I find your pathetic comparisons between consoles to be laughable. "Oh, my Gamecube has more cool games than your Playstation!" "Ah, but my Playstation has enough power to deliver a missile to any target I choose! Lets see your X-Box beat that!"

Bah - I mock you all.

There is only one clear winner in the console wars. There is one system that stands heads and shoulders above any and all comers: The Atari 2600. What? You dare scoff at me? Fine - lets break systems the systems down, shall we? Then we'll see who has the last laugh.

Console Price:
Dreamcast: 50.99, plus Soul Caliber, plus an extra controller and memory card - 90.00 or so
Playstation 2: 299.99, plus Madden and an extra controller - 375.00 or so
X-Box: 299.99 plus Halo and controler - again about 375.00
Gamecube: 199.99 and Super Smash Brothers and controller 280.00
The 2600: 4.99, plus Space Invaders (controller AND combat included) - 5.50

Winner: The Atari! I could buy FIFTY of my consoles with what it would take to get one Playstation.

Software Price:
Dreamcast: As low as 19.99 new, and about 5-10 bucks used.
Playstation 2: As low as 40, if you are lucky
X-Box: About 40-50, depending on the game
Gamecube: A flat 50 bucks, end of story.
The 2600: As high as 20 dollars new (yes you can still get them), and as low as .5 cents used. The average price on eBay is about 2 bucks.

Winner: It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do the math - the Atari trumps all systems.

Game Library:
Dreamcast: about 250 -300 games.
Playstation 2: under 100, with about 600 PSX games thanks to backward compatibility.
X-Box: about 20-30
Gamecube: 10 to start with, and rapidly growing.
The 2600: Actually, there were so many games, people lost count - but at last estimate, at least 900 games. Plus if you were so bold to upgrade to an Atari 7800, you would have access to another 150 games.

Winner: The Atari, hands down.

Overall consoles sold:
Dreamcast: The last number I heard was in the 7-8 million range, counting Japan, England and the US.
Playstation 2: About 5 million in the US
X-Box: Unknown, but probably comperable to the Gamecube
Gamecube: 75,000 was the last number I heard
The 2600: At last estimated count, about 10 million in the US alone.

Winner: The Atari.

Gameplay:
Dreamcast: Seaman, Jet Grind Radio, Skies of Arcadia, and Grandia 2 (to name a few) make for a very strong line up.
Playstation 2: Good games are starting to come out, but are still few and far between
X-Box: A couple of good games, but nothing truly outstanding.
Gamecube: A very solid launch, but still only a handful of games.
The 2600: A list of classics as long as my arm - Pitfall, River Raid, Space Invaders, Adventure, Superman, Warlords, Breakout, HERO, The Empire Strikes Back, Combat. The list goes on and on. Ok, we have to put up with ET - a game so plentiful that Atari bought a landfill just to get rid of the stupid things, but it only happened once!

Winner: Although the Dreamcast gives it a run for it's money, the 2600 is the winner.

Graphics:
Dreamcast: 128 bit graphic engine with loads of power.
Playstation 2: 128 bit emotion engine with ooodles and oodles of polys.
X-Box: Comperable to a P4 700 computer with a bitchin' graphics card.
Gamecube: More Poligons than god.
The 2600: 1.19 Mhz 8-bit Motorola 6507 microprocessor - system specs generally outclassed by your average pocket calculator

Winner: The clear winner between the four major consoles is still undecided - but all systems trounce the 2600

So - the numbers don’t lie, the 2600 beats the your so-called 'next generation' platforms in all areas but one. So wake up to the fact that your systems don’t hold a candle to the all power Atari 2600. In fact, I doubt that your beloved systems could even take down the Intellivison!

Have a nice day.

Nice post, but can you really find it for that cheap? Funcoland/Gamestop is probably selling it for $130 and the games for $30 each.

Well, funcoland is not quite the place I would frequent for video games - the prices are less than stelar (even on new stuff). Howvever, I've seen 'em for at garage sales and goodwill for 5 to 10 bucks, depending on the condition.

There are a couple on ebay right now for 15 bucks, with box and a handful of games. Very tempting - if I didnt have three already.

Funcoland is selling the Gameboy original Tetris for $15.

THanks, I'll have to check out those auctions. Hopefully they'll work too.

dude, you got a lot of free time on your hands to do all of that researchy stuff! Better get busy playin' that 2600 instead of chattin it up with us

I know of lots of places that are sellings PS2 software for 20-30 bucks. In addition I can find GC and Xbox software for 40 new. (Not just 50 for the GC)

Ok, I'll grant you the price drop - I was going by memory on what I saw at Toys R Us. I guess the memory isnt as good as it used to be.

However, the Atari still wins in this department. You still cant find PS2 games for two dollars, can you?

Dreamcast is the winner to me at this point state of the art gaming at an affordable price.