079
Are you saying the only reason you connect consoles to TVs is because the look different than PCs?

[Anonymous No.2170214]

>>2169091
It's not really wood, you know. It's also a plastic dog turd.

[Anonymous No.2170639]

>>2168983

Welcome to the 2010's.

Microsoft's "metro" shit is a shining example of the boring, sterilized look that seems to be cool these days.

I miss when everything was "XTREME" and colorful.

[Anonymous No.2170682]

>>2170117
The GameCube was the last console design I've actually liked along with the original GBA.

[Anonymous No.2170716]

>>2170142
I'm thinking of getting a skin for my Xbone in either NES which actually fits its VCR design or a woodgrain (either black or brown) because it's sexy as fuck; I need something to cover that horrible glossy plastic.

[Anonymous No.2170719]

>>2169036
>Haha, I've always thought it looked ugly since the beginning.
not gonna lie, you sound like you are a humongous faggot irl

[Anonymous No.2170724]

>>2170716
I know what you mean. I plan to put a 1986 Malibu decal on top of my 2015 Civic. I grew up with the '86 Malibu so I need to slap its iconography on top of every successive automobile (and phone) for the rest of my life. This way people know I'm a retro driver and hate that shiny shit. I CAN'T ENJOY THINGS UNLESS THEY LOOK LIKE WHAT I USED TO ENJOY.

[Anonymous No.2170732]

Time for more neat lookin machines

[Anonymous No.2170738]

I did not care for the SNES redesign, but the model 2 NES is quite good looking.

[Anonymous No.2170739]

Shame about the price. And library.

[Anonymous No.2170740]

[Anonymous No.2170745]

Maybe I'm alone on this but the completed Sega Voltron looked slick. Better without the 32X but the model 2 CD really did look very nice next to the model 2 Genesis. God help you if you combined it with a Model 1 Genesis or vice versa though.

[Anonymous No.2170750]

>>2170117
Looks like a box you'd keep legos in, especially in that color.

[Anonymous No.2170763]

>>2170732
Where do the carts go?

[Anonymous No.2170773]

>>2170763
You take the thing out when you want to play cart games.

[Anonymous No.2170786]

>>2169036
>Wii and GC look better than N64

Yeah basic box shapes compared to those smooth body lines? I bet you wear plaid shorts with striped shirts.

[Anonymous No.2170787]

>>2170786
>A person who likes basic box shapes is prone to wearing busy, clashing outfits rather than simple, plain clothing

[Anonymous No.2170792]

The Amstrad GX4000 was pretty shapely back in the day, I actually played one of theses regularly in 1990, then literally "weeks" later the Megadrive came out and absolutely destroyed it in every way.

It was an 8-bit console released weeks before the 16-bits hit the shelves, it had a production run of 1 year, and vanished.

[Anonymous No.2170794]

The raised cartridge slot does it.

[Anonymous No.2170795]

Not feeling the pastel buttons but everything else is on point.

[Anonymous No.2170798]

>>2170792

Damn that's fucking cool looking.

[Anonymous No.2170808]

>>2170787
I'm questioning taste. N64 is sexy and you know it.

[Anonymous No.2170814]

>>2170798

Yeah looks like it fell off the Millennium Falcon or something.

It was release in the UK in Sept 1990, 8 weeks later the M-Drive/Genesis arrived in the UK and it died a VERY quick death.

If they had released it at the time of the Master System it probably would have done ok, but still probably nowhere as well as the Master System/s etc did here.

[Anonymous No.2170816]

Unusual/interesting does not always mean good. Look at this fuckin' thing.

[Anonymous No.2170824]

Can we agree Sega made the most beautiful hardware overall? It had some misfires but the aesthetics were consistently on point imo

[Anonymous No.2170829]

Imagine the frustration of being the design guy for stuff like this

>>2168997
>>2169000
>>2169005
>>2169008
>>2170739

You want to brag about it but because of poor marketing and technology decisions it is a huge flop and laughingstock and you were powerless to prevent it. All your hard work dragged through the mud even though you held up your end 110%.

[Anonymous No.2170836]

Why did they make the TG16 bigger than the PCE?

[Anonymous No.2170839]

>>2170808
I personally agree (console, anyway), but pretending anyone who doesn't agree with us is across-the-board tasteless is a pretty immature argument. If you're going to "question taste," at least use parallels that make sense.

[Anonymous No.2170846]

>>2170836
Cause they thought that american people would not consider a tiny console like nintendo/sega ones.

True story >.>

[Anonymous No.2170851]

>>2170839
I think you're overlooking my post as a whole. You should stick to /fa/ if clothing is your area of expertise.

[Anonymous No.2170859]

>>2170851
I think you mean "overthinking," not overlooking. The point was that your reasoning is both illogical and immature. Most people stop spouting shit like "you like Korn, that's gay I bet you really like courodory and Pepsi too faggot" in middle school.

