If forced to choose one retro console forever what would you choose and why?

What counts as retro these days anyway? It still kind of blows my mind that some people consider the PS3 / 360 retro now.
- I can understand the PS360 argument. It was probably the last generation where most games were actually playable off the disc without a bunch of patches.
  With how common DLC and stuff was becoming that generation, though, I feel like it's sort of a soft boundary for retro. I can equally accept retro being anything before the PS360, or before/including that generation.
  I don't look forward to the days where "retro gaming" refers to "any console with physical releases at all".
  
  It doesn't feel right to count that generation as retro, for reasons like GTA 5, which was initially released for those consoles, yet it's still considered a current game, with no significant overhaul beyond graphical fidelity. It's the greatest example of how games haven't drastically evolved since then.
  Compared to the jump from SNES to N64 and PS1, or from PS1 to PS3, we haven't had any major breakthrough, just moderate incremental improvement.
- 15 years for me. :)
  
  That seems reasonable, but oof it makes me feel old lol.
- I mean it makes sense, I remember around 2006 everyone referred to the SNES as "retro" and no one questioned it. That's a smaller time gap than 360 era to now.
  
  For sure, though I think a couple of things make it weird to me. Games changed a lot more in that early period, I think. Plus a lot of games in the PS3 / 360 era seem to just get rereleased slightly differently every few years which kind of makes it seem like we never left that generation.
- Videogames (also) do get "older" so the "retro" bar tends to raise.

Asked differently, "what console did you have as a kid?"
- Nah, I had each of them and the SNES was best. Super Mario World, karts, RPG’s.
  No SMB3 though :(

Definitely SNES. A few years ago I might have said N64, but I've realized that there were very few good games for the 64.
- The 5th gen consoles are a great time capsule of everything developers didn't understand about 3d gaming. If you don't have a strong sense of nostalgia for them, most of the games aren't worth bothering with and even the ones that still hold up were mostly dead ne better on the 6th gen consoles.
  The fact that most of the great 2d games were intentionally withheld from the North American market is a real shame since the ps1 and Saturn were amazing at 2d.
  
  If Atari was the infancy of video games, then the N64 must be the awkward puberty years.
- I was teetering toward the Super Nintendo also with Earthbound, MK2/MK3 Ultimate, and Super Mario World. The roaming around in Super Mario 64 and flying non-stop with the birdman suit in Pilotwings 64 won me over with the N64 in the end though.
  Could do this all day...
  
  That's where I was until about 5 years ago when I bought a used N64 so I could play those greats again, and after about a week, I never touched it again. Still playing my Super though!
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  Could do this all day...
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

I'm sad no one else has said Dreamcast.
- To the top with ye!!!!
- I'd still take the snes but DC is my second choice since I'm a big fan of fighting games
  
  I could probably play soul calibur and powerstone forever
- Best console ever.

FYI, retro means something new with inspiration from the past. The word you’re looking for is vintage.
Setting that aside, it’s gotta be the SNES. The games from that generation have aged far more gracefully than the early 3d games of the fifth and sixth generation consoles.
- The Retro/Vintage thing drives me crazy. Not that I mind words altering their meaning over time, that's just a fact of language. But searching for things when the two words are used interchangeably half the time is a chore 😂 From what I've seen, other hobbies do it a bit better than video games do.
  But I'm going to completely agree with the SNES. Early 3D aged so horribly, if you ask me. As much as I loved my N64 back in the day, it is easily my least used console and mostly just collects dust.
- In german this differentiation is only valid for furniture (and sometimes clothing), everything else is always just Retro. 😮‍💨 People are unwilling to change their minds on that. I had that discussion often enough to give up and just accept it. Sometimes neo-retro is used for inspired new stuff, seems to be easier to create new words the to use the correct ones it seems. 😫

GBA. Most games are very solid, and even the top 200 are great.
- Plus it's compatible with every DMG and CGB game.

Super Nintendo, or SNES. The Mario and Zelda games were great, and so was Mario Kart, but there were loads of great third party games too, like Castlevania and Super Probotector (Contra?).
- Same - how could I turn my back on the system that gave us Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Metal Combat, Mega Man X?

