Sega Dreamcast
Year: 1998
Features: Memory Management, Audio CD, Basic Options

The Dreamcast’s startup celebration was, truth be told, not all that different from the PlayStation’s. Unlike Sony’s older box, however, Sega’s last system unified that pure white, minimal startup with the rest of the console experience. The hardware itself was minimal, small and pure white. The interface was softly colored and minimal, and Sega finally left the vast cliché of space for a gentle rippling water aesthetic. It’s the first of the console interfaces that felt specifically and thoroughly designed at every level—yet another way the system was ahead of its time.



Sony PlayStation 2
Year: 2000
Features: Memory Management, Basic Options, Audio CD, DVD Settings, A/V Settings

With a theme of light and crystal, the PS2 interface comes off a little bit like a quiet, personal fortress of solitude. It also seems simple, but what initially looks like only two choices actually open up to reveal a wide array of options and system settings. But the interface’s designers knew gamers weren’t going to spend much time looking at those—as with any system with limited memory, the PS2’s built-in software was primarily used for memory management, a boring and aggravating affair the console livened up with developer-made 3D icons that could become upset when deleted.



Microsoft Xbox
Year: 2001
Features: Memory Management, Basic Options, Audio CD, A/V Settings, Online Options, Parental Controls

In its defense, the oldest Xbox experience was consistently designed. But when the consistent elements involved are “bulbous,” and “green” that’s hardly a defense at all. For a reason that probably seemed very good at the time, the company ignored years of industry-wide design choices and returned to the same “sci-fi equals the high-tech future” mentality that worked so very badly for Sega. So, the system starts up pulsating in the heart of some depressing alien spaceship, before spitting the player out onto a sickly green grid of options. These days it is said that the Xbox 360, with innovations like the NXE, is a great example of how Microsoft is a software company much more than it is a hardware company. One can’t help but wonder where that software company was seven years ago.



Nintendo GameCube
Year: 2001
Features: Memory Management, Basic Options

The GameCube’s startup chime was probably the most playful in the history of console startup chimes, and the interface that led into was almost certainly the simplest of the type ever devised. All one could with the cube-themed menu system was set the date and manage saved games. It might seem that this was one of Nintendo’s earlier efforts to push back at encroaching videogame complexity, and while on some level that is almost certainly true it’s also important to remember that, thanks to years of cartridge-based systems, Nintendo didn’t have any experience with system interfaces prior to GameCube. Nintendo’s charm is still in full effect, of course—how many other companies could hope to make boxes even remotely adorable?