Given that we both like the N64 aesthetic and yet are vastly different people, it's obvious that you cannot deduce a person's character--or even just the summation of their taste--on a single fucking game console.

[Anonymous No.2170860]

I think the PCE supergrafx is the coolest looking console of all time. Shit looks like the power core from a robot or something.

[Anonymous No.2170863]

>>2170836

Same retarded reason the Atari 5200 was a needlessly gigantic beast. Mistaking all of America for Texas

[Anonymous No.2170867]

>>2170851

Buddy, listen. We have a friendly, civil board here. Miraculously it has stayed that way since it was born. I don't know about you but I like that casual well meaning atmosphere of fellow retro game fans brought together by their shared hobby. Don't ruin that please.

[Anonymous No.2170871]

>>2170860

Why did NEC make so many variations on the PC Engine? Even this one only offered very slight graphical improvement. Like how Atari made all those consoles that were small improvements on the 2600, none of which were even NES tier except arguably the 7800.

Generational leaps should be leaps not baby steps.

[Anonymous No.2170890]

>>2170792
Isn't that just a glorified CPC?

[Anonymous No.2170894]

>>2170871

Hindsight is 20/20. The videogame industry in the 1990s was insane. Nobody knew where it was heading or what the next big thing would be. Also literal mountains of cocaine. Picture Scrooge swimming through his gold coins but it's coke. That's how 1990s vidya corporate decisions were made

[Anonymous No.2170895]

>>2170836
Because Americans associate size with power and would assume that the Japanese-styled one would have been weaker than even the NES due to its diminutive size.

[Anonymous No.2170903]

>>2170890

You say that like it's a bad thing. Compare this to the average NES game.

[Anonymous No.2170981]

>>2170890
>Isn't that just a glorified CPC?

Pretty much yes; though, whereas you could buy a game for the CPC for maybe £2.99 the same game would cost 7 to 8 times more for the GX4000, the GX was a clusterfuck of mistakes in every respect, except the case designer did a nice job.

But like >>2170903 said, don't knock the CPC, it was actually a pretty good computer and in some ways I preferred it over my C64 for gaming, I found the colours a little more vibrant an the CPC, whereas as C64 gfx were sharper the pallatte was a little drab compared to the CPC

[Anonymous No.2170983]

>>2170117
I hate it. It's just a box with a handle on it. Exactly what the name implies, but it's fucking boring.

The PS2 and Xbox were boring designs too. The only decent design of that gen was the DC.

[Anonymous No.2171060]

>>2170795
I like it. The joystick seems out of place. Maybe if they replaced the black and red with matching colors.

[Anonymous No.2171084]

>>2170983
I don't think they were boring. The PS2 looked futuristic, and the Xbox was HUEG and gawdy, but both weren't boring.

[Anonymous No.2171106]

>>2170983
I loved the PS2 design. It felt very sophisticated and gave the impression that gaming had "grown up" (technologically), which is probably exactly what Sony was going for. If you're a cool teen or adult, what's going to appeal more to you, a sleek black "computer," a fat white Playstation with a swirl on it, or a giant purple Lego brick?

[Anonymous No.2171163]

>>2169118
>Saturn
>ugly
Return to the shithole you came from and never come back.

[Anonymous No.2172041]

>>2170816

a better view

[Anonymous No.2172045]

>>2170836

muh American sensibilities.

[Anonymous No.2172062]

>>2169839

Steve Jobs was the ultimate fedora wearing faggot.

[Anonymous No.2172102]

>>2170117

What was Gamecube originally going to be called before NoA made them change it?

[Anonymous No.2172108]

>>2170140

Yeah, too bad having the games tucked nice and neatly away proved to be the absolute worst fucking design choice.

[Anonymous No.2172131]

My personal favorite. Looks much better than the Genesis combo.

[Anonymous No.2172145]

>>2172131
God tier aesthetics ,genesis is for niggers and burger clappers

[Anonymous No.2172151]

>>2172062
>Steve Jobs was the ultimate fedora wearing faggot.

At one point he claimed that his daughter was someone elses kid because he was sterile.

what kind of asshole does that to his own kid?

[Anonymous No.2172152]

>>2172131
>>2172145
You know, that's exactly what a model 1 genesis looks like with a model 1 Sega CD.
I mean hell yeah it looks great, but the Genesis/Mega drive varied little in terms of design across its regions of release.

[Anonymous No.2172157]

>>2172102
Dolphin

[Anonymous No.2172158]

>>2170185
Weird, that looks like a console that would be released fifteen years ago. I like it.

[Anonymous No.2172215]

>>2172131
Yeah, because that's totally different from this.

[Anonymous No.2172220]

>>2172157

No no. Not it's project code name. The production model was a cunt hair from being called something else. NoA thought it sounded too kiddie or some shit. It's similar sounding to Gamecube, but not quite.

[Anonymous No.2172226]

>>2172131

wtf are all those extra indicators under the ready and access lights?