I suppose it depends on how much I can bend the rules...
If I'm allowed to use the console only 'as-is', then probably the Nintendo DS. This gives me DS games (which are great), but also GBA games as well (though you'll miss out on GBC/GB games, which is a bit sad); this also nets you a smattering of NES/SNES ports to boot, so that's nice. But most importantly, it gets me Chrono Trigger and a bunch of my favorite Castlevania games all in one place (sad that SotN doesn't get here, but...)
If I'm allowed to use the console with no hold's barred, then Playstation Vita. Mod that little sucker and you've got access to a ton of stuff... PSV games obviously, but emulated PS1, PSP, GBA, GBC, GB, NES, SNES, and Genesis also (and maybe more, I don't think I've tried any others though).

Is the PS2 old enough yet to be considered retro? That would be my pick, if so.
- I dont want to accept it however I'm pretty sure that it is considered retro. I would also pick ps2 not only does it have an massive library of games but there are alot of insanely good ones
  
  Yeah, some of my favorites of all time are PS2 games. Plus, not only does it have a huge library on its own, but it can play PS1 games as well
  
  PS3 is considered retro now

SNES or PS1. Tough call either way. So many games that really did it for me on both of those. I haven't cared about consoles since really.

Amiga or Commodore 64. If I get bored of the games already around, I can just program my own!
- Oh yeah, Amiga ftw.
  So much gold.

Does Wii U with its entire eShop count as a retro console? Because, despite being unpopular, it had a lot of games from a lot of past Nintendo consoles.
- Given that it is nintendo's next most recent console, I don't think it does. An arguement could be made for the wii though, and I think that had an even more extensive virtual console
  
  what

Probably a PC-engine, been discovering it's library and it's extremely pleasing for a weeb.
- Its* library.

Original NES. Mario 1, 2, 3. Just about every 1st party game was legendary, but the sports games were great too. There have never been better arcade versions of their sports than Tecmo Bowl and Baseball Stars. Shit, there have been like zero real improvements ever made to the original formula of the launch title Golf. Then there was the amazing 3rd party support. Everything from Jaws to Jackal to Top Gun to Maniac Mansion, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and on and on. Hell, it even has a couple of all time racers with Excitebike and RC Pro Am.
The hidden gems catalog for NES would be bigger than the catalog for like half of consoles out there.
No brainer. NES.
didn't even mention startropics and that shit with the manual

Does a personal computer count as retro? im going with that one
- Doesn't count as console though.
  
  Commodore 64

Can I pick a PC? x86 is retro, right? /joke
But seriously, probably the PS2. Mainly because it's the only console I got as a kid and also because it's the last console before games and consoles started wanting to phone home over the Internet. I have PS3 games that I'm pretty sure are permanently hampered or unplayable because their servers are offline, but I feel confident I can still boot any PS2 game I own and play it without issues.

Does wii count? Hacked with all emulators and virtual console stuff downloaded.
That allows one to play pretty much everything good up to wii sports and stuff, lots of options
- Would be my choice as well. The Wii had an amazing library by itself and could also play GC games out of the box, it's a pretty good deal even without hacks.

New 3DS XL. Great screen(s), great battery, great emulation capability and great native games.
- Great menu, great cfw…
- I got a new 2ds xl and I gotta say, it's ass. I have fun with Kingdom hearts, monster hunter, and smash bros. Mario kart gets boring and every other game is in this dumb chibi art style. Every jrpg.
  
  I found Xenoblade absolutely impressive under all aspects. Zelda is fantastic, FF EX, Dragonquest... all with their distinctive art style and mechanics
  But what really stuns me are the emulation capabilities. You can play all Nintendo portable games at ease + a ton of home console of the '90s and before and all in your pocket

I'd have to go with one of the kings of backwards compatibility to have a huge library; the original PS3 for its PS1/PS2 backwards compatibility, GBA SP for its GB/GBC backwards compatibility, or Wii U for its Wii and Virtual Console compatibility. Of those, I'd probably pick Wii U.

