I am relatively young so this is not really missing the console for me because for most of the time it was being played I was yet to be born. I even missed the first few glimpses of the N64. But I do I have to say I miss the SNES, even though i was not around when it was. I have loved playing the games on vizzed and recently I got one myself for a decent price regarding that it is a retro collectable. To me it was nintendo's peak, there were so many good games. I just love Super Mario World and A Link to the Past was just as good. Unfortunately I am unable able to find a relatively cheap copy of A Link to the Past so for now I am just sticking with Super Mario World. 
I guess what I miss about this and the same goes for the PS1 and PS2 which I did live for, is the fact that there is no online. No online means there are no trolls, people raging down the mic and annoying friends. Gaming was really peaceful, even if you were playing mortal kombat. I miss playing games alone, it was fun!

MechaMento :   I completely agree with the peaceful part. Online gaming is cool, no question, but its gets so heated that its just not about fun anymore. Its more or less about who's better then who. And where I come from, video games where never made for such a purpose. You know?

ZeegSerpentine : Certainly! I think some of it has to do with the gamer score on the Xbox and the Trophys on the playstation. Again both concepts are cool and they are. However you will always have that guy who will only care about being better than you. Now I have no problem with rivalry but I just miss enjoying games without having to be MLG pro all the time.
If any FPS was offline then no one would care about their K/D spread. The same applys for any game which has online records. People are always fussy about their online records, I can admit that I am too. People dont want be embarrassed about it being bad because they know it is global. This is why we get some many people who leave the game early, it is so their record doesn't save. Whereas back before online play, if you thrashed your friend at some game then it would be just between you two and maybe a few others. It was never a big deal, people would just laugh it off.

I actually really miss the Nintendo Gamecube. That console had so many great games and I had spent hundreds of hours on it while it was still a big thing. Not to mention it had most of my favourite games on it. It would be amazing if people would still develop games for it but we all know that won't happen XD. It is also probably my most played console too. I have a lot of memories with it.

I can't say that I miss any system, so much as I miss the games that were put out on some of them.

For me, the Nintendo 64 had the best platformers, and that was the golden age for the genre.

The PSX had the best action games, as well as the best horror/survival games, and those were the days for those particular genres.

Do I feel that the gaming industry has gone downhill? Not a bit. What I do think however, is that the game industry is confused, and many companies have no identity of their own. They are putting out carbon copy games because they saw the success of some popular games, and started piggybacking on them. The result is the idea that "Game = Guns". Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good Third Person Shooter, but the entire industry is moving towards FPS and TPS. See a new game trailer that isn't made by Nintendo, or for one of their systems? There's about a 75% chance that it involves shooting people or things. If not, then it's probably an RPG, or a sports game (likely by EA). I realize there are original games out there, but no one can deny that these games are dominating the industry.

So in short, I think what I miss is the originality of the older games. Where are the Platformers? The Adventure games? The Simulations? I guess this is where I would have to sing Nintendo's praises. While I may think their system ideas tend to be a little hair brained as of late, they are at least somewhat original in the games they make and carry.

How long will it be before we see another game as out-of-the-box as "Haunting, Starring Polterguy", or "Toejam & Earl"? TJ&E was original and daring, and it paid off big time. The first NES Super Mario Bros. was original and creative, and we see how it affected the entire industry, and shaped it. Why can't we learn from the past that originality sells, inspires, and boosts interest in the game industry?

Rant ended.

ZeegSerpentine : i miss the snes and the dreamcast systems i had fun times on those alos the game cube had so many great titles on it and the psx which had some great final fantasy and tales of games

Eirinn : It is a shame that pretty much all of the modern games without the golden licence sticker. Even the platformers have shooting in it, like tomb raider and unchanted. It disappoints me with the lack of variety.

Back in the time of mid 8-bit to early 64-bit, all we really had was what we have now, not much variety. The video game industy was almost the same as how you put it to be thease days yet with different genres.

Since Super Mario Brothers revolusionised video games. There were numerous platformers before the big one but this one made the genre famous. Many other companies tried to emulate the mechanics or make a spin-off and share the fame with them. There were tons and tons, of course there was a little more diversity than any other era of genre. That was the case until mid 64 bit with the PS1and the amazing action and adventure games that you even mentioned and a new but short era was born.

Before platformers was side scrollers and before that was space shooters. But then thease days we are in the FPS era and we all have Doom to blame.

As we know, Doom kicked FPS' off (forget wolfenstein) however it was pretty much one of it's kind. No one at the time could master the 3D FPS gameplay on 16-bits apart from id software so we had to wait for 64 for it to be resurrected.

It wasn't just id to blame. Many other companies grew this genre until now when we are sick of it.

I hate generic FPS games. I like stuff original like Half Life and Halo and even they have had their fair share of spin-offs.

My point is, the video game industry is not confused, we are just going through an era. If this thread was made in the 90's we would be complaining about platformers.
The era will end some day. I am guess that Sandbox games will be the next with Minecraft, Garry's Mod and GTA rising higher and higher in popularity.

I really miss the GameCube, I loved Super Smash Bros, Pokemon XD, and all those other great games.

For me, I really miss the Gamecube. I loved playing the NASCAR games and Shadow the Hedgehog.

Honestly, I miss the gamecube a lot. It was the system I played with the most ever since I started playing games. I had so much fun playing games on it too.

   As AriaAngelDream had mentioned above, I honestly do miss the video gaming system of the Nintendo Gamecube. There were multiple great video games created for it. As an example, I would prefer Luigi's Mansion. God, that video game had been a blast! Also, I miss the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as well. I always used to play Donkey Kong, Mario, and even Top Gear at some times. Were those the days!

I have so many fond memories of my old consoles, so I miss anything that isn't current generation...with a very few exceptions. (Phillips CDi...)

I miss my Game Boy Advance. I still have it somewhere, but only God knows where it is. I wish I could find it, I always loved to play Pokemon Ruby on it.

I miss the Nintendo Gamecube. It had tons of amazing games. Honestly, I think the Gamecube is superior to even the Wii... which plays Gamecube games. I love the feel of the gamecube starting up...

I miss my GBC and DS Lite. I haven't played on either console for years and my GBC does not work anymore. My DS Lite has a broken hinge and the bottom screen does not sense the stylus most of the time. At least there are emulators now, so I can still enjoy my favorite games.