Vintage gaming community.
Rules:
If you see these please report them.
I'd have to go with the wood grain Atari 2600, I'm a sucker for 70's designed electronics.
Why does there have to be just one? So many consoles are awesomely designed and reflect their eras well. I’m partial to colecovision and the Intellivision II. The redesign of the intellivision had an entire suite of peripherals to match the new design, including a musical keyboard.
Game Boy Advance. Actually all 3 variants (GBA, SP & Micro) are beautiful consoles.
I'm partial to the translucent version of the OG GBA.
God damn marketing! That picture makes it look like it had OLED before it was invented. Of course, these days you can make it actually look like that but it's ~$60 and you install it yourself.
Completely forgot I had this until seeing this image. Brain skipped straight to the SP.
I went from Glacier OG to Silver SP. Never got a Micro.
Oh yeah right... the Gameboy advance can legally be considered as a retro console...
Good pick!
I got my start with atari 2600 but I think the GameCube was the best looking in both form and function. Best looking computer is an IBM Aptiva S 
the atari 2600 looks like it could take you back to the future with enough jigawatts
Intelligang represent!
Intellevision may not have the best controller design out there, but the versatility with the different card inserts made playing games easier when I was a kid. Basically a guide in the palm of your hands for each game you owned. Losing them did blow however.
Needs a Sonic 3 cartridge plugged into a Sonic & Knuckles cartridge plugged into the 32X plugged into the Genesis to get the full Sega experience.
Ask and you shall receive fellow lover of lock on technology ™️
Unfortunately I don't have a genesis Game Genie or Action Replay to really spice it up
If I could reach through my phone screen, I'd definitely let you borrow my game genie just to complete that lock on power tower.
And the pièce de résistance, a Game Genie.
I never liked the side-by-side Mega CD.
The stacked one looked better. Like an old hifi system.
I never understood the choice to put a flowchart on the front of this one. 😆
How many consoles look like toilets?
(I'm sad no one uses faux-marble anymore.)
While I definitely agree the overall best design goes to the Atari 2600, this comes in close second for me:
This bad boy (or girl, rather) is the Casio Loopy. Yes, Casio, the company primarily known for making wristwatches. This console was only released in Japan, and when it launched it had a target demographic of girls and young women. The console came with a built-in sticker printer, and the games were woman-targeted games in genres like romance, fashion, and life simulation (like Animal Crossing). Only 10 games were ever made for the Loopy, by the way. Its biggest failure and reason for not selling well was being a console that had games that looked like the SNES but having to directly compete with the PS1 and N64, as well as the replaceable sticker cartridges being very expensive.
Now, I am a man, and I am clearly not a part of the target demographic of this console. The games are entirely uninteresting to me, except maybe the Animal Crossing-like game "I Want A Room In Loopy Town." But something about the curved shape of the console and its cool purple hue speak to me. The black cover for the sticker ejection port has me imagining a newer version playing an animated logo on that part if a small screen was behind it. The absurdly massive Eject button just looks like it gives the most satisfying "kerchunk" when you press it to eject a cartridge.
In third place I'd have to give a shout out to the Apple iMac G3, even though I really dislike Apple products and its neither a game console.or made for gaming in general, something about the white and bold color combo just looks really cool. The mouse was really bad though. Got a bit of that Frutiger Aero look.
Japan had some killer PC designs in the 80's and 90's. But I'd say my favorite is a toss up between the X68000 and the Sony MSX 2
For consoles, I still think the Sega Genesis Model 1 is a masterclass in visual design.
That MSX 2 is sick.
Something about the Power Macintosh 6100, and the chin that does it for me. Plus the name, POWER Macintosh does it for me.
Also that prowler on the screen. I wonder if they had some sort of deal with Chrysler.
If we're talking strictly design, my personal favorite is a generic fat PS2, probably tied with my model 1(?) Sega Genesis (none of the things like 32x or CD, which I desperately want to get some day).
If we're talking like PC with OS, the 90s Amiga lineup because I think the Amiga Workbench 3 line and the icons they used look absolutely beautiful. Definitely would love to get my hands on a 1200, but they're expensive. So no getting into that hobby for me just yet.
Might be biased, but the Commodore 64 is just iconic and good looking (what is not to love about a breadbox?)
The Atari XL seriea computers cut a nice space between retro and futuristic.
They're much sleeker looking than their 400/800 predecessors, as well as the Apple II and the breadbin VIC 20/64/C16. Only the 64C and Plus/4 really look similarly minaturized and not-in-need-of-a-big-wristrest-for-comfortable-typing.
The use of metal and smoked plastic trim gives it a premium appearance. The 1200XL even hides the cartridge slot on the side to avoid anyone nistaking it for a mere console..
I've got to go with the 2600 as well. Mostly because of the wood grain!
Mega Drive 1 and 2, they both looked awesome
The headphone port on the Model 1 was so ahead of its time. Although I was stuck without an extension chord for my Koss Porta Pros (so couldn't actually use it), it was my first taste of relatively high quality sound.