[Anonymous No.2172251]

>>2172226
What extra indicators? The mega cd only has those two, plus the power led no the megadrive side.

[Anonymous No.2172257]

>>2172251

Look at the pic. >>2172131

There are a bunch of red and green LEDs.

[Anonymous No.2172265]

>>2170740
Wonderboy 3: The Dragons Trap.

Still in my top 5 ever. Lol i still cringe when i see the term "metroidvania", when this game did it all first (also see faxanadu nes, but inferior gameplay), but it does roll off the tongue better than "metroboy" or "wondervania"...

[Anonymous No.2172267]

>>2172041
The controller looks comfortable.

[Anonymous No.2172280]

>>2172220
It wasn't "revolution" was it? Why is that springing to mind?

[Anonymous No.2172289]

>>2172280
that was the wii

[Anonymous No.2172291]

>>2172265
that's why you say wonderoid

[Anonymous No.2173089]

>>2172145
>Genesis is for niggers
>niggers
>/v/

[Anonymous No.2173101]

>>2172265
galius did it first if you wanna be anal about it

[Anonymous No.2173103]

>>>2172265
galious did it first if you wanna be anal about it

[Anonymous No.2173140]

>>2172220
Well I know the N64 was going to be called Ultra Famicom before NoA made them change it. This is the first I've heard of them changing the GameCube though.

[Anonymous No.2173181]

>>2173140
Ultra 64, actually

[Anonymous No.2173209]

I actually really like the SNES redesign, it reminds me of the original Super Famicom and I like the purple.

[Anonymous No.2173245]

>>2170185

[Anonymous No.2173250]

>>2170824

Sega is fucking ace in design and aesthetics, also reflected on their music.
But I find it funny how people never thought of the DC as a "fisher price" kiddie machine.
When you think about it, the DC looks more like a toy compared to the previous Sega systems. Couple that with the big goofy controller with colored buttons ala Super Famicom (yeah, I know the white JP Saturn has colored buttons too) and you've got Sega's most Nintendo-ish console, in terms of design.
I like both Sega and Nintendo, so I don't mind it, but I never heard people calling the DC kiddie (when many people do it with the N64 and the Gamecube). It's just funny to notice how our mind work according to our mental idea of a company's social image. I imagine if the Gamecube had been a Sega console, people would praise it a lot more, and if DC was a Nintendo console, it would be bashed more. Just a thought.

[Anonymous No.2173270]

>>2173250
You're right, it's all about good marketing. They made us associate personalities to pieces of hardware.

[Anonymous No.2173395]

>>2168983
You are right. When both the Xbone and the PS4 unveiled their box design I was quite disappointed because I felt they were lazy (and very safe) designs. I've seen a PS4 in the wild and it actually looks nice, like decorative furniture in fact, but after a while it's boring. Anyway the 360 and the PS3 had interesting boxes IMO (1st 360 and 1st and 2nd PS3), while trying to "deal" with their big sizes. The Wii is not that impactful but to me it had some kind of NES vibe, but brought to the future. It was very compact as well and the light of the drive made the thing quite elegant overall.

My retro favourites would be the Dreamcast, the Mega Drive 2 and the the PC-engine.

>>2173250
I think the design of the dreamcast fits with when it was released. By 1998 people started going to the internet at a high rate and everyone started buying a computer for their home (if they didn't have) and there was that feel we were entering the digital wild world. The Dreamcast design was like "hey, take this technology from the future packed inside something simple and fun", where simple and fun wasn't seen as kiddie because, as said, the machine is from the future.

[Anonymous No.2173592]

>>2173181
It was going to be Ultra 64 in the west and Ultra Famicom in Japan, then they changed it to Nintendo 64 worldwide

[Anonymous No.2173601]

>>2173250
dreamcast wasn't released in purple and it was known for its arcade-style games. Not really advertised as a kids toy

[Anonymous No.2173610]

>>2170117

The gamecube's handle always seemed really weird to me. Especially when the rest of the system wasn't really geared towards portability.

[Anonymous No.2173625]

>>2173610
I have 2 gamecubes and I always forget the thing even has a handle on the back. I guess it helps function as a bumper so that cables sticking out the back don't get smashed into a wall or something...

[Anonymous No.2173646]

>>2170871
I always assumed the SuperGrafx was made to compete with the Mega Drive, since the PCE was mostly made to compete with the original Famicom and wasn't really a "true" 16-bit system. Maybe they should've waited longer.

[Anonymous No.2173654]

>>2169012
god, I want to get a white Saturn, such a sexy piece of kit
It's easily my favorite looking system of all.

Probably why I haven't bought a new Saturn yet.

>>2170117
I never thought it looked amazing, but I did respect it as being well designed. The handle was cute as hell, too (although people quickly realized that it was actually a bad handle for actually holding the thing).

>>2170142
In hindsight, it's sexy as fuck. Most of my life though, I hated that look.