Quote Originally Posted by Rob2600 View Post
To me, there are very clear differences between the Atari 2600 and the 5200/ColecoVision.

Just because the 5200 and ColecoVision only lasted two years on the market, that doesn't mean they should be lumped in with the previous hardware generation.

I'm surprised there's even a debate about this.
I think the biggest reason for this is that a large number of people helping decide what constitutes a generation started gaming with the NES and sometimes think anything before the NES doesn't matter. Now I am not saying everybody that started with an NES feels that way, but a lot of them do.

I think it's ridiculous that there is not an extra generation in there, but like someone said it's all just pre-crash to many.