PS1 had a bunch of bangers. or N64

Personally, I would prefer the N64 to the SNES. I think I could still spend months just playing Goldeneye and that Star Wars game.

Since 10 y.o. is old enough to be a cutoff for me, PS Vita, and because modding community never stopped. You can even play some Android and PC games through wrappers in it. -

Mega Drive
I still have mine.

It's a close call but I would pick the original PlayStation. It still gets regular action to this day and I've barely scratched the surface of the games library.

At some point, all consoles will be retro consoles :p
!Gameboy Advance, just so many great games I'm still to play!<
- Specifically AGS101 for the better backlight. I'd say DMG because that's my favorite, but with the GBA line, I don't have to pick.

I'm gonna cheat on a technicality, and say "Evercade" which is still getting new cartridge releases. It's retro, but not vintage.
If I had to go vintage...probably the SNES for multiplayer, but it would hurt a lot not to pick the Gameboy SP.

I'm by no means an Analogue fanboy, but the Analogue Pocket would be my pick. The screen filter/emulation on the super-high-res screen, super low latency, portability with dockable functionality, retro form factor, and it covers all the systems that are "retro" in my mind (pre-PS1). I think others may prefer a Steam Deck or Odin or other more powerful handheld to emulate better systems or have more seamless save states.

Xbox 360 if that's to young then prehaps the PS2 or gameboy
- Hearing the 360 referred to as retro physically pains me
- Too* young.

Pong machine.

OG Xbox with the OG Blade UI and an OG Full Sized controller. Modded and loaded with emulators will it play nearly anything.
- the blade UI was Xbox 360, not OG xbox.

I love gaming on the go so I'll put in a vote for the GBA, which has quite a few NES and SNES conversions.as well as soke great games in it's own right

ColecoVision.

GBA SP

By my definition, the Vita is Retro. In which case that since it can emulate everything I want to play and more.
If I have to go pre 2010 probably a DS or PSP due to the vast library of games I like
Pre 2000... PlayStation 1 or Super Nintendo leaning heavily on PlayStation

Sega Saturn or PlayStation 2. I’m mainly a STG/shoot’em’up player and those two consoles have a ton of them. If forced to choose between the two, PS2 edges out on top because of Dodonpachi Daioujou which I consider to be perfection.
- Retro doesn’t include gen 2, gen 2 systems aren’t old enough to be retro.
  Now, if you will excuse me, I have clouds to yell at.

At first I was going to say SNES, since I did not own one as a kid and I'd have the chance to play all the 16-bit games I missed, but instead I'm going to say PS1. The classic SNES games are being re-released in various services or packs including Switch Online in their original form and if push comes to shove SNES emulation has been quite good for a long time. I've played even less PS1 and it has a huge library full of "hidden gems" and classics in all sorts of genres, many of which may never see a re-release on retro consoles or services. Just pick a type of game you want, the PS1 probably has it, something that even the SNES may not be able to say.
- It did get FF7 and twisted metal, but SNES got Super Mario World, and the Genesis got the best Shadowrun.
  
  Oh I'm not saying that the PS1 has the "best" library, but among the 16-32 bit console generations it likely has the most varied library of games that are generally more difficult to emulate/play properly on other things like emulators and which is likely to be in more danger of losing more of its library to the aether of lack of preservation than the Genesis, SNES or perhaps even the N64. Also, while you can find the classic PS1 games such as FF7/8/9, Twisted Metal, Castlevania SotN, Metal Gear Solid, Crash, or Spyro all over in collections or remakes like Crash N-Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited, there's a lot of weird and fun experimental stuff on the PS1 while devs were figuring out what they could do with 3D and mastering 2D gameplay that I would absolutely love to give a try. There's a certain aesthetic of 2D PS1 and Sega Saturn games that has always looked oddly charming to me and I enjoy.

TurboGrafx 16 baby...

I'd say the gamecube for smash melee mostly, but the first Wii was backwards compatible so there's literally no downsides to that over GameCube.

Wii U is probably the safest bet as it can natively play GameCube and Wii games with easy emulation for the rest of the systems.